Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: PTR day is a fun day
by Mathew McCurley 
Sep 28th 2011 at 11:00AM
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.
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 9 of 9)
joshychrist Sep 28th 2011 4:55PM
It has never been stated where n'zoth is right? Do you think its likely that those tentacles that burst out of deathwing during the raid are n'zoth and he's been riding around inside deathwing?
Kaahn Stewart Sep 28th 2011 5:58PM
At present, they only have Heroic. And if the Zandalari dungeons are any indication, they're likely to remain as such.
Sally Bowls Sep 28th 2011 7:22PM
re " It's not WoW's fault," I don't disagree with all that much but still.
The fact that the current raid design requires ten of an acceptable 2-3-5 combination, not all shaman healers, not 5 melee DPS, is a problem and is a design under the control of Blizzard. A casual guild I was in fell apart when we couldn't raid even though we could get 11-12 raiders show up.
The guild perk system helping to wipe out causal guilds was under Blizzard's control.
The accessibility challenges and all the dance mechanics in the raids resulting in considerably fewer raiders was under the control of Blizzard.
Noyou Sep 28th 2011 9:33PM
My casual guild went from 39 accounts pre-Cata to 179+ post Cata. We are a social guild that doesn't raid. (unless you count the occasional LK or BC raid. We just hit lvl 22. Exactly where did we die? If it wasn't for the Looking for Guild feature, I am guessing we would have maybe 80 accounts and probably be around lvl 10-14 which still isn't bad. #1 thing you need to do is label your guild correctly. If it is casual/social, market it as such. If you are a raiding guild, go with that. Just make sure to live up to your end of the bargain after the recruit joins.
SamLowry Sep 28th 2011 11:58PM
By making guild perks so attractive and in many cases a requirement, people fled from small guilds to join megaguilds which contained enough members that people no longer had to look far it they wanted to do a raid. The folks who still wanted to stay in their original guilds, however, are now screwed out of being able to join raid pugs since megaguilds are able to fill all the slots with their own members.
That's how Blizz helped to destroy small and/or casual guilds.
JattTheRogue Sep 29th 2011 1:34AM
Hm, that's odd. The guild all but one of my toons are in is made up of about 15 people total, with only 8 people with max-level characters. No one left when Cataclysm began; we've actually grown by a couple people in Cataclysm. We're level 16, so we're still getting some of the perks and keep leveling, and we're able to raid with our 8 by finding reliable puggers. I don't think Cataclysm destroyed us, but maybe I'm behind on the times.
Helston Sep 28th 2011 8:20PM
I demand that the header image for this week's Encrypted Text is shamelessly stolen by the queue!
http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/09/dwjoker2.jpg
Morgatho Sep 28th 2011 9:20PM
Two Q's4tQ: One, What is up with the big green head in thousand needles on the south west ridge of the shimmering flats?
And two, why are there unnecessary number of people requirements for getting guild group raid achievements? me and 5 of my guildys roflstomed BT the other night and it seems a little odd that you'd need 7-15 people to do stuff that 1-3 85's can do easily.
VioletArrows Sep 29th 2011 3:19AM
Because they designed the achievements to be done at level. :p
Shinae Sep 29th 2011 10:58AM
The head is from a Titan statue.
Xudiosist Sep 30th 2011 6:33AM
Noob gamer question for the Queue:
If patch 4.3 is the last patch of the expansion, and if a new expansion will be out probably six months after this patch (I'm guesstimating patch in November, expansion in May/June), and if acquiring legendaries usually takes a month to two months...
What is the point of having a legendary come out in 4.3, then? I just don't understand the logic to it. At most you'll get to have the daggers for a couple months, but to obtain the daggers you'll have run the hell out of Dragon Soul raid as it is and possibly be quite bored with it. And as a casual raider, by the time I get the chain done the new expansion will be coming out. Which will feature probably 526-600 crafted green daggers, level 83, that will be far superior to the legendaries. (See: LK's Shadowmourne replaced by greens).
Was just wondering!
Fafiq Sep 29th 2011 5:08AM
Question for The Queue: Are there any cool and useful Tanking Podcasts out there? The only one I've managed to find was The Guardian Tank, which looks like stopped working in June... Any suggestions?
Shinae Sep 29th 2011 10:56AM
The Convert to Raid podcast isn't specifically about tanking, but it has great tips about Firelands and raiding in general. I learned a lot about blood DK tanking in episode #5. It also has high-quality audio editing.
http://converttoraid.com/
Episode 9 of the Double O Podcast had a great discussion about tanking with representatives of each tanking class.
http://thedoubleopodcast.wordpress.com/
jrlibby714 Sep 29th 2011 8:43AM
Q for the Q:
what pet do Affliction warlocks use (for pve)?