The Queue: The one with a bird on it
by Fox Van Allen 
Feb 2nd 2011 at 11:00AM
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Your host for today is the newly pierced Fox Van Allen.
For those of you who don't know, I live in Somerville, Massachusetts. It's an urban hipster oasis immediately west of Boston. We have stores that specialize in selling cheese. We have a coffee shop where you get served inside an abandoned bank vault. We've converted every inch of abandoned factory space into million-dollar lofts. And yes, we have lots and lots of craft stores where you can buy ridiculous crap with birds on it.
Why birds? Well, according to the above clip from IFC's Portlandia, everything's better (and carries more hipster cred) when you put a bird on it. We'll test out that theory in today's The Queue.
Tee asked:
Is Blizzard planning on doing anything for leveling scribes to address the current situation with Books of Glyph Mastery? Since most people have moved on from Northrend content, the books are in short supply ... there are only a few on the auction house at any given time and they're ridiculously expensive. Is Blizzard really going to make me spend tens of thousands of gold to buy 54 books to get access to those glyphs? I thought I remembered someone saying during a BlizzCon panel that they were going to make those glyphs available in a different way for Cataclysm, but I may have been dreaming that.
For the time being, it looks like Books of Glyph Mastery continue to work as intended. They're still available (but are increasingly expensive) on the auction house, and they still drop out of Northrend mobs. There will always be players out there discovering them, even if not in the same quantity as we were used to in Wrath.
On my server (Proudmoore), Books of Glyph Mastery start at 200 gold and go up quickly from there. On other servers, the prices start much higher. It's an expensive item to buy, but it's not unusual these days to see certain rare glyphs selling for well over 100 gold. If you're an obsessed completionist like I am, I'd suggest buying the books now and making the money back by making and selling the glyphs you learn. The prices seem unlikely to drop in the near future.
Ultimately, if supplies of these books fall to an unreasonable level, and if the people who already know the glyphs disappear from the game, I'd anticipate we'll see Blizzard institute a fix. The drop rate of Books of Glyph Mastery have been already buffed once; there's no reason why it couldn't be altered again if needed. Certainly, though, nothing is planned for the books in 4.0.6.
raposo02790 asked:
The Beatles or The Who?
Neither. Stevie Nicks now, Stevie Nicks forever.
Tim {the other Tim} asked:
I don't feel right saying, "looking for a 'pro' DPS." What are some non-douchey ways to ask trade if they would like to fill an open spot in your guild raid? Saying "looking for a competent player" doesn't sound right.
Finding a warm body to fill a raid vacancy is simple. Finding a good player to fill a vacancy ... well, that's a bit harder, especially at this point in time in the expansion. The best, most experienced players are already in raid groups.
There's really no way to craft your request to guarantee that only good players will reply, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for an unknown quantity. Just be honest in your trade message. I'd include the fact that it's a "guild run" -- better players prefer running with an established team to being thrown into a group of nine PUG strangers of unknown skill. You should be somewhat specific about your ideal candidate. A good ad might look something like this: "Looking for experienced shadow priest for guild run of BWD; must know fights. PST."
Once someone replies to your ad, do a little bit of legwork. Ask your prospective PUG raider what fights they've beaten/experienced and how long they're willing to stay. And be sure to run a quick armory search! A good PUG raider candidate should at least have spec-appropriate glyphs, spec-appropriate enchants, and spec-appropriate gems. That doesn't guarantee a good player, but it'll help weed out lazy candidates and those who don't know their class.
The kind of player you want to raid with won't mind waiting a few moments for you to run an armory search and won't mind you asking a few questions. Just be courteous and fair with the people who message you, and you'll be fine.
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!
For those of you who don't know, I live in Somerville, Massachusetts. It's an urban hipster oasis immediately west of Boston. We have stores that specialize in selling cheese. We have a coffee shop where you get served inside an abandoned bank vault. We've converted every inch of abandoned factory space into million-dollar lofts. And yes, we have lots and lots of craft stores where you can buy ridiculous crap with birds on it.
Why birds? Well, according to the above clip from IFC's Portlandia, everything's better (and carries more hipster cred) when you put a bird on it. We'll test out that theory in today's The Queue.
Tee asked:
Is Blizzard planning on doing anything for leveling scribes to address the current situation with Books of Glyph Mastery? Since most people have moved on from Northrend content, the books are in short supply ... there are only a few on the auction house at any given time and they're ridiculously expensive. Is Blizzard really going to make me spend tens of thousands of gold to buy 54 books to get access to those glyphs? I thought I remembered someone saying during a BlizzCon panel that they were going to make those glyphs available in a different way for Cataclysm, but I may have been dreaming that.
For the time being, it looks like Books of Glyph Mastery continue to work as intended. They're still available (but are increasingly expensive) on the auction house, and they still drop out of Northrend mobs. There will always be players out there discovering them, even if not in the same quantity as we were used to in Wrath.On my server (Proudmoore), Books of Glyph Mastery start at 200 gold and go up quickly from there. On other servers, the prices start much higher. It's an expensive item to buy, but it's not unusual these days to see certain rare glyphs selling for well over 100 gold. If you're an obsessed completionist like I am, I'd suggest buying the books now and making the money back by making and selling the glyphs you learn. The prices seem unlikely to drop in the near future.
Ultimately, if supplies of these books fall to an unreasonable level, and if the people who already know the glyphs disappear from the game, I'd anticipate we'll see Blizzard institute a fix. The drop rate of Books of Glyph Mastery have been already buffed once; there's no reason why it couldn't be altered again if needed. Certainly, though, nothing is planned for the books in 4.0.6.
raposo02790 asked:
The Beatles or The Who?
Neither. Stevie Nicks now, Stevie Nicks forever.
Tim {the other Tim} asked:
I don't feel right saying, "looking for a 'pro' DPS." What are some non-douchey ways to ask trade if they would like to fill an open spot in your guild raid? Saying "looking for a competent player" doesn't sound right.
Finding a warm body to fill a raid vacancy is simple. Finding a good player to fill a vacancy ... well, that's a bit harder, especially at this point in time in the expansion. The best, most experienced players are already in raid groups.There's really no way to craft your request to guarantee that only good players will reply, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for an unknown quantity. Just be honest in your trade message. I'd include the fact that it's a "guild run" -- better players prefer running with an established team to being thrown into a group of nine PUG strangers of unknown skill. You should be somewhat specific about your ideal candidate. A good ad might look something like this: "Looking for experienced shadow priest for guild run of BWD; must know fights. PST."
Once someone replies to your ad, do a little bit of legwork. Ask your prospective PUG raider what fights they've beaten/experienced and how long they're willing to stay. And be sure to run a quick armory search! A good PUG raider candidate should at least have spec-appropriate glyphs, spec-appropriate enchants, and spec-appropriate gems. That doesn't guarantee a good player, but it'll help weed out lazy candidates and those who don't know their class.
The kind of player you want to raid with won't mind waiting a few moments for you to run an armory search and won't mind you asking a few questions. Just be courteous and fair with the people who message you, and you'll be fine.
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 1 of 11)
Harvoc Feb 2nd 2011 1:06AM
I was checking out some articles on the page before the front page and found this. Didn't see it before so when did it pop up and why, considering that we already had The Queue right before it?
Necromann Feb 2nd 2011 11:07AM
You found it 10 hours early.
Kaoron Feb 2nd 2011 11:22AM
You know, you passed up the perfect opprotunity for a "FIRST" post. You're a good person.
Eli Feb 2nd 2011 12:44PM
Someone beat Holisky? Impressive
Harvoc Feb 2nd 2011 6:42PM
Oh thanks guys. Guess I just found some glitch. Gonna try it again tonight lol.
Ilmyrn Feb 2nd 2011 11:03AM
Mmm, cheese stores. If cheese stores are hipster, I don't want to be anything else!
JT Feb 2nd 2011 11:13AM
Obligatory link to the Monty Python cheese shop sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KBuQHHKx0
Vaeku Feb 2nd 2011 1:34PM
You know, Somerville sounds exactly like Austin, Texas, except we have more indie music. :P
"We have a coffee shop where you get served inside an abandoned bank vault."
There's a town not far from here that has a restaurant in a former bank, and they have a special room that's inside the bank vault, and it's for private dining (like for a couple on their anniversary or something).
Oldbear Feb 2nd 2011 11:29PM
I'm just outside Calgary, AB and within driving distance we have a restaurant in a set of train cars and one built in an old kiln from a pulp mill (its that big) - and as for coffee shops... We have Tim Hortons...
danthered99 Feb 2nd 2011 11:35PM
Sounds like Portland... oh wait
Andrew R. Feb 2nd 2011 11:04AM
When logging in with an authenticator how does the server know the numbers we're using are the same numbers on the authenticator?
Caliea Feb 2nd 2011 11:10AM
From what I understand - which may or may not be rooted in reality - your authenticator basically has a stopwatch/clock in it. When you link an authenticator to your account, Blizzard's system knows what 'time' should be showing on the clock. And the code you see corresponds to an encoded version of the clock.
There is some wiggle room to compensate for seeing the code, typing it in and transmitting it to Blizzard, but basically you're typing in that coded time, and Blizz is checking to make sure that the authenticator attached to your account is set to that time.
Necromann Feb 2nd 2011 11:10AM
There is an formula to spit out numbers that is only known by Blizz and the authenticator. Blizz servers know which authenticator your account has and then looks at re formula to see if you put the right numbers in.
Matt Feb 2nd 2011 11:11AM
Algorithms.
Samutz Feb 2nd 2011 11:12AM
Algorithms.
Every time the number changes, it goes through some secret algorithm/formula that only Blizzard knows. The authenticator and the server use the same algorithm to process the same data (such as possibly your authenticator's serial number, some account info, etc) at the same time, resulting in the same number on both.
hill_242 Feb 2nd 2011 11:12AM
There's an algorithm that computes your authenticator key that takes into account the current date/time and the unique serial # of your authenticator. The authenticator app you use, whether on a USB key or on mobile phone, runs the algorithm to generate the key, and the server runs same algorithm to make sure it's the same.
Chokaa Feb 2nd 2011 11:13AM
By the serial number assiciated with the authenticator. Theres a giant series of complex algorithms and security checks to male suretheu are the same. Thats why you have about 2mins per code to work.
Kaoron Feb 2nd 2011 11:26AM
Did you know it uses Algorithms?
Cephas Feb 2nd 2011 11:38AM
Al Gore Rhythms.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=24
Astoreth Feb 2nd 2011 11:39AM
MAGIC.