The Queue: Burly mountain men and Amazons

Seriously, what happened to the awesome night elves of Warcraft 3? I think all the problems started when night elf males couldn't have kickin' wizard beards (a deficit found in nearly all playable non-dwarf races).
Eviljiggy asked:
I want to get the achievement "Stood in the Fire" before it goes away once someone kills Deathwing on my realm, probably in a patch or 2. However, I'm never ever in the right area he barbeques. Is there any Add-on or chat channel or anything of the sort to track what zone he's in or going to?
Unfortunately, the zone selection appears to be totally random, and there's not really enough time to get to the zone and in range of his breath to get the achievement if you're not already in the area.
d'Avitant asked:
OK, here's one I don't get (inspired by the fact that my post-cata mage has now reached 81, and I had to unlock Vash'jir long enough to get to the Earthen Ring's Quartermaster):
When you start the Vash'jir quest chain, both the Horde and Alliance talk about a major important island that's surfaced off of the coast of Stormwind, more or less on the city's metaphorical doorstep, where a lot of very fierce Horde vs Alliance fighting is taking pace. Players then take a ship out to the site and are almost there when the kraken attacks, and we all end up going for a swim.
Here's the thing: if they're talking about Tol Barad (the site of a lot of fierce Horde vs Alliance fighting), theoretically, Baradin's Wardens have been there for years and years, so there isn't any good way for it to have just surfaced. Also, there's old established villages and keeps on the island. Further, if you look at a map, Tol Barad isn't anywhere near the Stormwind Coast. It's farther north than Ironforge, actually.
Of course, Vash'jir itself is more or less off the coast of Stormwind, but there's basically no major land masses included, just a couple small island's with flight points back to the main land. Worse, there's no island or islands with major interfaction warfare taking place.
So, after all that, my question is this: what island are they talking about when they send you off on what ultimately becomes your watery adventure? I can't come up with an answer that actually makes any sense.
Here's the funny thing: You know that sandbar you see if you fly over Vashj'ir? The one that's about 200 feet from end to end? The only part of that entire region that's above sea level? That's the island you're fighting for. That's right -- the entire Vashj'ir campaign, the bloodshed and anguish, is for a piece of land roughly the size of a traffic median.
War is stupid.
xaandria asked:
So how many great trees are we up to now? We've got Teldrassil, Nordrassil which was gone and is now back, Vordrassil the Fail Tree in that frozen wasteland no one ever goes to anymore...we're growing some kind of tree in our daily quests...they're kind of a dime a dozen, aren't they? What makes Nordrassil so special, or the one we're growing for Mal?
There are three: Nordrassil, Teldrassil, and Vordrassil. There are other "great trees," but those are the only world trees. The one you're growing in Firelands isn't necessarily a world tree -- just a really cool one!
Blackdemon asked:
Do we know what's coming up next patch? If I recall, we knew about the Firelands right from the start (Blizzcon?). And last expansion, Ulduar was known about a while before it released. Do we have any knowledge of what will follow Ragnaros's demise?
The next major content patch is, so far as we know, the War of the Ancients raid. We're due for another new 5-man instance as well, but we're not sure if that'll be before, after, or with the WotA raid.
Farli asked:
What's happening with the WoW Insider weekly podcast? In the past, it's usually been released on a Tuesday, meaning I have something to look forward to while I'm at work or waiting on maintanence to finish. But for the past couple of weeks, it's been pushed back -- RL delays kicking in there, or is the new weekly wrap-up on Fridays being folded in with the general discussion?
As far as I can recall, with the exception of the most recent live show, which took place on a Tuesday, we're been pretty on-time with the show! You're right, though, in that this week's podcast was lost in a catastrophic hard drive failure. It'll be back next week, don't worry!
Slaytanic asked:
It seems most of the world is about to get their first handul of 150 Marks of the Wold Tree. What's on most peple's mind is:
Which way do we go? The Druids of the Talons or the Shadow Wardens? What's the difference?
Both sides have an "extra" quest you can get, so there's no benefit to choosing either one over the other. You just get different quests.
Gridus asked:
What are your thoughts about the location for the upcoming Deathwing raid?
All we know is that it's going to be "tough to get to." Seriously, that's all Blizzard has said about it. Wherever it is, it's going to be big. And filled with pop culture references. And loaded with powerful bosses we've never heard of or seen before.






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
laim Jul 9th 2011 12:01PM
Q for the Q:
Where did the 'Working as intended.' meme come from? I've been seeing it a lot recently in the comments...
Saukylly.
EidlonImp Jul 9th 2011 12:27PM
As far as I know, this predates WoW, going back to EQ, though it only truly flourished in WoW's meme-rich environment.
In short, sometimes something sucks for players, or appears to be a bug. Opening a ticket, though, only earns the response or "working as intended" much to a player's dismay.
For example "no one except druids can solo easy-conning mobs!" "this is working as intended."
"Players have expressed concern over Deathwing occasionally one-shotting entire zones. This is working as intended."
Gordal Jul 9th 2011 1:07PM
Ah, working as intended. Reminds me of this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1873791506503857910
Remember PoM+Pyro three-minute mages? Hilarious game-breaking bugs? When Google actually attempted to compete with YouTube before resorting to buying them out? When Yakkety Sax hadn't been used as the BGM for a thousand and one WoW gameplay movies?
Simpler times.
JoeHelfrich Jul 9th 2011 3:51PM
"Working as intended" has been a programmer's response to bug reports for much longer than MMOs have been around.
Katherine Jul 9th 2011 5:29PM
The only data I've seen indicates that Deathwing's fav zones to set on fire are Uldum and Twilight Highlands. Instead of spending all your time afking or spacebar clowning in Org/SW, set your hearthstone to one of these (Twilight Highlands has a portal back to Org/SW so this may be more useful).
Sally Bowls Jul 9th 2011 6:31PM
This is programmer terminology.
Bad things can be the software not doing what it was designed for ( a/k/a bugs ) or it being poorly designed and the software is conforming to that less-than-desirable design.
Maintenance programmers tend to be allowed to address the former; but should not address the latter, where the software is correctly implementing the perhaps poor specification. The spec should be changed if the current behavior is undesirable.
Quality Assurance teaches that quality is conformance to spec. Endusers tend to misuse the term and lump all sorts of defects (bugs & bad design) together under low quality.
Henri Poincaré Jul 9th 2011 12:12PM
Inspired by today's Around Azeroth: what _are_ Murlocs anyway? Amphibians? I'd say "featherless bipeds" but I think that category is pretty crowded in WoW already. [Extra geek points for identifying the reference]
ugoticedbro Jul 9th 2011 1:59PM
But some murlocs "attempt to run away in fear"
Gordal Jul 9th 2011 1:08PM
Still not close enough to extinction, if you ask me.
aforestdarkly Jul 9th 2011 1:49PM
^ too true!
VioletArrows Jul 9th 2011 2:28PM
They look and sound like they're based off of D&D's Sahuagin, just shorter and brighter. They even worship dark gods and fight with 'sea elves' (aka naga) http://polaqu.wikia.com/wiki/Sahuagin
On that note: I showed my boyfriend WoW's moonkin, his reply: "Why the hell are their owlbears so short, fat, and cuddly looking?"
(He doesn't like WoW.)
Vrykerion Jul 9th 2011 2:42PM
Not Sahuagin. Kuo-toa. :D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuo-toa
kaminari Jul 9th 2011 3:28PM
I think of the murlocks as those things in shadow over Insmouth from H. P. Lovecraft
Dhoum Jul 9th 2011 5:41PM
*Plucks a chicken* "Behold, Plato! I bring you a Man!" Do I get _EXTRA_ extra geek points for answering with an even more obscure reference?
Cyno01 Jul 10th 2011 1:25AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_ones
Nadia Jul 10th 2011 10:09AM
They are more than a fish.
They are than a man.
Death will rise from the tide.
They are Murloc!
Chad Jul 10th 2011 6:23PM
@ Dhoum - a Diogenes reference. That is obscure.
alzeer Jul 9th 2011 12:14PM
i want to speculate about deathwing raid bosses
-dont think we will have any of his family as a boss unless maybe 1 phase of his fight like big family reunion.
-one boss could be related to old gods.
- one really special twilight dragon.
any thoughts?
Ilmyrn Jul 9th 2011 12:29PM
What if the whole raid, every boss in it, was Deathwing? I mean, given his size and the sheer power he has, what if every fight is just whittling him down a bit. Maybe in one fight you're attacking his legs to limit his mobility in the final fight, in another you attack his wings to keep him from flying away when it's time for the killing blow, etc.
Could be interesting.
Henri Poincaré Jul 9th 2011 12:57PM
I think some kind of 'titan installation' could work, culminating with a showdown with Deathwing as the final boss. Why is he there? Could be a number of things. Perhaps he's there to subvert the ultimate purpose of the installation and finish the job destroying the world. Perhaps he's there to free the Old God buried underneath the thing. It could be this expansion's Ulduar. -- To be honest, this doesn't seem likely at all. I just really miss Ulduar, I think it was one of the best raids of all times, its lifespan (as the top raid) cut tragically short by the incredibly lame Trial of the Crusader nonsense.