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by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 13th 2009 at 3:00PM
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.Another Tuesday, another maintenance. As much as I'd like to write something amusing here to entertain you on your slow, boring day, I've got nothin'. Bone dry. I'm like the freaking Shimmering Flats here. Well, you know, like the north parts. Not the south parts with that little lake. Just the dry stuff, people. ...Oh, screw it.
Jamesisgreat asked...
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?
When I buckle down and really grind out some honor, I run Strand of the Ancients unless Wintergrasp is about to come up, then I take a break and do that instead. On the weekends, I pulled in a good 30,000 honor a day. That's not typical, and it took some pretty long play sessions, but it's definitely possible if you have a lazy Sunday.
I had a few people tell me Alterac Valley was better honor, but I guess your mileage may vary on that one. It really wasn't better at all, in my experience. I hit it a few times, and ended up kind of empty on honor. It seems your gains are heavily dependent on a game going into turtle mode with one side playing heavy defense so you can farm HKs. That's not really fun, and doesn't happen all of the time. When a Strand plays out like it's supposed to play out, you get pretty good, steady gains rather than the occasional Atlerac Valley giving abnormally high gains.
How about you readers, do you guys normally get more honor from Alterac Valley or Strand of the Ancients? Has my experience with the BGs just been wonky and not the norm at all?
Dustin R asked...
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?
Since you're referring exclusively to Warcraft III here, I assume that you haven't seen his WoW incarnation beyond the BOE, Lil Timmy's Peashooter. He's actually a boss in Stratholme now, on the Scarlet side. He's stuck as a poor little ghoul, and he's a nod to the South Park character as the same time. He yells "Timmy!" when he spawns.
If you have seen that and you're asking about Wrath, no, he's not in Wrath. He's a dead man. ...boy. Ghoul. Thing.
Rhondis asked...
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"?
Alex Ziebart: Stealing Rictus's jokes since January 2009! No, sorry, there's no quests involving that thing. It's just decoration. Disgusting decoration.
Joby asked...
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?
It's wholly unimportant. I think it's there to annoy the hell out of anal retentive players that absolutely need to see their bar filled in. Sure, you're Exalted, but you have 998 more reputation points to fill in! Get back to questing, losers!
Twothirteen asked...
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?
He's mostly a gag, originally a nod to Austin Powers, but the 'story' behind Mr. Bigglesworth is that he's Kel'thuzad's cat from when he was alive. Commander Eligor Dawnbringer tells us about it in Wintergarde Keep. I strongly recommend Alliance players go listen to Eligor educate the 7th Legion on what lies within Naxxramas. Each of the bosses have a little bit of a story behind them, and he even gives some hints as to how a few of the bosses work. If you're a Horde player, the full conversation can be seen on Wowwiki, it just loses a little of the flavor when you don't have the projections to look at.
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, PvP, Raiding, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Red Jan 13th 2009 3:16PM
I am horde on Skywall and for honor I would say strand of ancients is a good bet. I have tried to run AV over 30 times now and every single match, I mean every single one, has the horde outnumber at least 2 to 1 and sometimes 3 to 1. There were even two matches when we were outnumber 4 to 1 and the match had to be shutdown. Is anyone else having this problem in their group?
Zulix Jan 13th 2009 3:17PM
The QM for the Horde Expedition has very little gear available and it isn't that great. Are there plans to expand the offering?
Also, the gear available for shards in Wintergrasp seems a little weak as well. It seems there are a lot of JC patterns but none for other professions. Are they going to ever offer better/expanded gear there as well?
Cleer Jan 13th 2009 4:01PM
In the next patch, (3.0.8 I think it is) there will be more gear aviable from the PvP vendors in Wintergrasp.
You can buy Boots, Helmets and Trinkets, all purchaseable for the Wintergrasp honor tokens.
I'm not sure if this answer your question tho.
AyaJulia Jan 13th 2009 3:25PM
I'm confused about Haste and the GCD. I keep getting different stories about whether haste will drop the GCD.
The hunters in my life say that haste is a really bad stat, because it doesn't affect the GCD and once you drop Steady Shot's cast time below 1.5s, you're just wasting itemization points that could be put in crit, etc.
The holy paladins in my life, when questioned about how they spam Flash of Light at such ludicrous speeds, just link Judgments of the Pure and say haste does, in fact, shorten the GCD.
Can I get a straight answer here?
Ian R. Jan 13th 2009 3:37PM
I've had trinkets and procs as both an affliction warlock and a death knight and YES haste DOES affect the GCD. Its easier to notice when you have a short burst of lots of haste.
Saelorn Jan 13th 2009 3:43PM
Haste reduces the global cooldown associated with spellcasting, down to a minimum global cooldown of 1 second. This is in addition to reducing the actual casting time of spells, although I am unsure whether it takes the same amount of haste rating to reduce both the casting time and the global cooldown from 1.5 seconds to 1.0 seconds.
Haste does not reduce the global cooldown associated with melee and ranged (non-spell) attacks. Haste still increases the number of normal auto-attacks (white damage) you make, and reduces the amount of time required for casting non-spell abilities (like steady shot) but it won't actually reduce the global cooldown incurred by using a non-spell ability. It doesn't matter if you reduce the casting speed of Steady Shot to below 1.5, because you can't start another one until the global cooldown is up (and thus any haste beyond that will be less effective, only helping your white damage).
Lemons Jan 13th 2009 3:44PM
I do know that haste for spellcasters does enable them to shorten their GCD to 1 second (with an insane amount of haste), but no more than that. And for a pally, who is probably the most cast-heavy healing class in the game, I can see why haste could make a big difference.
For a hunter on the other hand I don't think it does shorten your GCD, I play a melee class and I'm pretty sure it doesn't shorten mine either. Other than that all I can tell you is "Haste is waste."
Grimshod Jan 13th 2009 3:55PM
It does not actually reduce the GCD for hunters. More info here: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2008/12/hunter-haste-rating-and-haste-cap-level-80/
The hunters that you are speaking with are absolutely correct in this. Haste is a pretty meh stat for hunters, most of the time. It helps a bit, but less than most other stats (save for Armor Penetration, which is even less worthwhile).
It's my understanding (which may be incorrect) that haste does decrease the GCD for casters, however. So it's quite nice for those holy paladins you know.
akw Jan 13th 2009 4:02PM
They're both right.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Casting_speed#Global_Cooldown
Haste reduces the GCD for spells (since 2.4). Hunters, despite being burdened with a mana bar, are not considered spell casters in this regard.
Allurissa Jan 13th 2009 4:13PM
Haste will lower the GCD if have a 1.5 second GCD. (Melee GCD is 1 second). The GCD can not be lowered past 1 second.
AyaJulia Jan 13th 2009 4:18PM
Alright, not one but six straight answers. I got it, lol. :) It seems like if something isn't going to be considered a "spell" it shouldn't use mana... but whatever.
Fresca Jan 13th 2009 5:01PM
Poor hunters can't mash buttons fast enough, QQ
butler Jan 13th 2009 3:26PM
I'm surprised nobody suggested running each BG evenly to turn in marks for honor. This is by far an extremely large amount of honor.
Quickshiv Jan 13th 2009 3:43PM
I was just going to suggest something similar.
If you have no marks run the daily if you think you can win then run SotA. If you have quite a few of at least two types of marks used for the turn in quest then do the other two.
I personally run SotA and AB because I have 50+ EotS marks and 30+ Gulch Marks. I will do this until I am out of marks and then probably only play SotA. Not only for the honor but also because I just like playing it.
Other things you can do. If you loose two of the same BG badly twice in a row queue for something else. You don't want to get the same group of people again. Conversely if you win queue up as soon as you get out. If the BG pops instantly cancel it and wait a few seconds then queue again. This should give you the best chance at playing with the same people again.
Wining a bg quickly is always worth more honor then HK farming so don't fight when it doesn't count.
Amaxe Jan 13th 2009 4:13PM
I've thought about it, but unless they fixed the Turtle problem in WSG, I don't see myself running it
Waryor Jan 13th 2009 3:28PM
I also would like to know if there's any sites that can help out with DK raid DPS. We've got a couple in our guild, and while they're nice people, and they play their former mains fairly skilled, they're decently abysmal when it comes to their DK DPS. I've tried to do a bit of research for them to try to help them out, but I'm having trouble finding anything - spec, rotation, primary stats, gearing goals, etc. I've played through the opening questline, then turned my DK into a bank alt, so I don't have much experiance with them. Any suggestions I could use to help them out?
AyaJulia Jan 13th 2009 4:31PM
As far as gear, you could point them to http://be.imba.hu for things like enchant upgrades, or armory-light.com for easy links to wowhead's upgrade feature. I like to look myself up there, click the wowhead upgrade link, then just put the weight scale in manually (don't know why armory-light doesn't put it in the link already). It's pretty intelligent about most things, to be honest, except for a HUGE overemphasis on +hit (it will highly recommend gear that is clearly not meant for their spec if it has a chunk of hit on it; wants my hunter to wear a Hat of Wintry Doom for example).
Zor Jan 13th 2009 3:28PM
i understand what your saying about server differences, but that could also mean how one side could be situationally lobsided
case(s) in point:
NPC reactions - and vantage points : allies npc have generally a clear LOS over large flat surfaces - horde have more gullies / tunnels and even building walls as obstructions
Towers vs Bunkers - initially - while the allie wind up the stairs and take 3 secs of arrow fire, once in the sheltered and SAFE confined of flag area, can sit and eat while taking the flag - horde get no such break, getting a 3 square inch out side of one window to take flag, if at all, while all the allie NPC pound away making the taking of it impossible unless you kill npc or find that sweet spot in the window .....whilst the allie remembers gets the whole room to replenish themselves BEFORE the edifice has been taken
defending such places....the alllies now have a 10 ft circular room to protect and be protected from ( walls of towers ) - horde have a wide open death trap - and you thought horde dont know how to defend ;) - its just this very thing makes it a much harder thing to do and less enjoyable - cat chasing its own tail if you will
the map dispairity - give me one good reason why its different? - and the rest of them equilateral??
the bridge death gauntlet - to the hordes drive through tunnels with safe havens for the allies to again repair eat drink and be merry ALL WITHIN enemy territory- hardly similar there - akin to having a building in the middle of the bridge allowing the horde to restock and replenish ...ya right..
the holes in horde base allowing it to be akin to a walk in clinic? and allies Fort Knox
and lastly, timing the two sides....somehow they can always get to the end (FW Aid Station) before we can get past SP GY. - with no one stopping anywhere O.o a grp of us did that it was 34 : 8
no one touched us, they ran by .. so did we...very illuminating
just like the allies always getting stables before we get farm ;)
thats a whole other ball of wax....the differences in distance between gy and flags in AB
now why do you suppose that is? shhh
Amaxe Jan 13th 2009 4:19PM
"defending such places....the alllies now have a 10 ft circular room to protect and be protected from ( walls of towers ) - horde have a wide open death trap - and you thought horde dont know how to defend ;) - its just this very thing makes it a much harder thing to do and less enjoyable - cat chasing its own tail if you will"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the other hand, I have seen mages AOE spam the Horde towers, turning the confined place into a deathtrap and making them easy to retake (though I understand they nerfed that). The AOE bursts could go through the walls.
In comparison, when the Horde took a tower, it tended to require a massive effort to retake it, because of the places where the Horde could mass fire.
The tactics of Horde tower vs Alliance tower are different yes, but it does affect both sides.
Wulfkin Jan 13th 2009 8:02PM
A lot of these things are swings and roundabouts, although the one that always bothers me is how the Alliance get an easily defendable bridge whilst Frotwolf Village can be quite easily waltzed into. I've heard it said that IB is our equivalent chokepoint, but it still pales in comparison to having to fight across a long narrow bridge. I sear in the oldschool 12-hour AV's, 8 of those hours was us Hordies desperatedly trying to push Allies back over the bridge.