The Queue: There's a surprise at the end
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 21st 2011 at 11:00AM
Today's edition of The Queue discusses the nature of the death knight, the recent lack of creepy whispers, the nature of the vrykul, and ... something special. Enjoy!
Oscar asked:
Is it me or does it feel as if the whole "caster" part of DKs was just wholly abandoned and just being confined to Death Coil and a few other abilities?
I don't think it was abandoned -- because it was never supposed to be there. Not ever. Every time death knights have found a way to make themselves into primarily spellcasters, especially with a substantial amount of ranged damage, Blizzard has specifically gone out of its way to stop it from happening. Death knights are not primarily spellcasters now, and they were never supposed to be spellcasters. They do deal a lot of spell damage, sure, but so does every melee class/spec besides warriors.
If you want more evidence that death knights aren't intended to be casters, here's a statement from Ghostcrawler on the topic from the beginning of 2010.
Pilsner asked:
Why have the archaeology keystones stopped talking to me when I loot them? I need their counsel on which of my invisible enemies to be most wary of!
That wasn't a baseline feature. It was something that Deadly Boss Mods did if you had it installed. It had a "Make Archaeology More Interesting" option that was turned on by default. The mod authors probably noticed the sheer amount of people that were utterly baffled by the keystone noises and disabled the option by default. Your friends will not be abandoning you anymore. (At least, not because of archaeology.)
Noyou asked:
When you kill certain vrykul, why do they turn into powder?
The kvaldir in particular do this, but they don't turn into powder. They turn into water. The kvaldir are vengeful spirits of the sea. If you look at their model, you'll notice bits of the sea are worked into their bodies -- they have starfish and barnacles stuck to them, they're covered in seaweed (and in fact, it looks like their hair is seaweed), and their clothing is made up of bits of loose netting from fishing nets. When you kill them, you more or less beat the sentience out of them, and they lose their ability to hold a solid form. Their body melts into a pool of water again, and the bits of the sea that were stuck to them just fall in a pile on the ground.
The legitimately living vrykul don't fall to dust/water. They leave corpses behind like anything else.
Atraja asked:
You guys keep saying that you might bring Patches of Yesteryear back but I haven't seen it yet. Is it coming back or isn't it?
Yes. Tomorrow. Except it's called WoW Archaeologist now.
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: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue, Archaeology
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
MattKrotzer Mar 21st 2011 11:03AM
I know about another surprise feature returning soon to WoW Insider. Any idea when that will be announced officially?
Kunikenwad! Mar 21st 2011 11:06AM
Is it Ask A Faction Leader? Because the early entries in that series were stupendously funny. Remember AEBASIK KAMPFIRE?
Lissanna Mar 21st 2011 11:08AM
SOON (tm)
Vaeku Mar 21st 2011 11:14AM
I was thinking either Ask a Faction Leader or Two Bosses Enter.
Boz Mar 21st 2011 12:01PM
Indeed, I do remember Basic campfire, who later became Abesik Kampfire in Ask A Faction Leader. It is worth noting, however, that the joke was a reference to a list of "50 Better Warchiefs than Garrosh," originally published in the old official forums but lost due to the conversion to the battle.net forums. It later became 250 Warchiefs Better Than Garrosh, if memory serves (and it may not).
You can view the republished list here:
http://community.livejournal.com/wow_ladies/11145401.html
You can view the Ask a Faction Leader here:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/09/18/ask-a-faction-leader-garrosh-hellscream/
Xantenise Mar 21st 2011 4:52PM
PLEASE LET IT BE A DECENT COMMENT SYSTEM.
Sleutel Mar 21st 2011 8:00PM
If you know about the surprise feature, you know someone who works for WI. And if you know someone who works for WI who told you about this upcoming feature, you could just ask them when it's being announced.
Ergo, making your question a comment on The Queue is just a way to sneak-brag that you know about new features before anyone else does.
MattKrotzer Mar 21st 2011 10:08PM
Or to stir up speculation and discussion, so that they can see what features people most would be happy/surprised to see return. I work in advertising/marketing. Sometimes you can get good information through indirectly questioning people.
Also, sometimes it's just another forum to poke at the editors to hurry up and make things official, because I'm damn eager.
Blazing Rain Mar 21st 2011 12:06PM
@queue title: I had a nickel for every time I heard that...
Vyle Mar 21st 2011 11:53AM
If I had a nickel ever time I've heard that in my life, I'd have.... a nickel.
Kurtis Mar 21st 2011 2:38PM
But if I had a nickel for every time I've heard "If I had a nickel for...", I'd have a couple of bucks at least.
icepyro Mar 21st 2011 4:22PM
"That's what she said" >_>
aforestdarkly Mar 21st 2011 5:55PM
If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, I'd have a sh*tload of nickels...
Junglebabe Mar 21st 2011 7:04PM
That and a nickel will get you a warm cup.. of JACK SQUAT.
Taedran Mar 21st 2011 11:06AM
Blizz said they were making it easier to favor a specific race in Archaeology soon... You guys have any idea on how they plan on doing that?
fallemwarrior Mar 21st 2011 11:22AM
Im thinking either a set to only show (insert race here) sites, or always one of each site active.
Also i bet they nerf rare drops if they do this
montgomejj Mar 21st 2011 11:26AM
Um.
Explorer: Racial Passive [Dwarf]
You find additional fragments when looting archaeological finds and you can survey faster than normal archaeologists.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=92682
Proc'ing 6x fragments over and over makes the grind (slightly) less horrid...
Mr. Tastix Mar 21st 2011 11:44AM
@mont: They mentioned they were making it easier on everyone. I don't think they'd force everyone to race-change just to do Archaeology easier.
pinteresque Mar 21st 2011 12:07PM
"Always 1 of each site active" is too easy to game - if you're farming dwarf fragments, you make sure you have 1 dwarf, 3 fossil (or whatever) and just keep digging up the dwarf one that pops knowing that the next one to pop will have to be a dwarf site. I would LOVE THAT, but it seems like a roundabout way of just letting you pick the ones you want.
More likely in my head would be to have sites for races you've already completed every artifact for at least once stop showing up, or at least give you the option to disable them.
(I have no evidence of any of this. Just pondering.)
Sir Broose Mar 21st 2011 5:26PM
It's not that they are making the grind any easier on anyone. The question wasn't about making it easier for one race to DO archeology, but easier for anyone to focus on just one race's artifacts. I think there may have been some misunderstanding of the question, here.