The Queue: How I do
by Michael Sacco 
May 29th 2011 at 12:00PM
If you've never thought following a Russian ebook-advertising bot pretending to be human on Twitter could be fun, well, clearly you've never met horse_ebooks.
Sirn asked:
Question - how is hit scaling going to work in firelands? I have a vague memory of blizzard mentioning they want the higher level raids to potentially require more hit.
We know that making more hit necessary as tiers progressed was a goal for Cataclysm, but we haven't heard anything about it for a while. It hasn't made an appearance in the UI on the patch 4.2 PTR, either, as far as I'm aware. At this point, I'm not sure if the design is still in place. We'll have to wait for patch day (or word from Blizzard).
Earthexile asked:
It seems to me that magic resistance is sort of a lame or unhelpful stat to have. I recall reading somewhere that we won't need to stack fire resist in the Firelands, which if true, makes me wonder why have it in the first place?
Do you think the resistance system is viable, or should it be revamped or even removed? It just doesn't seem to make that much of a difference.
It does make a difference. It's the kind of thing that might save you in a pinch, which resistance buffs will periodically do. But it isn't worth stacking, because at some point, your DPS or mitigation or healing throughput is going to be so hampered by doing so that you might as well not have bothered.
Back in the Molten Core days, losing some of that stuff didn't really matter as much because gear was itemized so badly and specs were such a mess that it was all right to stack resist (at least to a point). Now we rely on "good" stats -- that is, something that helps you perform your role better -- too much to stack defensive ones. Even if you're a tank, stacking resistance means losing out on other mitigation or avoidance, which are a much higher priority (and useful on every boss).
If it's just a buff, though? I'd rather have it than not have it.
moreau.derek asked:
Question: Is the WoW Insider meetup for Blizzcon going to be on Thursday night again? I'm trying to figure out my plans for that weekend and don't want to accidentally schedule something at the same time as the meetup!
Yep, that's the plan. Thursday night.
Minstrel asked:
Once the current valor point gear becomes available for justice points, will the current ilevel 346 justice point gear still be available? As a related question, will they still cost the same or be adjusted in price relative to the "new" ilevel 359 justice point gear?
I assume the current JP gear will remain available for JP, but if it's known one way or the other, I'd be interested. When gearing an alt in 4.2, the current VP gear doesn't fill all slots, so being able to cover other slots with the current JP gear would be nice.
Yes, the current 346 gear will remain available on the JP vendor. The prices haven't changed yet on the PTR, but they may before the patch goes live.
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 1 of 6)
alzeer May 29th 2011 12:17PM
Q: do you think warcraft4 will be out in wow lifetime?
and how would it work exactly?, other games that deals with same problem like linege 1&2 everquest 1 & 2 separate timeline with hundreds of years to give the original game team freedom to write but i dont think that would work here
Darky May 29th 2011 12:22PM
It's possible it could be pre warcraft 1.
Thomas Higgins May 29th 2011 12:31PM
They could probably set it far in the future but folks would point and giggle and say "that looks like Starcraft" or "that looks like Warhammer 40K". I think personally for any RTS from Blizzard to succeed that it cannot look like any of their previous games at all. No Alliance, no Horde. Completely new races that do not fit any of the current archetypes in any way, shape or form.
I think once Blizz has finished with World of Warcraft, and that will come one day sooner or later, they will abandon everything that we know them for and that means no Warcraft 4.
We are already playing something like that anyway with Cataclysm.
Amanda A. May 29th 2011 12:34PM
If it does, I would imagine that either it would come out between expansions-- the fourth expansion is before WC4, the fifth jumps to after the events, leaving non-RTS players in the dust. It would be rather cool, I think, if the game is concurrent with an expansion, and the two are linked. The MMO tells the story from the PoV of a single hero for that expansion, the RTS tells the same story from the canonical characters' viewpoint. (I think this would work well for the Army of Light expansion they've been hinting at with Velen.)
The problem is, they'd have to release or unlock the RTS missions over a year to a year and a half, to coincide with the progression of WoW's endgame, which doesn't fit what your normally get in a RTS.
MusedMoose May 29th 2011 12:37PM
Here's how I see it: Blizzard would have to plan things out very carefully, so that WarCraft IV is released 3-4 months before a WoW expansion. The new expansion takes place after the events of WC4. That way, people have time to play through the new game, see the new storylines, and so on, and then the game can move on to whatever's next.
Considering Blizzard's "when it's done" approach to releasing games, like I said, this would take a lot of planning on their part. But I think they could pull it off.
Mr. Crow May 29th 2011 12:59PM
I really don't see a Warcraft IV in the cards. Warcraft 3 really ended up playing out like a fusion of RTS (which Blizzard has Starcraft for) and small-party hero-based hack-n-slash (which Blizzard has Diablo for). There's really no place for a Warcraft RTS unless you want to make a product that competes with Starcraft, and I don't think Blizzard has any desire to do that.
While yes, it would be cool to do some cross-genre stuff, where you've got a Warcraft RTS that plays a role in the WoW storyline, I don't think the promise of that is enough to justify the game itself. The GAME has to be important, not just where it links into another game.
Warcraft as an IP has evolved from an RTS series into an MMO. To go back to RTS now would be counterintuitive.
relmatos May 29th 2011 1:34PM
I'm guessing that we wont be seeing a new Warcraft game any time soon.
Blizzard is in the process of releasing Starcraft(good move selling 1/3 of the game at a time). So they probably will not worry about Warcraft RTS any time soon.
If they did, I'd think that the most probable idea, as stated, would be some event that hasnt been exploited(and I dont say it in a bad way) in the past.
If it were set in the present, they'd probably make WoW follow it's story, one game complementing the other similar to what was done with the Matrix where the game showed one side of the story that was talked about in the movies.
I don't believe they'd set it in the future because then there'd be a lot less suspense to WoW since we'd know who lived and who died.
linkers746 May 29th 2011 1:45PM
I feel like if Blizz wanted to make another Warcraft rts, (and I sure as hell hope they do) they could simply remake Warcraft 1 and 2 into a new game, with better graphics and and updated-with-canon storyline. They could call it Warcraft Genesis, or Warcraft Legacy, something along those lines.
Nawaf May 29th 2011 2:01PM
I think the only way to go with the Warcraft universe is to release Warcraft 4, then release WoW2. The story develops much faster and in a much more drastic way in an RTS. I believe WoW can't go on for more than two more expansions. 2 more expansions mean 4 years plus one and a half year for cata. That's 5 more years. By then, WoW will be too outdated. They need to refresh it completely (even more than Cataclysm).
New lore, new game engine, new graphics, not repeating their past mistakes (they're experienced now). This is exactly what WoW needs.
WC4 should be released before WoW2 so that there would be drastic changes from WoW to WoW2. Maybe we'd even get different races in each faction, like the forsaken finally leaving the Horde.
Mr. Crow May 29th 2011 2:07PM
@linkers746:
A Warcraft 1/2/2X remake would be an interesting way to rectify all the canon problems of those games with the WoW storyline. In addition, it would possibly give us more opportunities to show what's going on with races who didn't show up in the First/Second war. What was going on in Kalimdor? What were the gnomes up to?
Blizzard's never done a remix of one of their own games before though, so unless there was a really awesome reason to go back and update the pre-WC3 games, I don't think they would do it.
Q for the Queue, though: Why can't you buy Warcraft: Orcs & Humans anymore? Seems odd they wouldn't include it in the Battle Chest.
Rottingrat May 29th 2011 2:27PM
In my opinion, the only way to do it is to make the RTS tell the story of WoW up to dat in RTS form. So basically you'd tell the story Molten core, Zul'Gurub, Blackwing lair, Black temple, Karazhan, Naxxarmas, Etc. from a larger point of view. I don't know how that would work out in practise, but knowing blizzard, it would be somewhere between quite good to super awesome.
Strawder May 29th 2011 2:50PM
@NAWAF
Very much this.
There is alot going on in the WoW storyline that needs a clean end right now (factions most definitely).
I think Warcraft 4 inbetween WoW and WoW-2 would awesomely take care of the problems present in the storyline that cannot be fixed by just releasing another expansion.
It would also allow for some amazing changes that have kind of been in the cards all along, such as the Forsaken founding their own faction, either under Sylvanas, or under a new leader if Sylvanas is destroyed in WC4 (perhaps her sister, freshly undead, hey, could happen). Or perhaps the Forsaken would just be kicked out of the Horde for all the dag-nasty stuff they've been up to since the end of Wrath.
And hey, maybe the Tauren are now an Alliance race? Maybe due to the way, you know, Garrosh murdered Cairne? The labeling of races of the Horde as "unpure"? Pretty much going against the Tauren beliefs in a way Thrall never did?
Crazy you say, well did you know that originally, Goblins were going to be an Alliance race, but they decided against it due to the Goblins' neutrality, and instead created the Gnomes to take up the mantle of pint-size comic relief for the Alliance? Imagine that, huh.... Alliance Goblins.
And now that the Blood Elves are free of mind control (so to speak) and brain washing, perhaps they may mend ties with the Alliance?
And what about Moira? Where do her loyalties lie? What could she possibly do down the road? She respects control, she prizes power and she's definitely not her father. Perhaps Ironforge would fall to the Horde through the betrayal of Moira?
There's so many things going on right now, and so many different avenues that the WC universe could take, that just can't be done in the time span that the MMO requires to slowly roll forward. And just making WoW 2 would prevent them having to reinvent an existing game world like they did (not too terribly completely) with Vanilla WoW's Azeroth. Everything could be made new, made the way they want it, and it could all be amazing and fresh again, while keeping the familiar feel, style and warmth of the original WoW.
Perhaps Stormwind lies in ruins and the Humans have moved North and rebuilt Stromgarde and taken control again of Hillsbrad? Maybe the elemental devastation has continued with aftershocks and other things and places like Silithus rest at the bottom of the ocean? Maybe the new Forsaken faction's capital is what was once Tyr's Hand, and the Death Knight's floating citadel lies crashed into the side of the mountains there? Even better, what if the new Forsaken faction made its capital in Stratholme??? The Western Plaguelands, now a dense forest growing over the remains of the humans which once filled it, while the Eastern Plaguelands have become a complete hell on earth.
There's just so many possible avenues to explore. So many different paths, and this could be presented very quickly and deftly in the story campaigns of an RTS, versus the slow nature of an MMO.
icepyro May 29th 2011 6:32PM
@Strawder
So... the Horde breaks up because bad guys always get greedy and selfish and push each other out. The better parts join the Alliance because the good guys always cooperate and are forgiving and know that teamwork can defeat all evil.
Moira may rebel, but if she did, she would just be kicked to the curb like Dark Irons before. One thing about Dwarves, they will never side Horde.
So, by your example, in "WoW2" (which likely won't happen because Blizz is already working on titan) The Alliance is every race except the Orcs, Trolls, and Forsaken, which are each their own faction. Yeah, that's a well balanced game.
There is a lot of room that an RTS could improve upon. I just really think Blizz will be moving on so a Warcraft 4 will probably be all the end story (that final battle between good/evil that velen keeps talking about) and call a close to the franchise then.
kaminari May 29th 2011 8:21PM
you could make an expedition to the emerald dream, or to take back legion worlds, that way you don't have to change much in azeroth to link WOW to warcraft 4, also you could change unused zones (Arathi Highlands I'm looking at you) and/or make a new battleground to link it even more if you like.
I'd love to be able to use my characters as a hero unit in the campaigns and i think multiplayer games with some players controlling rts bases while others control their characters as hero units would be extremely fun.
it would only be horde and alliance, units would be multiracial and it would be with similar units more like warcraft1 and 2 to reflect azeroth
Scotepi May 30th 2011 3:10PM
I would love to see Warcraft 4 as a recap, lore and major event wise of WoW. It could serve as a good basis to get people up to speed on what is happening in WoW as both Aliance and Horde.
If they wanted to milk it they could to Vanilla/BC as the base game and add expansions to coincide with WoW like when Cata is over release the RTS version. Or to DLC for each minor WoW patch.
That would also allow them to reuse lore and assets.
Stella May 29th 2011 12:20PM
Is there a good list of AP and SP co-efficients somewhere? The one at Wowpedia is horribly outdated and EJ only has it for a few specs.
Konata May 29th 2011 3:16PM
DrDamage tooltip addon shows the SP/AP coefficients for most of the abilities in the game. Just need to mouseover the spell on your bars.
Sterb May 29th 2011 6:23PM
If there's a decent one EJ will have it, if not, it's because the relative worth fluctuates based on the gear you already have and static estimations aren't sufficient. If you care that much about the relative values, get Simcraft, Rawr, or one of the tools listed at EJ.
Darky May 29th 2011 12:21PM
This post shows how I don't.
DeathPaladin May 29th 2011 2:06PM
This post shows how Candlejack d