Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Getting ready for heroics edition
by Mathew McCurley 
Sep 22nd 2010 at 2:00PM
Hey, I'm back! Blame Alex. Yesterday, heroics opened up for testing in the Cataclysm beta. Tonight, the epic quest to get absolutely destroyed by these dungeons begins! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday! Come one, come all. Witness the horrors, trials and tribulations of stalwart souls! The slaughter in the Stonecore! The battle in the Blackrock Caverns! Throne of the DIES ... The quite literal Deadmines! Hellish Halls of Origination. A truly Grim Batol! Uh... Vortex Pinna...culling? What do you want from me? It's early.
Enough of that. Let's get on with some questions.
There are some Cataclysm spoilers in a couple of The Queue questions this week, so be wary if you're avoiding that sort of thing.
snowleopard233 asked:
Will we ever see an automatic group finder for raids like we have for heroics? I know raiding with guilds is ideal, but sometimes I just really need to find a tank for the 10-man weekly without having to spam the general chat for an hour.
Personally, I don't think that I would want to see this. Dungeons and heroics make sense -- the maximum amount of time you're spending with a pickup group is an hour, tops. Raids have so many varying levels of difficulty, along with a much stricter lockout period, that one random gone wrong could lock you out for a week, as opposed to just getting locked out of a dungeon for a day. Raids are meant for something different than the dungeons and are therefore treated differently.
Aracross asked:
Why is Garrus in the background of the web?
Garrus has been doing the calibrations for the URL changeover. Give him some time. He's got a lot on his plate.
woshiernog asked:
People are too concerned with the wrong dates. The real question is when the Cataclysm trailer is coming out. So when is it coming out?
Amen, brother. I cannot wait to see what trailer they pull out for Cataclysm. We've had the contemplative villain trailer, so I'm guessing we won't get something as melodramatic as Wrath's cinematic. Expect some action. My guess is that we'll see it at BlizzCon or at the end of September.
Also, this question forced me to go back and watch all of the cinematic openings for World of Warcraft and the expansions, and I am impressed every time. The Cataclysm trailer cannot come soon enough.
JR asked:
The draenei starting area takes place right after the Exodar crashed, and the Forsaken starting area takes place as Sylvanas is freeing undead from the Lich King's control. Have these two areas been revamped in Cata? Are they still set in the past?
I just popped onto beta for a few minutes and made a draenei, and I did not see anything different, except the new voice-over introduction. The undead, however, are a different story entirely. Spoilers ahead.
Previously, you would awake as a newly broken free undead, finally slipping free of the Lich King's hold. Now, things have changed. As a fresh undead, you awaken in a shallow grave, newly risen in undeath by Sylvanas' val'kyr. You are told that you are not a slave to Sylvanas, but if you choose to follow her, things will be pretty great. Then, you are instructed to help newly risen undead out of its shock and stupor from being risen. Suffice it to say, this is a very, very interesting new beginning for Forsaken players.
daae asked:
Will death knights always start at level 55? It would be cool if they changed it to level 1 so you can see all the new Cataclysm content as a DK. I guess there is some lore reason they start at 55.
I am pretty sure death knights will always begin at level 55, because that is how their entire unique opening has been developed. They are still technically a "hero" class, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the type of class additions we get from here on out.
Starting at level 55 is pretty much the reward for playing a hero class. You've already seen the early levels, presumably, on another character in order to unlock your death knight slot -- so congratulations, you don't have to do it again. Cataclysm fixes this to a large extent, with different leveling paths for characters.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider 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 3 of 8)
Aaron Sep 22nd 2010 2:28PM
The pic for today's Queue is AMAZING. =D
Zef Sep 22nd 2010 2:37PM
Yeah, wouldn't mind a hi res version.
Irvqwa Sep 22nd 2010 2:29PM
I have a question about Mastery, how much mastery is on gear at 85... roughly? And is there a cap? Getting 2-4% of a bonus per point seems like alot, especially since 600+ crit or haste is easy to get on live.
Janaan Sep 22nd 2010 3:06PM
I don't know approximately how much people have at 85, but I do know that there is not a cap to mastery. You can stack it infinitely and you will always benefit from it.
Cale Sep 22nd 2010 2:30PM
I think the raid browser is an excellent compromise between the ease of putting yourself in the dungeon finder and the quality control aspects of building a raid from scratch person by person through traditional means. It lets you pick and choose members quickly or put yourself out there w/o having to obsessively track trade.
Stil, on my server at least (Suramar), trade is still very active for raid pugs and the pre-cata raid browser is usually somewhat empty in comparison.
Al Sep 22nd 2010 2:31PM
Is the "new introductions for all races" article at the top of the page going to be completed?
jealouspirate Sep 22nd 2010 2:35PM
"Garrus has been doing the calibrations for the URL changeover. Give him some time. He's got a lot on his plate."
I lol'd a lot. When playing ME2 alongside my friend we would always laugh at Garrus always telling us to bugger off so he could calibrate stuff.
Ice Sep 22nd 2010 2:40PM
Question for queue or the readers!
I remember this being feature slightly on the past articles, but is there any addon that would track raid attendance or sing ups?
Anything from dkp styled addons will do. We dont use dkp tho, so if it wont track attendance its no use.
Sohj Sep 22nd 2010 2:54PM
You could try something like using www.worldoflogs.com. Not exactly what you asked for, but it might be helpful.
Sohj Sep 24th 2010 2:42PM
Actually, no, I take that back. It does do exactly what you want. Demo: http://worldoflogs.com/guilds/71563/character/
Ice Sep 22nd 2010 3:02PM
Gonna have to try that then. I would've liked actual addon more though, our raid leaders dont like to use world of logs because it collects a lot of data during the raid thus slowing our wooden PC's down.
This will be put to 'good' use!
Drez Sep 22nd 2010 3:45PM
World of Logs does not collect data on its own. You need to enable your combat log at the beginning of a raid (type /combatlog in game IIRC), then upload the log to World of Logs. Voila, attendance tracking! There are also many, many, many add-ons that work, including DKP addons and other similar addons. Search curse for attendance and you'll find a dozen or more.
artemasemail Sep 22nd 2010 2:42PM
Hey Folks, I was wonder where would be a good place to log out just before Cata gos live, so we can get right into the action once we've loaded up the new DVDs. Is their a fight trainer we have to get old world flying from in the cities or should I just start hanging out in Moonglade?
artemasemail Sep 22nd 2010 2:55PM
PS. could you guys write more, or hire a few more people; I blast through all your articles so fast, and then I have to go find some other site to read wile I'm trying to look busy. But when you just want WOW Insider nothing else feels right.
thegatherer Sep 22nd 2010 4:22PM
go sit by mankrik's wife
RogueJedi86 Sep 22nd 2010 4:52PM
The trainers will be capitals. So maybe try in Darnassus, since it's close to Moonglade. Darnassus/Moonglade is far from Uldum though, so you're only close to Hyjal. Plus I think the Hyjal entry quests start in Stormwind(or all capitals). I say Ironforge is the best place, since it's close to Stormwind(and its boat/portal to Vashj'ir and Deepholme) and Twilight Highlands.
Argojax Sep 22nd 2010 6:27PM
I believe at LK launch they potted everyone to their racial capital iirc correctly. This will be even more likely that you will be potted somewhere specific given that even the capitals are getting overhauls.
Drakkenfyre Sep 22nd 2010 9:18PM
Argo, you remember incorrectly.
They did not hearth people back.
The only people that had problems were the idiots who ignored the repeated warnings not to log out in Naxx. When they logged back in, the game crashed.
zeen13 Sep 22nd 2010 2:43PM
has there been any extremely cool love given to leatherworking in the expansion? i know alchemy is is getting a mount and engineering has gotten a lot of cool stuff, like a bbq feast for raid buffs. But i haven't notice any really unique items for leatherworking, are there any?
Gridus Allmighty Sep 22nd 2010 2:47PM
Does Wow insider have any ideas for future hero classes since blizzard has announced that there will be more?