The Queue: Why I welcome the Dragon Soul nerf and why you should, too
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 19th 2012 at 11:00AM
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.
The progressive Dragon Soul nerf that was announced last night should have been expected by everyone. It's something Blizzard has done constantly, and I'm a tad surprised that so many people feel like it came out of the blue.
The progressive Dragon Soul nerf that was announced last night should have been expected by everyone. It's something Blizzard has done constantly, and I'm a tad surprised that so many people feel like it came out of the blue.
The biggest complaint I've heard is that the Raid Finder was meant for the easy modes. The Raid Finder, while good, isn't for everyone. Some people really hate pugging -- so much so that they'd rather not play the game than have to pug. There are some people who are just interested in running content with their guild, and if their guild doesn't want to run the Raid Finder, then it's normal modes.
The Dragon Soul raid nerf will do nothing more than allow a wider base to see more content -- and that's a good thing for the game, for the community, and for the future of WoW. And that is something we should all be supportive of. Even more so, there are groups struggling on various aspects of normal and heroic Dragon Soul. If you're not, that's awesome. Pat on the back, tip of the hat. But ... not everyone is so lucky.
If you're hardcore and don't want raid with the progressive nerf active, just turn it off at the entrance. Problem solved; now let's all go kill some internet dragons.
Philster asked:
What pop culture references should make it into Mists of Pandaria, and what shouldn't?
Anything about Doctor Who shouldn't make it in. Everything about SeaQuest DSV should.
Thundrek asked:
What's the Blizzard take on the SOPA bill? What would it mean if it passes for sites likes these?
Blizzard hasn't taken any official stand, and neither has Activision.
What would it mean for a site like WoW Insider? To be honest, I don't know. I do know that our parent company, AOL, has lawyers who would be heavily consulted to determine the feasibility of running content like WoW Moviewatch or Around Azeroth. We have a good relationship with Blizzard, so I don't think anything would happen on that front, but could P Diddy Puff Mommy get upset that some artist is making fun of his/her stuff in a WoW movie parody? Yup. And could that mean we'd be in trouble with SOPA/PIPA? Yup.
Either way, if it happens, we'll just have to wait and see what the particular results are.
Also, all this should only be taken for my own ramblings and not in any way a statement by the site or our parent company.
Robert asked:
How much time does a person have to spend staring at their own armory before they can be considered a narcissist?
After 11 hours. Ten hours doesn't count. It doesn't.
Grimmwrath asked:
Not sure if anyone noticed this, but a major retailer's website (wal-mart) advertised a "pre-order" of MoP, citing a ship date of April 1st. The picture wasn't even a finished box cover. What gives?
That information is horribly inaccurate and should not be trusted. Best Buy reached a new level with this when it even put out a sign advertising Diablo III's release date as Feb. 1 but later had to take it down because it was wrong. Blizzard is the only source you should trust (and well, us, when we report on what Blizzard says).
The box art itself isn't an indicator of anything, either. It's just whatever their internal graphic artists came up with. Probably made in MS Paint.
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 12)
Stella Jan 19th 2012 11:00AM
I just started using Twitter (yeah about time I know).
My question is this: Who's twitter feeds should I follow from the Blizzard's team if I want to stay updated on lore and gameplay developments?
xvkarbear Jan 19th 2012 11:18AM
@warcraft is really the only one who announces anything.
But you can be guaranteed if they release information on it.. @WoWInsider and @Boubouille_MMO will retweet it.
Shinae Jan 19th 2012 11:19AM
You may already realize this, but no Blizzard employees are going to talk about new WoW developments until the content is released (or maybe in beta/PTR ).
The following is courtesy of Adam from
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/25/17-blizzard-employees-to-follow-on-twitter/
@mikemorhaime Mike Morhaime, President & Co-Founder
@rob_pardo Rob Pardo, Executive VP, Game Design
@chrismetzen Chris Metzen, Executive VP, Story & Franchise Development
@Hordeland Russell Brower, Director of Audio, Sound
@mumper Cory Stockton, Lead Content Designer, World of Warcraft
@davekosak Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer, World of Warcraft
@neutralground Ilja Rotelli, Director, Global Community & eSports
@robpsimpson Rob Simpson, eSports Program Manager
@bashiok Bashiok, Community Manager
@daxxarri Daxxarri, Community Manager
@kaivaxblizzard Kaivax, Community Manager
@lylirra Lylirra, Community Manager
@sachant Nethaera, Community Manager
@talkingcongas Zarhym, Community Manager
@sdlistenin Shon Damron, PR Manager
@kathunter Kat Hunter, Licensing Manager & BlizzCon Personality
@kimaphan Kim Phan, Senior Producer & eSports Personality
loop_not_defined Jan 19th 2012 12:02PM
Just to spread the word: @Boubouille_MMO is the ONLY Twitter account representing MMO-Champion. Everything else is a copy-cat spambot and has no affiliation with the website.
Muse Jan 19th 2012 2:29PM
@BlizzardCSEU_EN (or replace the EN with FR, RU, DE, ES as wanted) Community support.
Drysta Jan 19th 2012 3:50PM
I follow most of these folk and love keeping up on dev postings too. Sometimes, as much as I love to hear the big news, seeing the little things - their humor, the unrelated quips or digs at each other - brings a real sense of community. This isn't some show they are putting on, these guys truly love the game, their jobs and interacting with us out here.
But to correct Adam slightly:
"...and I'm a tad surprised that so many people feel like it came out of the blue."
But it *did* come out of the blue... forum poster. ;)
ghola Jan 19th 2012 11:07AM
How badly does SWTOR need LFD? And how badly does WOW need a more personalized method of storytelling, making my toon the true hero (rather than that lame Tyrion Fordring)?
Adam Holisky Jan 19th 2012 11:19AM
SWTOR - BADLY. I'm actively discouraged to find groups because of it. Why spend 40 minutes looking for a group when I can just hop in WoW and get one right away? Fuck wasting my time. My time is more important to me than anything else, and I won't spend it sitting around spamming general chat.
WoW Story Telling - Probably could use some infusion of the SWTOR system, but I'm not sure that'll ever happen. I do think WoW is on to something though with the daily quest system in Hyjal. That could be adapated into more personalized storytelling (less grindy, more phasey).
kingoomieiii Jan 19th 2012 11:29AM
LF TANK AND HEAL FOR LBRS, HAVE SUMMON!
I've already spent about 10 hours of my life saying that up there, I don't need to beg on my hands and knees for the privilege of carrying a pug through a Flashpoint.
John Jan 19th 2012 11:48AM
"LF TANK AND HEAL FOR LBRS, HAVE SUMMON!
I've already spent about 10 hours of my life saying that up there, I don't need to beg on my hands and knees for the privilege of carrying a pug through a Flashpoint."
News flash: if you aren't the tank or healer, you probably ain't carrying squat.
Smashbolt Jan 19th 2012 12:37PM
*Sarcasm on*
But Adam, won't somebody PLEASE think of the community?!
In six months from now, when everyone's at 50, it'll be so totally worth it having to stay on fleet and spam general chat for hours at a time over multiple nights to find someone, anyone to run Hammer Station with you, because the next week, when you finally get your run, someone will ninja your boots. And unlike a DF group, you can totally trash their reputation in general chat afterward! Never mind that in that time you could have done Hammer Station 20+ times through a dungeon finder and won your item 7 times over. This is about server community GODDAMMIT!
*Sarcasm off*
I'm leveling in TOR with my partner. We got to the Esseles Flashpoint and after trying for a while to fill a group and nobody being interested, we gave up and duo'ed it. So yeah, low level Flashpoints are already becoming difficult to run. TOR needs a dungeon finder.
brain314 Jan 19th 2012 12:50PM
SWTOR needs a lot of work. That's why I'm rather disappointed that their latest patch is a new dungeon and some fixes, rather than major upgrades and additions such as their AH, vendors, PVP, LFG, etc... things that keep me playing the game, rather than think "WoW is so much better this that respect". If the game is fun and not aggravating to play, then I don't care about more content. I made a 2nd char and am at the point where I'm thinking, "Great, now I have to do Coruscant again."
Also, I admit SWTOR did good with the full voice missions and cutscenes. But I also don't really care about the game making my character the hero that saves the universe, because he/she isn't. There are no statues of me anywhere. People won't see a plaque in the middle of town that reads "SO-AND-SO, Destroyer of Deathwing!" Nobody knows who I am, so it feels like pandering for the story to make me out as some savior.
There are exceptions to this. For example, when someone completes Dragonwrath and you get that whole show in the sky, that's cool, because people WILL know who you are, and what you've accomplished. Those are epic tasks that rightfully should make you feel heroic. But not killing 50 rakghouls and finding 10 spare parts.
Pyromelter Jan 19th 2012 1:43PM
SWTOR needs to allow addons, in fact it should have allowed addons from launch. Any game that does not allow addons is at a significant disadvantage to wow. Part of what makes wow so awesome is being able to make your game screen look literally like anything you want it to. And for some retarded reason game producing companies don't hire the addon makers who make awesome UI elements, and create awful default UI's.
jfofla Jan 19th 2012 1:50PM
Dear Internet Poster:
First you Rage "OMFG questing in Cata is so linear I Hate it!!
Then you Rage "Blizzard needs more Focused Storytelling in quests!!!"
You can't have it both ways. Look how Linear SWTOR is, you have to be Linear to tell a story.
Skarn Jan 19th 2012 3:18PM
@John,
Actually, as a hunter, I used to carry random PuG groups through Upper Blackrock Spire all the time. Specifically, a skilled hunter (or other kiter) made killing the final boss, General Drakkisath MUCH easier.
Sunaseni Jan 19th 2012 3:27PM
Jfofla: You're right, stories are inherently linear. However, you CAN have both ways by having one-off quests that don't relate to the main storyline, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can have the main storyline of a zone be, say, 70-ish quests long, that'll generally give you 30 quest wiggling room for side stories or one-off quest. While the main storyline tackles the big bad of the zone, side stories could include poop quests given by someone who doesn't really care about what's happening, or shorter questlines about less epic things like reuniting person A with person B or whatnot.
Questing in vanilla didn't have an overarching storyline and so felt disjointed and lacked focus. Questing in Cataclysm felt too rigid, where you HAD to go from Point A to Point B, even if Point A's area sucked.
You can have a main quest with players going from A to B, with other quests sprinkled around points C, D, E, and F.
Amaxe Jan 19th 2012 4:40PM
"First you Rage "OMFG questing in Cata is so linear I Hate it!!
Then you Rage "Blizzard needs more Focused Storytelling in quests!!!"
You can't have it both ways."
Um, yes... you can.
The reason Cata failed was like this: every character has to do the same damn quests, the same damn way on every toon. Now, if there were quests that were different depending on class, or could be handled in different ways, you could have focused questing that is not on the rails.
Kuro Jan 19th 2012 5:53PM
Maybe it's just because I have an Operative in ToR and a Rogue main-alt in WoW that I feel the spy-mission similarity... but, to get to the point
The rogue legendary quest in WoW plays a lot like the class quest in ToR. It's special. It makes my character fell differnet and special. The ToR quest is full of delicious intreague, plot twists, double crossing, decent voice-overs, and lore. The same thing happens in the rogue legendary quests. I get pulled into the story and the character feels special. I love that. And to top it off you're meant to use specific class abilties to get past a tough phase.
I want more of that in WoW.
Does anyone else find that lore (and some of the fun of questing by proxy) in wow has been relegated to the marketing department? We only get lil snippets and glances of the reasons behind what characters do in order to get you to buy the next Knakk or Golden novel. (i.e. Why is Archibishop Benedictus suddenly trying to kill me?) I feel it takes away from the game when I have to buy a book to fill in major plot holes for a role playing game that I pay for on subscription.
After viewing the Lore pannel discussion in on the Blizzcon feed this year I found myself disenchanted with the group their processes. They make plots to serve one zone and then they're done with them. They don't plan to use them after or bring them up again and tie them into the story further down the line. It came up time-after-time-after time in the pannel. This lore figure or thats: space-goats, werewolves, AWOL trade princes, missing princesses, etc...
RogueJedi86 Jan 19th 2012 5:54PM
@Smashbolt
The very first flashpoint(Esseles for Reps, Black Talon for Imps) is meant to be 2-manned. So using your 2-manning Esseles with a friend as a flaw is not a flaw. Having trouble getting groups for later flashpoints I get, but complaining that you had to 2-man a 2-man flashpoint is not.
Amaxe Jan 19th 2012 11:08AM
I guess my question would be, where does the nerfed Dragon Soul stand in difficulty compared with the original PUG version?