The Queue: Extra strength

Mike Sacco was unable to tackle your usual Friday edition of The Queue this week, so I'm going to use this opportunity to make up for my oh-so-brief Monday editions of The Queue and answer a few more questions than we typically do each day. Onward!
Noyou asked:
With Activision pulling the plug on Guitar Hero and True Crime, how will that impact WoW, if at all?
I highly doubt it will impact WoW at all. The company is called Activision Blizzard, but WoW's development house is specifically Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard, as a developer, does what Blizzard wants to do. What happens to other developers within Activision Blizzard isn't going to have much of an effect on Blizzard the developer.
Trilynne asked:
Has Blizzard said anything about fixing the phased ore and herb nodes in multiple Cataclysm zones? It's very irritating when you can see a node in one subsection of the zone, but as soon as you cross over into it, it disappears.
As far as I know, Blizzard hasn't commented on this at all. I agree with you on the irritation factor, though! It drives me nuts, and I fall for it every single time. Even when I know very well that a node is out of reach due to phasing, I try to race to it anyway. Not cool, man. Not cool.
I do hope they figure out a fix for it eventually.
Ezzy asked:
What is up with the killable Cinderbloom in Tol Barad?
I have no idea, but I love it. Unlike the node phasing issues, the killable Cinderbloom is hilarious. I hope they keep it. Or add a new plant to herbalism that requires you to beat it up to get at the goods. Cacti? Lopping off limbs to get at the meat inside? Who knows?
Svylva asked:
My guild just earned access to the Battle Standard of Coordination, which according to patch notes now grants 15% increase to experience, honor and reputation. However, when I dropped it in Tol Barad before turning in my dailies, it had no effect. It also had no effect on my rep for a Ramkahen daily turn in. Anyone know when/how these actually work?
It's a battle standard, so the idea is to take it into battle. That is, you want to put it down in combat and it will increase your experience, honor and reputation gains when you kill something. You would drop it in a big fight in a battleground, or when you're tackling a boss in an instance, not when you're turning in quests.
Telwar asked:
Anybody else notice that the mob spawn rate in the Tol Barad mini-dungeons seems to have increased?
I believe that the respawn rates on the mobs on the Tol Barad cell blocks is dynamic. The more people there are in the area (and thus, the faster the mobs are getting killed), the faster they will respawn. If it's a prime time rush and you have 20 or 30 players killing demons, they are going to respawn nearly instantaneously. However, if you're doing the quests at 3 a.m. and it's just you and maybe one or two other guys in the cell block, the respawns will be much slower.
rnave27 asked:
What ever happened to guild chat being added to the mobile armory? Did it go the way of the dance studio?
I don't believe Blizzard ever said, "Yes, we are going to add guild chat to the mobile armory." It's an idea Blizzard said that it liked and would like to tackle one day, but that doesn't mean it was planned immediately or even in the near future. It's on a very long list of things the team would like to do one day. Eventually. When they get around to it.
Danthrax asked:
Three times in the past two days I have received a dungeon in progress when using the LFG tool, without the pop-up box telling me it was in progress. Has Blizzard removed that message intentionally to avoid tanks queuing specifically for in-progress dungeons, or is it just a bug? Other people joining the instance at the same time have told me they also did not see the warning on their windows.
I'm fairly certain this was done intentionally, yes. Let me tell you, it is not fun to be a healer in line for a heroic, getting spammed with ready check windows over and over because the tank is queueing and declining repeatedly, waiting to get an in-progress proc. The in-progress notification inspired some really terrible behavior in people, so I'm quite glad it's gone.
Filed under: The Queue






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Nathanyel Feb 11th 2011 1:04PM
Battle Standards also do not count for guild reputation (e.g. from raid bosses)
Aris Feb 11th 2011 1:42PM
Does anyone know if they boost guild experience gained?
Vladeon Feb 11th 2011 1:58PM
They increased my guild rep. when I placed it on heroic boss kills. I was getting 110 or so rep with my guild when dropping it on 5 man heroic boss kills. This in contrast to the 80-something I was getting while not dropping it.
Culhag Feb 11th 2011 2:06PM
There goes my hope of having any use for the standards.
Sleutel Feb 11th 2011 6:55PM
Oh Culhag, there's *always* a use for standards!
Amaxe Feb 11th 2011 7:52PM
So, if Blizzard suddenly reduces the gain, can we accuse them of lowering their standards?
/ducks
istaro Feb 11th 2011 8:33PM
Note though that they only last two minutes, and there are some heroic bosses that can take longer than that, so by dropping the banner right before starting the fight you might miss out on the bonus rep with your tabarded factions. I try to drop it midway through if I remember and have a spare GCD. Annoying though.
Scunosi Feb 11th 2011 8:36PM
I believe it was with this last patch they added guild rep to the mix, as who buys a standard when they still need experience?
drtongue Feb 12th 2011 10:42AM
When I saw in the patch notes about the quest turn-in guy at Hellscream's Reach accepting quests when the usual quest giver in TB is unavailable, I had planned to use this same strat (do all the TB and TBP dalies and turn them in together at the same area), so's I went and bought the battle standard. Wouldn't ya know it, the very next day I read this article saying that it doesn't do squat when used like that.
More information would have been more helpful to me YESTERDAY!!!
Jyetie Feb 11th 2011 1:06PM
Random Question:
My dad asked my why my character was purple and glowy the other day so... Is there any lore-icle reason for shadowform for priests? Other than looking cool?
furry Feb 11th 2011 1:12PM
When you go into shadow form, you are pretty much denouncing the happy cheery healing part of the (diety) and going rogue and using your powers to melt faces instead of heal wounds. Its a physical show of how your soul is going to a darker place.
And it looks freaking awesome.
Revynn Feb 11th 2011 1:17PM
No lore reason, as far as I know. It's just a game mechanic to help balancing specs similar to Druid forms. Kitty's get knocked out of Cat form for casting healing spells so they don't spend they're time waiting for Energy by spamming Lifebloom on themselves, likewise SPriests having a "stance" in which they can't cast healing spells keeps them from being -too- versatile.
Ilmyrn Feb 11th 2011 1:27PM
What I've always heard is that Shadowform is a graphical representation of the player nearly reaching the pinnacle of the Forgotten Shadow's philosophy, that of Ascension, wherein the priest becomes an immortal creature of shadow. Players are able to tap into a lesser version of this, as truly immortal characters would be a little difficult to balance.
http://www.wowpedia.org/Forgotten_Shadow#Ascension
styopa Feb 11th 2011 2:21PM
@ilmyrn: "....truly immortal characters would be a little difficult to balance...."
Because character aging penalties play such a big part of the game today?
Twill Feb 11th 2011 2:37PM
"The ultimate goal of practitioners of the Forgotten Shadow is to ascend. Ascension occurs once a person achieves complete control over herself and the power to transcend death. A Forsaken who ascends becomes invulnerable, invincible and eternal. In essence, he becomes a god. "
Its 100% lore-related. A shadow priest aspires to leave its body and become a spirit. Dispersion is that ultimate form, Shadow Form is on the road, but not quite there. This lore is the reason dispersion is the ultimate talent, as it is the ultimate achievement in the shadow cult.
Hollow Leviathan Feb 12th 2011 6:22AM
Styopa is pointing out that immortal and invincible are different things. The Draenei are truly immortal; they do not die of old age. Yet they're not invincible, you can kill them, unless they're paladins during divine protection.
Jaq Feb 11th 2011 1:09PM
Concerning the TB cell blocks respawn rates: if they're dynamic, they're dynamic the wrong way. Since the patch, even if I'm the only one in the block, mobs are respawning at a very high rate, like they did just after the Cata launch. I had six mobs on me in the mage block yesterday, it was brutal.
Hillazon Feb 11th 2011 1:50PM
The respawn rate in TB has always been brutal but got worse yesterday.
I got both my "kill 10 ally soldiers" and "kill 10 demons" dailies done yesterday without having to move from where I was standing in each respective area. It was just a little stressful.
Seriously, it was like opening day in Vash'jir.
Cataclysm: buggy expansion, or BUGGIEST expansion? What did the developers do during the alpha and betas?
From spelling & grammar errors in quest text, raid boss bug outs, to show-stopping mac client performance issues that were obvious and reported DURING THE ALPHA and the wrath patch 4 ptr, the quality control has been absolutely abysmal.
/hearing good things about Rift.
Jaq Feb 11th 2011 1:59PM
I have the suspicion that when they buffed the respawn rates for the Rustberg villagers, it somehow triggered a higher respawn rate in the cell blocks. Which is par for the course with Blizzard in Cata...
Baba Feb 11th 2011 2:21PM
@Jaq
Maybe there was 20+ sadistic rogues stealthed in a corner, watching you get beaten upon :D