Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: Meow now
by Adam Holisky 
Mar 19th 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.
The above picture took me all of five minutes to put together. Super Troopers is a great movie, and I encourage you all to go watch it today. But finish reading WoW Insider first, and in particular finish reading The Queue to understand the reference. How many times can Alex say Mountain Dew? The answer is a lot. Update: Go and read Massively's take on the coming Mountain Dew. It's quite good.037 asked...
"Now that you can queue for battlegrounds from anywhere, are we looking at the new ghetto hearth?"
No. Queuing for a battleground will send you right back to the place where you entered the battleground from.
Lorsty asked...
"I have a question for the queue. Why isn't there a Feat of Strength for going from level 1 to 80 without dying?"
That's a great idea. But unfortunately nothing like that exists, and even if it did I highly doubt it would be possible under any normal circumstances. You'd have to basically always fight mobs you were 100% sure wouldn't kill you. And the psychological damage to a person after they died at level 79 fighting some easy mob would be too much, I think.
Lorsty also asked...
"What are the chances of knowing about the next expansion during this year's BlizzCon?"
I would say pretty good, although it's really just speculation. Anyone claiming to know for sure what the next expansion is doesn't. Blizzard knows, but it's a closely guarded secret and it's a secret a lot of people like to claim that they know. And anyone that does know won't say so publicly, and will swear up and down they don't know. And no, I don't know so don't ask. For reals.
KJS asked...
"Currently, I have two level 80 Horde toons on my server, and three level 70 Alliance toons on this same server. Do you think Blizz will ever allow any/or all of my Alliance toons to become Horde toons or vice versa? It stinks to have to re-level toons from level 1, when I have three level 70's just sitting there doing nothing."
Very unlikely. Blizzard folks have often said that they don't want to disrupt the class balance and faction balance in the game (balance as in number of rogues to the number of warlocks). Blizzard also likes to maintain an overall RP sense in the game, and allowing faction changes would destroy that. And before people ask, sex change is an RP element in the medieval fantasy world that has been around long before WoW, with the earliest I can think of being Elminster from Ed Greenwood's series. Changing from a Human to Orc really isn't. At least not a common one by any means.
Johnnytorrance asked...
"Anyone know if there are going to be Certificates of Ownership for Guilds? Like being be able to change your guild name?"
Blizzard has said they have no plans to allow guild name changes. However I think this might eventually change since some guilds invest significant gold in owning bank slots, etc... But really, the whole guild interface needs an overhaul. Blizzard has mentioned this however as something they'd eventually like to work on. But don't expect it anytime soon.
Osi asked...
"'poopoo on him' What Alex, are you? 5?"
He's actually five and a half. He points that out every night in WoW Insider chat.
Matrim asked...
"So seriously, what's with all the Mt. Dew plugs? Do you guys get paid every time you say it?"
Mountain Dew is in no way sponsoring the numerous Mountain Dew references with Mountain Dew on this non-Mountain Dew affiliated page full of precarious Mountain Dew references. Mountain Dew.
Balius asked...
"So, as the authors of the article, are we killing your content by trying to be helpful, or are you perfectly happy re-answering questions that the commenters have already answered? I like being helpful, but I don't want to step on toes here."
Please continue to be helpful! We'll often choose a question that didn't get answered by folks, so everyone helping is greatly appreciated! And seriously, we love reading positive comments from people helping other people. It's much better than reading trolls and such.
You folks can also have different viewpoints than all of us writers, and we don't have all the answers. So often times you help us out too with insight into answers we might not have thought of. We give you credit in those cases too.
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, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 8)
Keyra Mar 19th 2009 1:50PM
They're not hiring at present :-(
Still, here's the link: http://www.wowinsider.com/lfm/
Falcio Mar 19th 2009 11:26AM
Ever think that they'll allow character copying to live servers? Like, if a person wanted to take their 80 to one server [maybe pure PVP], but keep it on the server it's at now for PVE? Or, for a more logical reasoning, putting their 80 on an RP server as well as the PVE/PVP server they're on now?
Mohrlock Mar 20th 2009 12:27AM
Something tells me this won't ever happen...
Take this for an example as to why;
Johnny Goldfarmer spends his time making his weeks worth of gold ready to sell to his market. Johnny decides he wants more profit so requests (possibly a paid service if you COULD do this) to have his character "copied" onto another, possibly several, realms.
Johnny then sells all his gear, clears his bank and then, using his head a little, rolls a new toon on the servers he had copies and transfers the gold to them. Then he transfers these new characters back to his original realm. Even at a fee, Johnny has just doubled/tripled/whatevered his profits in a matter of minutes/hours. You could keep bouncing this back and forth and you instantly have a completely & utterly ruined economy across numerous servers.
Under the same premise this could be used to get multiple (undeserved) server firsts by copying toons at 89, etc. Not to mention the downtime Blizz staff would have in doing this as I can imagine alot of people would want to do this if it were possible.
This is why they have paid character transfers. From experience from account to account these take roughly 24 hours (has for my toons so far) and as for server transfer it could possibly take up to a week. Character restoration also takes anywhere from 30 minutes up to 48 hours (from experience & dependant on how long it takes to get in contact with a GM/Blizz Support).
You can't run duplicates of toons unless you are willing to grind them through each and every level you have done & go get exactly the same gear. Closest you can get is getting your toon onto the PTR :) Sorry to burst you bubble hehe
ScytheNoire Mar 19th 2009 11:26AM
Did Blizzard ever actually remove the requirement for old instances, like Seal to get into UBRS or the Aquaquin for Molten Core, etc?
Jeremiel Mar 19th 2009 11:59AM
The Aqual Quintessences at least are no longer needed - the runes now 'douse' themselves automatically after you kill the associated boss.
Kemikalkadet Mar 19th 2009 12:05PM
You don't need the seal for UBRS, i soloed the place about half an hour ago.
zweitblom Mar 19th 2009 12:06PM
No attunement necessary anymore since 3.0.8 (http://www.wowwiki.com/Attunement)
Rob Mar 19th 2009 3:47PM
You still need attunements, but the items within the instance are not necessary. You need to run BRDs and do the MC attunement quest for example to get into MC*. The only attunement they lifted was for ony.
*If 2 people and a lock are attuned, you can summon a whole raid from inside the instance. This is the only way around attunment.
Aaron A. Mar 19th 2009 7:02PM
"You need to run BRDs and do the MC attunement quest for example to get into MC."
"Attunement to the Core" isn't really an attunement per se, where every member had to complete a certain quest chain in order to enter the instance. That sort of attunement has been, at least for now, eliminated.
The closest thing you'll find now is a locked door, which requires you to either (1) obtain the key through another dungeon drop or a quest chain, (2) procure the services of a sufficiently-talented lockpicker, or (3) wait for somebody else to open the door using methods 1 or 2, and walk in behind them; I don't think you even need to be in the same group.
The Molten Core "attunement" is more of a shortcut, so you don't have to run through BRD every time you want to get to the MC entrance. You can walk right into MC without turning in "Attunement to the Core."
chazzwozza Mar 19th 2009 11:27AM
I have the same problem with the unused toon thing - i dont mind too much not being able to move him to alliance, completely understand the reasons for that - but wouldnt it be fair to perhaps allow for players to "liquidate" high level toons in exchange for a proportion of the exp/gold etc that they ended up with on the disused char in exchange for the char being deleted?
I can see arguments against this, like for example being able to skip levels early on by transferring exp from a deleted char, but then they did something similar with death knights anyway, right?
Just a bit frustrating as i have a warrior from classic WoW/BC that i have over 2 months /played that i never use any more, and i'd really like to feel the effort i put in can be put to good use by boosting one of my alts slightly.
Elry Mar 19th 2009 12:51PM
This would be cool actually, like when your toons gain XP its added to an account total XP, and if you delete the a character, the amount that character had is still logged for your account and becomes usable for another character, so you can just use the XP to add levels to your new character with an option similar to the Recruit-a-Friend level giving.
I've pen&paper RPed a bit with friends, and when we had more than one toon in different campaigns at the same time our GM said that the XP we earnt could be used with either character. I know XP is supposed to represent the "experience" your toon has, but we decided that it should also go someway to representing the effort that we've put into playing those characters over extended times, and I think the same could be applied to WoW. Once you've played a Horde character and an Alliance character and got the Ambassador title for both, you pretty much know all the race quests there are, so its just dull to have to start a new toon at lvl 1 and go through everything you've already done again. The only issue would be learning new spells (rotations) and talents which, unless you've hidden inside the social version of a pally bubble for your entire WoW experience and not interacted with other classes in any way whatsoever, you should have some idea about already.
chazzwozza Mar 19th 2009 1:11PM
A further extension to that could be (if blizz want to keep the RP element to the game) that there is a quest chain you have to complete with your to-be-deleted char - that gives you access to an npc that has the power to impart your experience onto another individual (who happens to be another one of your chars), in exchange for permanent death. He gets a % of your gold for a fee, and the process isnt 100% efficient so you lose some of the exp that you were transfterring. You could cap it at 55 so that any toon recieving the exp couldnt go beyond that point (so they still have time to learn things properly and so then you wouldnt have loads of completely inexperienced lvl 80's around). You could then loot the "corpse" of your permanently dead char, and take anything from him that your particular faction can use.
You can only use this once every month for example, and the target char can only recieve the exp from one of your other chars in its entire lifespan.
Ccab Mar 19th 2009 11:32AM
how come you can fly in shattrath city but not in Dalaran?
Aggrajag Mar 19th 2009 11:42AM
^^ this. Times 100.
Hoggersbud Mar 19th 2009 11:46AM
Because the Naaru aren't bastards like the Kirin Tor.
Meh Mar 19th 2009 11:53AM
Do you remember Shattrah at it's busiest? 100's of people hanging around on their netherdrakes.
Now put this in Dalaran on top of the already horrible lag.
No Fly Zone in Dalaran is fine. What I don't understand is putting a no fly zone (Wintergrasp) in the middle of Northrend.
Sinthar Mar 19th 2009 12:15PM
TBH its a practical application imo. You cant fly because of all the extra packets of info that would need to be sent to everyone that can see you (well their PC's at least). Blizz DID anticipate that there could/would be lag issues in dalaran (or lagaran as i call it). With both sides packed into a single small city, the lag would be impossible to cope with if flying mounts were there too. Flying mounts take up much more space (computer wise) than ground ones (flapping wings animations etc), hence the no fly ban. Inconvienient, but not as inconvienient as d/c ing and not being able to get back in (on that toon) for a long time.
Rowan Mar 19th 2009 12:30PM
Not to mention Blizz had mentioned how they wanted Dalaran to actually feel like a city. They implied that Shattrath was cold (which it was) and didn't feel like a true capital city should.
That said, I dont think flying mounts would lend itself to the "city" feel. Shattrath was huge in comparison to Dalaran, so they could get away with flying mounts since they typically wouldnt be clustered.
With Dalaran as tiny as it is, I dont think we need hundreds of Proto-Drakes flying about a)lagging to high heaven and b)making it impossible to see 3 feet in front of you.
bundee Mar 19th 2009 4:46PM
I think the Lagaran explanation is fitting, but a serious cop out. This could be solved by making faction-specific cities again. I mean, they re-sparked the alliance vs. horde lore at various points of wrath, yet we still have to share this city?
Make Dalaran Alliance only and give us Horde a separate city. And ffs allow flying in both of them!
Erogroth Mar 19th 2009 11:30AM
I have asked this question in the past but I never got a solid answer. Though thank you to the readers of the Queue for trying to help.
My question is how exactly does item level work? From what I gather its almost like talent points for an item. So any item that is the same level should be about equal in how good it is. However often items of the same item level are no where near equal. So whats the deal?