Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Elephants
by Michael Sacco 
Feb 12th 2010 at 5:00PM
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. Mike Sacco will be your host today.
Re: the title -- unlike them, I do forget. To write The Queue.
Wil asked...
"Is Blizzard considering making emblems bind-to-account? For someone who's got multiple alts (and intends to level more), this would be a godsend. What would be the pros and cons of such a change?"
Blizzard has said that they intend for emblems to be an endgame, character-specific reward. Heirlooms, purchasable with said emblems, are a secondary reward to help your alts get to the point of being able to get their own badges.
Will this change for Cataclysm, though? Do we ever really know the answer to that?
Guitarwolf asked...
"Do you think that with the revamping of quest rewards and items around Cataclysm will bring gear with gem slots to pre-level 60 items? I know that JC requires Burning Crusade to train, but Blizz adding minimum level requirements to equippable gems would make use of all the cruddy BC gems, as well as give people a chance to learn how to gem earlier in the game."
Blizzard has said that they made a mistake making leveling gear gemmable at all in BC, and you'll notice that they fixed it for Wrath. You end up with weird item level problems and gear that shouldn't be as good as it is (remember the blue armor that bears wore in BC because it had three red sockets in it). I don't anticipate that this particular design philosophy will change, but nothing's set in stone.
Zalvi24 asked...
"Question: do you think with the simplification of stats and reforging system that is gonna come with cataclysm that we're gonna see the return of the beloved/hated shockadins with a 31/0/45?"
Yes and no. I think we'll be seeing builds that are a lot more "fun", like shockadins, but it's important to remember that talent trees are changing a lot in Cataclysm and the general structure of your trees might or might not be quite different depending on what you play. Ghostcrawler has said that the intention of the talent tree changes is to make talents more fun. I hope he's right.
Grinton asked...
"It seems all the good PvP gear needs either Arena participation or VoA drops. The other alternative is the daily BG quest for arena points but those are so measly. So for someone who loves PvP in BG but despises arenas, are there any other ways to get arena points? I know lower Ilevel stuff only need honour but the weapons need points. Do I have any alternatives other than arena or raiding?"
In Wrath? Unfortunately, not at the moment. In Cataclysm, though, the new rated Battlegrounds will give arena points for victories. Yes, that's right! You'll be able to get the best PVP gear by doing the type of PVP that you like. What a crazy world.
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!
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 6)
chrono-mage Feb 13th 2010 4:32AM
I've noticed that in Halls of Lightning a Holographic Display shows an image of Azeroth orbited by two moons, how come we never see both these moons?
Al Feb 13th 2010 9:44AM
I believe they were visible early in the game, but got removed for fixing. Maybe they'll be back.
Condor Feb 13th 2010 3:49AM
When will we see the results of your banker alt contest?
dragonpancakes Feb 13th 2010 9:50AM
I have a followup question similar to Wil's. Will Blizzard ever make the BOA (Bind on Account) Items Bind on Account instead of BOSRAFUYTACSE? (Bind On Specific Realm And Faction Unless You Transfer A Character Somewhere Else) They are currently bound to a specific faction on a specific server, I can't mail the items to my opposite faction alts on the same server, nor can I mail them to alts on a different server, The only way I can get them to an alt that I would like to have them is to pay $60! That is not BoA at all!
Psiwave Feb 13th 2010 10:20PM
While you are unable to mail across servers there is nothing stopping you sending BOA items between factions.
Terestria Feb 13th 2010 10:32AM
Ele shammies still have a general rotation:
1. Flame Shock
2. (Lava Burst, Lightning Bolt x however many based on haste until LvB is off cooldown) x however many times until FS drops before LvB is off cooldown.
Depending on tier bonuses at the time, the amount of #2 rotations is different. Overall, it gets pretty rythmatic in a stable tier gear kit and can generally become monotonous and mindless if you are in a fixed fight like being a ranged collapse point for Festergut.
I know there may be some follow on comments about including magma totem and nova if you are range heavy so can stand in melee range, but every class has times when they work outside a rotation.
Mutilate rogues also fall into a similar pattern. Outside of starting sequence, keeping Hunger for Blood up, and the occasional buff cooldown, it's Mutilate to 4 or 5 combo points then Envenom. It's pretty simple for an insane amount of standing DPS.
Terestria Feb 13th 2010 10:36AM
meant to reply to alpha5099's post... silly reply system.
Zem Feb 13th 2010 11:28AM
Will there be a Warcraft 4 and if so do you think we continue the story of Arthas in WoW but then in RTS style? Also would there be like 10 or more races/factions to play like the one we cuurently have in WoW should Blizzard decide to make Warcraft4?
Marshall Feb 13th 2010 11:42AM
My guild was discussing something last night: Emblems, and those janky Badges of Justice from BC. Is there a possibility that Blizzard will let us upgrade, rather than just downgrade? My thoughts were that given that you essentially got Emblems of Valor/Heroism/Conquest/Triumph from the same spots (Heroic Bosses, though Valor just dropped in 25-mans), those could be traded at 1:1. However, trading up from Justice to them would be probably at 10:1, since they're pretty damn easy to get nowadays, and that Triumph to Frost would be a lower ratio, from 5:1 to maybe 3:1 or so. Either that or not punish us for downgrading. Say Frost-Triumph-Conquest would still be 1:1, but Conquest-Heroism 2:3 or 1:2, and the same for Heroism-Valor, given what kind of gear you can get with the badges. So to reiterate:
Upgrading:
10 Badge of Justice = 1 Emblem of Triumph/Conquest/Heroism/Valor
5/4/3 Emblem of Triumph/Conquest/Heroism/Valor = 1 Emblem of Frost
Downgrading:
1 Emblem of Frost/Triumph/Conquest = 2 Emblem of Heroism
1/2 Emblem of Heroism = 2/3 Emblem of Valor
The only real issue my guild thought of with this is that the epic gems are bought with Heroism. So, just switch the epic gems from the Heroism vendor to the Triumph vendor. Seems like that would fix the problem, and also make it easier to buy them rather than downgrading batches of emblems from vendor to vendor (though yes, I do know of the emblem trader goblin in the sewers).
Merkavar Feb 14th 2010 10:03PM
so you want to make the game even easier. wouldnt your idea mean that people could get a full set of 264/251 item level gear with out even setting foot in any raid in the game. you get frosts from raiding and triumphs from everything else. if all your doing is heroics you dont need frost gear to get heroics done. frost gear might shave 1 min off the time it takes to complete a heroic.
if you are raiding icc then you get plenty of frosts and gear.
i can only see bad things happening from being able to trade up emblems to frost especially from badges of justice
Sleutel Feb 13th 2010 5:25PM
Here's my question:
When someone sacrifices himself with the strict and explicit instruction that no one is to be told what happened, why would you build a giant monument in the middle of the busiest capital city in the world for the express purpose of telling everyone exactly what happened?
Maana Feb 14th 2010 2:50AM
Really? How?
merkavar Feb 14th 2010 9:57PM
I have a question. Why is there a 15 minute debuff when using the random dungeon feature? All the debuff seems to do is stop people from being kicked. Does it do anything else? I just want to know why there needs to be this debuff. I tank or heal a lot, at minimum once a day and I run into a lot of rude, retarded players. Mostly classes like rogues or hunters that can redirect threat onto tanks. I just want to be able to kick people that cause problems for the group at the first boss. With people being so well geared now a lot of dungeons can be finished before the 15 minute debuff is over. So these rude, unskilled people get a free ride from me.
Btw I have no problem with undergeared people or inexpirenced people its when you have a dps that has all item level 251 gear so they have raided a fair bit that stupidly pulls and causes wipes or forces the group to go at the speed they want by redirecting threat and when something goes wrong blames the tank/heals.
Marshall Feb 15th 2010 3:00PM
Did you happen to forget the frost you get from your first daily random heroic? I've bought 2 pieces of frost gear so far, and have only done 3 weekly raids so far. I mean, if someone wanted to run that many randoms to get frost gear (at the best conversion and best amount of triumph from a dungeon [7 from CoS/Nexus/Gundrak/OK], you'd get 2 frost from it with 1 left over; at the worst, 1 frost and 2 left over) I think that kind of stupid dedication would deserve something.
That may sound wrong, so let me back it up this way: I'm not intending this to be a way for people to just run randoms all day every day to get their frost (though if they truly wanted to do that and be horribly bored with the game, they could feel free to). This would give you a "building block" to start your raiding gear with. I mean gearwise, the only places I can go for upgrades are ToC/ICC 10/25, with Uld 10/25 thrown in on a couple slots. This would be a way for people to get the cheaper frost items, like a cloak or trinket, or to get their first t10 piece, since some odd raid leaders seem to like going off gearscore or gear. Someone stupid enough to try this to get a full frost set would need 605 frost (for gear alone, not adding in buying recipes with Saronite or the Saronite that could be used for those recipes), and at the best ratio, that would be 1815 triumph; at the worst, 3025 triumph. That would be 260 7-emblem dungeons for 1815, or 433 7-emblem ones for 3025. Say you've got a "dedicated random crew" who is with you on this and is willing to blast through those randoms with you, hitting on average 20-30 min per dungeon (this is a definite variable; I haven't timed my runs, but I know speed runs are very possible, though CoS throws a hefty RP-monkeywrench in the mix) that would be 115 to 217 HOURS (again, depending on the ratio) of dungeons for all that.
Oh, and you also can't forget that all that shiny frost gear you just bought is matched by any ICC-25 reg drops, and trumped by any heroic drops. This method would be for someone to get a leg up into raiding, rather than replace raiding. Though no doubt all this is going to change when the next Emblem/Badge/??? pops up, and Frost will simply drop off dungeon bosses, as is what happened to Triumph/Conquest/Valor/Heroism/Justice before them.
Merkavar Feb 15th 2010 6:13PM
I thought frosts were supposed to be the last tier of gear this expansion.
Anyway i can see that there are advanages to trading up but i think the way blizzard has gone with triumphs droping from everything we dont need another leg up. i like the idea that you need to actually raid to get frost/tier10 gear.
currently you could do the daily heroic and get some frost and triumphs. with the triumphs you can get a near full set of tier 9. i recently geared a pally and i think the only item i had from a dungeon was a trinket and a weapon/shield and the rest i was able to get with triumphs and 1 to 2 pieces of frost gear from the daily heroic. with this set i was able to get into icc toc 10/25 mans and heal. so after doing some heroics and mainly using triumph gear i was able to get into the latest content.
If there was a conversion rate to trade up it would mean that i could get even more frost gear with out doing any raids. to me this just seems wrong there is enough of a leg up at the moment. and i think to be able to get the better raiding gear you should have to actually raid.
Loooks like your assuming that people wont do heroics over and over to get trimphs to trade up to frosts. heroics are easy and if a night of heroics gets everyone in the group a piece of frost gear people will do that instead of raiding. this would mean that the upgrades from icc 10 are basically obsolete since frost gear is 251 or 264 item level
Marshall Feb 15th 2010 3:02PM
Agh! The above was meant to be a reply. Stupid me.