Patch 5.4 patch notes
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The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: An unrelated Q
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 25th 2010 at 11:00AM
I'm in charge of the Queue train today, which means for the first time this week, this is a Star Trek free zone. Admittedly, I can't shake the obsession with the letter Q, so we're just taking things a different route today. Behold: Q.
Darasen asked...
"Perhaps this is better answered by the Priest community but thought I''d ask here. I have been leveling a healing priest through the dungeon finder and was curious about the proper use of "Power Word Shield". I use the spell constantly as it is very mana efficient. I have had some players tell me I should not use it though. A warrior told me he thought the shield kept him from gaining rage (he was unsure) and a Paladin told me that he couldn't get mana back when shielded. So should it be used regularly or not?"
If you're a holy priest, you shouldn't need to use Power Word: Shield much, and probably shouldn't. It's just not a very good use of your mana unless you absolutely need to put up some sort of buffer. As a discipline priest, you should bubble as much as you please... except for one situation, I find.
Warriors, druids and death knights should have no problem with Rage and Runic Power because of your bubbles, that issue has been dealt with over the course of Wrath of the Lich King, those classes will still gain their resources regardless of the absorption. However, protection paladins do still have significant mana issues when there are shields involved. A large portion of a paladin tank's mana regen comes from Spiritual Attunement. The paladin takes damage, that damage is then healed, and a percentage of the healing becomes mana for him/her. If they're absorbing damage instead of being healed, they're not regaining any mana through Spiritual Attunement. It sucks, and in a 5-man dungeon it can cripple mana.
If you need your sweet, sweet Power Word: Shields to heal a paladin through a random heroic, you can still use them. But the paladin will probably need to sit and drink more frequently.
Gurluas asked...
"Will Cataclysm come with a function to rename your guild?"
"I'm sure this has been asked and answered a million and one times, but what sense does it make to allow the Cataclysm races Worgen and Goblins to be DKs if their origin events are happening after the demise of Arthas as the Lich King? I don't understand the lore behind this."
It's like the return of Onyxia. No lore, but maximizing fun. There's nothing to understand except that Blizzard thinks it would be enjoyable.
Zalaron asked...
"When in BRD - Upper from dungeon finder, which boss do you have to kill, in what order and any other requirements, to get the Satchel? I have been in it several times and never gotten the satchel. Any advice would be helpful!"
I don't actually know the answer to this, but I thought I would bring attention to the question because hopefully someone reading this will. I believe this bit here is bugged, because killing the Emperor certainly does not count as the 'end' which is very strange. I don't know if the requirement is something else in BRD, or if there's a very specific order you need to do things, but my gut says it's just plain bugged.
Update: I am a baboon and forgot that the latest WoW Rookie already tackled this. You need to keep the Princess alive!
Update #2: Or, according to the comments, this may not actually be true. Who knows! Let's just say it's a bug.
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, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 8)
(cutaia) Feb 25th 2010 11:38AM
This might have been the most clever comment to ever grace these pages. Well done, sir...well done...
Fletcher Feb 25th 2010 11:29AM
Goblins have been all over Azeroth since before the Second War, there's no problem with Goblin DKs. Worgen DKs are a little more problematic, but recall that the San'layn resurrected Arugal as a ghost and transplanted him and his worgen curse to the Grizzly Hills. There's plenty of opportunity there for a wolfcult member to enter the Lich King's service more directly, particularly given the numbers of them we killed off on Bloodmoon Isle.
What I'm wondering (and of course the Queue has no real way of knowing the answer); if Thrall gets replaced as Warchief by that idiot Garrosh, will Hordies be fighting alongside *Hellscream* in the Battle for the Undercity? Or would it still be Thrall, as a sort of temporal barnacle in Blizzard's story?
VSUReaper Feb 25th 2010 11:42AM
Its been stated time and time again: Your personal time-line does not follow the general game's timeline.
An example: When you are lvl 5, Thrall is not aware of Outlands, the LK, the fact that little cleave will be a DK one day, or that he is going to be replaced by an emo orc.
When you are lvl 57-60, you are sent to Outlands, and the timeline progresses with you. The LK still hasnt attacked Org, you discover lil-cleave and our future Emo leader, and Thrall meets Grandma. Kaelthas is also technically helping the Belfs, but you arent sure how...
At 67-70, Kaelthas is killed (several times), Illidan has been beaten, and the LK is the major threat to the world. Hellscream is pushing his boundaries, and Lil cleave is ready to kick some ass in the north. Malygos needs to have his attitude checked, and we have to go kill Bigglesworth. There is also an old god that needs to be punched in the eyeball over and over again.
The entire time this is going on in your personal timeline, there is a "parallel" timeline that effects the world in general. It will usually match enough that you can ignore the few inconsistencies (lvl 80's wearing t10, quest givers, etc). The only time you come into contact with this timeline and it might be a problem is when you visit the major cities during a world event, ala during the Scourge Invasion: your timeline and the worlds time line exploded a little, but it sorts itself out when you leave again.
This is of course going to be more complicated in Cataclysm, but for now, this is how it is.
Wraithanne Feb 25th 2010 3:36PM
To quote several people(possibly the same person in different timestreams) "I HATE time travel".
Dharmabhum Feb 25th 2010 11:31AM
Ok, evidently you guys need to be set straight on some of the finer details of a few things.
First, the OP mentioned they were leveling their priest through the dungeon finder. I don't think you can remove a PW:Shield at low levels from a holy priest's arsenal. It is a good buffer when you need some time or you want a buffer to let your renew tick a little bit. It certainly has its place at low levels even if its not the most mana-efficient spell, both for disc and holy. It's particularly good if you use it with a renew on a dps that may have taken a bit of damage but isn't in danger of dying from it. Yes, at higher levels, holy has more tools and better tools to use in its stead, but that's partly due to talents and partly due to scaling with gear. Young holy priests can certainly make use of the spell in dungeons, so please don't mislead these young'uns thinking that it's a useless spell and doesn't have a place in any priest's arsenal. Part of the priest's appeal is that we have so many tools to choose from; its just a matter of choosing the right one for the job at hand.
Second, any prot paladin worth their salt (level 70+) will take the Guarded by the Light in the ninth tier of talents which gives them a 100% chance of refreshing Divine Plea (learned at level 71) when they attack something. 25% of your total mana over 15 seconds, 1 minute cooldown, and it can have 100% uptime if you're aware of it and savvy enough to keep it going (ever wonder why there are critters dotted around the dungeon? play a rage class or try to keep DP up without them). It returns more mana than Spiritual Attunement will in any given dungeon, provided you're talented for the refresh. SA gives 5% mana back (with these salt-worthy prot pallies that take 1/2 in SA) on heals, and I'd wager that most paladins will get more mana from Divine Plea+Blessing of Sanctuary than they will from SA.
Obviously speaking from personal experience here, as a disc priest and prot paladin. So long as I'm using DP on my pally, I never have mana issues in dungeons that I vastly overgear and therefore get very little mana back from SA anyway since they're not hitting me very often. It all comes down to classes knowing what ALL of their tools are, and how to use them intelligently and to their fullest.
VSUReaper Feb 25th 2010 11:45AM
Glad to see I'm not the only one pointing out the problems with the answer given. :)
And yes, the sole reason (as far as players are concerned) is to keep DP active and to give those poor rage tanks angry (HOW DARE THAT COCKROACH EXIST!!! RAWR!!!!!!).
TheMad Feb 25th 2010 2:19PM
Nice point on the Pally. There are 5 ways a Prot Pally can gain mana in combat:
* Divine Plea
* Blessing of Sanctuary
* Spiritual Attunment
* Judgement of Wisdom
* Seal of Wisdom (as a last recourse)
The little mana gained from healing can be compensated by the other abilities.
Bryan Dare Feb 25th 2010 11:31AM
"I'm in charge of the Queue train today, which means for the first time this week, this is a Star Trek free zone. Admittedly, I can't shake the obsession with the letter Q, so we're just taking things a different route today. Behold: Q."
Hahahahaha I love you people. =)
Descender|LE Feb 25th 2010 11:36AM
The question about PW:Shield and Prot Pallies:
Even if they have to stop and drink in a Heroic, if they're using the highest possible drinks, it takes them literally 3 seconds to reach full Mana. I have a Prot Pally, I know. So bubble, and if they whine, tell them to suck it up.
Snowfeather Feb 25th 2010 11:37AM
Just a note on shielding Prot pallies, since I have one. Yes, our mana pool sucks when we get shielded, but we do have ways to get it back so we don't have to sit and drink. I constantly run with judging wisdom instead of light, and that + divine plea on cooldown is generally fine for most situations if I can't get mana from chain pulling. [cough Violet Hold cough]
But time I have found I have a Disc Priest healing me I never complain, I pop up seal of wisdom, and if things get really dire, blessing of wisdom if needed. Yea, it sucks to have to do, but it is doable. Most prot pallies i see that have mana issues in 5 mans just completely outgear the instance. In that case i have one little gem of advice from my Vanilla Prot Warrior husband who remembers getting rage starved, "Take off your pants."
VSUReaper Feb 25th 2010 11:47AM
Your pants.... Still rage starged
Your chest.... Still rage starved
Your boots... Getting better...
Your Bracers... there we go!
Mila Feb 25th 2010 11:40AM
Pure speculation but... what do you think the chances will be that Cataclysm willl bring the ability to dual-guild? It sounds like guilds are going to become more important than ever with the introduction of guild achievements & rewards. However, a lot of us in the game are in smaller, friend/family based guilds that just don't have the sheer numbers to achieve much more than 10-man content at best. I don't wanna leave my cozy little guild but I'd sure love the option to be in a second guild at the same time. Am I dreaming at best?
(cutaia) Feb 25th 2010 11:48AM
Probably. If anything the benefits being offered to guilds for sticking together and doing well would make this even less likely. They don't want you joining one guild for your actual fun time and another for your BoG items, etc.
Seems they want you to find a guild that really fits you and stick with it.
You could always have the cozy guild set up a chat channel for "friends of the guild" so you could still keep in touch and be informed when they do things, but would be able to head to a different guild that has gameplay goals closer to yours. Just a thought.
SpaceGoatPriest Feb 25th 2010 11:45AM
I have a T9 geared prot pally and if I start to have mana problems (in heroics), I just switch to Seal of Wisdom. I have very very seldom grouped with a DPS that pulls more threat even when I use that Seal. But between SoW and Divine Plea, you really don't need to worry about. If anything I just pace a few seconds between pulls (since I am the tank) to let Divine Plea restore some mana (but not letting it tick off). And if you are far between pulls, find a critter to kill (it resets Divine Plea).
The only place I have mana problems is Violet hold. There are no critters there, and the time between pulls is too long and Divine Plea falls off. I use SoW only there, and it is not too bad. CoS has the exact opposite problem, because zombies are everywhere and they run to me, so I can reset Divine Plea
Dharmabhum Feb 25th 2010 11:52AM
FWIW, there are critters in VH. In the alcove on the lower level on the left, there's two rats (near Xevozz). In the center bank on the lower level, there's one rat. They will respawn, generally after a wave of six portals, giving you the chance to kill them on the first wave of six before a boss and then again between 6 and 12 and then again before Cyanigosa.
DeathsAngel Feb 25th 2010 11:47AM
No need to be rude Saregos ! I based my information on what I was able to find with my experience, WoWHead and official forums.
If my information were incorrect I'm truly sorry about it, I only tried to help. Never I pretended I knew it, just posted what I thought.
saregos Feb 25th 2010 11:52AM
Then say that. Your comments above give no indication whatsoever as to "this is what I think is the case", they're presented as (wrong!) facts. So if someone comes here looking for information and doesn't observe due diligence, they'll be sorely disappointed when they either 1) continually wipe on raid bosses because they're in a 5-man, or 2) fight all the way to the end of a heinously long dungeon that they're underlevelled for just to encounter a "bugged" boss that doesn't give them their loot bag.
spartan_e58 Feb 25th 2010 11:49AM
Worgen Death Knight. Once human, Twice cursed
saregos Feb 25th 2010 11:48AM
I mentioned this in a comment above, but PLEASE remove any reference to Emperor Whatshisname in the article. The question was related to the Upper City version of BRD, where you have to kill the interrogator. Since she's an optional boss and there's so much misinformation being spread about who the end boss is, *that* is why so many people think the instance is bugged and they're killing the right boss. You're not, you're killing the wrong boss, and that's why there's no bag for you.
Raluthos Feb 25th 2010 11:55AM
Nope, you're pretty wrong here.
Upper BRD -> Emperor
Lower BRD (Prison) -> Interrogator