The Queue: Undertow
by Mathew McCurley 
Oct 2nd 2011 at 12:00PM
From Sacco, for whom I'm covering The Queue today:
Enough with these music shenanigans, Sacco. It's on to shameless plugs and cross-branding. If you haven't seen the Legendary show on Gamebreaker.tv, you should check it out because I like Legendary and totally got to cohost this week's episode. So, as loyal Mat McCurley fans, you should check it out.Here's our last weekend music recommendation. I saw Warpaint at the Hollywood Bowl with the Smith Westerns, Panda Bear, Arctic Monkeys, and TV on the Radio a week or two ago. Undertow's bassist is sister to Shannyn Sossamon, who you may remember from such films as A Knight's Tale. Shannyn also used to be in the band!
Busterzx asked:
Have they announced what raids will be available through the Raid Finder? Also, will the amount of trash in some raids be reduced to speed things up for the average pug?
Only the Dragon Soul raid will be available in the Raid Finder at launch, with the prospect of more dungeons being added. Since Raid Finder is a totally new difficulty level than normal or heroic, the raid sort of has to be back-tuned or the mechanics of some fights even completely changed in order to facilitate easy groupage. Blizzard has said that over time more could be added but that it wants to keep the Raid Finder featuring current content.
Iownwolf asked:
Have we heard any indication of whether or not Firelands will still award VP when Dragon Soul releases? Current trends would point towards yes, but it's a new "feature"
Firelands bosses will probably still award VP, much like how the tier 11 bosses still award VPs in decreased amounts. Firelands will likely undergo the same set of changes.
Dennis asked:
I enjoyed the cataclysm zone post mortem articles, are you planning on finishing the series?
Yes. Uldum's post-mortem article got delayed because of a lot of work we all had to do. It hit the back burner. Uldum will go live (most likely) this week, however, and Twilight Highlands shortly thereafter.
thedoctor2031 asked:
Do you think they will ever make the raid finder include normal and heroic difficulty? Or do you think they plan to keep it as a pre-normal part of the tier?
No. The Raid Finder was created specifically to give players a new way to enjoy content that, historically, a very small set of people got to experience. Raid Finder raids are meant to be their own difficulty, have their own rules and lockouts, and provide a place for non-serious raiders, alts, casual players, and everything in between, to have a positive experience raiding without committing to hefty raid schedules.
Stephen asked:
Has there been any word yet on a black Friday sale, like they did last year? I finally got my wife playing , and would love to buy Wrath at the discounted price.
Blizzard has historically put WoW and its subsequent expansions on sale during the holidays for greatly discounted prices, and it is becoming somewhat of a tradition. I wouldn't be surprised if they do it again this year. One of the best ways to get your WoW accounts up to speed is to wait for these sales because they are great, price-wise.
Also, to get a little tin-foil hatty, I think we're going to see a new retail box at BlizzCon this year that includes everything up to Cataclysm for one price, and whatever the new expansion is. Barrier to entry is still a problem with expansions like this, so Blizzard is going to have to streamline that process.
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 1 of 9)
Bellajtok Oct 2nd 2011 12:06PM
Any news on new Engineering recipes? It seems like most other professions are getting something nice in 4.3.
llcjay2003 Oct 2nd 2011 12:17PM
Good question. I think that in this expansion, engineering has received little love. We have about 4-5 items we can sell for decent money. While I know that eng has always been about utility, it seems like we didn't get much of that either this time around. In Wrath, we got MOLL-E, Jeeves, Saronite Bombs, and the Northrend port thingy (Wormhole something). This time, we got a Loot-a-rang (which should be an AoE loot device) and the Obsidian Bolt Launcher, or whatever it is called.
The cogwheels are nice at least.
Arrohon Oct 2nd 2011 12:22PM
Even though they can be used by non-engineers, you also got the chopper in Wrath. Cata has been fairly disappointing for engineers.
MrJackSauce Oct 2nd 2011 12:32PM
"In Wrath, we got MOLL-E, Jeeves, Saronite Bombs, and the Northrend port thingy (Wormhole something)."
I also have an... who am i kidding i have 3... engineers and tbh, I think it's time for another profession to get really neat stuff over an expansion. Sure thing we have to go to NR for some of our perks but at least our current perk isn't "let loose a bunch of origami things!"
I also have a scribe and I love writing, so inscription is dear to me.
Swifteye Oct 2nd 2011 12:50PM
*wonders what Alchemy's getting, other than to NOT be able to transmute epic gems*
........... *totally isn't bitter... totally*
Karcharos Oct 2nd 2011 1:13PM
Actually, according to wowhead it looks like we *ARE* getting epic transmutes. (no mats known yet)
And JCs will be learning epic cuts from dropped Tomes.
http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=195723/4-3-preview-professions-holiday-pets-spell-effects-and-more
Oh, and that wasn't Undertow. This is Undertow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYNkVNXlfkw
Karcharos Oct 2nd 2011 1:16PM
Oh and Truegold? Use in exactly one (vanity) item (so far).
http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=71965
Get ready to liquidate anything you don't personally need.
Angus Oct 2nd 2011 1:54PM
traditionally, Blizzard gives engineers nice things at the beginning of an expansion, adds 1 pattern, maybe 2 in the first patch, and then promptly ignores the profession while giving every other profession things they can use added in at the newest top ilevel.
Blacksmithing got patterns in molten front and in FL. Tailors, too.
Engineering got something to give hunters and... oh, everything was for Hunters. Nothing to benefit the engineer (unless they were one) and nothing at the actual top level of gear.
Expect this to continue.
Katherine Oct 2nd 2011 6:16PM
AND in Cata (or the pre-cata patch) they nerfed all of our tinkers, making most of them unsafe to use, and making the (unsafe) rocket boosts go on the belt, along with everything else.
Bellajtok Oct 2nd 2011 7:11PM
Sigh...It's so sad. Even if Blizzard can't keep thinking of awesome new items for us to make, it'd be nice to have a few things. I mean, the mage T13 looks like it was made by an engineer in places. And tinkers were such a great idea, but now most of them are pretty much unusable due to sharing slots with each other. Additional mobility, empowered potions, brief trinket-like stat boosts, and other fun. Personally, I still tinker the parachute onto all of my cloaks, and I'd love to have improved mana potions again- definitely would be a bonus for my healing. But as it stands, I'm required to use Synapse Springs as my one bonus, and as soon as I get a better helm it's time to replace my goggles.
Joe P Oct 2nd 2011 11:34PM
Engineers need Town-in-a-box, I'm just saying
Helper Oct 2nd 2011 12:07PM
How is Blizzard addressing all of this time traveling? Isn't it horribly weakening the fabric of reality or something?
MusedMoose Oct 2nd 2011 12:31PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_Ry8J_jdw
Smurk Oct 2nd 2011 12:44PM
Merely a backset.
Gyreth Oct 2nd 2011 1:28PM
Wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff.
icepyro Oct 2nd 2011 3:04PM
What pisses me off is that in reality there is cause and effect. If you travel back in time and remove items, how are those items present for other things that have happened in the past. Unless you say that every time there is time travel, it is to some alternate dimensional version of the past or future and not the reality you return to afterwards. Kind of like Back to the Future, except Marty is stuck with coming back to his timeline every time instead of the branch he created.
But then, while that makes sense, it means there is no point in the time travel in the first place except for the experience of those involved, and to recover Deus Ex Machina items that...
You know. It all just became clear to me now. That is exactly it. Except that makes half of the Knaak books non-canon for our present Azeroth and... I'm kind of okay with that.
Elmo Oct 2nd 2011 5:41PM
Exactly, why isn't the 'grandfather paradox' all over Thrall taking the Dragon soul?
wouldn't that mean, Malygos would never go insane, the Dragonmaw would never enslave Alextrasza and the whole situation in Night of the Dragon would all never occur.
(grandfather paradox btw is if you travel back in time and kill your own grandfather before your father was created wouldn't that mean that you wouldn't exist and thus would be unable to kill your grandfather?)
Bellajtok Oct 2nd 2011 6:44PM
I'm going to say this falls under a predestination paradox, and therefore cricumvents the grandfather paradox. If the Dragon Soul disappeared, we likely would never have to take it, and so it would not disappear; therefore once we take it, we fall into a paradox unless we return it. But as long as we return it eventually, the "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey bits" paradox means it's okay.
Also, we're running with the Aspect of Time. I think he can hold down a few paradoxes.
Helper Oct 3rd 2011 11:13AM
Anything but our regular forward-at-a-steady-pace time travel makes my head hurt.
The taking of the Dragon Soul is what really kills me. All the other time travel isn't such a big deal. A few people help Thrall escape, a few extra warriors on Mount Hyjal, something going on behind the Guardian as he opens the Black Portal, all of this was designed to preserve the time stream. Now we seem to be taking a sledgehammer to the time stream.
Vaniya Oct 2nd 2011 12:12PM
Hi all!
Question(s) for the Queue:
Can Sylvanas' banshee form leave her body and possess other people?
Where, vertically, is the mage tower in Stormwind's mage-trainers' room?
As for the End Time instance, what happened to Bolvar? What happened to Dalaran? Those powerful forces should have somethng to say about the end of the World.
Thanks :D
-Vaniya