The Queue: Firelands FAQ
by Mathew McCurley 
Jun 28th 2011 at 11:00AM
It's patch day, and with patch days come many questions. Luckily for you, we've gathered some of the most frequently asked questions about Rage of the Firelands in this handy, Queue-sized guide, so that you can embark on your patch day shenanigans without a worry in the world. Well, unless you happen to be on a PVP server; in that case, have fun doing your dailies.
With the extended maintenance and hints to read the patch notes, Blizzard looks to be setting us up for a fiery Tuesday. There's a lot of fire in our future. I know that it is too soon (ha ha, get it?) to start thinking about what's coming next before we've even sunk our teeth into this new stuff, but I have a feeling that after three to four months of lots of fire, whatever is coming down the pike is going to need a hint of refreshment and a fire-lite motif. Nonetheless, I am excited for all of this new content.
Follow along below for the answers to some of the most common questions about patch 4.2 and all it entails.
What's going to happen to my valor points?
All valor points will be converted into justice points. The justice point cap, however, remains at 4,000 points. So you'll be give justice points up to the cap. If you have any valor points left over, they will be converted into currency at a rate of 47 silver per point.
Let's say you have 3,000 justice points and 1,100 valor points. Since you cannot get over 4,000 justice points, 1,000 of your valor points will be turned into justice points, and 100 will be turned into 47 silver per point.
Do I need to be attuned to the new raid instance?
No. The Firelands is immediately accessible by heading to the Sulfuron Spire in Hyjal. Grab nine or 24 of your bestest friends and head in to punch new bosses in their loot bags.
Where do I go to start the new daily quests?
The new daily quests that open up the Regrowth and the Molten Front are available at the Shrine of Malorne in the southwest portion of Hyjal.
What quest do I have to complete to open up the new dailies in Hyjal?
In order to access these new quests, you will need to have completed up to and including the quest Aessina's Miracle, in which the ancient Aessina quenches the fires consuming the western forests of Hyjal. After you complete this quest, you should be able to access the new content at the Sanctuary of Malorne.
There're only like 4 or 5 quests at the new hub! How do I get more?
You start at the Sanctuary of Malorne and have a few quests a day until you get 20 Marks of the World Tree, the new personal currency you accumulate by completing these new dailies. After 20 of them, which is a few days of dailies, you head into the Firelands and the Molten Front proper. Keep doing dailies for more Marks of the World Tree.
How do I get started on the legendary quest chain?
Players must first kill a Molten Lord inside of the Firelands or have completed any one of the achievements for the previous raid tier (clear Bastion of Twilight, Throne of the Four Winds, or Blackwing Descent) to open up the beginning quest for Dragonwrath, which sends you back to your capital city and onward to the Bronze Dragonflight.
Are there any new factions to gain rep with?
Raiders will be able to gain reputation with the Avengers of Hyjal. Reputation will be capped out early with trash kills in the instance, so many boss kills will likely be needed to reach exalted with the faction.
What are crystallized firestones, and why are people so excited about them?
Crystallized firestones are items that drop from heroic mode bosses in the Firelands and allow you to create heroic versions of items that never had heroic equivalents. For instance, items you purchase from the valor points vendors now have a heroic version that you can purchase with the regular item plus a firestone. This is great for relics, tanking guns, and other slot items that have trouble being put on loot lists because of their relatively class-specific nature.
Has the amount of hit rating gone up for bosses?
No. Blizzard originally was tossing around the idea to increase the hit rating needed to hit cap on the new bosses, but this is not the tier that that is happening. Perhaps next tier. Right now, hit ratings are staying the same.
What's the deal with all the hunter "taming challenges"?
Patch 4.2 is introducing 10 new pets for hunters to tame, including lava spiders, an obsidian cat, a metallic crab, a ghost owl, and more. Each potential tame has a gimmick or vulnerability that must be exploited before the hunter can tame the beast. These new unique taming challenges are scattered around the Regrowth and the Molten Front daily questing hubs.
Any 5-man content?
There are no new 5-man dungeons coming with patch 4.2. You can still get valor points from doing your seven weekly random Zandalari and heroic dungeons.
Does the new arena season start tomorrow?
No. The new arena and PVP season begins usually one week after the current season ends. After Season 9 ends, the numbers will be crunched and rewards will be given out, including titles and drakes, to the winners of the PVP season. This usually takes about a week. Once that is all done, PVP Season 10 will start up.
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!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 12)
Starlin Jun 28th 2011 11:05AM
Is there any stage of the legendary staff that is obtainable without hosing the progress of the main pursuer?
Aritra Jun 28th 2011 11:20AM
The first step (iLv 378) should be attainable. It still required three sands of time and 25 loving embers though.
The step after needs the fragments that drop from bosses and the final one needs a drop from ragnaros from what I understood.
SR Jun 28th 2011 11:31AM
See, the collectible mats for Shadowmourne had Primordial Saronite, and all they did was whisper dark things in your ears.
Now, we get Loving Embers. It's like a Weighted Companion Cube.
And we can collect 25 of them.
loop_not_defined Jun 28th 2011 11:36AM
LOL, loving embers. Sorry, don't mean to derail.
That's some tough love, though.
Grak Jun 28th 2011 11:37AM
"It still required three sands of time and 25 loving embers though."
Staff of loving embers? sounds.. exciting
Aritra Jun 28th 2011 11:41AM
Hehe yeah oops typo. Living Embers of course ;)
SR Jun 28th 2011 11:41AM
The staff will (literally) love you to death.
dfgreat1 Jun 28th 2011 11:44AM
Love hurts!
Revynn Jun 28th 2011 12:02PM
The staff no longer requires Living (or Loving) Embers, the Primordial Saronite-esque mats that are also required for all the new crafting recipes. Instead it now requires Eternal Embers. These are listed as a quest item on Wowhead and presumably drop from bosses.
Grovinofdarkhour Jun 28th 2011 1:08PM
25 loving members?
So Firelands is gonna be THAT kind of party...
Trisnic Jun 28th 2011 1:23PM
In response to Grovinofdarkhour you will need 25 loving members if you're going to make this into a legendary in a 25 man raid. :)
AudreyR Jun 28th 2011 1:35PM
@Grovin. Yep. So the pet warlocks will want to bring is the Succubus.
On some encounters, you can only use rose off-hands.
As you progress, you lose pieces of gear, so make sure to wear your clean undies.
Helston Jun 28th 2011 8:24PM
@Grovin
HOT.
Ryan Jun 28th 2011 11:08AM
Here's a burning question:
Where can I download the patch from?
I know the standard answer will be the Blizzard Downloader, but it is always a painful experience. Any mention of FTP Mirriors? With my sad slow internet connection I need the head start for EU tomorrow.
Grak Jun 28th 2011 11:40AM
Nothing has shown up on the usual patch mirrors yet. Its only about 500mb apparently, so not too painful.
SR Jun 28th 2011 11:09AM
Go away, you oaf.
Ithrandil Jun 28th 2011 11:10AM
Whenever anyone describes the Emerald Dream, they say it's the world as it would exist without sentient races mucking about with it. And yet in every instance we enter the Dream in-game, there's still all the architecture from sentient races (usually Night Elf). Whether it's the elven torii arches in moonglade for the Crusader Bridenbrand chain or the entirety of a druid barrow den to escort Fandral Staghelm through, there's crafted objects everywhere. In the War of the Ancients trilogy, Malfurion even spies on the real world directly from the Dream, not just walking through the buildings but actually looking in on the Highborne and affecting them as they work on the portal for the Burning Legion. There's a heck of a lot of man/elf-made objects in this world that is supposedly untouched by the mortal races, and without the novels I'd have just assumed it was the dev team not wanting to remake an entire area just to remove these objects.
Also, while on the War of the Ancients, in the novels Krasus is SEVERELY weakened by being in the same time as another version of himself and is only relatively healthy when in close proximity to his other self. Yet in all the Caverns of Time instances you are not at all weakened, even though the players would amost certainly have existed for many of those events. Even outside of the instances, when doing the quests for Chromie in Dragonblight, even though you are close to your future/past self there is no weakening or mention of any ill effect. Is there any lore reason for thisproblem not affecting the players, or is it just a Knaack invention in the first place that the Blizzard team just kinda ignores?
Gossamer Jun 28th 2011 11:40AM
Would the explanation "A wizard did it" suffice for you question regarding Krasus?
Or maybe a dragon? I'd think that since for nearly all of the CoT instances we were sent there by the bronze dragon flight. (And who knows, maybe they were just watching from the shadows in Hyjal) I'd think working with the flight that meddle with time might give us some protection, protection Krasus was lacking because of the state Nozdormu was in at the time.
theRaptor Jun 28th 2011 11:46AM
Never try and unite book canon and game canon. For anything. Ever.
Very few writers are good at game genre writing (ie actually reading the existing canon and making new stuff fit with in it smoothly). Especially as the people who normally do game genre writing failed in the "real world" of Serious Literature™.
Ilmyrn Jun 28th 2011 11:51AM
It's been a while since I've read War of the Ancients (And I've never read whichever book it was that featured Varian beating up bad dreams), but it seems to me that a fairly reasonable explanation would be that there are multiple 'levels' on the way to the Emerald Dream; that we players have only been sent to a fairly low level of it, one that is essentially the world as it is, but cut off from the real world and inundated with Emerald Dream energies. This would be something similar to, but different from, the Dream that hibernating druids walk.
It also kind of makes sense for the Barrow Dens to there. After all, the druids need somewhere to pop into the Dream. Sure would suck to go into hibernation and be buried alive for however many millennia you set the alarm clock for.