The Queue: Picking favorites

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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
Like Adam, I am most pleased that this is a new week. Things are so boring around the WoWiverse lately. Pilgrims Bounty was fun (really fun, I thought) but it was only around for a little while. I need excitement! Adventure! There is a void that needs to be filled!
Like Adam, I am most pleased that this is a new week. Things are so boring around the WoWiverse lately. Pilgrims Bounty was fun (really fun, I thought) but it was only around for a little while. I need excitement! Adventure! There is a void that needs to be filled!
I guess answering your various questions will fulfill that need for now.
Jason asked...
"Since the Battle.net change has occurred, is it now possible for me to log on to WoW in Europe (like at an Internet café) with my American account? Or are they still separate like they were before?"
They are still divided into regions. There's a North American Battle.net and a European Battle.net. If you want to log onto EU servers, you'll need an EU account. Sadly.
Alanid asked...
"If I have wings... why am I always walking?"
If the sun rises... why do I feel so dark inside?
Bob Dewane asked...
"Will we be able to earn Ashen Verdict rep from running the 5 mans in ICC or will it only come from running the raids?"
No, you will not get Ashen Verdict reputation from the 5-mans. It's purely for the raid zone.
Charizard asked...
"Why aren't there any shoulder or head armor until about level 20? I'm leveling a paladin (at 15), and I have yet to run across a shoulder or head item yet. Do helmets and spaulders imbalance the game?"
I've always assumed it was part of Blizzard's gated rewards system in WoW. You know, how back in the day you always looked forward to level 40 for your mount? And then level 60 for your epic mount? Before the mount was a few smaller rewards. Your first pair of shoulder armor, your first helm, stuff like that.
I don't know about you, but until I became a jaded husk of a man in Burning Crusade, I was always incredibly excited to get my first piece of shoulder armor. Heck, I used to take my main out to Loch Modan to kill the rare spawn Horde Outrunners all of the time because they dropped shoulder armor. I'd distribute it all to my alts, or put them on the AH for absurd amounts of gold that nobody but twinks would pay.
aelador asked...
"Just wondering, I thought I had read somthing indicating that you could get a full set of the first level of Tier 10 armor just by doing the new heroics, is this true?"
It's true, but it will take you an absurd number of runs. As in, if all you do is heroics to get your badges, I will be very impressed if you manage a full set before Cataclysm.
Mal asked...
"I've been playing for about half a year and my main and very first character, a warlock, is about to hit 80. I have a hunter, druid, mage and paladin alts that I had planned to level until Cataclysm came out. This is because I reeeally wanted to hold off on playing a rogue until I could make a Worgen, same applies for dwarf shamans (I'm an Alliance boy at heart).
Is it really worth it to concentrate on these 4 classes only for now, or should I just give in and make more alts now and race change them later? ( I have already decided to play every class at least once). I say race change because I find the thought of leveling the same class twice appalling."
I say stick to the four you have. Cataclysm is going to change so much about the old world that it's basically going to be a whole new experience, especially if you roll a worgen or a goblin. If you simply wait around until they let you race change everything to Worgen, you're going to miss a lot of the awesome stuff they're doing with the expansion. Just from what I saw at BlizzCon, I can tell you that the worgen/goblin starting experiences alone will beat out most of the things we've done in the solo game these last five years.
You will absolutely want to play that rogue as a worgen from day one. If you don't want to level something twice, don't hose yourself out of what Cataclysm has to offer.
Rochel asked...
"Besides WoW.com, what's your favorite World of Warcraft site?"
That, my friend, is a hard question. It's also one where I need to remind everyone reading that my answer is just that: my answer. If you asked again for tomorrow's edition of The Queue, Adam would probably give you a different answer. And on Friday, Sacco would you give you a different one.
Personally, I read an absurd number of WoW sites every night. If you have a WoW blog, chances are very good that I read it at least casually. However, a couple of sites found their way out of my work-related RSS reader folder and hopped into my leisure reading folder. MMO-Champion, obviously (hi Boubouille). The other is BlizzPlanet.
MMO-Champion is there for all of the obvious reasons, and BlizzPlanet carries a lot of good info that most other sites tend to skip over. Discussion about the WoW comics and novels, release dates, book signings, and general lore-related goodness. I don't always agree with Medievaldragon's thoughts on various pieces of Blizzard mythos or the quality of certain products, but I think that's okay. Disagreeing on the lore of our favorite settings is kind of what geeks do. Really, it should just make us all realize how passionate we are about our hobbies.
Do note that it's BlizzPlanet and not WoWPlanet. He covers a lot of Starcraft and Diablo items too, so don't throw a hissy if you hop over there as someone that only plays WoW and see things you don't care about.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria news





Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
marbar Dec 1st 2009 4:38PM
yes you can, as long as you are using an american copy you can log onto american servers anywhere in the world, but with a slight increased latency....trust me...i do it from the middle east every day :p
Azizrael Dec 1st 2009 5:06PM
I took it to mean that if you're using a PC with WoW on it in the EU, it'll be configured for the EU login servers and you'd need to edit the .ini file to switch to the US. A gaming machine in an internet cafe is unlikely to allow you to do that, so you'll be stuck to the EU realms unless you're using your own machine.
y2fatboy Dec 1st 2009 5:07PM
What Pandaba says is correct (although the realmlist.wtf file is now found in /Data/enUS (or enGB) rather than the realmlist.wtf file in your default WoW directory.
Also, technically there is only one battle.net. You can access your battle.net account from any of the portals (I can access mine through both the US and EU portals), however you do then need separate WoW accounts for US and EU linked to that battle.net account (or separate ones if you prefer). I personally use the same battle.net account (and hence authenticator) for both my US and EU accounts and as long as the realmlist.wtf file is pointing at the correct region everything works perfectly.
mcnadeau Dec 1st 2009 3:39PM
Background downloader active today again......656mb!
Daniel Dec 1st 2009 4:00PM
says it's updating to patch 3.3!!!
Avan Dec 1st 2009 3:45PM
""Just wondering, I thought I had read somthing indicating that you could get a full set of the first level of Tier 10 armor just by doing the new heroics, is this true?"
It's true, but it will take you an absurd number of runs. As in, if all you do is heroics to get your badges, I will be very impressed if you manage a full set before Cataclysm."
405 emblems. 8 bosses total. 51 days from just those 8 bosses, assuming 1 emblem drop per boss.
Definitely doable long before Cataclysm.
Maxpowr Dec 1st 2009 3:53PM
You can only get 2 Emblem of Frost from doing heroics a day. Emblems of Triumph will drop from all bosses (besides ICC and the new vault boss).
So 405/2= 203 days.
Baval Dec 1st 2009 4:45PM
it will be emblems of frost that net you tier 10, not conquest. which means 2 per day running heroics
Sicadastra Dec 1st 2009 3:59PM
I assume T10 will be purchased with Frost, which is limited to 2 per day right? So much longer? T9 can be done in a day with the triumph emblems dropping from everyone....
johnthediver Dec 1st 2009 3:58PM
I may be wrong, but isnt the heroic IC 5 man only going to drop triumph? You will get 2 emblems per day for random dungeon, so 408 badges will be something like 204 days?
skraps
Avan Dec 1st 2009 4:00PM
I had heard that the new bosses would drop Emblems of Frost, but I also haven't been able to find anything besides word of mouth to prove or disprove it.
Sim Dec 1st 2009 4:09PM
Unless I am very confused, the three new heroics will not drop different badges than ordinary heroics. Everything will drop Triumphs. The only non-raid way to get Frost badges (for tier 10 gear) will continue to be the daily heroic quest, which gives two. Thus, using your math, that would be like 200 days.
Jason Dec 1st 2009 4:10PM
The first random heroic dungeon of the day will award 2 Emblems of Frost, so the 203 days figure is right. That being said you can earn another 5 Emblems of Frost per week by doing the weekly raid quest, but then...that's a randomly selected raid quest that can pit you against Lord Marrowgar in ICC.
Raaj Dec 1st 2009 4:28PM
Do the bosses in the new heroics drop Emblems of Frost instead of Triumph for some reason? If so, does anyone have a link to this? Only ways I saw to get them outside of raiding current-tier content was 2 a day from the first Random Heroic and 10 a week from the new Proof of Demise raid quests.
Aldheim Dec 1st 2009 6:18PM
The Icecrown 5-mans do not drop Emblems of Frost; like all other heroic five-mans, they drop Emblems of Triumph.
Assuming you do nothing but heroic dungeons, you can get a maxium of 14 Frosts a week.
If you also can get the weekly raid quest, you bump that up to 19 Frosts per week.
405/19 = 21 weeks to achieve full T10 without raiding in Icecrown, which is a shade over five months.
Avan Dec 1st 2009 6:58PM
Looks like I was misinformed about the Frosts dropping in the new heroic 5s.
5 months with heroics + weekly raid quests.
About 7 months from just heroic dailies.
If anyone goes the strictly 5 month route, not doing any ICC raids (except for Marrowgar for the quest), then they should finish their full set of T10 before Cataclysm, but definitly not by much more than two weeks. (I'm currently predicting 3.3 to hit Jan 12, with Cataclysm due out as early as late June).
RogueJedi86 Dec 1st 2009 3:51PM
I'll ask again because I've asked like 10 times and no Queue answer(plus yesterday my question got voted up):
Why hasn't Blizz shut down anymore gold sites since Peons? Lord knows there's some big ones they could go after. I'm talking about you Susan *censored*.
Bronwyn Dec 1st 2009 4:00PM
Probably not answered because WoW.com=/= Blizzard and can't really say why.
Alex Ziebart Dec 1st 2009 4:07PM
We're not going to answer your question if we have no answer.
Kwmartens Dec 1st 2009 4:54PM
The fact of the matter is that Blizzard cannot shut down (through lengthy legal processes) gold selling websites as they have done nothing illegal. Nor does Blizzard have the legal power to just go around shutting down other people's websites.
The Terms of Service and End-user Licensing Agreement are both contractual agreements between the individual user and Blizzard. This agreement bans the individual player from buying or selling gold but has no force on 3rd parties to the contract (the website).
Assume Blizzard is a fast-food chain and you sign a contract for cheap burgers as long as you don't bring outside ketchup. The ketchup sellers are not a party to this agreement and can do as they wish (assuming they don't also sign the agreement and spend time spamming the fast-food joint for really great, fast delivered ketchup).
Other legal questions about these websites might exist (unreported earnings, valid International Trade, Hacking, trojans and spyware, etc.). But either are outside of Blizzard's concerns or are legally novel, difficult and costly to prove with no real benefits from being successful.