The Queue: Spreading the space plague
by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 11th 2009 at 12:00PM
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.
jtrain asked...
I'm admittedly new to tanking, and I hear people talk about a 'rage dump'. Why would I want to dump rage? I thought the whole idea was to build up a good amount so I don't have to sit there auto-attacking waiting for my abilities to become usable. In Wrath, I never seem to have a problem generating rage and at the end of a fight in which I've pulled several mobs, I usually have quite a bit of rage still available. Am I doing something wrong?
A rage dump is an ability you use outside of your normal rotation to use up extra rage when you're in a situation where you have a ton. For example, a boss fight. Bosses generally hit you hard enough that you have a ton of rage, but if you're just using the same rotation you use on trash, you're probably sitting on a lot of extra, wasted rage. If you're sitting caped at 100 rage all of the time, it probably means you're not generating as much threat (or damage) as you could be.
As another reader mentioned, Heroic Strike is an example of a rage dump. It's not an ability you really use unless you have a lot of extra rage at your disposal. When you can support your full threat rotation and have more rage leftover to work with, you start using things like Heroic Strike to put it to use.
infection asked...
Does anyone know why I can't see combo points building up in the malygos fight while my Xperl is on? Do I not having something turned on? The daily and oculus is the same way. Would LOVE to solve that problem!
You're probably using an outdated version of Xperl. A lot of UI mods hadn't been updated for vehicle combo points when Wrath actually hit, so it didn't work in most of them. Xperl, however, has been updated, but I'm not sure about others. If any of you other readers are running into the same problem, check the site where you acquired your mod. Yours might have been updated as well! If not... you're out of luck, unless you know how to make some edits yourself.
Zephyer asked...
In Gundrak, at the second boss there is a large, red snakelike thing there. Any idea on what it might be?
I have absolutely no idea but it freaks me the hell out.
Soulfuss asked...
I started WoW in Sept 2008. I reached 80 on my Death Knight on 1/1/2009. I traded out from a Warlock at 56. I'm now gearing up my DK and now I want to try my hand at healing and have made a nice Druid. I don't plan on playing the Warlock anytime soon and to be honest, I'm not sure I want to even keep rolling on him at all.
Question: Should I keep him as a bank alt or can I just delete him once I sell off his gear and mail it to another toon? More over, since the Warlock was what I used to unlock the DK, will I get locked out of the DK until something else hits 55?
I really don't see why you would delete it. Even if you don't actively play it, high-ish level alts are always useful. Mules that can actually leave capital cities, characters that you can use for tradeskills, or maybe you'll just want to play a Warlock again one day.
If you don't need to free up a character slot, there's no reason to delete the Warlock. Just let it gather some dust, and maybe you'll find a way to use it later. I don't think deleting it will cause any problems with your Death Knight but I've no idea why you would bother with the deletion in the first place.
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: The Queue, Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
SnuffyWuffy Jan 11th 2009 12:06PM
Another great article!
jbodar Jan 11th 2009 3:48PM
The most compelling argument has to be bank space. Why would you throw away all the money you spent on extra bank slots, and possibly soul-bound bags? That alone makes the warlock a perfect bank-alt candidate.
Nathanyel Jan 12th 2009 7:13AM
I used my 70 alts as storage space while levelling my druid, the new motes, cloth, raw meat and that stuff, as my regular bank chars are/were already kinda full :P
Mayhem Jan 11th 2009 12:46PM
I always thought the red snake you see was a reference to Jörmungandr, the World Serpent of norse mythology.
He was supposed to loop right around the world with his tail in his mouth.
Ok the snake here doesn't have a head, but he does vanish off down his own tunnel. Maybe the head comes out in Ulduar or something.
Avery Jan 11th 2009 12:25PM
@ Soulfuss
I'd turn it into a bank character. I had this same problem with one of my characters (my poor lonely druid) when BC came out. Like Alex mentioned, it's nice to have another high level at times with professions.
Once I was helping a friend get her epic warlock mount, which requires Black Dragon Scales. These stupid scales were going for 50g a pop at the time, so I dusted off my poor little druid and farmed them. As soon as I was done she returned to Org as my bank.
Ian R. Jan 11th 2009 3:32PM
I agree. I keep my warlock in org and have my DK mail anything that needs to go on the Auction House to him (that way I don't have to worry about my hearth stone). I leveled up my tailoring so he could make some Frostweave bags and my Warlock has also been providing all the enchants for my DK, too (thanks to vellum).
Eisengel Jan 12th 2009 4:13PM
You also never know what Blizz will do... maybe in patch 3.2 locks will be entirely imba, but then in patch 3.4 they'll get their spellpower cut in half. If you have the character, keep it, if not for the reasons above, then because you never know if Blizz will throw you a curveball and you'll want to play the character again.
Evelinda Jan 13th 2009 2:05AM
also re: deleting it locking out your dk, it shouldnt happen... i transferred the only 55+ char i had on one of my servers, and i could still use the dk i'd created on that server no problems.
Jamesisgreat Jan 11th 2009 12:27PM
Now I've hit level 80 and am looking at all the loot available to me as a feral druid, I've spotted a few of the PvP pieces that you can purchase with just honor. So my question is - where's the best place to grind honor nowadays? AV? Wintergrasp? Elsewhere?
Thander Jan 11th 2009 12:43PM
Do Wintergrasp whenever the battle is going on. It seems like 5k or so in 30mins. Nice honor.
Otherwise, AV is still the best for grinding honor. Probably about 3k per hour. I haven't done any grinding since lvl 70. Might be more honor now.
sheepe Jan 11th 2009 2:11PM
Wintergrasp whenever its on but make sure you pick up the dailys and join the raid there to get plenty of hks.
Another great thing about wintergrasp is you don't need really good pvp gear to help - if your defending you can man a cannon, build tanks or just nuke attackers from the safety of a tower. On offensive build some siege vehicles and smash down walls.
Erodor Jan 11th 2009 12:29PM
please dont delete a level 56. i thought that i was never going to play on my lvl 60 hunter again but i didnt delete him. sure enough after i got sick of leveling multiple alts i went back and played my hunter. there is no reason to not just leave him on your account. you should be able to generate enough gold on you death knight where it wont matter if you have the gold from selling your locks gear.
Lek Jan 11th 2009 12:40PM
I would certainly keep that Warlock as a bank toon and you never know when your going to come back to him. I have just dusted off my first toon I ever created, level 52 priest, 4 years ago and haven't touched in about that long also. If you have the character space, save yourself a possible regret later on.
Any toon over the level of 10 is great for a bank alt also. As Blizzard will not restore any toon under level 10. It happened to a guild mate of mine and they lost tens of thousands of gold in materials and items on thier level 1 bank toon.
pantear Jan 11th 2009 3:41PM
This is good to know. I need to level my bank alt now.
Zeroblazin Jan 11th 2009 5:45PM
Not entirely true, I have a lvl 2 warlock that has his own guild bank and I use him as a bank alt and when my account got hacked, Blizzard restored everything from that guild bank and my mains guild bank and both of their own character banks.
It might not happen everytime, I'm just saying it CAN happen.
Amasaan Jan 12th 2009 8:18AM
I wouldn't delete a level 56 ever. All that work you've put it going to waste. Hell, my first character on my current server was a warrior, I levelled him to 58 then decided warrior wasn't for me. I so rolled a warlock and got him to 70 instead. About half a year later when the warlock was getting a bit boring, I went back onto the warrior. :-D
If you don't have a use for him now, you'll find one soon.
Treason of Farstriders Jan 11th 2009 12:48PM
Never delete a character above lvl 55. They make an excellent 2-craft profession (alchemy/JC for instance) since they can learn all the recipies being lvl 55.
vexis58 Jan 11th 2009 5:53PM
No, only the ones in BC. Upgrading your professions past 375 requires level 65.
Raaj Jan 12th 2009 9:12AM
Oh does it now?
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Firetree&n=Ajik
Antonia Jan 11th 2009 12:51PM
I like how the article just says "oh you, or your mod site, may not have updated xperl since wrath".. honestly it wouldn't work at all right now if you, or the site, didn't.. I guess you can't come to WoWinsider for much more then suggestions on which mods to use and not really how to use them.
for one thing, and this isnt a plug because i dont have any thing to do with the site other then the fact that its where most of us score our mods, Curse has had the updated xperl, and almost every other major mod people should be using,since their big change. So if you got it from there (and theres no reason you shouldnt have) you should be fine. the problem maybe the options for it you have checked..
Xperl has an tab marked target in its option interface. somewhere down the list theres an option that states "use blizzard combo pts" or something similar and the option of where you want them placed on the targets frame. if you have that checked you'll either be seeing blizzards combo dots on the side of the targets portait, they may not be in a place you can see them for some reason or theres a chance you maybe seeing nothing.. for a while i was seeing nothing while doing aces high but recently while fighting malygos i noticed the points were actually there.. either way the vehichical points act exactly like rogue pts in the UI and i highly doubt blizzard ever intended them to act any different, it would be stupid if they would..
any way, if you don't have that box checked xperl will take it upon itself to make those combo points fill up the characters name pane. when you use any abilities that make combo pts on the target you'll see the name of the target fill with extra color in the interface.. fills up to 5 just like the point dots should.. imo its cleaner but can be harder to keep track of so its a trade off.. which might be the problem, he just might not be noticing the extra color fill in the targets name. it took me a few weeks of doing aces high to actually notice the pts being put there..
hope this helps