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
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 7)
Hubuly Jan 7th 2010 11:39PM
I don't think the system works for all levels though, on my level 37 warrior I had a mage ninja-need herod's shoulder from me trying to sell it to me.
He then realized you can't trade money in there and decided to be "nice" and just give it to me
Eric Jan 7th 2010 8:28PM
I know this has been asked a million times before but last time we were given info on the Creative headsets they were supposed to be out at the end of December. Wow.com gave away hundreds of them so I assume they are in a usable form so what is taking so long, any ideas?
Chris Anthony Jan 7th 2010 8:29PM
The trouble with Pimp My Profile is that it's very easy for it to turn into "here's a best-in-slot list, kid, have fun". There's not much you can do when there's a set of gear and talents that the Real Players (note massive sarcasm caps) has decided is The Best - recommending anything else is going to get you mocked roundly (even if it's undeserving). And "but this guy does one heroic a week!" will get "just buy badge gear n00b".
At best, this is self-denigration ("yeah, my gear sucks"). At worst it's a way to harass and be cruel to other players who are just doing the best they know how (if you rely on reader honesty and don't make an alt on the submitted character's realm to say "hey, did you submit yourself to Pimp My Profile on WOW.com?"). Either way I don't think it's a good idea.
UndeadReaperz Jan 7th 2010 8:34PM
Please don't take this the wrong way but i find that many people just suck at wow and don't like a challenge. Fair enough occ has been mega nerfed but for a first timer it's just as hard as hor. Thus some people need to come out of their little shell and try something differnt. Dare i say come out of their parent's basement? Think of it as constructive critizicsm. Sorry mind my spelling, typeing from a iphone isn't as easy as naxx10
velutina Jan 7th 2010 8:33PM
Is there a mod that will turn my action bar into a customizable grid of action buttons? I've gotten a Logitech G13 for Christmas and I want to lay out my action buttons in the same configuration as the buttons on the G13 (4 rows of 7 buttons). I may just be an add-on noob, but I can't figure out how to do this.
Chris Anthony Jan 7th 2010 8:37PM
Try Bartender; it sounds like just what you want.
Magma Jan 7th 2010 9:00PM
Bartender 4
Best bar mod hands down
Piper Jan 7th 2010 10:49PM
Dominos is also pretty good. It's sort of six of one, half dozen of the other. One may be more lightweight, and I have better luck configuring Dominos than Bar4, but, YMMV.
velutina Jan 9th 2010 9:06AM
Bartender 4 did the trick. Thanks guys!
By the way, what ever happened the Reader UI column?
Chris Anthony Jan 9th 2010 4:44PM
@velutina, I believe they're hiring a new columnist to take over the Reader UI column, among other duties.
alpha5099 Jan 7th 2010 9:05PM
I've been doing some research on getting Loremaster, and I've noticed something strange: virtually every quest in Uldaman does not count toward Loremaster. Almost every other quest for every other old world dungeon counts towards Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms, so what's the deal with Uldaman?
Croe Jan 7th 2010 9:06PM
Does anyone know what of DPS an elemental shaman should be putting out in ICC?
I was putting out 3-4 k in the first boss right (after running and targeting bone spikes) and was told I was way too low and kicked from the group.
How does one actually fix this if the only gear you can get to upgrade is from frost emblems that can only be had over a period of weeks.
Any hints would be appreciated.
Jimson Jan 7th 2010 9:27PM
I play a lock, I raid with mages and spriests (and of course, other locks). On 10 man ranged never really gets above 5k or 6k, I personally did 5.4k last time I was there and was thrilled. I'd recommend dpsing him as he whirls around (unless of course he is heading right at you) and making a macro that says "/tar bone" for the bone spikes, for faster switching.
Puntable Jan 8th 2010 2:15PM
Ignore the bone spikes. Shooting at them lowers your DPS on the boss. Who cares if your raid wipes? DPS is more important that killing the boss.
noway Jan 7th 2010 9:15PM
Terrible answer to the Oculus question. You write 3 long paragraphs and fail to mention the unpopularity of vehicles in WoW in general? While the answer is not necessarily false it is most definately incomplete. While I'm sure there are people who don't like the Oculus because of what you've mentionned I would say that most people dislike Oculus mostly because of those damn clunky stupid "vehicle" fights.
I did NOT level from 1 to 80, learning all the details of my class so that a dungeon can remove all those options from me and force me to use a simple set of 3 new abilities that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the class I chose... I'm sorry but I just don't see anything fun about that. Add to that that the "vehicle" mechanic in WoW is probably one of the worst programmed vehicle system I've seen in any game so far...NOT FUN! (to me)
Bubsa Jan 7th 2010 9:56PM
This. Forced vehicle combat. No thanks =
Unpopular dungeon
Moo Jan 8th 2010 3:48PM
Agreed 1000% regarding vehicle combat. I like the idea in something like Wintergrasp, or as part of a (hopefully optional) quest-line, etc., for those who actually like it, but I'd greatly prefer to just play my character.
This is why I hate getting OCC. It's not the time or the difficulty or anything else, it's having to fight on that stupid drake with 2 and a half spam abilities.
I understand that others may like to mix it up and may really enjoy vehicle combat, but it's just not for me in this context. If I get bored with my toon, I just go play an alt (or something else for awhile).
Starsmore Jan 7th 2010 9:14PM
Regarding Oculus...
Pre-loot-buff, I was getting it on like every-other random. Post-loot-buff, I haven't hit it yet, and I'm still running the same number of randoms.
And this was after running Heroic Culling of Strat, and rolling 3 on a need roll for the Bronze Drake.
The RNG hates me.
Rabidlemming Jan 8th 2010 5:27AM
You were getting Oculus all the time before because of everyone mass dropping the moment their screen loaded. Now that people want to run it for the loots there aren't a bunch of Oculus groups waiting for members.
Just wait, after a few months or so with more people getting their mount they'll start dropping again and you'll start getting Oculus 8 times a day again.
Sapphiria Jan 7th 2010 9:20PM
Why can't Elf Woman (Night or Blood) become Banshee's http://www.wowwiki.com/Banshee instead of the DK's? Maybe implementing it under the talent tree enabled under female DK's?