The Queue: Catbed.jpg
by Michael Sacco 
Jan 8th 2012 at 12:00PM
This is a picture of my roommates' cat playing on my new bedding. Enjoy.
Exogenesis asked:
I've started a new project, which involves sort of writing a story about my character's levelling process, from her eyes. I chose a draenei, due to a unique prospect, but I'm a little confused - in Ammen Vale, when you hand the blood elf plans to Vindicator Aldar, he says that the blood elves followed them there.
Followed them from where? Draenor? I thought blood elves didn't go there until after the draenei left?
Kael'thas and his blood elf followers were in Outland after the Third War; they went there with Illidan and Vashj. They took over Tempest Keep, which was the main draenei "ship," and began takeovers of Keep's four satellite ships (the Arcatraz, the Botanica, the Mechanar, and the Exodar). The draenei escaped Outland by flying the Exodar through the Twisting Nether, but blood elf saboteurs caused the ship to crash on Azeroth.
razion asked:
In Stratholme, the cultists and acolytes will yell, when a set are killed within a ziggurat, that an "Ash'ari Crystal has fallen!" And to try to re-summon it later on. I am curious if these crystals are unique to Stratholme, or if they are used in all ziggurats? Are they perhaps only unique to Spirit Towers?
I have yet to hear mention of these crystals outside Stratholme. What are the origins behind the Ash'ari Crystals? They are summoned, but does this mean the crystals are somewhat sentient, like minions? Are there souls inside the crystals?
So, in a nutshell, what do we know about Ash'ari Crystals?
Nothing. They were intended as a locking mechanism of sorts for the Baron's portion of Stratholme, and there's no lore for them besides that.
antieuclid asked:
Is there a setting that would let me hear music, npc voices, etc, but wouldn't play battle sounds/spells/etc? I've been playing with the sound off since launch because I don't like listening to fights, but I keep feeling like I'm missing out on all the music and voice acting.
NPC and combat sounds are on the same slider in sound options, so there's no way to turn NPC sounds on and leave combat ones off in the default UI. I think you might be able to do it with mods. Music, though, is its own separate slider.
johnny.ramos asked:
ive been having a little issue lately, not sure what the deal is. its happened 3 times so far. try to log in to WoW and it says my password is wrong. i then cant log into battle.net. gotta change my password, then everything is fixed. has happened three times in as many weeks
You're probably being hacked and should get an authenticator and a virus/malware scanner right away.
ramsayroderick asked:
This may a be a dumb question, but I'll go ahead and ask anyway. Do you know if it's possible to request Blizz to take experience points AWAY from your toon, so you can go backwards a level or two?
You can certainly ask a GM, but they're absolutely going to say no. They don't de-level characters and never have.
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 7)
Everclear Jan 8th 2012 12:08PM
Q4tQ: Besides humans (which far and away need it the most), which race do you feel needs the graphic upgrade the most? And do you think this will finally - FINALLY - happen in 5.0? Considering all the gear assets they'll have to readjust for each race, it seems the longer they take, the more work they're gonna have to do. So the sooner the better, right?
Lewton Jan 8th 2012 12:44PM
Gnomes! Azeroths best race needs best models asap!
Rhüarc Jan 8th 2012 12:43PM
There has been a great deal of speculation that this is why Goblins and Worgen are excluded from the ability to play Monks. With Monks having a roll ability, there will need to be graphical updates (or so I've heard) and the Goblins and Worgen are brand spankin' new models that would be a waste of resources to go back and update at this point in time. So the pre-Cata races will be getting model updates to go along with their new monkishness.
At least that's what I've heard.
eirinefrostblade Jan 8th 2012 12:51PM
It would be nice if my night elf females had an ass...
Or the troll females, all over. Just.... Yeesh.
Twill Jan 8th 2012 12:59PM
Honestly?
ALL OF THEM. Other than the TBC women, pretty much every single race is fugly in my book. It used to be okay, seven years ago, when the game was new and those graphics were the norm.
Well it's been seven years. Update the graphics.
P.S. -- I only play WoW, but have you SEEN Aion's graphics? Holy SHIT those are so much better. Lets move in that direction while keeping the fun cartoony vibe please!
Scott Jan 8th 2012 2:07PM
Or...
Worgen and Goblins were still being finalized while Mists of Pandaria was in its development stage - so they may already have the capacity for rolls and kicks built-in or ready to be easily added.
I can't imagine Blizzard would make the mistake of not putting hooks into current model design to allow for more customization. Frankly, the original models were likely created using software they don't even use anymore, so the aggravation of updating humans, et. al. is probably only slightly less painful than starting from scratch.
N-train Jan 8th 2012 3:22PM
@Rhüarc
While you make valid points, I would bet that the fact that Worgens and Goblins have very few class restrictions, combined with the fact that they are brand new and popular is more the reason they cannot be monks. Graphics update or not, the last thing Blizz (or anyone) really wants is more Worgens and Goblins.
I remember them saying at Blizzcon that all the old races will be getting new animations for the different stances and abilities the Monk has available (tanking, dpsing, healing or something like that), but that's it, unless there's something else I'm not aware of. I remember a lot of people thinking that a graphical update was coming with Cata, considering the overhaul to a lot of other core systems and the new 1-60 leveling experience.
Drakkenfyre Jan 8th 2012 3:39PM
Twill, I am going to show you something. I want you to look at each of them. Not the whole video, just a little bit of each.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwoMXx9WaRc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXFUwl4HnDg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vEHnFRdYu4
Notice a trend there?
WarCraft has it's own artstyle. It's not going to be changed to be near-photorealistic like Aion or other MMO's, ever.
The graphics are designed to remain consistant to that artstyle. It also has the side-effect of being easier on system resources.
You cannot compare something like Aion to the game.
You can upgrade the graphics, which they had been doing little bit by little bit (new water, new fire, real-time shadows, higher-resolution textures) but you reach a point where you lose the old artstyle despite trying to stay consistent to it, and you actually get worse as the models may stop looking like they fit in the environment, or everything looks plastic.
They will never change the game to be photorealistic. If you are holding out for that, stop wishing now.
Do some of the models need upgrading? Absolutely. I would love it if Human males actually had full, modeled fingers. It would be great if some of the low-poly models such as squirrels got an upgrade instead of using their same models from WarCraft 3. It would be great if all of the original races received a few more polygons fillings out the odd glitches when they do certain things like raising their arms. But saying "Look at Aion, OMG, let's be more like that!" is not fully understanding the reason they won't.
Cennic Jan 8th 2012 3:49PM
@Twill
I agree that it wouldn't hurt to update the graphics, but if they upgrade ALL the graphics and not just the character models I hope they make it optional, for those of us with computers that can't handle graphics like Aions.
I doubt they would change their stance on that now, however, being they want their game to be accessible to as many people as possible and a lot of people would lose access to it should they make it require a better computer to play it on.
It would suck for everyone that has been playing for seven years just barely getting by with the computer that they have to stop playing until they can afford another computer. I just can't see Blizzard putting people into that sort of position or risking subscriptions to do so.
Pyromelter Jan 8th 2012 5:40PM
Imo trolls and nelf males need it the worst. I also hate forsaken models and would love a belf-banshee inspired model.
Rhu, you have it wrong with goblins and worgen. The reason they won't be monks is more about lore and their starting zones. Since the phased starting zones of those races are before mop, there is no good reason to shoehorn in a monk trainer, and they weren't going to make a special post cata starting area just for goblins and worgen.
Draykin Jan 8th 2012 5:57PM
About the whole Goblin and Worgen Monks, I imagine it's because of the way the starting areas work, it wouldn't make sense for Pandaren to be at Gilneas or Kezan during the timeline of the starting area. Infact any change for what classes are available to them would be hard to explain now, you couldn't say that they started learning how to be a different class because you'd have to completely change the timeline.
It doesn't really work for Draenei either, but we've already seen Draenei Monks. And it wouldn't be to hard to explain a Pandaren Monk living/visiting Silvermoon.
mibu.work1 Jan 8th 2012 9:25PM
Trolls. Females can't blink and males have a permanently dislocated shoulder. Also, that blue-green skin they have? That's fur. Yea, you'd never know to look at it.
Andre Jan 8th 2012 12:08PM
QftQ: Any news on that "mentoring" system that Blizz said they were hoping to implement?
Mycroft Jan 8th 2012 2:51PM
If by that you mean letting me scale my level to adjust to a friend's, so we can both play together with reasonable challenge on both our parts, yes, so very very yes. I need this.
I have friends that I want to play with, but they're super casual, and don't have max-level toons. There's nothing I can do with them except level an alt to their level, or power them through a dungeon, and that includes not enough Fun for me or them.
Would also be nice to scale down to 60 and take 39 of my best friends through Molten Core, but I'd rather they focus on the whole playing-with-friends part.
Nick Jan 8th 2012 4:39PM
So much this, scale down but not up. Though i think MC wouldnt need 40 players at 60 these days. Would love this feature more than anything
Except aoe loot. Blizz are so behind the curve here i actually get a bit angry thinking about it.
digitalscribe Jan 9th 2012 3:34PM
I think this would be awesome for the dungeon finder/LFR tool, we've already seen this done for the scaling tests on the PTR this way, pug it with a true random set of toons/levels, or just throw together a group of 5/25 random level toons who you want to run, and then pick/random into it, scaling as needed to create a 5/25 man group. This would be a huge benefit to new players and older due to making it so max level players could go back for nostalgia runs/xmog/help guildies level/etc. Since this scaling would only be through the dungeon tool or LFR, this would still allow an 85 to go back and solo at max level if they feel like it, they'd just have to go to the instance itself like we already do today. Obviously the dungeon choices would be restricted to the highest level instance your lowest level party member can get into. Yes there is the potential for this to be a bit overpowered to downgrade an 85 with all their abilities, but haven't they said a dozen times that nobody is worrying about lower level instance balance, especially with the prevalence of BoA's on about 75% of the toons I see in lower level instances anymore, surely this could be tweaked to get "close enough".
Swifteye Jan 8th 2012 12:09PM
I love any and all Queues that include at least one cat picture... :)
Methuus Jan 8th 2012 12:09PM
Okay, this is more of a vent than a question. I know that it's really just a matter of "gameplay trumps lore [or logic]"...
But it really bugs me that during the final Deathwing fight that four (4!) times we're told "Deathwing is unleashing the Final Cataclysm that will destroy the World!!!11one!!".
It bugs me because it raises the extremely obvious question of: if DW had that kind of power, why the f--- didn't he use it immediately months ago?
Sure, we can fanwank and come up with some explanation like "he couldn't do it until his body was broken by the Demon Soul", or whatever. But it's still stupid, sloppy writing on Blizzard's part.
Imnick Jan 8th 2012 12:24PM
Maybe he can only use it when:
A) He is sitting in the Maelstrom
B) All his limbs are falling off
While it'd speed up his plans, the state he is in where you fight him probably means he would die eventually if you left him alone (however, he'd destroy the world first so you can't do that) which isn't really desirable.
Atypical Lemur Jan 8th 2012 12:35PM
My 2 copper:
During the Cold War we had MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. The USSR would not attack the USA because they knew that there was enough nukes around that there was no way to win without being destroyed as well.
The last fight is called "The Madness of Deathwing." While up until that point he's flying around unmaking the land and destroying everything he may have had the power to release the final cataclysm there is still enough sanity left in him to realize that by destroying Azeroth and everything in and on it means destroying himself. He's a powerful destructive super dragon. Not suicidal.
During the Madness of Deathwing fight, 25 of the greatest heroes of Azeroth, the World Shaman, and the remaining Dragon Aspects are there to finish him off, he's been hit by the Dragon Soul weapon a few times, is falling into the malestrom and sees his end is near. At that point it's "I'm gonna go so I'll take as many of you as I can with me" or at that point he's fallen into so much crazy he can no longer see that destroying the whole planet will be his end as well.
TLDR: Watch Star Trek 2 when Kahn uses the Genesis device at the end.....Same thing.