The Queue: Spreading the space plague

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You're probably using an outdated version of Xperl.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.
Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Death Knight, The Queue
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Alex Ziebart Jan 11th 2009 12:54PM
I do not think you actually read what I wrote, and instead decided to skip it and fill in the blank yourself.
infection Jan 12th 2009 11:21AM
a friend and I have the latest updated version of xperl, this is not the problem. since wrath, i've update xperl 3 times.
under target, there was nothing stating combo points at all. there must be something else it's called, because neither of us could find it.
the weird thing is, when I'm on my rogue, I get those combo points building up where I can see them. this is why I'm so confused why I can't find the combo points to turn on for my other chracters.
we still havent figured this out
but you are right, there was no information here at all that was useful. I mainly post under these sections for a reader to answer back.
now seeing that my post got put up here and there is still no direct answer, makes me wonder why someone would even post that question without actually looking into it.
kinda de-credits these answers here now in a way
Kvothe Jan 11th 2009 12:52PM
Does the Heroic Key to the Focusing Iris work for 10 man Malygos, or is the regular key needed? Obviously, the 10 man key won't work for 25 man Malygos, but it's kind of unclear whether the opposite will work.
Popalicious Jan 11th 2009 1:26PM
It does indeed work.
njt07 Jan 11th 2009 1:17PM
Im in the military and am currently on my mid deployment R&R. Since I havent played these last six months I have noticed a huge lack of healers on Gorefiend (horde), so I was thinking about switching my 70 druid to a resto/boomkin to help fill in that gap.
My only problem is that my druid was geared for tanking (no raids or anything never had the time) so Im not sure where I can get the necessary gear to switch over. I don't have the Xpac and won't get it until my deployment is completely over in another nine months or so, so I'm stuck playing BC.
Any Ideas on how to gear my druid for healing/boomkin at 70 without the WoTLK?
RogueJedi86 Jan 11th 2009 4:06PM
A good start would be all the Resto/Balance gear you can buff off the various BC rep factions at honored. They're not much, but they are better than nothing. Once you buy LK, it will be easy. I switched from feral to Balance when LK hit, and the gear reset of a new expansion helped(even if I run into way too little leather spellpower gear and have to use cloth). So yeah, BC rep factions Honored gear. Should be Honor Hold/Thrallmar, Lower City, The Sha'tar, and Keepers of Time. Not sure who else, if any other factions are required. It's in Atlasloot I think.
Kristopher Jan 11th 2009 6:18PM
Do search for "Shifting Perspectives" which is a column on wowinsider written specifically for droods. There are a couple posts about gearing up for higher level BC raids, which will be about as good as it gets before you hit Wrath.
I call no winning the SGLI sweepstakes. hooah.
Rob Jan 11th 2009 10:16PM
Buy some level 68-70 greens at AH, look for +heal, intellect, and spirit. You'll be able to get a decent set. If you have LW you can get a nice 3 piece set for pretty cheap. Totally blanking on the name, but it's a resto druid 3 piece LW set. The BC mats are now far cheaper than the used to be (5g void crystals anyone?)
Vaydos Jan 11th 2009 1:47PM
I know this may have been asked before but what are typical data usage rates for WoW? I'll be running a peak 7.2mb/second connection solo'ing or 5 man groups/instances tops and those would be infrequent. So on average what would I possibly be looking at per hour?
bluray8 Jan 11th 2009 4:48PM
Quote:
I know this may have been asked before but what are typical data usage rates for WoW? I'll be running a peak 7.2mb/second connection solo'ing or 5 man groups/instances tops and those would be infrequent. So on average what would I possibly be looking at per hour?
For me, last time I checked, WoW took about 2-4 KB/s depending on city or instance. So 240 KB per hour? Almost a quarter of a megabyte? Numbers might be higher if you get a lot of addon spam.
Jorelos Jan 11th 2009 1:49PM
Don't delete the warlock but feel free to delete the DK since wow doesn't need any more idiots who switched to DK because it was the hot class to be all of a sudden.
Drago Dracini Jan 11th 2009 3:45PM
I'l be happy when people realize DKs are awesome but not everyone should switch to them as a main.
Mattack Jan 11th 2009 2:34PM
I recently deleted all of my characters to get a fresh start and with no characters above 55 I was still able to create a deathknight. It might just be once you unlock them it remembers.
Steven Jan 11th 2009 2:46PM
Coming with the 3.0.8, the way bonus armor is being changed. What exactly is "bonus armor"? I was under the impression it was the green values assigned to armor, and it would no longer be calculated in bear form, etc. However, what about rings and trinkets that have armor on them, but are not "bonus", i.e. green? (For example, Ring of Earthen Might) Since it is not "bonus", will bears still get the armor multiplier out of it?
RogueJedi86 Jan 11th 2009 4:12PM
No they won't. Tooltips have changed to say Bears only get increased armor from cloth and leather items. That excludes all rings and trinkets and necklaces.
Creo Jan 11th 2009 3:13PM
Is it just me or does anyone else suffere the frustration of getting caught on every stone, lamp post, blade of grass when moving through WoW?
It's the only thing in this game that I would ask Blizzard to change. Does anyone have any solutions to avoid getting stuck or quickly disengage without having to fully reverse direction?
Mohrlock Jan 12th 2009 12:42AM
1) Jump
2) Jump again
3) Don't use auto-run to navigate everywhere ;)
MetalIcecrown Jan 11th 2009 4:01PM
I personally hate DK's.
Yes, I've leveled one.
Deleted it.
The only reason is:
TOO MANY.
*Sits on a street corner in Dalaran and watches the toons pass by*
DK, Hunter, DK, Warrior, DK, Priest, DK, DK, Mage, DK, DK, DK, DK, DK.
Ugh.
I wouldn't be surprised if it ran us into a DPS shortage because of how many DK's think they can effectively tank.
And don't get me started on the healer shortage.
^Motivation for my 42 priest and leveling fast.
bluray8 Jan 11th 2009 4:55PM
I don't understand why people get so upset when something is popular. Do you just dislike crowds?
WoW is fairly popular yet you still play it, so you have some sort of tolerance to "popular things". Please explain your thoughts.
skreeran Jan 11th 2009 8:43PM
It's mainly about individuality, for example, I play a Holy Pally and a Holy Priest, and healing is my thing. It's what makes people invite me to raids, and I can't tell you how good it feels to hear somone say "Nice heals :)." If half the people in my guild were healers, I'd probably roll a tank instead to make myself more valuable to the group (and more of an individual, rather than just another ).
In addition, there's loot to worry about. If everyone and their hairy neighbor has a Death Knight, the loot and raid spots are going to be highly contested.