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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Ultimate ungulate
by Michael Sacco 
Feb 27th 2011 at 12:00PM
So that picture yesterday was actually a dik-dik (shown above), not a royal antelope, a mistake I would never have made if I wasn't super-tired. If anyone knows his adorable, tiny ungulates, it's me! Speaking as a former ungulate, I wholeheartedly apologize to any zookeepers or royal antelopes I may have offended with this grievous error.
Flynters asked:
Protection warriors and soloing/questing: good for that sort of purpose, viable but somewhat awkward due to lack of offensive focus, or slow and boring?
While you're right in that prot doesn't have a heavy offensive focus, I find that it really shines when you stop imagining questing zones as single mobs separated by Charge and start imagining them as packs instead. Pull a whole bunch of mobs at a time, heal yourself with timely Victory Rushes, throw up Shield Block whenever it's available, take heavy advantage of Blood and Thunder. And be aware that prot only really starts to be fun once you get talents like Sword and Board that let you dish it out even better than you can take it, but just because it's less fun earlier than that doesn't mean that it's less effective.
Etcee asked:
When 4.0.6 hit my dwarf main's eye color changed from dark brown to bright blue. I've been told by gm's first that it's intentional, second that it's a bug, third that it's looking at being reverted, then the otherday I was told that it wasn't even a known issue. I haven't seen any acknowledgmet on the forums. Is there any sort of precedent for just changing player models 6 years into the game? And why doesn't anyone else seem to notice?
Sometimes there are bugs with models when patches occur, but sometimes intentional changes are made, too. There's a long history of model changes that were never explained or publicly justified, from the human female "moon eyes" change to the inimitable Patchstache. If it gets changed back, it gets changed back, but these kinda of changes aren't normally reverted once they're made for whatever reason. Unless we're talking about orc shoulders, anyway.
Also, if I can make a slight tangent here, I need to make an important statement, and that is this:
GMs are not developers.
I can say this as a former GM and GM trainer. GMs are usually kept up to date on known issues with patches, but that does require input from the devs. Just like patch notes aren't always comprehensive, so too are known issue lists. Humans are also fallible, which means that a GM may not remember seeing an issue you've listed or may be thinking of a different issue when you talk to him or even may have heard incorrectly that an issue is getting fixed. It's not a perfect system, but WoW is also a game with hundreds of thousands of issues to track, so not every GM (and, more to the point, not any GM) will be personally aware of every issue, no matter how well everything is documented.
Until you see an issue is fixed in patch notes, see a blue post commenting on it, or see it on a list of known issues, assume it is not known and, if you feel so inclined, report it either via the forums or a GM ticket exactly once. There's no need to petition four times for the same non-pressing issue, especially after you receive a response that appears to be legitimate.
Rob asked:
Is it worth it race change my Draenei Pally to a Dwarf? I'm a lore nut, so I'd take a dwarf through the starting area first to get a feel for it... but I'm sick of being a race that people simply don't care about. The only thing holding me back, however, is the hope that Blizz might MAYBE add some Draenei stuff in soon. What do you think?
I can't guarantee any lore additions, but there's a more important reason to play a draenei paladin: I don't see dwarf paladins riding around on the world's biggest elephant! Seriously, the Great Exarch's Elekk is the biggest land mount I've ever seen. And it's got shiny new high-res textures, much better than that old horse. I think you know what the right decision is.
Haimdall asked:
What's the deal with the ritual sites dotted around the Eastern Kingdoms(at least)? I refer to the big statues of cloaked figures standing in a triangular pattern around a stone circle. I've seen one in Burning Steppes and Blasted Lands, and while I can't say for sure, I want to say I've seen at least one more.
That particular construction is called an Altar of Storms, and there are several in the Eastern Kingdoms. During the Second War, they were used to imbue ogres with arcane power to create ogre mages. Pulling the curtain back a little farther, they were also the building where your fallen heroes would resurrect while playing as orcs in the RTS games.
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 8)
SarenSaran Feb 27th 2011 2:25PM
It may have more to do with your raid composition not having the needed slows/aoe to burn the parasites down. If you can't slow them enough, and keep the parasites grouped together long enough for the aoe to effectively (quickly) burn them down it will cause issues. My guild has 2 melee. That's it. We are fairly ranged/caster heavy. We have struggled to, but this is more due to the fact that we have all of 1 person to slow the parasites, and their ability is on a 30 sec? CD. Therefore the mobs spread out in every direction most of the time and our AoE is less effective and said group goes Oom too fast because of it. It may not be that you are doing something wrong, but just don't have the slows or AoE (or both) to effectively deal with the parasites in a timely manner.
Another guild on my server, which I have some friends in, are actually melee heavy and still do magmaw successfully.
Pyromelter Feb 27th 2011 3:37PM
I would try taking the suggestions of the other two commenters here - try a strategy change. For example, if you have a rogue, you can have him put crippling poison on his ranged weapon for a FoK aoe slow. There are also ranged weapon-swapping macros for rogues to put up multiple poisons. If you have a DK you can have them go frost for another aoe slow option. Or have your hunter get better at frost trapping.
What it might boil down to is having some of your individual dps changing a spec or picking up their game, not necessarily requiring switching out melee for ranged (although an extra ranged or two might help, I'd admit).
good luck.
Moeru Feb 27th 2011 1:17PM
Most zones are made now for one pulls which makes me sad on my tank toons since I have to run around for 10 seconds before I can grab 3-4 mobs to make questing effective
Darasen Feb 27th 2011 7:26PM
This.
Affliction locks need 2 or 3 mobs to have fun.
Ostentaneous Feb 27th 2011 1:21PM
Speaking of GMs. Where are they based out of? Do they work from home or is there a call center type place somewhere and where do you apply for that job?
Drakkenfyre Feb 27th 2011 1:59PM
Two centers. For the US anyway. One in California at Blizzard's headquarters, and one in Austin, Texas, where several Battlegroups used to be hosted.
There are no work-at-home positions. it's a job in an office.
Ambershanks Feb 27th 2011 1:25PM
I'm sorry, but the Ultimate Ungulate has to be a tie between the Muntjac and the the Water Chevrotain.
Trust me on this one.
Coyote3734 Feb 27th 2011 10:29PM
Both of those are good candidates, but I would have to nominate the Klipspringer.
http://www.arkive.org/klipspringer/oreotragus-oreotragus/
Jonas Feb 27th 2011 1:35PM
"While you're right in that prot doesn't have a heavy offensive focus, I find that it really shines when you stop imagining questing zones as single mobs separated by Charge and start imagining them as packs instead."
While this is a good suggestion for anyone leveling a tank, I have to wonder how you would reccomend going about this. My experience while leveling my tank characters in the post-Cata world is that mobs are so weak and so spread out that by the time I reach a new enemy the first is already dead or very close to it.
Saeadame Feb 27th 2011 2:01PM
I guess it depends where you are, in Silithus (where a few of my alts are right now) the Twilight Cultists are VERY close together. I've sometimes gone to pull three or four (very easy, they come in clumps) on my druid (feral spec) and ended up pulling 8-10 by accident.
I guess there's something to be said for "just keep moving"... try to get used to how far you can drag a mob with you before it goes away, and pull 3 or 4 other mobs that you can see around you before you start attacking things.
Herman Feb 27th 2011 2:22PM
while i did this all through wrath and older content, in later cata zones, mobs are clumped, but if i tried to tank similar numbers of them, i'd get destroyed.
Pantyraider Feb 27th 2011 1:37PM
Prot warrior funsies:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQrQ92-_ECU
epicboyz Feb 27th 2011 1:38PM
Q for the Queue:
Having no previous knowledge of this "ungulate" mechanic, will I (as a SV hunter) still be able to remain competitive, or will I have to respec BM to take advantage of its "/distracted" value?
Gossamer Feb 27th 2011 1:45PM
I noticed that Old IF has been added to the PTR. Is there any lore about Old IF? I've read the Shattering, so I do know the recent lore, but why is that place there at all? Why was is closed off? Does it have anything to do with the battle between the 3 dwarven clans?
Drakkenfyre Feb 27th 2011 2:04PM
It was open in the alpha. People kept falling in and dying, with no way out. So they closed it.
http://www.wowpedia.org/Hall_of_Thanes
Gossamer Feb 27th 2011 5:32PM
I meant each of those questions in the lore sense, not in the game.
Drakkenfyre Feb 27th 2011 5:50PM
Did you click my link?
Gossamer Feb 27th 2011 5:59PM
I did, and thank you. Your comment, however, was not about lore so I wanted to be clear what it is I was looking for.
hihli Feb 27th 2011 2:06PM
Q for the Queue?
How do i get into the Karazan Crypt?
Herman Feb 27th 2011 2:24PM
you probably know the answer already, but there are a few ways, most involve a friend fearing you through the wall. theres plenty of vids on youtube. alternatively, roll a shaman and use farsight to look inside.