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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: The new standard
by Adam Holisky 
Dec 30th 2009 at 3:00PM
That's a picture of my hunter above. She can use some better gear, and hopefully this weekend it'll be her turn to get decked out in tier 9. It's just so easy and fun. Plus I really like the idea of all my 80's having their tier 9 shoulders to look at on the loading screen. That's not strange, is it?
Saberix asked...
"Is tier 9 gear the new standard in gear? Am I going to be teased if I don't have it?"
While I think the answer deserves at least an article or two written about it, I'd say yes, tier 9 has developed into the new standard of gear upon which everyone is judged off of. I know that from a mechanical perspective tier 9 is far from necessary to run everything but Icecrown Citadel, and is most certainly not necessary for heroics. Yet when I go into a heroic and see a tank with less than 40,000 HP, part of me sighs and wishes for a new one, even though a 30,000 HP tank is going to do just fine.
The standard is irrational, and doesn't really do WoW any good. But nonetheless, it's something people have to deal with. One way to deal with it is to get your tier 9 shoulders as quickly as possible, those 30 badges are pretty easy to obtain. Once you've gotten them people will just look at you briefly and say "oh, tier 9 shoulders, good to go." Of course if they're using something like gear score (which is equally ridiculous as any tier 9 standard), then they might see otherwise.
The other thing to remember is that when people complain, just ignore them. If you're doing 1500 DPS in a heroic, then you're ready for the heroic. If you're not, then take a look at your rotation and spend some time on the practice dummy. If you still can't hit 1500 DPS, take a look at your gear and see what's missing. I've been able to pull 1500 DPS using level 70 Black Temple / Sunwell / Archimonde gear, so it's not too hard to hit. If you do need some gear, check the AH for a couple BoE level 80 blues and epics, and don't forget to roll need on any blues from heroics that can help you. Then when people complain that you're not in tier 9, you can just say "Since when do heroics require more than 1500 DPS?"
People will usually stop complaining after that.
Finally, remember too that this won't be an issue in six months or so when Cataclysm is out.
Averrex asked...
"What's the defense cap?"
Defense has a soft cap of 540. It's "soft" because defense still is useful after 540, just not an absolute necessary. If you don't have 540 defense though, you'll get yourself crit by raid boss mobs, and that's no fun. It's pretty easy to get these days with tier 9 gear, so it shouldn't be as big of an issues as it once was. The defense soft cap really don't apply for druids either, since they're talented into being uncritable.
Logan asked...
"When is Cataclysm going to release? Do you have any leaks?"
We know that Cataclysm is going to release in 2010, but not any specific time-frame therein. In other words, we do not know an exact date. Sites like Amazon are not listing the correct date, the just list something so they can get you to pre-order the game. When the release date is finally leaked or announced, trust me, you'll hear it here right away.
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, Blizzard, The Queue, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 8)
Joshua Ochs Dec 30th 2009 3:25PM
@RetadinMan
No, but we hear about the Friends and Family alphas once they're running. Little bits leak out well before beta. We haven't seen a whisper of it yet.
@Ringo
I see you failed at Google.
snowleopard233 Dec 30th 2009 3:26PM
If so, there going o have to give us something to gnaw on in the meantime. That’s almost a year we’d have to wait before new content being released. I suppose the timed releases of ICC’s wings helps to alleviate this, but I don’t see how that’s going to get us past even Q1 of 2010. There’s been mention of a smaller patch coming out before CAT’s release, but still. I think November will be an awful long time to wait.
Joshua Ochs Dec 30th 2009 3:27PM
@Ringo
http://www.wow.com/2006/10/24/burning-crusade-delay-reaction-roundup/
There, you don't even have to Google now. Sheesh.
Al Dec 30th 2009 3:29PM
How do you know there's no Alpha yet?
Joshua Ochs Dec 30th 2009 3:42PM
@Al
http://www.google.com/search?q=burning+crusade+alpha
http://www.wow.com/2006/08/23/burning-crusade-alpha-test/
http://www.wow.com/2008/04/10/breaking-wrath-of-the-lich-king-is-in-alpha/
Burning Crusade we only had a few months' warning. Wrath was in alpha testing over seven months in advance. We've seen nothing like this for Cataclysm, only tech demos and starting zones.
Clevins Dec 30th 2009 3:43PM
Retadinman -
As noted, we hear about the F&F alpha. The Blizzcon build was no more an alpha that the TBC Blizzcon build was.
Also, don't forget that the Wrath beta was about 4 months long - so we'd need to see alpha in January, beta in March to hit a date 6 months from now, OR we'd need to see a much shorter alpha/beta cycle. The latter is possible of course.... but PTR cycles seem about the same length as ever, so I'm not seeing evidence for shorter test cycles.
Yet, of course, everyone's right - a year on 3.3 would be a long time, rather like the time between BT and Sunwell.... oh, hold on... :)
Slog Dec 30th 2009 4:02PM
Maybe I am remembering wrongly, but I could have sworn I've read a cpl interviews where Blizzard stated that their goal was to have a new exp out every year, and while that wasn't possible before, it was their goal ultimately.
Am I the only one recalling these similar words being spoken?
Darksky Dec 30th 2009 4:13PM
Also, remember that WotLK was intended to be launched much earlier. At least back in the earlier days of TBC. The entirety of the 2.4 content patch was an unplanned stop-gap measure because WotLK was taking longer than expected to wrap up. Otherwise, WotLK would have dropped respectively soon after 2.3 came out.
The whole "November" pattern is just coincidence, not strategy. Sorry.
Cataca Dec 30th 2009 6:12PM
BC Alpha Aug 23-06 (63 days later)
BC Beta Oct 25-06 (41 days later)
Patch 2.0 Dec 5-06 (42 days later)
BC Release Jan 16-07 (126 days later)
Patch 2.1 May 22-07 (175 days later)
Patch 2.3 Nov 13-07 (133 days later)
Patch 2.4 Mar 25-08 (16 days later)
Wrath Alpha Apr 10-08 (98 days later)
Wrath Beta Jul 17-08 (89 days later)
Patch 3.0 Oct 14-08 (30 days later)
Wrath Release Nov 13-08 (152 days later)
Patch 3.1 Apr 14-09 (112 days later)
Patch 3.2 Aug 4-09 (126 days later)
Patch 3.3 Dec 8-09 (28 days later)
Cata Alpha *Jan 5-10 (79 days later)
Cata Beta *Mar 25-10 (68 days later)
Patch 4.0 *Jun 1-10 (36 days later)
Cata Release *Jul 9-10
*Based on the average amount of time it took them to release content for previous expansions, these are my best guesses as to when Cataclysm content will release. (Though Turpster guessed Jul 16-10) I'm pretty sure I've at least got it nailed to within 30 days or so baring no unexpected set backs.
With my guess of Jul 9-10 there is a 7 month duration between ICC and Cataclysm. That is already a long wait. With your guess of Nov 2010 there is an 11 month duration between content. I don't know about you but I'm gonna get bored if I have to farm ICC for 11 months before Cataclysm comes out.
ecwfrk Dec 30th 2009 6:53PM
The way Blizz does it they have the pre-alpha stage where they start putting things together into a playable game where pretty much only the dev team is involved.
Once they reach a certain point, the game is then released in an Alpha limited to Blizz employees.
Later, as things progress and they're ready to start play testing a large amount of the content they open the internal alpha to Friends and Family which is an Internal Employee program where Blizz employees can invite friends and family members to help test.
After that is the closed Beta, which is usually rolled out in numerous waves to an increasing number of people, where the public can start testing.
Then at the end they usually have a public beta which is mostly used for stability testing under load and really is more a preview of the release than a Beta.
The F&F Alpha is usually the first milestone that gets leaked to the public. Until that point, we have no clue about where they are in the development cycle and can't even begin to make an informed guess on a release date.
martustheswordsman Dec 30th 2009 8:11PM
Technically its not a delay. A release date was never anounnounced. Shops guessed, players speculated.
How can you delay something that was never given a release date?
Q4 2006 was an estimation, nothing solid.
---A comment from taken verbatim from your link...
Wolftech Dec 30th 2009 7:24PM
@Joshua Ochs
You are forgetting one important factor... Blizzard was its own company when those projects were started/came to fruition. Now they are part of a larger conglomerate that have more of a stake of 'when its done' than just blizzard. Besides, as much as I love WoW, it is getting long in the tooth and there are some young lions in the bush stalking the old alpha male of the MMO world. Most notably, The Old Republic Star Wars MMORPG. While it wont be a WoW killer (I think WoW will be dominant in the MMORPG realm for many more years, or at least until updated with WoW2), it will put a significant financial dent into the Activision-Blizzard conglomerate and the corporate suits will not be one to want to have a competitor launch one of the most anticipated MMOs for a while with one of the biggest IPs on the planet with some sort of response to steal the thunder.
talkingmike Dec 30th 2009 3:08PM
Only a six month wait for Cataclysm is a bit of a gratuitous estimate, don't you think?
ZMES_Matt Dec 30th 2009 3:51PM
Possibly. Who knows? I don't think it's unreasonable though.
It is faster than what Blizzard has done in the past (8 months from the release of Sunwell to the release of Wrath), but Blizzard has also said that they're trying to release content faster. Also note that from a marketing perspective, 6 months from now would be the beginning of summer, which is when a lot of people have extra spare time to play, where as 8 months from now is when summer starts winding down; I suppose that could just be wishful thinking though. *shrug*
Darksky Dec 30th 2009 4:39PM
@ZMES_Matt,
I've thought quite often that early summer would be the ideal time to release an expansion, at least from the PvE side of things. While true that many people, especially younger folks, do have more free time then with school letting out, it's also the time when more folks are out on vacation or spending less time indoors on the computer, so it's quite often the most difficult time of the year for dedicated, scheduled raiding. Once folks start coming back in at the end of the summer, raiding schedules are easier to put together. However, it's a great time for those that can get on & play to go out & do solo/small group questing.
So, get people out casually leveling up during summer, and typically right about the time they hit level cap & are ready to hit heroics/raiding, they're coming back indoors for autumn anyway and are available more regularly.
Chris Anthony Dec 30th 2009 5:40PM
I recall, also - although I can't place the quote now - that Blizzard said at Blizzcon '09 that they wanted to get Cataclysm out before Blizzcon '10. That points to a summer release.
I agree that it's pretty fast - but they also seem to have quite a bit of it finished, so I'll choose to be hopeful rather than a curmudgeon. :)
ROB13 Dec 30th 2009 3:08PM
With Mike and The Turpster gone, are we still going to get our WoW Bedtime Story? The Orphans need their rest...
Avrus Dec 30th 2009 3:10PM
40k unbuffed on a warrior? o.O over 40k buffed yes, but over 40k unbuffed I think you've set the bar way too high.
I would expect a sufficiently mitigation geared warrior to be around 34k - 37k unbuffed.
But that's just me.
johnthediver Dec 30th 2009 3:34PM
This makes me sad, as my warrior alt only has 27k health unbuffed, I can hit 35k in heroics with the right combo of buffs. But it seems lately even buying emblem gear I can't get any more health.
garetjax.ironman Dec 30th 2009 3:44PM
You are correct. The auther should have thought that one out a bit more or re-stated it as "buffed to 40,000". I have two tanks, one a warrior with at gear score of 4711 and I'm 36,000 unbuffed buffing out in a good 5 man to 45,000. My Paladin with a gear score of 4480 is unbuffed at 34,000 and buffs to just over 40,000 in 5 man heroics. For someone to be unbuffed at 40,000 or higher they would have to be decked out in gear all i-lvl 251 or higher and would need at least 4 pieces of the best tier for thier class.
SteeJans