The Queue: Take our stuff
by Alex Ziebart 
May 19th 2010 at 1:00PM
I'm going to use The Queue's intro today to remind all of you that our loot card giveaway for this week is still up and active until tomorrow morning. If you haven't entered yet, go do it. Do not try to enter here on this post, because all that you will win is my eternal loathing. Go to the contest post and leave a comment there to enter.
Dbodinem asked:
"Since not everyone who comes to Cataclysm will necessarily be decked out in tier 10 (they may not even have rare pieces but be sporting quest greens), about how long will people still be wearing tier 9 and tier 10? My guess is that quest greens will replace our LK epics by about level 83. Or is itemization going to change so radically that we'll want to replace our T9 and T10 right away?"
My guess is that the itemization changes are going to alter what's desirable so drastically that we'll be leaping at early leveling greens more than we did in any previous expansion. While our T9 and T10 is going to get some stat changes to match the new Cataclysm systems, Blizzard most likely isn't going to put extremely careful consideration into making them the most optimal pieces for every single spec. In fact, such a thing is probably an impossible task. Can they ensure, for example, that mage tier gear is best in slot for frost, fire and arcane? Probably not. That's not the case now, and it won't be the case after they convert everybody's gear. When these changes go through, it's going to be far too late to regear yourself completely in high-end epics. You'll just hit the new zones, come across some greens that are a little more optimal for you, and you'll go with those. Especially with the mastery stat coming through, assuming they don't add that to Icecrown gear retroactively.
This probably won't be the case for every class or spec. Some people might end up with excellent gear after the stat conversions and decide to wear their Icecrown epics straight to 85. I do expect that in most cases, people will upgrade pretty fast. Your level 83 guess is a good one.
Natsumi asked:
"How many people are starting Gnomes only guilds just to Fraps 25 gnomes swarming Deathwing in Cataclysm?"
Darasen asked:
"Why are there so few actual healing talents in the early parts of a druid's Restoration tree and so many shape shifting ones? That seems to be a bit backwards to me. It seems the first actual bonus to healing is in the 4th tier while the Balance tree has talents that directly improve healing in tier 1."
The top few tiers of a class's talent tree seem to be designed to give you interesting options for your secondary tree. Once you hit the bottom of your primary talent tree, there should be options for branching out that make sense. Feral druids will probably dip into resto for Furor, Natural Shapeshifter or whatever else they want. I'm certainly not saying every single feral will do exactly that, but it's an available option.
A resto druid would take Improved Mark of the Wild and Nature's Focus in that first tier and he can completely avoid Furor if he wants. Then once he's hit the bottom of the restoration tree, he can hop over to balance and pick up Genesis. They want to encourage you to dip into multiple trees instead of going 71/0/0. Those sorts of specs aren't all that interesting. If you can close your eyes and click randomly and come out with an optimal spec, that's a bad thing. Needing to make decisions is a good thing.
clundgren asked:
"If I transfer a character with heirloom items to another server, what happens to the heirloom items?"
Until Blizzard implements cross-server mail (which might not ever actually happen), your heirlooms are permanently stashed away on the new server. If you want them back on the server they were from originally, you need to do another server transfer. I made that mistake a few weeks back, actually; all of my cloth heirlooms ended up going to a server where I was just stashing an alt to free up character slots.
I'm just letting them rot over there now. It's too easy to get badges nowadays to worry about a few heirlooms.
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, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Haven May 19th 2010 1:13PM
Yep, since Cata is for 78-85, meaning a toon in 78 greens should be eligible.
Paul May 19th 2010 1:44PM
Yep, although expect something similar to Wrath on the first handful of quests though.
The first few quests will involves mobs which can be handled whilst fully kitted in sub ilevel 200 items, but the quest rewards are likely to shoot you up to Normal Frozen Halls gear levels. Once you leave the immediate starting area that gives you "wellfare greens", the mobs will be much tougher.
Wrath's comparisons are the mobs out in front of Valiance Keep and Warsong Hold. The mobs immediately outside these areas have less health and do less damage than any other mob of the same level just beyond these small areas.
Pfooti May 19th 2010 1:14PM
The leaked enchantment stuff had level requirements- the new enchants cannot go on any item below iLevel 300. Considering that iLevel 277 is super-high-end right now, and that in the past you've been able to put expansion enchantments on the entry-level gear (e.g., you can put BC enchants on the stuff you get as quest rewards in Hellfire Peninsula), I'm inclined to believe that we'll be getting iLevel 300 stuff pretty much right away, meaning we're getting rid of almost all our LK-era gear (probably excepting trinkets and librams/idols) by level 81.
Koleckai May 19th 2010 1:30PM
You will ilevel 300 gear in Heroics and the first raid tiers. Just like iLevel 200 gear was in Heroics and the first raid tiers in Wrath.
Pfooti May 19th 2010 1:49PM
And like how we got iLevel 100 gear in BC heroics and intro raids. Except we didn't. A pattern of 1 is not a pattern. What we know is:
BC-era enchants could be put on the earliest BC-level gear you got.
LK-era enchants could be put on the earliest LK-level gear you got.
Cata-era enchants can only be put on iLevel 300 gear.
Pretty much everything else is extrapolation (including my claim that we'll see iLevel 300 gear early in Cataclysm).
Nick May 19th 2010 2:23PM
you can't go by the leaked enchants though, those could completely change by the time the expansion actually is released. Plus, whats to say that the enchants we saw on MMO weren't the expansion's end game enchants? The +10 stats to chest as opposed to the +8?
My guess is that we won't replace the 251 and above gear for at least a few levels, and 277 stuff might even be viable till the first tier of raiding in cataclysm.
RogueJedi86 May 19th 2010 2:29PM
I don't know if this will fly, but I saw a pic of the stats of an iLevel 300 Cat quest reward. I won't post the pic, but I will mention the stats. A 2H Sword, 1007-1511 damage, speed 3.50, 359.8 dps, +171 strength +257 stamina, Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 114, Equip: Increases Mastery rating by 114.
I haven't played in a while(since just before 3.2), but I hear that's equivalent to drops from 25-man ICC?
alfrizzle097 May 19th 2010 2:56PM
Just because something has a higher item level doesn't mean it will have a higher itemization budget. Naxx 10 gear and heroic epics shared an item level of 200, but the Naxx gear certainly had greater itemization value on it.
That isn't to say that epics from ICC will last all the way to the first raid tier, but just because the first set of greens has an arbitrary ilevel 300 attached to it doesn't mean that the gear MUST be better. Now 300 epics (if they exist) certainly would be expected to be significantly better.
Pfooti May 19th 2010 2:58PM
Yeah, epics at some iLevel are always better than rares at the same one. That's a good point- even if we get iLevel 300 greens as early cataclysm quest rewards, that's no guarantee they'll be superior to the iLevel 277 epics that ... well, I surely will never get anyway.
adyuaa May 19th 2010 3:12PM
For comparison to Shadowmourne:
a 2H sword v a 2H axe
1007-1511 damage 954-1592
3.50 speed 3.70
359.8 dps 344.1
171 strength 223
257 stamina 198
114 crit 114
114 Mastery
ArPen 114
red sockets 3 (+8 strength)
and of course, the legendary proc
Deathknighty May 19th 2010 4:27PM
God dammit, I'm gonna be replacing my legendary with a 78 blue!
Hollow Leviathan May 19th 2010 4:39PM
I don't believe it until it's on the public beta AND confirmed by Blizz.
Boobah May 19th 2010 11:23PM
It's pretty obvious that the 'requires ilevel 300' is a placeholder. BC enchants only required level 35; Wrath only required level 60. If Cataclysm enchants require much more than level 70 or i142 (a Wrath 70 green is i142) I'll be very surprised.
(cutaia) May 19th 2010 1:14PM
Maybe I can bottle that loathing and sell it to a female worgen lock on the mobile auction house.
/posts
Kurash May 19th 2010 1:57PM
I think I'd buy some of that Loathing for my warlock too. That way he'd have Fear AND Loathing! HST FTW!
thegatherer May 19th 2010 5:28PM
All the better to flame the mages with....green flame that is.
Fatamorgana May 19th 2010 1:17PM
I have a few questions brought forth from the first and last question on today's Queue:
Has there been any word on what will happen to our BOA items come CAT? Will they automatically switch over so our new toons can get the full benefit of the new system or will there be new heirlooms to purchase? Do you suppose they will use the same emblems to purchase? Is it safe to assume that the BOA enchants will follow the same path as the heirlooms?
TY
Wump May 19th 2010 1:28PM
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24702260905
This is the only blue comment I've seen on this topic
Grovinofdarkhour May 19th 2010 1:37PM
FM, you've inspired me. My question for The Queue:
Thinking ahead to Cataclysm, I can't find anything specifying that heirloom items will *only* grow with you until 80. If I send the appropriate ones back up to my main, will I get the XP benefits from 80-85?
Thanks,
Grovin
Cataca May 19th 2010 1:50PM
What we do know:
Current BOA items will still be buyable just like they are now with emblems of heroism.
Current BOA enchants will still provide the same bonuses.
Current BOA items will not scale past level 80 and they will not provide any exp bonus past 80.
Current BOA items will work with the new races. (Up to 80 like all the other classes)
There will be new BOA enchants for the same slots that provide cataclysm level stats.
There will be new BOA items that will be buyable with the new Heroism Points at level 85. (Earned from heroics and lower tier raids)
The new BOA items will scale past 80 and provide exp bonuses past 80.
What we don't know:
What slot gear the new BOA items will be.
If the new BOA will work through level 1-85 or just 80-85.