The Queue: Dog Wizard
by Michael Sacco 
Sep 3rd 2010 at 6:00PM
/cast Conjure Bone
/cast Conjure Bone
/cast Conjure Bone
/cast Conjure Bone
Bui asked:
With the level cap having gone up to 85 now and I'm guessing plenty of beta testers have reached it whats the gear looking like from the quests and other sources ? I mean is it apparent that all the ICC stuff you got will be put to shame by the new greens? I know you've said that most of your gear will be getting replaced by around 83 but how vast is the gap between ICC and like an 85 green?
Uldum and Twilight Highlands aren't itemized yet, so we don't know. My ICC gear (non-heroic) was replaced handily by stuff in Deepholm and Hyjal before it; if not due to pure power differences, than because of mastery and much-needed stamina against the hard-hitting Cataclysm mobs.
Kar asked:
Will regular Deadmines still be a very low level dungeon? I assume adding the Heroic was mostly just a silly thing to please fans, but are we to expect any significant changes in say boss mechanics between the versions, or just a massive scaling? For some reason I can't see Bliz being satisfied with simply repeating something for nostalgia's sake without mixing it up a bit.
Yes, Deadmines is still available for low-level play. The dungeon's original bosses and trash have been replaced with new characters introduced during the Westfall questing experience, and you can expect that their respective heroic versions will differ in ways besides bigger numbers. Blizzard has indicated that the heroic instances may also have additional bosses.
Jack Miles asked:
With the new system of having to discover dungeons before entering them, does Blizzard have any plans to stop people from intentionally not discovering the Cata equivalent of oculus and HoS so they don't come up on the random dungeon finder?
I suppose you could just not discover them, if you wanted never to have the gear that was available in those dungeons. Or their achievements.
Why on earth would you skip Halls of Stone, by the way? It takes like seven minutes.
Oscar asked:
Don't know if this was asked already but I was curious if the elemental invasions in Wintersping and Un'goro (not sure what other areas are invaded) are in the xpac, or have they been removed?
They appear to be gone, but you do run into your old elemental lord friends while leveling. Avalanchion is in Deepholm, and when you kill him, he yells "Not agaaaiiiinnn!"
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: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
SeriphNEO Sep 3rd 2010 6:03PM
Some people are just sick of running HoS 5 times a week I guess. It's probably the single most common random.
Dril Sep 3rd 2010 6:08PM
Really? I've had it, like, once in the last 3 weeks. Random is random :P
johnthediver Sep 3rd 2010 6:26PM
I have been 80 for 2 months now on my pally alt and am running the heroic random every day. I still don't have the achieve for HHoS beacuse it has never come up for me.
jfofla Sep 3rd 2010 6:29PM
If you are sick of running instances, I have a radical thought.
Don't queue.
Blunderwear Sep 3rd 2010 6:50PM
I don't know what formula they use to determine which heroic you enter, but my lock has killed Sjonnir the Ironshaper 71 times. That's fully a third of my completed heroic runs. Seeing as there are twelve heroic 5-mans, I can't believe that there isn't somethign to the formula that steers you toward a certain dungeon based on your toon's gear score.
The main reasons people hate H-HoS is that dumb Tribunal of Ages boss that takes comparatively forever and the occasional under-geared tank who needs badges and insists on doing all the bosses when really all you want are your two frost badges.
Jack Miles Sep 3rd 2010 7:14PM
I was trying to think of more examples than just Oculus and HoS was the only other one I've heard someone complain about.
Depending on what class i'm playing, it's one of my favourite wrath dungeons because the ToA is a pretty cool boss.
Raz Sep 3rd 2010 9:54PM
This foolish statement makes me disbelieve everything in the post:
"Why on earth would you skip Halls of Stone, by the way? It takes like seven minutes."
When WoLK was fresh out, which is what this article is about - a fresh expansion and discovery - people found HoS hard and annoying. It was hard to even get a group for it. Back then you had to persuade guildies to go or look in trade. For a long, long time people groaned when it came up even when DF came out.
Avan Sep 3rd 2010 10:05PM
I'd say that people are sick of running H HoS because Brann's stupid event takes 5 minutes no matter how geared your group is. Waiting for something to happen (adds spawn) sucks. They changed Culling of Stratholme (the opening scene and the wave timers) and VH's portal timers because of that simple fact. Waiting around pointlessly sucks, plain and simple.
And probably because it's the only instance besides Oculus that ever comes up in the random finder anymore. Fresh groups, too, not runs in progress. WTF.
Colin Sep 3rd 2010 11:46PM
"This foolish statement makes me disbelieve everything in the post:"
Yeah, lazy writers. I bet Avalanchion isn't even in Deepholm. Everything in the Queue IS A LIE!
BigDumbFace Sep 4th 2010 1:03AM
Poker players hardly remember their greatest wins or suckouts, but we all remember the bad beats. Random is Random.
SamLowry Sep 4th 2010 1:08AM
Seven minutes my ass.
I just had a H HoS group break up after failing Brann's fight (the tank had also skipped every other boss on the way there, of course, which is another reason I hate the instance), and the counter had just hit 15 minutes at that point.
I hate HoS and Oc because the fatality rate is so ridiculously high, and in Oc especially your success eventually has nothing to do with how well you play your role, but how well everyone is hitting the three buttons on their vehicles.
I have a disposable 80 I'll be using to check out each new instance, and if I find any even remotely as sucky as HoS or Oc then I'll be sure to never "discover" them with my mains.
Natsumi Sep 4th 2010 3:45AM
Culling of Strat is my "Random" Dungeon. Worst I ever had it was 8 straight runs over 7 days. I helped my buddy out with his daily random and Strat came up, I was all, "WTF! AGAIN!?! I just did this crap! GG Blizz with your 'random dungeon finder', should just rename it Auto Queue for Strat lol" I want to say that out of the 150 or so randoms I've done since LFD hit, I've hit Start 40 times, so about 25% chance of Strat :p
Hih Sep 4th 2010 4:45AM
Ya, HoS doesn't take 7 minutes. The tribunal *alone* takes 5 minutes. Most of that 5 minutes is just standing around.
zvermm Sep 4th 2010 5:15AM
I seem to be getting only HoL and VH for months on end. And the only reason I use the random dungeon in the first place is so that I have a chance of getting to the Occulus, for a chance at the mount.
ithalaine Sep 4th 2010 6:38AM
im i the only one that likes oculus and wants to get emblems of triumph from the bosses in hhos i actually quite like em
kazeko.fuuga Sep 4th 2010 12:47PM
I think it's a gambler's fallacy deal.
Some people hardly get it, some get it a lot. It's random, I doubt the formula has any preference. It would be harder to program that than not.
Helasmoth Sep 4th 2010 3:20PM
The reason why you keep getting it is because elitest newbs just leave meaning it goes to the front of the queue faster than the others. Stop leaving and the spread will be more even.
Finnicks Sep 4th 2010 8:59PM
I've got a feeling that Random Dungeon options won't include the "must find entrance" limitation. I'll be willing to bet that it will only apply to specifically choosing dungeons.
Tomatketchup Sep 3rd 2010 6:03PM
No dark trolls in Hyjal I suppose? There was concept art for them when Cata was announced but so far none has been in the beta...
pyroroko Sep 3rd 2010 6:06PM
This - I loved the idea of the Dark Trolls, and hate that the only reference to them is one little chest piece in a now obsolete raid.