Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Research like it's 1995
by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 18th 2012 at 11:00AM
Do you like WoW Insider? Do you like WoW? Do you like the internet? Then you should be concerned about SOPA and PIPA, even if you're not living in the United States. Go read about them.
holtzmanneffect asked:
do you think the world will survive an entire day without Wikipedia? Some people on the Internet will have their first taste of a post-apocalyptic future tomorrow!
I didn't last very long. Thirty minutes in, I regressed to playing MindMaze.
Puntable asked:
Were there a lot of expectations that the previous expansions would happen sooner than they did? I'm not sure where this idea that MoP will be "soon" is coming from. Sure Blizzard recently said they *would like* to put expansions out faster, but they have been saying that since the release of the Burning Crusade. Is it all just a big pile of wishful thinking?
With every expansion (and some content patches), someone at Blizzard comments that the developers are trying to make releases more rapid -- less time between expansions, less time between content patches, and so on and so forth. Like you said, it never happens. I'm not getting my hopes up for a quick Mists of Pandaria release. We expected Cataclysm to arrive rapidly after patch 3.3, but we spent a full year raiding Icecrown Citadel.
After seven years of World of Warcraft, I'll believe a rapid release schedule when I see it. Blizzard's been trying to improve over the course of Cataclysm, but over World of Warcraft's entire lifetime, Blizzard has always been trending toward a slower release rate rather than a faster one, despite its stated goals. Blizzard's got great devs and I believe they are capable of speeding up their release schedule in a meaningful way, but they haven't managed it yet.
kaminari asked:
with account achievements in MoP, what does your magic 8 ball says about opening reputation stuff account wide once you unlock it with your first character?
How do you anticipate the raid finder working in the first tier of the new expansion? Run Heroics to gear for raid finder to gear for Normals?
The Raid Finder, I believe, is meant to be optional. You'll likely be able to go into normal difficulty raids with 5-man heroic gear and be able to progress without issue. The Raid Rinder will help, of course, but I don't think it will be mandatory.
@davegw asked:
Do you think they'll keep the same 10/25 man shared lockout system in Mists?
Yes.
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 2 of 7)
Svylva Jan 18th 2012 11:26AM
Thank you Fubar. I am dumb. Exactly what I was looking for.
Nick Jan 18th 2012 11:27AM
Battle.net's character profiles also show known/unknown recipes under the professions tab.
ravyncat Jan 18th 2012 11:31AM
You can see what recipes or patterns your character knows on the armory. Just click the profession tab.
It will also list those you don't know.
What it doesn't do is tell you where to get them. But at least it is something.
darksky Jan 18th 2012 12:01PM
Svylva,
If you'd be up for an in-game solution to that problem, I'd highly recommend the add-on Acki's Recipe List. It scans your profession windows when you open them and not only will show you which recipes you don't have yet, but where they can be acquired. If you're so inclined, you can also browse by acquisition type, or -- if you're passing through an area and want to see what's available there -- by location as well.
As a certified obsessive pattern collector, I wouldn't WoW without it! (Even works with Cooking if you're hunting down that 160th recipe. *g*)
hicks Jan 18th 2012 12:52PM
I'm hunting down my 200th recipe. I should probably re-enable that addon.
datgrl Jan 25th 2012 6:12AM
I've been wondering that, too. Blizzard is blocked by our proxy but wowhead is not.
Shinae Jan 18th 2012 11:08AM
I've never expected imminent expansion releases before its beta was out for a couple months, so I don't know why anyone would have expected Cataclysm's release shortly after 3.3. The very earliest I expected Cata was September 2010.
Drakkenfyre Jan 18th 2012 2:44PM
The whole "it's coming out soon after BlizzCon!" was hopelessly optimistic.
They haven't even done the female Panderan model. The zones aren't complete, the bosses aren't finalized. Hell, the gear probably isn't finalized.
Cataclysm was started BEFORE Wrath of the Lich King was released. It took how many months before we actually saw the female Worgen model? And in the end, they shipped it unfinished. The Worgen starting zone was admittedly short-changed, they said "we ran out of time", and that's why it got cut off. Sure, they had a bigger job to do, but Cataclysm had two and half years of development time. Mists of Pandaria was only in early alpha form at BlizzCon. With the zones, any changes to existing zones (maybe cleaning up some of Outland), completely redoing the talent system for the 4th time, implementing the pet combat system, and redoing them so they are account-wide, and more, you are delusional if you think this thing is coming out anytime soon.
Chucks Jan 18th 2012 11:09AM
Oh my God I loved Mind Maze. "The world is your oyster. You've found a pearl!"
Revynn Jan 18th 2012 11:09AM
Im dusting off my level 83 Ret Paladin and switching her to Prot/Holy in a last ditch effort to restore some sense of interest in the character before I delete her to make room for a monk.
All the stuff I'm finding on Prot, however, is all aimed towards end game and raiding, while I really just need the basics. Something like Rossi's "How to Tank for non-tanks" article, but for Paladins. I tried googling, but nothing that seemed current came up.
Has the WoW Insider Paladin team done something like that recently? Is there a Holy version as well?
Nina Katarina Jan 18th 2012 11:19AM
On prot:
Reforge mastery on everything you possibly can, gem for mastery and enchant for mastery until you hit mastery cap. There's an addon that can tell you if you've got Combat Table Coverage - I forget the name but it should be easy enough to google.
Your single target rotation will have Crusader Strike - filler - CS - filler - CS - Shield of the Righteous. Fillers include judging, Avenger's Shield, Holy Wrath, twiddling your thumbs. Multi target replace Crusader Strike with Hammer of the Righteous.
Get a good threat monitoring system. I like Tauntmaster, it lets me get back aggro with a single button click.
Use all those damage reduction cooldowns, they're not doing you any good sitting on your toolbar. Get the Divine Protection glyph, and carry around a stack of Dust of Disappearance to swap it out depending on whether a given fight features magic damage or physical damage.
Get the Mirror of Broken Images if you can stand to grind Tol Barad. It's still a great little trinket.
Hal Jan 18th 2012 11:25AM
The prot-pally columnist here has done a good job, actually. There was an article about rotations, and another about hitting the CTC cap (i.e. how to prioritize stats).
The only other real consideration is CD usage, and that . . . I'm not sure they've written a column about that here. But with only 4 CDs, you should be able to intuit it after a while.
Devin Jan 18th 2012 11:33AM
Here is where I got my start :) GL!!!
http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31912
TimR Jan 18th 2012 12:10PM
Don't delete until they confirm if/how they are going to change character caps! I'm very hopeful for the "50 Character limit, but no server caps" solution.
qwerty31 Jan 18th 2012 12:53PM
Any chance I could get some info like this for druid tanks? I'm looking to do the same thing.
Thanks!
Apple Jan 18th 2012 2:08PM
On holy-
Use holy shock on cooldown. holy light for low damage, divine light for heavy, and flash of light for emergencies. Spend holy power on word of glory. in an aoe environment, replace a few divine lights with holy radiance and word of glory with light of dawn. judge once a minute. keep beacon on the tank.
reforge for spirit until you're raid geared.
Hal Jan 18th 2012 2:26PM
Targeted searching of the WoW Insider columns tagged for paladins should reveal everything you need, plus some other gems from the 2011 end of things. The most relevant:
How to roll a new paladin tank
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/16/protection-paladin-tanking-for-newbies/
Protection Paladin 101
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/03/11/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-protection-paladin-101/
An updated look at the prot paladin rotation
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-an-updated-look-at-the-prot-palad/
Everything is of more concern to endgame tanks, but this is enough to get anyone started. As I said, though, searching here will take you far.
Adam Holisky Jan 18th 2012 11:13AM
I enjoyed 1995.
IRC, NNTP, Hotline...
Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise.
Hal Jan 18th 2012 11:27AM
Warcraft II!
Pyromelter Jan 18th 2012 11:35AM
The year of my greatest accomplishment of my life: Graduating high school. (It was the greatest accomplishment not necessarily due to academics, but rather that I didn't kill myself despite it being 4 years of absolute psychological torture.)