Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: Me, myself and everybody else
by Alex Ziebart 
Aug 30th 2010 at 11:00AM
Today's edition of The Queue is very us-centric. Since you guys asked many questions about the staff here at WoW.com yesterday, I decided to try and knock them all out at one time. So if you hate our staff and all that we stand for, you might not enjoy this post! However, I'd like to think you don't hate us and in fact love us. We love you, too.
Gossamer asked:
"It seems like nearly every article on WoW.com has a spoiler warning on it recently. This got me to thinking, how does the WoW.com staff feel about spoilers? Are there any surprises left for you? Is there anything you've kept from yourself so you can experience it on release day?"
It is impossible to keep ourselves from being spoiled, even if we wanted to do so. We make sure to put spoiler tags on critical lore moments in the story of an expansion to give all of you the choice of skipping it, but we typically don't get the option of skipping spoilers. Not only do we need to be in the know regarding major expansion events, we're also constantly exposed to other sources of spoilers -- other websites, the comments section on our site, the emails that come in our tip line and all of those other methods of communication we keep open between our readers and ourselves. We often know about major game events months in advance and it is rare that we go looking for that information. It comes to us.
We've intentionally not posted about really world-shattering spoilers before because we didn't want to ruin the surprise for everybody else. If it's in the game files, we consider it fair game because anybody with an MPQ reader can see what's in those files ... If it isn't in the game files, our editorial staff has very long, heated conversations about whether or not we should ruin the surprise. Generally, we decide to not say anything, even if it would benefit us (as far as traffic is concerned) to dump the spoiler. Of course, we can't convince the other sites to play by the same rules, so if they end up spoiling what we were trying to keep secret ... well, that's how it goes. And then there isn't much point to us staying quiet anymore after that.
The only way to avoid being horribly spoiled while working at WoW.com is to completely cut off communication. Don't read your email, don't come into our team's little newsroom, all of that sort of thing. If you do that, you're probably not doing your job effectively and then you'll have even bigger problems than being spoiled. We work in online media. Refusing to open your email is equivalent to going to your 9-to-5 and throwing all of your work out of a window instead of actually working.
Now, it isn't all bad. We're not abused bloggers being barraged with unwanted spoilers. Being spoiled doesn't actually ruin the game for us. The entire staff geeks out together when we get some truly delicious news or find something really cool in the game files. We don't spoil things because we're cruel people with black, black hearts trying to suck everybody's enjoyment out of the game. The news that gets posted fastest is the news that excites us the most.
Ted asked:
"Have we, will we or can we see the actual real-life faces of the WoW.com writers?"
Some of our writers (Matt Rossi, Mike Sacco) get their faces plastered on the site constantly. Others have their faces in our extremely outdated About the Bloggers series. If you're going to BlizzCon, you'll be able to see many of us in person.
So I guess the answer is either "sometimes" or "maybe."
Task asked a few questions:
"I posted a question awhile back regarding Alex Ziebart's surname and its supposed relation to the automotive company with the same name. I never did find out if it was family business or just coincidence."
I'm fairly sure I did answer this question, but it was probably in the comments and not The Queue itself. It's just coincidence, I don't have any relation to that company at all. If I do, it's extremely distant and any link might as well not exist.
"Will Ms. Harper be attending this year's BlizzCon as a farewell/get-together/super awesome party?"
Yes, Miss Liz is going to be at BlizzCon. She will even be at our BlizzCon meetup, which we're going to announce officially very soon!
Oh, and before I close this out, you can thank one of my raidmates for the header image on this article, though Deathy was not the original subject of Ms. Gnome's unending love.
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 3 of 5)
WoWie Zowie Aug 30th 2010 12:30PM
how does velen look in cata? of all the faction leaders he needs the biggest makeover. and for the love of bob give him the exodar life staff, not that lvl 12 piece of root he is holding on live.
Gilanth Aug 30th 2010 12:55PM
Atm he just has a new staff
Hollow Leviathan Aug 30th 2010 4:59PM
No love for the High Tinkerer? Velen looks fine, I think.
Titusx Aug 30th 2010 12:43PM
Why is it that makes Ret paladins so easy get OP? I just saw a blue post stating that they had to tone down Ret in the Beta servers because they where out dpsing everyone. That got me to wonder why is it that this damned spec is so prone to becoming uncontrolable.
I have a paladin alt that was ret up to like lvl 33 then switch to prot and haven played much of it in months. So my knoledge of the spec is fairly limited. Can anyone tell me why is this Naru forsaken spec is so inclined to become a boombastic-oneshoting-forumcrying peace of spec?
(cutaia) Aug 30th 2010 1:57PM
"I just saw a blue post stating that they had to tone down Ret in the Beta servers because they where out dpsing everyone."
"they had to tone down Ret in the Beta servers because they where out dpsing everyone."
"they had to tone down Ret in the Beta servers"
"Ret in the Beta servers"
"in the Beta"
"Beta"
This gives me an idea. Maybe they should use the beta as a place to work on class balance before the final release. Oh, wait...
Noakh Aug 30th 2010 3:29PM
What an unhelpful and sarcastic comment, cutaia! He asked why rets, time after time (not only in beta), end up being way overpowered and having to be nerfed. I wish I had a decent answer for you Titus, but at least I can defend your worthwhile question from unnecessary abuse.
Bain Aug 30th 2010 3:33PM
ret qq is only for trolls and bad warriors.
do not feed.
Pyromelter Aug 30th 2010 3:34PM
He wasn't asking why they were OP, he was asking why it seems to be easy for them to become OP.
I would have to guess because of the new mechanics, having finishing moves that are based around +% increase in damage makes it prone to huge burst on those finishing moves. And if you get a lucky proc or two (or 10), and you can unleash multiple finishers in a short time span, you get the potential to become over powered.
Of course, if it gets nerfed, then it can become way underpowered. But that's why it's beta (as was pointed out).
Iano Aug 30th 2010 3:40PM
I'm with you- Cutaia, you didn't really read the comment correctly.
It's not that he/she is complaining about Beta changes. It's that he/she wonders why Ret always needs so danged much of that tweaking.
Titusx, I believe it is because ret paladins have traditionally not had enough buttons to press. In the past, most ret paladins who were alive and present at their keyboard would do the max ret dps they were capable of, just by pressing each of their buttons, each time it was off cooldown. Also, there weren't that many buttons, so each ability had to be powerful enough to make ret dps competitive (that is, once they decided ret dps should be competitive- sometime during BC or at the turn to Wrath). Contrast this with a hunter, who, while an easy class to play, can easily raise it's dps by 1k or more by adding proper macros and glyphs- which are not immediately obvious to the newbie hunter (wonder why there are so many huntard jokes? It's easy to play a hunter- until you get into proper endgame stuff, at which point, you will need pointers! Ret paladin have not needed pointers. ANY pointers. macros, etc... Nothing. No tricks, no special ret addons, just crusader strike, Divine storm, judgement, and often Consecration. This is very different from hunters and many other classes, and it means that total idiot could pick up ret and RIP PEOPLE TO SHREDS, and that ret had great burst (3 abilities on something like 8-second cooldowns, all used at the beginning and then wait 3-4 seconds for the first one to come off= great burst in this case). )
See what I'm saying?
Ret is a little different, and right now they're trying to balance in the new Holy Power business, which will make ret reasonably more complicated (you can't just push any damage button the moment it lights up and do max dps you're capable of in your gear). This will help balance out some things, and they've been trying to give ret more buttons to balance the other ones, and all that jazz.
Ret is an odd duck, but Blizz is bringing it into line.
(cutaia) Aug 30th 2010 4:42PM
"Cutaia, you didn't really read the comment correctly.
It's not that he/she is complaining about Beta changes. It's that he/she wonders why Ret always needs so danged much of that tweaking."
I understand that he's not complaining about the Beta change. However, he's using that change as the sole basis for his question. Lots of things are still being adjusted on beta, and pretty much all classes have needed a lot of tweaking. If he's gonna single paladin out as a class that just randomly ends up OP, I'd like to hear some examples besides, "This is something that happened on the beta recently."
Artificial Aug 30th 2010 7:22PM
cutaia, he doesn't need to provide examples, it's just one of those things "everybody knows". It must be true, he read it on the Internet... ;)
Dryftwood Aug 30th 2010 1:28PM
has there been any more indication or talk of a "tabard tab" similar to the mount/pet tab?
Discolando Aug 30th 2010 1:48PM
Whatever happened to the 'Patches of Yesteryear' (or whatever it was called) column that I remember seeing a couple of years ago? I was looking forward to seeing screenshots and other info about pre 1.0 content.
Wrox Aug 30th 2010 1:54PM
Any word on new racial voice files in Cata, particularly for gnomes? I love my gnomes, but I play on mute half the time so I don't have to hear the emote for /ty or /charge. I guess I could stop thanking people or encouraging the meat shield to run in while I hang back, but that wouldn't be very gnomish.
dirtygringo Aug 30th 2010 1:56PM
question for the queue:
in the blizzcon panels, one image showing the levelling plan for eastern kingdoms had a neutral port placed between hinterlands and eastern plaguelands.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2009/08/previewpanel_12.jpg
has this port shown up in the beta yet? if not, is it likely to or has it been abandoned as an idea?
Fletcher Aug 30th 2010 2:30PM
They've said several times that there will be no neutral cities in Cataclysm. So I'm guessing it's an early idea that got abandoned.
Joseph Smith Aug 30th 2010 2:58PM
A neutral port isn't the same as a neutral city. What blizz has said won't happen is a city with a sanctuary buff like Dalaran or Shattrath. A neutral port would be more like Gadgetzan/Booty Bay or Light's Hope Chapel, where players of either faction can go and not worry about getting ganked by NPCs. PCs are another story....
Vacasta Aug 30th 2010 1:57PM
Will a worgen in human form gain any benefit from it whatsoever (besides lore/flavor)? And, when NPCs refer to the player by their race, do they use "Human" or "Worgen" if the player is in Human form?
Task Aug 30th 2010 2:02PM
@Alex Ziebart
Thank you for re-answering my question... It should have been worded, that I was planning to find out for you and forgot to follow that up.
That was my bad and my improper use of grammar. XD
Jack Spicer Aug 30th 2010 2:09PM
Has the price for 300 riding skill (280% speed) changed in Cataclysm?