The Queue: Blood and glory
by Alex Ziebart 
Nov 10th 2009 at 3:00PM
I was going to kick off today's edition of The Queue by embedding Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling (slightly NSFW) since I mentioned it was a guilty pleasure of mine on yesterday's Moviewatch. Unfortunately, the official Black Eyed Peas Youtube channel disabled embedding and I'm not going to be a jerk and hijack it from somebody else's channel. So you get a Dragon Age screenshot instead. Hooray! Blood!
No, we're not getting paid to plug this game constantly. We're just nerds. Nerd gamers. This is what we do.
Ilmyrn asked...
"Any word on whether we'll ever see a non-Arena frost wyrm mount?"
Well, there's a frost wyrm model in patch 3.3, but I assume that's to go with the latest arena season. So I'm going to say... no. The Gladiators get Frost Wyrms, the PvE players get Invincible.
Cyanea asked...
"Where does that picture come from?"
The picture used on yesterday's edition of The Queue is a time warp image from Zach Yonzon. On the left is his wife, and on the right is his daughter wearing RL heirloom items. Very trippy.
Bob Dewane asked...
"Illidan was the box cover bad guy for BC. Arthas is the box cover bad guy for LK. Illidan was NOT the final boss for BC, Kil'Jaeden was. Is there any chance that Arthas is NOT the final boss for LK and that another enemy awaits? I only started playing after BC had been out for a while so I have no idea if it was known that Illidan was not the end of the BC story."
The plan was always that Illidan would be the final boss of The Burning Crusade, but they ran into a situation where they put Burning Crusade's raid content out too quickly for how far off Wrath of the Lich King was. To keep people interested and buy some time, they put together patch 2.4, which included the Sunwell Plateau to keep people busy.
They've said they didn't want to repeat that mistake again, so Arthas will hopefully be the absolute last raid encounter of Wrath. Of course, things can happen that cause plans to change, so if they need to delay Cataclysm for some reason, we might get another raid zone to keep us busy.
nieboh asked...
"I know these questions are supposed to be game related, but I don't know where else to ask. Is there any chance we'll be seeing a revamped comment section to this site soon? I would absolutely love an edit feature and the ability to delete your own posts would be marvelous.
Also, what's with all the "gold spammer" posts infesting this site lately? I dutifully click on the "report" button every time I see them but I don't know if that works."
For your first question, probably not anytime soon. In the future, maybe. Right now? Unlikely. Like I've said before, we have limited resources. When it comes to fixing things up and improving things and implementing new features, we have to work under something of a triage system. We would love a fixed up comment system, but there are a lot of other things that we (and the rest of the network) need and use. You won't see everything going on that pushes the comment system to the side, but trust me when I say they make both your experience and ours much better.
As for the comment spammers, such is the price we pay for being a pretty large site with an open comment system. We deal with them as quickly as we see them, and yes, reporting the posts does help. We ban who we can, we block what we can, but determined individuals will keep knocking their heads at it. If you see a spam post that's been sitting around for a particularly long time, let us know via our tipline and we'll deal with it ASAP.
Jack Spicer asked...
"Here's another quick question. The glyphs that a scribe learns from the books that were introduced in patch 3.1 (?), are those totally unique to those books, or can they be learned from ordinary Northrend Inscription Research?"
I believe that is the case, yes. You can only learn them through those books. I somewhat expect that will change when Cataclysm hits, though. Nobody will want to farm books in Northrend for glyphs when we're all in the new content.
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, Inscription, The Queue, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Hakker Nov 10th 2009 3:02PM
Why does most of the WoW community seem to think that PvP'ers are bad PvE'rs and vice versa, when most of the top arena players (top being 2500+ ) Are usually in guilds that are in the top 100 (worldwide)?
Como Nov 10th 2009 3:19PM
At the risk of being flamed, all the good PvE players already know that if you have what it takes to be a top PvP contender then that automatically makes you good at PvE. Fact is pve is pretty easy even on hard modes, except for a few boss fights and doesn't take more then a basic knowledge of your class. PvP on the other hand requires you to know every single detail about all the classes and how people are going to play comps. Much much more difficult.
Mordockk Nov 10th 2009 3:37PM
./agree w/como x100
I started as hardcore PVE. Then did PVP. After that I became a beast in PVE. Here's the deal....you can be great at PVE, and be horrible at PVP. But if you can master PVP you pretty much have mastered your class and will be able to dominate in PVE.
I always suggest my guildies to try it. and they all say, PVP sucks, and i just think to myself that they only say that cuz they're not good at it and havent taken the time to really read their abilities. It really is fun, but also frustrating. The thrill and adrenaline rush you get in an arena win is unmatched, but I also love defeating bosses after weeks of trying them on hardmode.
i /cry when palladins say they hate pvp when they have the greatest arsenal of pvp tools ever.
Nizari Nov 10th 2009 3:46PM
First off, just because you're in a top raiding guild doesn't mean you raid. Second, even if the top raiders also include a lot of the top PvPer's, you can't extrapolate that down onto the WoW playerbase at large.
Como Nov 10th 2009 4:09PM
Being downgraded as we speak, gotta love people who can't take reality. PvP is always defined in difficulty by it's players. At the top level of Arena play the smallest of small mistakes will make or break you. That being said to be the best in Arena you MUST know your and every other class/spec inside and out. That is pretty much by definition harder then pve where there is a set level of difficulty that goes down as your gear improves and there is plenty of room for error. Everyone knows there the pve end game is much easier then games before it and even wow itself. I'm not complaining about that or calling people out on it. I'll put it this way, in order to excel at pvp you must know everything about every class/spec and be able to know the strats to beat comps and they are evolving on the fly. the skills needed for pve are following a strat that doesn't evolve and only gets easier with gear. Having the skill set to excel in pvp guarantee's that you have the same skill set to excel in pvp...so yea downgrade me all you want for calling the endgame easy...sigh
And of course top 100 guilds have their 'b', 'c', and 'd' teams how do you think they get to be the top 100, by picking the best out of them and encouraging competition. It has nothing to do with what I said though.
Frank Nov 10th 2009 4:30PM
PVE is only following a set strategy after someone else has put in a lot of hard work figuring everything out. Every facet of PVP can be easily learned from online sources, if you want to know the abilities of other classes the info is available. That said, on the top end PVP you have to be really good with on the fly decisions and for PVE you need to know all of the class abilities to figure out what will work.
Nizari Nov 10th 2009 4:42PM
"That being said to be the best in Arena you MUST know your and every other class/spec inside and out."
Oh like kittens you do. At the high end of Arena, you just need to know how the cookie cutter class combos of the current patch are played, because that's all that exists at the high end.
"the skills needed for pve are following a strat that doesn't evolve and only gets easier with gear."
Let me tell you a story. I heard this professional drummer say how whenever he gets a new student who's an intermediate level drummer, the first thing he does is gives them a relatively simple beat to play, and that they have to keep playing it until he tells them to stop. And you know what? Most of them can't do it. They inevitably end up throwing a fill in somewhere, or changing up the beat.
That's the problem with PvP players in a PvE environment. They're so used to the twitchy, on-the-fly improvisation of Arena that when they're presented with PvE, where it's just one straight-ahead strat, they can't do it. They make stupid mistakes. Now I'm not saying this makes PvE'rs better or more intelligent than PvP'ers. I'm just saying that it's two different skill sets.
Como Nov 10th 2009 5:02PM
"Every facet of PVP can be easily learned from online sources, if you want to know the abilities of other classes the info is available."
Umm, same with pve...where do you think guilds get their strats? From the top 100's who figured them out. Where do you think people get their pvp strats/comps, from the top. Both have plenty of information on them online so I view it as a non issue.
"At the high end of Arena, you just need to know how the cookie cutter class combos of the current patch are played, because that's all that exists at the high end."
Riiight, so everyone running the cookie cutter spec(which I do agree with) automatically gets a 2500+ rating? No, they beat all the other comps and strats because they know the comp better and have the ability to beat those same comps.
And the whole drummer bit, we'll have to agree to disagree because I won't even go into how dumb that sounds? A pvp player isn't going to be good at pve because he is too twitchy not to stand in the fire? They are not 2 different skill sets and whatever anecdotal evidence you have of this is simply that, your limited experience.
Phoenix Nov 10th 2009 7:13PM
They are different aspects of the game, but I think what most people run into (and complain about) are the players who use PvE gear in PvP, or vice verse. Think about a VoA25 PuG and you'll see a few people who are in their PvP gear from just doing WG, or who only do PvP. The problem is that VoA is a PvE encounter, and so they appear lower on the meters because they aren't geared or spec'd for PvE.
It is possible to be good at both, but usually I see people focusing on one or the other.
Lemons Nov 10th 2009 7:21PM
@Nizari
What a retarded comment. If you play arenas at the high end you didn't just magically appear up there, you had to wade through all the lower brackets meaning you do have to understand how to deal with every class. No one got to 2800 by only knowing how to counter rmp (although that knowledge definitely helps).
"They're so used to the twitchy, on-the-fly improvisation of Arena that when they're presented with PvE, where it's just one straight-ahead strat, they can't do it."
This is possibly the most fail thing I've read on this site. It's pretty much a Logic Fallacy. You're assuming that just because arena players are sometimes improvise in arena play that they must always improvise? And thus can't follow a set plan? What?
I'm sorry to break it to you, but people who play high end arenas would make good PvErs whether you like it or not, playing against a computerized opponent that you can study beforehand and fully anticipate their every move is not that difficult.
Alex Nov 10th 2009 7:41PM
I would say that it takes being a really good player to be truly great at either one, PvP or PvE distinctions aside. People who prefer one side over the other - to the extent that they think the other "takes no skill" - are just going to bicker one way or the other.
PvtDeth Nov 11th 2009 12:51AM
I only have a couple of 80's but I can definitely say that being great at PvP would absolutely not get you a free ticket through PvE content. On my mage, I know that PvE and PvP are nearly as different from each other as separate classes. Much more so when fire was the only PvE spec and Frost the only PvP.
Also, Arena players don't "often" improvise; improvising is all you do in small scale PvP. That would certainly get you part of the way to mastering PvE but not all the way. If you're great at one you'll likely be very good at the other also. Few people are actually great at both.
paladinofcancer Nov 11th 2009 3:13AM
I will absolutely agree that PVP is "harder" than PVE. It takes not only the same kind of mastery and knowledge of your abilities that is need to be a top raider, the knowledge of other classes abilities and limitations that say a good raiding tank, raid leader, etc, needs, but it also takes something that by and large even the best raiders don't need..... good twitch gaming skills, especially for the Arena, but somewhat true in BGs as well. This is why I hate PVP, though I readily admit that its harder than what I do and hats off to those good at it. But i play WoW to RELAX, sit back, chill out, watch a movie while i play, maybe have a few beers, talk on the phone. If I want to twitch game (and sometimes I do) I'll go pop in Halo or Gears of War or Call of Duty.
Jordan Nov 11th 2009 3:42AM
I leveled a Warlock to 70 in BC. Questing and a few instances. Then I wanted to try out the PVP end of it and got stomped, because all I knew about my class was dot, dot, dot, shadow bolt.
Now with every alt I've rolled since I make a point of running at least one BG per play-session, it's magnificent in terms of teaching you how to use all those CCs, protective abilities (oh shit buttons) and various other things that don't end up part of your typical PVE rotation. I can't speak for everyone, but PVP has definitely made me a far better player, in raids and 5-mans as well as BGs and arenas.
Docp Nov 10th 2009 3:12PM
Who would win in a fight: Lil' K.T. or the Panderan monk?
Viper007Bond Nov 10th 2009 3:15PM
Impossible fight. The Panda is too busy /drink'ing.
Bob Dewane Nov 10th 2009 3:16PM
Lil' KT
Xikem Nov 10th 2009 3:51PM
impossible chuck norris would destroy them both
Evelinda Nov 11th 2009 10:21AM
ok... where do i sign up to get my lil' chuck pet? or better yet, a lil' saurfang...
Babaloo Nov 10th 2009 3:13PM
Just how many raids are going to be in Cataclysm at launch?