The Queue: First time, be gentle

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Michael Gray is your answer man today.
Howdy there, Queue-travellers. This is my first time answering The Queue, so I've gathered up questions from yesterday, earlier in the week, and even before. I'll be laying the answer-down on them. Wish me a tad bit of luck. Some of this is stuff that I always meant to get a full-time post out on, but never did manage to get a full article out of them.
Of course, it's not like there hasn't been big news lately, so it's possible everyone already has their own answers. It could happen. Take a look behind the jump and see what folks have asked WoW.com.
Kalaniri asked:
I want the achievement for both the Frenzyheart and Oracles reputation in Sholazar. Should I go ahead and do the Frenzyheart, and then start all over with the Oracles? Or should I wait for the drake to drop?
Get started on the Frenzyheart quests now, and get it out of the way. Once you're done, go back to the Oracles. While there's a small chance that this week is going to be your magic week when you get the Green Proto-Drake, that's only a 2% chance. You're guaranteed to get the reputation you require, and then will be able to flip flop back to the Oracles again in short order.
The real bet that you're making with yourself isn't going to be "was this my magic week?" It's more "Would I be done with the switch by now?" For all that you'll wonder whether the drake would have dropped while you're doing the rep grind, not having it drop would be a complete kick in the face.
Get it done, and move on.
Joel_robinson asked:
Do you think Blizzard will turn off the LFG tool when Cataclysm goes live?
No way. Heck, I think it might get expanded. There's been so much praise for the LFG tool that I just can't imagine them pulling the tool back. And I can't think of many significant gameplay aspects that Blizzard has actually turned off. The voice chat tool is still in game, and I've not encountered anyone who uses it.
Kal asked:
Does the Dungeon Finder check who has the best appropriate gear for the role when choosing who does what in a premade group?
This has actually come up for me, but I couldn't find any official documentation. Here's an anecdote that comes to the best answer I can provide:
I was in a pre-made random group with another death knight. I'm the guild's usual tank for raids, and he's usually a DPS role. As you might expect, my "DPS" gear is all PvP gear. (I use quotes because we all know how great PvP gear is for pure-DPS roles.) However, my tank set is pretty sweet. In contrast, my death knight buddy in the group has decent tank gear, but its not nearly as good as mine. Conversely, he's got DPS gear out the teeth. We both selected Tank and Damage as our roles, because we just usually do that out of habit.
Depsite our gear indicating I should be the tank, and he should be the DPS -- it flipped us so that he was the Tank, and I would have provided pew pew.
That's not an official proclamation about whether the Dungeon Finder chooses role according to be gear, but it definitely seems to me that it does not.
Phil asked:
Do you guys ever want to go into a rage (or nerdrage if that's your thing) when you see some of the questions asked?
This is my first time on the queue, but I will say no. We love answering these questions, and it's a lot of fun. More importantly, even if someone asks a repetitive question we've answered before . . . then chances are someone else needs to know the answer also. Every time one person needs to know something, there's ten people with the same need who just didn't ask.
We'll probably ignore trolls, of course, but most of the questions are great.
Tim asked:
Will Blizz allow us to create/change our toons from standard races to [specific iterations and version of that race]?
Boy, I wish they would -- but I'm not holding my breath. There so much modelling and work that goes into even existing races, and making sure the armor fits them attractively, that adding even more models to (essentially) the same race doesn't seem worth the time. It'd be cool to be a Taunka instead of just a Tauren, or an Iron Dwarf instead of an Alliance Dwarf . . . but I just don't see how that level of work would improve the game experience.
That's just my opinion though. We may find out one day that I'm wrong.
Filed under: The Queue






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Ozzard Feb 4th 2010 1:08PM
Armour fitting *attractively*?! You've played a male Tauren, right?
:-)
kabshiel Feb 4th 2010 2:02PM
Some Tauren armor might look silly, but imagine trying to fit a helmet on those giant Taunka heads.
Darthregis Feb 4th 2010 2:19PM
Fact: Male Taurens always look handsome. Even in pink dresses.
Fact: The only thing more handsome than a male Tauren is a male orc. Only every so slightly. Like a puny gnome hair's width of more handsome.
Fact: Male Taurens in Paladin armour will soon be the baddest of bad-ass. They'll probably be bigger and more menacing than Wintergrasp Siege engines.
Guruda Feb 4th 2010 6:46PM
I have a belf pally just waiting to race change to Tauren the day it's available. It will look like a giant, metal-covered trainis hurtling at you.
hiphophomies Feb 4th 2010 1:12PM
where's the achievement love for altaholicism?
No "Reach level 80 with 2 characters" or "get gladiator with every class"?
Slyght Feb 4th 2010 1:43PM
Developers have said that account achievements will probably be added with Battle.net 2.0. Until then, they are character-specific
MazokuRanma Feb 4th 2010 2:14PM
@Slyght
Do you have a record of where they said this? Or an approximate time table for BattleNet 2.0? I've been raging against character specific achievements since they were released, and this would make me ecstatic.
Cataca Feb 4th 2010 2:48PM
@MazokuRanma
Source: http://www.wowblues.com/us/alts-achievement-8557020501.html
They haven't stated that it will come with Battle.net 2.0 anywhere I could find but it would make sense. And no time frame on either of those yet.
Draelan Feb 4th 2010 10:54PM
That has the potential to be incredibly awesome. Imagine achievements like:
For the Horde! ... er... Alliance! ... Wait, What Side am I Rooting for Again?
- Level a Horde and Alliance character to max level.
Day Job
- Level 6 different professions to max level (this would include primary and secondary professions. Assumes 2 primary, and 4 secondary for Cataclysm.)
Multi-tasker
- Level 10 different professions to max level.
Jack of All Trades
- Level all professions to max level.
Just the Two of Us
- Level 2 characters of different classes to max level.
Multiple Personality Disorder
- Level 5 characters of different classes to max level.
Identity Crisis
- Level every class to max level.
I would absolutely go for achievements like these. =D
Matthew Feb 5th 2010 12:54AM
@ Drae:
you are very creative! would love to see these! please post yours on the forums.
The Two Timer: win Wintergrasp on one faction then the other in the next battle!
Whaddaya think?
William Feb 4th 2010 1:14PM
any word on the ulduar protodrakes getting removed. im stuck with yog+1 since toc came out cause of rl stuff and i just wanna know if i got enough time to do icc achievs first before returning to complete ulduar.
Neirin Feb 4th 2010 2:30PM
Blizz said a while back that they'd give us a heads up if they planned to remove the drakes, but unless they do it very soon, my guess would be that they stick around until 4.0 (like Amani War Bears).
Tomatketchup Feb 4th 2010 1:24PM
In the Dungeon Finder, do you think the rewards for 70-80 still will be emblems, or will they become bags like from 1-69?
Microtonal Feb 4th 2010 3:35PM
My guess is that they'll change it. There's not much point in handing out emblems for endgame-level gear you don't even need and probably aren't going to waste time buying anyway. The 78-85 leveling content is going to be tuned so that people can go straight there the second they hit 78, just like the BC content can be started at 58 and the Wrath content can be started at 68.
I'm assuming, however, that if you *do* have endgame-level 80 raid gear, it will take you all the way to 85 with minimal trouble, just like BT and Sunwell gear did to 80 (by contrast, I replaced my Karazhan helm with an early Borean Tundra quest reward).
Teaspoon Feb 4th 2010 8:08PM
You replaced your Kara hat in Borean Tundra? Wonder what I missed... My Eternium Greathelm went through two quarters of Naxx!
Blondies Feb 5th 2010 3:48AM
I replaced most of my level 70 gear on the way to 80. All my season two paladin ret gear went away before Grizzly Hills was done. I still had 2 level 70 epics on my mage when I hit 80, and they were in kara-ish level.
A goodiebag sounds more plasuable than emblems. Blizzard has however stated that they wanted to keep the gear scaling like the did in Wotlk, where the highest tier of raiding loot were good enough for entrylevel raiding in the next expansion. I saw a lot of people in the beginning with sunwell loot going into naxx.
Tim Feb 4th 2010 1:25PM
Something interesting to think about. The beefy trolls we see in Dungeons were the orginal design. They matched the troll ax throwers from WCII much better. Check out this article from Eurogamer. It shows the trolls lookin all awesome. To think we could have been burly and not overgrown goblins.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-making-of-world-of-warcraft-article?page=3
Navigator_Black Feb 4th 2010 1:54PM
I would love this. I think the burlier Trolls look fantastic.
I've often thought there should be a "weight trainer" in Sen'jin Village where you can go, pay a fee, use the work out equipment and change your form into the thicker Troll model.
I don't think there's an issue with armour and weapons being designed to fit each race, they're 3D builds that scale to match the form onto which they are placed. I think.
jealouspirate Feb 4th 2010 2:06PM
I would pay so much money to be able to play as a Broken Shaman.
nullstate Feb 4th 2010 3:10PM
@jealouspirate:
SECONDED!