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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe 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 12 of 12)
Fataliaa Jun 28th 2011 6:27PM
Q for Q... at which moment are addons loaded? e.g. if I update an addon while at the login screen, will it take it or do I need to restart the game completely?
scherbaddie Jun 29th 2011 1:07AM
Addons are scanned when starting the game client and loaded after the character login screen, or whenever the ui is reloaded.
If you install a new addon, you need to close and reopen the game.
If you update an existing addon, you just need to type "/reload ui" (or simply click login, in your specific case) and it should use the updated version.
erik Jun 28th 2011 9:14PM
Thank you for your help ! Found it and now Trall is free.
Jesse Hudson Jun 28th 2011 8:45PM
What's a good website that shows which secondary stats are best for each class/spec?
I have a lot of alts so I can never remember what's best for every spec, so having a chart I could glance at would help out a lot. Thanks!
Skarn Jun 28th 2011 10:31PM
Wow.
Quite a request. Your best shot is gonna be Wowpedia. Such a request is a pretty tall order though. Exactly how each secondary stat works within each spec is tricky business.
scherbaddie Jun 29th 2011 1:12AM
Why don't you just AskMrRobot(.com)?
The gear optimiser has stat weights for each spec if all you need is a general overview (of stat weights for a raid-boss encounter for a level 85 character) and I believe they keep it reasonably up to date.
MattKrotzer Jun 29th 2011 8:29AM
Also, the official WoW class forums always have some solid guides for whatever spec you're looking for.
But AskMrRobot is a great resource for most classes and specs, if you're trying to optimize your reforges and enchants.
kaminari Jun 28th 2011 8:22PM
I'd argue that all raids ended as stated in the game after we cleared them but neff and KT disagreed, so Q4Q/KYL:
what happened in old raids? (who did we kill, who is still up?)
as far as i can tell in MC we just sent ragnaros back home, Varian killed Onyxia, in ZG we stoped the summoning of hakkar in ZG but we didn't kill neff, we just cleard up to his terrace and KT and naxx were finally defeated in northrend.
We defeated kael and he moved to QD, and the sunwell was restored.
did we stop lady vashj and the draining of zangarmarsh? did maiev killed illidan? can we expect to see grul again? is kara still hunted?
we stopped yoggy and algalon in ulduar, had a renaisance festival and killed arthas.
did i missed something or did i get some wrong?
Skarn Jun 28th 2011 10:36PM
I'm still not sure Nef isn't an undead dragon. Lore surrounding Blackwing Descent is, alas, lacking.
Kel'thuzad was defeated in 40-Naxx. His phylactery was taken by Father Inigo Montoy and used to resurrect Kel'thuzad. As a reward, Montoy became the lich Thel'zan the Duskbringer.
Given that Nef may well be undead, I think all the raid bosses were beaten.
kaminari Jun 29th 2011 1:03AM
I did miss something then =x, if neff is indeed an undead dragon it's quite possible all raid bosses are dead after all, however if he's not it still give a breathing room to my tfh theory that some raid bosses are still around =P, I would love to know what's up with neff.
ty for pointing it out =)
scherbaddie Jun 29th 2011 1:18AM
Wowpedia's Nefarian page:
Nefarian in Blackwing Descent
After his death in Blackwing Lair, Nefarian was reanimated and charged by Deathwing to continue his insidious endeavours within Blackwing Descent.[9]
It even has a reference, yay!
Dboy Jun 28th 2011 8:23PM
Q for the Q:
What level do I have to be to do a wargame?
If it's any level, does this mean that a bunch of friends who don't own WoW can fire it up at a LAN, get to level 20 (with the new free sign up) and then have a blast doing battlegrounds together?
undeadgoat Jun 28th 2011 11:47PM
So this is not patch-related, just related to my game play tonight--how do you actually get good at WoW? I'm a total n00b, not much of a gamer in general, a lot of my play time is with my bf and our private (family) guild but I am a total achievement hound so sometimes when I am running around questing or doing dailies I'll also queue for a random dungeon. So, on my main, a fire mage created about a month ago, I'm level 32. And in today's random dungeon, which from my perspective seemed to be the usual PUG fuckfest where whole rooms are pulled at once and random mobs attack the healer, party chat critiques are not "You're not holding aggro" or "WTF you pulled something you DPS" but instead there's some very open discussion of how I'm such a total n00b and should be kicked, which let me tell you hurts about a fuck ton more than actually being kicked. (I considered leaving the dungeon without leaving the party so they'd still have to take the time to hold the vote but then I could still see party chat back in Stranglethorn and I needed it to go away.) But from my perspective, this character is only a month old and she's not my first toon but she's the first one I've run dungeons on and by far the highest level I've reached so a bit of running around like a total n00b (aka "allowing myself the space to be a beginner") seems totally par for the course. I do understand that leveling is much faster than it used to be and that these jackasses were probably leveling their tenth alts but I don't see how I can improve my dungeon skills without running PUGs and I'm afraid I'm too high of a level for my n00b-ness to be tolerated any longer.
scherbaddie Jun 29th 2011 1:40AM
To be blunt, level 32 is not very high and any 'noobness' (especially for a dps) should be made up for by the rest of the party well in to your 60s-70s, so you're definitely not at a point where you're holding the group back.
Regarding your 'how to get better' question, you're on the right track reading sites like this one (especially the Wow Rookie and various class-specific columns).
A site like Elitist Jerks, will have a thread on their mage forum called "How to Fire Mage Cata Edition" or a variation there of, which will detail things like talent-choices and what spells do the most damage (or what 'rotation' will do the most damage). Just keep in mind this is aimed at level 85 players, so you won't have as many talent points or spells to consider (this is good for a new player), so just skip over the bits you don't have access to yet.
Wowpedia.org is a good place to find information on terms you want to know more about. If you're going to run a dungeon you should probably read the first paragraph of the "tank", "threat" and "crowd control" articles, but you seem to already know the basic concepts anyway.
Wowhead.com has a database of every item, quest, npc and spell in the game, another good website for detailed information.
Don't be discouraged by one bad experience in the RDF, use /ignore on the people who you don't want to hear from anymore, and enjoy your nuking from the back, you sissypants mage.
Sinthar Jun 29th 2011 8:26AM
As a mage myself I would suggest this - (assuming you are in a guild)
Ask the raiding mages in guild for advice and help
As the previous poster states you are quite low level so dont be afraid to quest solo and experiment - you will die (we mages are squishy after all) but you will learn.
Read up on various site - elistest jerks is good - but hard to read for beginners.
Things to concentrate on :-
Talent tree - getting you points right in the things that help make a huge difference as opposed to spreading them around
Rotation - learning what is best to fire at who and when
CC - everyone likes a mage who can and will sheep things - and keep them that way
Interupts - essential for a raiding mage to know when and what to interupt (and pvp mage)
Do not concentrate on gear and your current dps YET. These will come with time (and as you level up). Once you hit max level - THEN you will have finished your talents - and know your rotations, and so it will be time to max your dps and obtain more gear.
Understanding how your stats affect your dps is also essential (more int = good, hit to cap, then work out how good haste/crit are for your spec) especially for determining what gear to use for the best results
Lastly communicate with all your pugs - maybe even make a macro to introduce yourself. Tell them you are new (1st toon) and learning - ask for help and directions. If the group derides you from that point before even the first pull - you know they are a load of idiots - so dont worry what they say.
There have been over 12 mages I have taught on my server - all started as noobs (as we ALL did), many ended up as good raiders (through their efforts), and a couple I gave hints and tips to via pugs after the run was over usually.
You can even ask for help over trade - although the chances are you will be flamed by the trolls there you may also be surprised at the people who help.
Simple rules to remember
If you have a tank - let him pull
If you get aggro - STOP dps and run to the tank - even if its through the mob
Conjour a table at the start, and buff without being asked
If you are asked to sheep something - keep it sheeped until the tank pulls it (usually after all non cc'd mobs are dead)
Always have you gear gemed and enchanted with APPROPIATE stuff (ie dont spend 1K on mats to chant a green drop, but dont put agility on your staff either)
You will find certain add ons particularly helpful. Recount/skada, DBM, combustion helper (for fire mages), mage nuggets, etc etc - Wow insider has a regular column you would be best advised to check out.
Other than that - good luck - and have fun :)
Dude Jun 29th 2011 5:19AM
Just when I thought I got out, they reel me back in with unlimited trial account. Nooooo. Oh well, it isn't that bad. Even if I'll be Goldshire camped. The agony, the agony!
Zhadok Jun 29th 2011 5:23AM
I just saw the cinematic where Thrall gets "killed" in the meeting with the aspects. My question is, why are the aspects just standing there? Why aren't they helping Thrall?
lawrenurst Jul 16th 2011 2:31AM
My dad wastes time on managing the details of his patients and the patients waiting in the queue have to wait longer, so I want a solution for it. So that my dad’s workload gets reduced.
http://aquascoop.net