Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: The holy cow it's a crab edition
by Alex Ziebart 
Jun 26th 2009 at 11:00AM
Half of our questions today are actually about WoW.com rather than... you know, WoW itself. Which is odd, but am I going to complain? Not really! It means you guys care, and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Well, I guess that could be food poisoning. My crab rangoons were a little odd last night. Oddly delicious.
Of course, if you don't really give a hoot about the inner workings of WoW.com and strictly want questions about the game, the other half of our questions cover that, so we have things for you, too. Read on!
brasilnut13 asked...
"Do you think Blizz will ever put class related titles in the game?"
I like to think that they would, because they were very close to doing it for Wrath of the Lich King. Problem was, they chose a fairly poor implementation for it so they scrapped it. They gave you a title for hitting level 80 first on your server, according to your race and class. So for example, the server first level 80 Priest would get the title of Prophet. If they were also the server first Human, they would gain the title of Lion Hearted. They were all really awesome titles, but the way they were being given out was just silly. I can't say for sure they will bring them back in some way, but I like to think that they will.
Bringing those titles back in a much easier to acquire capacity would be awesome.
Remen asked...
"Are you guys going to bring back the Build Shop column?"
Maybe, maybe not. It's not a column we've talked about very much recently. When there are big sweeping changes to talent trees that justify a column dedicated to talent builds, a good place for them is probably in their respective class columns. If players aren't looking for cookie cutter builds (which should be found somewhere on our site already), they probably should tailor them to their own purposes, rather than us cobbling together odd and quirky things just for the sake of cobbling together odd and quirky things.
That being said, it might come back one day. If we think there's a gap in our content that we can fill, we'll always try to fill it. We have no plans for it right this second, but that could easily change. We might change our minds about it tomorrow. Who knows?
Everyone that has ever existed asked...
"What every happened to that Turpen guy?"
Patch 3.2 happened. I still plan to do Choose My Adventure and get Turpen to level 80, but all of the patch 3.2 news derailed me. When patch-related things roll around, I tend to not play much WoW unless it's the PTR. So I haven't had a ton of time to actually level a character recently, I've been doing a lot of other work. Alts are pretty low priority right now, even ones that I'm supposed to be writing about.
That being said, Turpen is level 35 and has been for awhile, so you'll see an update in the near future. The process has just slowed significantly for the last couple of weeks, and will probably continue to be slow for a couple more.
Lorsty asked...
"What are the chances of having Mr. Garrosh "I hate everyone rawr, rawr, rawr" Hellscream being the mysterious final boss in the Coliseum? I mean, before WotLK was released he actually dueled Thrall, the very leader of the Horde, because Thrall didn't want to go all-war with the Alliance. Then the Lich King interrupted them, blah, blah. Oh great ones, in all your might and glory, do you think it's a possibility?"
I don't want to slamdunk spoilers all up in yo' grill, but no, it's not Garrosh. At least not in the raid. Garrosh is at the Tournament on the PTR, though. Garrosh, Thrall, Varian, and Jaina are all in attendance. What are they doing there? We have no idea. They might participate in the tournament, but none of them are the last boss of the raid. Well, probably. I guess we don't really know, but we're like 99% sure.
MOPAP asked...
"Do we know what the cost of buying the new 3.2 Jewelcrafting designs are going to be?"
The epic cuts seem to cost 5 tokens each, and there are a lot of cuts. If you're in a big guild, especially a raiding guild, I would consider coordinating purchases among your Jewelcrafters to maximize which cuts you have available. Unless you've been stockpiling your Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Tokens, of course. Then do whatever you want!
dfsnow asked...
"Despite the urging of my guildies, I just can't make myself do the Argent Crusade quests. First, I suck at jousting, and second, I find them boring. I could handle one or the other, but not both. So here's my question: is there any raid or instance that I will miss out on if I don't do this grind? It's clear that the new stuff is related lore-wise, but I want to make sure I'm not screwing myself out of something that is game-related, such as keys or such."
As far as I know, you won't get locked out of the new instance/raid for not having Crusader or whatever else. You're fine there. You will get locked out of some items and quests, though. You need the Crusader title to access some of the new items from the Argent Tournament, and you need Exalted with the Sunreavers (or Silver Covenant if you're Horde Alliance, silly typos) to access a set of new daily quests. Both of those things are gained through the Tournament dailies. I just sucked it up and pushed for Exalted and Crusader for those two goals, so you might want to consider doing the same.
If you don't care about the new quests or new items, don't worry about it. If you want them, time to joust.
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!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 7)
Robert M Jun 26th 2009 11:55AM
This may be a lore question, but I’ll ask here anyway.
After WotLK, Arthas will ideally be gone. What happens to anything currently under his control, or those people and players who draw their existence from his power like the Forsaken and DKs?
Free will or not, if your very existence is dependant on the power drawn from a source like the Lich King, are you then able to survive when he is gone?
Aarkan Jun 26th 2009 12:01PM
Freed undead like Death Knights and Forsaken do not draw their power from the Lich King, they were merely created and controlled by him but they've broken that control. Most of the other undead that he is controlling will probably just be mindless or taken control of by the stronger undead that can think.
Robert M Jun 26th 2009 12:15PM
I don’t knot that you are completely correct. What greater reward is there for any of the Forsaken, especially Sylvanas, than to be free of the curse and allowed to die in peace?
Is it only her need to see him dead that drives her and prevents her from dying in peace? Probably not, theres part of her and the other forsaken who though free are still empowered by his very existence.
Cyrus Jun 26th 2009 12:21PM
Arthas being gone (whatever "gone" means - maybe permadead, maybe banished from his current human form but still floating around as a malicious spirit, maybe just escaping through a secret passage in his citadel after a raid beats him like any Evil Overlord) will probably have the same effect on the game world as Illidan being killed and Kil'Jaeden being driven back: nothing.
The Lich King isn't the source of all undead in WoW. There are draenei and orc and bird-men ghosts running around Outland, and the Lich King hasn't been there since he became the Lich King. There are all those highborne ghosts in Kalimdor that predate him by thousands of years. His plague might keep going after he's destroyed, we don't know. But whatever unholy power keeps the Forsaken and death knights walking around, it doesn't continually draw from him.
Cyrus Jun 26th 2009 12:23PM
"I don’t knot that you are completely correct. What greater reward is there for any of the Forsaken, especially Sylvanas, than to be free of the curse and allowed to die in peace?"
Reward? Well, what does that have to do with anything? Lots of people deserve a reward that they don't get.
Neirin Jun 26th 2009 3:28PM
In all likelihood, nothing much would happen. Ner'zhul, the actual lich king who is sorta possessing Arthas, is next to immortal and isn't going anywhere just because of our actions (if Kil'Jaeden couldn't do it, we can't either).
People like the Forsaken and Death Knights aren't reliant on Arthas in any way, in fact, you'll notice in the Wrathgate cinematic that Putris is actually kind of insane when it comes to killing Arthas, he really doesn't care if other people are in the way. Similarly, The Knights of the Ebon Blade basically defines themselves as an order dedicated to the death of Arthas. I doubt they'd be able to get that sort of zealous following if death (again) awaited them at the end of the road.
Also, try telling all those players playing DKs or Undead that they have to reroll after Icecrown has been cleared. From a game mechanic standpoint, it would never happen.
Mordockk Jun 26th 2009 12:03PM
Has anyone ever thought of this. The Argent Tournament Area is a decent size but there's a lot of stuff going on.(i.e. several jousting circles, tents, quest givers, stables, vendors...etc) all in one place that I feel is relatively cluttered already ... so here's my question....
Is the Crusader Collisseum going to be one humongous cluster f*ck?
After my i.e. list above theyre going to just drop a summoning stone right and instance right in the middle of all that?
Think about everyone gathering to do dailies, pug 5 man, pug 10 man, guild 10 mans and 25 mans, running round on their horses jousting stuff. HOLY SH*T balls there is going to be so many people there! it'll be worse then six flags water park on a hot day.
Are they expanding the geographical area of the map? Seems necessary.
Aarkan Jun 26th 2009 11:59AM
The issue with Jousting and other vehicle fights is that WoW has a HUGE amount of non-gamers who can't adjust to those quick movements or anything. People who have never picked up a FPS or played a late level in a Mario game. I have absolutely no trouble with jousting and wreck all four champions usually only having to heal once, Valiant's were a joke.
I don't mean to be insulting but this is a game and I love the vehicles and gimmicks that give me a break from mangle spamming every mob. BC bombing runs were some of my favorite things so I loved the two rounds of it on Quel'danas. I'm burnt out on the Tournament now cause I did it for like two and a half months straight without missing a day. However, the Jousting is not an issue and I really hope they expand on it in 3.2
Can a Paladin throw up flame resist aura for me?
Robert M Jun 26th 2009 12:55PM
HALO for the jousting win!
Jack Spicer Jun 26th 2009 12:01PM
Can you enchant the heirloom shoulders? I heard that the ZG shoulder enchants would work, but aren't those class specific?
Cyrus Jun 26th 2009 12:14PM
For the purpose of item enhancements, they are considered level 1. This means that vanilla WoW enchants and enhancements can be used on them, but nothing from BC or WotLK. As for the ZG shoulder enchants, I understand (haven't tried this and I'm not looking it up right now, but it's what I remember reading) that the enchants can be used, but will not be active if worn by a character below level 60.
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Jun 26th 2009 6:33PM
This has since been changed.
In a recent patch (I wanna say 3.1.2) you can now put any enchant on heirloom items, BUT the enchant only takes effect if YOU meet the level requirement.
Robert M Jun 26th 2009 12:08PM
I know I always see a post here or there on wow.com about vanilla servers.
My question is how much does 20 levels really alter MC if you are only in pre-tbc gear. All the spells won’t be propped up by what has gotten to be out of control spellpowers, attack powers, and health pools. Why are the hardcore vanilla raiders so against leveling. We know the game isn’t even balanced around level 60 anymore, so would it actually hurt them to engage in encounters in MC and BWL if there epics all came from vanilla WoW if they are all level 80?
Kylenne Jun 26th 2009 12:40PM
I'm not a vanilla only proponent by any means, but the flaw with your logic is that you seriously underestimate the impact of having all those extra talent points to use, as well as the spells and abilities gained at 70 and beyond in particular. Remember also that not every spec is extremely reliant on gear. Those extra levels mean a world of difference in power levels that gear is utterly irrelevant to.
Robert M Jun 26th 2009 12:52PM
Great point about the talents, so don't allow anyone to spend any points after level 60. With dual specs, this could be done fairly easily.
What class and specs are not gear dependant? This is a question inclusive and independant of the current thread.
impurezero Jun 26th 2009 1:59PM
I think the main point is just trying to keep it as close to "pure" as possible.
I'm currently level 62, and wish I could roll back to 60 once this "no xp" option goes live. Even being level 80 with no BC/Wrath gear is still going to give you some amount of increased stats just from the leveling. Sure...not as much as the Wrath gear stats would give you, but...you get my drift.
Kylenne Jun 26th 2009 6:56PM
I'll use mages for an example, since that's what I'm most familiar with. Certain mage specs really don't take off in terms of DPS until you get geared, because of the way their proc-based mechanics work (I'm specifically thinking of FFB). But Frost mages can put out some very good, respectable numbers compared to other freshly dinged 80s in average quest greens and blues. I pummeled FFB, Fire, and Arcane mages wearing similar gear as me (T4/Kara/ZA) on DPS charts in five mans with my old Frostie main. It's because the Frost tree is much less dependent on crit-triggered procs and the like for DPS. The thing is, that bites us in the ass once we start leaving heroics because it means our abilities do not scale very well as we get better gear. At the point we're hitting our theoretical ceiling, the other specs are picking up steam and we get left in the proverbial dust.
This isn't to say that gear never matters, or that all specs don't benefit from having better gear. I'm just saying that gear matters a lot more to some specs than others.
Dreadmaker Jun 26th 2009 12:11PM
This may or may not be something to ask here, but I'm stumped.
I'm starting more and more to design UIs for myself, and while I think I have lots of good tools, I'm missing one thing: an addon that I can create and move individual buttons with... I'm told flexbar is the way, but seeing how it's last version was live in 2.4.3, doesn't really work. I've also tried macaroon, which is probably the most confusing addon on the face of the planet.
Could you give me a hand?
DM7000 Jun 26th 2009 12:25PM
Aside from the Argent Tournament, what is another way to raise rep with home cities? I mean I've done some of the low level quests and I'm still at most revered with my main faction (TB since I'm a tauren) everything else is honored...Any tips or anything, I really want the crusader title.
Cyrus Jun 26th 2009 12:31PM
You can go do all the low-level quests. All faction cities are linked, so reputation with any one will give a little bit of spillover to all the rest too. In addition to all the quests in the starting zones, there may be quests scattered here and there, especially in leveling instances, that give rep. Try searching on wowhead.com. Also, all cities have repeatable quests to turn in runecloth (available after you've turned in wool, silk and mageweave) for rep.