The Queue: Firelands questing and more

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.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 9)
paulmewis May 25th 2011 11:34AM
I can't go into Vash'jir atm without constantly singing 'Under the Sea' from Little Mermaid.
Someone mentioned it to me and its just stuck I'm afraid.
Fjaweru May 25th 2011 11:51AM
@ Paulmewis
Ya know, I found myself humming that recently when leveling an alt through there.
Can't tell you how many years it's been since I've seen or really thought of the movie...
chaosdefined May 25th 2011 11:55AM
See when I first levelled there I spent the entire time singing "Somewheeeeeeeere beyond the seeeeaaaaa!"
Shinae May 25th 2011 12:08PM
Back at Cata's release, the Vashj'ir quests did not award any faction rep until the very last few quests. But since then, they've been changed, so most quests throughout the zone award ER rep.
As someone said yesterday, you still need to go through part of the zone to make the ER quartermaster available. There's still plenty of motivation to go to Vashj'ir, and I don't think it will necessarily get skipped in favor of Hyjal. Next time I level an alt, I'll probably do both starting zones, so that I can skip Deepholme entirely.
Grovinofdarkhour May 25th 2011 12:09PM
I always liked the "look" of Vashj'ir. I just hated actually doing anything there.
LynMars May 25th 2011 12:11PM
I dunno, I got quite a bit of Earthen Ring rep in Vashj'ir. Not as much as in Deepholm, but it was there.
chaosdefined May 25th 2011 12:13PM
Ah see I haven't been through there since the release of Cata. Well that's a lot better, I'll stop by it next time I reach 80 on an Alt now.
busuan May 25th 2011 12:15PM
My guess is because Vash'jir is the first underwater zone in game, and Blizz wasn't so confident whether it's going to work for the majority of players. Even if there be 10-20% players hate the zone, it'd become a disaster. Blizz probably didn't want such a risk of tying up progression.
Grovinofdarkhour May 25th 2011 12:38PM
I think it would have improved the Vashj'ir "3D" questing experience if they had made the mobs' default perception mimic our own.
By that I mean, we who are used to functioning on land might spin 360 degrees and make sure the coast is clear, only to be surprised by a mob attacking from directly above or below you. (Which can be quite annoying, not to mention seeming "unfair" because it's not what we're used to.) But if the mob's likelihood of perceiving you and attacking you was also greater in the "usual" two dimensions and less so in the third - basically, if your aggro radius was not a sphere, but slightly more pancake-shaped instead - you would suffer these attacks from unperceived mobs much less often and, in turn, hate the zone less.
I realize that logically, it makes sense for the mobs to have better spherical perception than us landlubbers, but we're not talking logic here, we're talking about how to make the gameplay more enjoyable and minimize player avoidance of specific zones.
icepyro May 25th 2011 2:58PM
Fun Fact to make everyone feel old:
It has been a greater period of time since the Little Mermaid came out to present day than the period from the first moon landing to the Little Mermaid release.
Lemons May 25th 2011 4:00PM
They just need to add a hot crustacean band. Then maybe people would see that's it's better down where it's wetter. Take it from me.
Noyou May 25th 2011 4:46PM
I think your point of view on Vashj'ir greatly depends on what toon you roll thru and your playstyle. On my warrior I couldn't find enough mobs packed tightly together. Taking my Shaman thru it now I find it annoying that when I am dropping my totems on the sea floor and aggoing mobs from all angles. (yes I know I need to stop that) I think Hyjal is the easiest zone to quest in as the flow of it is very linear and the quests are grouped up quite nicely. Not much wasted time flying here or there. They really did a good job of that in all the cata zones. Some people of course do not like that kind of playstyle so it really all depends.
Andrew R. May 25th 2011 11:19AM
Do you think the cash flow perk has worked out well or was it poorly implemented? To me it seems like it would encourage guild leaders and officers to empty the build bank and run with the gold. The players aren't losing money but that money also wouldn't be there if it weren't for them.
(cutaia) May 25th 2011 11:35AM
If someone is able to convince enough people to join their guild, level it up over time -- probably to level 25 where contributions really start to add up -- do dungeons and raids together for guild cash, and eventually abandon all of that for a few thousand gold, you're looking at a real sociopath. I don't think a design is flawed because of the tiny chance of that type of scenario happening. :)
Shinae May 25th 2011 11:45AM
I'd rather a (sociopathic) guild leader run off with gold that was never mine to begin with, that is, generated via Cash Flow, than with gold that I (and others) deposited, that is, the only way that there was gold in a guild bank before guild perks & challenges.
(cutaia) May 25th 2011 11:57AM
Shinae makes a great point, too. Before the perk, all gold did indeed come directly from the pockets of guild members. Guild bank clearing has always been an option, so if anything, Cash Flow discourages members from contributing their own funds, and in a way, protects them from being robbed of their own personal gold.
Noyou May 25th 2011 4:50PM
I think it is OK. As far as anyone running off with the money a guild gets with it? LOL it's far less per week than even one day of guild repairs. Try running a guild sometime and see how much of your own money you will need to put in it. ;)
Valadeloran May 25th 2011 11:26AM
I have been playing a fair amount since this expansion came out and I have yet to get the achievement for Deathwing killing me. I have seen the sky change while I was questing as an alt and saw Deathwing enter the zone. It was near the dark portal so I logged off switched to my main (mage) ported to Stormwind and used the portal there to get to the dark portal, but there was no sign of him... or any damage he caused.
My question is once he is in a zone how long is he there for?
Shinae May 25th 2011 11:36AM
Despite playing quite a bit since the expansion, I only just got my first "Stood in Fire" a few days ago. It was while flying in the Wetlands, doing archaeology. His fire lasted maybe 2 or 3 minutes, tops. The fire doesn't cover the whole zone, either.
Jack Mynock May 25th 2011 12:08PM
Also if Deathwing has entered your zone but missed you, you can try to find out where he was exactly. If you can get there quickly enough, you can jump into a fire and get the achievement even after Deathwing is gone.