Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Moooo
by Adam Holisky 
May 10th 2011 at 11:00AM
I was watching Game of Thrones Sunday night, and all the sudden I saw Hodor. I turned to my fiancée and said, "Hodor! We talked to him on WoW Insider!" She just looked at me and went "What's a Hodor?"
Then I realized I'm marrying someone who hasn't read Game of Thrones.
I am now on a new mission -- a quest, if you will. GoT she shall read; it is so.
Also, Fat Tom doesn't say "coward," he says "craven." I am le disappointed, HBO ...
Irin asked:
Who is Anthony Ray stark? He has a headstone tended by a drawf named Rousch in the very southeastern tip of the Hillsbrad Foothills just beyond Dun Garok. He is no one in lore since on the headstone it simply reads 'Anthony Ray Stark 1961 - 2005'. What is the story behind this little easter egg?
According to Wowpedia, he's a friend of a developer who passed away and has an in-game memorial built for him.
Vehx asked:
Once you've reached your weekly limit for conquest points, can you still trade in valor points to push past the cap?
Nope, the conquest point cap is a hard cap based on the amount you earn, not the amount you've earned and kept.
Sinthar asked:
Isn't WSG the first BG you can get into at low level? Or have the changed that (I dont PVP much - or at all really if i can help it)?
Warsong Gulch is available, as well as Arathi Basin, at level 10. Blizzard added AB a while ago.
Hawk asked:
The only way to get "free" fast flying is What A Long, Strane Trip achievement. What if you already purchased it? Can you get a refund of your money?
That's the only way that I know of. You might also be able to get it via getting an arena-awarded flying mount, but I'm not sure if that gives it to you now or not.
Blizzard won't refund your gold if you already have max flying.
Jishdefish asked:
Heroic Gnomeregan. Would defeating Thermaplug at 85 get us some momentum on that front?
While I have no special knowledge of the subject, I wouldn't at all be surprised at this point to see heroic Gnomer. Makes a lot of sense, given Blizzard's recent penchant for old instances.
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)
Telwar May 10th 2011 11:13AM
I have to echo the No Heroic Gnomeregan pleas. I'm sorry, but it doesn't interest me in the slightest.
Give us something new. Why we didn't get a third troll instance, composed of the Zandalari themselves, I don't know.
loreaddict May 10th 2011 11:16AM
Don't you know Blizzard's policy?
There must ALWAYS be a Troll raid.
No exceptions.
(Wrath doesn't count because it was planned, but was cut out.)
Scott May 10th 2011 12:15PM
Isn't Gun'drak a Troll Raid?
Thyrial May 10th 2011 12:29PM
No it's a Dungeon/Heroic not Raid.
(cutaia) May 10th 2011 1:43PM
But they did get a whole zone with Zul'Drak. So, I suppose that counts for something...
Cyrus May 10th 2011 11:13AM
I liked Gnomeregan, although it usually seems like I'm the only person who did. It was the first instance I can remember with a backdoor, and the quests were... obviously not great, very few were back in vanilla, but the vast majority of them came from IF and Dun Morogh and there weren't any painful ones like escort quests or anything. (Yes, there was an escort quest, but it wasn't painful.)
It probably helps that my first character was a dwarf - so I was in the area anyway - and an engineer - so I could benefit from the stuff in chests, but more importantly, look around and see something to aspire to. While I was playing with bombs and maybe goggles, it was a nice feeling to see mechanical bosses and gears bigger than buildings.
Tirrimas May 10th 2011 1:32PM
I also loved the aesthetic of Gnomer, but dear Dungeon Gods, please streamline the instance. Make it more obvious which direction to go.
Tom May 10th 2011 11:14AM
I thought that headstone was for Tony Stark, Ironman and blizzard didn't like the downie jr. :)
Do you think there will be any more pygmies? there cannot be enough in my opinion
I missed out for most of TBC and Wrath, now i am back end game crafting seems quite non existant, do you think blizzard will be adding more interesting and useful recipes for people who are at raid level?
Shadowwind May 10th 2011 2:18PM
From Thottbot:
"While I would prefer to let the memorial speak for itself, it would seem that there are those, who will not allow that, and prefer to make up stories to confound the gullible. So, let me set the record straight.
Tony never worked for Blizzard (in fact, he was a mortgage broker), and he didn't die in a car accident.
I met Tony Stark (that was indeed his real name, the fact that it's Iron Man's secret identity is a coincidence) several months before he died. We both hung out at the same cigar store. While we didn't get to know each other well enough to be friends, I liked him and saw him several times a week. We got together at the cigar store on Tuesday nights to play WOW with a group of people and smoke cigars. Some of those people worked for Blizzard, and were friends of Tony's.
Rousch was Tony's main, and when Tony died he was somewhere in the mid 40's. Since that was Tony's first ever character, he was hardly one of the first to try a dwarf.
Tony died while doing something he loved, which was scuba diving. It was later determined that something went wrong with his heart. (The truth in this case is more dramatic than the made up stories. As we all know, that happens sometimes.)
I was touched to see that some of Tony's friends at Blizzard went to the trouble of arranging the memorial in the game to him. It was added in a patch a few months after his death. He was a kind, cheerful guy, who was always ready to help out someone in need. We all miss him.
Mendicantus"
This is from a comment on Wowhead (search for Rousch, the character standing in front of the tombstone).
Shadowwind May 10th 2011 2:31PM
While I'm at it, I'll copy-paste my comment from Wowhead, which details all of the ingame memorials I've been able to confirm. There are a surprising number of them.
"Blizzard seems to have a history of putting memorials in for players, employees, or friends. So far I've found seven (feel free to point it out if you spot one I've missed).
In Hillsbrad there is Rousch, the character of Anthony Ray Stark (yes, real name) who passed away in 2005 in a scuba accident. He has no quest, but he stands in front of a grave marker and will /kneel and /salute it from time to time. He is friendly to both factions.
Ahab Wheathoof and his dog Kyle are the creation of Ezra Chatterton, a young player with cancer who got to spend a day at Blizzard headquarters thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation. He got to create these two NPCs, voice Ahab, and create the quest Kyle's Gone Missing! to go with them, among other things. He passed away in October of 2008 when his tumor, which had been in remission, came back. His main character, Ephoenix, can sometimes (very very rarely) still be seen online on the Norgannon server when his father logs on. ((No longer the case, btw. Epheonix was apparently leveled to 80 during Wrath by Ezra's uncle, then deleted. This was the last time I had the chance to speak to any of his family members.))
Caylee Dak and her pet Dusky in Shattrath City (on Aldor Rise and belonging to the Darnassus faction) was the character of Dak Krause, who passed away from leukemia on August 22, 2007. She ends the quest Alicia's Poem.
Koiter is a slightly more complicated memorial. While NPC Koiter uses the Spirit Healer model, behind him is a memorial in a small subzone called the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior in the northern Barrens. Atop the structure is an orc that is a copy of Michel Koiter's character from the WoW beta. He died in 2004 of unknown causes.
Captain Armando O s s e x is a member of the Stormpike Guard in Alterac Mountains. He is apparently a memorial to a deceased player who loved playing AV, but information other than this is scarce. I was unable to find a date of death or whether the patrolling character was a clone of his or not.
Crusader Bridenbrad, the Argent Crusader dying of the plague in Icecrown, appears to be based off of a real person, Bradford C. Bridenbecker, who died of cancer in 2007. He is involved in a medium-long questline starting with A Tale of Valor, given to you by Tirion Fordring after you've unlocked the Crusaders' Pinnacle. It is speculated that he may be related to a Blizzard programmer.
Again in Hillsbrad is a Decorated Headstone dedicated to Jesse Morales, a Blizzard employee who passed away while WoW was still under development. There was no other information.
/salute /mourn
Noekh May 10th 2011 11:18AM
I'd like to see Heroics of the following:
Ragefire Chasm
Blackrock Depths (All of it) plus perhaps an 85 5-man Molten Core (For fun! Like Ony...)
Maraudon
I enjoy the two new heroics very much, and I certainly support the idea of a Heroic Gnomeregan! Would love to see it progress to where the Gnomes actually get *their* city back in a future content patch. Also, a little more lore on the Draenei would be nice, since I can't find all that much. (Unless someone knows where I can!
Noyou May 10th 2011 1:56PM
I'd like to see new dungeons please. Maybe a new zone or 2. New Char art. A city each for the Gnomes and Trolls. Any one or all of those before you get a new heroic of an old dungeon. Thank you!
christopher.schmidt76 May 10th 2011 11:21AM
Given how Blizzard is remaking old raids into 5 mans, and the current theme in this expansion of old god corruption, do you think we will see AQ-20 or 40 remade as 5 mans? They both would fit given the spoilers regarding a corrupted Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm and his history with the Qiraji , and the Qiraji's involvement with certain old gods. Besides seeg C'thun again would be very cool, because no one confirmed we actually killed it.
Grovinofdarkhour May 10th 2011 11:22AM
"Heroic Gnomeregan! The nostalgia of being perpetually lost, now with endgame-sized repair bills!"
razion May 10th 2011 11:36AM
When I first did Gnomeregan, a guild-mate told me to take out a piece of paper and pencil, and to draw our progress through the dungeon to make future runs easier. By the end of it I had ran out of paper... and pencil.
Noyou May 10th 2011 1:58PM
I get lost in dungeons all the time. But for some reason I never get lost in Gnomer. Probably all the searching around for all those lovely quest items. ;)
Jormund Fenris May 10th 2011 11:23AM
Q4tehQ:
How on earth do I change my image? I have tried multiple times, on every site from Joystiq to Wow insider, yet the software eludes me.
Sagacyte May 10th 2011 11:44AM
I tried going to the Joystiq mother site the other day, and was able to.
Tried many times from WoWInsider, but no luck. The link just didn't work.
Sagacyte May 10th 2011 11:47AM
Alas! Now that I comment again I notice the avatar change didn't work.
At least when done from the Joystiq mothersite it said that the change worked. False alarm, I guess. :S
Blackdemon May 10th 2011 12:16PM
If I remember, the browser I was using made a difference to whether it worked. I think firefox was the only one that did (usually use Chrome).