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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: A bunny!
by Matthew Rossi 
May 27th 2010 at 2:00PM
Hello.
Do you have any greens, or perhaps a carrot or two? No? Some pellets, perhaps? Or a banana chip? I enjoy banana chips and would gladly eat one now if you happened to have one.
You don't have any of that? I disapprove. But as I told Matt this morning while he was giving me some carrots, I'll fulfill this duty of answering your World of Warcraft questions. You're sure you don't have any banana chips? Not even one?
Hmmph.
Salty asks:
When Cataclysm starts up, will us 80's have a rested xp bonus?
Andrew asks:
Any insight into what the design intent for varying buff durations could be? Why, for example, are paladins' blessing buffs 10/30 mins, while druids and mages have 30/60 min buffs, and others, like Horn of Winter and warrior buffs are just a few minutes? What is the point in making us keep track of all these buffs? I've been leveling a paladin tank through the dungeon finder lately, and let me tell you, it's a pain in the ass having to refresh blessings on everyone every 10 minutes.
As a priest myself, Andrew, I have often wondered about this very thing. When not using Mind Control to encourage my humans to bring me carrots and especially banana chips, I'm often pestered for Prayer of Fortitude. Luckily, a disapproving glare will quell the cat's insistent yowling for buffs.
Still, I'd have to say I think it's a legacy of the original game. Varying buff durations then were far more restrictive, and in a large part, buffs that added damage output in some way tended to fall off more quickly than did purely survival/longevity ones like Fort or Arcane Brilliance. In addition, warrior buff durations were most likely intended to interact with warrior rage generation as a means to bleed off additional rage and only became tedious as rage generation became less spiky. (We know shouts might actually generate rage in Cataclysm.) Finally, it seems likely that different buff durations are intended not only to preserve class feel (so totems tend to provide more powerful buffs but require more management than paladin blessings) but also to keep homogenization under control. We've obviously seen several changes to buff durations over time (from vanilla to today, they've tended to get longer), but it's anyone's guess if Cataclysm will continue Wrath's trend towards buff homogenization and normalize their durations further.
Crewdie asks:
Is there any point in me getting Cold Weather Flying on my 70 alt? I mean, it will make questing the last 10 levels way easier, but will I need it to fly around the Old world come Cataclysm? It's not that cold there, but it wouldn't surprise me for Blizz to force me to buy it, even though it isn't technically a skill increase.
Still, I'd have to say I think it's a legacy of the original game. Varying buff durations then were far more restrictive, and in a large part, buffs that added damage output in some way tended to fall off more quickly than did purely survival/longevity ones like Fort or Arcane Brilliance. In addition, warrior buff durations were most likely intended to interact with warrior rage generation as a means to bleed off additional rage and only became tedious as rage generation became less spiky. (We know shouts might actually generate rage in Cataclysm.) Finally, it seems likely that different buff durations are intended not only to preserve class feel (so totems tend to provide more powerful buffs but require more management than paladin blessings) but also to keep homogenization under control. We've obviously seen several changes to buff durations over time (from vanilla to today, they've tended to get longer), but it's anyone's guess if Cataclysm will continue Wrath's trend towards buff homogenization and normalize their durations further.
Crewdie asks:
Is there any point in me getting Cold Weather Flying on my 70 alt? I mean, it will make questing the last 10 levels way easier, but will I need it to fly around the Old world come Cataclysm? It's not that cold there, but it wouldn't surprise me for Blizz to force me to buy it, even though it isn't technically a skill increase.
Anyway, yes, there is a point to buying cold weather flying for your 70 alt, and that is that even in Cataclysm, it will make the 70 to 80 stretch in Northrend much, much easier as well as letting you do quests in Icecrown, Sholozar and the Storm Peaks that require it. Unless we're informed that Cataclysm will be providing some other zones for leveling from 70 to 80, we just don't have anywhere else to go to get those levels, which we'll need to experience the next expansion 80 to 85 content.
Plus, we're not in the expansion yet, and we're at least several months away. You could have your 70 alt to 80 by that time, easily, and having Cold Weather Flying will only make it all the easier. Yes, absolutely, you should get it. And then get me some carrots. They grow in Crystalsong, but those snooty Dalaran cooking quest givers are hoarding them.
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 Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 8 of 8)
Athinah May 28th 2010 7:52AM
I have a question, i did both the gnomer and zanzel quest last night....according to mmo-champion and i think wow.com too, the drapes were sposed to customize the cape you already had and make it look like that. But after you did all of those quests all you get is a crappy low level cape,that is just a cape and nothing more. So was i mistaken and misread those articles? Has blizz come up short again? Or will it actually be on live realms and not the ptr? I'm kinda disappointed since that was something i was looking forward too.
Grovinofdarkhour May 28th 2010 10:27AM
@Aggrajag
http://www.wow.com/2010/04/26/the-queue-a-rebuttal/#continued
And yes, I upvoted your comment simply for invoking her name.
sclark1138 May 28th 2010 9:04PM
As a player who dislikes what changes have been made to the game in the name of balance for arenas, I am excited for the changes coming to BG's to take away from the impact arenas have on PvP, I was wondering how much of the WoW population plays the arenas?
Actuality May 28th 2010 9:50PM
Do you think any of the normal beasts in Azeroth will be come extinct? Will we lose certain looks? For example, thousand needles will be flooded. Are the cats in there a unique look that will be drowned and go away forever? Because if hunters want a unique pet, you can't get much more unique than the last surviving subspecies from before the Cataclysm.
Eric J. May 29th 2010 1:45PM
Question:
Are the Echo Isles and Gnomergan quest going away after patch 3.9? It doesn't make sense for them to be around once 4.0 hits and those become level 1-5 starting areas.
Repentor May 29th 2010 8:26PM
OK so a quick question about the Gnomer/fall of Zalazane questlines.
Are these going to be an event that will only happen once per server a'la the gates of
an qiraj or a phased questline that you can do with any character no matter when you get to the required lvl? meaning that Gnomer or Echo isle's are only saved (as far as your char is concerned) after you complete the questline? Sorry if this has been mentioned previously but I really canned be bothered sifting through the tonnes of info released lately to find out.
alpha5099 May 30th 2010 2:07AM
This might fall under the banner of unanswerable:
From a lore perspective, which are more common: Draenei shaman or Broken shaman? Looking at NPCs, it seems that there are more Broken shamans. The Alliance has 8 Shaman trainers: 4 are Broken, 3 are Draenei, and 1 is a Furbolg (Gurrag, the coolest trainer in the game). And looking at Earthen Ring members in game, there are 6 Broken and no Draenei.
Blackone May 30th 2010 8:23PM
Recently my phone crashed and I had to reinstall all my Apps including my Authenticator. Now when ever I try to log on it doesn't allow me and says log in failed. I resynced the Authenticator and everything and it still doesn't work what do I do?
Fierod May 31st 2010 1:11PM
when did you guys start making advertisements for your site? I heard an advertisement come on in my local gym, it was weird hearing an ad for a website. When did you start doing that and why didn't you tell us? D:
and of all places to play an ad...a gym? really?
Spencer Gardner May 31st 2010 4:29PM
Sometimes when I /camp it takes the full 20 second timer to take me back the character screen, other times it does it instantly and I can even log onto another character before the previous one disconnects. What determines whether the timer will tick or if the transition is instant? Latency? Server load?
bluesfan18 May 31st 2010 11:25PM
In Cataclysm, Azeroth is going to be changed forever. Is there any information if The Isle of Quel'Danis is going to be affected by the changes?
EbonOOb Jun 1st 2010 9:16AM
I'd like to ask the queue something. Does the death knight Morbidity talent in the Unholy tree increase damage done by Unholy Blight?