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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Soloing Zul'Gurub like a Q
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 3rd 2009 at 2:00PM
As Alex mentioned yesterday, he and I will be taking turns with the queue. So don't fret, Alex will be back in your loving graces tomorrow. As this is my first post for the queue, I feel like I'm boldly going where no man (Alex is a superman) has gone before. And who better to welcome me than John de Lancie's iconic Q character? With Picard oddly facepalming himself... huh. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. Anyways, I digress. On with the Q!
037 asked...
"Is it possible to solo Zul'Durub to farm the mounts? If it makes a difference, I am a 10 Man Naxx geared Enhancement Shaman."
Yes and no. The raptor boss you'll probably be able to take down pretty easily, but you might have some trouble with the tiger boss.
For the raptor boss, make sure you have your cooldowns ready for the tight spots and you know how to conserve mana when you're anticipating needing some healing. There were several people able to solo the raptor boss in BC. For those that don't remember the Bloodlord Mandokir fight (aka the raptor boss), you run up the stairs to kill the speaker, then Mandokir comes down and he and his raptor attack you. Kill the raptor first and then go after Mandokir.
With regards to the tiger boss, or High Preist Thekal, you'll want to get each add down to a very low health. Since each add needs to die within 10 seconds of each other, you'll want to bring them down to the range where it'll only take one or two shots to kill them. Save heroism for the end of the adds, since if you get an unlucky miss when you're taking down the add you're pretty much done for.
The other consideration with the Thekal is that you're going to be getting hit a lot, and taking a large amount of damage.
Yltharion asked...
"I haven't found a single titanium node in Scholazar Basin post 3.0.8. Did they limit the nodes only to Icecrown and Storm Peaks? I didn't see such change in the patch notes."
The titanium nodes are there, and I can attest to having several on farm myself. But therein lays the issue. With patch 3.0.8 came the hot new feature of one hit mining. Where titanium nodes might have required three to six hits to clear, it now only takes one to mine all the ore. That means people, especially Druids and Shamans who don't have to worry about dismounting, are mining the nodes faster.
Loudfiero asks...
"My laptop is running Vista and runs WoW-WotLK acceptably. I want to install Windows 7. I hear it offers better performance than Vista. Is WoW compatible with it?"
Yes! I am running Windows 7 on my laptop (along with Ubuntu) right now, and it works great. WoW runs about 10 FPS faster than it did in Vista. I should disclose that there were a few things I didn't do in Vista to increase the frame rate; namely I had Aero turned on, which makes all the windows have transparent borders, etc... But I have those on because my laptop primarily is used to do WoW Insider work in my comfy living room chairs and couch, and not play the game.
Besides the improvements to WoW, Windows 7 is a much much much better OS than Vista. Without going into lots of details, let's just say that when Windows 7 is released, everyone will want to upgrade. Vista will become the new ME.
If you do end up downloading and installing the beta of Windows 7, just be aware that despite its abundance of awesome-sauce, it still is a beta. And that beta is going to expire eventually, and you'll probably want to have all your data backed up or stored in a way so that you can do a completely clean reinstall of Windows when the final/retail version of Windows 7 comes out.
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!
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 6)
mk Feb 3rd 2009 2:19PM
i was wondering if there's been any noise coming out of blizzard regarding fixing wintergrasp. tenacity is simply not doing the job it was supposed to when i'm in a full wintergrasp raid and have 7 times tenacity and still can't get my tank to the outer walls without getting destroyed. (my computer lagging out and dc'ing at the mere sight of a solid wall of allies off in the distance is another issue altogether :P)
Hoggersbud Feb 3rd 2009 7:04PM
Funny, you should try it on the other side with folks complaining "How do I kill these guys with 50-90k health"
mk Feb 3rd 2009 7:57PM
yea very funny... but somehow the team with a million guys seems to always win. and what does a million health matter when i can't get my tank anywhere near a wall...? my million health isn't going to get that wall down anytime soon. and even when i have tenacity times ten, all it means is that the swarm of guys around me takes ten seconds to kill me instead of two. i wouldn't be complaining if we were winning, believe me :P
Flairy Feb 3rd 2009 2:19PM
Call me a noob? (or someone who doesn't play a shaman), but I didn't know that shamans can farm things without dismounting from their flying mount? What is this ability?
mazokuranma Feb 3rd 2009 2:23PM
Shamans can't farm without dismounting. The only thing I can think he might mean is that in Ghost Wolf form they can mine without shifting forms.
I'm not sure on this, but I know mine can pick herbs while in Ghost Wolf form, so the same may hold true for mining.
Even if they can though, I can't imagine that it would ever be faster to run around Sholazar in Ghost Wolf form than to fly around and dismount at the nodes.
Adam Holisky Feb 3rd 2009 2:25PM
You can farm in Ghostwolf form.
Flairy Feb 3rd 2009 2:25PM
Thanks Mazo, that's what my hunch was.
Katz Feb 3rd 2009 4:04PM
Druids can herb without coming out of flight form however
Irshalthra Feb 3rd 2009 4:45PM
I am a Shammy and (unless changed recently) you can herb in Ghost wolf, but mining pops you out of ghost wolf. Wolves cannot grip mining picks.
vexis58 Feb 3rd 2009 6:44PM
I wonder if this was just his assumption based on herbalism, but I know for a fact that I cannot mine in flight (or any other) form. I can pick herbs in flight form without "dismounting", but I WILL be shifted back to caster form if I try to mine. I'd imagine the same is true for shamans in ghost wolf form.
Axxam Feb 3rd 2009 9:55PM
I would only use Ghostwolf in cases where the +40% run speed was faster than the 3 seconds it took to get on my mount (I have 2 points in improved, so it is an instant cast). Normally it was of use in the "Blowing Hodir's Horn" quest trying to get to a giant first.
For Sholazar farming, I'd use my epic flyer unless it was a very short dash
Super Guest Man 9000 Feb 3rd 2009 10:18PM
Speaking as a mining druid you cannot mine in flight form, shifts you out. But instant cast certainly makes things go faster!
Belna Feb 4th 2009 8:19AM
I got 2 shamans and used the enhancement with instant cast ghost wolf for farming herbs and ore. With herbs you won't change form, so you can keep on running in wolf form. With mining you will get out of form and go back to casterform.
Because of the instant cast it's not a big deal. You hardly loose time to change form. If the nodes or herbs are close enough wolf form is faster than a mount and has the benefit that you won't get detected easily.
If the nodes have more distance between them (like most higher level ore) my unholy DK with the 20% extra speed (115%) is much faster than my Shaman or Druid. She's can farm about 200 to 250 gold worth of ore in one hour.
The DK is the cheapest solution for grinding.
They come with the fast mount for free and have that 20% extra speed ability (on a pale horse) and 15% faster walking with unholy aura.
Serrano Feb 3rd 2009 2:25PM
Any word on recipes coming out to upgrade the Axe/Hammer/Swordsmthing epic weapons like Blazefury?
It seems sad to see mine in the bank.
Rugus Feb 3rd 2009 2:27PM
Every class should be able to mine/herb without dismount. That REALLY makes a HUGE difference and for many players can be seen as an unfair advantage.
Pfooti Feb 3rd 2009 3:34PM
Druids can herb without dismounting, but not mine. On the plus side, flight form is instant-cast, so it's just like not dismounting.
Malkavos Feb 3rd 2009 4:58PM
No classes can mine while mounted/flying. Not druids, not shamans. The article ought to be changed to reflect this.
Dobmeister Feb 3rd 2009 2:29PM
Windows ME was the pinnacle of operating system releases. How dare you knock such a majestic product!
Blake Feb 3rd 2009 4:56PM
It's a pretty lame comparison however you look at it. ME was a failure from the start and very few people bothered with that piece of crap.
Vista, on the other hand, does have a substantial user base, and *gasp* some people who don't have any problems whatsoever with it (like myself).
Sure I'll be upgrading to 7 due to the amazing buzz and press in the tech circles, but I'd also be happy sticking with Vista for another 2 years if need be.
Gumpie Feb 3rd 2009 2:33PM
O.k this might be strange question.
If you look at the map that shows both Azeroth and Outlands, on the map of Azeroth there you can see Northend and Daranssus. But there are also 7 small islands on that map. Any Idea what they are?