The Queue: I am serious about that last question
by Alex Ziebart 
Nov 17th 2010 at 11:00AM
The Queue is as good a place as any to solicit feedback, right? Sure, why not! Readers, in addition to whatever questions you might have for us to tackle, we would appreciate any suggestions or recommendations for Cataclysm content you'd like to see either before or during the expansion's launch. Is there anything you're dying to know? Something you just don't feel prepared for the expansion without? We'd love to hear it!
Now, to the Q&A!
JoJa asked:
I have a trio of level 80 characters decked out in a mix of ICC, TOC, and badge gear. I've recently returned to playing a favorite alt, however, and I'm thinking about making it my main in Cataclysm. I keep reading about how hard the mobs hit in the leveling zones of Cataclysm. Will I be able to take my alt in a mix of quest greens and dungeon blues directly to the first Cataclysm starting zone? Or will I have to grind for iLevel 232 badge gear just to stay alive in the new zones?
Hyjal and Vashj'ir aren't too bad as far as damage is concerned. You don't start getting your face rocked off until Deepholm. Taking Wrath greens into the two starting zones won't be an issue at all. You'll replace all of your Wrath greens with Cataclysm greens before you're done with them, and then you'll be prepared for Deepholm.
Once you actually get into Deepholm, you'll need to be more careful about how you play. You don't need to shake in your boots the entire time you're in the zone, but if you're going to pull three to four mobs at a time like you might be doing in Wrath of the Lich King, you're going to run into trouble.
Allenok asked:
Why do the weapons that the Lich King drops have such great lore-based names but are just lame, over-used models of other weapons that drop all over ICC? Is it just designers being lazy? Shouldn't a figure as important as Arthas drop unique-looking items?
I think you're looking at it in the wrong direction. Arthas isn't dropping copy/pastes of weapons off of lower bosses. Lower bosses are dropping copy/pastes of weapons off of Arthas. It's a side effect of trying to itemize both 10- and 25-man raids. Across 10- and 25-man raids, not counting heroic-quality items, there are nearly 300 total items. Things such as rings and necklaces don't need models, but that's still a lot of items that would need them. I don't know if not having the time to model nearly 300 unique items for a content patch is being lazy.
One of the reasons they're giving 10- and 25-man raids the same loot in Cataclysm is so that bosses like Arthas can have entirely unique drops. If there was only a 25-man version of Icecrown Citadel, then Arthas's drops would not appear anywhere else in the zone.
gboyd asked:
What is the zone leveling order come Cataclysm?
This question gets asked so much that we should probably turn it into its own post just so we have something to link to people when they ask. I'll answer it here, but don't be shocked if it shows up on the site on its own before launch. The zone order is:
- Hyjal/Vashj'ir: 80-82
- Deepholm: 82-83
- Uldum: 83-84
- Twilight Highlands: 84-85
Ihastail asked:
So when Deathwing pops out of the ground ... if he sees his own shadow, does that mean another six weeks of Wrath?
Oh, hell no. I am not running Icecrown Citadel for another six weeks. If I have to sunder Azeroth myself, I will.
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: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 18)
Mayah Nov 17th 2010 11:03AM
my question is:
why doesn't the queue have a picture today!!
CrossEyed Nov 17th 2010 11:07AM
It does have one...... now... :)
Alex Ziebart Nov 17th 2010 11:07AM
Man, I wish I knew.
Mayah Nov 17th 2010 11:56AM
ahhh... the world is right again...
Schadenfreude Nov 17th 2010 11:57AM
Two questions:
1) I'm hearing that we should log out on our characters in Org or SW (i.e. not in Dalaran) to be better prepared to get questing in Cata, but I'm also hearing that all characters will be teleported to their racial capitals from where they are in the world. Since it would be annoying to park my shaman in Org only to be teleported to TB, can anyone confirm one way or the other what will happen exactly?
2) Is there anywhere in EK and Kalimdor that you can't fly to now? Any weird invisible walls or weird unfinished areas?
(cutaia) Nov 17th 2010 12:13PM
1) You're hearing this "teleport to home city" theory from people who are just as clueless as everybody else. Nobody knows right now and we're all just making guesses. However, I will tell you that doesn't seem like a very logical guess. Teleporting to their capital cities means that every single character on the server would show up in one of 4 places, all at once. It's probably better to send people to their hearthstone locations so that we don't have the added lag from every 1-79 character in the game being sent to those places in addition to the level 80s. Also, folks who aren't reading these sites and planning ahead would help reduce lag by accidentally leaving their healths set to Dal like suckers!
2) As discussed later in these comments, there are still invisible walls stopping folks from flying to Eversong/Ghostlands. There's also some in places related to the new AQ area. Possibly more.
3) Don't highjack posts. It's the comment section equivalent of parking in the fire lane cause you're too good to walk from the parking lot like everybody else.
(cutaia) Nov 17th 2010 12:18PM
Oh...also, the logging out and waking up in a different place thing will happen when 4.0.3a hits...NOT when Cataclysm releases. Doing that is essentially just so that we don't wake up stuck in a mountain that didn't exist before, or a raid like ZG that is being removed.
So, on December 6th, you can safely just log out in SW/Org without fear of being teleported or hearthed for a second time.
sprout_daddy Nov 17th 2010 12:22PM
If you didn't want him to hijack the post, wouldn't it have been better to answer the question further down below?
(cutaia) Nov 17th 2010 12:28PM
Yeah, it would have been awesome to spend all that time answering his question for it to never be read by him. I love wasting my own time!
Look, I answered the question to be helpful. That doesn't mean I can't also give him advice about how post highjackings are frowned upon.
Pyromelter Nov 17th 2010 12:42PM
I have no problem with someone hijacking a thread as long as their question is good and relevant (which his was). Also the first post ends up being useless since it was a glitch with wow insider (what's new).
Sometimes you just don't want to wade through 19 pages of fluff to have an actual question answered. It's not like this is a messageboard with it's own unique links for easy navigation.
tl;dr - if you're question is good, hijack away imo.
Colleen Nov 17th 2010 12:54PM
I was banned from the WoW forums for doing exactly that, not finding the exact thread where a question was being asked, in this case it was comments. I didn't want to post in a comments thread, just like this person didn't want to, and got banned! be careful
(they gave me back my forum access, I think they understand we were all just really excited in those first few days of the new forums, and I have a really good record, no prior violations.)
Negatron Nov 17th 2010 2:52PM
(cutaia), weren't you a member of the Axis of Anarchy from the web show The Guild? I clearly remember you guys cutting a line in the show. Season 3, in front of Game Stop i think?
Pamoya Nov 17th 2010 8:01PM
In response to Schadenfreude:
If things happen the same way as they did on the test server, when we get patch 4.0.3a, you will be stranded in Dalaran if you happened to log out there. Log out in Orgrimmar or Stormwind. You won't be teleported to your hearth location, but it also is not a bad idea to change your hearth to Orgrimmar or Stormwind at the same time, because those will be new hubs. Unless they fix/change this, the elemental invasion will still be happening after the Shattering, so the innkeepers won't be available all the time.
On test server, I observed this by a) having my shaman, with her hearth set to Dalaran, be in Ironforge--where she last logged out--upon first logging on to a Shattered world; and b) having my priest, with her hearth set to Dalaran, be in Dalaran stranded with no portals upon first logging on.
Galestrom Nov 17th 2010 11:04AM
Has there been any specific information released about Guild Leveling? (i.e. Experience Caps, How Guild XP is accrued; at what rate per 'activity', etc.)
xvkarbear Nov 17th 2010 11:25AM
My guild is also curious about guild leveling details.
We've all heard conflicting things about heirlooms and mounts.
When you purchase the mounts/heirlooms and leave the guild..
do you get to keep them or do they vanish?
Pyromelter Nov 17th 2010 1:32PM
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/08/18/cataclysm-beta-guild-advancement-qanda/
Guild experience can be earned in any of four ways:
1. Completing quests / daily quests that reward experience
2. Killing any dungeon / raid boss with a guild group/raid
3. Winning a rated battleground with a guild group/raid
4. Earning a guild achievement (these are nice, fat chunks of experience so they feel great when you get em)
(guild group/raid = 80% of the members must be guild members)
There is a daily cap on XP, but most guilds are not likely to hit it because they made the cap very high.
As far as heirlooms, once you get them, they are yours. Blue quote:
"The heirlooms on the guild vendor are just like other heirlooms in the game except that these must be unlocked via a guild achievement and you must have the required guild faction to purchase them. After that, you can use them just like normal heirloom items.
We did have thoughts of making these items guild bound a long time ago but we came to the conclusion that that was just too limiting of a design. Imagine leaving a guild and losing all the guild rewards that you worked so hard to get? Taking items away from players is something that we would like to avoid at all costs."
That last line is something other blue posters have reiterated. Once you get an award, an achievement, an item, Blizzard wants you to keep it.
Finally, how much xp do you get per quest or boss kill or bg victory? No idea, hopefully someone in beta can elucidate on that point.
koolaid201 Nov 17th 2010 1:42PM
I believe Blizzard said at Blizzcon that once you purchase something from the guild vendor it stays in your inventory regardless of you staying in the guild. That said, however, you still need to have 1) Enough guild reputation to buy the item 2)The guild will have had to earn the correct achievement/level to unlock the item from the vendor and 3) You have to have the requisite amount of gold that the item costs to buy it.
EK Nov 17th 2010 2:06PM
I also have related questions.
- Will my 3,000 fish count toward the guild achievement, or will only fish caught after 4.03a count? (Same question for other professions)
- I heard about a daily cap on guild experience, and that only the top X contributors' experience would count. What was the final decision on that? My guild has about 15 people in it. With no cap, leveling would have to be balanced around large guilds, so I am worried about the long-term health of our social circle.
- Final one. I added a guild rank and moved it up to position 2. It shows up in the armory as rank 8, which was its initial level. The original rank 2 I deleted, and now my guild has no rank 2. Is this a recognized bug? Anyone else have this experience?
Pyromelter Nov 17th 2010 8:03PM
@EK
-I'm fairly confident (99.999 [repeated of course]%) that fishing and profession achievements start at zero once guild leveling starts. So none of your 3,000 previously caught fish will count
-They removed the top contributors limitation. If you have 50 people doing things for the guild, you'll have 50 different contributors.
-I have no idea about the guild rank thing, I would guess there are a bunch of strange bugs regarding that, I'd just sit tight for a bit and then put in a ticket if it doesn't fix itself.
Neodarkmatter Nov 17th 2010 11:05AM
Hey guys, what's that ominous shadow in the sky? Oh s&*$ it's Alex Ziebart! RUN!