The Queue: One-man WoW instances

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky, senior Alliance-only editor, will be your host today.
I've been thinking a lot about BlizzCon this year, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say we'll see at least one large and drastic departure from the current WoW paradigm.
Yes, Blizzard could announce just the normal expansion and assorted dungeons, profession additions, classes/races, and so on ... But that's not going to shake things up. It's not going to push them to the next level (whatever that is). It's not going to compete with Star Wars in terms of hype.
Cataclysm? My guess is it was but a prelude to other earth-shattering changes.
Greenymeany asked:
So, a while back, I had heard a fleeting rumor of somebody datamining something about one-man instances. I'd really like to know if there's any truth to this, because if it actually does happen, it would be glorious.
There've been datamined strings and other info about a thing called a scenario, but so far, everything's been extrapolated around that. Blizzard folks have said a few times that they'd like to do more epic personal questing and gameplay, and I think we can see that in patch 4.2's daily quest content. Will it eventually transform into 1-man instances that you can try to clear each and every day? Who knows? It's a good question to ask Ghostcrawler this year at BlizzCon.
Back in 2006, Caydiem said that the devs had no plans to do solo instances, but things can and do change.
Fetcher asked:
I seem to recall reading about a way to make a macro that would play music from other zones; so you could, for instance, play the Grizzly Hills music in Stormwind. Does anyone know anything more about this? My mage just hit 77 and I'd really like to avoid hearing the horrible Icecrown music if it's at all possible.
You can use this slash command to play any sound file. As to what those sound files are, you'll need to extract the MPQ, find a file list, and so on ...
http://www.wowpedia.org/API_PlaySoundFile
Interficio asked:
Hello, have you ever been in a bg and heard and saw a stealthed rogue for a split second but not have the time to get an attack off because you cant target him fast enough? Is there a macro to target this player? More specifically cast a certain spell against it such as a Frost Nova or a Sap?
Look behind you. He's over your shoulder right now.
But, no, I haven't had this happen. My guess is that the rogue came out of stealth for a quick moment -- and in that case, by the time he's gone, you won't be able to target him again. The best thing you can do is to make a /targetenemy macro and try to grab him while he's still unstealthed.
Covill asked:
Why so much hate for playable pandas? We already can play as cows and dogs, why not pandas?
I think it's because they're only going to be playable after you buy the option from the Blizzard store for $0.99 (after you've bought the next expansion).
I'm kidding ...
You95 asked:
Is there any other lore (besides Burning Crusade lore) that would justify an entire new world being developed to explore in a new expansion, much like Outland? I really loved the idea of leaving Azeroth behind, even for a short while.
We've been hearing about the dark portal since the beginning of WoW, really, so I don't think it's a Burning Crusade-only lore thing. That being said, could a dwarf archaeologist unearth another portal that leads to a completely different world created by the Titans? Sure. Nothing is super-special about the dark portal.
Vyxx trolled:
Why is WoW boring now?
I'm going to assume that you're bored with it, which is okay. Even Blizzard knows that you'll get bored with WoW (and it knows you'll likely come back, too). You might also be referring to it being harder to find raids during the summer months and so on ... and that's a normal thing, given that the majority of folks playing live in the northern hemisphere and want to go do things outside more often than during the winter months.
But I know you're trolling. I just wanted to complain about the summer months, because I haven't been able to in a while.
Filed under: The Queue






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 13)
snowleopard233 Aug 16th 2011 11:05AM
Question for the queue or any Mac savvy players:
Will upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion improve my WoW performance at all? I was wondering if any had seen any significant changes. I'm running a three year old Macbook Pro with a 2.4 GHz intel core 2 duo, 4GB of DDRR3 RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256mb graphics card.
MattKrotzer Aug 16th 2011 11:11AM
To quote our IT guys here at work:
"Why would you switch to a new OS as soon as it becomes available?"
The implied note being that it's going to have bugs, and most programs (especially games) are going to take a while to update their code to work seamlessly with the new operating system.
I almost always recommend waiting 6 months to a year before upgrading to a new OS after its release. It may be a bit excessive, but there's rarely anything that I MUST HAVE in an operating system that doesn't work just fine on the old one, and it gives them a year of bug fixing so that I get a far better product with no headaches.
Of course, I know how Apple-philes are. There's a new shiny whatever, and Pavlov is ringing that bell, so go do what you've gotta do. ;)
Seth Aug 16th 2011 11:18AM
No major increase in performance that I have noticed. Using an iMac with similar specs to your MacBook.
llcjay2003 Aug 16th 2011 11:30AM
On the Mac note, I tried out WoW on my Mac before and it worked well except for one thing: addons. A few of them worked but most did not, most notably being Dominos (which I can't live without). I followed the addon install directions for Mac but some still don't work.
Anyone know what's up with this?
David Meyers Aug 16th 2011 11:33AM
It depends really. Since apple writes all of the device drivers in their os for all the hardware in your computer, you can see some improvements in video, etc. The os upgrades are very cheap fir all the new features, and often times the latest drivers are only included in new os releases.
Grumpy Wow Guy Aug 16th 2011 11:33AM
Go ahead and upgrade to 10.7 Lion if you have 4GB of RAM and a Core 2 or better processor. WoW runs fine. You will NOT get an increase in framerate (actually, probably a slight decrease for now, but expect that to change as Apple updates Lion and BLizz updates WoW) but it is barely noticeable. Get Lion because it is an amazing advancement as an operating system.
SOME folks should wait. I.E. if you're certain apps like Avid or ProTools that need to be upgraded. (Avid/digidesign devs sit on their asses and never support a new OS when it comes out. I could bitch about this for hours, but I'll spare you.)
But yeah, unless your mac is old, get Lion. Snow Leopard feels really old now.
Aalokor Aug 16th 2011 11:34AM
@Matt
Possibly because there's no such thing as a new operating system. Every one is a progressive upgrade from whatever came before (regardless of what the marketing hype would have you believe)
Sure, there are occasional problems, usually when a major subsystem is ripped out and replaced (vista had many of these types of changes).
Plus it depends on your own tolerance for changes, I've been using Windows 7, for example, since over 6 months *before* it's release.
Radioted Aug 16th 2011 11:35AM
I've noticed that my MBP seems to run much hotter now that I've switched to Lion, even when not playing WoW, so if you don't have a cooling pad, you might want to look into that. As for actual performance, I haven't noticed a difference, and my specs are almost identical to yours.
MattKrotzer Aug 16th 2011 11:38AM
@Aalokor
As I said, if you wait a while, you get a more "finished" product, with the bugs already largely handled. And that's based on our IT guys, who generally don't want to deal with bugs on hundreds of computers in our office.
It's sound advice, though as I said, some people just like to be the first one on the new hot shinies.
niko Aug 16th 2011 12:04PM
Addons are platform agnostic, llcJay2003. No difference in regards to OS.
Trouble is, addon updaters such as Curse Client or Minion are woefully poor in design/functionality, and can and will screw up your installations if you do use them. Curse Client does work for me most of the time, but i'm not surprised when an addon blows up when being auto-updated.
A key difference between Windows and Mac OS X in regards to file/folder management is that when you are replacing a folder that already exists, Windows merges them (which is usually fail imo), while Mac OS X will do a replace. For the management of WoW addons, this is actually a good thing, since you can easily replace the Dominos folder from the zipped download and not worry about getting extra junk when you do the replace.
I'm guessing you should do some clean up on give it another shot. The addons simply do not care what platform you are using.
Andre Aug 16th 2011 12:13PM
@llcjay2003
A note on the addon thing. I had this problem as well. I've found how to fix it as well. For example, if the folder is named DBM, you can't put -that- folder into the Addon folder. You have to go inside and take out each individual DBM_Cataclysm, etc. to get it to work. I hope I was of help.
Snowfeather Aug 16th 2011 12:30PM
I have an imac with ati radeon hd 2600 pro, 2.66 ghz, and 4GB ram, for me Snowleopard was actually a vast improvement with screen stutter. I'm not highly tech savvy, but hopefully my specs in comparison to your's can give you a guestimation of what it may do for you. I actually upgraded for a reason, and now can't recall what it was. But I couldn't do something without snow leopard.
@ llcjay2003 - I have to have dominos to survive, so I understand your feeling, but I have yet to have it blow up on me, nor have I had an issue with the curse client for mac, sorry :O
Kaahn Stewart Aug 16th 2011 12:31PM
"Why would you switch to a new OS as soon as it becomes available?"
Because, Matt. Vista sucked just that badly.
MattKrotzer Aug 16th 2011 12:46PM
Ragging on Vista is a perfect point to my argument, really. When Vista launched, it had innumerable problems that persisted for quite some time.
Vista came preinstalled on my machine that I got just before Wrath launched. (Several years after Vista was launched.) I've had zero issues to complain about. Many bugs were fixed, and I haven't encountered the horrible OS that everyone likes to rant about.
Brett Porter Aug 16th 2011 12:53PM
@llcjay2003
My secondary machine is a Macintosh and I have not had any issues with addons compared to my PC. I would highly recommend an addon manager (Curse being the leader these days) as that makes installation, updates and removal so much easier than manually installing.
Good luck!
Cambro Aug 16th 2011 1:39PM
One thing you need to be VERY aware of is that 10.7 no longer includes Rosetta; you will NOT be able to run any app that wasn't written for Intel, period, the end. Unfortunately. So if you have any older app you still use, you will need to upgrade it.
araquen Aug 16th 2011 1:45PM
I have a mac but play WoW through Bootcamp. Frankly, Apple's insistence on refusuing to use the latest open GL standard is the dealbreaker for me. Apple is still on 3.2 and I think the "in the wild" version is 4.#.
That being said, I've heard reports of minimal performance increases in Lion - but as I am running a Mac Pro Dual Core with 6 GB RAM and an ATI 4800 and I can run WoW on ultra settings in Bootcamp at 60 fps and only fair settings on the Mac side at 20 fps, I am not a happy camper. Also, I found the water rendering Mac side, even on ultra settings, made the water seem like it was gelatin. The PC rendering of the water is much more watery-feeling. Not sure if that's an Open GL thing v. Direct-whatever thing on the PC side.
taokore Aug 16th 2011 1:49PM
To add more support to this, I got Lion release day. WoW still runs great for me. I have an iMac with almost identical specs to your MBP. And the OS is absolutely amazing (esp. with a trackpad). Do yourself a favor and get it.
MisterRik Aug 16th 2011 2:21PM
@llcjay2003 -
Not sure what your issue is. I've never had any problem getting addons, including Dominos, to work on my Mac. I download and install them via the Curse Client, and everything works great.
SaintStryfe Aug 16th 2011 4:31PM
I would hold off. There's been an input bug some people have experienced with Lion that occasionally freezes game play. It's lead to more then one raid wipe in my group sadly. :-(