Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 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 4 of 10)
Daedalus May 4th 2011 11:56AM
Yeah; the tinkers are definitely on par with (or better than) other profession perks, so for, say, raiding, there's no real drawback there.
Nitro boosts and parachute cloak have saved me many times, in PvP especially.
As for making money, guns and scopes are somewhat reliable, and the pets are a nice, steady stream of income that doesn't go away with each new tier of gear or expansion. (In fact, thanks to inflation, I'm making more money now on the same pets I made in BC.)
Engineering can be a little pricey to level, but I would say it's definitely worth it.
Ceranthela May 4th 2011 11:59AM
If you are leveling an ALT with engineering then you can get the http://www.wowhead.com/spell=84411 at 65 I believe and this will just about one shot most players. Fun for clearing the flag rooms in AV. Engineering is imo the "fun" profession. Nice trinkets, helm, bombs, Nice pets, get 2 ports depending on gnomish/goblin.
Pyromelter May 4th 2011 12:14PM
Engineering is fun, and has a lot of use with gameplay. I would say it would depend on your class and how you are wanting to play your character, for example engineering goes very well with rogues, especially if you like to pvp. It's definitely a money sink as others have mentioned.
If you are playing more of a, say, healing priest, you wouldn't find as much gameplay utility.
Personally I think the 4 dps classes (hunters, rogues, mages, and warlocks) get the most use out of them because of increased utility.
Also if you are a goblin or a gnome of any class, that works because, well, they are goblins and gnomes.
Cyrus May 4th 2011 12:18PM
Is engineering "worth it"? Well, it's probably more expensive to level than most professions, earns you some money but not that much, and its stat and ability bonuses grant cooldowns or situational utility rather than flat stat boosts like fur linings or shoulder inscriptions. So, in terms of a cost-benefit analysis, no, engineering isn't worth it.
That being said, engineering is FUN. Those stat and ability bonuses are unpredictable, useful, often unique and just plain cool. Engineering has more cosmetic rewards than any other profession. And you might not want a backfire or other malfunction while in the middle of a raid boss fight, but you have to admit it keeps you alert. Engineering is generally not as "useful" as other professions and it was NEVER intended to be. It's the crazy, exploding-sheep, evil-twin profession. I don't understand why people keep being disappointed that it's not ALSO very profitable or really easy to level.
Drakkenfyre May 4th 2011 12:22PM
Hey Eridan.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=60680
http://www.wowhead.com/item=10684
First one is free, and available in unlimited quantities.
Investigator May 4th 2011 12:27PM
To me engineering is "worth it" from a cool/fun point of view. Yes, arrows/bullets used to be factor for me as a hunter, but I don't miss having to carry around ammo.
Non-combat pets, Loot-a-rang (fantastic for ranged classes, no more running up to every mob), 3 teleports (one each to outland, northrend and kalimdor) to help with achievements that send you to every corner of the world, Jeeves, bombs, epic goggles, motorcycles, etc.
If you don't go for that kind of stuff and are more interested in stats or profit, then I'd probably go with something else. I have eng. on my main character for the variety of cool toys, but other class appropriate professions on all my alts.
Noyou May 4th 2011 1:21PM
Engineering is good. The tinkers, trinkets and goggles all make it worth it. I would suggest pairing it with mining even if you have a miner. Any extra ore you collect you can sell or level something else when you are done. I have heard you can't use many of the tinkers in arena or rated BGs so keep that in mind. Have fun!
Matheus314 May 4th 2011 2:28PM
Engineering is not even CLOSE as expensive as Leatherworking is. (if you are not a skinner)
Arackattack May 4th 2011 11:27AM
Q for the Queue
With the new dynamic questing and phasing in full swing in Cata, is there any indication in the PTR or even rumors that Blizz will do something to older zones that are going to be affected by the continuing story?
I find it hard to believe that the entire zone worth of Dark Irons would just wander around ruins when Rag is going to be off in the Firelands and not enslaving them to his will. Could we maybe hope for the ruins to be rebuilt, or even see some scaffolding with some flavor speech thrown in?
I'm sure there's other areas that have been advanced via dungeon/story/quest lines that could use a makeover with things shaking up even more and we're getting further along Cata.
Tim May 4th 2011 11:56AM
That would be cool considering when they were "creating" the port in SW, they had dive welders and such doing "stuff" along the wall where the port was going to be located.
loop_not_defined May 4th 2011 12:07PM
4.2 Firelands would be an excellent patch for redoing Blackrock Depths. Most players are well aware of Moira Bronzebeard sitting in Ironforge - not BRD - and Ragnaros has moved most of his efforts to Mount Hyjal.
What kind of new shenanigans could be taking place within it's depths? Dark Iron civil war, maybe? Those that wish to rejoin Dwarfdom, and those that are loyal to Ragnaros, duking it out in the Depths.
Kook May 4th 2011 11:33AM
My ears..... they bleed.....
fallemwarrior May 4th 2011 11:34AM
I think blizz could implement a Rift(Dont kill me please) based world even system for level specific people, Have portals in majoy cities that appear every so often that only allow x to x lvl for people to do,
This would be a great way to introduce the Qiraj
Becuase face it that was the only exciting part of rift =/
Drakkenfyre May 4th 2011 11:45AM
They already did that. The Cataclysm launch event. If you weren't high enuf level, you died. You had to leave the city.
Events like that draw heavy criticism, so having one that's PERMANENT isn't likely to happen. Even if lower leveled characters were immune, I could see it getting old, fast, when you saw an event like that happening all the time.
fallemwarrior May 4th 2011 11:59AM
Well heres where the phases zone comes in, levels only x-x(ex.30-35) could be called at a time, if you dont have the quest you cant use the portal and are not able to see or do the event. im not saying its a gonna be a real big and important thing im just think somthing that happens to take the monotony out of a grind, make them battle group wide evens so you always have the players, alow loot and xp rewards, they could also tailor this to be a way to help get geared for heroics giving 333
omedon666 May 4th 2011 12:09PM
Actually what fallen asked for was a level-scaled event, important detail there. Cataclysm event was not level specific.
I do agree, though, that the WoW community/culture would not welcome "randomized mass world PVE" of a RIFTish magnitude. When my RIFT guild (which is many of the same people as my WoW guild) gets annoyed with having our quest hubs over-run, or "zones falling (and thus becoming useless to the applicable level) to apathy", we play WoW. When WoW's staticness is boring, we play RIFT.
WoW is big on access control, they'd have to be very careful in going the RIFT event way, and I don't think they'd do it unless they could do it right, and given that WoW's development is going in a "log in for a couple nights a week to keep up" direction, I think they'd want to minimize variables (such a "randomized mass world PVE") so people could effectively plan those couple nights a week.
Leveling in RIFT isn't a "plannable" event. It's a hope that can be dashed by a random event and an understandably apathetic player population. If there's no unity (or higher level assistance), it's alt (or WoW) time. WoW would never go for it.
Drakkenfyre May 4th 2011 12:19PM
The Cataclysm event was level-specific. Low levels could do all the lead-up quests, but when the elements attacked, only high levels could fight against them.
The rifts in RIFT was the single-most criticized "content" I have read about. They feel "exciting" at first, then quickly devolve into an annoyance. Even if they were to phase the event from everyone except end-level characters, they would quickly tire of having their cities overrun, and even if the events were entirely optional, they wouldn't be in very long before most people had done them, then they wouldn't bother with them again.
It would be alot of work, and would be an obvious feature rip from another game, for something that would end up forgotten and only explored if they were to add achievements to it.
omedon666 May 4th 2011 12:32PM
Drak, do you play RIFT?
If you did, you'd know that "scaled to level" means "partaking", not "GTFO if you're wrong level". Yes, there was "consideration" for lower levels at the city-invasion level in the pre-cataclysm invasion, but if the event was scaled "like rift", there'd be versions somewhere of the exact same content for other level brackets. So, no, the cataclysm city invasions were not scaled to level. Having an inclusive lead-up doesn't count, in the context fallem is referring to.
As for the criticism of RIFT's rifts, I can, some days, agree with it as you've quoted it, which is why we flip flop in our little circle. I've counseled every RIFT player complaining about invasions to vote with their activity and their wallet, and play/subscribe to the vision they agree with, because RIFT is asking "does this work", and for some, it does. If it's enough, the game will be fine, and my crew can keep our dual-directional palette-refreshers. :)
WoW is great for planned events, quite on purpose. RIFT is great for "background occupation", they synergize nicely together, and fill each other's gaps, IMO.
Knightsword May 4th 2011 2:03PM
@omedon666
There were plenty of scaled rifts that shot out scaled (to the zone they were in) elementals in almost every zone during the the invasion event. Also those ones were the ones you had to kill to get the feat of strength for the event, not the city invasions. Oh and low levels escaping from the cities was optional too, and could still help with the non combat objectives.
Drakkenfyre May 4th 2011 3:19PM
No, I don't play RIFT.
I knew what you meant by scaling, but there is still some scaling in the Cataclysm launch event. As noted above, the rifts that spawned in cities weren't the only ones.
It would still be copying a main feature from another game, and it would be something that wouldn't add much in my opinion. If the main draw of another game failed there, why would it be any different in this one?