Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Extra strength
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 11th 2011 at 1:00PM
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.
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 5 of 9)
Lipstick Feb 11th 2011 2:35PM
And yet, sometimes the only reason you're joining an in progress group is because the only problem member of that group has left, and you are their replacement.
I think if more people lost the "I'm better than everyone else" attitude the game might be a better place to play.
Give people a chance, rather than just assume they suck.
Pink Feb 11th 2011 1:26PM
"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" ....
Kinky.
Calicia Feb 11th 2011 1:28PM
I have a question ... Is there an expectation of additional heirlooms coming available? If so, do we expect them to be guild only or available at some other vendor? I'm surprised that the TB vendor doesn't have any since both Wintergrasp and the Argent Tournament did. I ask because I have a few hundred TB commendations in my pocket and I can't decide whether to blow them on a mount that I really don't need or hold on to them.
Tokhand Feb 11th 2011 1:42PM
Unfortunately, new heirlooms (head & back) are guild rewards. So, if you are in a small and static guild or guild-less, you (we) are in the "Tough Luck, Charlie"-position.
Fortunately, there is something that I did notice that more or less made up for the lack of heirlooms in the 80-85 crawl. If your leveling character happens to be an herbalist or a miner, nodes give experience, approximately the amount of a mob kill. Going through Hyjal and Vashj'ir on my main, while gathering gathering gathering herbs, took substantially less time than it has been on my tailor/enchanter alt. This is just a weird thing I have noticed and I'm not sure it was a planned thing or just a general perk of Cataclysm.
Calicia Feb 11th 2011 1:49PM
I've got the guild vendor cloak for my alt and we're a couple of levels away from unlocking the helm. It just seems like the variety of heirloom pieces for the 80-85 range is much smaller now.
trefpoid Feb 11th 2011 3:36PM
the herbalism and mining exp have been in the game since 4.02. but it's true, it helps a lot. I level 84-85 with my DK only be gathering minerals in Twilight Highlands :D
Uriul Feb 11th 2011 6:50PM
There were BOA legs and rings datamined during the Cataclysm beta that will probably appear sometime, for example:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=62023
http://www.wowhead.com/item=62035
There was never any known source for them, so Tol Barad commendations is as likely as anything else.
Aracross Feb 11th 2011 1:28PM
Oh, and a question.
I'm the only one who gets really uncomfortable when someone in you party (and some times, all of it) doesn't say a word?
I mostly only understand this when they are from a guild, and probably using their own voice chat, though I think is quite harsh for the player outside the guild, and a little of bad manners. It's just me?
Damn social education I received!
Calicia Feb 11th 2011 1:33PM
If I'm in a partial guild run where we've picked up a player or two from the DF, I almost always say "howdy" and explain that we are in vent. Then I try and use the party chat as much as possible so they don't feel left out.
I also try and warn them if we are breaking in a new tank or healer ... but that's a different issue.
Avan Feb 11th 2011 1:55PM
When I go into a random, I usually don't say anything. I don't mean to be rude, I just don't have anything to say.
Forreststump Feb 11th 2011 2:12PM
^ This. I just ain't a Chatty Kathy. =)
Darkdust Feb 11th 2011 2:14PM
When joining a PUG, I always greet everyone and often make an additional comment ("Utgarde Keep AGAIN?! Ugh! :)") or similar. If other folks respond, then I don't mind keeping up a bit of conversation. Makes things easier when somebody makes a mistake if you have a wee bit of momentary rapport with them.
Lipstick Feb 11th 2011 2:41PM
I find it creepy. Especially when I am asking questions in party chat -- when NO one answers.
It's like hello? Is this thing on?
I also find it annoying when players drop from a dungeon run, with no explanation when there have been no deaths and things are moving at a good pace.
It's like at least say the cat's on fire or something. Don't just bail.
Oni Stardust Feb 11th 2011 3:18PM
I tend to be quite in dungeons mainly because I'm horrible at multitasking and can't play and type at the same time.
I'm actually more talkative when playing my healers as long as there isn't a large amount of damage incoming since I can usually get a moment to type something in between throwing heals out.
Aracross Feb 11th 2011 4:17PM
I think I lost my point because of my bad use of the language. What I meant with "doesn't say a word", is principally in the start and in the end. Saying "hi" or "bye" with people you are gonna be playing 20 minutes minimum is in my book of rules, because the other players are humans, and all that.
This was probably lost with the dungeon searcher feature, and the automation and anonymity of the whole process.
Not that I miss those days before.
Maribel Feb 11th 2011 7:26PM
I'm often quiet in pugs, more so if someone's speaking and I don't want to encourage it - the chat equivalent of "don't make eye contact!" This kicks in the moment anyone thinks a low drop rate or unpleasant mob ability is "gay," for instance. Some rapport is nice, but I don't want or need to hear about some stranger's fondness for weed, taste in music, or opinions on women.
Helston Feb 12th 2011 1:08AM
Lipstick, whenever I leave a PuG from now on I'm going to say "Gotta go, cat's on fire".
bubbap51 Feb 11th 2011 1:29PM
I have been having some major lag issues ever since the patch came out Tuesday. While we were raiding this week, some of my guildies were having problems with it as well. I turned off all of my add-ons, made sure the patch downloaded all the way, even tried turning down my settings, but nothing seemed to help. I will be running around at 100+ fps, then I will be stuck in the middle of a cast for 10 sec. Is this what other people are expiriancing or is there something I need to do.
thatguy Feb 11th 2011 1:30PM
Slightly curious, but forum posts can be grey, white, green, and blue...where are the purple and orange forum posts?
jealouspirate Feb 11th 2011 1:41PM
Technically they're possible, but the drop rate is so low we've just never seen one.