The Queue: Last rites
by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 30th 2009 at 2:00PM
Another day, another Queue! Let's jump right in, hm?
meme asked...
What's the situation about the aesthetic minor glyphs? Could we see them in a future? What's the last thing Blizzard told us about them? Are people in the official forums still demanding them?
We haven't heard anything about this in awhile, but last time we heard about it they wanted to avoid using glyphs for aesthetics. It basically boils down to a choice players shouldn't have to make in that situation: Do I want to look pretty, or do I want to maximize how effective I am?
If they make big aesthetic changes or options, we'll probably see them in a different way. A barber shop sort of deal, rather than a glyph or an enchant. A lot of people still want the aesthetic minor glyphs, yes, but it wouldn't be a good solution in the long run.
Jonny Dale asked...
My subscription runs out on the 31st January, and I don't plan on resubscribing. I've made my mind up about quitting, but I was just wondering if there's anything I really should do before quitting? I'm a level 80 undead warlock with mainly heroic gear with the odd epic. I don't have time for raiding, but have done all the heroic instances. So is there something I really ought to experience before my WoW life comes to an end?
If you've done all of the dungeons and Heroics available to you, I would look to quests. There are a lot of key chains in Wrath of the Lich King that really make the experience. The first of those would be the Death Knight starting quests, naturally. They're pretty amazingly well done.
After that, make sure you've seen the Wrath Gate event (spoilers) in the Dragonblight, and the Sons of Hodir chain in Storm Peaks. There are a whole lot of great quests in Wrath, but those three chains in particular are ones I think everyone should do.
If you haven't done so yet, try out Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients. Even if you don't like PvP, they're worth seeing at least once or twice.
Those are my personal, very simple recommendations. Hopefully our readers will give you a few more ideas in the comments below today, like they were doing yesterday. You should go back and check those out, by the way. There were a few good ones.
jared.daniels asked...
What ever happened to the proposed Death Knight spell that put the enemy into a dark bubble that would deal damage to them when they were healed? I heard a lot about that spell early in the expansion days, but it just.. disappeared. Any idea why this was turned down?
Ooooooverpowered. You can only really put so much anti-Healing in the game before you kill healing utterly. This ability would have been crazy, crazy powerful, so it wasn't used. Death Knights can still remove HoTs (without proccing Lifebloom's bloom) with Plague Strike, but that's the extent of it.
Darksbane asked...
When flying from Dalaran to the Basin when I pass in front of icecrown citadel I start getting pulled in. Almost like i"m hitting an invisible 'soft' wall. I can fly through it if I change my direction but if I try to fly in a straight line it will gradually pull me in. Also my flight form will screech. What is that?
There are invisible walls that try to push you off course from flying over Wintergrasp. They'll push you toward a slightly more safe route, so you don't AFK fly over Wintergrasp (a no-fly zone) and get knocked off your mount, plummeting to your death.
(Note, 'plummeting to your death' was hyperbole. I know you get a parachute. Yeesh.)
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, Blizzard, PvP, Death Knight, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
NoTomorrow Jan 30th 2009 2:05PM
"There are invisible walls that try to push you off course from flying over Wintergrasp. They'll push you toward a slightly more safe route, so you don't AFK fly over Wintergrasp (a no-fly zone) and get knocked off your mount, plummeting to your death"
....and yet I always seem to get parachuted into that damn zone every time I walk away from my computer...
vexis58 Jan 30th 2009 4:32PM
Because those invisible walls are only in a few places, like the northern edge where Icecrown is. It's less for convenience while traveling, more to keep people from parachuting directly into the keep during a battle.
Dora the Explorer Jan 30th 2009 7:16PM
I was flying from Sholazar basin into Wintergrasp when the no fly zone buff appeared. I panicked and fled the area back to Sholazar basin but it still dismounted me, but with a definite lack of parachute. My corpse was strewn across the cliff face and my ghost couldn't reach it, thus resulting in 25% durability loss and the 10-minute debuff. Zing!
Arcticwolf Jan 30th 2009 7:53PM
I too have had problems with no parachute, but I was actually in Wintergrasp when the debuff ended and I was dropped from my mount. Luckily it has only ever happened on my pally and I've bubbled just before I became a pancake.
Marolas Jan 30th 2009 8:42PM
Have any other Death Knights tried to run CoT: Durnholde Keep? A Level 66 Gnome Death Knight asked me to run him through the instance, only to find that he could not actually get inside.
My guess? It's because Blizzard did not decide whether or not to give DKs an active 'disguise' like the Night Elves and Horde have, so the instance can't register them in.
Can someone confirm this? I'm personally hoping it's an isolated incident.
Marolas Jan 30th 2009 8:49PM
Just tested the CoT: Durnholde Keep entrance again, this time with a Level 66 Night Elf Death Knight that joined our confused party. He ran right past the instance portal and didn't phase in either.
I had the Death Knight Gnome from before submit a ticket.
Scott Jan 31st 2009 5:46PM
RE: DKs in Old Hillsbrad:
I have healed this instance 3 times on my priest. Each time I had at least 1 DK in the group who was able to get in with no problems. The only thing I can think of is that your DKs didn't do the annoying "Talk To The Keeper Of Time And Follow Her Around For 30 Minutes" quest in the Caverns.
Jeremy Jan 30th 2009 2:11PM
"There are invisible walls that try to push you off course from flying over Wintergrasp. They'll push you toward a slightly more safe route, so you don't AFK fly over Wintergrasp (a no-fly zone) and get knocked off your mount, plummeting to your death"
This is actually also a bit inconvenient if the Dalaran portal to Wintergrasp is broken and you actually WANT to fly from Dalaran over Icecrown and into Wintergrasp to parachute down into the hold.
tk3030 Jan 30th 2009 2:13PM
This makes me feel so much less crazy. I'd swear up and down I'm better at aiming than flying to Wintergrasp always made me feel. (I like to parachute in on the south side to farm eternals, rather than portal in.)
Jay in Oregon Jan 30th 2009 3:25PM
While I'm glad to know there is some reason for it -- I thought I had a key stuck on my keyboard or something -- I have to agree; it's damned annoying if you're TRYING to fly over Wintergrasp and are bouncing off of the walls.
The longest flightmaster griffon ride I've taken in Northrend recently cost a hair over 2 gold; that's half of what the lowest-level Northrend daily I've found pays. If people are going to AFK fly on their mount anywhere near a no-flight/PvP zone, they shouldn't be surprised to find themselves getting knocked off their mount.
Suhas Jan 30th 2009 2:21PM
out of all the Diablo 2 classes, only the Necromancer class was not adopted in WoW, instead we got a demon controlling Warlock, well we did get the Death Knight but hes nothing like the Necromancer
any idea why the Necromancer wasnt introduced to WoW? is Necromancy a greater taboo than Demonology in Azeroth?
Spicyness Jan 30th 2009 2:28PM
We didn't really get the Diable two classes. We got things kindof like them because they are both based in a fantasy universe and these archtypes tend to carry over.
On the flip side when is my mage getting flame wall and hydra?
niko Jan 30th 2009 2:52PM
Actually, there's an interview on MMO-Champion that I just read a couple hours ago talking about necromancers and what happened to em and whatnot.
They took a necromancer + a runemaster and made the DK. True story.
Doffencrag Jan 30th 2009 2:54PM
Interestingly enough, if you listen to the most recent BlizzCast (or read the transcript thereof), Tigole talks about the hero class for Wrath. Apparently before they settled for the Death Knight, one of the classes they were considering was a "range caster" who would do a lot of "corpse explode" stuff (which should sound familiar to the Necromancer-playing crowd of Diablo II).
I wouldn't say it's taboo or anything... just a matter of which classes had the right "feel" or "flavor" for WarCraft. Besides, the game is based on the WarCraft RTS games, not Diablo.
Suzaku Feb 2nd 2009 4:08AM
Necromancer was one of their originally planned classes, and there were several others -- there's concept art for many of them in the Art of World of Wacraft artbook. Some were dropped because they overlapped with other classes, some because they wanted a different aesthetic, some because they needed to fit in with racial lore, etc..
According to the latest Blizzcast, they had 29 different Hero Classes in the running for Wrath, and the top three were Necromancer, the oft-requested Runemaster, and Death Knight. Several of their concepts for the Necromancer class were adapted to the Death Knight class (corpse explosion), and it's possible the same happened with the Runemaster (which are hand-to-hand fighters that empower themselves with runic tattoos/markings).
elstor Jan 30th 2009 2:14PM
"AFK fly over Wintergrasp (a no-fly zone) and get knocked off your mount, plummeting to your death. "
You don't fall to your death, you'll get a parachute (Usually). The way you die is A.) Falling into a mob-infested area while AFK and getting beaten on or B.) Getting killed by a player of the opposite faction.
Hates Jan 30th 2009 2:56PM
OMFG CAN U NOT READ?!?!?! The very....VERY next line after your quote says......(Note, 'plummeting to your death' was hyperbole. I know you get a parachute. Yeesh.)
Docp Jan 30th 2009 3:11PM
That was probably added in as an edit in response to elstor's comment.
Damntheman Jan 30th 2009 3:54PM
grats hate, you are the weakest link
AyaJulia Jan 30th 2009 2:15PM
Blizzard occasionally opens new realms where transfers are allowed right away. One day I was thinking idly, how do they handle realm first achievements? If I'm the first priest to transfer and I'm already level 80, do I get it? If there's already a level 80 priest and I transfer at level 79 and ding there, do I get it then? Or are the realm firsts reserved for fresh starts? What happens if someone who had a realm first achievement on their old realm transfers off? I don't plan to try to snipe any achievements or something, just came to me one day. :P