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: Going to a party party
by Michael Sacco 
Dec 17th 2009 at 6:00PM
It's my little brother's birthday today -- fourteen years old, what the heck -- so today's Queue is quick and dirty so I can get the caking and presenting done.
Lochlorien asked...
Will we be able to wield Frostmourne after we defeat Arthas?
Nope, the developers opted not to make Frostmourne an equippable weapon, replacing it as the Icecrown legendary weapon with Shadowmourne.
Shabala asked...
With Deathwing's cataclysm and the reconstruction of the old world, will we be getting new music and a soundtrack for the altered zones?
No indication yet, but we should have more info when Blizzard actually releases some new Cataclysm information. Three months without an update to the Cataclysm site, guys! I know what a slow PR drip is, but that's a little much!
F3rrat asked...
Burning lore question (pun incoming) about Titans, Old Gods, and the Burning Crusade: Where are the first two in the third? Azeroth has Titan strongholds, Draenor has none. Azeroth has eevil old gods, Draenor has none. Come to think of it, does Draenor even have Dragon Aspects?
It's still up in the air whether the Titans were the driving force behind the creation of planets besides Azeroth specifically, so until we hear otherwise, it's safe to assume that Draenor is separate completely from Azeroth's pantheon of good and evil.
Strictly speaking, Draenor could probably use a few Aspects to keep the place duct-taped together, but knowing what's been happening with Aspects lately, maybe that's not such a good idea.
Mooma asked...
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?
Correct -- you will not be placed in a group with anyone on your ignore list, even if they're from a different server.
Darthregis asked...
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?
Blizzard's response to this question was (paraphrased):
"We wanted to improve the early game and the endgame significantly, and having half the normal extra expansion levels to deal with meant that much more development time could be placed into those two specific areas of the expansion."
The questing experience to endgame in each expansion has historically been a race to get to max level anyway, and we anticipate that 80-85 will take about as long as 70-80 anyway. It's just numbers.
JoJa asked...
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!
Patience, grasshopper. We got a ton of applications for each position and it'll be a little bit before we can come to a decision on who's the best fit for the site.
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: The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 7)
Malfural Dec 17th 2009 6:36PM
Weren't the Arrakoa trying to summon something that looked like an Old God in Shadowmoon Valley?
Not sure why Draenor would be exactly the same as Azeroth anyway though.
Janaa Dec 17th 2009 6:43PM
Yes, and another example is Terrok. They certainly have different gods on Draenor, but they are there.
Fletcher Dec 17th 2009 9:28PM
There's the Raven in Blade's Edge as well. The Arakkoa definitely like to meddle with things they should know better than to do.
Edge Dec 17th 2009 6:37PM
When a cross realm group wipes and has to get back to the instance from outside, which version of the "outside" are we in? What I mean is, outside the instance, are we all together on one of the servers, or does each person go back out to their own servers "outside" area, and then come back into the same instance? Or is this a whole new area just for these 5 particular people? Also, I never tried it, but what happens when you just revive at the graveyard there instead of going back inside as a ghost?
Janaa Dec 17th 2009 6:45PM
You are "outside" on your own server. You can see the others on your minimap simply because they are in the same group as you. If you revive at the graveyard, you can still zone back into the instance as normal, and will be placed back in the cross-realm dungeon. But really - why would you take res sickness in the middle of a dungeon? :)
serrif Dec 17th 2009 6:49PM
I suspect the same thing happens as would happen if you zoned out of the dungeon: you'd get teleported to where you jumped into the dungeon from.
Nick Dec 17th 2009 6:40PM
Any word on the Creative headsets?
I wanted to buy one for a friend for Christmas, but it's not looking possible at this point.
Mr Shinra Dec 17th 2009 6:41PM
This probably is a bit presumptuous to ask at this point in time, but the 5-level question has me wondering: Since Deathwing's been built up to be all big bad and with a very high power level (+9k), what are the estimated chances that the (eventual) fight against him, will be a return to the old-style 40-person raids that the game hasn't seen since the days of Ahn'Qiraj?
Considering that the mere act of him ENTERING THE WORLD caused half the world to explode, I don't think 25 people will be enough; and that's assuming he would fight a bunch of tiny mortal insects (from his point of view) alone.
Janaa Dec 17th 2009 6:51PM
Blizzard reported just this past week that they have no intention to return to 40-man raids, therefore it's likely it'll only be 25-man.
RogueJedi86 Dec 17th 2009 7:22PM
Mr Shinra, people said the same thing about Icecrown Citadel before WotLK came out. "He's the frikkin Lich King, why don't we need 40 people to kill him?!". Hell, Shinra, let's go further. Deathwing is a badass, why not make a 100-MAN RAID? Why limit yourself at 40? He's gonna be 10/25 either way, but why limit yourself to a 40 man raid for his lore importance?
PvtDeth Dec 17th 2009 8:04PM
The number of players is entirely irrelevant. It's an arbitrary mechanic anyway. The raids are set at 10 and 25 because those are levels that are easier to manage socially. In a 40-man raid many of the players are not providing significant contributions to the end goal anyway.
When World of Warcrafat first started, there was debate about raid size; older mmos had 100 man raids, again an arbitrary number. Personally I believe that's why there are so many NPCs running around in raids and 5-mans nowadays, to give it more of an epic feel.
Remember, when we go in and assault a boss, we're not the whole army; there are hundreds of others backing us up. When I was in the Marines we had about 10 support people for each Marine in front-line combat. Being hero demi-gods, I assume we have much higher numbers of regular grunts backing us up.
lawnmowerasassin Dec 17th 2009 8:16PM
Well, with the Lich King, they're going to chalk his death up to the KotEB + Argent Crusade, and group of adventurers with them. I'd imagine we'll see some kind of offshoot of The Earthen Ring as the primary "focus" of the Cataclysm. We'll probably fight Deathwing alongside Thrall and another similar army.
Ves Dec 17th 2009 8:20PM
Blizzard's show time and time again It's not how many players defeat the threat, it's who's fighting alongside the players. Illy, KJ, Maly, Yoggy and inevitably Arthas
As for who exactly will fight alongside us against Deathwing, my best guess is Therazane.
Mr Shinra Dec 17th 2009 8:30PM
Wow, I didn't expect such impassioned responses! Well one of you mentioned that the raid size is merely for game mechanics, but I've also heard from Blizzard that gameplay comes before lore.
As for '40', I used that number, as it has been established previously as the highest number of players in a raid, I was not aware that older MMOs had 100-player based combat scenarios when I asked the question.
I guess the move towards NPCs assisting superficially with the fight might continue on. I was also thinking that blizzard might make a return to 40-man raids to increase the significance of how powerful this dragon is, and that it takes more people to take him down, but seeing as how a 40man raid is not an option apparently, then I suppose my question is no longer relevant!
At any rate, thanks for the replies :)
Moskau Dec 17th 2009 6:43PM
Is the title for this weeks "The Queue" A reference to the German Sparkle Party video on YouTube?
Because if so, I need to break out my rubber boots and party pants.
Bunnah Dec 17th 2009 6:53PM
/whisper Moskau Sparkle party, sparkle party..
Avrielle Dec 17th 2009 6:47PM
Is Blizzard adding additional instances at lower levels in Cataclysm? With the new random dungeon tool, they've become much easier to do, but running Maraudon over and over can get a bit boring.
Janaa Dec 17th 2009 6:51PM
They're all there, but if you don't see Deadmines or Shadowfang Keep, etc, it means you've levelled too far past them. You can't select dungeons more than 10 levels below you in Dungeon Finder. They simply don't show up.
Bunnah Dec 17th 2009 6:55PM
I think Avrielle means will there be new 1-60 dungeons ADDED with Cataclysm? Just to introduce some new flavor for leveling up new characters.
Janaa Dec 17th 2009 6:58PM
Ah - no specific word on that, except that we'll have one less - ShadowFang Keep is being transformed to a level 80 dungeon. Whether it'll be winged and the old dungeon will still be available remains to be soon. It's entirely possible it's being deleted altogether and the dungeon entirely reworked.