The Queue: Apology denied
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 15th 2009 at 7:00PM
I thought about starting today off by apologizing for the abomination that was yesterday's image... but what did Mike Sacco think would happen when he asked me to add a picture to the post for him? That's a dangerous thing to ask someone. He brought it on himself, and has nobody else to blame. If the image scarred you for life, it's his fault.
Krsnik asked...
"What level of gear is recommended to have before attempting to raid ICC 10man? Can I just go from 10 man ToC to 10man ICC or must I first get gear from 10man ToGC? I would really hate to replace my tier gear and since the guild I'm in is just starting 10man ToGC, I know it'll be a while before I can get Tier 9.5 gear."
You should be able to start 10-man Icecrown Citadel with the gear that you have. Heroic mode gear, as some of the people in the comments said yesterday, tends to be incredibly helpful in progression but largely optional. The next tier of normal modes is tuned with the assumption that you did the previous tier's normal modes. If they assumed everyone is doing hard modes, we'd run into some trouble. The whole reason they made the normal mode/hard mode split was to make sure bleeding edge players have something to keep them busy (hard modes) while everyone else can see the content (normal modes.) Requiring hard modes to progress would render the system useless pretty fast.
Grendalsh asked...
"There's actual quests for the new race/class combos fluff? I've seen the High Elf awaiting an audience with Tyrande in the Temple of Elune, but didn't notice any quests... where would one start these?"
The quests themselves are just a little bit of buildup and lore, so don't expect any long, epic quest chains. They're just some text to set the stage. The Horde and Alliance both have one right now, and they start in their respective area of Dalaran. In Dalaran, you're looking for a Highborne (night elf) with an exclamation point over his head, and the Horde is looking for a tauren worried about his friend.
There have been some other hints at progression, such as Dark Rangers showing up in Undercity, but they don't have any quests yet.
Azure asked...
"I have been running a lot of the Random Heroics lately but... Why is it that sometimes I get stuck being ask to go to a dungeon where the bosses are already dead? Happened to me several times this weekend."
If someone drops before that group finished their dungeon, well... someone has to fill that gap, right? If the dungeon finder is bringing you into groups where even the last boss is dead, that's probably a bug and you should report it. If you're getting in before the last boss is dead, just be glad that you're getting your end reward faster!
I do agree that it's odd you're not warned of this beforehand when queued for a random dungeon. It's always a bit confusing to port into an instance that's almost entirely empty when you expected to show up at the front door with all of your teammates. They should probably add a boss counter to the random dungeons, but then you might see healers passing on that instance and requeueing endlessly until they get an instance with only one boss left alive. That's not healthy for the system, so I can understand why they wouldn't do it.
Jack Spicer asked...
"Do you know of a post on this site, or any other site that might have a guide or suggestions as to the best method for earning money through daily quests? Such as a suggested route, and which quests are better/faster than others?"
I don't think we have an updated one. We have a very old one that likely isn't anywhere near the best route anymore. However, I'll pass this request on to our team and see if anybody wants to pick up on it. Maybe our money making column, Time Is Money, will take care of it.
Butts asked...
"omg, will tauren druids ever be able to use warstomp in bear form?"
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, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Magma Dec 15th 2009 7:10PM
You don't need warstomp in bear form when you can just ass-rocket yourself at the floor to cause the same effect.
Nadia Dec 16th 2009 7:10AM
'Cause you're a "rocket Bare?"
Mognet T Dec 16th 2009 10:41AM
I love you both.
jfofla Dec 15th 2009 7:11PM
There is a boss counter.
When you get the "Your Group is Ready" It tells you how many bosses remain.
If you want a fresh group and you see bosses are dead, simply decline.
Alex Ziebart Dec 15th 2009 7:22PM
I have never seen this when queueing for random dungeons, only specific dungeons. They seem to work differently.
That might be a display bug on my end, and if that's the case, I apologize for the mistake. But it would be very weird if it displayed wrong one way but not the other for me.
Sleutel Dec 15th 2009 7:27PM
I've always seen some kind of "You are about to join a dungeon in progress" warning. Sometimes it gives X/Y bosses remaining, sometimes it doesn't, but the warning is always there.
Nolls74 Dec 15th 2009 7:38PM
when you are qued for a group, and you get put in one, right under the thing that says "you're dungeon is ready!" if there are dead bosses it will say "This dungeon is in progress."
Gemini Dec 15th 2009 8:09PM
Sometimes simply declining doesn't work.
I have a paladin that I'm leveling through the dungeon system. One day I queue, and, as I am a tank, a group is available right away. But it's in progress. No worries, I'll cancel and queue again.
Again, group is in progress.
i go through this about 6 or 7 times, and I figure it's gotta be the same group, but it simply will not give me any other options. It's either run this dungeon in progress or don't run.
niko Dec 15th 2009 8:15PM
@ Gemini
As crazy as it may sound, you might be the only tank in your battlegroup queuing up for random at that time, so you're going to get the one that needs a tank the most: the one already in progress.
Just think of it as easy emblems if it's your first one, or just an extra couple Triumphs if it's not. :)
Ratskinmahoney Dec 15th 2009 10:07PM
If you consider that yu get your reward regardless then for a five boss dungeon you have 5 boss kills + all the trash kills yields 7 emblems, if 4 bosses are down and the group has had to replace, they've probably killed the trash, but even if they haven't you're geting 3 emblems for around a 5th of the work or less that would have got you 7. If you're tank or healer and are only waiting a minute or two when queuing, then you're farming much more efficiently by landing in these partial clear dungeons. Damn you.
Ginby Dec 15th 2009 10:10PM
Something i've experienced is I did nexus as the random daily, a few hours later i did the random again with a new group and I got nexus, when i went in the boss were gone, I left, reset all instances, changed lead, and went back in. The bosses were back so it probably has to do with the leader have a lockout for something.
Delmonico Dec 15th 2009 10:36PM
I joind a heroic PoS as a tank. I was warned that 1 boss was down, as were 3 others in the group. The original group member explained that his group disintegrated, and he stuck around in the dungeon to rebuild a group.
I start pulling, and see that not just one but two bosses are down (Ick wasnt there). I find it odd, but chalk it up to 3.3 weirdness.
We clear to the cave in event, run in, and I pull all the way up to the first safe spot. That original group member doesnt come along, dies, and d/c's. We think that is odd, wait a minute, decide to 4 man it, and handle the rest of the pulls up to Scourgelord.... who isnt there.
Somehow all three bosses were down, and the warning only said one.
I decided to go to bed.
Del
Alootrinn Dec 16th 2009 12:36AM
If you mouse over the box it tells you how many bosses are dead.
Tridus Dec 16th 2009 6:28AM
I've had it happen where I get put into a dungeon where *everything* is dead, including the last boss. Somehow when we picked a random dungeon, we got someone's already completed one.
That sucked.
MrFreddish Dec 16th 2009 7:41PM
Thats not really true, because if you are queing for a random dungeon you dont see which instance it is and neither how many bosses are killed, basiccly so people dont drop on some instances over and over, but if you go on specific dungeon then you will see both what instance and how many bosses that are alive.
Padooj Dec 15th 2009 7:13PM
They do have a boss counter, I believe. When the "enter dungeon" screen first pops up, it says "0/2" bosses or something to that effect.
Qot Dec 15th 2009 10:34PM
How does that work with the 15 minute debuff? If you randomly join something with some bosses down, does the "can't queue again" debuff fall off after successful completion if you finish the instance?
I haven't finished a sub-15 minute heroic yet (though we came really close on H A'N the other day, missed it by seconds due to the boss burrowing), but it's something I've wondered about.
Hellfy Dec 15th 2009 11:35PM
the debuff goes away once you kill the last boss. did a h gun where we finished the whole thing in ten minutes and the debuff went away when we got the extra badges and stuff.
jared.daniels Dec 15th 2009 7:13PM
Will wow.com ever change its RSS hallen to post the entire article? It's annoying that I have to leave my reader app to read a whole article. Also that it redirects me to the main site from my iPhone in stead of the i.wow.com site.
jared.daniels Dec 15th 2009 7:17PM
By "hallen" I mean "channel". Don't ask how it happened.