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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Cats rule, dogs drool
by Alex Ziebart 
Apr 21st 2009 at 5:00PM
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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Today's edition of The Queue will be pretty short and sweet. Many of the questions that were asked yesterday have since been answered in other places around the site, so I just went ahead and skimmed over those ones
to answer what hasn't been addressed already. Ready? Set? Let's go!
Becky asked...
"I may be wrong but it seems to me of all the in-game non-combat pets, there are no dogs but plenty of cats. What's with the lack of dogs? My mage wants a puppy."
You know, I can't ever recall seeing any dogs in Warcraft at all. The closest thing to dogs being kept as pets that we've witnessed are all wolves, worgs, or coyotes. We even get worg, wolf and coyote non-combat pets ourselves (not just NPCs), but nothing that's modeled like a domesticated dog. Maybe cats are easier to model somehow? Or the Blizzard devs are all cat people. I'm pretty okay with that. Cats > Dogs.
BooMsx asked...
"What were the plaguelands called before the plague?"
Lordaeron.
Crewdie asked...
"So I was looking at Wowwiki at all the Ulduar bosses and found a couple of names that seem familiar such as Freya (who has an avatar in Sholazar Basin). That one didn't really bug me as much as Hodir. I mean, shouldn't his sons be a little upset that we go around trying to beat him up in Ulduar? Or are his "sons" against him?"
The Watchers have all come under Yogg-Saron's influence. If you do the quests out in the Storm Peaks, the Watchers have all been twisted and turned against eachother via Yogg-Saron and Loken's treachery. When we fight Freya and Hodir and all of them in Ulduar, we're fighting Yogg-Saron's dark influence. By freeing the Watchers from Yogg-Saron's grasp, we're probably making the Sons of Hodir even happier with us than they ever were before.
Vaydos asked...
"Whatever happened to being able to confirm/save talent specs before finishing them? I know this was a nice feature I was looking forward to in 3.1"
This is in patch 3.1, but you need to turn the feature on. It's off by default. Go into your main menu, open up the Interface menu, then click Display. The option for it should be in that 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: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 7 of 7)
Balius Apr 22nd 2009 1:39AM
Those are hyena models.
Tisen Apr 22nd 2009 4:42AM
Not sure if this goes here but what the hell,
Do you know of a nice minimal addon that will show both hitpoints and percentages of a targets health for the standard Blizzard UI? All I can think of is Mobinfo but if I recall correctly that uses a far bit of memory.
rosencratz Apr 22nd 2009 5:18AM
Good question. I have the same problem. i want to see hitpoints rather than percentages on most targets but also want to know when mobs are below 35%/25% for certain abilities that recieve buffs at those times.
I believe i've heard of add-ons with names like "execute" or so that do such things but i've never actively gotten up and looked myself. :)
Evi Apr 22nd 2009 10:41AM
I wish I knew. The only way I've gotten around it is that I keep hitpoints up while my husband displays percentages. So when we're raiding together, someone always has both pieces of info. Not exactly a perfect solution.
birdtongue Apr 22nd 2009 1:27PM
if you're wanting just single-target information (as in, whatever you are currently selected on), you could look into a HUD. i use IceHUD, which is very configurable -- along with Lunarsphere, it composes my essential addons list.
got my HP and mana on the left, target on the right. castbars appropriately, and readout of both full numbers and percentages, which you can place at a decent range from the 'axis' of the HUD.
it can take a bit to get used to, but i prefer it to the other HUDs i've tried. lots of information available but optional, and you can choose its visibility at any point; it shows for me at 1/2 alpha when i'm selected on any target, and automagically pops to full alpha when in combat, but otherwise is invisible. makes for a very clean ui. current version zip is 628kb, written for Ace2.
link! http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/ice-hud.aspx
Axolotl Apr 22nd 2009 1:54AM
Everybody loves dogs, you can prepare them just like you prepare rabit (tastes a bit similar) and they're bigger than cats most of the time.
Ceixari Apr 22nd 2009 5:16AM
There is a dog (I think it's called Snap or Spot) with a doghouse in Theramore.
rosencratz Apr 22nd 2009 5:20AM
There are a few "dogs" and "hounds" in the game but what is absent is "dogs" that don't have the same models as wolves,worgs,hyenes,etc.
Although i think the Hyena model in certain skins is pretty doggy i think people are after more friendly dog shapes .
I kinda think Gluth is fairly dog-like.
Ceixari Apr 22nd 2009 5:31AM
Agreed, although quite a few mobs are named as either dogs or hounds they do share the hyena and wolf models.
I also find it a shame that there aren't dog/puppy companion pets. Maybe the Cat Lady near SW needs to find a boyfriend with a scrapyard :)
Abedabun Apr 22nd 2009 6:32AM
Haven't read all the comments, so this might already have been said.
There's a dog in Bloodhoof Village, with a quest to go with it.
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=11129
Abedabun Apr 22nd 2009 6:37AM
And having just read the Wowhead comments, it seems that the dog Kyle is based on Ezra Phoenix Chatterton's dog, and the questgiver voice was recorded by him before he passed away.
Yep, the 'dog' is still a wolf model, but the story behind this quest is worth reading.
rzlq Apr 22nd 2009 7:44AM
ever wondered why they didn't make the talent confirmation default? gosh, it's SUCH a relief.
Lianne Apr 22nd 2009 8:26AM
This same Cat Vs Dog argument is going on over at Kotaku today as well. :P
Cats put the awesome in awesomesauce.
'Nuff said. =P
furry Apr 22nd 2009 8:52AM
What about Fei Fei! He's Warrant Officer Tracy Proudwell's pet dog and loves eating treats and burying beads (in Honor Hold)
(http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=20206)
WAP Apr 22nd 2009 10:06AM
So I've heard that there's a way to expand the size of the Blizzard Quest Tracker layout that was introduced in 3.1, so that you can see more than just "Zombies Killed 1/....", but I can't figure it out.
birdtongue Apr 22nd 2009 1:12PM
mouseover the quest tracker; a bar should appear at the top. right-click on the bar to pull up a context menu, 'unlock' it, and then just grab a corner to resize.
you can also make it "clickthrough" by going into the game menu under the 'achievement tracker' tab (iirc), and disabling mouseover.
bszota Apr 22nd 2009 10:09AM
i cant find any recommended resto shaman healer stats for going into ulduar... any idea where to find a guide, or is too soon to say?
i also HATE the fact that people only ever want "experienced" people for raids: the only way i got to master naxx was by being the raid leader for a PUG... no one asked me for my achievement! Am i going to have to do the same for ulduar?
Metle Apr 22nd 2009 11:15AM
GL with pugging Ulduar :)
Ryan Smith Apr 22nd 2009 2:55PM
My main spec on my druid has been balance for a while, but before that, I was a feral tank. I've always had tanking gear on me in case I need to respec. Now that duel specs are active, I've been asked to tank more often. My question is, with the new Savage Defense buff that bears get, do I need to start stacking crit on my tanking gear? I've always stacked stamina and agility, but this new change confuses me a little.
Thanks,
Janubris
Zelius Apr 23rd 2009 12:10PM
I wouldn't worry about it too much. You'll get plenty of crit just by stacking agility.