The Queue: I demand a recount

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Michael Sacco will be your host today.
I'll be taking over The Queue periodically for Alex and Adam, and thus I've been given this soapbox. Well, guess what! I'm usin' it.
I demand a recount on the alleged outcome of the Rossi vs. Sacco arm-wrestling match. I don't know where the results came from, but I bet if we looked in Adam's basement, we'd find a Diebold machine that "fell off the back of a truck." Rossi may have the burly chest and body hair that give him the makings of a champion, but I've got really good hair and I can guarantee that one look at me and Rossi would give up the ghost right there. Unless we're playing by standard rules, in which case he would literally murder me.
And now, reader questions.
Sean asked...
"A question about the new Random Dungeon feature. Let's say you sign up for the first random dungeon of the morning, and you get a place that you just can't stand. (Think OK or Occ) If you bail on the dungeon, then wait out the Deserter debuff, have you messed up your shot at the Frost Emblems for the day?"
We've had a lot of questions about the new Dungeon System lately, which is good, because it shows that people are (at least) interested in it and (at most) excited about it. To answer your question, you don't miss your opportunity to get your Emblems of Frost if your first random dungeon of the day goes down the toilet. You get your Emblems upon successful completion of your first random dungeon of the day.
Tyler asked...
"O read that the wyrmrest accord will have some involvement in the new zone, twilight highlands....i would think the wyrmrest accord would be all over the place in the next expansion. they are somewhat prominent in WoTlk and malygos isn't the main villian. the main villain of cataclysm will be D-Wing himself. i would think they'd be everywhere. your thoughts?"
I haven't heard anything from Blizzard intimating that the Wyrmrest Accord faction itself will be making a return, and following patterns from previous expansions, there's almost no chance that an obselete faction will be reintroduced. What you can probably expect is a new dragon faction similar in name or function to the Wyrmrest Accord, a la Cenarion Expedition or Argent Crusade.
Lidstrom asked...
"Any chance Blizz will get rid of the rest bar? it seems to be an outdated idea, and since many of their recent changes have been to speed the leveling process, it'd be nice to be leveling an alt and not have the rest bar go from blue to purple and slow down the process."
The rest bar is simply your reward for taking a break for a while. It's not meant to be something that's there all the time, unlike the baked-in 30% cut for experience necessary in Outland, for instance. While there certainly have been lots of ways that Blizzard has handed out to help you level alts or help you decrease the time you spend in old content, those are all separate entities built to function differently than the rest bar. I don't see it going away, and for one big reason -- if a player logs in and sees that their alt has a full rest bar, there's a pretty good chance that they'll say to themselves "Oh, neat, maybe I'll level for a while. I'll get double experience, after all."
It's a pretty neat psychological mechanism, and it works.
Mort asked...
"When Cataclysm hits, will Blackwing lair and Molten Core stay raidable as level 60 instances? I've been planning to roll a Tauren Paladin , and I'm really hoping I can get a hold of a Judgement set for him for the sake of RP and pure awesome. Have we heard anything about the fate of the Vanilla raids once Cataclysm hits? Are they going to remain standing, or are they only going to be a nostalgic memory once 4.0 hits?"
Blackwing Lair was actually shown in some shots at BlizzCon, but only the bit that you could feasibly fly up to if you were able to fly in Azeroth proper. It's the entrance to one of the raid instances, actually. But since they said specifically that the non-instanced portion would be the place with the raid portal, I'm led to believe that the 60 raid isn't going away.
That said, Nefarian is honest-to-God back and alive somehow for Cataclysm, unlike his sister, so it's possible they'll change Blackwing Lair in some way. But we won't know until Blizzard tells us.
As for Molten Core, I mean, I understand you want some old gear, but man. Why would you willingly go into that place, almost five years later? It's awful.
Shade asked...
"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."
Nope, unfortunately, the oldest map of Azeroth that exists is the world map for the venerable original Warcraft game. If we ever get some crazy Caverns of Time expansion that takes us to pre-Sundering Kalimdor, though, I'm sure they'll give us a fleshed-out map for it.
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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
velutina Nov 6th 2009 2:59PM
Regarding PUGs, it's a gear cycle thing. Now that many people significantly out gear the heroics one or two overgeared players can compensate for several undergeared/uniformed/unprepared players. This wasn't the case a year ago when WotLK came out. Back then there was much less margin for people to screw up. Today I ran a heroic ToC (5 man) with a pug. I was the tank and I had the highest dps and the most damage done. My DPS was ~2600, and the next 3 dps were like 2300, 1700, and 1500. A year ago you wouldn't have done a successful run in a heroic dungeon if the tank was out dpsing the dps by 50%.
For BoA gear I like the champion's seals. I can get 13 seals per day (10 from AT dailies, and 3 from H ToC), so in less than a week I can grab a new piece of BoA gear AND get some good gold for my main. On my main server I have a toon of every class (mostly lower levels) but I've got a +10% XP PVE shoulders and chest in plate, mail, leather, and cloth. I'm working on weapons and trinkets now.
I figure I should turn leftover Heroism emblems into epic gems, leftover Valor emblems into iLevel 213 BoE bracers, and Conquest emblems into Runed Orbs. That way I'll have gold for Expert/Artisan riding skill and flying mounts for my alts when they get to that point.
thebitterfig Nov 6th 2009 11:31AM
W/R/T the Wyrmrest Accord in Cataclysm - why are we so sure they'll even be around? The WRA represents an alliance of necessity between four of the dragon broods, but presumably with Deathwing back, the Black dragon's won't be in on any Wyrmrest-type action in mainland azeroth. We know the reds are probably going to be hurting with whatever goes down at Grim Batol, and it seems highly possible that the alliance which worked well enough in Northrend won't survive the return of Deathwing. Heck, there might even be more war between the broods. It could go either way, just don't be surprised if that faction was a one-off alliance and the dragons won't be able to pull it off again.
Karilyn Nov 6th 2009 11:38AM
"If we ever get some crazy Caverns of Time expansion that takes us to pre-Sundering Kalimdor, though, I'm sure they'll give us a fleshed-out map for it."
You mean...
The Emerald Dream expansion? Bum dum bunanananana
Wellsee Nov 6th 2009 11:47AM
I have rookie questions!
What does this mean? " the baked-in 30% cut for experience necessary in Outland, for instance."
Also, does the "full rest bar" just mean that it is blue to the next level? Or is there a cap on the rested xp, and there's a way to tell you have hit it?
Wellsee Nov 6th 2009 11:50AM
Ah, just now saw Phaed's answer about Rest. Still wondering about the first question, though.
Phil Nov 6th 2009 11:54AM
Originally it took around 30% more XP to level from 60 to 70 when they released Burning Crusade. They took about 30% of the XP needed to level from 60-70 off around Patch 2.4 so people could get to level cap quicker so they could experience Wrath when it hit. They also did this with Vanilla at some point but I can't remember exactly when, probably a little bit before BC came out.
As to your second question Rested experience caps out at a level and a half. I may not be 100% accurate on this next statement but this is always the way it seemed to me. Lets say you need 100k xp to make a level, you can have a max of 150k rest xp. Mobs you kill will give you twice as much XP however Quests still give the same xp.
Hope that helps
micarowan Nov 6th 2009 12:01PM
They didn't nerf the xp in vanilla till about the time they nerfed the boss/mob health in late tbc. I remember lvling a few alts and a reroll belf pally when tbc first started and back then it wasn't nerfed.
NeoPhobos Nov 6th 2009 5:25PM
"They didn't nerf the xp in vanilla till about the time they nerfed the boss/mob health in late tbc"
It was 2.3, my favorite patch because of said leveling nerf.
The same patch also opened up ZA, created guild banks, and added tons of quests to Dustwallow/added Mudsprocket; amongst other changes.
Kadamon Nov 6th 2009 1:33PM
I'll answer both quests since Phil is ever so slightly off.
For the first question, the 1-60 experience used to take a long ass time. So much so that a lot of servers still only had a few 60's even when The Burning Crusade came out. Not that long after the launch of the expansio they decided to drop the amount of experience required from levels 20-60 by 30%. What was also changed, only in Vanilla though, was that quest experience from 30-60 was also increased by 20%.
Phil does have it right on the second part though. 60-70 also got it's experience requirements reduced by 30%, but the quest experience, sadly, didn't change.
As for the second question, it's not calculated by actual exp you have but by percentages, or more specifically bars of experience, 30 bars is what it maxes out at and only Mob killing reduces that. Thankfully quest exp doesn't use it up.
Wellsee Nov 6th 2009 1:55PM
Thanks all. That's interesting and helpful. It also helps explain why I feel like leveling goes too fast! I started playing just before Wrath and I have more than a handful of characters level 30-60 (no 80's), and I've noticed that my quests are grey and green almost all the time. Now I know it hasn't always been this way and that leveling used to be harder - or at least take more time. Thanks!
Phil Nov 6th 2009 11:48AM
Ok I have a 2 parter.
1. With the re introduction of SFK and Deadmines as new Heroics in Cataclysm. Do you think we will see some other old world Dungeons retuned to the current top end such as BRD or Scholo?
2. Im about to finish up my 10th 80, do i need a life?
mariodcole Nov 6th 2009 11:57AM
Literally murder you?
/GrammarNazi
Shade Nov 6th 2009 12:00PM
Aw, drat. Well thank you for the answer to the question, I was really hoping there was a map out there somewhere that I missed. I'll have to continue fiddling with mine then and hope it isn't too screwy.
...how come the links to edit my profile on my comment name - well actually all of the links, change password/edit profile/etc, aren't working anymore? I click them and nothing happens.
Skonged Nov 6th 2009 12:01PM
How soon until Blizzard offers a class change service?
Clarick Nov 6th 2009 1:53PM
I don't think they ever will. If they did, people could just level as a Hunter or a class they know really well and switch at 80. Then we have a bunch of level 80 noobs who don't know their classes. The way it is now you can at least reasonably expect a level 80 mage knows the class.
mtsadowski Nov 6th 2009 12:07PM
A map before the sundering would be sweet. I thought about this, too. I used to be a geology major and that AND the upcoming Cataclysm really fascinates me. I'm really curious to see if any of the disasters have some "real physics" in mind.
From what I gather, the area where the Maelstorm is right now is where land used to be. All the lands were connected. IF that is the case, then most of Eastern Kingdom, Kalimdor and Northrend would have been underwater. It would have to have been because all that water would have to go SOMEWHERE. That's A LOT of water!
But this is fantasy. real world mechanics don't really play much into things. Same goes for Hollywood... just look at the movie "The Day After Tomorrow." ... pure crap!
Shade Nov 6th 2009 12:41PM
You can take a look at the map I made if you want, it's over here - http://greyshades.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/azeroth-pre-sundering-a-visual-guide/
It's really rough though. I think the original land mass was probably larger, and a good portion of the coasts sunk. I'm working under the presumption that the land mass itself was centrally located, and when the Well went kablooey, the land masses literally blew apart.
There's details there that I want to add - I think the now-location of Thousand Needles was probably some sort of major lake or underwater portion originally, which would explain the rock formations now (I'm really sad that it's going back underwater again. The desert and rock formations there remind me of where I grew up, and always make me smile) - and I think there needs to be more land to the south, because as it stands I haven't made room for Kezan in there.
I purposely didn't add the land masses attributed by the Draenei landing, because I believe those were actually torn up out of what was existing ocean floor that wasn't even a part of original Kalimdor to begin with.
...oh god this is it this is the point where I go from dork to full-fledged nerd help me
Valorum Nov 6th 2009 12:10PM
I don't remember when they made the 60-70 exp increase better - right before WOTLK?
Any chance they'll do the same this time with 70-80?
Moo Nov 6th 2009 1:31PM
Yes, they nerfed the 60-70 XP requirements when WOTLK came out.
With the level cap only going up by 5 levels with this X-Pac I was wondering whether they would nerf the 70-80 requirements as well. I think that there is a good chance that they will, since (I think) I've heard that the amount of XP needed to go from 80-85 will be pretty huge.
David Nov 6th 2009 12:17PM
Hey guys!
So, I've finally reached Northrend on my first character (level 69 Shaman), and I'm really enjoying the content so far. But I'm kinda depressed that there's tons of content below me that I'm probably not going to get to experience (i.e. Vanilla WoW raids, BC raids, etc.). Do you think these things will be more popular when the new LFG system hits? Or am I doomed to miss out on a percentage of the game just because I joined the community a few years too late?