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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Min-maxing archaeology
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 13th 2010 at 11:00AM
What does one do after hitting level 85? Spend three straight days digging up rocks, of course. Zin'rokh, you will be mine. Even if your model is upside down now.
MoarHeroisms asked:
What's a good time to use the green archaeology fragments to solve artifacts? Is it a good idea to use a handful at once?
I think it's a matter of personal preference. If you save it for when a rare discovery pops up on your archaeology panel, you'll be able to learn that rare discovery faster. If you use them as fast as you can and as early as you can, it will get you through the commons faster for a chance at a rare. Which is better? I'm not sure yet. Personally, I use my greens right away, but that might not be the best way.
Vorenos asked:
Quick poll: What's your favorite Cataclysm instance so far?
Vortex Pinnacle. I think WoW's djinn are somewhat silly, but Vortex Pinnacle is absolutely beautiful, and Altairus has very cool mechanics. It's even more exciting on heroic.
Grim Batol is fun, but I'm not a big fan of the drake bombing run. Screwing that up can add a good extra 30 minutes on a run, and at that point, you might as well start the instance over and try again. It's just too punishing if you screw it up. It's not like wiping, running back, and reassessing a boss. It makes the entire instance significantly longer. Don't get me wrong, I love the instance and think the mechanic is really neat; it's just too punishing if you do poorly.
The bosses in Grim Batol are great too. The ettin, Forgemaster Throngus, is basically just a redo of Pit of Saron's Forgemaster Garfrost wherein the weapon swap mechanic actually matters. I think that's cool. Plus I've always wanted more bosses that make use of their shields.
Enigma asked:
In the beta, worgen had an awesome animation when switching to human form (not from). First one arm changed, then the other, then in a back-arched howl the rest would go. Now we just have a *poof-you're-a-worgen* thing.
What happened?!
Nothing happened. It's still there. The only time it doesn't happen is when you transform in combat, because you probably don't want to be stunned and stuck in a long transformation sequence when you're getting ganked and/or trying to fight something. If you transform manually, it will play the transformation animation in full.
Henrah asked:
One of the first few quests in Hyjal has you transport Fandral Staghelm from his prison to the Emerald Dream. Why exactly was Fandral imprisoned in the first place? Is there any in-game lore or event that I missed to explain this?
Unfortunately, no. That entire scenario is explained in the recent Stormrage novel. Blizzard hasn't put much effort into keeping players that haven't read the novels in the loop. I'd hoped they wouldn't have repeated the Obsidian Sanctum error, but they sure as heck did.
If you don't want to be spoiled on the end of the Stormrage novel, stop reading now.
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, Archaeology
Reader Comments (Page 9 of 9)
Priestess Dec 13th 2010 9:27PM
After reading http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/12/13/officers-quarters-the-guild-achievement-controversy/ , I suddenly had a terrible thought: if you exit a guild, for whatever reason, do you immediately lose all your rep with that guild?
It's a scary thought for me because among the longtime friends in our guild, we participate in occasionally gkicking each other or gquitting in jest. I can't imagine how cruel it would be for this to happen two weeks from now and having all that rep instantly stripped from the player. There goes the joke!
So my question for The Queue is: if you leave a guild, do you instantly lose your reputation with a guild once you leave it, or is there a certain amount of time you can be out of the guild before it's removed? Or do you lose your guild reputation with one guild once you join another? What are the nuances to this, if there are any?
skyman4321 Dec 13th 2010 10:35PM
Question For The Queue:
Please help put my nerdy OCD mind to ease! Were Wrath of The Lich King's dungeons really so easy that they ruined the expansion supposedly?
In my personal opinion Wrath seemed just as much fun as BC and Vanilla, if not funner, and Cata's dungeons seem to be a bit more difficult with trash, but the boss fights seem just like tank n' spanks considering in my experience my group's simply ignored the mechanics. I have yet to hit 85 however and ty Heroics, so IDK about those just yet.
Thanks in advance!!! =]
Darasen Dec 13th 2010 11:08PM
Has Blizzard outdone themselves by making flying in the lava cavern quest even MORE annoying than LK jousting? Why couldn't they do something cool like make us use thermals or something.
Actual question does this mechanic show up again?
Newbs Dec 14th 2010 10:06AM
If you didn't grow up playing "Joust" on a standup arcade game, then I can see how this would seem broing and tedious. If you did grow up playing Joust, then you did this entire quest line with a huge grin on your face, happily slapping away at your "Flap" button and laughing at the Egg Wave.
Darasen Dec 14th 2010 3:05PM
Lol my growing up pre-dates Joust.
Pacotaco90 Dec 14th 2010 1:05AM
This might not be exactly the type of question you usally answer on the que, but I've been a reader of the wow insider for quite some time, back before it was wow.com, and I'm kinda wondering why you discontinued some of your articles. I was looking around the site and saw a list of retired articles and it made me wonder why. I can understand some of it, but like turpster vision, that was a vary entreating article, and I can't find on the site anywhere a farewell article or anything. Another one that stuck out was Friday night gin, that had potential to be a greate article but nothing ever came of it after the first one, why is that?
Stormscape Dec 14th 2010 5:42AM
I have a question.
Why do SO MANY big mobs have death animations that have them fall on and crush you? I mean, obviously blizzard doesn't make us take damage from having twenty tons of living rock fall on our heads, but shouldn't they either do us damage OR make the mobs fall NOT on top of us?
I only bring it up because SO MANY mobs do this, its almost like blizzard has it that way on purpose.
Mep Dec 14th 2010 7:52AM
WHAT is that last race icon on the archaeology screen? I've had 525 since about 30 hours into the expansion, and been looking all around... no idea what it is... looks like the explorers league or something...
Maeceo Dec 14th 2010 8:48AM
I am pushing forward to 85 and before I get there I want to be sure that I can still complete the Glory of the Hero achievement when at max level. I have only 4 or 5 left to complete that and I don't want to pass up the opportunity for a mount. I should have completed this before the expansion, but I was lazy. Also, when is the crafted lure cooking recipe coming into the game? I am sick of having it in my inventory and not able to use it!
Thanks in advance and keep up the excellent work!
zoltak19 Dec 14th 2010 9:24AM
I got maybe a dumb question that i probably missed somewhere else, but i just got my first toon to 85 and i still have all of twilight highlands to go, will doing those quests still gain me rep with the guild and also help the guild level?
Guyver2 Dec 14th 2010 11:18AM
True or false: some mobs or bosses (from regular or heroic instances) require 530 or even 535 skill?
siimmart Dec 14th 2010 10:14AM
BEHOLD! A BRILLIANT QUESTION FOR THE QUEUE!
So, this is about goblins. When the Bilgewater goblins escaped from
Kezan on that ''yacht'' of Gallywix's , it was blown up. As I
understand, it was rebuilt on the Lost Isles. Now, there's the boat
east of Orgrimmar, is that the boat? The one they escaped on? How'd
the whole population of Kezan fit onto it?
Now, there are boat-pieces of the same boat across Tanaris. How come?
Are they from Kezan? If, then why- Gallywix's yacht was supposedly the
only one to get off Kezan?
P.S. I need this question answered. RIHGT NAO PLZ!
Nessundorma Dec 14th 2010 10:31AM
So, did Blizzard lay off their entire copy editing staff? The writing in WoW has usually been pretty good, but in Cata, the text is simply overflowing with misspellings, poor grammar, usage errors, and awful cliches. Nothing kicks you out of an escapist fantasy faster than sentences that look like they were written by a fifth-grader who learned English from reading Turkish Lord of the Rings fanfic.
A hundred million bucks in gross revenue a month, and they can't afford a proofreader?
aperry Mar 16th 2011 4:44PM
Some general info in case anyone comes across this blind. Both continents are great for leveling, I found Kalimdor to be better for condensing of sites much in the same way you said you prefer the Eastern Kingdoms. That being said you might want to just play it by ear.. er eye. Each person will probably vary. As for getting around, it's "easy" depending on class and faction. Getting around Eastern.K as a horde sucks, plain and simple. There's a lot of flying and only 2 capitols up north. For Kalimdor we hordies have Thunderbluff and Org fairly near the middle of the continent so flying both ways really isn't too bad. Alli are centrally located much in the same way on Eastern K. so it might be easier in that sense for them there.
Mages- we've got it easy. If you have a mage and aren't doing this solely for achievements just do the profession on your mage. Oh crap there are two nodes down in Tanaris and I'm in winterspring, wtf do I do now? Easy, Dalaran port > Caverns of Time port > Tanaris... done. Crap now I've got to go back to Winterpring?! Easy again (at least for horde), Port to Orgrimaar > Hyjal Port > fly to Winterspring. If you're horde and are a mage, stick to Kalimdor. Between Thunderbluff, Orgrimaar and Dalaran > CoT you'll have no problem getting around easily. Alli mages are about the same in Kalimdor, with the exception that they'll need to hit up their capitol for Hyjal > Winterspring route. No biggy. Save yourself a headache, if you have a high mage use it.
I understand this article is old, but hey it came up high on my google list so I'm sure other folks are reading it. Good luck all.