Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe 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 2 of 6)
sephirah Jan 30th 2009 2:36PM
You cannot xfer to a new realm for months, so for that time all the achievements should be assigned to native players.
nbcaffeine Jan 30th 2009 2:41PM
The individual achievements for realm firsts mean almost nothing in the game (are they even anything besides feats of strength or something?).
I'm sure you could transfer a group of 80s over and try your hand at Obsidian Slayer or something.
AyaJulia Jan 30th 2009 2:41PM
@sephirah: The first sentence of my question was "Blizzard occasionally opens new realms where transfers are allowed right away." For example, Winterhoof opened 12 days ago and transfers were allowed right away.
Jon Do Jan 30th 2009 3:05PM
Shortly after Wrath released I heard about people transferring and 'stealing' realm firsts from the 'local residents', but I didn't see that verified.
Transfers do lead to the odd situation of potentially having multiple realm-first achievements on a single realm.
hold up Jan 30th 2009 4:27PM
If you want to pay $25 to transfer one of your characters just for a server first then go right ahead...
Blizzard says thank you.
AyaJulia Jan 30th 2009 4:29PM
Come on people, I said I wasn't looking to do it, nor do I (as nbcaffeine implied) think they mean much. It was just an idle "I wonder what would happen if" musing.
Gawd....
Rollo Jan 31st 2009 5:25AM
The achievement is probably just checked once, as you ding 80, so you'd have to transfer a level 79 and ding 80 on the new server. They can't continuously check for every possible achievement, right?
Zali Jan 30th 2009 2:15PM
The No-Fly-Zone over Wintergrasp... Just one more way that PVP has ruined the game. :o)
OK, I jest, I jest.
Hasteur Jan 30th 2009 2:38PM
I'm hoping for something like a "Northwest Passage" tunnel that you can position yourself in front of and take a auto-fly through the tunnel.
Riftsrunner Jan 30th 2009 3:28PM
Or put an invisible bubble over the area so you cannot fly into the area at all. And if anyone were to land on the bubble and dismount they would fall to their deaths and be forced to respawn in a non-Wintergrasp graveyard.
AyaJulia Jan 30th 2009 4:02PM
I accidentally fly into WG all the freakin' time, and as a holy priest on a PvE server, it creates a real problem for me. Moreso on a PvE server than a PvP server, people at summoning stones etc. can't resist that yellow name. I've started several guild-wide fights flying from Dalaran to the Nexus on raid night. :\
As such, I'd really like to see it so you aren't flagged until you actually hit the ground. I'd also like to see the no-fly zone reduced in height. To keep people from exploiting the lower zone, if you hit the hard deck [so to speak] you wouldn't simply dismount and parachute, but rather you'd be picked up and flown to your faction's base. This would have the additional benefit of allowing you to immediately use the WG-only flight point to gtf back out of the zone to where you meant to go.
I suppose this belongs in Blizz's suggestions forum instead of WI, but I thought I'd add my whining in here with everyone else's. :)
Brad Jan 30th 2009 2:16PM
Someone mentioned yesterday to wholesale sell everything in your bank - all your mats and the like - before they become worthless with the a new expansion, if you come back after patch 4.x.x or what have you. You'll get more gold for eternals now than you would then, just like primals are junk now.
I'm going to alter that - convert everything into gold, then buy up stacks of low-level mats - ores from copper to thorium, maybe the Outland ores, and Azeroth herbs, especially the lowest ones. These will keep their value relatively well due to the new player effect with a new expansion, and will weather the storm of inflation that a pile of gold would face.
Anaughtybear Jan 30th 2009 2:23PM
Druids still want new forms... badly. Blizzard is waiting until all 11 million subscribers complain about the hideous tauren cat form to change it.
Arcaria Jan 30th 2009 3:59PM
That will never happen since most of us don't play druids and couldn't care less what they look like.
oldwisemonk Jan 30th 2009 4:18PM
Technically, Arcaria is right. But then again, EVERY class is a minority when compared to the rest of the classes combined. You could say "Most of us don't play ..." for every class.
That being said, I think Blizz has bigger fish to fry than our awful Druid forms. Unfortunate, but true.
Kakistocracy Jan 30th 2009 4:43PM
Yeah, and as a mage, I'm not sure how half price arcane Intellect is "maximizing" my character over using the penguin minor glyph. I'd love to see more just for fun minor glyphs.
Suzaku Feb 2nd 2009 4:08AM
Blizzard has said they're working on this, but it's simply not a top priority. They're thinking about a solution involving the barbershop, and have also said they're looking into a way for feral forms to also be able to display armor.
Alex Jan 30th 2009 2:30PM
I play a ret pally and i think i do decent dps but my guild expects me to do insane top chart dps(they kicked me from many raids because i wasnt topping charts) but what i want to know is whos right am i supposed to be doing top charts dps like my guild thinks or am i right in doing decent dps along with my various buffs like i normally do??
AyaJulia Jan 30th 2009 2:38PM
I can't see a real way to answer this without knowing what "chart-topping" and "decent" dps mean to you. If "decent" is 1500, for example, I wouldn't raid with you either ;) But if "chart-topping" is 3000, they're jerks to have kicked you. Someone's always got to be on top, and looking at only dps while ignoring any other utility you might bring to the raid (i.e. Replenishment, Judgments) is a recipe for failure.
I suspect whoever said they kicked you for not topping the charts was just trying to cover for some larger reason. AFK a lot? Stand in the fire? Body pull? Who knows. ^^;
Jayeless Jan 30th 2009 2:47PM
Get a better guild. ;)
Not every class is a "top of the charts" dps-capable class, and Paladins are ones that can be there in certain favorable situations, but not often. You might be higher up the charts against undead in Naxx, for example, but your dps will lag behind against the dragons in OS and EoE, where several paladin abilities don't apply.
As a Ret Paladin, you provide extra utility. You can usually keep Replenish up constantly, and your judgement spells help restore health/mana for those classes performing combat actions, as well as increase the critical strike chance of the said players.
And if things start looking bad, you can help with heals for a spell or two, or crowd control with your stun and with Repenance.
So if a guild is only looking at how much damage you're doing to judge whether or not you're a good dps... why are you with this guild in the first place?