Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: July 4
by Alex Ziebart 
Jul 4th 2011 at 12:00PM
Last night, I finally had a solid Zul'Gurub group -- the very first one since patch 4.1. Now that I've been able to topple the place in a good, solid group that was willing to take its time and actually experience the instance, I have to give props to Blizzard for the amount of effort it put into the zone. All of the little optional mobs and bosses are very cool, and it felt a little like classic WoW again. You are actually rewarded for exploring and doing more than going from Boss A to Boss B.
I know I tend to rail on how dry WoW instances tend to feel nowadays, so I felt I should give Blizzard a high-five for the work the developers put into this one. Good job, team.
raingod asked:
I've noticed since Firelands dropped my queue time wait looking for a group has dropped considerably for regular dungeons. I mean from 10-20 min (I'm dps) to under 5. Have they tweaked this or have I gotten very lucky this week?
Since it's a new tier of raiding, players need valor points for gear again. Queue times will be good for a few weeks, maybe a month or two, and then I expect them to drop off again. As soon as players have purchased all that they need from their valor points or they can get all of their valor points for the week from Firelands and such, they won't have any need to queue anymore.
Enjoy your awesome queue times while they last.
Dennis asked:
My heirlooms say bind on battle.net account. Is there a way to send them to an alt on another server?
Not currently, no. Well, I think you can do a paid character transfer, but that's a little extreme. Blizzard has mentioned that it wants to make it possible to send your heirlooms to other servers, but it's not something that has been implemented yet.
Yvl asked:
How do you guys keep your cool even through the stupidest of questions?
The cliché answer to that is that there are no stupid questions. We have readers that are seasoned raiding vets who have been around since 2004 and have killed every single raid boss in the game. We also have readers who started the game within the last 24-48 hours and can get lost in Northshire Abbey. There's room for all sorts of players in World of Warcraft, and we legitimately enjoy being able to help all of those sorts of people.
There are, of course, plenty of questions that are just people trolling or being jerks. The ability to roll with that and let it slide off your back just comes naturally when you've been doing this kind of job for years. And if you don't have that sort of capability, you shouldn't have this sort of job. It's the internet, after all. I don't think anybody has managed to actually make me angry in years, and good lord, have people tried.
Tat asked:
In the Thrall Questline in patch 4.2 I find it annoying that when Thrall gets taken away by the Druid of the flame while the following are powerless to stop it: The Aspects, Malfurion and us. What are your thoughts???
Blizzard tends to overuse the "plot stun" in its cutscenes. When the developers want to give someone a chance to monologue, they just lock everybody in an unbreakable stun, extremely powerful NPCs included. Yes, it does give that NPC a chance to speak their dialogue unimpeded, but it feels very not-good to players and doesn't make a lot of sense when looking at the relative power levels of various NPCs.
Maybe development time doesn't allow for it, but I personally would have liked the Flame Druids to show up in force with Ragnaros's crew. The Aspects would be busy fighting them off in the background while Fandral made off with Thrall. You could still get a front row seat to what was going on, but it would explain what the heck all the other powerful people there were doing while Fandral spoke his lines.
It felt double-bad because it wasn't the only time the devs used a plot stun in this patch. They do it to you when you meet Leyara, too.
Teryn asked:
Since it's another BBQ holiday in the States, can you give us another side dish recipe Alex?
Sure. Buy a bunch of tomatoes -- it doesn't matter what kind as long as they're good and ripe. Slice. Salt or pepper if desired. Devour.
Simple!
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 3 of 8)
Knob Jul 4th 2011 12:26PM
This is the biggest problem with having Abyssal Maw scrapped. I imagine the original plan was to have both Firelands and the Abyssal Maw have specific dailies attached to them and players wouldn't be "left out" if they had quested 80-82 in the other zone, but with only Firelands available, there's absolutely no reason for any fresh level 80 to quest in Vashj'ir on the way to 85.
Wolftech Jul 4th 2011 12:42PM
@knob - except for rep, gold and gear... no reason at all...
Greg Jul 4th 2011 12:47PM
I'm curious because playing on a pvp server means I'm likely to choose the one in which the fewest 85s will be questing/milling about.
Samuel Jul 4th 2011 1:17PM
I would be shocked if Hyjal was not the vastly more populated zone on any server.
blancester Jul 4th 2011 1:20PM
@Greg, the 85s should only be in phased parts of Hyjal. But to be safe, then sorry go do Vashj'ir.
RainbowMagicMarker Jul 4th 2011 12:25PM
Hello Queue, I've got a question that's been bugging me.
In the quests with Thrall you've got the Dragon Aspects all standing in a nice circle there, including Nozdormu. Now is it just me or hasn't he been missing for awhile now? As in not even his Dragonflight had any idea where he was? And now he's suddenly back with no real explanation given? Did I somehow miss something here?
-Zeyleen
Knob Jul 4th 2011 12:27PM
Unfortunately, no. There has been no explanation, either in-game or out-of-game. I imagine if the Aspects asked Nozdormu where he was all this time, he'd just go "What do you mean, where I was? I was right here, I always have been."
Ilmyrn Jul 4th 2011 12:54PM
He'd probably make some sort of annoying time based pun too.
Just look at him, you KNOW he does that constantly.
Ace Jul 4th 2011 1:35PM
Exactly what I thought when I saw him. I was mousing over him to see who was going to represent the bronze dragonflight, taking for granted the fact that he was MIA and always has been.
Was very surprised and puzzled to see him standing there.
A wizard did it...?
CannedMeat Jul 4th 2011 1:49PM
He was waiting for the art department to finish his model.
kaminari Jul 4th 2011 1:59PM
it's not where he was, it's when he was.
I'm sure he appears and disappear a lot.
Skarn Jul 4th 2011 2:35PM
They found him at the Bronze Dragonshrine in Dragonblight in Wrath!
...kinda.
...sorta.
Pumabackup Jul 4th 2011 12:25PM
YES, to the tomatoes. a nice big red tomato with liberal amounts of salt is amazing. they're even better if chilled for a few hours prior to slicing, and eaten immediately.
and as for the plot stun lock, i noticed that the druids accompanying fandral seemed to be doing some kind of group channel spell. seemed to me that the combined power of several already powerful druids who have been personally endowed with power by the firelord himself could possibly be able to stun even malfurion and the aspects for at least enough time to do the job and get out. and never underestimate the power of surprise.
kraddrol Jul 4th 2011 12:46PM
NOBODY expects the Firelands Inquisition! Our chief element is surprise! Surprise and fear! Fear and surprise! Our TWO main elements are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...our THREE main elements are fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to Ragnaros...our FOUR...no. Amongst our weapons....our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise...
I'll just come in again.
bjorn9486 Jul 4th 2011 12:31PM
Question for the Que:
Is there a way to change your account so you have to input your authenticator code every time you log in? It just made me feel better about my account security when I had to do it.
Necromann Jul 4th 2011 12:59PM
As far a I know, there is not. I felt better when I had to put it in also. Making it an option would help people who share their account with a child and use the authenticator to limit play time of said child.
Chris Gonzalez Jul 4th 2011 1:00PM
Not as of yet, but the CSR peoples have said that they've passed the idea of an opt-out ability on to the Dev's. At least, that's what I heard Anne Stickney say. No word on if it'll actually happen, though.
Spark Jul 4th 2011 1:55PM
-----
bjorn9486 Jul 4th 2011 12:31PM
Is there a way to change your account so you have to input your authenticator code every time you log in? It just made me feel better about my account security when I had to do it.
-----
There's been reports that mucking about with a registry key will alter behavior. Honestly, I haven't toyed with this myself. But I'm warming up to the idea. As with all registry edits, be careful - bad edits break stuff. If you're still keen to pursue it, search around for authenticator registry edit. The key in question is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Battle.net\Authenticator
Some claim deleting the key works. Others say that the key is re-created. I've seen another set of instructions that alter the key and then alter permissions so that the WoW client can't edit the key again.
Prissa Jul 4th 2011 5:42PM
Well it's probably not what you meant, but there is a way to force it to happen. I've been having issues with my internet lately and the connection drops all the time. Every time it comes back and I log into wow, it asks for the authenticator. So, you could quickly reset your net connection every time you wanted to log in... :S
Nathanyel Jul 5th 2011 5:06PM
There is a way: reset your IP (depending on your provider, but usually unplugging your modem/router for a moment should trigger this) every time before you log in. That way you have not just one, but two strenuous activities before you can play. :)
If you're okay with just entering the authenticator code once a day, most routers can be set up to reconnect every night instead of keeping the connection, which should also reset your IP (see above)