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 7 of 7)
Caellhen Dec 17th 2009 5:39AM
In luck of a better place, I would like to ask a question about wow+netbooks:
Is there any tested netbook for basic wow usage (non raid, etc)? How about FPS?
Admittions: a) Laptops are better, b) mid-January the next gen of graphic cards comes out, c) price should be reasonable for netbook (
Ian Dec 17th 2009 6:07AM
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.
In my experience you have to clear all of the bosses in the dungeon to get the complete status, my first dungeon of the day was HoS and they missed out 2 bosses and I didn't get my badges. :(
Cyrus Dec 17th 2009 7:19AM
"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?"
Argh. No offense to whoever asked the question, but this KEEPS ON COMING UP, and the answer has always been the same, and it's annoying. No. Goblins will not be a neutral playable faction, nor will furbolgs, nor will any particular class. It won't happen. There is no reason to expect it and dozens of reasons not to, and while the idea of anything so radically new might seem enticing at first, there's really just not much potential to it. Stop asking.
Why won't there be anything neutral playable? Just for starters, because it would require radical revisions of the existing game, much more even than Cataclysm will. Would the neutrals be allowed access to both sides, or neither, or the Alliance in one zone and the Horde in another, or what? Would it vary on an NPC by NPC basis? And more importantly, because Blizzard makes it very clear that they like the us vs. them setup. It existed even in the RTS games, albeit with different alliances. Sometimes the storyline seems contrived, but it has never gone away. And because it would be a huge advantage in PvP, another thing that has always been part of WoW. And because there's really no reason for it. What's the point? Plenty of important characters in the lore (Tirion, Alexstraza, Malfurion, all the bosses of every dungeon) already are bipartisan, and almost all the rest have equivalents about which there's plenty of room for argument about which is better. Both are idiots in equal amounts. (Jaina trying to redeem Arthas vs. Sylvanas trusting a dreadlord...) So basically, neither faction is missing out on anything right now.
I guess three expansions down the line, Blizzard might announce something like this and I'll have egg on my face, but I really, really doubt it. Until someone sees actual evidence, and by that I mean evidence stronger than "that was a neutral hero in Warcraft III" (just like Rexxar's Beastmaster class, and naga witches, and PIT LORDS), please stop asking.
Mooma Dec 17th 2009 7:53AM
Now that we can ignore cross-realm players (if I read the patch notes right), I would like to know whether ignoring a player means you won't get put in a random PuG with them?
Valt Dec 17th 2009 8:02AM
It wont put you in group with ignored people, cross server or own.
Nzz-Oonas Dec 17th 2009 9:12AM
I keep hearing people on podcasts talk about gearing up their characters in "full tier 9". I always thought when someone spoke of full tier anything they meant the set gear that drops in raids. I don't see any tier set gear on the triumph badge vendors so how are people getting "full tier 9" gear with just badges?
taristo Dec 17th 2009 10:45AM
you may buy all 5 pieces of T9 from vendors at the argent tourney.
The are standing in-front-of the raid portal.
Wolftech Dec 17th 2009 9:39AM
@Jay
You just fear we gnomes because once we get a priest, we will no longer have need of any of you tall folks ever again. All Gnome raids and all gnome guilds FTW.
Word to my gnomies.
Darthregis Dec 17th 2009 10:04AM
I don't know if this has been asked yet, but why are we only getting 5 more levels with Cataclysm as opposed to 10 like the last two expansions?
VSUReaper Dec 17th 2009 10:14AM
Prolly a little late to be tossing this question out there, but here goes:
If a prot warrior is designed to be 100% a melee class, with no magic abilities what so ever, then why do I need 17% hit rating or a major glyph to make my taunts 100% unresistable/unmissable, and not the expected 8%?
I could almost understand the 17% for DK's and Pallies, b.c they are using shadow and holy (respectively) damage to taunt the target, but warriors are 100% physical (and bear druids for that point as well)
I basically caused 3 wipes last night on Deathbringer Saurfang for the simple fact that I have 8% hit and not 17%, so taunts were being missed and resisted.
Dave Dec 17th 2009 11:15AM
Is there any kind of 3.0->3.3 super patch out there somewhere? Or, if installing the game fresh from the Wrath DVD, am I stuck burning a copy of all the patches to another DVD and installing them one at a time?
(I plan on trying to get some of my family playing over the holidays.)
Siaperas Dec 17th 2009 12:29PM
I don't know if you'll get this, but here's a shot.
Deathwing was first introduced Warcraft 2: Beyond the Darkportal expansion. This was the first time players saw Draenor/Outland, and they were also introduced to Turalyon, Alleria, Khadgar, Danath Trollbane, Ner'zhul, Grom Hellscream, Kargath Bladefist, and Teron Gorfiend.
During Warcraft 2, Alterac is actually run by Aiden Perenolde. He decides to help the Horde, and in the Alliance campaign this is discovered and you go in and lay down the law. During the expansion, Alterac helps out the Horde again, and it's after this that Perenolde is finally removed from the throne by the Alliance.
The Prestor character, who is a visually perfect human male, was I believe first introduced in the Day of the Dragon novel. He claims to be from Alterac so that he has more claim to the throne there as he's winning over the hearts of the Alliance leaders. He did this to get a stronger foothold in Alliance politics for the ultimate purpose of weakening and destroying the Alliance. Fortunately, after Deathwing was defeated in Day of the Dragon, prestor disappears from the political arena and hasn't been seen since.
The closest thing to a prestor to exist in game has been Lady Katrina Prestor, Onyxia, in Stormwind. She used the same tactics her father employed in politics: be extremely flawless in appearance and use subtle hypnotic spells to get what you want.
All the details about link between the Demon Soul, Alexstraza, and the Dragonmaw were only hinted in the game and explored in the novels. All the details about Deathwing meddling in mortal politics is also in the novels. Just more info to help whoever is interested. :)
JoJa Dec 17th 2009 1:16PM
For the Queue: When are we going to get to meet the new Priest and Hunter columnists? Deadline was a week ago people, I got faces to melt!
F3rrat Dec 17th 2009 1:32PM
Hm... maybe. You're right though, there are some hints that Titans didn't create *everything*. Thanks for taking the time to respond! :)
spamofchaz Dec 17th 2009 3:59PM
Any talk from Blizzard about them removing the 'no need on off armor' rule for LFG PUGs? As a Boomkin (and sometimes Tree), I liberally incorporate cloth into my gear because, well, there isn't that much boomkin leather in the game aside from tier sets.
If I'm running with a clothy, I'll always let them have priority (even +hit gear for a healing priest, I'm just nice that way), but if there are no clothies, or if they don't want the gear, why should it be sharded when it can be used (oftentimes right then and there for the benefit of the group)?
Nik Dec 17th 2009 5:38PM
On regards to the race-changing at the start of Cataclysm. I think that Blizzard will allow people to change to the new races/class combinations at start.
Then with the 'realm first' achievements; what Blizzard can do is track the original race of the character and only give you the achievement if that is your original race.
So say that I change my Tauren warrior to a Goblin warrior and he is the first goblin to get to 85. He would not get the achievement because goblin is not his original race, Tauren was. He also would not get the Tauren achievement since he is now not a Tauren.
But then again, this is Blizzard. So I really don't know what they will do.