The Queue: Zombie goasts, leave this place
by Mathew McCurley 
Sep 22nd 2011 at 11:00AM
Rossi, Alex and I were talking about the DotA 2 leak that included some Half Life 2: Episode 3 strings that were most likely just Valve's trolling the fans a bit, as we have been anticipating the news of a new Half Life for some time now. There's some pretty amazing fan fiction out there, but none is as thrilling and amazing as the Half Life: Full Life Consequences series of stories featuring Gordon Freeman's brother John Freeman. Personally, I hope that Half Life 2: Episode 3 is as good as Full Life Consequences. It is time for me to live up to my name and face Full Life Consequences.
Also, I promised certain artistic friends that I would post a new art challenge in The Queue when I was given the reins, in the same vein in which Alex posted his paladin bubble art thing, which turned out to be exceedingly awesome. So, here's mine: Rossi and I are totally DPS warrior bro's Horde-side now, raiding together and generally topping charts and taking names. You should totally draw Rossi's male Tauren warrior and my female Blood Elf warrior doing their best bro-fist.
Skozz asked:
Will I be able to transmogrify my head piece into the Chef's Hat? It's blue and looks like it gives an armor bonus, but it has no specific type (Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate).
Probably not. Chef's Hat would fall under two of the exceptions/rules for transmogrification. First, you can only transmog gear that has stats on it over just armor. Second, many "funny" or "silly" items have been excluded from transmog, including fish daggers, fishing poles, and most likely the Chef's Hat. Sad, I know.
ptay313 asked:
Two days in a row, I have killed Coren Direbrew, gotten my daily keg shaped chest, opened it and got... NOTHING! Is this an actual common occurence, or is Direbrew messing with me from beyond the grave?
For your first kill every day, Coren will drop his Keg-shaped Treasure Chest, which will always contain a small number of justice points. Sometimes the keg will contain rare items and mounts specific to the holiday. If the keg only contained these justice points, you will get the message "There is no loot." Sadly, this is lame and demoralizing. I would have much preferred the bag at least contain some Brewfest tokens or something in the bag by default.
Amanda A. asked:
Does anyone else get the impression that they swapped the vendor items and boss drops for tier 13 to reduce loot drama in LFR? A dps needing a tank ring would cause issues. A third of the raid needing a generic tier token won't.
I think the reason that the tier gear was removed from the vendors was two-fold. First, tier gear continues to be the best-looking, iconic armor from the tier that requires raiding to get. By keeping the iconic set items as part of the raids only, you give players a new incentive to try raiding and the new Raid Finder feature.
Second, by filling the valor point vendors with off set items, you don't have to itemize those items in the raid itself. The big example this tier is the fact that there are no plate shoulders for DPS classes in Firelands other than the tier shoulders off of Majordomo Staghelm. Had there been off set shoulders available from vendors, players would have been able to gear up and replace lower-ilevel items to make Firelands easier and work for their tier set pieces as a reward for completing content.
Tadiermot asked:
If you could trade places with any NPC for the day, which would you choose, and what would you do?
I would trade places with any repair vendor in the Firelands on a progression raid night. Stand around, repair some gear, and then retire.
fallemwarrior pondered:
Is it bad that when i que'ed for WSG the other day i tried to go back to our flag and purchase a Banshee's veil?
Gunblade for life.
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!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 14)
Didax Sep 22nd 2011 11:03AM
What are your favorite encounter mechanics? Least favorite?
For me as a tank, my favorite boss encounters are those that rely heavily on precise boss and/or add movements and positioning. It's fun to feel like the boss or add is so focused on beating my face in, that they are neglecting environmental hazards that I'm dragging them into.
Example: the adds for Ignis, the Furnace Master, being super-heated when pulled into the Scorch, then turned brittle when dragged into the water.
On the flip side, I'm not a huge fan of fights where adds spawn in two different places at once (e.g. Maloriak's adds).
Jamie Sep 22nd 2011 11:08AM
As a tank, Patchwork.
Getting wailed on for several minutes and knowing you can take all that damage due to a combination of hey you're a tank and you're the KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!!! and healers working away healing you. Is pretty awesome.
Sure it's a lazy fight but I kinda liked it back at the start of Wrath (was a TBC player).
alzeer Sep 22nd 2011 11:25AM
favorite:prefer encounters with no gear-check like chess event
least : any fight that makes it easier to DPS with ranged example most of them
Belinus Sep 22nd 2011 11:25AM
Maloriak, on adds. Being a warrior doesn't get better than that. Missed an aberration interrupt? No problem, I've got Shockwave. 15 out at once? Intimidating Shout takes care of them. When spec'd for Piercing Howl it was even better, I pretty much just ran around in circles the whole fight. I mean, that's pretty much what I do anyway, but that I'm *suposed* to do it, I'm rewarded for it!? Yeah, Maloriak wins best fight ever.
Revynn Sep 22nd 2011 11:27AM
Personally, I like anythig that allows me to do something out of the norm. As a ranged DPS, I typically just kind of stand in the back and pewpew the boss, occasionally moving to stack, spread or move out of goo.
Stuff like range tanking Keleseth, playing Starfox on Alysrazor or kiting various adds make an encounter different and interesting for me. The Chess Event in Kara is pretty cool as well.
Thon Sep 22nd 2011 11:40AM
I always thought Putricide was a really fun fight, even on heroic :D Just loved it
Bellajtok Sep 22nd 2011 11:40AM
As a healer, I have a thing for predictable damage phases. If the group is about to take damage and I know about it, I can pop Tree of Life and spread some Lifebloom, and/or drop Wild Growth as soon as the damage hits so it might come off cooldown during the same phase. For that reason, I dislike unpredictable damage which happens from lack of player skill, like Venoxis- but as a player, I enjoy the challenge of avoiding them myself. So it's a balance.
Grovinofdarkhour Sep 22nd 2011 11:46AM
I like any boss fight where they actually let hunters' special stuff work. You know - traps... concussive shot...
There's something demoralizing about getting to do this wide array of things while out in the world, and then you go into a raid and everything you see is immune to most of it. It's like Blizz is saying "all of that other stuff's just flavor. Shut up and DPS."
Every time I see the word "Immune" a piece of me wants to log off.
Chance Sep 22nd 2011 12:00PM
It all depends on my class. This tier id have to say Baleroc as a feral dps. Not only do I get to unload on the boss from behind 100% of the fight but the healers love me because I can tank the entire first shard on my own with both cooldowns and I can take every following shard on my sides rotation up to about 20 stacks. Favorite fight ever has to be halfus with the whelps up though. Running in there my first time as a demo lock and pulling over 100k dps on the AoE was epic.
Fight I hate the most would probably be Yogg with no lights, reguardless of class/spec. Talk about impossible... sure its a cakewalk now at 85 but that was just undoable at level for me.
Sunaseni Sep 22nd 2011 12:05PM
Favorite mechanic: Raid ending debuffs or abilities that target a single player. Because if you are a mage (and you should be), you compeltely negate the mechanic by Ice Block/Invisibility, and if it's a missile with a movement time, Blink. Dodging enemy attacks and breaking fights is what makes mages badass.
Example: Acquire Target (Omnotron), Face Rage (Shannox), Blackout & Twilight Blast (Double Dragons), etc etc.
Also, magic buffs on enemies that are Spellstealable makes me very happy. (Like Jaraxxus, Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion.)
vocenoctum Sep 22nd 2011 12:10PM
I like most of the fight mechanics that reward you for interrupting or doing this or that, say if you miss an interrupt and the tank takes more damage, that's fine. I dislike the "interrupt or fail" type encounters like Corla or Ozruk (not an interrupt match, but you miss you're screwed).
Though I will agree on the nullifying of player abilities thing. Especially when it's something that requires some talent to perform. I know fear-dotting might have been abusive at times, but like having your pet tank, it generally required you to know what you're doing. Same with kiting. Now everything has such a short leash, you basically need to just strap on plate armor and stand toe-to-toe.
Mortenebra Sep 22nd 2011 12:56PM
To echo Grovin a bit: I loved doing Moroes as a hunter. Kiting, trapping, and saving healers, oh my! Anytime I get to save a healer or fellow raid member by making it sleep, trapping it, or even kiting it, I get very very happy. Nowadays, I think my biggest job as a hunter is controlling the spiderlings on Beth, which pulls on my huntery heartstrings in a good way.
Also: enrages I can use tranq shot on. That makes me happy, too.
Killik Sep 22nd 2011 1:19PM
Ignis was also my favourite to tank - working as a team with our MM hunter, taking care of the adds as they spawned. Or at least trying to.
dodgeballer2005 Sep 22nd 2011 2:42PM
As a Death Knight, any double-edged sword mechanic that makes abilities free. Usually this is on the trash, like before the Sound Dragon.
pancakes Sep 22nd 2011 10:47PM
I like tanking H Shannox, H Aly, H Bale, H Maloriak (adds) the most i think.
Jamie Sep 22nd 2011 11:05AM
Say, I'm a lazy fella and instead of cracking open a spreadsheet and doing the math I would rather ask the community what should I level up on?
Me & my wife, lvl60 Gnome Warrior (Protection) & Warlock (Destruction) have been doing dungeons all the time from 35 to 58. But we recently got into questing again.
Say we didn't mind doing either, which would you go with?
Pros & Cons to both btw (we both mine will questing, but we get rep for functions with dungeons).
Nina Katarina Sep 22nd 2011 11:13AM
You're entering the world of Burning Crusade dungeons, aka the World of LolDKs. Unless Hellfire Penninsula makes you want to stab your eyes out with a fork, stick to questing.
Robert Sep 22nd 2011 11:21AM
You're level 58, which means outland, which means you get faction rep only with the dungeon you're in, not with a tabard. I love Outland, and when I get there I like to do each of the dungeons at least once, but I love to quest in between. My favorite zones are Zangarmarsh, Nagrand, and Netherstorm, as they provide the greatest sense of "alien planet" in much of the game. Also, if you're an achievement hunter I'd make sure to get hills like white elekk and the Ring of Blood in Nagrand. Just my $.02
Jamie Sep 22nd 2011 11:21AM
Heh, that's true. I don't know if the situation has improved since Wrath but we've already done the two free levels TBC leveling content has to offer. So we might just stick with it for a little longer.
sporkwind Sep 22nd 2011 11:55AM
Eh, I recently dungeoned my way through BC and I didn't have any issue with loldks. I did in Wrath for sure, but leveling my latest alt up through there I only had maybe one a group and less as I went along through BC. Nothing like my experiences in wrath where I would come in as a healer and find 4 DKs waiting for me.
I think the DK shine has worn off a bit and it's much safer to venture into BC queues.
Admittedly though I always have to make a stop in Nagrand to quest a while because I love that zone so much.