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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: I don't want to look back yet
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 22nd 2010 at 11:00AM
Be honest. How many of you winced, cringed, or shrieked in terror upon seeing that screenshot of Oculus up above?
Kal asked:
How do you feel Cataclysm compared to the other expansion releases in terms of bugs and hotfixes? I didn't play much during The Burning Crusade and Wrath's releases, so I'm not sure how this one compares.
I've found Cataclysm's launch to be extremely smooth compared to both The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. With the exception of Tol Barad, there have been no intense, gamebreaking bugs in Cataclysm's launch. Tol Barad is horrifically imbalanced, and that sucks, but Wintergrasp would crash servers every single time the battle started. There were major pieces of content that were simply unplayable in previous expansions. Cataclysm has nothing like that. Yes, there have been a lot of hotfixes, but they've been relatively minor and they've been great fixes. Cataclysm's launch has been very smooth.
Westoya asked:
Why does the WoW Insider RSS feed frequently barf and re-post everything from the last couple days?
We're in the process of trying to figure that out. One thing that would help when reporting this happening is checking which version of our RSS feed you're using. Because of all of the crazy domain changes we've had to go through, there are a lot of people using our old feeds, which is fine ... except when there's an RSS bug, there's a whole group of feeds to check rather than just one. Are you using our old WoW.com feed? Our original WoWInsider.com feed? The wow.joystiq.com feed? They're all the same content, but if it's a specific one screwing up consistently, it will help us find the problem.
xandrence asked:
I'm wondering what everybody thinks of the new dungeons. I can't put my finger on it, but to me, they just don't seem to flow as good as most of the Lich King dungeons.
Personally, I love the Cataclysm dungeons. I don't think there's one I actively dislike. It's no small secret that I, personally, thought Wrath of the Lich King was an overall weak expansion compared to Blizzard's other work, but I find Cataclysm to be excellent. I'll take the worst Cataclysm instance over places like the Nexus any day of the week. The Wrath instances didn't excite me. At all.
Steph asked:
Why do we not get XP when skinning mobs? It's a gathering profession like mining and herbalism, so why not?
My worgen druid wishes to know the answer to this question as well. If you ever find out, let me know.
My guess? Because you already earned XP from killing the mob, they don't want to give you XP for ripping its skin off, too. At that point, they might as well just give you a free heirloom item for picking up skinning. At least mining and herbalism make you go out of your way a little.
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 12 of 13)
anbilow Dec 22nd 2010 2:53PM
Which boss would you consider to be the hardest on heroic as of right now? Personally I have gotten through most after a few tries, but Shadowburner in Grim Batol has rolled me a good 15 times or so...
Hih Dec 22nd 2010 5:21PM
http://www.wowhead.com/npc=4278 Commander Springvale. Easily the hardest. That is, if you don't cheese the fight and kite him back to the courtyard thus bypassing all the adds except the first two completely.
Nipah Dec 22nd 2010 8:26PM
Finding people who can dodge the giant worm in Stonecore can always be fun.
Nipah: "Ok, when the boss burrows, watch out for the clouds of dust/dirt and don't be near them at all, or you'll be 1-shot."
Group: "OK!"
Tank has died to the burrow attack.
Healer has died to the burrow attack.
WIPE
REZ
Nipah: "OK, now you know what I'm talking about. Lets try this again!"
Group: "OK!"
Tank has died to the burrow attack.
Healer has died to the burrow attack.
Nipah: "... really?"
Tank has quit the group.
Healer has quit the group.
Theyas Dec 22nd 2010 3:02PM
Question for the queue:
Any idea if Blizzard intends to add more solvable items for archaeology in future content patches? There are quite a few as it stands, but I can imagine that there are lots of people who have found all there is to find.
Rufio Dec 22nd 2010 5:43PM
They designed archeology to be easily expandable, so I'd imagine we'll be seeing a LOT more content for it in the future. It's fairly base now, but It'll be worth levelling it up (if this kind of thing appeals to you) in preparation for future content/digs/phatloot/lore etc.
Scalin Dec 22nd 2010 3:02PM
Back when 4.0.1 came out, I was still leveling my paladin. When I was grouped with a warlock friend of mine; both of us miners, we'd both get xp for nodes. Now, however, when we're grouped (both 81) only the one tapping the node is getting the xp (tested enough times that she has a 200k xp lead on me). So, is the lack of group xp now a bug, or was the group xp back then the bug?
icepyro Dec 22nd 2010 3:41PM
In regards to the RSS feed question:
It happened a couple days ago on the wow.com feed. I should change it, but I leave some articles marked as unread and go back to them during slow times. If I ever catch up, I will be changing, but yeah, I don't want to lose my place when it works.
Kuro Majutsukai Dec 22nd 2010 3:42PM
...
I LIKED Oculus.
:[
Ventis Dec 22nd 2010 3:54PM
confirmed, this patting mob does indeed teach it thank you!
Neirin Dec 22nd 2010 4:10PM
The cata launch has been astoundingly good. Not only have the majority of problems been very small, but they have almost all been fixed extremely quickly. Tol'Barad is really the only major problem, and I think we all know that it's going to take a while to rework an entire PvP zone.
If nothing else, though, blizz deserves some major props for minimizing downtime. I think my server has actually had less downtime since cata launch than it had during normal operations during 3.3 (i.e. not patch week, just any normal week). The 15 minute rolling restarts at 3AM are working much better for me than 8 hours (when they don't go longer) of maintenance every week.
Craig Dec 22nd 2010 4:14PM
I use the feed http://www.wowinsider.com/rss.xml and it happens pretty randomly with it.
Tarvos Dec 22nd 2010 4:26PM
Why am I not getting credit for "Explore Tol Barad"? For some reason, even though I've been inside all the prison wards, they aren't being credited in my achievement. Am I the only one having this problem?
(cutaia) Dec 22nd 2010 5:01PM
It looks like from the Wowhead comments, this is a widespread bug. Just wait and eventually it'll happen, I guess.
Ron Dec 22nd 2010 4:40PM
I do not think the xp bonuses for mining and herbing are balanced because yes on those you go out of your way to get it but in general it always seems that those sell for much more than leather so you get your compensation that way.
Gorkarp Dec 22nd 2010 8:56PM
Honestly, all the good content aside, I feel Caty is a ripoff. I encountered quest stopping bugs in nearly every zone. Also, the cut-scenes thrown in are horribly, horribly designed. They look like a three-year old waving a home movie camera around. They are not a tiny bit cinemagraphic, or lend to a dramatic feeling at all. They are actually quite horrible compared to cut scenes of games say, 10 or even 15 years ago. Some mechanics of travel in quests seem thrown together and rushed. There really is no polish to be seen, the whole thing looks like it was really just rushed to market.
raposo02790 Dec 22nd 2010 5:23PM
How do i change my profile picture? Honestly speaking I'm sick of looking at the ogre and cannot find a way to change it.
raposo02790 Dec 22nd 2010 5:42PM
Figured it Out =)
StarGryphon Dec 22nd 2010 5:11PM
I am using the http://wow.joystiq.com/rss.xml feed and it barfs about once a week for me as well.
jfofla Dec 22nd 2010 5:25PM
It kills me how it is now "cool" to bad mouth Wrath. WOTLK gave us LFD, Achievements, Phasing, new Quest flow, Heroic Raids, Wintergrasp, on and on.
It may not be cool, but I liked WOTLK!
Rufio Dec 22nd 2010 5:41PM
Yep, you're right. We're not yet into the nostalgia phase. You'll equally enjoy the cringe factor of people looking back fondly upon it in a few months time.