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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Heart of the Aspects
by Mathew McCurley 
Feb 15th 2012 at 11:00AM
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
We're giving away a Heart of the Aspects mount! Go enter!
Luotian asked:
Are we going to have another jump in difficulty between Mists and Cata like we did between Wrath and Cata? Example: I recently leveled my Dwarf Shaman up to 80. When I went from ICC, where things died without a whole lot of difficulty, to Mount Hyjal I died. Repeatedly. I couldn't pull less than 3 things at a time, CCing things was a must, and they hit so much harder it was almost obscene. They seem to have tuned the starting zones to those in ICC gear-- none of my characters were, and I recall it being difficult every time. With RF making it *even more accessible*, will Mists be like that, making it something of a nightmare to level alts I don't run raid finder with up to 90?
This is an amazing question. Potentially yes, and potentially no. Here's the problem: We don't have all of the information yet, so everything is speculative. The first thing to consider is whether or not an item squish or some sort of power balance system goes into effect before or just after the Mists of Pandaria launch. If mudflation is taken care of with an item squish, then there will be a more gradual power ramp-up through the expansion, and you shouldn't see too many gearing problems. On the other hand, if no item squish goes through, Blizzard might be preparing to get rid of these issues by giving players who are setting out into new content "earlier" than they should be because of increased experience gain gear to compensate. We saw those full level 80 sets of gear that were datamined a while back, so who knows?
Personally, I'm hoping that the item squish goes through before Mists of Pandaria much like how the Cataclysm changes went through prior to the expansion's release, so that we have time to adjust to the changes. Yes, it will be jarring, but it's another necessary move. Hell, we don't even know if Blizzard decided on an item squish yet. Oh, the uncertainty!
The bottom line is that we don't know what type of power jump there will be because that very issue is being discussed within the sacred and hallowed Blizzard halls as we speak. Great question.
waleed asked:
Can some one explain exactly what happens to the aspects after deathwing dies?
Check out our Know Your Lore on this very subject. Shinae in the comments summed it up pretty well (and I think we're beyond spoiler range for Cataclysm): "Simply put, the Aspects sacrificed their immortality in order to kill Deathwing."
Fremastr asked:
Is there an phone app that will text me/alert me when my server comes back online?
I don't know if there is or not, but that would be a pretty cool app.
psycho_ryko asked:
After reading Dawn's article on class romances for Priests, I couldn't help thinking of ways to do a WoW Horoscope. Instead of Zodiacs, they'd be for classes. Once the idea popped into my head, I couldn't help beginning to plan out how to do it and all the details. My question is: Do you think anyone would be interested in something like this? What's your opinion?
Yes, I think it would be a very funny idea. In fact, it would be very easy to do! WordPress is free, Blogger is free, and Twitter is free. That's all you need to start. Remember, the only way you ever start something or create something is by doing it. Take a couple of minutes and make a WoW horoscope site.
WoogieNoogie asked:
Anyone happen to know what the locked door across from Old Ironforge is?
Old Old Ironforge.
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 3 of 7)
Hob Feb 15th 2012 11:21AM
Class based horoscopes?
Hmmm... with only 11 classes, you'll have to split one ... maybe druids could be divided into caster/healer and feral? Warriors corresponding to Mars, planet of war... Death Knights corresponding to Pluto (yes, it's still a planet in astrology), planet of death and rebirth...
Very very intriguing ~ good luck!
Ariel Feb 15th 2012 2:00PM
Why do they have to correspond to the actual Zodiac? The Zodiac doesn't conform exactly to months anyway... and a "Class Zodaic" isn't even going to make any sense tied to dates.
In short... 11 is fine.
Hob Feb 15th 2012 2:36PM
It doesn't have to correspond to anything, I was just throwing out ideas.
Thinking it over, Mars and Pluto (probably) don't exist in Azeroth's universe, anyway.
eel5pe Feb 15th 2012 11:24AM
Q4tQ: In my opinion, one of the most important things that will impact WoW's long-term viability is realm and faction imbalance (FYI I'm on Hakkar, the second least-populated server for the US). One thing I've noticed though is that the EU realms continually see free character migrations (FCMs) in an attempt to balance out realms (the most recent of which was today), but we never see FCMs anymore for US realms.
I am aware that there was a blue post recently that was the standard Blizzard boilerplate of "we know it's an issue, we have big ideas in store, trust us." That gets a big eyeroll, but I was wondering if anyone could comment on the difference in treatment between EU and US realms.
paragorillabear Feb 15th 2012 11:25AM
I hope there is a steep "difficulty jump" from regular 85 to questing as 85 in Panda Express (sorry, can't bring myself to call it MoP).
There's such a jump in difficulty from Vanilla to BC and from BC to Wrath as well, and I enjoy the challenge of both as much as I enjoy the Wrath-Cata "bridge". I enjoy questing and leveling, and it's nice to have of actually be challenging sometimes.
Luotian Feb 15th 2012 12:06PM
I didn't mind the BC to Wrath jump, but as I expressed in the question it seemed so much bigger for Cata. My Dad stopped playing because of it, and I don't find dying seven times to be fun at all.
cursedmonk87 Feb 15th 2012 2:16PM
Yeah I have to agree. I love questing but Cata seemed to take all of the challenge out of it. I was leveling an alt (affliction lock) through Shadowmoon Valley to hit 68 last night, and I was doing the Deathforge quests: tight little corridors with a lot of mobs with different abilities. I actually found it challenging to get through there without dying, I had to use all the tricks I could come up with. They also left the group quests from BC and didn't nerf them like in other Outland zones, probably figuring most people would move on to Northrend before getting very far into SMV. I still can't solo that damned Fel-Hound. Then looking to Cata zones, there is very little challenge to questing through them. I mean you never have to fight more than 2 guys at once without an army of npcs helping you.
I know they designed Cata to be "story" driven questing and moved all the challenges to the raids and dungeons, which I enjoy just as well, but you can make the easy and streamlined story while still keeping some of the group or "kill the elite" quests off to the side for people to push their character to the limit.
I think Mists is going to bring some of that back, all speculation of course, but the designers must know that they're going to need to make solo-play more interesting than just linear zone quests and pokemon. I miss the challenge (optional or not) of old Azeroth and BC.
D4 Feb 15th 2012 3:10PM
I'm slightly amused here.
First post: Cata questing was too much of a jump up in difficulty from Wrath.
Reply: Yes, I agree, it was too hard to make that jump.
Second reply: Yes, I agree, Cata questing was too easy.
Noyou Feb 15th 2012 4:02PM
I started playing in January of '09. I thought the jump from Vanilla to BC was a lot tougher than the jump from LK to Cata. There are probably lots of factors that go into having a harder time than others. First would probably be your playstyle. If you are used to grouping and running dungeons, I suppose you could have a tougher time leveling. There definitely was a learning curve, leveling through cata the first time. There were places were mobs were more tightly packed than others. If you went straight from dinging 80 to cata in quest greens, I can imagine that would be harder as well. I have done that on a few toons, but have always had 3-4 pieces of gear that I picked up on my previous run throughs. I think the simple fact we will once again be bound to the ground in MoP will make this jump a lot harder. I do not look forward to have to fight through packs of mobs to pick up 6 worg poops then fight though the respawns to get back to the quest givers.
Stilhelm Feb 15th 2012 4:04PM
There isn't a wrath->data jump anymore. I recently hit Mt Hyjal on my lock and the mobs there no longer do any damage, even on cloth. I could get mobbed by 3 or 4, and still take almost no damage. When I did Mt Hyjal when Cata first came out, the mobs hit much harder, and I was leveling toons with raid gear then.
I'm pretty sure your only options now for content with any difficulty or remote challenge are raiding and pvp.
SamLowry Feb 15th 2012 11:57PM
"They seem to have tuned the starting zones to those in ICC gear"
I said that here several months ago. My characters who had some ICC gear had no problems in Vash and Hyjal, but my new 80 worgen got stomped like a narc at a biker rally. And this was over a year ago, so I'm comparing apples to apples.
TL, DR version: If you show up in Vash with an iscore at or below 187 (which is the best you can do without hitting the AH, cheater, or subjecting yourself to a 90% drop in xp by attempting Wrath heroics), you will be killed, repeatedly.
Ghal Feb 15th 2012 11:29AM
http://www.wowrealmstatus.net/index.php?action=carriers
This site will send you an email when the server of your choosing comes online. It can tell you when it goes offline as well as the current load on the server.
Every phone has an email address (you receive it as a text); there is a table of email gateways on the sight mentioned above.
I used to use it all the time; I stopped after I started playing a certain competing MMO in December.
Ghal Feb 15th 2012 11:45AM
Site, not sight >_<
I haven't had my coffee today.
jwblair2 Feb 15th 2012 12:24PM
Additionally, you can search for your realm on Twitter and follow it there. I get a Twitter text whenever Icecrown goes up or down. Not all of the realms are there and not all of them tweet consistently but its an option.
Artemizz Feb 15th 2012 11:07PM
WoW Insider posted an article about one of these in 2009.
http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/09/09/realm-status-iphone-app-sends-push-notifications-for-the-servers/
This is the free app that I use though, available in iTunes store:
http://www.appolicious.com/tech/apps/606187-realmstat-pentworks-llc
Nina Katarina Feb 15th 2012 11:27AM
The 12th class could be Ghostcrawlers.
Their horoscope will probably always include something about nerfing paladins.
RetPallyJil Feb 15th 2012 1:30PM
Well ... Ghostcrawler, Crab, Cancer ... yeah I'd say that works ;)
(Still bitter.)
SamLowry Feb 16th 2012 12:09AM
Yeah, GC's faction rep with the playerbase dropped considerably a bit over a year ago and still hasn't recovered.
jfofla Feb 15th 2012 11:28AM
I don't see why we need an item squish. I like big numbers. I like being powerful. I like soloing old content.
Shinae Feb 15th 2012 11:32AM
The way I understood the item squish concept is that we'll be able to solo old content just as well as we do now because stats will be lowered on everything, including old raid bosses. It's just a matter of moving the decimal point over.