The Queue: Praying for the PTR
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 18th 2009 at 3:00PM
Good afternoon, WoW Insider! I'm feeling pretty good today, how about you? Why am I feeling so good? The idea of the PTR potentially going up in the next couple of days is giving me a bit of a rush. Seeing all of the new stuff is one of the big things that excites me about MMOs, and of course passing that info on to you guys. Let's hope it goes up sometime soon, because it will rule.
Firestride asked...
What should I do if I get into an AV raid that is intent on zerging, and going up against an opponent who is also zerging, only better at it?
Accept defeat, and bask in all of the Honor that comes with that defeat anyway. If both sides are zerging, you'll surely get at least a few towers down since they won't be defending and it'll probably be a quick game. Just eat the loss, queue again, and hope for better luck afterwards.
Steve asked...
When are they doing the barber shop for Druid forms? I remember reading about this some time ago, but have heard little on when it'll be implemented. I thought it would be done in the first "content" patch, but it's been something not mentioned for some time.
It hasn't been abandoned, and they've recently reinforced that. Definitely not thrown out the window. It just seems like something they absolutely want to get right, and I'd bet their artists were already working overtime to get patch 3.1 done and out the door. My personal guess? We'll either see these models in patch 3.2, or not at all until the next expansion, which I am personally going to guess is the Maelstrom and the Emerald Dream. Note, that's totally unconfirmed, it's just my thoughts. If it proves true, it'd certainly be a very Druidic experience and doesn't that sound like a good time to augment Druid models? Probably not for us impatient folk, but it'd have story significance, which is always cool!
Blizzard hasn't actually said when we'll see it, just that it's still being worked on and we'll see it eventually.
Tumnus asked...
I'm trying to weigh the importance of holding on to my Dalaran cooking awards versus spending them on Northern Spices should the need arise (I do the cooking daily every day). I need the spice to make raid food, but I'm wondering if there will likely be new recipes to buy in upcoming patches. I have all recipes currently available for cooking awards at the moment.
I'm willing to bet patch 3.1 will have some new recipes, but not a ton. I don't think you should avoid spending your awards entirely, but it can't hurt to keep a few around. Right now, I have 23 Dalaran Cooking Awards. That's 230 Northern Spices if I spent them all. I don't think I could even use all of those.
I'd say save 5 or 6, that way you can get one or two of the new recipes if they scoop a whole batch on us in patch 3.1. You can snag the ones you really need, then slowly get the other ones you don't really care as much about. If you want to play it really safe, don't spend any until the patch 3.1 PTR is up, and keep an eye on WoW Insider. As soon as the PTR comes up, you can bet I'll be running to the recipe vendor to see what new and exciting things he has for us, if anything at all.
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: Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Invisible Elf Feb 18th 2009 3:07PM
I don't think there will be new recipes, I can't really thing of any stat buffs currently missing... Unless they decide to add more vanity food which I hope they do :D
Vendrill Feb 18th 2009 3:57PM
+ INT food would be nice.
Theresira(akama) Feb 18th 2009 3:09PM
ptr agogo
Remen Feb 18th 2009 3:14PM
WIN!
Kai Monture Feb 18th 2009 3:13PM
If I post a question here will it be on The Queue?
Taladan Feb 18th 2009 4:00PM
Yes. Not all questions go to the queue, but you must post it here and, if they think it's interesting, it will appear in the next Queue.
Aggrajag Feb 19th 2009 4:04AM
It's a good question, but one I doubt will appear on The Queue.
Sedna Feb 18th 2009 3:17PM
Is that Freya up top? Because that model is the new hotness. Awesome.
Any news on new badge, er, emblem gear in 3.1? Similar to Tumnus, I have a large collection of Emblems of Heroism on my main, and absolutely no gear I want to spend it on. Is 3.1 going to be like Sunwell, with some new pimpin' gear going for hundreds of emblems? Or should I assume any new 3.1 stuff will be bought with Emblems of Valor and just spend it on BoA items?
K Whitt Feb 18th 2009 5:02PM
They wanted to do away with the one-tier of badge thing. So no... its unlikely that you'll see gear for hundreds of emblems of Heroism. On the other hand, for 200, you can get a nice light tan single person mammoth. and for 40-60 a piece you can get some of the nice Legacy 1-80 pieces of gear to level up an alt with. Or you can turn those emblems into blue quality uncut gems and frozen orbs to sell on the AH or use in crafting. There is still a fair bit for the emblems to be used on. Supposedly, the new tier of raid's 10-man will be giving out our current 25 man emblems of valour. Then the 25-man version will be giving out a whole new tier of emblem (of conquest?)...
hold up Feb 18th 2009 5:12PM
Bump.
I hear ya on this one. I'm currently sitting on almost 200 EoV. Nothing really worth getting.
Game is too easy. Where's the hard content?
3.1 PTR - NAO!
Rollo Feb 18th 2009 6:38PM
So the new 10-man raid bosses will be dropping emblems of valor? That's news to me... very good news! :D
I thought I'd never see any of those (except the occasional VoA pug).
Feli Feb 18th 2009 3:20PM
I'm a resto druid and it never actualy happend to me i had to use something else then my HoT's in raids. We got a pretty imba healing team you see.
But i was wondering, what if i got:
1Stack of Lifebloom
1rejuvenation
1Regrowth(the HoT part of it)
on my healing target, an his health is still dropping?
will i go for:
Nourish spam (i got the T7 normal set bonus)
Regrowth spam
Healing touch spam
I know its a nooby question .. but everyone advises me something else.
butler Feb 18th 2009 3:31PM
Are you going for 1 stack of lifebloom and letting it bloom? You should be keeping a 3 stack rolling.
Then which direct heals to use depends entirely on how you are specced and glyphed, obviously. With 4pc t7, that should be nourish, as this is what the spell seems like it was designed for...
Rob Feb 18th 2009 4:40PM
1) Nourish is good
2) WG is good
3) Glyphed/talented HT is 1 second.
4) Regrowth crits can be insane. Spam it if you need to.
5) Alot of times it makes more sense to LB x1 and wait for it to bloom.
6) Use your swiftmend often.
7) Macro your natures swiftness to Nourish.
8) If you are having trouble keeping the tank up, he needs more healers or you or the tank are undergeared for the instance. (i've never had that problem though; once you get 1500+ heal its good for heroics, 2000+ heal is great for naxx).
Firestride Feb 18th 2009 5:23PM
Lol, what? Why on earth would you macro NS to Nourish? Maybe I'm wrong, but wouldn't an unglyphed HT be the way to go?
To OP:
Roll your HoTs (get up to 3x Lifebloom most of the time), and for bursts, I usually use Swiftmend, Regrowth, and Nourish in that order, but it really just depends on what buttons my fingers are closest to.
Robert M Feb 18th 2009 3:18PM
A couple of things...
1. Do we have any idea if power word barrier is going to take the place of divine spirit? If it was that high, a Barrier/CoH priest could prove to be pretty nasty and send the other healers home crying
and
2. wowinsider reported that 3.1 was finished according to a Kaplan interview.
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/10/10/new-details-on-upcoming-3-x-patches/
Don't all the changes and the "waves" of class changes lead many to belive that Blizzard is full of bat guano? Or that the previous major patc and expansion didn't go as smooth as they had thought it would at the very least, and they had to head back to the drawing board for a few areas?
Cy Feb 18th 2009 3:42PM
It's probably a case of Curse (who did the original interview with Kaplan) just summarizing and paraphrasing what he said, and not giving the statement's context so we can see what he actually meant by that.
I'd guess he meant that things were finalized as far as patch content goes (i.e. Ulduar), not that every single thing was done and set in stone.
And class balance is an ongoing process. There's no way they would include that in a statement saying "things are done".
Techwolf Feb 18th 2009 3:44PM
Robert M:
Off the top of my head, the druid bear change for damage absorb is directly from the class complaints about having only dodge to stack for mitigation. There are probably similar changes to each class based on feedback. Things that the devs want to take to heart and make a change on. It was either that or push those to 3.2. With the sweeping class changes, 3.1 made more sense to them. I don't doubt that a lot of Ulduar and other changes were completed at the time of that interview. Priorities change: dual spec gets pushed up due to user base response. You have to give Blizzard credit for listening to their customers and responding, such as it is.
Xlade:
No good epic druid helms makes me a sad kitty. I'm fully epic on everything else. I would love an epic LW helm recipe...
Dan Feb 18th 2009 3:18PM
Does anyone know who the three characters in all the Blizzcon Announement graphics are (see posting earlier this week)? One looks just like Thrall, but the other two seem pretty vague... a paladin and some sort of demonic rogue looking thing (maybe an orc)?
Dan Feb 18th 2009 3:19PM
*Announcement
... sorry.