Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Tooth explosion
by Alex Ziebart 
Nov 5th 2009 at 4:00PM
Today's edition of The Queue is gifted to you by my horrifying toothache that has kept me awake at ridiculous times of the day for the past week. You can thank the toothache for this article, because otherwise I may have done something healthy instead, such as sleep.
Mordockk asked...
"Is Quel'Delar going to be a Legendary weapon? If so, does that mean there is going to be two Legendary weapons next patch?"
Just like Quel'Delar's stats, this is something we don't really know. My gut says no, it won't be a Legendary, but it's not something I can say with absolute certainty. Blizzard has surprised us before, and they'll continue to surprise us. Still, I'm going to guess Quel'Delar and its partner items will be epics, not legendaries.
Mordockk also asked...
"How many people actually made the mace from Ulduar? We started giving the shards to one healer who took an extended break, then started giving them to another and now we have 3 healers with 10+ shards."
I don't have any solid numbers to give you, but from what I've seen, most guilds that clear 25-man Ulduar regularly have at least one. If they don't have one, they're incredibly closing to having one, within a few shards. If you didn't run into that awful healer situation there, you guys would have one, too.
Guilds that have only just now started clearing Ulduar? Yeah, they have awhile to go yet.
Tim said...
"WoW.com should start the About the Bloggers segment back up."
I'll talk to the bosslady about it, but I can't make any promises. As a writer, I really enjoyed those, but historically they had so-so reception with the exception of Matt Rossi's burly chest. We're a much larger site now though, so maybe second time's the charm.
Revan asked...
"Is it safe to say that we will be seeing the new Council of Tirisfal in Cataclysm?"
I believe that at BlizzCon, it was mentioned that they would be a faction in Cataclysm, one of the big dogs trying to repair Azeroth after Deathwing screws things up.
Uncertainty asked...
"What's up with the lack of PvP knowledge/awareness on wow.com? I think about 90% of the columnists on WoW.com have said on the show that they don't participate in arenas."
This is something we've been trying to do better lately. The people on our staff who don't like to arena and probably won't be convinced otherwise, but there are a number of people on the team that do enjoy PVP, and we have a number of PVP features we're trying to produce more regularly.
We have The Colosseum, which is being covered by Michael Gray and C. Christian Moore, which interviews high ranked arena players. However, those depend somewhat on actually being able to contact the people we want to talk to, and when the only contact information you have is their character name, that can be difficult. A lot of people that get in-game mail from us think it's yet another phishing scam. Understandable, but bothersome. Lately we've been trying another approach in addition to that: If you know somebody (or are somebody) that is an exceptional player in the arena and they/you want to be interview, contact Michael Gray at the email address gray AT wow DOT com. We won't necessarily interview everyone that mails in, but we'll look at and consider them all.
On top of that, Zach Yonzon will be continuing The Art of War(craft) which is a Battleground (and world PvP) based column. C. Christian Moore, a highly rated arena play himself, was also brought on board to write Blood Sport, our arena-based column. We're pushing for these to happen more regularly, so hopefully they will!
And now I go and try to get some sleep again. Fare thee well, WoW.com. Wish me luck.
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, Battlegrounds, Arena, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
stefanovick Nov 5th 2009 6:06PM
Does no one proofread anymore?
'If they don't have one, they're incredibly closing to having one, within a few shards.'
'The people on our staff who don't like to arena and probably won't be convinced otherwise, but there are a number of people on the team that do enjoy PVP, and we have a number of PVP features we're trying to produce more regularly.'
Neirin Nov 5th 2009 7:27PM
The Queue is a much more informal column than their others and is produced at a much faster rate than their other features, so errors are simply going to happen. While I'm sure they appreciate the grammar checks, I don't think your opening statement was necessary.
Ed Nov 5th 2009 6:17PM
The Wyrmrest Crusade!
Shade Nov 5th 2009 6:24PM
Is there a map out there, somewhere, of what Azeroth looked like BEFORE the Sundering? I searched high and low for an official one, but I came up completely empty on that front and I ended up just cobbling one together for use in my blog.
Nawaf Nov 6th 2009 1:00AM
There is no map for pre-sundering Kalimdor. Why would blizzard need to make one anyway? Just cover everywhere between continents and islands, write well of eternity where the malestorm is, and there you have it.
Shade Nov 6th 2009 1:07AM
@Nawaf ...because it would be interesting to see? I don't think from a logical standpoint that the land masses would just be land in the middle, I imagine the continents were connected at one point and literally blew apart.
At any rate, it was a question, and I don't think it's really an out-there one. I fashioned one here - http://greyshades.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/azeroth-pre-sundering-a-visual-guide/
But I really doubt it's 'accurate', from a lore standpoint. ...what can I say, these sorts of things interest me. I would've figured since the Sundering was a 'big' event that they'd have a map squirreled away somewhere.
elstor Nov 5th 2009 6:26PM
Question: I canceled my WoW account for money reasons, but I'm considering coming back. If I come back by Novemeber 11th will I get Mr. Chilly? I already have a Battle.net account.
peagle Nov 5th 2009 7:56PM
If you had already merged your account, Mr. Chilly will already be waiting in your mailbox when you reactivate and log in. Everyone who had already merged got one as soon as they announced it.
theleoflower Nov 5th 2009 6:47PM
One thing I've been wondering, are they any clues/hints toward whether or not Outlands or Northrend will be affected by the Cataclysmic changes coming in 4.0?
Nawaf Nov 6th 2009 12:47AM
As said in Blizzcon, Northrend will get very few changes to it. As for Outlands, Metzen said in the forums that it won't change a bit. How can it change anyway? Maybe if the blasted lands get giant tsunamis, some of the water will pass through the dark portal.
Midas Nov 5th 2009 6:46PM
"What's up with the lack of PvP knowledge/awareness on wow.com? I think about 90% of the columnists on WoW.com have said on the show that they don't participate in arenas."
Simple, really. PVP is a tacked-on afterthought to the game of WoW. honor wasn't even implemented until halfway through vanilla's life cycle, BGs after that, and the whole thing was totally revamped for TBC, with the abomination that is arena thrown in for good measure. Arena has forced the homogenization of classes to such as extent that very few feel unique anymore, and player abilities conceived for 40man raiding teams are being nerfed left and right because if how they scale in a 3v3 fight. Whole specs and play styles have been removed or irrevocably altered in the name of "PvP Balance".
And for what? To play capture the flag? To attract the Counterstrike circle-strafers?
The real game in WoW is PVE dungeons and raiding, it always has been, and WoW.com is right to focus on it.
rosencratz Nov 6th 2009 5:00AM
Woah! Thanks Midas!
I thought there was more than one way to have fun in this game but you totally boiled it down logically to a point where it's now 100% clear that only the way YOU play is how WoW is meant to be played.
We should upgrade you from Midas and dub you Ozymandias, King of Kings!
Distinct, Rp, PvP and PvE servers should all be removed and replaced with "Midas" servers, why have second class realms when you can have realms made of pure concentrated gold right?
Thanks again for explaining what the real game is because i don't know a single person who enjoys just the levellinig process, the vanity items, the professions, the bg's, the arena's, roleplaying, duelling, exploring, lore, the auction house, helping out noobs, running guilds, stocking guilds, organising realm events or just socialising... etc. And if anyone like that does exist they're just wrong right? it's totally ALL about dungeons and raids... it's totally all about you!
... Idiot!
You conveniently fail to mention that PvP realms pre-date the honor system and the BG patch to the point of conception, PvP was planned from the start just as much as expansion packs were. I don't like arenas or battlegrounds too much tbh but from your post i like YOU far less.
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Nov 6th 2009 8:02AM
"PVP" was supposed to be "world PVP" originally--then you had BGs, honor, and arena. If you didn't want to (world) PVP, you went on a Normal realm.
Midas Nov 6th 2009 11:58AM
@ Rosencratz
First, if we're going off screen names, aren't you dead?
Regardless, way to totally over-react to a rant. It's an MMO, people are free to enjoy it however they want. I'd like to point out that:
...the levellinig process, the vanity items, the professions, the bg's, the arena's, roleplaying, duelling, exploring, lore, the auction house, helping out noobs, running guilds, stocking guilds, organising realm events or just socialising...
with the exception of the obvious pvp things in that list, they are all part of the normal pve progression. You do dungeons to level, and to get vanity items often, and many professions revolve around dungeon drops, do you get many dragonscales or frostweave cloth in arenas? Exploration is a huge part of the pve experience, and can be directly degraded by pvp griefing. Lore IS raiding and dungeons, that's where the story happens. And also, no matter how many guild events you run, it's unlikely that lay on hands will be nerfed because of it, just for an example.
World PvP has a place in the game, even though I choose not to play on a pvp server, I can certainly see the appeal for those who wish to. And the later BGs, even, and Wintergrasp are all much more in the sense of large scale war and fit thematically with the rest of the game. But Capture the flag? How is that thematic? And I know they shoehorned in a gladiator's pit fighting league or whatever, but it really doesn't jive with the ongoing story of WoW, it's totally ancillary.
But when my enjoyment of the game that I pay to play is impacted by changes made to "balance" classes for a play style I don't participate in and is incredibly ephemeral, it irks me. Really irks me.
JR Nov 5th 2009 6:58PM
"I don't have any solid numbers to give you, but from what I've seen, most guilds that clear 25-man Ulduar regularly have at least one. If they don't have one, they're incredibly closing to having one, within a few shards. If you didn't run into that awful healer situation there, you guys would have one, too."
My guild has been very unlucky with these mace fragments. What happened is, someone would be chosen as the official Valanyr collector and then, after collecting some fragments, that person would have to stop playing for some reason. This happened FOUR times in a row. And our 5th designated Valanyr wielder may well leave the guild soon because of other stuff happening. I firmly believe that mace is cursed.
And now a question: How many votes does it take for one of these comments to become a three-star comment? And how many for it to drop to one star?
Hesh Nov 5th 2009 7:12PM
but... wat about the trade trolls?/
Mort Nov 5th 2009 7:34PM
What part is "embarrasing to the lore" about the Sunwalkers? The Sunwalkers are a faction of Tauren Druids who are fed up with modern Druidism only being about Night Elven moon worship, who decide to take matters into their own hands and start focusing on the power of the sun, they way the Earth mother has taught them.
There is no precedence in current lore for Sunwalkers existing, because they're a brand new faction of sun worshiping warriors and healers (I'm assuming that Tauren Priests will be walking the same path as the Paladins). It's a schism in the Druidic orders; A group of tauren revolving agains the fact that Druids today are solely utilizing the power of the moon (Elune, or Mu'sha, the left eye of the Earth Mother), and have completely foregone the second eye of the Earth Mother, the sun (An'she, the right eye), when the first Tauren Druids were taught to balance the two powers.
@Neirin
I'd forgotten about the new wings they'd announced for BWL, but the whole "Ragnaros moving homes" ordeal was one of the things that made me worry about the fate of Molten Core. Let's hope they do decide to keep it, or atleast give us a heads up if they don't. It'd be a shame to let all that lore just fade into obscurity.
Also: Eew, Blood elves...
Mort Nov 5th 2009 7:52PM
WTB non-broken commenting system, PST
Jason Nov 5th 2009 7:47PM
Will you folks be giving away codes for the new pets as you've been doing with the Creative Labs headsets? That'd be fun!
Fairlane Nov 5th 2009 10:03PM
Luck.