Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 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 5 of 7)
uncaringbear Dec 17th 2009 11:06PM
Currently, BoA items may only be mailed to your same-faction toons on your own realm. There has been word that Blizzard may change that in the future, but for now, those restrictions apply.
Arednel Dec 18th 2009 4:09AM
Actually you can mail across faction but only on the same realm and ONLY heirloom BoA items. Just send them via normal mail (I didn't try putting any text in) you won't be able to automatically select the name so make sure you type it right. It'll transfer over straight away, no 1 hour wait.
JoJa Dec 17th 2009 8:59PM
Thank You Queue! I will bide my time . . . for now.
Metatron Dec 17th 2009 9:49PM
I've got a couple of questions:
1) Are there any plans of expanding the WoW enterprise to other consoles such as Playstation, X-Box. I've heard that Warcraft 2 was made avaiable for PS, but I don't think any other Warcraft game had it. If there aren't any plans like this is there any particular reason Blizzard doesn't want to move into this lucrative market?
2) With all this new changes made to BGs and LFG, making them cross-realm, are there any plans to make Auction Houses cross-realm too. Can you tell me the merits and demerits of such a change? (sorry if this one sounds like something you'd get in an economics test :D)
((p.s: bet you can write nary a sentence making fun of me in the next queue))
PvtDeth Dec 17th 2009 11:06PM
Warcraft 2 was on Playstation and Starcraft was on Nintendo 64. They were both horrible. The graphics were perfectly ported, the big mistake was the interface. A controller is a horrible way to play an RTS. (There are some innovative solutions; this is a general statement.) There's a reason most strategy games on console are turn-based. There are keyboard/mouse setups for consoles but this is actually only part of the problem.
The average player may not have realized it at the time, but the real failure of that console experiment was in the player-base. Console players are a different demographic than pc players. Obviously there's considerable overlap and no generalization is true of any group as a whole, but marketing takes a close look at these things.
Starcraft ghost seemed very promising: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft:_Ghost Whether it was killed because of development problems or for marketing reasons remains unclear. Blizzard has made it clear that it just doesn't feel like it fits in to the console model of gaming. I for one am glad. I've been a pc gamer for a bit longer than I've been a console gamer (NES and Commodore-64) and I'm very glad that there's a strong presence keeping pc gaming alive. That it's the biggest name in gaming only sweetens the deal.
(By the way, I use pc to mean personal computer, not IBM legacy compatible machine. I reluctantly include Justin Long fans in the pc gaming community.)
One noteworthy exception: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/
I can't wait.
placebo Dec 18th 2009 3:06PM
Warcraft II was also on the Saturn, wasn't a bad port but PCs are still better.
"A controller is a horrible way to play an RTS"
I agree, because the only exception I can find where the console port of a RTS was better than the PC variant is Dune: The Battle for Arrakis on the Genesis - versus Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty
sead Dec 17th 2009 9:56PM
Question for the Queue (or anyone that can Answer):
Does the "Raid Browser" Tool work in the same way the new Dungeon Finder Tool work? i.e. can you port into the raid directly?
Thanks
SpaceGoatPriest Dec 18th 2009 2:13PM
You know, I have not tested that. I want to say it does not, since it is just on your realm only. I plan on doing the weekly raid tonight, and I will see if it works.
Daniel Dec 17th 2009 9:58PM
Since Cataclysm was announce, one new feature has stood out to me, the Path of the Titan, basically a glyph system on top of the existing one from what I can tell. What i was wondering since will it focus more on class skills like increased crit damage on a warrior's MS, or more passive bonus like increased overall damage by 2%?
Lornicide Dec 17th 2009 10:47PM
The question about ignoring players across realms brings up an interesting question....
I know for a fact that, for some of my toons, their names exist on other servers. Are names unique on a server? or are they unique across a battlegroup?
I was just thinking, if I put "John" on my ignore list, how will the system know which "John" I meant to ignore?
PvtDeth Dec 17th 2009 11:16PM
If you put "John," it will ignore John on your server. If you're in an instance with John-Blackwater Raiders, John-Shu'halo, and John-Echo Isles and right click on one of their names to ignore, you will see "John-Echo Isles," etc. in your list.
Lemons Dec 17th 2009 11:04PM
"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."
People don't like change and I'm one of those people. Having a number that ends in 5 being the "max level" just feels weird. If it's going to take the same amount of time as 70-80 did, then why not just make it 80-90?
PvtDeth Dec 17th 2009 11:24PM
It's likely that it only feels weird because it's different. Different RPGS have level caps of 20, 40, 60, 99, 100, or 255. Getting used to any of those and changing would be weird, too.
If 80-85 takes about the same time as 70-80, each level will take about twice as long. Blizzard has stated that it wants gaining a level to be a big deal again. In classic, after about level 30 or so, each level gained felt like a real accomplishment. It took serious time and effort. That started eroding with BC.
I, personally, think it's a good change.
lawaryeneth Dec 18th 2009 1:44AM
Don't quote me on this, but I remember Blizzard saying that they would really like to avoid having a level cap above 100, and part of the reason for having the level cap this time be 85 was to leave themselves room for more expansions before they hit their self-imposed hardcap of 100.
Larithen Dec 18th 2009 5:26AM
If you look, the answer is in the post:
" 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"
If they had to make the levels from 80-90 then they'd effectively have to make another Northrend, as it is they are only doing 5 levels and (I may have remembered this wrong) there's only 2 new areas in which to level from 80-85. Meaning, as the post says, they have ALOT more time to make those areas and all other changes to the world, as neat and polished as possible.
RobMan Dec 17th 2009 11:15PM
Ok..im not that great with phones so this might be common sense, but..
Are the Apps of the Armory only available for ipod/iphone?
Or can i get it on a different phone?
I have a Samsung Impression, if that means anything.
artifex Dec 17th 2009 11:40PM
"It's just numbers."
It also means we can still get xp/soulshards at the new endgame from the level 80 regular mobs we see at the beginning of the new expansion, as well as farming Icecrown mobs for part of the way. And, more importantly, we still have some hit/spell hit chance on some of the starter endgame stuff when we start as 80s, which is good for LFG reasons.
Bronwyn Dec 18th 2009 1:50AM
Keep in mind they are changing the soul shard mechanic so that will be moot ;-)
artifex Dec 18th 2009 2:25AM
Oh, good point!
What am I gonna do with all my old soul bag patterns? :)
artifex Dec 17th 2009 11:48PM
"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."
Wonder if he got a gift certificate to Hot Topic :)