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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: This is the best Queue in the world
by Adam Holisky 
Mar 17th 2011 at 11:00AM
Whereas on Tuesday I wrote the worst Queue in the world, today, my dear readers, I present the best. Why? Because of the two -- count 'em, two -- awesome machinimas featured.
The first one, above, is Baron Soosdon's This Device Has Been Modified. It was really the first machinima in WoW that I went, "Holy crap, that's great."
After the break, we we have the second featured machinima, making this Queue so full of awesome you'll be BLINDED.
Neothanos asked:
I've been seeing a lot of posts on the Blizz forums of guild imploding over the Cataclysm changes. Did Cataclysm cater too much to the very vocal very active hardcore crowd?
As was mentioned in the comments, the observations about Cataclysm are entirely subjective. One thing that we can say with relative certainty is that each expansion always causes feelings like it's the end of the world for guilds -- and then it turns out it's really not. BC was supposed to destroy WoW because 40-mans were gone, and Wrath was supposed to destroy WoW because no one would want to run 25-mans because there were 10-mans of everything. And now Cataclysm is causing problems.
But at the end of the day? Everything is normal. Guilds go through the most drama when there's change, but that's not a function of WoW. That's a function of humanity.
Marzim asked:
If a person leaves a guild will they start at 0 rep when joining another guild?
Yes, they'll start over at zero. Once you leave a guild and join another, your reputation is cleared. According to some people in the comments that have tried this, Blizzard doesn't automatically clear your reputation forever when just first leave the guild and haven't joined another, so you can rejoin right away if need be and not be penalized.
Cutaia asked:
Recently, I was waiting at the bus stop when suddenly I saw my friends. The problem is, there were people in the front seat and people in the back seat. Are there any theorycrafting resources which can help me determine which seat I should take?
You know that Family Guy episode where Peter sings about the bird being the word, and at one point Brian asks him what he's talking about, and Stewie goes "Brian, don't!"?
That's what everyone just yelled to you.
But back to your question: I believe Rebecca Black has some answers for you. At the end of the day, you'll want to sit in the back seat so you can sit up on it and let your hair wave in the wind. Just be sure to buckle up.
I hope this answer has both been informative and mind-numbing.
Frank asked:
Has Blizz ever talked about updating Wintergrasp so that it's relevant (or at least balanced) again?It was my favorite BG.
It hasn't, and unless it does something in some expansion in the future so that Northrend is central to the story again, I highly doubt Blizzard will put the time into it. It would be nice to see again, don't get me wrong -- but just don't expect it.
And finally, here it is folks: This Queue is now the best Queue in the world.
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 2 of 13)
MattKrotzer Mar 17th 2011 11:10AM
That's what I thought as well. It keeps humorous gkicks from being catastrophic, which is nice.
Xlo Mar 17th 2011 11:19AM
Agreed, wrong answer there. You do not lose rep with your current guild if you leave until you join another, I have had my guildmate test it and it is indeed true.
Wolfshanze Mar 17th 2011 11:21AM
If you join another guild, it zeros out... guild rep also zeros out if a certain amount of time expires, though if I recall correctly, it was more then a week for this to occur (which also prevents the officer joke-g-kicking a guildy from losing rep).
Grovinofdarkhour Mar 17th 2011 11:28AM
If you DON'T join another guild, you can rejoin your old guild within ten days before your rep resets to zero.
Kurtis Mar 17th 2011 11:34AM
This also would have come into play with the bug shortly after patch 4.0.something where players were sometimes unable to take part in guild chat until they dropped and rejoined the guild. Yeah, that bug sucked anyway, but if you lost all of your guild rep at the same time that would *really* suck.
Angus Mar 17th 2011 1:33PM
Situation I find most humorous:
Jimmy: "I'm 100 rep from 'The exalted!!! 'Evil GM's Guild' guild rep counts!'"
Jimmy has been kicked from the guild.
Evil GM: "BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
thexdutch2 Mar 17th 2011 7:40PM
i actually had it that i hit exalted in my last guild, now i dont know if this was a bug or not but i kept all my rep when i joined another guild in less than a minute. im still confused as to how it worked but i just kept my 999/1000 exalted rep some how o_O
Darthregis Mar 17th 2011 11:08AM
@Cutaia
Being the last dude in the car, you get back seat, middle.
Good luck getting your seat belt without touching your friends in uncomfortable areas, the lack of leg room, and a compressed spinal cord every time the car hits a bump!
Elleyna Mar 17th 2011 11:08AM
Guilds are imploding because 10m rewards are the same and (on normal at least) easier. There used to be several well progressed 25m raiding guilds on my server, but now I'm in pretty much the ONLY alliance-side 25m guild that's accomplished anything. Even then, it's made recruiting a lot harder because there's fewer people willing to work harder for the same rewards. We've been without a mage pretty much the entire expansion.
omnibishop Mar 17th 2011 11:16AM
My current guild is large enough to support a 25 man raid. Yet, we can't. In fact, we've been running two 10 man raids on different schedules to cater to people's schedules, time zones, etc. This is one of the best reasons why most guilds run 10 mans now, if only because the logistics are easier.
However, even with that said, we have trouble running both of them because of lack of healers. It seems with the healing changes and the fact that dual spec forever killed any chance of people wanting to tank/heal, no one wants to heal because it's too hard.
N-train Mar 17th 2011 11:19AM
My guild is a 10man only guild (were pretty-strict 10 man all the way through Wrath) and the handful of our raiders who did 25s overwhelmingly agreed that 10s are, overall, more difficult than 25s. The limited amount of gear combined with the very small room for error and the stress placed on each individual just makes for a more difficult experience. Wrangling 25 people can be tough (though 10 man groups get screwed when 1-2 ppl don't show), but in terms of the encounters themselves, I'm going to say 10 mans are harder.
As far as I can tell, Cata hasn't changed anything that much. 10mans are still more difficult, except now you can't faceroll them in 25man gear anymore to fill in holes. Cata raiding is also more difficult than 3.0 raiding, but I think a lot of guilds are overestimating the actual difficulty. On my server all the big guilds are still running 25s, though it does seem that 10 mans have taken priority in a lot of places.
Joshuasiclest Mar 17th 2011 11:21AM
From everything Ive heard and read you have it backwards and 25s are easier, more people less have to work hard and all that, like the 40 mans back in the day.
Elleyna Mar 17th 2011 11:27AM
But isn't any fight that requires spreading out (Twilight Ascendant Council, Al'Akir, etc) a lot easier to manage?
Puntable Mar 17th 2011 11:27AM
On my server it's the opposite. The only raiding guilds left are 25-man. My vintage computer runs too slow on 25, so for the first time in 6 years, my main (healer) is not raiding.
Wolfshanze Mar 17th 2011 11:35AM
Guilds are having issues for a number of reasons, but I think 10m raiding is not it. I think healing changes caused some of the smaller guilds without "multiple healer options" to lose steam (and in-course members) if the healers fell behind the curve and/or couldn't handle the current raid content like they did in WotLK, and the "grass is always greener" syndrome of larger guilds able to raise guild levels faster then smaller guilds.
Quite the contrary to "10m raiding is killing guilds", I think if anything, the smaller guilds that used to focus on 10m raiding have been hit the hardest, because if you had a small guild of 10-15 members or so, its hard to keep pace with the much larger guilds who can pump-up the guild level much faster by sheer force of numbers (ie: guild members). Why be in a lvl-9 guild when that guild across the street is advertising a lvl-19 guild.
I think larger guilds are surviving better then smaller guilds, because they have more options to fall back on if a healer or two can't handle the current content and/or that they can "look better on paper" when their guild lvl is higher then the next guys simply cuz more members = more guild XP lvling.
I think the smaller guilds have been hit the hardest (and heaven forbid trying to start a fresh lvl-1 guild now). It's not 10m raids that's killing guilds, it's the fact that smaller guilds that focused on 10m raids probably didn't have a big-enough membership to survive the perks that larger guilds got simply by being large when the trasition to Cat hit.
The Dewd Mar 17th 2011 11:46AM
In 10-mans, spreading out is easier - as are some other mechanics because usually there is no MC added to boss fights. (eg: Deathwhisper, Kel'Thuzad)
In 25-mans, it's supposed to be easier to continue if you lose a player - unless you're in a serious dps-race type fight. Losing 1 player in a 10 man means you've lost 10% of your raid. Unless you lose your only battle rez in a 25-man, you can usually pick someone back up and try to get them going again. It's harder in a 10-man because now you have 1 person dead and 1 person tied up with casting a battle rez. 25-mans are also more likely to carry more interrupts and the like (though this is less of a concern now with more classes/specs getting interrupts).
Frankly, it depends on what fight you're talking about. It's like topping the DPS meters - it depends on the boss fight. Some fights are much more melee friendly and some are more ranged-friendly.
clundgren Mar 17th 2011 11:49AM
I strongly disagree that 25s are easier, having done more than my share of both. 10 man is much easier on most encounters for the same reason that herding 10 cats is easier than herding 25.
The fact is, raiding in WoW is increasingly about doing the right thing at the right time (or conversely, not doing the wrong thing at the wrong time). Fewer raiders means fewer people to chain lightning onto you, stand in the defile, etc. It is just so much easier to coordinate.
My guild still runs 25s, but our core raiders also do 10s to get the feel for mechanics before doing the big runs in following weeks. the 10s are much, much easier. You can pug a lot of 10 man content that you would never consider pugging with a 25.
freebeatfly Mar 17th 2011 12:10PM
From what I've noticed, people are getting bored of the expansion and many are quitting. My guild runs a main 25-man raid and has been running without a hunter for a while, or a disc priest,... and rogues have been difficult to find as well (we're an endangered species!). We've been forced to accept lesser applicants due to lack of better options... even though we're a level 20 guild, quite social and still getting server firsts. And we're not the only ones. Many have lost people to casual playing, Rift, other... :(
I don't think its so much the leveling out of 10 and 25 raids... its just that everything has become rinse-and-repeat these days... I think with Cata they should have introduced some slightly different type of content. Like one 30 man-only raid. Or perhaps attunement quests for the current raids. To me it just feels like a continuation of Wotlk, not a new expansion. It just doesn't feel "epic" anymore ...
DarkWalker Mar 17th 2011 2:07PM
Gearing up for raids is much harder now than it was on WotLK; I believe this might have more to do with raiding being in a lull than any difficulty difference between 10-man and 25-man content.
For me, at least, there is also the fact Heroics PUGs became more frustrating than fun. With high frustration levels when gearing in PUGs and since my schedule isn't compatible with heroic guild runs, I gave up on gearing for raids and left the game.
sprout_daddy Mar 17th 2011 2:13PM
@freebeatfly
^this.
We're a smaller guild (maybe 75 unique players, lots of alts), and in the last three weeks, we've lost five core members from what was a competent 10-man team and about five more people who were helpful, if not normal raid, members. Not a single one complained about difficulty, raid dynamics, etc. - everyone said they're just bored.
In five years of playing, I've gotten used to seeing boredom kick in right before patch content, but I think there's a difference this time that I can't quite put my finger on - it's not about new content, it's more about a repetitiveness that runs through the whole game now - everything feels very much the same, so new content holds no real promise for DIFFERENT content. I think about how different Ulduar felt, how different the Argent Tourney felt, and I have significant doubts based on how they created the new 80-85 content that we'll see anything that bold.
Almost to a person, our members have said they feel like Blizzard has turned this effort over to the B team while they focus on Titan. While I don't know that I completely share that (the redesigned 1-60 content is awesome), I see their point.