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 newsThe Queue: Isthmus-time is here
by Michael Sacco 
Dec 16th 2009 at 8:00PM
It's officially Winter Veil, and you know what that means! Azerothians donning their yuletide apparel and decking the halls with the blood of their enemies. Is there anything more demoralizing than getting decapitated by someone dressed like a holiday centerfold? And just think, without achievements, this activity would be naught but a holiday novelty. Technology is a wondrous thing.
Daniel asked...
I have noticed that dark ranger hanging around in Dalaran, and decided to look them up, and noticed that they were neutral hero unit in Warcraft 3:The Frozen Throne. I was wondering, could, it be even remotely possible, that in the future we have that class introduced into the game that will be neutral?
Extremely unlikely. There are also some dark rangers wandering around the Undercity post-3.3, and it appears that they're there as a buildup to playable forsaken hunters in Cataclysm. Sylvanas herself is classified as a dark ranger. We'll probably see quests just like the ones introducing night elf mages and tauren priests and paladins for these NPCs.
Darksky asked...
So, I had a random lore question pop into my head the other day about dragon aspects (well, supposedly-important dragons, at least) and their humanoid forms: Is there anything in lore that explains why certain dragons always take a specific humanoid form? For example, Alexstraza & Korialstraz always appear in-game as High Elves in humanoid form, but Chromie always appears as a gnome in humanoid form. Is it as simple as 'personal preference,' or is there an actual lore reason behind it, such as the aspect's humanoid form representing some form of stewardship over the race they appear as?
As an extra credit question, is it only specific important dragons that can take humanoid form, or (Warcraft lore-wise) can any dragon assume a humanoid form? For example, does Deathwing have a known humanoid form, and have we seen it in-game before?
Any dragon can apparently change his or her shape to a humanoid, and most of the time, it's done to make communication with mortal races easier. The humanoid forms they choose to appear in can be chalked up to personal (dragonal?) preference. In Alextrasza's or Korialstrasz's case, for example, the intentions are benevolent, but the Black Dragonflight tends to use their human forms to brainwash and manipulate "lesser" races.
Deathwing does/did indeed have a human form -- Lord Daval Prestor of the nation of Alterac. He's not in-game in WoW, but he was (I believe) in Warcraft II.
Jon asked...
When doing the Quel'delar quest chain, the vfinal step (A Victory for the Silver Covenant for Alliance or A Victory for the Sunreavers for Horde) if a toon can use swords, do they have the option of getting the Mace if they want, or are they stuck with the sword as the only option? If this is the case, do you think Blizz will add the option for both weapon types in the future?
If your class can use the sword version of the weapon, you will not get the option to receive the mace version. There's been no indication that this will change, but we'll keep you posted.
James asked...
How did you guys get the domain wow.com over Blizzard?
Wow.com was an old AOL search portal back in the dialup days, though it's been defunct for quite some time. We've always been owned by AOL, so naturally, the domain name was available to us.
Blondie asked...
What are the wow.com teams theories on race-changing to the new Race/Class combos? Will we have to wait for that for some time into Cataclysm? Will we be able to do it the day Cataclysm hits? Will we even be able to do it in the pre patch 4.0? (I want theories, preferably with motivation.)
Obviously they will not let us racechange into worgen straight off the bat, so that you can get "Realm First! Level 85 Worgen" without having to level 1-80. But the other races are already in the game and it will hardly break anything if you could racechange asap.
My personal opinion? I'm willing to bet that the new race/class combos will be available for race/faction change right away, but not the worgen or goblin versions of any of the classes. It all hinges on how Blizzard is going to handle realm-first achievements in Cataclysm.
Llifebane asked...
Question: Does the Dungeon Finder reward Emblems of Frost for the first random heroic you complete or for completing the first random heroic you start? (would test myself but don't want to lose out on my Frost)
You receive your two Frost emblems for the first random dungeon you complete -- that is, the first random dungeon in which you defeat the final boss.
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: Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 7)
RogueJedi86 Dec 16th 2009 9:52PM
@IvanZephyr
"I suspect that the piece of Arthas that might be left inside the Lich King is all that holds the Scourge from annihilating Azeroth"
Isn't there a quest chain Icecrown that proves there's nothing left of Arthas? Something about that little boy that was his heart? So he has nothing left, no wait now he does, when is Blizz gonna make up their minds?
IvanZephyr Dec 16th 2009 10:07PM
Well that was Tirion's opinion, was never stated as fact.
RogueJedi86 Dec 16th 2009 10:36PM
On the topic of the Lich King and the Scourge though, couldn't they beat the Lich King and eliminate the problem of control with one coordinated attack? Simply have the myriad forces of the Argent Dawn, Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Ashen Verdict, Silver Covenant, Sunreavers, and the various factions of the Alliance and Horde go and attack every Scourge holding across Northrend and Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms while the Adventurers(Players) raid Icecrown Citadel itself and take out the Lich King.
With the Lich King and Scourge armies destroyed near simultaneously, there's no worries about uncontrolled rampant Scourge. I imagine the united efforts to do this would be 100x more epic than the Battle of Mount Hyjal.
Nolls74 Dec 16th 2009 11:16PM
havn't you guys ever watched a good zombie flick? None of those zombies were ever organized or being directed by a leadership. They were all just a few, then a pack, then a couple hundred, then a few thousand infected zombies moving off pure impulse trying to find food. Now, obviously as we saw during last years Zombie invasion, the Scourge plague spreads much differently than the "traditional" zombie plague...but whose to say that one bite wouldnt turn an NPC or a player into a ghoul in the case of the Lich King losing control and the Scourge running rampant.
My point is, to end my pointless ramblings...if the LK died, that would not automatically = easy to kill Scourge. There is no reason to believe that a single ghoul would be any less deadly post LK than it is now.
RogueJedi86 Dec 17th 2009 12:52AM
Nolls, I didn't say kill them after the Lich King is beat, but at the same time as he is being beaten. The Lich King will be distracted, and taking them out before and during his defeat would ensure they're not all wild and destroying the world after the Lich King is beat. A coordinated assault would be perfect and very much epic.
Plus who wouldn't want to see the Plaguelands, Tirisfal, and Silverpine rebuilt to their former Quel'thalas/Lordaeron pre-Scourge glory?
Angrycelt Dec 17th 2009 4:04AM
As for the scourge running rampant - doesn't anyone remember the chaos of the WotLK pre-launch event? Cities became wastelands, the bodies were everywhere. Zombies flooded everywhere. The only safe place was in the air. Now take that global. Or else imagine the liches and greater scourge creatures forming their own armies, catching all living and undead in the middle of a hundred small wars.
And Arthas' soul/soulless debate. Perhaps removing his heart and placing it in the roots of Icecrown protected it from the corruption that took the rest of his soul. There remains one part, that echo of the innocent child's image, that has not been destroyed. Which only leads to the intentional/accidental debate. Did Arthas do that knowing he was being consumed or was it the act of self-betrayal that Tirion seems to think it was?
I'm so digging this storyline and can't wait for the resolution. I got branches, antlers, and giant bear butt that's got a grudge to settle.
Pyromelter Dec 17th 2009 12:19PM
@Ivan
The fact that people seem to be missing is the little blurb that Uther just sticks in there and doesn't really get much attention:
"I suspect that the piece of Arthas that might be left inside the Lich King is all that holds the Scourge from annihilating Azeroth"
I am well aware of this. It doesn't change the premise of my question. The fact is that before arthas was the lich king, he was just a death knight in service of the lich king, and during that time, when the lich king's powers were weakened, the forsaken gained free will, and last I checked weren't going around mindlessly eating brains of everyone. One could argue that the forsaken may be bad for azeroth overall, due to their own significant atrocities, but you cannot deny that Uther's statement there is just plain wrong - just like he was wrong about Stratholme.
@Nolls"My point is, to end my pointless ramblings...if the LK died, that would not automatically = easy to kill Scourge. There is no reason to believe that a single ghoul would be any less deadly post LK than it is now. "
Only problem with that statement is that the zombies/scourge in Azeroth are only there because of the Lich King (and presumably his necromancers), and not one of those "if you get bitten by a zombie you become a zombie" situations. Anyway you could probably round up every scourge zombie in all of northrend, get a few mages to cast blizzard/flamestrike, and AoE them down in about 10 seconds.
finally...
@Angry "As for the scourge running rampant - doesn't anyone remember the chaos of the WotLK pre-launch event? Cities became wastelands, the bodies were everywhere. Zombies flooded everywhere. The only safe place was in the air. "
That was a coordinated assault by the Lich King, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I guess my premise is that I think Uther is wrong, and I hope he is wrong, because as great a guy as he was, I can't but help thinking that if he had supported arthas at stratholme, things would have turned out differently. Uther was certainly a great man and great paladin, but he utterly failed Arthas in life (and to a certain extain failed Lordaeron by not understanding the scourge menace), and I will be a bit saddened if Bolvar or someone actually does have to take up the throne because of this absolutely dissonant story mechanic. I've still yet to see how Blizzard's loremasters can resolve that type of dissonance, at least to my own satisfaction. All evidence from the story to this point shows that when the Lich King loses control over any of his minions, they turn on him, and don't become genocidal maniacs (Wrathgate Forsaken notwithstanding), and oftentimes become heros for the horde or alliance. I think if Blizz wants to keep scourge in the game, they can find better ways, or at least for cataclysm, make it a pretend type thing where arthas/scourge are still around and as you level up your character it's on their own timeline, catching up to current events at level 85.
Kilseker Dec 16th 2009 8:16PM
The way you guys just scooped up the WoW.com domain is awesome. I don't know why I'm so blown away by this but I am /shrug
Jay Dec 16th 2009 9:45PM
Hmm, not really scooping up, more of a lucky coincidence.
wow.com was registered on January 26 1996, the text above saying it was a portal for AOL I am thinking that they registered the word Wow!!! rather than what it is now WoW
Dont forget that World Of Warcraft is only 5 years old, that is WoW came about 7 years after AOL had this domain name.
Pure luck albeit very happy luck.
Jay Dec 16th 2009 9:49PM
If anyone is wondering... This is what was on Wow.com at the turn of the century, well before World of Warcraft
http://web.archive.org/web/20050407142147/www.wow.com/cs/default.asp
Funny stuff.
Janaa Dec 16th 2009 10:38PM
Lol.. "5 Ways She Rates Your Sex Appeal"
Sorry folks, but I'm fairly sure GearScore wasn't anywhere on that list.
Artificial Dec 17th 2009 3:29PM
@Janaa: It could be. It's pretty clear that when someone goes on about their GearScore, they're overcompensating for some deficiency... ;)
Mr Shinra Dec 16th 2009 8:40PM
Anyone know offhand where the new class combo NPCs can be found? Obviously the dark ranger is in Undercity (and I spotted at least one in Dalaran), but what about any others? I'm curious to just see them in-game :D
arcaneterror Dec 16th 2009 9:38PM
Nelf Mages in Temple of the Moon, Tauren Pallies near Runetotem.
ndelrosso Dec 16th 2009 8:42PM
I’m losing my motivation for WoW. For about 80% of my WoW career I made alts left and right, trying to figure out what class was right for me. Now I’m currently sitting on an 80 Priest, and one of every other classing sitting somewhere between 30-75. After lots of contemplation (and finding out that my one big aspiration, Shadow PvP, is a joke), I realized a warlock would be the best class for my play style, but I just can’t find the steel in myself to repeat the old world quests and zones for about the 8th time. If I bit the bullet and powered him to 80, I wouldn’t enjoy ANY of the repetitive leveling process. But if I waited till Cataclysm, I would get a fresh leveling experience, but would be completely left in the dust as all my friends continued to level and gear on their 80’s. What do I do?
Gemini Dec 16th 2009 8:45PM
Level him through the Dungeon Finder.
uncaringbear Dec 16th 2009 9:08PM
You buy heirloom shoulders and chest to boost your alt's leveling XP gain. It dramatically reduces your leveling time. You can also use the new dungeon tool to run old world dungeons, but I think questing is still far faster for XP.
If you don't have the patience for either of the above, you could always buy an 80 toon from ebay or a gold farming/leveling service :Þ
SpaceGoatPriest Dec 16th 2009 9:11PM
Or level through battlegrounds, since you mention PVP
ndelrosso Dec 16th 2009 9:28PM
I do infact have both the heirloom shoulders and chest..almost the staff....regardless that it in theory cuts 1/5th of leveling time off...it still is extremely mundane and repetitive doing it for the 8th time. I guess thats why they're doing all these changes in Cat, to fix that, but still....should i just keep wasting time on a class that fails in the area ive dreamed of perfecting, until expansion comes? or grit my teeth and have a nice, fresh, shiny pwn-sauce class to roll out once Cat comes along
PvtDeth Dec 16th 2009 9:41PM
Leveling my third 80 was not something I looked forward to. I wanted an 80 shaman, didn't care to mess with a 50-79 shaman. With two heirlooms and battleground experience, it became nearly painless. Now that we have dungeon finder it's even easier.
Also remember flying mounts at 60 and cold weather flying at 70. Quests intended for characters on ground mounts go very, very quickly on gryphonback.
I hit 70 right before I finished Zangarmarsh and 80 about halfway through Dragonblight. Leveling a character now is nothing like it used to be.