The Queue: PTR day is a fun day

Since my job is working for WoW Insider, today is what we call a busy work day. Why? Well, friends, the PTR is up and patch 4.3 is live thereon. I'll be running dungeons, filming movies, and taking questions all day about the new content. This is what we call fun.
I'm working my hardest and fastest to get videos of the new instances up and ready for your viewing pleasure. Damn you, upload speeds.
Badmedecine asked:
When do you think the other T13's will be revealed?
Very soon. Datamining of the new patch files on the PTR has revealed most of the new sets, so Blizzard will want to get its own official previews up in the near future. Expect them soon.
jtrack3d asked:
Blizzard obviously has some kind of plan for getting people to content because content is much what you hear whined about in the forums. And people forget gear IS included in that content... this game is about gear, duh.
I'd be curious to see just how many actual people (not toons), but bodies complete tier content vs. the number of players that try the content... not all players because some never try.
That is, how many people even completed Tier 11 before it was nerfed. Tier 12? It might be enlightening just to see how elitist the elitist really are or it might tell us what Blizz's design philosophy is regarding how hard they make content.
Here's the dirty little secret: A majority of people do not raid. Raiding requires a time investment and logistical elements that many people just don't have the patience, time, or energy for when they sit down to play their video game. It's not WoW's fault, our fault, or anyone's fault. It is just the nature of endgame raiding as it stands right now. Raiding is expected in MMOs because that's how it's been done since time immemorial (1999). So, Blizzard has raiding content.
The trouble comes when you have to justify the cost and expenditures of creating content for a small portion of your user base that is, ultimately, much more expensive to put out than they would like. You want as many people in the category of player who get to see this content because, from a cost analysis point of view, you want people to see the content and have it available to them. When Mike Morhaime said that people used up all of their available content in Cataclysm too quickly, he meant that casual players who do quests and level to 85 were done in a few weeks and had nothing else accessible to them because that's not the type of players they are.
With the Raid Finder and more accessible raids and heroic dungeons, these players have a better chance at crossing the bridge to this new type of content. I appreciate that. New players getting into the raid game will appreciate that.
Kaahn Stewart asked:
Most (a large portion, in fact) of the Art Gallery updates for World of Warcraft have been Burning Crusade related. Are they just going in order, or are they hinting at what the next expansion may be about?
I honestly believe they just sort of found a bunch of high-res Burning Crusade images and were more than happy to start adding them to the galleries. These are just constant gallery updates that get the bonus effect of being a fun news item to put on the community blog. Isn't the art from The Burning Crusade amazing?
Shinae said:
I haven't seen any mention about the Keg-Shaped Treasure Chests starting to contain ~15 Brewfest Prize Tokens as of yesterday, so I'm just throwing it out there.
I am really excited about this, not because I care much about tokens, but the There is no loot message is demoralizing and dumb. There should always be something in your loot box. Maybe it's not what you wanted, but at least it was something physical and not just points.
mikesaunch asked:
So all these new dungeons and the Deathwing fight as well all seem to be in Dragonblight. Do you think Blizzard knew they were going to do this and set it up as such when they were making WotLK?
I would guess that Blizzard had an idea, especially because the books had to be written and the storylines had to be sorted out. Christie Golden's Twilight of the Aspects, for a long arc in the book, takes place at the Wyrmrest Temple and Dragonblight, so it's probably all planned out, for the most part.
After having just run End Time for the first time, it works. Being set in the Dragonblight really, really works.
Filed under: The Queue






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
loop_not_defined Sep 28th 2011 11:05AM
Will we be seeing a guide to "Things you cannot transmogrify" now that we can test it?
I tried doing the Barman's Shanker this morning, but stumbled into a major problem: I didn't have any one-handed daggers to test it with. And the Auction House is nearly empty. If you're going to test this all out, be sure to gather some low-level greens before copying your character over. :X
Shuckles Sep 28th 2011 11:09AM
It'd be fun to see, but I have a feeling we'd still see queue questions asking what can/cannot be transmorgified.
Drakkenfyre Sep 28th 2011 11:12AM
If you are on Alliance, go to the Deadmines. Kill Glubtok. He drops the Buzzer Blade. Prior to the revamp, it dropped off another boss, and was almost a guaranteed drop. Now Wowhead reports a slightly less drop rate, but you could clear up to him in less than two minutes (not counting travel time.)
The Dewd Sep 28th 2011 11:11AM
I know it's not set in stone yet but what sort of prices were you looking at to transmogrify an item? Does it change from slot to slot or are all slots the same?
loop_not_defined Sep 28th 2011 11:14AM
It was about ~26g to xmog my ilvl 365 one-handed axe.
Void Storage was 1000g to unlock, and 100g to deposit each item.
loop_not_defined Sep 28th 2011 11:15AM
I only had about 30 minutes to get onto the PTR this morning, unfortunately. I'll check it out tonight if nobody's done so in the mean time.
The Dewd Sep 28th 2011 12:01PM
Thanks loop!
luispintoaveiga Sep 28th 2011 12:04PM
Whoa... 100g per deposited item?!
Tirrimas Sep 28th 2011 12:29PM
Damn, 100g PER ITEM?
Is this the gold sink some were hoping for? :P
loop_not_defined Sep 28th 2011 1:23PM
Almost forgot, I did verify that the "lightsaber" weapons work for xmogging. Got the Argent Avenger to xmog to another sword.
brain314 Sep 28th 2011 8:35PM
If you think about it, 100g per item isn't that much different from the situation a lot of people have now. Bumping up from a 20-slot frostweave bag to a 22-slot embersilk bag costs about 300g for a 2-slot increase.
JattTheRogue Sep 29th 2011 1:30AM
@brain314: Yeah, two slots that you have permanently and can use over and over again for free after getting them. Void storage is like having to pay for the bag all over again every time you took something out and wanted to drop something else in. I hadn't planned on using the void storage much -- I'm just not much of a collector, in game or out -- but I had planned on dropping some of the holiday clothes and other things I got, used once but still wanted to keep, but if it has those prices I highly doubt I'll even unlock it.
loop_not_defined Sep 28th 2011 11:06AM
Also, Equipped Item Level / Average Item Level is now displayed on the character page.
The Dewd Sep 28th 2011 11:11AM
That's GREAT news! I'm glad they made that change.
adamjgp Sep 28th 2011 11:18AM
Great change! I hate how my pvp gear inflates my pve ilvl. Now instead of logging out to go see what my equipped ilvl is on the armory or getting an addon to do it, I can just open my character pane and view it directly. Quality of life improvements ftw.
wow Sep 28th 2011 11:20AM
Now this is a nice QoL improvement. I love it. :)
Shinanji
Grovinofdarkhour Sep 28th 2011 11:23AM
Woohoo! Useful information FTW.
Molly Sep 28th 2011 12:03PM
Yes! Finally!
Draelan Sep 28th 2011 2:08PM
It's about time! My guildies and I were just discussing this last night when one of our mages, who hadn't been able to raid in quite a while due to work, said his average ilvl was 371 for his PvE gear, not taking into account that the game calculates ilvl based on your best gear available, whether you're wearing it or not.
Sinthar Sep 28th 2011 11:07AM
Having the Deathwing fight include Dragonblight and the Wormrest temple sort of makes sense tbh. It seems to be the focus for dragons in Azeroth, and with the dragon soul being associated with all (dragon) aspects its only logical than the temple would feature in the encounter in some way (even if it were preparation, organising tactics with aspects etc etc)