Patch 5.4 patch notes
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The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: The Underdome
by Alex Ziebart 
Sep 21st 2011 at 11:00AM
I think the voice actor of Borderlands' Mad Moxxi is the only person alive who can say "om nom nom nom" out loud and sound adorable rather than horrifically obnoxious. Well done, Brina Palencia.
Didax asked:
With transmogrification and void storage being fairly expensive services to use, is this enough of a gold sink to handle late-Cataclysm inflation?
Or do we really need yet another version of Traveller's Tundra Mammoth?
My personal take on the topic is that at this stage in the game, there is very little Blizzard can do to get gold inflation under control, short of resetting the economy. That would be a very special flavor of shitstorm, so I don't expect Blizzard to do it. The gap in gold between what a casual WoW player might have and what a hardcore WoW businessman might have is absolutely massive. There are people in my guild who only have 1,000 gold to their name. There are also players who have multiple millions of gold spread across multiple characters.
How do you create a money sink that will take an Auction House fanatic's multi-millions out of the economy? You don't, really. If you did create some incredibly amazing thing that removed those millions from the economy, it would be completely unattainable for everybody else -- and that's not much fun, is it?
The people who have ludicrous amounts of gold tend to be the most frugal players, too. The guy with 3,000,000 gold probably isn't going to buy a mount that costs 1,000,000 gold, but the guy with only 5,000 gold is going to see that price tag and get angry that it's not accessible to him. What would be the point of that? You could go down to a more reasonable number: 30,000 gold. That's still a lot of gold. Some players have never had that much gold at one time, ever. Yet a number like that is insignificant to the millionaire.
Gold sinks hurt the people at the bottom of the game's economy, not the people at the top. Gold sinks can't fix WoW's economy. In fact, I would say they're more damaging to the game as a whole -- you know what that guy with 5,000 gold is going to do to attain that 1,000,000 gold mount? He's going to go buy it for real money. Where does that gold he's buying come from? Stolen accounts. Oh boy, I'm sure glad Blizzard added that gold sink!
Andre asked:
I've got a level 50 rogue that I've been leveling recently. I just got back to WoW and my Druid main isn't really raiding, although he's geared enough that I can do Firelands on him. I don't really have as much fun on him as I do my Rogue, and with the news of the legendaries come out, it makes me really want to push my Rogue to level cap. My friend has a bunch of grantable levels left from RaF, so I can easily get this Rogue to 80 in the next few days. My question is: How hard would it be to gear up on him? It was easy for my Druid because he's a tank and I got fast dungeon queues to farm JP and VP. Will it be harder to gear my Rogue?
I leveled my rogue recently as a temporary escape from my retribution paladin after I quit raiding. It was extremely easy to gear her. Queue times for DPS can be long, especially if you're used to the instant queues that tanks have, but they're not as bad as they used to be. I wait about 15-20 minutes for a dungeon as a DPSer at the level cap now, rather than the previous 30-45 minutes.
Between what you can find on the Auction House, instance drops, and the items you can buy with justice and valor points, you'll put together a decent set of gear in no time at all. My only real problem was weapons. Getting two good daggers together was a real pain in the butt.
It will be harder to gear the rogue than it was to gear the tank, but I still would not define it as hard. Just harder, relatively.
Esgarzer asked:
I dont know if it has ever been mentioned before... But has there ever been talks about making bear and cat forms for druids more ZulAman-boss-like? Like only the heads and limbs going feral and not the whole body?
I've never heard anything about this, no.
Because those Trolls look dumb and so would you.
undeadgoat asked:
Q for the Q: Hellllllp! I started playing WoW over the summer, and now that my classes have started up I somehow have time to keep up on WoW Insider but I haven't logged on in almost three weeks! Also now I'm writing a paper about WoW which mentions WoW Insider (as an example of a "metanetwork") so WoW Insider is a tab in my "homework" window and I'm distracted from my actual paper!
... That doesn't seem to be a question at all.
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 11 of 11)
Aladeran Sep 21st 2011 5:56PM
Your right about the goodies that gold can buy, but they are overall not that expensive and very limited in numbers. Owning a Vial of the Sand is more and more common in the player base, leaving wealthy players with too much gold and no way to spend it.
The gold sinks are not in sync with the rampant inflation or the massive fortune of some players. In the latest Gold Capped article, this is well explained. I understand the large difference in wealth between players, but purchasing a 500K+ mount (or any other vanity item on that scale) would burn my gold fairly quickly and give me an achievement that few would be able to match.
Yes, this might make some players unhappy, but the game is not about fairness. Hardcore raiders get a great amount of recognition (and envy) as I mentionned earlier ... why are hardcore money makers not be able to stand out the same way?
MisterRik Sep 21st 2011 5:57PM
Yah, I know, I was just being a wiseass ;p
Noyou Sep 21st 2011 6:09PM
***Brewfest update***
If you have already done your brewfest quests for the season and your server had a restart today- check them again. I was able to do them over on 2 of my toons so far. Certain ones like the pink elekk one awards 40 tokens- and that's not bad.
Aslo- if you were wondering what the difference was between the Pony keg and the Keg pony- The keg pony is more awesome. It's a mini horse that follows you around for 3 min while enabling you to get beer from it. Well worth the 200 tokens. Stay Thirsty my friends!
Penthau Sep 21st 2011 7:32PM
Do you know if Blizzard has ever considered a healing dummy, like a target dummy but one that you heal instead of damage, so that healers can practice? I don't know if it would be too much of a pain to implement, but it would be nice to be able to work on a healing rotation outside of instance.
Shinae Sep 22nd 2011 12:24AM
There are lots of "healing dummies" standing around in capital cities, just like YOU! ;)
Shinae Sep 22nd 2011 12:33AM
Seriously, tho, the best way to learn healing is to get out there and do it. Start out easy with a normal dungeon (or the holiday one). There isn't really a "rotation" to healing but more of getting a feel for which heal to use. Healing is situational and depends on who's taking damage and when. Use your middle-of-the-road heal by default. Use the big heal when the tank takes big hits. Use the group heals when most people are taking damage. Use you mana recovery abilities when things settle down.
Good luck!
goldeneye Sep 22nd 2011 5:41AM
You can also try a BG. A lot less expactations and lots of room for experimentation!
Amaxe Sep 21st 2011 11:30PM
This will probably make me seem totally uninformed but...
What game is the picture from?
Amaxe Sep 21st 2011 11:31PM
Nvm. I thought Borderlands was a region in whatever game it was. My fail.
SamLowry Sep 22nd 2011 12:32AM
Gold sink? How about a portal ring that lets you add any inn to its list that you want, for 1000g each.
Yes, I'm still fuming over the loss of the portals in Dalaran. And Shattrath.
Necrosaro Sep 22nd 2011 12:39AM
At least the Org portal is back. I can finally set my hearth to Dalaran again.
Altaholic Sep 22nd 2011 4:58AM
Q for da Q.... are peons are sub species of orcs, actually genetically and intellectually inferior? Or are they just an uneducated lower class? Most orcs are able to speak fluently, yet all peons speak like Indians in old Westerns.
Fletcher Sep 22nd 2011 6:29AM
Peons are the same species of orc, they're just a different caste.
Orcs have always valued martial strength above all other attributes; every orc expects that their children will grow up to become warriors. Those who fail the tests are peons. Of course the general societal benefits accruing to warriors mean that the children of warriors will be better fed and much more likely to become warriors in turn. The castes tend to ossify, and warrior and peon culture diverges - to the point where the peons have their own dialect of orcish.
The life of a peon is truly miserable - anything they own can be appropriated for the orcish war machine, and indeed I doubt the orcs have much of a concept of independent merchants - all labour is for the benefit of, and arranged by, the military. Given their lack of rights, they have no incentive to produce more than is required for subsistence (the warriors would just take it if they did), and given their lack of martial prowess, they have no recourse to justice (which, in orcish culture, is a duel). Their only hope is that their children may pass the tests and become warriors, and hopefully send money back home to help the folks back on the pig farm.
That's my theory at least; I don't think Blizzard has addressed the Horde's economics at all, but I have real trouble viewing the orcish portion of it, at least, as a thriving marketplace.
Amaxe Sep 22nd 2011 1:27PM
There's potential RP info in the RPG, but it's not canon anymore so use it if you want but know Blizz can come up with something contrary if they want.
In the Horde Player's Guide (written as from the perspective of Brann Bronzebeard), the Peon is described as:
"One area in which orcs might be seen as backwards is in their treatment of peons. The poor wretches! Orcs who fail to pass the tests of a warrior or shaman (or who have no desire to pass the test) often become peons. Peons are the lowest of the low in orc society. While they’re not technically slaves, they effectively fill that role (as peasants do in the Alliance). The lot of peons is so low that one of the tests of a new warrior is to sneak into the fields and use blackjacks to wake peons who are sleeping on the job!"
(I don't agree with the Alliance peasants having the same social status as peons but WTH, it's not canon anyway)