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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: New Year's Eve edition
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 31st 2008 at 5:00PM
New Year's Eve! Hooray! Are you doing anything special tonight? I totally am. I'm going to play an alt. Gasp! Shock! No seriously, I have no idea what I'll be doing. Right now though, I'm answering questions!
JLocke asked...
I know the next big patch to hit will have Uldar raid in it, but are there any other cool things attached to it that we know of?
That we know about? Very, very little. Ideally, dual specs will be in that patch, and a couple of devs at BlizzCon said it definitely would come in patch 3.1, but it's possible it'll hit a couple of delays. Beyond a little chit-chat with developers, it hasn't really been promised or confirmed. In a perfect world, it will be in the next content patch.
We can make some guesses as to what'll be in it, but that's the best we can do. I think we'll see Crystalsong Forest have some life injected into it via the Sunreavers and Silver Covenant, but nothing has been mentioned about it. Pure guesswork.
dpoyesac asked...
Suppose you are almost exalted with the Oracles, and you then group up with someone to kill Artruis so they can get honored with the Frenzyheart: do I have to worry about losing rep with MY faction if we kill the little Oracle dude? Or should we just play it safe and kill the lich with me out of party?
As long as you don't do the daily quest that's offered by the guy that's still alive at the end, you don't need to worry at all. Just killing the Oracle kid there won't ruin your rep, you specifically would need to talk to the Frenzyheart afterwards. So when you see a little fellow with a blue ! over his head, do not click it.
Abbadon asked...
How can I tell the number of steps to ultimately completing an achievement ingame?
In the past, I made the mistake of thinking that I was going to finish Hail to the Chef once I learned my 30th cooking recipe for The Northrend Gourmet only to be slapped with another step added when I reached that goal.
Easiest way? Wowhead. If you look up the name of the achievement, you'll see how many steps there are. For example, searching for Dalaran Cooking Award brings up 5 achievements. There are steps for 1, 10, 25, 50, and 100 cooking awards. 100 is the last stage.
conker87 asked...
Why do Dwarf Guards tell me to keep my feet on the ground?
It's just a figure of speech, like the "Daylight's burning!" question that was asked some time ago. Like, "Stay grounded" or "Keep your head out of the clouds." Keep a clear mind, be conscious of what you do. It doesn't actually mean, "Whatever you do, do not get on this gryphon! Seriously! Don't! Just walk!"
It might be a weird thing for the flightmaster to say, but he's not actually warning you against flying. He's telling you to keep a clear head.
Fireye said...
Do you think there is a possibility for another warcraft related mmo in the future? Like WoW 2.0 or something like that. Or do you think expansions are the best we can hope for? I was thinking of an mmo set in an earlier time period, like during warcraft 2 or 3 where a war is actually taking place. Something about wow just feels so far removed from the source material.
If we ever have a World of Warcraft II, I don't think it will be for many years, and we'll have another Warcraft RTS between them to set up the world and plot again. I definitely do not think we'll have one that goes back in time.
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, Factions, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Smurk Dec 31st 2008 6:04PM
Awhile ago, I thought I read a post that mentioned land mounts would be able to swim after an upcoming patch. Was that just a rumor, or was it confirmed? And if the latter, do we know if/when it's still happening?
Apologies if this has already been asked and answered.
vexis58 Dec 31st 2008 6:16PM
A dev mentioned at Blizzcon that that feature would be available in 3.1, and so far I don't think I've heard anything saying it was being pushed back.
So as far as I know, yeah, water won't dismount you any more in 3.1.
Kemikalkadet Dec 31st 2008 8:40PM
About time to be honest. Mounts have always had a swim animation as long as i can remember. If you lag out as you enter water sometimes you wont be dismounted and you can see it. Wolf and cat mounts are especially cool, they have a kind of doggy-paddle walk cycle.
Rodrigo Dec 31st 2008 10:03PM
I'm pretty sure that's BelBot's picture... :)
schm0 Dec 31st 2008 10:42PM
"Keep your feet on the ground!"
Similar to a popular phrase we're all familiar with, "Stay on your feet." Be aware/active/alert, etc.
This may also be a reference to the fact that dwarves are short, and when they sit, their feet might not always touch the ground.
Double entendre?
Gorum Jan 1st 2009 6:33PM
As a new 70 prot warrior, who hit 68 after the release of northrend, and never even got close to getting decent heroic tanking gear, is there any hope?
Right now I'm decked out in my appalling cobalt armor, and wielding a terrible weapon, is there something I'm missing? All the quests/instances/everything else only drops fury gear, and there is no tanking weapons until 78.
Is there any hope? Should I just resign to wiping because my defense rating doesnt quite cut it? Or is there a hidden tanking weapon I could aquire without convincing guildies to run heroic mechanar with me.
Laroque Jan 1st 2009 4:16AM
Okay what's the deal with Riding Crop?? I just actually read it again, when did they make it only affect characters 70 or below? add in needing to be level 69 to use it, and isn't it the most USELESS trinket in game?
Just wondering
Josh Jan 1st 2009 5:27AM
Regarding the last question about a possible WoW 2.0 or something; basically whatever would be a "sequel" MMO to Warcraft (excluding the 'next-gen MMO' that Blizz is working on):
I think that since Blizzard are big fans of the Warhammer mythos (Warcraft was even originally made to BE a Warhammer PC game), they might have a "sequel" to WoW take place in the far future...I think they might even go so far as to write an entire new tome of lore on the events between, and that it would basically be analogous to Warhammer Fantasy is to Warhammer 40k.
Just imagine how cool that would be for a minute...
Playing in Azeroth hundreds (or even thousands) or years in the future! Advanced technology everywhere; Stormwind and Ogrimmar (assuming they still exist) transformed into either modern-looking or futuristic cities. I'm not saying it would be a sci-fi MMO; that's the beauty of it. It could be a "Futuristic Fantasy" sequel, with Gnomes fitted into Mech-suits, Orcs and Trolls with tribal weaponry like energy swords...Elves with laser cannons and plasma rifles...the list goes on. All you really have to do is think about what Games Workshop did with Warhammer 40k, and it's not that far of a stretch.
What do you guys think? Likely Blizzard would avoid such an approach because it parallels Warhammer? Or do you think it's the most obvious way that World of Warcraft could still evolve?
Drizzimus Jan 1st 2009 9:01AM
I was just wondering, do you think there will ever be a time where we can change the name of our Guilds? Maybe like the Paid Name Change service offered? I am the GM for my guild but want to change the name reflecting all of the people that have joined and made it more diversified. I have 4 Vault tabs and don't want to lose them by just starting up another Guild. Thanks!
WoWie Zowie Jan 1st 2009 10:40AM
i do have kind of a noobish question =\
i'm finding the jump from normals to heroics to be a tremendous leap.
i've got a healadin with the brilliant saronite crafted plate set, icecrown quest blues, every possible enchant i can find with +spell power/+int, and can't find any major upgrades in normal dungeons (or even rep rewards for that matter).
then when we go into for example, heroic ajul'nerub, we get completely annihilated on the first gatekeeper boss even when our tank is crit capped.
sooooo whats the deal? i want badges of heroism. where can i get the gear for running heroics? is my healadin not geared properly? is it just a matter of player ability? or am i missing something else?
thanks
Kylenne Jan 1st 2009 12:44PM
Honestly? All Heroics are not made equal. You get geared for the harder ones by doing the easier ones, plain and simple. Heroic AN is not something I would pick for Baby's First Heroic. Start with something like Utgarde Keep/Pinnacle, which can be done in your sleep. Or Nexus. And don't forget to wear your rep tabard of choice because there are nice gear upgrades from rep factions, too.
And if you keep having a hard time even in easy heroics, the DPS probably sucks and isn't burning things down fast enough.
Otis Jan 1st 2009 8:26PM
I'm not sure if this is the proper place to post this, but since I trust this site for opinion and advice, I'll give it a shot. I refer you to this thread on the WOW forums http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1602253411&postId=141208123723&sid=1#195 There is an ongoing problem with WOW sending many computers into what I refer to as the "sleep mode of death". The computer will literally black screen out...no sound, no video, but the game is still running. I have a very good laptop and have had no problems whatsoever for the past 3 years playing WOW, but recently any time I try to run Nexus or Drak (maybe others, have not tried them all) I experience this blackout. The only solution is to manually restart my laptop which as you know, tends to irritate a group waiting on their tank to get back =( I have re-installed, defrag'd, dumbed down the graphics, shut off all add-ons and still this problem persists. If you take the time to read the forums you will see that I am not the only one experiencing this problem. If anybody has had this happen or has a solution, I would be greatly appreciative of any help =)
Thanks!
p.s. I am running a new laptop with 2gb mem and an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card with 512 dedicated memory, so I'm pretty sure my machine is up to snuff for running WOW =)
camf1991 Jan 2nd 2009 12:58AM
expanding on Fireye's question. Could we perhaps see something in caverns of time that is kind of Wintergrasp styled? i.e. go fight nondescript battle of some sort from war whatever, and if you win it go kill this dragon.
Pyril Jan 3rd 2009 1:51AM
Are there still BG weekends with a BG giving double honor?
The Harv Jan 2nd 2009 2:32PM
So now that I have hit 80, is there anything like the Consortium's "Membership Benefits" quest that I should be watching out for? I run my dailies and work on my cooking and fishing. But I keep thinking there should be more to do (other than continuing questing and instances). What am I missing?