The Queue: Sartharion and the Twilight Dragonflight
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 26th 2008 at 6:00PM
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.
We're back after our little holiday vacation, and I hope yours was way more fun than mine! Let's avoid going into detail and becoming a rambling pack of scrooges, and get into the Q&A instead! Let's start with Sl0th's very good question...
We're back after our little holiday vacation, and I hope yours was way more fun than mine! Let's avoid going into detail and becoming a rambling pack of scrooges, and get into the Q&A instead! Let's start with Sl0th's very good question...
Why are we going to the Obsidian Sanctum? Sartharion doesn't seem to be doing anything except watching over eggs. He's not a direct threat to anyone like Onyxia or Nefarian were. He seems like just some random Black Dragon who's minding his own business, hanging out in the Black Dragonflight's area under Wyrmrest. Did I miss our rationale for wrecking up the place every week somewhere along the way?
Unfortunately, they didn't explain this at all in-game. At all. No quests, no nothing. Why we go in there is explained in the other Warcraft media, specifically the new Night of the Dragon series. It was released shortly after Wrath, but actually tries to set up some of the events of the expansion. A little too late for that, huh?
Sartharion and the Twilight Drake Trio guards many, many eggs of Twilight Dragons. The Twilight Dragonflight is another one of the Black's little projects to recreate their flight. Nefarian was trying to make Chromatic Dragons, remember? The Twilight dragons are a hybrid of Blacks and the mutated Netherwing dragons. Sinestra (the Black Dragon chickadee we meet in Shadowmoon Valley) is responsible for these guys. They feed off of magic, including that of other dragons.
I won't give all the nitty gritty details of the story in case some of you actually intend to read it, but that's why we go in and wipe out Sartharion. He's watching over something very bad for everyone.
Kram asked...
Is there a good place to look at how heroic dungeons differ from their regular counterparts? I got dropped from a group because I hadn't tanked Nexus on heroic yet, and was looking for a quick read so I could pretend I had.
Dropping you from a group for that is pretty dumb, but I suppose that's not really the question. The best place for this is probably Wowwiki. If you're looking for specific bosses, you could even try Wowhead. There's usually some tips in the comments, if not a full guide for the boss. If all else fails... ask your guild!
Geohevy asked...
In the patch notes for 3.0.8, it says DKs have access to new faces and skin textures. Don't we already? Or are they adding more? If they are, isn't it a little too convenient that they're released right after the recustomization option?
There's no conspiracy here, nobody is cheating you. That patch note was an error, all of that stuff is already in the game. The only thing they've mentioned wanting to do with these skins is make them easier to find, a button or option to go straight to the Death Knight specific stuff. Right now it's a little buried, you need to go to the Death Knight faces and the you get the skin colors. Or vice versa, it's been awhile since I made my Death Knight, but basically the Death Knight specific skins aren't super obvious right away. They aren't adding new ones. Just making the new ones easier to find.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Caustik Dec 26th 2008 6:11PM
To compare loots for classes, have a look at wow-loot.com.
There are sometimes some errors regarding specs, but it can still be helpful.
You can also install the addon Atlas Loot which will give you an ingame browsable loot table for each instance.
Jonny Dale Dec 26th 2008 6:17PM
I seem to remember a post on where to find all the +hit rating gear for casters, but I can't find this anywhere on WoWInsider search or Google.
Anyone care to help?
AlmtyBob Dec 26th 2008 7:01PM
Wowhead.com -> Items -> Armor. Filtering -> Armor Type -> Required Level -> Hit Rating (Under Offensive Stats). Also filter on Bind on Pickup if you want.
AyaJulia Dec 26th 2008 7:03PM
Try using wowhead's filters. It's not difficult. Search for all items, or all items of a desired slot, then filter to be usable by your class with spellpower and hit greater than 0.
Jonny Dale Dec 26th 2008 7:15PM
I mean WoWInsider's article, they had nice little write ups about each and personal opinions on what's more useful etc.
Shulkman Dec 26th 2008 11:17PM
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/12/08/spiritual-guidance-hitting-the-cap/
It was written for priests, but covers it pretty well for all caster cloth wearing groups.
Steven Dec 26th 2008 6:24PM
Do you, or your readers, have any suggestions as to how a druid should do the achievement With a Little Helper from My Friends?
Secondly, what is the rationale behind not allowing tauren bears to War Stomp, but allowing tauren trees to stomp?
havitech Dec 26th 2008 6:49PM
Play very, very defensively, and don't stray from large groups of your fellow players. If you're feral, (like I am) put on whatever spellpower gear you have and be a healbot for the people who are getting the HKs for you.
It's not as hard it sounds. It took me about 4 AV games.
Qanamil Dec 26th 2008 7:46PM
I got the achievement easily as a feral druid by using vehicles in WG. Make sure you're in the raid and then start first on the wall cannons and then switch to a vehicle or interior cannon if they breach. Should get a sizable number of kills before you die. I got lucky and stayed alive long enough to get the achievement in a catapult.
Amaxe Dec 26th 2008 10:50PM
Av has gotten weird on my server since LK. 1 minute wait times, no pitched battles but both sides racing to the other side. I was only killed once in 4 battles. OTOH, I have 16 HKs in those 4 AVs.
Very strange indeed. I'm guessing everyone is in Ancients or Wintergrasp
havitech Dec 27th 2008 1:00AM
@Amaxe
I should add that I did the achievement in the first couple of days of Winter Veil. There were whole gangs of Christmas gnomes, and even though most people rushed RH, a good number of people backtracked in large groups to get HKs.
Zarfay Dec 26th 2008 6:27PM
I play an unholy Death Knight tank but myself and some of my dk buddies find ourselves constantly dropped from groups for being blood or unholy instead of frost. If I remember correctly ALL specs can tank (I tanked the nexus yesterday) why do so many players think only frost can tank?
Mugutu Dec 26th 2008 7:35PM
They see Unbreakable Armor in deep Frost and say "OMG LOLZ TANK TALENT DEEP IN TREE = TANK TREE". Unfortunately they neglect to see things like Vampiric Blood, Unholy Blight, and other stuff. Ignore them - they just lost a chance at a tank. They don't deserve you.
Heilig Dec 27th 2008 6:55AM
Yeah, but when was the last time you had a tank that couldn't hold aggro? Tanking right now is all about survival, and a talent like unbreakable armor is hard to pass up. Unholy Blight doesn't help you survive, and vampiric blood really only helps right before a Rune Tap.
A DK tank's single biggest problem right now is the sheer amount of incoming damage the healers have to heal through. Blizzard built a class designed as an AoE tank and didn't give them the tools to survive it. Unbreakable armor is miles ahead of Unholy Blight or Vampiric Blood for tanking.
That said, gear means way more than spec right now, so anyone that boots you just for not being frost is retarded. But Frost IS the best tanking tree, it's just not the ONLY tanking tree.
Vocenoctum Dec 27th 2008 8:42PM
From what I recall, it isn't that all DK's are tanks, anymore than all Warriors are tanks. It's just that any of them CAN tank effectively up to a point. (I think I remember them saying "any regular dungeon", so I'd think at Heroic is when the problems come up.)
SweetPoison Dec 26th 2008 6:28PM
It always struck me as odd that Night Elves and Tauren are enemies. Is there a lore reason behind this or is it just for the sake of game mechanics?
JBurg Dec 26th 2008 7:01PM
You can get into a few things like the Taurens are in the Horde>Orcs are in the Horde>Orcs killed Cenarius>Night Elves hate the Orcs>Nelfs hate Horde, but for the most part, yeah, game mechanics. One on each side.
Danel Dec 26th 2008 7:44PM
From the Tauren side, there's the point that the Nelfs didn't help them at all when they were being practically hunted to extinction by the centaurs... For all the similarities between them, there are also differences both religious and racial. And, as the real world shows, there are plenty of cases where the smallest distinctions cause the most violent disputes. The Nelfs revere Elune, the Tauren revere the Earthmother. What's the relationship between the two? I'm fairly sure I've seen lore somewhere that says that a few believe one is an aspect of the other; there's certainly a potential for violent theological disagreement there.
Tauren are entirely willing to use technology like the Thunder Bluff lifts and guns, which some Nelfs could hate. Fandral Staghelm - that asshole - is one of a few Nelfs who oppose the idea of letting Tauren into Moonglade in the first place. Added to which, while they might not be doing really nasty things to each other, they're each allied with those who are - the Dwarves blowing up Tauren villages, the Orcs cutting down sacred forests... there's definitely enough there for a few issues.
kabshiel Dec 27th 2008 1:42AM
The Tauren and Night Elves seem to get along in general. Unfortunately, Orcs and Night Elves really dislike each other and the Tauren have sworn an oath to fight by the Orcs' side since Thrall saved them from the centaurs, so Tauren are sort of forced to fight the Night Elves.
DBriggs Dec 26th 2008 6:28PM
Will they bring back attunements for the high end game raids?
Thanks!