The Queue: A plea for help
Somewhere along the line, I've picked up this habit of discussing games I've been playing (besides WoW) as my introduction to The Queue. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's fun. Unfortunately, I'm currently playing Bayonetta and I'm not sure I can really talk about that one here. Just look it up on Youtube, you'll know what I'm talking about. Now before I shame myself any more, let's get to the Q&A.
Reuben asked...
"How does the disenchanting option work? I find that sometimes I can choose disenchant, and other times I can't. What determines the availability of that option?"
You need an enchanter of appropriate skill in your party to disenchant things. If you have no enchanter at all, you can't disenchant anything. If you have an enchanter that hasn't finished leveling the tradeskill, you might be able to disenchant greens but not blues or epics. If they have skilled it up high enough, you'll be able to disenchant anything that drops.
Many people asked...
"Why do people hate the Oculus so much? It's really easy since the nerfs, but people keep dropping group."
I don't think it has anything to do with the difficulty at all. The problem is that the Oculus is completely absent of tried-and-true methods of guiding players through a playing field. It isn't often that bosses wipe raids (besides Eregos), but rather the inability to keep your party going in one direction if someone that's never been there before decides to wander off by themself. They go in a different direction because they're not sure where they're supposed to go, they get jumped by drakes. They cry for help, everyone goes looking for them, people get split up and eventually the mobs pick them off one by one and everyone is falling to their doom.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Blizzard used some very basic visual cues as to where you're supposed to be going, this would not be a problem. Even in games where you're given the illusion of wide open exploration, there are cues guiding you in the direction the game thinks you should be going. The dragon GPS simply saying "kill all robots" is not helpful. The purple glow on the robots themselves? Also not helpful, since you begin this phase of the instance underneath all of those platforms. If you don't know ahead of time what you should be killing, there is nothing guiding you toward them. This isn't a problem in an instance where you're on the ground. In those cases, you go down a hallway or a path or whatever else. In Oculus, you're in a wide open area where you can move in any direction. Players need more direction.
Everyone has been in a group where that scenario I outlined at the beginning of this answer plays out. Nobody has fun in those runs. Some people have more patience for it than others. People with no patience for it drop group. I usually stick it out, but make it very clear that the group should follow whoever has a mark over their head. If they can't follow the person with the mark around when we're all on our drakes, that's a problem and we deal with it when it happens. But dropping group as soon as you get in wastes the time of too many people.
Velleekwitay asked...
"Why are most WoW videos, such as recordings of raids, on Youtube accompanied by bad music? Is there a rule against using the original soundtrack?"
There's no rule against using the original soundtrack, but it's pretty hard to get it out of the game files if you don't know how ahead of time (which actually is against the TOS, isn't it?). Plus, maybe those people like that so-called bad music and are perfectly happy with it. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean nobody likes it. People who have watched my videos here on WoW.com know I like to stick to the game's soundtrack, but now and then I mix it up with some crazy jazz. Not everybody likes it, but I do. I made it, so that's what counts.
Ending with a question for you...
Hey, dear readers! In the near future (not this week, probably not next week) we're going to try to restart our ancient Pimp My Profile feature. If you haven't been reading us long enough to know about it, we essentially take "bad" armory profiles and help people fix them up. Poor gear choices? We'll help you fix that. Bad talent spec? We'll recommend better ones. Same thing with your glyphs, enchants, the whole deal. The problem is that this is a user driven feature dependent on submissions, so we can't start it until you give us something to work with. So if you want our expert opinions on how to fix your character, email us your armory link! Until we have a mailbox set up dedicated to this feature, send your armory submissions to alex @ wow . com, just remove the spaces. Please only submit your own characters, not some random schmuck you found in Ironforge.
In addition, give us as much information about your playstyle as possible. Are you a player that has time to run a single heroic per play period at most? Are you an aspiring raider? Do you have a ton of time on your hands to grind things out? They more you tell us, the more we can tailor our advice to you personally!
Filed under: Enchanting, Analysis / Opinion, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
mourl Jan 7th 2010 8:09PM
can addons affect the character select screen? or any UI from the time you log in at the main title to screen to the point you "enter world" on your character?
vexis58 Jan 7th 2010 8:23PM
No, because addons don't even load until you enter the game world. That's what makes the loading screen take a long time when you have a lot of addons installed.
If it were possible, I'm sure we'd have tons of addons that could reorganize the character select screen and add more information to it by now.
Neuropox Jan 7th 2010 8:32PM
You can get different fonts for it but besides that there are none that im aware of.
morphh1979 Jan 8th 2010 1:52AM
If we want to ask questions to be answered by the "queue" we ask them in here, the comments section? My Question: Do you see Epic mount training coming down in price anytime soon? I have 4 alts and that could get expensive fast.
zweitblom Jan 8th 2010 3:08AM
Not addons as such, but there *are* ways to - uh - 'influence' the appearance of characters on the creation screen. Of course that is against Blizz' TOS and nobody would ever do such a thing.
Vaeku Jan 8th 2010 4:24AM
Fonts are the only thing that can affect anything before you actually load a character.
Scard Jan 7th 2010 8:11PM
I absolutely LOVE that you're doing Pimp My Profile. Hopefully it will get more people thinking about their characters a little more critically.
Bob Dewane Jan 8th 2010 5:25PM
You're kidding, right? All a feature like Pimp My Armory is going to do is ring the dinnerbell for the gear trolls. As an example, someone who doesnt raid but wants to know how to better gear their toon is going to submit their profile. They will, I hope, get some helpful advice. They will also, undoubtedly, get a BIBLICAL FLOOD of responses like, "Duh, n00b! Everyone knows that 25 man Marrowgar drops the bis piece you need for that slot! God N00B, LTPFFS!!!!!"
I forsee more arrogance than help. I hope I'm wrong because I love people who have the courage to ask for help but I HATE how some try to shame those same people into never asking for help again.
AudreyR Jan 7th 2010 8:14PM
So is Korialstrasz/Krasus still a member of the Kirin Tor or what? Is he now Alexstrasza's only consort or has she taken another one since Grim Batol?
Alanid Jan 7th 2010 8:42PM
She has many consorts, but Korialtsraz is her most favoured. Krasus is both a dragon and member of the kirin tor, but his main priorities lie with the dragons atm so he is with them. You know, with the nexus war and all.
Deathknighty Jan 7th 2010 8:15PM
"Please submit your own characters, not some random shmuck you found in Ironforge."
Ooh, the temptation! It makes me squirm! xD
Matthew Jan 7th 2010 11:30PM
HAHAH you made me lol
btw it's spelled schmuck cuz its yiddish.
Not trying to be a schmuck ;)
Heilig Jan 7th 2010 11:46PM
Schmuck is not Yiddish. Neither is Shmuck. Both of them are transliterations from an alphabet that has sounds that our alphabet can't even reproduce. Correcting his spelling is kinda stupid. It's like saying "You spelled KA-POW! wrong."
Reuben Jan 7th 2010 11:49PM
@Heilig
Way to ruin everyone's fun.
Party pooper.
Conio Jan 11th 2010 1:34PM
@Heilig
Actually you don't spell it KA-POW. It's KAPOW, didn't you ever read a comic book? If I could make a big explosion behind it I would.
Deathknighty Jan 9th 2010 12:04PM
@Matthew
Don't worry, you weren't a schmuck. ;)
@All
It was actually just a typo. xD
Rowan Jan 7th 2010 8:15PM
Whats the final, or any word really, on 3.4? I've seen one blue poster hint at something between 3.3 and 4.0, as well as WoW.com also implying or referencing it several times. Then again, I've read elsewhere 3.3 is it and now we're waiting for Cataclysm. What kind of patch would it be anyways? Heaven forbid T11 but, with Arthas coming in a few weeks, and Cataclysm coming who knows when - how is Blizzard going to keep us all entertained those few months?
Volkrin Jan 7th 2010 8:38PM
They claim that ICC will be the final raid, and Arthas the final boss of WotLK. As far as patches containing non-raid content I am unsure. They have said that there will be multiple different pre-launch events for Cataclysm, some of which have already surfaced with the quakes.
Cyrus Jan 8th 2010 7:27AM
They have said many, many times here that there will not be a 3.4. Presumably, if they want to make bug fixes or class balance changes or something before Cataclysm, they will call it 3.3.something, and it will have no new content, just tweaks.
Methuus Jan 8th 2010 9:53AM
Also, I think one reason why Bliz is being cagey about a 3.4 is that its existence, or not, would sort of tell us when Cataclysm is coming.
If there is no 3.4, then Bliz pretty much has to release Cataclysm in the first half of 2010. But if Bliz comes right out and says that they're planning a 3.4, then we can probably expect to wait until the fall for Cataclysm.
So don't expect real confirmation/denial on 3.4 until the Cataclysm release date is announced.