Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Firelands questing and more
by Alex Ziebart 
May 25th 2011 at 11:00AM
I was going to yell at Adam for making me wade through Game of Thrones spoilers in the comments of yesterday's Queue, but the first book has been out for what, 15 years now? Frankly, I have nobody to blame but myself at this point.
Many readers asked:
How far into Hyjal questing do I need to be to unlock the ability to do the new daily quest hubs in patch 4.2?
You need to have quested up to the point where Aessina, through you, douses the Inferno and it becomes the Regrowth. If the center of your Hyjal map is all green instead of on fire, you're good to go. If you haven't been in contact with Aessina yet and the center of the map is still covered in fire and corehounds, you should get back to questing.
Honestly, I don't know why they bothered making that a requirement. Everything you saved just gets torched again.
Hal asked:
Why is there a Night Elf priest acting as caretaker to Uther's tomb? I wasn't aware the Silver Hand (or its successors) were that close to the followers of Elune.
I've always been under the impression that the caretaker at Uther's Tomb was supposed to be a high elf or a Highborne priest who worshipped the Light. Why he has a night elf model, I have no idea. Maybe he's a convert? The Light, as a faith, doesn't have any racial borders. For example, the troll from the Ashbringer comic, Zabra Hexx, worshipped the Light.
horchc80 asked:
Curious, with the valor converting to justice and the new raid tier, will the old raids still give valor points?
No. Valor points will be used to purchase tier 12, so tier 11 raids will not give you the currency required to buy tier 12.
Shinae asked:
I've never been on the PTR before, but I may have some time this weekend. Would I be able to communicate with my RealID friends while they're on live realms and I'm on the PTR?
No. The PTR is isolated from live realms, so you cannot communicate between the two realm types.
eleyond asked:
Since hunters don't use mana as a resource anymore, why do they still arcane shot. Wouldn't. I think that ability would be changed as well maybe a flame arrow or something. Just food for thought.
A wizard did it.
No, really! The hunters took some of their ammo to a local wizard and had it enchanted for special occasions.
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
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 9)
thegatherer May 25th 2011 11:14AM
See my comment above, but also, keep in mind that channeling the arcane is not the hunter's strong point, therefore would be one of the weakest attacks he (or she) has.
(cutaia) May 25th 2011 11:28AM
"Why didn't we just get him to enchant all the bullets."
For the same reason the door to Cho'Gall's house magically stops working once 10 or 25 people have gone through it. It's a game.
AudreyR May 25th 2011 11:37AM
You also have to keep in mind it was a joke answer. Another way to say, "Who the hell knows?"
loop_not_defined May 25th 2011 3:41PM
Why don't Hunters just tie explosive charges to all of their arrows?
Why don't Hunters coat all their arrows with poisons?
How do Hunters make traps that explode...with frost?
How do giant, flaming, stomping Core Hounds camouflage themselves?
Did you know that "a Mage did it" is synonymous with "suspension of disbelief"?
Skarn May 25th 2011 6:05PM
For my Night Elf hunter, I've always considered that he dabbled a bit in magic with most of the other Night Elves back during the pre-Wellsplosion days. He never really got that into though, magic just wasn't that interesting. He was far more interested in spending time out among the animals, tracking, hunting, learning. He knows enough about magic that he can do a few minor tricks, like enhancing his arrows with arcane energy, make them explode with fire or making a trap that will turn someone into a block of ice. After the Wellsplosion, he dabbled in the druidic arts too, since that's the way his people were going. Though this did appeal more to him than arcane magic, he ultimately didn't follow the druidic path either. He's taken little bits of those teachings to strengthen his connection with animals, to imbue arrows with deadly poisons and even to help those around him resist the negative affects of nature magic. (I've got better nature resist than a druid! Go figure.)
That's my own little story about why my hunter does the things he does, but it's obviously not official. :)
Nopunin10did May 25th 2011 11:36AM
Fun update:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2580698481?page=2#24
Tier 11 normals will drop Justice points, but Tier 11 heroics will drop Valor points!
Thus, the content from the previous tier will still have a shot at relevance when 4.2 drops.
Mendin May 25th 2011 11:35AM
Any guild who can do some heroics already have the gear to tackle Firelands normal bosses. So I hardly think they would use their raid time doing old heroics instead of training Fireland boss mechanics.
Nopunin10did May 25th 2011 11:53AM
Yes and no.
No, as it's not the most cutting-edge content, it's not going to be super-productive to invest a lot of time in those raids.
However, our team tries not to get burned out on any particular instance. While it slows our raid progress down a little, it keeps people interested. With 7 bosses in Firelands, we're probably going to want to have one night a week (or every other week) where we down heroic bosses from T11.
Also, with the difference in gear being only a half-tier of iLevel, there will probably be a few 372 pieces that are better for certain specs than the 378 drops. That's already the case for certain 353/359 pairings.
And if we can manage to get to Sinestra and down her, she drops some wicked 379's, like Shard of Woe.
Amaxe May 25th 2011 11:12AM
"Honestly, I don't know why they bothered making that a requirement. Everything you saved just gets torched again."
Blizz likes giving us exercises in futility?
In WoW 5.0
Herald: To arms! The evil Lord XXX is seeking to destroy Azeroth!
Burnt out Adventurer: Again? Fine! I give up! Let him!
Task May 25th 2011 11:17AM
Burnt out adventurer 2: But I'm le tired...
Burnt out adventurer 3: Le sigh...
Debesun May 25th 2011 11:22AM
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"
yada yada yada
Nathanyel May 25th 2011 1:51PM
I guess they didn't want to run into problems with phasing if you later decided to do the level 80 quests there. Also, getting to that point in the zone takes an hour tops, and since it belongs to the intended flow to level up, there's a 50% chance you already quested there even if you did not complete the Loremaster achievements in the meantime.
loop_not_defined May 25th 2011 3:45PM
In WoW 6.0
Blizzard: Congratulations, no further villains require defeat! You've all beat WoW! The servers will be shutting down now.
Burnt out Adventurer: Wait....WHAAAT?!?!
Amaxe May 25th 2011 10:46PM
Would WoW 6.0 be
"Seriously, we've run out of ideas. Go read a book or something"?
RedderTheEmoDK May 26th 2011 4:49PM
By 5.0, WoW will just be copying RIFT. Right now, that feels like a good thing.
i.read.your May 27th 2011 1:18PM
WoW 4.2a-4.5: ZOMG! RAGNAROS IS MADBRO. Firelands was merely a set back and Majordomo -random alliance npc no one cared about/liked- is summoning him in the Molten Core of Blackrock Spire... again. Go forth and slaughter!
WoW 5.0: Alleria and Tyralion have been living on the home world of the High Elves from Dimension X. That's right! Blood Elves are actually space aliens like Draenei this whole time! Shocker! And furthermore, Kael'thas ascended to Dragonhood. Azeroth was merely a set back! Venture forth through a new system of world questing via "Some-What Dim, but not quite Dark per say" Portals. Slay demons. Blind your advesaries with all knew epileptic seizure inducing enchantment glows! Clown outfits for everyone!
WoW 6.0: The portals in the Caverns of Time have exploded and with the *spoiler* death of Nozdormu at the hands of... uh... Sylvanas! the world of Azeroth is fading in and out of time loops! Follow the adventures of the mysterious "Doctor", a timey-whimy engineer out of Gnomergan as you try to set right the world via "Classic Dungeons" accessed via Rif---portals.
>.>
Xayíde May 25th 2011 11:17AM
Well, if you think about it, Hunters also deal other kinds of magical damage like Poison (Nature) and Fire. While these don't necessarily come from a magical source, they are considered magical damage in WoW (God knows why...).
I know I can't compare Arcane to Fire or Poison in terms of possible sources so that what I said doesn't really explain your issue, but I just wanted to point out that magical damage doesn't always come from magical sources, which can be weird.
loop_not_defined May 25th 2011 3:49PM
What about Frost/Freezing Traps?
I don't see it as the Hunter personally enchanting each arrow/bullet or trap. I see it as the Hunter buying premade magical reagents and using them to achieve magical results. Seriously, it's not like you can't put arcane energy in a bottle. I could probably point out a million quest examples if I had the time.
Xayíde May 25th 2011 4:23PM
I didn't mean to say Hunters do not or shouldn't use any kind of magic at all. I just said some things in WoW are treated as magic when indeed they shouldn't. Rogue poisons, Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot are all examples. Blades smeared with poisonous substances, poisoned arrows and fiery arrows are definitely non magical things that do (or at least did) exist IRL.
I realize that doesn't have much to do with Arcane Shot, since arcane is arcane, it's magic. The comment didn't have much to do with the Arcane Shot question, it was just a thought that occured to me...
chaosdefined May 25th 2011 11:19AM
Asked this yesterday but didn't really get much of an answer;
I'm really intrigued as to why Blizz went to all the efforts in creating such an incredible zone such as Vash'jir, but have the zone award you absolutely no Reputation at all, and then create Mount Hyjal as an alternative for players to quest through at level 80, which offers a considerable amount of Reputation for that faction.
Surely they would have thought ahead, and that given the options of which zone to level in, players will choose the one that offers end game rewards.
It saddens me as I thought Vash'jir was gorgeous, and although slightly repetitive in quests, good fun. But as I level my alts I will be skipping out the zone entirely, in favour for the rep.