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The latest patch 5.4 newsThe 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You're probably using an outdated version of Xperl.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: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Death Knight, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Rob Jan 12th 2009 10:22AM
It really depends on your situation. Our raiding guild actually doesn't have enough dps players, and an overabundance of healers.
I leveled as my main a (now) resto druid, while thinking I should be able to do any instance any time i want. Wrong! The number of idiots in LFG should not be underestimated. Plus, now with everything on farm and good Naxx25 gear, our guild barely does heroics. So, I think the most important thing is to get a solid core of skilled people you enjoy playing with and progress through the heroics and raids. I'll repeat, you really don't want to PUG heroics, any heroic.
Further, don't be naive and think that you just need to hit 80 and step into heroics and get your loot. There is alot of work involved before you enter heroics.
Dustin R Jan 11th 2009 4:36PM
I recently started playing WC3, and finally figured out who Lil' Timmy (or was it Tommy?) was. Since you save him in an optional quest, I figure that he doesn't come back into play, but did Blizzard ever re-use him?
Ais Jan 11th 2009 4:36PM
I can agree with you that pre-wrath, heroic strike was a rage dump. However, if you have the Glyph of Revenge Heroic strike is free after you use Revenge. As such, Heroic strike has come into my normal rotation.
This does mean I end a lot of boss fights with near 100 rage, but I also have such a threat lead I don't worry too much about it.
Mohrlock Jan 12th 2009 12:46AM
Completely agree with you on the rage dump :)
I don't even have HS as part of my tanking "bar". If I feel I've got to "dump" some of my rage then it's usually with Shield Slam & Shield Bash; but these are all part of my normal rotation.
Admittedly Shield Bash isn't quiet part of the rotation if I'm up against caster mobs, but if it's a long fight using Enraged Regeneration (can't remember if that's it's ACTUAL name) or even Rend are other ways to use up some of that full rage bar :)
Carlos Jan 11th 2009 5:37PM
WoW Insider
I play a ret pally and I was wondering if the paladin level 80 skill, Sacred Shield, is bugged for retribution or if it's working as intended?
When I put on my holy gear with spell power on it, I see that the amount of damage absorbed from Sacred Shield increases. Also prot paladins say their Sacred Shield absorbs more than 500 per proc...but it seems as though the spell isn't getting the spell coefficient from the Sheath of Light talent.
So is that a hiccup on Blizz's part or will we see that fixed in a patch?
Sarly Jan 11th 2009 7:20PM
As a warlock, people are always saying "Oh, you have it so easy in battlegrounds/PvP". I'm only level 54, and I don't quite understand how to fully use my warlock's power. What are some good ways to be truly efficient in battlegrounds or PvP?
CM Jan 11th 2009 8:17PM
Fear, dot, dot, dot
Fear, dot, dot, dot
Fear, dot, dot, dot
etc
Just_a_warlock Jan 12th 2009 2:52AM
Well enjoy it while it lasts.
As a warlock, over level 70, you'll be free honor points.
Deathknights are about the only class that doesn't have some kind of immunity to fear, of course they get a free trinket, strangulate, mind freeze and death grip.
Good luck. I now only enter BGs in PvE gear and nuke from a vehicle, that way I'm at least somewhat useful. (PvP gear does nothing for my survivability but does gimp my damage).
kristopher Jan 11th 2009 6:23PM
deleting a 55+ toon would be a total waste of all the time you'd put into leveling that character (with DK's as an exception, since they require no time investment). I had a similar situation with a 50 pally, who I stopped playing and turned him into strictly an enchanting/jewelcrafting machine. He now makes me plenty of gold any time I see someone looking for twink enchants or JC pieces.
Though, for the record, if you delete the toon you'll still keep your DK. I had.. heard... of someone... who's wife had created a DK, then swapped to a new account and let her husband play the DK. She then created a new DK on the swapped-to account and all is well.
It's what I heard anyway....
Sallix Jan 11th 2009 6:44PM
"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."
My money is on Yogg'Saron
Staria Jan 11th 2009 7:13PM
I have been trying to complete the Loremaster achievements and am having a really hard time with EK (678) and Kalimdor (674). I know that they will be lowering the cap in the next patch for Kalimdor, but I'm still off by much more than I feel I should be. I have never been a big instance player, but would dungeon quests really make up that much of a difference?
I have gone back and completed many of the classic dungeons for those achievements as well. I am almost positive I have not missed any major quest hubs and keep the low level quest tracker on when I am in the old area. I have been playing WoW well before BC, but not from the very beginning, so I can't imagine what I am missing. In reading other posts, it seems others have almost no problem with this achievement in the classic content. Please help.
Aggrajag Jan 12th 2009 4:19AM
For Loremaster I had to solo as many old-world dungeons as I could to get Kalimdor + Eastern Kingdoms, there just weren't enough quests without them.
Did you do Forest Song and Ghostlands? There's loads of way ones there. Quick way to check - if you haven't got exalted with Tranquillon then you haven't done them all.
BTW they're not lowering Eastern Kingdoms, just Kalimdor 700->685.
Rhondis Nov 1st 2009 7:41PM
Speaking of this red snake, what's with the huge worm-like thing in the Apothecarium of Undercity? It seems to be dripping some... green stuff. Are there any quests that mention that "thing"?
Rictus Jan 12th 2009 5:16AM
Slurm - It's highly addictive
Bootsanator Jan 11th 2009 10:59PM
A guildy of mine wrote an addon for Malygos phase 3 that is amazing, maybe article-worthy if you will :)
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info12145-MalygosCP.html
It's still a work in progress, but the current version works pretty amazing as far as i'm concerned :)
Blakkeyez Jan 12th 2009 12:45AM
I fixed my Pitbull unit frames up for Malygos by adding the following as a dogtag to the Raid Pets frames (created a new text and positioned it to the right on the healthbars with my custom dogtag set to it). It will give you combo points on the frames:
["Interface\AddOns\PitBull_ComboPoints\combo":Icon:Repeat(Combos(target='pet', unit='pet'))]
Joby Jan 12th 2009 10:32AM
What's the deal with the extra 999 reputation once you hit exalted with a particular faction? Why are they there, and are they as meaningless as they seem, or should I bite the bullet and grind out that last 999 points?
Twothirteen Jan 12th 2009 11:41AM
What is Mr. Bigglesworths reason for being in Naxx? Did Blizz just put him there for fun? Does it matter whether someone kills him or not, or whether someone makes him a temporary pet using those criter bites?
Pyornthe Jan 12th 2009 12:46PM
I absolutely love the S3 shaman gear, as I think it looks amazing. Is there any way I can still get S3 gear? I don't really play the arena much, but I'm sure I could scrounge up enough points to buy an old set.
Only problem is, I'm worried that it's completely gone from the game since we've all moved onto the [imo] ugly 80 pvp stuff.
Pyornthe Jan 12th 2009 12:47PM
[spoiler]
I got to kill it in part of the Wrath-gate quest.