Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Happy boys and happy girls
by Mathew McCurley 
May 4th 2011 at 11:00AM
It is no secret that most of my writing gets done against the backdrop of Europop and Europop-inspired artists. When I sit down to write articles or posts, I turn on Pandora and hit my awesome Aqua station, ready for the sweet, sweet Europop to blast in my ears. Why Europop? I don't know. For some reason, I am more productive when rocking out to fast beats.
What? You're going to listen to every second of Happy Boys and Happy Girls, and you're going to like it.
Felix_rew asked:
Did Blizzard explain why Ysera's eyes are open in Hyjal?
Yes. Usually her eyes are closed, but when her power is needed and she needs to be running on all cylinders, her eyes open and her influence is greater. Otherwise, her eyes are closed, but you can see her eyes moving under them watching the mortal races and the dream. Read more about Ysera and her Green Dragonflight.
Jirisundstrum asked:
Question for the queue: With the change to Blind in the patch notes adding yet another ability with different effects in pve and pvp, why doesn't Blizzard just accept the shift in paradigm? Players simply need different toolkits for raiding and arenas, and it seems the game is moving in that direction organically. Why fight nature Blizz?
My guess is that this is something Blizzard wants to do but will roll out very, very slowly and very specifically. Every single ability won't get the PvP/PvE treatment, but for where it makes the most sense, it will happen. Blizzard is reluctant to do it, but I think at this point in time, it's a no-brainer for PvP/PvE balance. I wish that it would have been a design aspect earlier, but at least the dual-purpose abilities are finally happening.
Having Blind as a regular CC option is great because now a rogue is doubly important for a good amount of Cataclysm dungeon content. Good call, Blizz.
Gauldrin asked:
Why do worgen have a cast time when they transform to their mount mode? They arent really changing into anything but dropping on all fours. Also why cant they pick herbs while in that mode? Druids can pick herbs while shapeshifted and insta-transform.
The worgen ability Running Wild is a type of ground mount with the ground mount standard cast time. It just has a unique animation fitting the worgen race. Druids, on the other hand, get the benefit of a flight form that is instant-cast. The class has a "mount" advantage, not a race advantage. In keeping with the race's relatively balanced nature, instant-cast ground mounts in places like battlegrounds, Tol Barad, and other ground mount-specific areas would favor worgen too heavily.
Worden asked:
Alright, since this is for asking questions. I was looking to start(after putting together some ach. first.) getting into heroics. I always hear about Gear and item level and DPS. How do you get these unbelievable levels of gear and strength. Can it be done soloing or camping at the AH? Or is it Raid gear that you have to hope!? that someone will let you join in if you don't meet their minimum levels? I'm just curious because I don't know.
Any help would be fine, and folks seem nicer here than on the normal forums
Here's my main strategy for gearing up alts to get ready for heroics. At level 84, you go straight to Twilight Highlands. The gear differential is just plain higher than the stuff you get in Uldum, and the end rewards for long quest chains are ilevel 333 blues, which are pretty great. Also, at 84 and 85, you want to queue for dungeons and have on a reputation tabard that has some good revered and exalted gear for you. Running level-85 non-heroic dungeons will grant you reputation based on the tabard you have on.
A combination of level 85 dungeon ilevel 333 gear, as well as blue rewards from quests in Twilight Highlands and reputation gear from friendly and above, will get you into heroics faster than you know it!
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 10)
BB Crisp May 4th 2011 1:27PM
Dare I get into a political discussion on WoW insider?
@IDes
It's not like he claimed to have found the location of bin Laden while doing his daily search on Google Earth, rappelled into the compound alone from a helicopter that he himself was operating, single-handedly (and bare-handedly) fought off wave after wave of terrorists, and killed the US's #1 enemy. He was presented with intelligence gleaned after years of effort from the hard work of others in the military and the CIA, consulted with his cabinet and top military advisors as to his options, and made a very risky decision that turned out to be a great one. The president gets the praise when things go right and the fury of the public when things go wrong. He didn't once say "I did this". The White House is making pains to give credit where credit is due, or you wouldn't even know the name "SEAL Team Six".
If it makes you feel any better, I didn't vote for him. But he still gets some credit for this call, in my book.
And to make this somewhat WoW-related and relevant, um...
Question for the Queue: If a tree falls in the forest and it lands on a gnome, does it make a sound?
slim1256 May 4th 2011 1:29PM
The tree? Or the gnome?
BB Crisp May 4th 2011 1:47PM
It's philosophical, so it's open to interpretation.
For me, it really depends on how you define "sound" and whether or not tree-crushed gnomes are capable of screaming. Then again, gnomes of the cookie-baking variety make their homes in trees, so this may not be as catastrophic as it seems. Hmm...
I need to put more thought into this.
Scooba May 4th 2011 2:40PM
It was the epic, secretive, elite gnome group SEAL team 6. Duh.
Xotzalqual May 4th 2011 2:46PM
I, for one, am thoroughly grateful that Blizz doesn't go the way of giving credit in lore to actual player characters in game but rather keeps it very vague. I'd have to see that cannon lore specifically states that, for example, the Lich King was killed by the brave Xxkilludedxx, and his comarades Shammyhealz, Barbigurl, Bubblz, and Gunnapwnu!
I think I'd lose all gaming and serious lore cred with the rest of my geeky friends that play other lore-heavy games.
:P
-X
slim1256 May 4th 2011 3:33PM
See - I picture the sound a gnome would make being crushed by a tree as sort of a squeaky noise... like the sound a dog toy makes.
Arrohon May 4th 2011 3:39PM
Well, Tirion had a statue of himself built. I guess we know what he thinks.
-Paraphrase of discussion on the WoW Insider Show
Yams May 4th 2011 4:11PM
@Maccabeus: Fair point. I guess it just feels like the first time because of how differently the "random adventurers" aspect was handled. With the Lich King grooming us for his army the entire time we were questing through Northrend, it comes across as a much more meaningful piece of lore to me. Almost as if the group that put an end to the Lich King could be considered somewhat of a major lore figure itself now.
zink May 4th 2011 5:31PM
I think the lore reason is usually whatever major character who's involved and a random group of adventurers (us).
http://www.wowpedia.org/Adventurer
Also wowpedia has a list of some of the stuff adventurers have done.
Angus May 4th 2011 11:13AM
The video you have requested is no longer available...
Guess I am not listening to it.
:P
jtrain May 4th 2011 11:27AM
Count your lucky stars.
fallemwarrior May 4th 2011 11:36AM
Youtube hath givith Youtube hath taketh away
loop_not_defined May 4th 2011 11:15AM
The change to Blind has absolutely no bearing on the PVE/PVP ability difference issue. All they did is take a regular escape/stop-gap Rogue ability and turn it into a full-fledged CC ability. The difference in PVE/PVP duration is *standard* for CC and has been for a very long time now.
To Blizzard, the PVE/PVP duration difference for CC is necessary and considered a "universal rule" specifically to reduce confusion.
loop_not_defined May 4th 2011 11:22AM
If you look at the new change to all long-term CC, where the abilities no longer aggro mobs by themselves, Blizzard included Blind in the list. However, they included *no* short-term stuns/pseudo-CC. Further cements that Blizzard just reclassified Blind into a long-term CC ability.
GerardthePriest May 4th 2011 11:28AM
This change might be better understood, then, as giving rogues a second PvE CC ability, rather than as a PvP vs. PvE issue. There are other classes that can CC two mobs at a time (hex/bind elemental for shammies, banish/seduce/fear for warlocks, hibernate/root for druids, trap/tranq for hunters), so they're just giving rogues some CC love.
Sunaseni May 4th 2011 4:03PM
I realized why Blizz needed to give rogues a second CC, because Sap can't be reapplied in Combat, while Blind can. Although, a 3 minute CD and a 1 minute duration doesn't help too much, but I guess that just means we need to kill our other targets faster before the sapped/blinded target wakes up.
JattTheRogue May 4th 2011 5:27PM
Yeah, this change just gives us a way to be able to actually keep up some CC during combat. You can't reapply sap, but you can blind the target when it comes out of sap if you need to. And with the 3 min cooldown, it can't be reapplied every time. It just stretches a rogue's CC time out a bit, since you have some classes like mages who can CC basically indefinitely by reapplying polymorph and the like, but rogues only had that one-shot CC.
Malaides May 4th 2011 11:19AM
Question for the Queue:
I haven't really been much for titles in the past but have had an interest come recently. What are the three hardest titles to achieve/ gain?
Aqua has always been a great band for me to just change moods to a simplistic happier mood- thank you for that.
MattKrotzer May 4th 2011 11:24AM
Scarab Lord has always been the hardest. Now it's impossible.
kingoomieiii May 4th 2011 11:32AM
If you're looking for hardest POSSIBLE titles, they're Dragonslayer (kill Sinestra), Blackwing's Bane (H Nef), and The Insane.
Also, Herald of the Titans is actually level-limited if not (have to kill Algalon with the whole raid at level 80, with no gear above 232, or any items from TOC or above)