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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Simple things
by Alex Ziebart 
Aug 13th 2009 at 5:00PM
Today is a day of, apparently, quick questions and quick answers. Most of the questions asked were fairly straightforward and not particularly involved. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is really up to you, but it is what it is: simple. I planned to embed a cartoon at the top of this video, but the aspect ratio made it gigantic if I used our standard width, so there's a link instead.
whalt asked...
"Any idea if prior season PvP weapons will ever be available from honor/arena points and not require an arena rating like the old Glad weapons were back in BC?"
I don't think we've heard anything about this, so I think you'll need to wait for Blizzard commentary on that over on the official forums. If I had to guess, if they haven't been doing it for previous seasons, they won't do it for this one. Seems they like the weapons being a little more "out of reach" during this expansion.
Soryne asked...
"...What IS attack power? I cannot find an answer anywhere."
I don't think the comments section yesterday linked Wowwiki nearly enough, so here's a link! A very, very basic explanation of the stat is that it makes melee physical attacks hit harder. Follow the Wowwiki link for a more detailed explanation.
mrs_carth_onasi asked...
"Why is Lady Sylvanas's new voice less menacing and more cute? It really is awful. I want the old voice over back!"
If I had to guess, I'd say they changed her voice in Undercity because they're doing additional voice work for her later on in the expansion. If they couldn't get her original voice actor back to do the new lines, they would go back with the new voice actor to make the old lines match the new ones. It's unfortunate, because Sylvanas's old voice actor was pretty awesome. There's something to be said for consistency though.
peagle asked...
"How about any word on fixing Tuesday lag on XT-002? Every Tuesday same wretched lag during hard mode..."
I have never experienced this, so I wouldn't even know where to look on comments about it. Readers, have you experienced this?
Chaosclaws asked...
"When a person gets to the "last" boss in ToC, they discover that the Black Knight has crashed the party. If he didn't "crash" it, who would have the final boss in ToC? I was thinking that maybe the Death Knight champion might have been the final boss due to the fact we don't fight any DKs for dailies or even in the first fight in ToC. I think also because it could be a "lets practice fighting an old Lich King minion for experience."
Eadric and/or Paletress was the last challenge. After you beat them, those in charge of the Trial start to congratulate you on winning, and are about to send you on your way. That was it. Two rounds, good game, you win, go home. The Black Knight showing up extends it. If he didn't show up, that would have been the end of it.
Briory asked...
"Has there been any word on when the faction changes will be available?"
None. And there were a lot of other faction change questions for this edition of The Queue as well, but I'll hit them all at the same time as this one: We cannot answer most of them until Blizzard opens the service up to the public or posts a more in-depth Q&A on it. The WoW.com team doesn't know any more about that particular service than what Blizzard has already told us, and that isn't much.
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 2 of 6)
Fizz Aug 13th 2009 9:04PM
All you can do is equip a PVE weapon. Unfortunately Blizz have tailored arena rewards to benefit those who already have gear and rating. Reminds me of a tell i saw in trade the other day. 'LFM geared people to deny people without gear from getting any gear.'
Viper007Bond Aug 13th 2009 5:20PM
We were doing XT hard mode (25) last night (Wed) and the lag was rediculous on Gnomer.
Wyred Aug 14th 2009 5:03AM
Weirdly I experienced this on XT last time I was in Uld. At the time I assumed it was a random lag-spike, but the rest of the instance was fine. So, not only have they fixed the trash spawn exploit, they've buffed his lag. Evil.
Gossamer Aug 13th 2009 5:25PM
I had some guildies tell me yesterday that if I group up while farming the mechanicals in Storm Peaks for the Jeeves schematic (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49050) that it has a higher drop rate. Not that it'll drop more quickly with two people farming, but that if I group up with some one standing around in Dalaran, for example, that the mobs I kill will drop the schematic more often. I can't imagine this is true, but I can't find anything to prove otherwise. Are my guildies correct? Is there anything else that drops more often if you group up?
Tori Aug 13th 2009 5:29PM
I have no idea on the validity of this, but I'm equally curious if anyone knows more details. If it was true I guess the drop rate incorporates how many are in your party and increases the percentage accordingly? That seems doubtful though...
PvtDeth Aug 13th 2009 5:35PM
I'm about 99% sure this is incorrect, but I, of course, have no way to prove it.
Nathanyel Aug 13th 2009 5:51PM
Not very likely, not even when you're both Engineers and farming together.
Fung Aug 13th 2009 7:05PM
i'm going to guess he's referring to the fact that you can "skin" mechanicals that you didn't personally kill, but have been looted. when i went to farm mine, i noticed a mage running around killing everything but not skinning. so i found a spot and afk'd to read some webpages, and came back every few minutes to skin all that he had left.
Amak Aug 13th 2009 10:08PM
Except quest item drops (which have a higher drop rate the more kills that don't drop it) other loot on a mob is determined when the mob is spawned. Voodoo dances to improve drop rates don't work.
Edge Aug 13th 2009 5:29PM
Wait you say attack power affects only melee, but doesn't it also affect ranged attacks from a hunter. I think a better way to say it is that it affects physical damage...maybe? I don't know if there are physical spells/talents not affected by it.
crschmidt Aug 13th 2009 5:36PM
Yep. As usual, people forget that there are physical, non-melee attacks :) (Not that this is localized to wow.com -- As anyone reading the comments to http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40684 can tell.)
AP affects damage done by physical attacks - melee or ranged.
Smapdor Aug 13th 2009 5:31PM
There are 3 historical scenarios that can be found in Yogg-Saron's "brain room". These are events that it is suggested that he has influenced.
1. The forging of the Dragon Soul.
2. The assassination of King Llane Wrynn.
3. Something in the Shadow Vault (or a room just like it).
What is the Shadow Vault event? I would guess that it is something as important lore-wise as the first two, but I have no idea.
Nathanyel Aug 13th 2009 5:57PM
It show the Lich King torturing a human (though probably already undead) prisoner, the Immolated Champion http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=33442
LK says "I will break you... like I broke him" and another NPC walks up, an Orc DK Turned Champion http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=33962
These champions are believed to be Bolvar Fordragon and Saurfang the Younger, who both fell at the Wrathgate. Though the red dragons cleansed the place with fire shortly after, the Lich King could've retrieved the bodies, and he already has Saurfang's soul, as he killed him with Frostmourne, so the Orc body could be a "replacement".
Smapdor Aug 13th 2009 6:32PM
Thanks!
SeanOr101 Aug 13th 2009 5:31PM
Peagle is crazy. Tuesday Lag only on XT? riiiiight...
Either its your computer or a convenient excuse as to why you can't kill that heart in time.
Sinzaram Aug 13th 2009 5:33PM
I recently ordered the $40.00 Internet stream for viewing Blizzcon, however I couldn't find where I was supposed to actually view it when Blizzcon comes around. Could the Queue, in it's infinite knowledge and handsome, God-like writer please tell me where I view the stream?
Thanks!
PvtDeth Aug 13th 2009 5:34PM
I wonder what the AP guy meant by "anywhere." If you put "Attack Power" into google, the first thing to come up is a certain well linked wowwiki page.
I always think it's funny when you search for terms that are well-known in real life, like Recount or Auctioneer, and the first thing to come up is a wow-related page. AP isn't quite the same, but it just shows how widespread our little hobby is.
kia Aug 13th 2009 9:21PM
I did read once that when you combine all the WoW-related searches together, it's the number-one most searched for topic on Google, even winning out over porn searches.
I had a giggle yesterday when I searched for Talented (the addon) on Google, and it was the second highest result, the only higher result being a journal for gifted and talented students.
Ian R. (Orkchop) Aug 13th 2009 5:49PM
What's the difference between a Contributing Editor and a Columnist?
And how come everyone at WoW.com seems to be a type of Editor and no one is a Writer? Is there that much editing that needs to be done?
Alex Ziebart Aug 13th 2009 5:58PM
I'll field this one right away:
Columnists generally only write their specific columns. For example, Christian Belt only writes the Mage column. Sometimes we have them do other things on patch days, like gather up all of the information essential to their particular class, but generally they only write their columns.
Contributing editors are most of our bloggers/writers. "Contributing editor" is a better description of what they do. They don't just write something and hand it off to someone else. It's a lot more involved. Proofing your own work, doing the formatting, image editing, HTML work, etc necessary for a post. "Writer" doesn't really describe what any of us here do. It's more involved than that. If you've spent an hour writing a post, you're probably going to spend another half hour making sure it looks right. Though sometimes things still do slip through.
The various editor ranks above that do... more. A checklist of what those things are would be incredibly long, and also incredibly boring probably. : )