The Queue: Good morning Azeroth!
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 23rd 2009 at 11:00AM
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. Adam Holisky will be your host today.
Welcome to this edition of The Queue. It's 11:00 a.m. Do you know where your children are? Hopefully they're firmly planted in some sort of edumacation. I am so smart, S. M. R. T., I mean S. M. A. R. T.
AlexW573 asked...
"How many reasonably geared (entry 80 raiding) people does it take for TBC 25man raids?"
AlexW573 asked...
"How many reasonably geared (entry 80 raiding) people does it take for TBC 25man raids?"
That depends. Mount Hyjal and Black Temple were being cleared with 15 to 20 fully Sunwell geared players right before Wrath came out. I did a number of these raids myself. They were more difficult, sure, but when you had 15 or 20 players that had done the fights hundreds of times for a year, well, it's really second nature to many folks.
Sunwell was a different animal due to some of the DPS / Tanking / Healing checks throughout the instance. You'd have been hard pressed to do Brutallus with anything less than 22 people – and even that would be pushing it for most top-of-the-top-end guilds (pre nerf).
If you are going in with people that truly have been there for a year or more, I would expect it could be 10-maned easily. If the players are really top notch, the kind of god like players that you kind of wonder if they're cheating they're so good, you could probably see a 5-man clear MH/BT. For everyone else I'd recommend between 15 and 20 players.
Kara, Gruul, Mag, SSC, and most of TK can probably be 5-maned without too much hassle. I would say however that with Kael'thas you might run into significant problems. And remember too that several fights have legitimately hard mechanics which require extensive study and practice (ie: Kale'thas and Vashj). Even though the bosses might not hit hard, the actual encounters themselves still require coordination.
Jasuess asked...
"While I understand it's called WoW Insider, I'm curious on what everyone at WoW Insider thinks about the upcoming Blizzard releases of StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3? Also, any plans for a StarCraft Insider and Diablo Insider?"
Everyone here is excited about both those titles, and we're gonna be first in line to get them. I personally had the chance to sit down and play them for several hours at BlizzCon thanks to the press room, and I can say that they're truly amazing games.
I don't think there are any plans for specific sites in the future, but I can't really say one way or another. We do already have excellent coverage of StarCraft II and Diablo 3 over at JoyStiq and Big Download. For some more coverage, check out the interview I did with Chris Sigaty (lead producer of StarCraft II) and some gameplay impressions of StarCraft II. Also take a look at Daniel Whitcomb's coverage of the Diablo 3 Class Panel and Diablo 3 Art and Lore Panel.
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: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Jason Feb 23rd 2009 11:03AM
Always a good photo to use. Great way to start the day. ^_^
Ikarus Feb 24th 2009 2:20PM
2 questions? that's it?
Nautical D Feb 23rd 2009 11:10AM
I stopped playing WoW just before 3.0 patch came out and deleted all my characters and items to make sure I didn't return, is there any way I could get back and start on WotLK without having to roll new chars?
Jonas Feb 23rd 2009 11:15AM
Just email blizzard, said you made a mistake, then they will give them back, if you also have some screens, login scree, of your inventory/gear, anything wohuld help i guess
vocenoctum Feb 23rd 2009 11:13AM
If you had that much of an issue that you felt like you had to go scorched earth, I'd say don't come back, it's not like the problems won't resurface quickly.
Otherwise, level grind or buy an account, I'd think are it.
Schulzy Feb 23rd 2009 11:17AM
That didn't work out so well for you, did it?
Will Feb 23rd 2009 11:39AM
Sounds like you had a very strong reason for quitting WoW and making sure you don't come back when you feel weak.. really think of your reasons for quiting before getting drawn back in. WoW is a very easy game to get absorbed in and ignore your RL responsibilities and goals.
Docp Feb 23rd 2009 11:46AM
Just make a level 1 and contact a GM, as long as you can remember the name, race and class they can usually find it and the level is a big help as well, Ive personally gotten back about 3 characters using this method.
Hoggersbud Feb 23rd 2009 11:46AM
You can always contact Blizzard and ask for a restore. They may be able to help you.
Kakistocracy Feb 23rd 2009 2:06PM
If you succeed in recovering your characters, you should just sell the account next time you decide to quite permanently.
Plastic Rat Feb 23rd 2009 10:34PM
Er... buying and selling accounts is still against the TOS, right?
Cause I see a lot of people advocating it like it's no big deal.
Let me state this clearly. DON'T buy or sell accounts. It's a "Bad Thing(tm)". It also gives money to those same people who are probably going to hack your friends account and clear out your guild bank.
Kakistocracy Feb 24th 2009 6:43PM
Plastic Rat, if selling our account gives money to the people that will hack your friends account.... Either you are planning on hacking your friends account, or... Your version of the free market is vastly different then mine.
As to whether selling the account is permissible in the first place, if you stop paying your account, ceasing to subscribe, are you still within their authority? That is to say, what power do they legitimately have over someone who is not a customer?
Handbanana Feb 23rd 2009 11:12AM
I was wondering if you could get the opposing factions motorcycle mount through the nuetral AH since it's BoE. I think it'd be cool to see someone riding around SW with a horde chopper.
Atomsk Feb 23rd 2009 11:16AM
Nope, the tool tips for the bikes limit them by faction races.
Nick Feb 23rd 2009 11:21AM
I love 5-mans.
Love them.
But, I have done all of them thus far in the Lich King, and they are getting a bit boring, not to mention I am in mostly 25-man Naxx gear so I don't get any upgrades either.
Does Blizzard plan on releasing anymore 5-mans? If so, any ideas on how many? Were all the 5-mans in TBC there at release, or were they put in later? I know MGT was, but what about the others?
Thanks,
Nick
Dez Feb 23rd 2009 11:39AM
Blizz haven't made a habit of releasing 5-man instances in content patches. Magister's Terrace, Dire Maul and Maraudon are the only ones they've ever done outside of game releases. I doubt we'll be seeing any new ones any time soon.
Thander Feb 23rd 2009 12:42PM
I also like 5-mans. We have a really close group. We've been playing for 6 months to a year now. We have time to do raiding occasionally, but it's much easier as casuals to just get on and jump in a heroic.
I think the problem with new dungeons is the gear. There's enough gear in current heroics to get started in Naxx. They can't really put better gear in a heroic because it's not a raid. The progression is normal->heroic->raid->raid->raid. A lot of people wouldn't run the new heroics because they're gear is already better. Sure they might run it a few times just to see it and the lore but pretty soon they would never touch it.
Heilig Feb 23rd 2009 2:04PM
The asnwer to that is to do what they did with MgT and just make the new dungeons progressively harder. If they can make ulduar 10 man gear on par with naxx 25, they can make some 5 man dungeons that are more difficult than what we have now and have them drop better loot too.
yazah Feb 23rd 2009 11:31AM
I have a question about experience points when grouped outside of instances:
When grouping with equal level people you get a cut in the amount of experience gained per kill(not including RAF, etc). Do you know how big of a cut you get, and does it increase as you add more people to your group?
Also, why is there such a _substantial_ cut anyways? It seems counter-intuitive to punish people for actually playing together in an MMOG.
Strahl Feb 23rd 2009 11:48AM
Actually, you get a bonus to xp earned when in a group. You only take a cut if you're grouped and gaining xp in rested form. If you check your combat log you can see that you're actually getting a bonus and not a cut (itll say in blue, and in parentheses +xx grouped bonus).