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 it seems to be an outdated idea, and since many of their recent changes have been to speed the leveling process, it'd be nice to be leveling an alt and not have the rest bar go from blue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.
Filed under: The Queue
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
Aaron Nov 6th 2009 12:33PM
As a shammy you should have no problems with vanilla/tbc content. I can't think of many toons that can't go back and solo vanilla instances on an 80 with decent gear. The other option is to find some other people in the level range of the place you want to go. I'm sure they would love having a higher level player in there with them. ; ) As far as the old raids go, some of that stuff can be done with 2 lvl 80s. I know I've done a 25 man on several occasions (2 manning lvl 60 Ony ftw) with a well geared friend. My ret pally can solo stuff clear up through TBC regular instances with very little issue and as an enchanter I do it all the time for mats. Hope that helps! =D
David Nov 6th 2009 12:35PM
That does help! Thanks a ton!
I had no idea you'd be strong enough to solo the instances once you hit 80. I feel much better now :)
Aaron Nov 6th 2009 12:52PM
There is a lot of old content you can go solo at your current level. =D It's fun, and you'll feel OP. haha! I run friends through old content all the time so they can gear up, complete quests and get some free xp. Every elite in those old instances are grey to you, as long as you pace yourself you'll have no problem at all. Anytime I'm in SW and waiting for my hearth to CD or just killing time I get in /1 general and ask if anyone wants a free stocks run. Anyone that whispers me is free to come along.
Kaz Nov 6th 2009 12:19PM
Let me turn the first question around:
Using the new Dungeon system What if you queue up for an instance and it turns out to be something like Occ and most of you want to run it. Then you have one whiny little shit-head that decides to cheese out on the group because he has nightmares about dragons or mommy didn't hug him enough or whatever...
How long would a group have to wait around for a replacement, so we can run the instance with a full group?
(Seriously, with easy T8.5 [and soon easy T9 rolling around], I don't want to hear ANY bitching about Occ, OK, or any other 5man)
Mr. Tastix Nov 6th 2009 12:54PM
You get put back in the queue and have to wait until you find another person to replace the role you lost. This is how it is on the PTR anyway.
I was doing an OK run and two of our tanks both "disconnected" (whether they actually did or didn't though is completely beside the point). Both times we replaced them literally within minutes and we did manage to complete the dungeon.
Remember that the PTR has only two realms, a PVE and PVP one, so finding a replacement shouldn't take as long as it does on the PTR.
lightningjynx Nov 6th 2009 3:00PM
From what I've been told, if something happens to a member of your group that makes them leave, you get put into the front of the queue and the first available person that fills that role will be put in your group.
Lissanna Nov 6th 2009 3:17PM
When I was playing with it on the PTR, getting a replacement person was really fast (like a minute or two). However, speed depends on how many people enter the queue and how fast they are entering. So, it's going to depend on a lot of factors. If you are running at odd times, you are going to wait longer than if you try at peak times.
evilsean Nov 6th 2009 12:21PM
Here's a question. How come we never see Dwarf children, or Gnome children? I don't know much for Horde but I can't recall ever seeing Tauren or Troll or Forsaken children. I kinda get why there's no Night Elf kids but I don't know why there's Blood Elf kids. What's going on in Azeroth? Are parents just really protective of they're kids?
Kaz Nov 6th 2009 12:31PM
Durring Children's Week in Shattrath the Horde get to escort a Blood Elf child around and Alliance get to escort a Draenei child.
I guess Azerothian parents just like keeping their kids indoors (lots of dangerous gankers out there), except in Stormwind where there's a whole budding generation of "latchkey kids."
Shade Nov 6th 2009 12:51PM
There are Tauren and Troll babies both at Challe's Home for Little Tykes - http://www.wowwiki.com/Challe%27s_Home_For_Little_Tykes
...they're weird looking, and they're just babies, not really children that run around.
As for the Forsaken - you're never going to see a Forsaken kid. From a logistical standpoint, Forsaken aren't bred, they're created, and they're created from former members of the Scourge that have thrown off the Lich King's influence.
The Scourge were an army. Why would there be kids in an army? So...don't think you're going to see any Forsaken kids anytime soon.
...plus dead kid corpses? Ew.
Mortiseraphim Nov 6th 2009 2:23PM
Dwarves just pop right out of the mountain fully grown.
Gnomes on the other hand...I think they're actually test-tube creations....or failed experiments.
Hiwa Nov 6th 2009 2:44PM
During Children's Week I had to put in a ticket on an unrelated issue. While talking to the GM I took the opportunity to ask why we never get tauren orphans to escort. His answer: "because taurens take care of their calves."
Make of that what you will.
jbodar Nov 7th 2009 6:21AM
@Shade
You mean, "Why would there be kids in an army"... in a game. Unfortunately, life is often stranger than fiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_use_of_children
Nari Nov 6th 2009 12:48PM
"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."
Three reasons. Hydraxian Rep, Thunderfury, Sulfuras Hand of Ragnaros. My guild has three people intersted for those reasons - I'm a rep-grinding achiever, my wife's after Thunderfury and our raid-leader wants a Sulfuras. Bingo, instant zerg team ;)
Mr. Tastix Nov 6th 2009 12:57PM
Molten Core wasn't awful... Molten Core friggin owns!
Or... at least I think it does :(
Mr. Tastix Nov 6th 2009 12:56PM
Not sure if this has been asked before, my apologies if it has been.
With the new LFG system we know it's cross-server. On the PTR it's fairly straight-forward in how it works and does this, because there is only two realms. But what about on the live servers?
There are a lot more than 2 realms in the live or "normal" version of WoW. So, what my question is: Will the cross-server LFG system work like the Battlegrounds system does, where we would only be able to group up with people within our Battlegroup; or will the scope of the "cross-server" be widened to all active realms?
Phaea Nov 6th 2009 2:38PM
It has been stated that it will only be within the Battlegroups.
Rick Nov 6th 2009 12:59PM
What ever happened to the articles that were going back to take a look at the old release notes? I loved seeing how the game has evolved over the years.
Koriani Nov 6th 2009 1:03PM
Question for The Queue:
This question is in regards to the Perky Pug Pet. I know that you increase your chances of the pet dropping the more PUG members are in your group - but do we know yet if that drop is a chance at a single pet at final boss of a dungeon, a chance at a single pet for each boss downed, or is it a chance at 5 Perky Pugs given out at the end (Or 2 or 3 or whatever number of PUGged members?).
Just trying to figure out how often I may have to roll-off to get a WoW Pet that matches my RL Pet! (His name is Ozzy...)
Thanks!
Koriani - FM
Lissanna Nov 6th 2009 3:19PM
I'm pretty sure we haven't been told how we get the pet, other than that we get it from the PUG system.