Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 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 4 of 8)
Yeechang Lee Sep 22nd 2010 3:38PM
I'm going to differ with Mathew and predict that there will never be another class that starts at 55. The ready availability of death knights unnaturally distorted players' choices. In Northrend, there was little reason for anyone who wanted a melee DPS or tank (whether plate-wearing or not) as his second character to choose anything but a death knight. This caused the well-known enormous glut of death knights on every server.
We'll probably see another class. It will probably be able to heal. But whether labeled a "hero class" or not, it will not start at 55. That is a mistake Blizzard will not repeat.
Noyou Sep 22nd 2010 5:29PM
@Yeechang
Only mistake I see is that they gave them 0 rep with all factions. I guess I can see it lore-wise but they give you all the FP's and 12 slot bags. I would think once you complete your school (DK training) and get your faction leader's seal of approval (spoiler?) you would get a 'friendly' or 'honored' rating. I'm still grinding away on my DK/farmer about a year after he hit 80. I will never figure out the DK hate (or any particular class hate for that matter). The way I see it you are free to roll any class/faction at any time so If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? No?
calaf Sep 22nd 2010 3:17PM
Reposting this question.... got high hopes for an answer.
So Im trying to buy up the heirloom gear I need before the price goes
higher with the next patch. I'm planning on leveling a holy pally in Cata. My question is how important is "plate specialization" during leveling. Am i still
better off going for the shammy shoulders/chest? Or should I still go
for the less than optimized itemization with the plate stuff.
jfofla Sep 22nd 2010 3:03PM
Cata is going to finally end the nonsense of classes wearing gear type not meant for them.
Pallies wear plate, and if you don't wear plate, you will be penalized.
calaf Sep 22nd 2010 3:17PM
But being as there is very poor itemization in the plate heirloom
stuff for PVE Holy Pallys. Does the penalty outweigh the lack of
usable stats?
Drakkenfyre Sep 22nd 2010 4:28PM
Um, no you aren't penaliized. You simply don't get the bonus from not wearing Plate.
Boobah Sep 22nd 2010 4:54PM
Unless I'm missing something, the only plate heirloom chest isn't for casters, so if you want the xp bonus from the chestpiece, you're breaking the armor bonus anyway. Once you've done that, you may as well pick up the mail shoulders, since there's a caster pve version of those, while plate only has the pvp ones, and you can always recycle the things for a shaman later.
While leveling, you aren't going to notice the 5% extra intellect you'll get from an all-plate getup (and that boost doesn't even kick in until about level 40), or at least not nearly as much as you'll notice the 10% experience boost.
Boobah Sep 22nd 2010 5:02PM
@Drakkenfyre
There is that school of thought that holds that any bonus is REALLY a penalty with good PR, and since we know that the whole point of the armor bonii is that you wear your intended gear, it's not unreasonable to interpret that as a penalty for using the wrong armor type. Especially since Priests, Warlocks, and Mages get it, too, even though they're incapable of getting it wrong.
scherbaddie Sep 22nd 2010 8:13PM
They repackaged the "rested experience bonus" this way too. It's a bonus for logging out, not a penalty for playing too long.
Croe Sep 22nd 2010 2:49PM
Question for the queue.
With the new currency coming in, does that mean you will be able to buy Frost Emblem gear when the emblem of Triumphs become converted? Is it worth holding off getting T9 gear when farming for emblems with a new 80?
Boobah Sep 22nd 2010 5:21PM
Yes, you'll be able to convert Triumph badges to Jusice Points and buy t10 gear with them. There are two major problems with that, however.
First, the current conversion rate is hideous; it'll cost you 30 Triumph badges for the t9 shoulders, but something around 250 Triumphs (697 Justice, IIRC) to buy the t10 shoulders. Yeah, that's more then it'll cost you to buy all five t9 pieces.
Second, all of these pieces have a relatively short active life left with the oncoming Cataclysm, and you can buy your t9 NOW, and get some use out of it before 4.0.1, whenever that happens.
Would I do it? Nope. My characters that still need emblem gear (of whatever kind) are happily burning the emblems as I get 'em, the better to not be dead weight in instances. I probably won't be buying anything with Justice Points before I hit 85, though, since I won't be able to game the conversion rate and it'll be closer to the actual expansion at that point.
Zaniac Sep 22nd 2010 2:57PM
I play on an EU server.
Every now and again, someone will say somthing consisting of nothing but a bunch of questionmarks on top of eachother, and an achievement.
Am I missing a languagepack?
Any idea which language it could be?
kooda Sep 22nd 2010 3:23PM
It's typically Dutch, German or Italian, i didn't realise language packs came into wow?
Grovinofdarkhour Sep 22nd 2010 3:57PM
@Zaniac
That's because they're speaking ?????????????????????.
It really is a lovely language. We should all try to learn at least a little conversational ????????????? when we have the time.
pandaba Sep 22nd 2010 10:06PM
What battlegroup / server are you on? I recently ran across an EU server that has a large population of Arabic speakers. I don't see question marks but the text is a long stretch of random characters + symbols, punctuated by "loooool!!!"
(Why lol gets the extra o's? It is a mystery. Apparently kids in Kuwait or Dubai really love their o's.)
I suppose the question marks could be Hebrew too. I haven't run across any but I would imagine some Israeli players picked out an EU English server or two and made a home there. I would almost hope they've picked the same battlegroup as the Arabic speakers for purposes of world peace or at least a good dramatic flameout. Would be more interesting than the cranky Brits vs. crazed Italians feud that dominates conversations in my battlegroup.
Thon Sep 22nd 2010 2:59PM
Question for the Queue: Does Blizzard have a real orchestra at it's command when making the music? Or is it computer generated, or perhaps a mix of both?
Drakkenfyre Sep 22nd 2010 4:28PM
It's a mix of both. I have seen a behind the scenes video of their composer making music, and he had a sound board with like thousands of samples.
jfofla Sep 22nd 2010 3:00PM
I actually think Blizzard has set the stage for LFD Raids.
Now we are not locked to an instance, we are locked out for bosses.
So why can LFD not be based on an entire raid, but a boss in that raid?
For example I join a LFD and say I am a Healer and I want a group for Professor Putricide. Why not?
If we down Putricide the entire raid can move on to a new boss, if we are a fail group that cannot down him, I am not saved to PP, so I have lost nothing but the repair bill.
I see this as being the future of raids.
radiationcowboy Sep 23rd 2010 1:44PM
@Ice
there is an addon called "Head Count" that tracks raid attendance and loot distribution.
doesnt have any loot point system support.
wow-interface, or curse
calaf Sep 22nd 2010 3:07PM
But being as there is very poor itemization in the plate heirloom stuff for PVE Holy Pallys. Does the penalty outweigh the lack of usable stats?