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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 4 of 13)
Jayson Dec 22nd 2010 3:00PM
As far as red foxes specifically go, there are some in Loch Modan, but the ones in Redridge aren't tameable for whatever reason. After Loch Modan your next chance at a red (specifically) fox is in the mid-thirties in Western Plaguelands.
If you're not set on red, there are both black and brown available in Redridge.
EnigmaEngine Dec 22nd 2010 11:36AM
You'll have to abandon your mastiff to acquire a fox before leaving Gilneas.
TimR Dec 22nd 2010 11:37AM
Or you can always just ditch the dog. I didn't like the dog pet for whatever reason, so abandoned it and tamed a fox as soon as I could.
Shinanji Dec 22nd 2010 1:11PM
I waited until I got into Darkshore and tamed the Rare Black tiger toward the center of the zone, near the Grim quests.
AltMaster Dec 22nd 2010 11:15AM
Although I hate killing animals and not skinning them, I don't think skinning should award XP because it would create more skinners. Skinning is kind of a niche profession in that it basically only supports leatherworking, another niche profession. Awarding XP for skinning would flood the markets with skinners (particularly people leveling to 65) whereas skinners now have a chance to make gold for their efforts.
Chetti Dec 22nd 2010 11:34AM
Skinning is a niche profession? I've always seen skinning as a money-making profession, right up there with mining (and herbalism). Granted, most of my skinners are also leatherworkers (or tailors, there is some use for leather in tailoring). But I've also got a skinner/miner alt just for the funds.
As a side note, has there been an increase in miners? Its odd, I've never been in a group with one other, let alone THREE other miners, ever. Usually its the skinners that fight over instance skinnables (personally, if there are other skinners, I only skin the corpses I have loot on). But there were 3 others racing to the ore nodes in a deadmines run I was in last night. I picked up one right by the quest guys, and didn't even try for others through the run.
Eldoron Dec 22nd 2010 12:01PM
LOL people like to say "niche" about themselves to feel better >< Skinning isnt special, LW isnt special, end of story.
(cutaia) Dec 22nd 2010 12:52PM
I think you guys are reading a big much into wording, rather than intent. I think his point was that skinning mainly feeds into leatherworking; while mining directly feeds into blacksmithing, jewelcrafting and engineering; and herbalism feeds into both inscription and alchemy.
I really, really don't think he was saying "niche" to act as if he were "special." Just to explain his view that there is less demand for leather due to the nature of the other professions and he'd like to keep it a less taken profession to compensate for that.
ROB13 Dec 22nd 2010 11:16AM
Quick Question!
I'm currently leveling the the Thousand Needles, and as fantastic as it is, there's one thing that's just getting on my nerves. Every time I go underwater, I'm greeted with a looping: "FFFFFFFFFSHSHSHSHSHphphpfpffffffSSHSPSHSPSHFSHSSHS" and dangit I hate it! Is there anyway I can turn that off?
ROB13 Dec 22nd 2010 11:18AM
Bit of background information; it's not a bug, it's a sound file that's coupled with the Speedbarge Diving Helmet buff that you get in the zone.
scherbaddie Dec 22nd 2010 10:10PM
ctrl+s
i think that's the shortcut... turn your sound off.
Dalixam Dec 22nd 2010 11:17AM
I've got a few archeology questions that the queue or someone else can hopefully answer.
1) Whenever you finish a project the next one pops up right away. Is this completely random or does something influence it? Like what zone you're in, the last artifact you collected, or something.
2) If you are working on a project that needs for example 32 artifacts, what happens if you continue to pick up artifacts when the bar says 32/32? Are those artifacts lost or are they stored and used on your project? If it's the latter, is it then shown anywhere how many artifacts you have extra or is that 'hidden'?
3) I see people talking about buying artifacts, is that possible? I don't see them anywhere as an object so I wonder how to sell them.
Narayana Dec 22nd 2010 11:25AM
1) Whenever you finish a project the next one pops up right away. Is this completely random or does something influence it? Like what zone you're in, the last artifact you collected, or something.
Completely random. The only thing that influences what you get is your skill, but only indirectly. Your skill determines which items are available to be chosen, but the choice is still random.
2) If you are working on a project that needs for example 32 artifacts, what happens if you continue to pick up artifacts when the bar says 32/32? Are those artifacts lost or are they stored and used on your project? If it's the latter, is it then shown anywhere how many artifacts you have extra or is that 'hidden'?
Artifacts are never lost. If you are 32/32 and pick up more artifacts, you will show as 35/32 and start the next one with 3/32.
3) I see people talking about buying artifacts, is that possible? I don't see them anywhere as an object so I wonder how to sell them.
You can buy key stones, which are items specific to each race which are equivalent to 12 fragments. These drop randomly when you are digging. These are things like Highborn Scroll, Troll Tablet, etc.
It’s also possible that you’re referring to the final output. Once you click the Solve, button you will receive an actual item. Common items (greys) can be safely sold to a vendor. Blues can’t be sold- so if you no longer want it, I guess you’d have to destroy it. Epics (at least the gear) can be sold, but the prices aren’t that great, so you’re probably better off keeping it. All of the non-common output from this profession are BOP, so they can’t be bought/sold on the AH.
Aikou Dec 22nd 2010 11:26AM
I can semi answer 2 and 3.
2 if u get a 32 artifact project and u get more. if u go on your profession fr that artifact. you should 32+ (however many extra) when u solve it you WILL get the extra artifacts, that were not used for that one. In other words. u can collect as many as you want, and just solve none of your artifacts will be lost.
3. as for buying artifacts. im not sure but i think what your talking about is specific tablets.
certain artifact projects have a key on them. occasionally you will discover a, say troll rune.
that troll run can be used for a artifact project.
Ex. If you are working on a project that requires 32 artifacts. and you only have 19artifacts and a rune. you can use the rune to fill in a certain amount of artifacts for that rune.
So basically they are fillers for when your low on artifacts.
N-train Dec 22nd 2010 11:31AM
1) As I understand it, its RNG for the most part. Having a higher skill should help your chances of getting a rare artifact, but I've seen people get rares at 175, while I didn't a single one until 240. There are also a handful of rare items you can't get until 450. Ideally though, you should be repeating common items until you have all of them, though I've had a couple times where I've repeated common items without having the rest of them. Essentially, its entirely random.
2) Your fragments never go anywhere, so feel free to go over that 32 limit, the extras will start counting for your next project. I know a lot of people who save up troll fragments, as the only rare troll piece is a raiding-quality 2h sword that you can only see when you hit 450 skill.
3) The only thing exchangeable in archaeology currently are keystones. Highborne scrolls, troll tablets, dwarf rune stones, those kinds of things. Prices on these vary as (in my experience) some keystones are rarer than others. I've got a whole stack of troll keystones, but very rarely do a find the ones in Outland or Northrend, so prices tend to vary wildly from 40g to 500g.
The artifacts you get are stored permanently in the archaeology interface, so you might as well just vendor your finds (sadly they don't sell for much. at all.) unless you have bag/bank space to spare.
N-train Dec 22nd 2010 11:45AM
Hot damn I need to start typing faster. /shakesfist
Herman Dec 22nd 2010 11:52AM
once you get to 450+ the greys start vendoring for 10 gold or more. some of the blues are vendorable, and are pretty useless(looking at you arrival of the naaru)
Dalixam Dec 22nd 2010 4:36PM
Thank you all for the answers. It helps a lot and I appreciate the detailed answers.
Regarding my third question, I was indeed referring to keystones, but I didn't know what they were called or that they even existed :)
JImithingmi Dec 22nd 2010 11:18AM
Is there any new word on when the caster Meta Gem change is going to be reversed?
I know there was a Blue post about getting rid of the "more blue gems than red gems" requirement but that it wasn't something that could be hotfixed. That was before Cataclysm launched and it seems like they could have patched it in by now. With more people headed towards raid content it would be good to have the change go in sooner rather than later.
pinteresque Dec 22nd 2010 11:36AM
They've said it's a client-side change and would require a patch to make it work. look for it in 4.0.4ish.