The Queue: Patch 3.2 and Beyond the infinite
by Adam Holisky 
Jun 22nd 2009 at 11:00AM
Patch 3.2 is bringing about a lot of questions. Many cannot be answered yet, however we know the general direction of things from comments left by Ghostcrawler and others. I don't think that we have heard all the surprises in Patch 3.2, and we probably won't for a little bit.
So today's Queue questions are compiled from comments left around the site. Hopefully the answers will help clear some things up.
And today's reading music has two selections. One is Johann Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz, and the other is Pink Floyd's Great Gig in The Sky. They are connected, and have to do with today's content.
Jjbrophy111 asked...
"What will happen to saved Emblems of Heroism and Valor whit patch 3.2?"
They'll still be there and you can still use them to buy stuff. You will not see them disappear, you just won't be able to get any more of them except through Conquest trade-ins. Only Emblems of Conquest will drop now in Heroics/Naxx/Ulduar.
Firliey1 asked...
"Why would Blizzard want more people doing 5 man heroics? I consistently spend an hour in the evenings walking back and forth at entrances getting spammed with no more instances can be created at this time messages. Wouldn't more 5 mans just increase the wait times for instance creation?"
That's a very valid complaint. The current errors about instances being full are due to internal mechanisms in place at the Blizzard servers to keep those who are inside instances happy – if too many instances are launched on the Blizzard servers then things become overloaded and slowed way down. There were problems with this last year, in particular in the Sunwell Plateau, and it was just terrible. I'd rather not run an instance, or be locked out temporarly, than be forced to deal with that kind of lag.
Blizzard has said they have ideas how to fix it, but it's going to take awhile to implement.
I have to wonder if they'll have this solved by the time Patch 3.2 is released, however. Since Emblems of Conquest will drop from heroics with the patch 3.2 changes, they had to know this would increase the number of heroics ran. Something tells me we'll see this problem solved by then.
Many people asked...
"When is the PTR coming?"
I'd be very surprised if it didn't come online this week. There have been no announcements that it's up, however. And just because you can copy characters over doesn't mean you should – they are likely to be wiped and you might sacrifice a character copy or two. Wait until the PTR is up to copy your characters over.
Lots of people lamented...
"My guild isn't anywhere near done with Ulduar, why is Patch 3.2 going on the PTR already?"
Blizzard has wanted to decrease the time between content releases for a while. It seems that they're achieving their goal, although we'll have to wait and see exactly how long this takes. The way to think about your progress through Ulduar is like this: when you get done, you'll have something new to go on to right away. Farming the same content can and does get old very very quickly. Don't let the fact that there will soon be new content distract you from your current goal – let it just be something more to look forward to!
Phantom aksed...
"Does the new heroic distinction apply to Naxx?"
This question has to do with the line from the patch notes that states: "New raid Normal and Heroic modes for the Crusaders' Coliseum can be toggled using the Dungeon Difficulty setting. This applies to 10 and 25-player versions. 10-player (Normal), 25-player (Normal), 10-player (Heroic) and 25-player (Heroic) all share separate raid lockout timers."
This change will only apply to new content, unless Blizzard goes back and changes things significantly. I highly doubt they'll do that.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com 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 1 of 5)
Tumleren Jun 22nd 2009 11:07AM
Only the new dungeon will get the new, cool feautres of heroic mode etc., but other raid instances won't have 'heroic' modes anymore - They'll have 10 and 25-man versions.
It says in the patch notes, that they're not calling 25-mans heroic in 3.2, only the new dungeon's heroic versions are called heroic.
Nathanyel Jun 22nd 2009 12:30PM
A good change to the system imho. The system of heroic 5man dungeons was there earlier, and then was used for creating 10man and 25man versions of the same dungeons, dubbing 25man "heroic", though usually the only increase in difficulty was getting that many people together at the same time (plus some encounters/achievements that were harder mostly because there were more people to fail them)
Firestride Jun 22nd 2009 11:08AM
Wait, they're not going to convert our saved emblems up to Conquest?
Lasher Jun 22nd 2009 11:14AM
Why would you want that since you have to buy epic gems with EoH anyway ? :P
Retropally Jun 22nd 2009 11:14AM
Why would they do that with instances? To give everyone 5 slots worth of top tier items on day one...
Yeng Jun 22nd 2009 11:16AM
Heh, that'd be great for the 100s of worthless heroism/valor emblems I have.
Mordockk Jun 22nd 2009 11:18AM
If that were the case....everyone would just farm heroics right now and when the patch hit, we'd all be insta-geared.
Azhariel Jun 22nd 2009 11:55AM
@Retropally:
*Former top tier.
Robert M Jun 22nd 2009 11:56AM
I have something like 200 saved and just decided to level the alts until the patch because all those badges are worthless now and so are Heroics until you can get conquest badges.
The question is valid, as it seems stupid to tell everyone the change is coming, make the current badges even more useless than they are now, and then tell them that from now until patch day (if you have all badge gear you need/want) that all those heroics are even more useless because the only thing you will be buying with them are frozen orbs since the new epic gems will be coming out as well.
If the badges are all equal on patch day, it would make sense to convert them than to have countless players with inventories they are never going to exhaust.
Burix Jun 22nd 2009 12:10PM
They're not up-converting badges. Read the notes.
Bronwyn Jun 22nd 2009 7:32PM
@Robert- It is my understanding that they are adding new things to buy with EoH, and on top of that, since they don't take up a spot in your inventory, I don't see why having them is a problem.
Zach Jun 22nd 2009 1:17PM
It's a damn good thing they're not converting Heroisms to Conquest come 3.2, and anyone who believes otherwise needs to step back and actually consider how this would affect progression. Come 3.2, Heroics and old raids are becoming equivalent to Ulduar in terms of gear (at least for a few pieces). I have no problem with this, as they're releasing Tier 9 gear via the Coliseum.
If, however, they were to convert other badges to Conquests come 3.2, that would make Heroics and other raids equal to Ulduar now. People (including people who never even set foot in Ulduar) would just farm Heroics now for insta-226 gear when the patch drops. That's not progression, that's making early lvl 80 content equal to progression content, and that is not how this game works.
I think the 3.2 Emblem change (as it is now) is an excellent decision on Blizzard's part and will help alleviate some of the gear gap that new 80s find themselves facing around this time. Converting badges to Conquests would just be messed up though.
Croe Jun 22nd 2009 5:26PM
I note that many are saying the old emblems are useless now. Remember, you can always buy BoE bracers with the emblems of valor, and you can either sell them or give them to an alt or friend. They're still decent quality. You can use EoH to buy frozen orbs, which are still useful, especially for JCs.
Sparcrypt Jun 22nd 2009 7:30PM
Meh, the conquest changes aren't as big as everyone thinks.
I'm an average raider - ie, if you looked at me 2 months before ulduar came out I'd have mostly BiS, but nothing special now days. I have 1 piece of 8.5 I can't use due to set bonus issues but meh.
With the EoC becoming the standard, even if my 150 odd badges I have on me currently all got changed, I'd buy the 2 set pieces and that would be it - the rest are sidegrades even with the higher ilvl. The non-tier pants for instance have like 112 stamina on them.. I'm a rogue! I don't CARE about stamina and it's chewing up the item budget.
The other items in there are much the same. The EoC badge system is basically thus: if you can't get the upgrade any other way, it's better then nothing (minus the tier pieces of course)..
What it'll mostly do IMO is kill the market for runed orbs - sell all you have ASAP cause those things are going to drop down to 100g a piece within a month or 2 of 3.2... even if they don't, they sure won't be 1k+ anymore. Cash in while you still can!
Personally I'll just clear naxx 10 (3 hours, 15 badges), naxx 25 (4 hours, another 15), OS 10 and 25 (, VoA 10 and 25 and in the space of one week I'll have almost 40 badges just from raids.. run Gun'Drak and a couple other heroics with my raid (less then an hour per instance) for a few days and there's one set piece.. do it again next week, or just run the heroics a few more times and there's my second. Then I'll just run the daily heroic for the triumph badges to build up.
So yeah, it'll get me a bit more damage but it's nothing spectacularly game changing. Good move from blizz IMO.
gaston Jun 22nd 2009 11:12AM
no firestride.
Yeng Jun 22nd 2009 11:14AM
lulidiot
Dharmabhum Jun 22nd 2009 11:17AM
I
Dharmabhum Jun 22nd 2009 11:17AM
wow, lets stop cutting comments short.
I
Yeng Jun 22nd 2009 11:22AM
Stop trying to use angle brackets :D
Dharmabhum Jun 22nd 2009 11:18AM
please let this one go through, i'd like to be able to comment on things on this new site too.
I heart Floyd, and while I appreciate most any opportunity to listen to some, I completely missed the part where it was connected to what was going on today. Maybe I'm suffering from some brain damage from the wedding this weekend, or maybe everything under the sun is already in tune and my band is already playing a different tune... regardless, you may have made my morning :)