Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Milk argument
by Michael Sacco 
Sep 16th 2011 at 11:00AM
Anime. Anime. Milk. Argument.
lazymangaka asked:
Does the cost to unlearn talents still decay over time?
Yes, it does, but it takes a while. I'm admittedly not sure of the exact amount of time it takes to decay, but it will definitely decay past the Cataclysm maximum of 66g down to 33g or lower.
chaosdefined asked:
Can a level 85, raid ready Elemental Shaman solo a level 70 raid like Kara or Black Temple, or is it best to get at least a 5 man party?
Karazhan is soloable, minus the chess event, which is very difficult without two people. Black Temple and other BC raids may require two or more people depending on particular fight gimmicks (Solarian MCs several people, for example). Sunwell Plateau is definitely not soloable by a shaman.
Josh asked:
is there a way to get more helms that look like http://us.battle.net/wow/en/item/24970? It's sooo friggin awesome. On my Worgen DK it makes me look like a tiger w horns. It's soooooooo amazing. Anyone else know of cool helms w horns for transmorg? Other colors than green?
Here are about a dozen of them.
Miranda Kali asked:
Whilst pondering the vexing issue of MH, and OH weapons for the use of glorious transmogfrication, I stopped to wonder..Why are there even Main Hand, and Off Hand weapons? Why are they not simply all One Hand weapons, and equitable in either slot?
This is actually an art thing most of the time. Weapons that are strictly main-hand- or off-hand-only are usually restricted because their models would look odd if equipped in a different hand. In order for, say, a main-hand fist weapon to also be used off-hand, a new model has to be created. One-hand weapons are usually symmetrical or close to it, allowing them to be wielded by either hand without any weird model issues.
Hal asked:
What's the intended role for heroic raids? As the next step of progression between tiers? Or just an optional challenge after completing normal modes?
I ask because, as I prepared to lead my raid group into Firelands, I kept hearing that having an ilvl of 359 would make most of the initial encounters just barely doable. Which seems odd; I mean, yes, there's the crafted/quest/daily gear you can pick up, but it strikes me as strange that those encounters would be tuned such that you need heroic gear from the previous tier to suitably handle regular content in the next tier.
Normal mode raids are intended to be attempted and completed with gear from the previous tier's normal modes. Heroic raids give you an extra challenge if you've fully completed normal modes, and the gear gives you a leg up when attempting bosses in the following tier's normal mode. 359 is fine for Firelands on normal mode.
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 4 of 11)
The Dewd Sep 16th 2011 11:17AM
I did a search for those on wowhead a while back. I don't think there were any off-hand caster weapons listed past vanilla levels. (I think this was back before Blizz pruned the talent trees and it looked like Elemental Shaman would have a shot at picking up the dual-wield talent.)
Kunikenwad! Sep 16th 2011 11:21AM
You are correct about Elemental Shaman.
Boobah Sep 16th 2011 11:35AM
Yes, all the caster weapons were made main-hand only in BC because healing and ranged DPS shaman (I'm not quite sure you could really call these builds 'elemental' or 'resto') could get a huge spellpower boost by digging far enough down the enhance tree to pick up dual-wield.
And allowing titan's grip to wield a main-hand in the off-hand isn't much of an issue; the only weapons where the art issue really came up was fist weapons, which Titan's Grip doesn't affect, while any warrior silly enough to dual-wield caster weapons deserves what he gets.
Jamie Sep 16th 2011 11:05AM
Do you have any idea how frustrating it is, staring at a blank Queue. Knowing perfectly well last night you had a question to ask the queue but come the day after you can't remember it at all?
Bellajtok Sep 16th 2011 11:11AM
Yep yep yeppers.
Elwoods Sep 16th 2011 11:23AM
Isnt that a question you just posed? :)
pattycakes Sep 16th 2011 6:29PM
The Old Gods are making you forget....
spectres Sep 16th 2011 11:05AM
The "Scattered Shots: Hunter class feedback" article that Brian Wood did yesterday was amazingly awesome. Blizzard has put up a topic for each class. Are there plans at WoW Insider to do those for each of the other classes?
Bellajtok Sep 16th 2011 11:11AM
Seconded. That article was incredibly interesting, and I know I don't have the time to gather the information myself.
Killik Sep 16th 2011 11:13AM
Thirded - That was a great article, though it seemed rather labour-intensive to compile...
wow Sep 16th 2011 1:18PM
Quaded: As a BM Hunter I found this very informative. It's nice to know that there wasn't a lot of QQ in those forums. Plus, I'd want to see more WoWinsider articles about the other classes. I play Druids, Priests and Shamans, as well as Hunters. :)
Shinanji
Skarn Sep 16th 2011 4:35PM
@Shinanji,
Oh, there's lots of QQ. It mostly comes from people that aren't following the feedback format that Blizzard requested, so Brian ignored those posts. It's possible Blizzard is also deleting posts that don't follow the format, but I haven't checked.
Schadenfreude Sep 16th 2011 11:06AM
"In order for, say, a main-hand fist weapon to also be used off-hand, a new model has to be created."
This always confused me, couldn't the new model be easily created by reflecting the fist weapon along one axis?
Miranda Kali Sep 16th 2011 11:33AM
It was actually my joy at having Fist of the Deity drop, followed by my frustration at realizing that I couldn't use it as a dual wield transmog that led me to ponder the issue. (...and let me tell you, that weapon BEGS to be dual wielded)
Interestingly, the model seems to be symmetrical. So I don't savvy why it wasn't made to be One Handed, or at least given an Off Hand match.
Boobah Sep 16th 2011 11:38AM
Presumably, Blizzard never designed the ability to rotate the weapon models into the game, and at this point it's not unlikely something will break if they try to add it.
Puntable Sep 16th 2011 11:39AM
If you don't care about the weapon clipping through parts of the character's body, or being held at an odd angle, or moving in bizarre ways when swung, then yes. Characters are not symetrical.
Suzaku Sep 16th 2011 12:18PM
It's not an issue of rotating, but rather mirroring.
Helmets, shoulder pads, and weapons are all stationary models that are "mounted" on a character.
If a weapon designed for the right hand gets "mounted" on the character's left hand, they'll be holding it backwards. It's like putting a shoe on the wrong foot.
Amaxe Sep 16th 2011 12:39PM
I think it's a matter of mechanics of the game. We could flip an image with Photoshop perhaps, but that doesn't mean the game can do it without problems.
KPB Sep 16th 2011 12:43PM
It is something that could be done automatically but the game can't handle that currently. Take for sample Pride and Greed. The look like they could be using the same model but in game they are actually 2 separate models.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=37693
http://www.wowhead.com/item=40704
Notice neither one has the Same Model as tab.
Nina Katarina Sep 16th 2011 11:11AM
So, there was a blue post yesterday agreeing that the mage t13 and druid t13 are inspired by the level 85 spells that they got with Cataclysm, and implying that the Paladin set will have design features in common with Guardian of Ancient Kings.
What other spells new with Cataclysm could inspire a tier set? Will priests be getting Lightwell armor? More birdbath shoulders?