The Queue: Orange Coke is totally Warcraft-related
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
I really want to try Coca-Cola Orange. I don't think you can acquire it in the United States without going to the Coke factory. If you know something I don't know, you should probably tell me! WoW Insider, you're my only hope!
Enigma asked:
Is Blizzard trolling with the T12 models? Mage is hilariously flamboyant and druid looks ... well ... "special." T11 is actually pretty friggin' good-looking across the board, so it seems like T12 is something of a joke.
I think you'll find quite a lot of people enjoy the tier 12 designs! Quite a lot of people dislike tier 11, too. I don't think Blizzard would put that much effort into trolling us, especially when many of the sets actually look quite good. I think all of the mages in my raid are looking forward to mage T12 -- that hat is badass. I personally don't like paladin T12, but I know quite a few people who do.
Don't paint things in absolutes. There are nearly 12 million people actively playing World of Warcraft. You'll find plenty of people who agree with you when you dislike something, but you'll find millions who disagree with you, too.
However, I am willing to go out on a limb and say anybody who holds the opinion that T11 was good across the board is completely insane. Come on, that hunter set? If Blizzard is trolling us, it's hunter tier 11. A worgen hunter wearing that set is just ridiculous.
That means you, Kivharo.
Wellsee asked:
My guild wants to start 10 person raids soon. Other than Argaloth, what are the best bosses to tackle first?
Blizzard did a pretty good job of placing bosses in the proper order of progression. Magmaw, Halfus Wyrmbreaker, and Omnotron Defense System are all roughly at the same level of difficulty. Of those, Magmaw is likely the easiest. It has some tricky mechanics (like learning how to time the chains properly) but is overall an easy encounter to learn. ODS requires a lot of target switching that may confuse someone who has never raided at all before, so that one should probably come after Magmaw and Halfus. Those three are all good starting points, though.
You can toss Throne of the Four Winds in there as well, but that fight always struck me as very complicated for people who haven't raided before. If your guild has some Wrath of the Lich King raid experience, you should be able to handle it just fine. If you don't have pre-Cataclysm raid experience, I would put Throne of the Four Winds after Magmaw, Halfus and Omnotron.
TL;DR: Kill Magmaw first, then Halfus Wyrmbreaker, then Omnotron Defense System. After those three, do whatever you want.
Iirdan asked:
Is WoW Insider going to bring back more guest posts?
I absolutely love writing and reading Breakfast Topics through SEED, but I find myself missing other things like the 4.0.1 reaction post, the "Confessions of a n00b" series. It would be really nice to see maybe a weekly or even bi-weekly opinion guest post or something similar. Hell, even if it weren't through Seed for cash it would be cool.
We would like to, but it isn't always easy. First, we do not (and will not) take volunteer work -- if you're being published on WoW Insider, you'll be paid for it. I know that's going to spark heated debate in the comments because it always does, but that's the way it is. So since we don't take volunteer work, the work needs to be processed within the tools available to our platform -- we contract someone (which we can do for someone anywhere in the world), or we accept that work through Seed (which is currently in the United States only). We're lucky to have a tool like Seed available to us, because most WoW sites have nothing like that.
However, it's important to remember that we're extremely niche. We have to create our own little bubble for ourselves within Seed. All of our open calls are actually set to private on the Seed site, because the greater Seed audience would be so confused if we didn't set them private. You can only see those listings if you have the direct link, which we provide on our site. Once upon a time, we did an open call for articles about healers. We did not set it to private, and were thus inundated with article submissions from real life doctors/nurses or articles about holistic medicine. Leaving our extremely niche requests open to the public is counterproductive. Seed as a platform is a benefit to us -- that's why the tool exists -- but we in turn do not necessarily contribute to Seed (or the greater freelance community), since our open calls are hidden from the masses. Make sense? Of course, that's just a look into how we interact with Seed, not a reason why we don't use it more. That doesn't discourage our use of the platform.
The real limiting factor is time. This is already a full-time job for many of us, not taking any guests posts into consideration at all. When we do open calls for articles on Seed, one of us editors ends up with a great big time sink on our hands for a week. The recent call for Breakfast Topics we held? We received well over 100 submissions, and yours truly had to go through every single one deciding which ones get to make the cut and which ones don't. Almost all submissions need a significant copyediting pass after purchase, which isn't necessarily the fault of those submitting articles -- our internal style guide is not public. So after I've decided who gets to make the cut, then Lisa (our copyeditor, god bless her heart) gets to go through them and make them presentable. It's a significant timesink all around.
Is it worth the effort? Abso-freaking-lutely. We love guest posts. We love being able to feature you guys. Is it hard to find the hours in the day to do it regularly? Very much so. When we have a great idea for a column, it's easier for us to pick someone from our own staff with appropriate knowledge of the topic to bang something out for us than it is to open up a Seed request and receive a few dozen submissions, of which we may only use one. That's one of the worst parts of the process, too -- rejecting people isn't fun. Disappointing people isn't fun.
Will we do more guest posts? We'll try, and you're welcome to email me with your ideas. We love them, and we love you. Will we have one every week, or every other week? Probably not, because the difference in the amount of time and effort to do that compared to using internal personnel is astronomical.
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!
I really want to try Coca-Cola Orange. I don't think you can acquire it in the United States without going to the Coke factory. If you know something I don't know, you should probably tell me! WoW Insider, you're my only hope!
Enigma asked:
Is Blizzard trolling with the T12 models? Mage is hilariously flamboyant and druid looks ... well ... "special." T11 is actually pretty friggin' good-looking across the board, so it seems like T12 is something of a joke.
I think you'll find quite a lot of people enjoy the tier 12 designs! Quite a lot of people dislike tier 11, too. I don't think Blizzard would put that much effort into trolling us, especially when many of the sets actually look quite good. I think all of the mages in my raid are looking forward to mage T12 -- that hat is badass. I personally don't like paladin T12, but I know quite a few people who do.
Don't paint things in absolutes. There are nearly 12 million people actively playing World of Warcraft. You'll find plenty of people who agree with you when you dislike something, but you'll find millions who disagree with you, too.
However, I am willing to go out on a limb and say anybody who holds the opinion that T11 was good across the board is completely insane. Come on, that hunter set? If Blizzard is trolling us, it's hunter tier 11. A worgen hunter wearing that set is just ridiculous.
That means you, Kivharo.
Wellsee asked:
My guild wants to start 10 person raids soon. Other than Argaloth, what are the best bosses to tackle first?
Blizzard did a pretty good job of placing bosses in the proper order of progression. Magmaw, Halfus Wyrmbreaker, and Omnotron Defense System are all roughly at the same level of difficulty. Of those, Magmaw is likely the easiest. It has some tricky mechanics (like learning how to time the chains properly) but is overall an easy encounter to learn. ODS requires a lot of target switching that may confuse someone who has never raided at all before, so that one should probably come after Magmaw and Halfus. Those three are all good starting points, though.
You can toss Throne of the Four Winds in there as well, but that fight always struck me as very complicated for people who haven't raided before. If your guild has some Wrath of the Lich King raid experience, you should be able to handle it just fine. If you don't have pre-Cataclysm raid experience, I would put Throne of the Four Winds after Magmaw, Halfus and Omnotron.
TL;DR: Kill Magmaw first, then Halfus Wyrmbreaker, then Omnotron Defense System. After those three, do whatever you want.
Iirdan asked:
Is WoW Insider going to bring back more guest posts?
I absolutely love writing and reading Breakfast Topics through SEED, but I find myself missing other things like the 4.0.1 reaction post, the "Confessions of a n00b" series. It would be really nice to see maybe a weekly or even bi-weekly opinion guest post or something similar. Hell, even if it weren't through Seed for cash it would be cool.
We would like to, but it isn't always easy. First, we do not (and will not) take volunteer work -- if you're being published on WoW Insider, you'll be paid for it. I know that's going to spark heated debate in the comments because it always does, but that's the way it is. So since we don't take volunteer work, the work needs to be processed within the tools available to our platform -- we contract someone (which we can do for someone anywhere in the world), or we accept that work through Seed (which is currently in the United States only). We're lucky to have a tool like Seed available to us, because most WoW sites have nothing like that.
However, it's important to remember that we're extremely niche. We have to create our own little bubble for ourselves within Seed. All of our open calls are actually set to private on the Seed site, because the greater Seed audience would be so confused if we didn't set them private. You can only see those listings if you have the direct link, which we provide on our site. Once upon a time, we did an open call for articles about healers. We did not set it to private, and were thus inundated with article submissions from real life doctors/nurses or articles about holistic medicine. Leaving our extremely niche requests open to the public is counterproductive. Seed as a platform is a benefit to us -- that's why the tool exists -- but we in turn do not necessarily contribute to Seed (or the greater freelance community), since our open calls are hidden from the masses. Make sense? Of course, that's just a look into how we interact with Seed, not a reason why we don't use it more. That doesn't discourage our use of the platform.
The real limiting factor is time. This is already a full-time job for many of us, not taking any guests posts into consideration at all. When we do open calls for articles on Seed, one of us editors ends up with a great big time sink on our hands for a week. The recent call for Breakfast Topics we held? We received well over 100 submissions, and yours truly had to go through every single one deciding which ones get to make the cut and which ones don't. Almost all submissions need a significant copyediting pass after purchase, which isn't necessarily the fault of those submitting articles -- our internal style guide is not public. So after I've decided who gets to make the cut, then Lisa (our copyeditor, god bless her heart) gets to go through them and make them presentable. It's a significant timesink all around.
Is it worth the effort? Abso-freaking-lutely. We love guest posts. We love being able to feature you guys. Is it hard to find the hours in the day to do it regularly? Very much so. When we have a great idea for a column, it's easier for us to pick someone from our own staff with appropriate knowledge of the topic to bang something out for us than it is to open up a Seed request and receive a few dozen submissions, of which we may only use one. That's one of the worst parts of the process, too -- rejecting people isn't fun. Disappointing people isn't fun.
Will we do more guest posts? We'll try, and you're welcome to email me with your ideas. We love them, and we love you. Will we have one every week, or every other week? Probably not, because the difference in the amount of time and effort to do that compared to using internal personnel is astronomical.
Filed under: The Queue







Reader Comments (Page 1 of 11)
MattKrotzer May 18th 2011 11:09AM
Hunters have been routinely subjected to some of the most atrocious armor sets.
I'd really like to see Blizzard go with some sets that just epitomize what the class is about, rather than something wild and flashy.
I actually did a sketch of what my ideal hunter gear would look like after first seeing the Tier 11 stuff. (Apologies to the horde for building it on a human model frame.)
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af273/JosinTeya/HTier1068.jpg
I intend to do more sketches for some of the other classes as well, though I think Rogues are the next on my list. (I can't say that Blizzard has ever done a set as perfect for rogues as the Dungeon Set 3 in Burning Crusade... that was flawless.)
Overall though, I'm pretty happy with T12 on most classes. Not crazy about the warrior shoulders, but the rest of it is pretty awesome. LOVE the helm.
Poor priests better hope no shaman casts Riptide on them though, or they'll drown in that toilet bowl headpiece.
Grovinofdarkhour May 18th 2011 11:19AM
Ted Nugent eat your heart out, that right there's our Tier 13 set if I have any say in the matter.
Well crap, I don't, but it's still awesome.
Vladpr May 18th 2011 11:19AM
That set looks pretty cool ... doesn't seem much like mail in my opinion, but it looks like that a hunter should look like hehe, kinda like Rangers in that sense ... Sadly, WoW hunters will probably never look like that ... where's the flash ;)
Carlos May 18th 2011 11:26AM
Awesome Sketch! Love the simplicity of the idea!
It dosen't have to be big and shiny to make it good!
Cyrus May 18th 2011 11:31AM
It looks cool, but Blizzard would never go for it. Where are the skulls, eyes, mouths or other parts of heads? How could you hurt yourself on the spaulders? What part of it was ripped from the still-steaming corpse of a demigod? Why doesn't it glow?
Blizzard seems to feel obligated to make every tier of gear look bigger, more powerfully magical, and more badass than the one before, at least at epic quality. This was probably a bad idea given that they already had lightning and dragons' heads on gear back in vanilla, which kind of leaves them with no room to go further.
Grak May 18th 2011 11:31AM
I would welcome the return of tier sets that actually look like something related to the class. For the last couple of tiers we just look like walking christmas trees; with a design intent that seems to value more flashing lights and bells and whistles over actually looking like class-related armour.
The problem with these tiers to me, is that save for one or two sets if there wasnt a label under them I probably wouldnt be able to pick out which set is for which class. That to me a major failing in design.
Why do paladins have to wear what looks like a dress. Why is there no real armour type distinction between sets; everything looks similar, for the most part theres no real difference between plate or cloth or leather. I cant see a class distinction between mages, rogues, priests, hell even death knights.
Tier gear has turned into gear that you desperately try to hide, instead being proud to wear something that epitomizes ones class :(
Tirrimas May 18th 2011 11:32AM
My Belf would totally rock that set.
/flex
Grovinofdarkhour May 18th 2011 11:35AM
It's got enough detail, a massive survivalist feel, and I can envision it perfectly with a rifle, longbow, or even pistols (if Frost ever gets his way).
Not every gear set needs to look as though it's just waiting for you to trip on the curb to impale you somehow.
eVEAN May 18th 2011 11:36AM
Personally, I think your sketch looks great, but its WAY too "real" for my tastes. I have loved every hunter set since dragonstalker's. (I hated giant stalkers!) It's funny that worgen in T11 is the class everyone points out. I race changed to worgen specifically cuz it looked so much better in T11, LOL! (the extra crit is helpfull too :P) I really like how each hunter set takes parts of a specfic animal or race in the game and uses it as a pieced together armor set. In this fantasy world of WoW, that's how I imagine a hunter would treat its kills :)
Im looking forward to be the hannibal lecter of salamander people with my fiery new T12 gear!
MattKrotzer May 18th 2011 11:39AM
Thanks for the positive response.
A few things I like to point out in the design:
The hat is supposed to be a really wide brim. Not just the standard "safari hat" style that's in the game already.
That's a half-cape, and counts as part of the shoulders. I love the asymmetry of it. Also, the single pauldron would be on the front shoulder when firing. No reason a hunter would need to protect their right shoulder, really.
The Hunter's Mark motif. If Blizzard really wants a cool glow, these are the place to implement it.
A game sack on the belt. Hunters moreso than anyone else (except maybe rogues) should have a visual representation of where they keep their kills.
Also, there's a mail underlining which you can see over the abdomen area. :)
Mortenebra May 18th 2011 11:42AM
That's a lot of awesome right there, Matt! I'm a little undecided about the hat (just looks a little too floppy, that's all), though I understand the sentiment behind it and it's a lot better than wearing the head of yet another creature we've killed.
All that said, I kinda feel like the hunter's mark on the belt buckle is... um... well, you know... like, "Hey, baby, I got your target marked right HERE! Ohhhh YEAH!" Especially if the mark bobbed like the usual hunter's mark? Okay, okay, I'll stop being immature. Sorry :D
Wolfshanze May 18th 2011 11:51AM
Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would hate the T11 Hunter set... IMHO, it's the pinnacle of Hunter armor success... after all, what is one of the hunter's primary fuctions? Camoflage and the art of how not to be seen.
If a Hunter in T11 armor is hiding in a camp of Murlocs, you're not going to find him at all unless he's foolish enough to stand up when you call out his name... otherwise, he's safe anywhere there's a murloc camp... and there's plenty of them around Azeroth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zekiZYSVdeQ
Jiffah May 18th 2011 11:54AM
It's a cool design for sure, but the way I see it, a "raiding" hunter in the lore is much much more than just a hunter. He doesn't really provide food for his village, he's helping kill giant threats. His/her gear needs to be stuff of legends. I guess it takes out a bit of flavour along the way, but most of my hunter friends actually enjoy the "murloc-stalker" set and the upcoming "pirate Flame-walker-stalker" set. Matter of taste. and Btw the eyepatch makes sense...at least to me.
BugVoodoo May 18th 2011 11:56AM
I'd love to see a full set of these ideas! Perhaps gather them up and submit them to World of Warcrafts or something?
As a roleplayer, I have a female troll hunter who is supposed to be very no-frills and practical. It's been very hard to find anything that fits that theme, and I'd LOVE to see something like this in-game.
The same concept goes with shaman. If you read the lore related to them, the good guys (that's us, game mechanics-wise) are supposed to be humble. When Thrall went all uber-shaman, he dropped the fancy armor and went for something much simpler and in keeping with his service to the elements. Now look at... well, any shaman set, ever. RAWR POWER LOOK AT MY POWER RAAAGH POWERRRRR!!
Yeah, I understand that Blizzard wants to give the players something terribly fancy-looking for all their hard work, but I guess I personally would love to see something that fit the feel of the class from a lore perspective.
Ringo Flinthammer May 18th 2011 12:04PM
The lack of camo-themed or real life hunter-themed hunter sets has always baffled me. I would take something non-flashy, with a camo pattern and a hat like the one you drew, any day of the week.
veil May 18th 2011 12:24PM
sorry to be the contrarian...but this is fantasy, not azerothian big buck hunter. i would venture what looks good to you would look exceedingly dull to a vast majority of players. what happens in the next tier? you get extra pockets on your vest? a tackle box? blizzard began consciously making themed design directions years ago (arguably with t2) with the explicit knowledge that they'd have to continuously churn out more tiers down the road. it's a long-term design strategy, one i would argue your design wouldn't hold up well in.
Naphtali May 18th 2011 12:38PM
You're my hero. You should post these on the hunter forums or something! It would be nice if Blizzard did a few "Nessingway" themes instead of "beastmaster" type themes.
I have always wanted more of a marksman look, but then again, I have wished for awhile that they would come up with a few sets that look more traditional.
Traditional as in what Arthas wore as a paladin. More of marksman set as a hunter. They actually did come out with a few "gandalf" style caps for casters that I loved.
Keep up the good work and maybe shoot a blog page out where I can follow your sketches. Fun stuff to dream about having in-game!
MattKrotzer May 18th 2011 12:40PM
@Veil
They don't have to make EVERY tier into something like this, but once in a while wouldn't hurt.
You make it sound as though every tier is built upon the previous one, which is only really the design intent for PVP gear, not raid gear, so your biggest complaints are based on a rather flawed premise.
And I'd rather play an Azerothian Big Buck Hunter than look like someone shoved me up the ass of a Borean Tundra Rhino, and I'm wearing the scraps of what stuck to me when it died.
(See Tier 10)
Jizul May 18th 2011 12:43PM
This makes me think that Blizz should hold a contest to design the next tier armor sets.
Xsinthis May 18th 2011 12:51PM
You gotta make those shoulders like a metre bigger, but besides that good work ;)