Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: Useful
by Adam Holisky 
Dec 14th 2010 at 11:00AM
There are few things more fun for me than discovering a use for an item on my own. After leveling up alchemy to 525 over the weekend, I came across the Deepholm teleport potion and initially just glossed over it as some gimmick potion.
Until I was stuck in Uldum. Then it hit me. Use the teleport potion to head to Deepholm, and then take the portal to Stormwind. Total win. I now have exactly 2.5 bajillion of those suckers made.
Happiness is me.
Logan asked:
I'm a mage; why is everyone telling me to sheep stuff?
Crowd control is an ability you have via the sheep spell. And with Cataclysm necessitating every form of CC available... well, that's just going to be the way it is for you. You'll always be asked to sheep something. The alternative to your CCing things is endless death on trash, so count your blessings that you can prevent that.
Bart asked:
When does the new PvP season begin and where are the new level 85 PvP vendors?
It should begin today, or if not, then next week. I'm writing this the evening before, so I can't know for sure.
Does the guild perk Mount Up stack with movement increasing effects like Crusader Aura?
Nope. I wish it would, though. There are also a lot of reports it doesn't stack with my druid's flight form (yes, just my druid's). For shame!
Pink asked:
The live podcasts all had taken place during business hours. Do the hosts secretly hate all of us who have day jobs? Why not have one occur during the evening hours next time?
We don't hate you; for the hosts this is our day job, and we really need to be sure we make ourselves available to our loved ones outside of work hours. I could (and sometimes have to) spend 18 hours a day working here, but as a rule, it's really important that we establish separation. This is one of the main reasons we don't do live shows anymore, except on special occasions. It's just too hard to do a time that works for everyone and allows us to have lives.
As for last Friday's show, I'm still editing it. The live broadcast was interrupted numerous times by terrible internet connection problems, and it's taking a bit of time to make everything jibe evenly remotely good. Look for it soon.
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 14)
Task Dec 14th 2010 11:11AM
Christmas cookies with icing or Christmas cupcakes?
Noyou Dec 14th 2010 11:18AM
Cupcakes. Although a nice x-mas pie would be good :p
mathias Dec 14th 2010 11:28AM
Cookies with icing. You just don't mess with a good thing.
Peepers Dec 14th 2010 11:58AM
The fat man likes cookies and I wouldn't mess with changing it up on him ;)
donna Dec 14th 2010 12:50PM
Wait, you mean I can't have both? It's Christmas!
Evandrial Dec 14th 2010 11:08AM
i, for one, welcome our new Crowd Control overlords. i've been sheeping stuff that nobody even asked me to. it's awesome!
Qot Dec 14th 2010 11:28AM
As a shaman, running Grim Batol is like Christmas with Hex and Bind Elemental. I did about 2/3rds the damage I normally did (since I had to run back after the CC pull and I tended to stop my rotation and re-hex/re-bind after 30 seconds) but had twice as much fun.
Wolftech Dec 14th 2010 12:25PM
Well one thing this expansion has done...
... reminded me why I hate PuGs. I have gone on 2 different non guild randoms and each time, the tank and other dps forged ahead and ran in and gathered all the mobs like this was Utguard Keep and they were in ICC heroic gear. I tried to explain to them that this is back to the way it was in vanilla where you need to use some crowd control but they just said the healer sucks and rage quits or tries to vote kick the healer (and tell me I suck because I didn't wipe like they did because I ran and used invisibility after the idiot tank went down after he let the healer pull agro)
West Dec 14th 2010 2:04PM
I've made an initial hello macro that tells the tank to mark sheep with a box (my macro'd cc icon) and to say go when ready for the sheep pull. It has helped out a ton. and don't forget to counterspell that lone caster that's outside the tank's pack to help bring it in. every little bit helps.
i've also run with tons of other cc capable classes that simply stared blankly when asked to cc. i had a rogue respond last night that sap wasn't on his bars! after watching the rogue finally sap something a few pulls in i think it had to be the rogue's first sap ever (took almost a solid minute to get the sap down).
i do welcome the return to BC style trash (at least the trash packs aren't as dense as in vanilla).
uncaringbear Dec 14th 2010 6:28PM
I've been in PUGs where we've done full-on marking of mobs and CC, and other groups where it's just like the old WotLK AOE fest. Even for normal dungeons, I can tell you that the latter groups are a nightmare for the healers.
There are a LOT of players, tanks in particular, who refuse to adapt to the new dungeons.
Crimson Dec 15th 2010 1:39AM
As a Shaman I enjoy using the spell that was available to me since wrath and that I never got to use. Hex is amazing! Also I dig the new Bind elemental spell, that sucker alone allowed me to CC 2 mobs most of the time in stone core. And in one run of Vortex Pinacle we had another Shaman with us, and I tell you 2 hexes and 2 bind elementals are awesome :P
Cephas Dec 14th 2010 11:10AM
"the sheep spell" - I know that's what everyone calls it, but the spell is actually Polymorph. For a mage who doesn't know what sheeping is, it might be good for them to know what the spell is actually named.
(cutaia) Dec 14th 2010 11:12AM
He can cast the sheep spell between pew pew laser blasts and quickly expanding purple balls.
mathias Dec 14th 2010 11:20AM
Don't forget about food makey spell and blue flying spikey thing!
johnthediver Dec 14th 2010 11:23AM
I prefer to "Monkey" over "sheep" anyway. But sometimes I "Pig", "Penguin" or even "turtle"
John Dec 14th 2010 11:25AM
It can also make people into turtles, penguins, or pigs (am I missing any polymorph options? ).
Be sure to mark your poly target, so you don't forget to kill the mob later and have it charge in from behind :)
Prances in Underpantss Dec 14th 2010 11:28AM
Expanding purple balls, blue flying spikey thing....
It seems you all have forgotten the most important mage spells:
The fiery explosion, the other fiery explosion, and the enormous ball of flaming death!
Kylenne Dec 14th 2010 11:51AM
@John: Bunnies and kitties.
We have a whole pet store at the mall at our disposal.
Garnlok Dec 14th 2010 12:32PM
I turtle all the time, but then the damn zerg baneling bust me ):
Ana Dec 14th 2010 1:11PM
I'm using Black Cat as my Polymorph of choice. It's different and not what folks expect to see, however, I have seen a few tanks die to it... "B'aw... what a cute widdle kitty!" They go to pet it, poly breaks and now our tank is short a face and the rest of us are fleeing.
Or they go "WTF CAT!" And in their shock to see a cat in the middle of battle, they stunned and forget there are 4 other mobs in the pull that are thwacking away at him.
Kitty is awesome but it's distracting!