The Queue: Let us cling together
by Michael Sacco 
Mar 3rd 2012 at 12:00PM
My PS Vita has given me the opportunity to revisit (or in some cases, just regular visit) PSP games I never got around to playing, thanks to the absolute ton of PSP games available on the PlayStation Network for play on the Vita. My best find so far is Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, a remake of the same title from the days of Sega Saturn. It's a strategy RPG in the Final Fantasy Tactics vein, and with a localization by Alexander O. Smith (FFXII, among many others), you know it's got to be good. Couple that with great music, lovely art design, and a story worth caring about -- well, that's a must-buy for me, especially at $19.99.
Skarn asked:
Who ARE you sending to the MoP press event from WoW Insider anyway? How did you decide who gets to go?
WoW Insider bossman Alex Ziebart will be attending the press event. He gets to go because he's the boss, and also because there are very limited invitations. It's not quite the same as BlizzCon, where we're usually able to bring several people to work the event.
Everclear asked:
Do you think Blizzard will be looking at Transmogrification data to see what the player's tastes are in terms of the kind of gear look they enjoy? Considering Tier design reveals are always controversial, I would think checking and comparing this kind of data would be invaluable to use when taking into consideration future styles.
I'm sure Blizzard has the data, but I'm also sure that the devs are smart enough not to create new tier sets based purely on nostalgia for old sets. Basically, if people want to wear Judgement, congratulations, they can. There's no reason to design a new Judgement-alike.
Rue asked:
Why are they getting rid of spell resistance? I understand how it can be very confusing in PVP (especially with spell pen too) but why not keep it for pve only? I really liked being able to toss up Aspect of the Wild and help my healers out on massive nature aoe fights (like hagara or rotface) and it never seemed difficult in that situation. At least it isn't as confusing as expertise is looking to be
Spell resistance as a game mechanic hasn't been relevant since The Burning Crusade at the latest. The bottom line is that it just isn't fun to sacrifice your "good" stats for resistance, so resistance just doesn't exist in new gear anymore. Not only do a lot of bosses simply bypass spell resistance now, but the resistance buffs are so guaranteed that it's not even worth checking for anymore. Resistance is archaic and just doesn't work for WoW anymore, and I'm happy it's gone. It was vestigial at best.
Philster043 asked:
Do you think the Darkmoon Faire will possibly have more mounts and pets to come in Mists of Pandaria, with the possible influxion of exotic animals from the islands? Come this week, I'll probably get the last mount, and start working on pets. But I wouldn't mind seeing additional mounts at a later date to keep interest up in doing the Faire. More variety in the games/dailies on a everyday basis would be nice, too.
I'm sure the Faire will expand in Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard has already all but confirmed it. The whole place is clearly meant to be modular.
Masarah asked:
When armor is damaged due to death, how is it decided which piece gets what amount of damage? Is it just a random dice roll on each piece?
Every piece of gear takes a flat 10% durability loss when you die. No special distribution method involved. If you see some gear that has more than a 10% durability loss, it's because gear can also take durability loss from normal combat wear and tear.
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 5)
Noyou Mar 3rd 2012 12:15PM
Question for players who are no longer subbed:
If Blizzard put out a feature that would allow 1 (or more) character(s) the ability to start at a higher level (55 or 65), would that bring you back? You would have to have another toon unlock it by getting it to the level you would start at (just like with DK's).
Just curious how many people would be interested in this.
megahamtaro5 Mar 3rd 2012 12:28PM
What i would prefer is a system that would allow my characters after hitting 60 to instantly go to 80, i don't mind the 1-60 content it's fantastic! What i do mind is having to go to the very aged outland and then through northrend again.
Hollow Leviathan Mar 3rd 2012 12:48PM
They don't even have to remake all of the Outland if they don't want to - just, for the love of Elune, please remake Hellfire Peninsula. The rest of 58-68 is just fine.
Pazazu Mar 3rd 2012 12:57PM
See, I really like Northrend and the later part of Outland for leveling.
Things like this are just some of the reasons why a system along these line would be tricky. It sounds simple, but when you really get into it, there are a lot of thorny problems. Some people hate Outland leveling. Or, the issue that people level too fast for their professions to keep up would be even worse. Or, do we go back and redesign what level new spells are learned to keep players starting at 55 from getting overwhelmed with an actionbar full of spells they have no idea what to do with? Where would that leave people leveling from level 1?
I'm sure we could all think of more, but you get the idea. Another important factor is that they JUST redid the whole world for leveling characters. Why would they turn around and just let you skip all their awesome hard work?
Noyou Mar 3rd 2012 1:06PM
@Pazazu
You would have already gone 1-55 or 1-65, so you would experience the old world revamp one time ;) For those people who unsubbed, they would have either done it already or it is not something that would bring them back to do.
VioletArrows Mar 3rd 2012 1:11PM
The tedium of leveling isn't what put me on (yet another) hiatus in the first place, so no, it wouldn't really make a difference.
What would make a difference: Serious smackdown on the rabid community turning on itself. If even half the people they just laid off could've been retained as mods for both forums and Trade/General, the game could be a better place.
Zayd Mar 3rd 2012 1:13PM
Instead of redoing Hellfire Peninsula it would be cool if they lowered the lvl requirements for Shadowmoon Valley & Netherstorm quests to 58-60.
Those areas are never used now unless someone is going for Loremaster.
Rezina Mar 3rd 2012 1:19PM
I am not an unsub--but I will agree that the leveling through Outland needs to be updated. Hellfire is beautiful the first time that you do it. By the 4th time, it's old. The real pitty is that the coolest zones (Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm) are completely skipped because they are about the same level as Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra. If they could adjust the questing levels a little, that would be so much better.
wowsitemail Mar 3rd 2012 1:23PM
Just about everyone who would resub (especially those who would be reading this) already has characters at 85, or maybe level 80, and certainly above level 60, so they wouldn't need this button to get up to speed.
Besisdes, it's not like it takes all that long to level to 60 these days and there are quite a number of different (revamped and smooth) paths to get there if you dislike or get bored with a particular zone.
jealouspirate Mar 3rd 2012 1:37PM
Speaking as someone who isn't subbed: no, it wouldn't bring me back.
The only problem I have with the leveling game is that it's too SHORT. I try to slow down and enjoy the ride and I constantly outlevel everything, always getting pushed to the next place before I'm done.
My problem is with the gear treadmill at the endgame. I'd love to resub and do some battlegrounds, but I haven't played/geared my main since 4.0. I'd have to grind out complete new sets of gear before I could be even on par with everyone else... and that's a massive barrier preventing me from coming back.
ravyncat Mar 3rd 2012 1:45PM
I don't think time spent leveling is what caused so many people to unsub. Not even the now outdated leveling experience in Outland or Northrend.
The problem was lack of end game content in Cataclysm. Getting new characters faster to end game will not help bring people back unless MoP fixes that problem.
vocenoctum Mar 3rd 2012 3:01PM
For myself, no. I have an 85 of every class on my home server and various others on other servers.
My problem was doing the same thing over and over, whether at max or during leveling. I needed more and more interesting stuff to do. The content just doesn't come fast enough for me to stay subbed.
VSUReaper Mar 3rd 2012 5:42PM
I'm currently subbed, but my .02 on the matter: we level entirely to fast, to the point that my hunter is lvl 40 something and still wearing lvl 13 gear because I haven't come across anything better because I'm now 1 shotting everything in the quests that I'm working on, which are grey.
There is also the skill factor: there is no way to learn the class as you level: who ccs as they level? Who cleanses? Who tanks? Who heals other group members? No one does it as they level, because the content as we level us either solo content that can be 2hit or it's under-tuned instances that get aoed through.
On my fresh dinged pally, I didn't learn mana conservation until 83... That's 83 lvls of spamming whatever heal I wanted to with no consequence.
Final issue that I see as an issue that needs to be overcome is gear: you either spend weeks grinding to get decent (not good) gear for pvp, or you sit in LFG for hours to not get anything.
Twill Mar 3rd 2012 7:17PM
I'm still playing, so take that as you will.
1) I like the idea of Netherstorm and SMV becoming 58. It takes a lot of the monotony away.
2) One big issue with leveling (and those who enjoy it) is that it goes too quickly. Quest hubs get outdated too fast. I use full heirlooms. It's nice because for once, I don't have to worry about gear. Unfortunately, the EXP buff is big. I ike it when I'm trying to blast through a zone I've done 100 times, but not always. It would be great if we could choose if the exp bonus was actively helping.
3) I had one 80 in WotLk. I'm at eight 85s in Cata. There isn't enough content. Raids are smaller. There are less tiers. There are less non-repetitive-dailies to do. We need more max level content that isn't of the "repeat X raid/dungeon/BG every single day/week until the next patch." Sure, its interesting to do LFR from the perspective of a tank, then a healer, then a DPS. But it's not THAT interesting.
TL;DR -- WoW would become a much better game if more non-repeatable content was created. Dailies are old after the first week. Lets get some content that is more dynamic.
Ylspeth Mar 3rd 2012 7:21PM
"The problem was lack of end game content in Cataclysm. Getting new characters faster to end game will not help bring people back unless MoP fixes that problem."
Excellently said. This is the whole problem in a nutshell.
People are real big into saying the game doesn't begin until (level cap of expansion.)
However, what is happening is people are getting to 85 then are bored out of their minds because their choices become:
1. Run through the same content a million times to get gear.
or
2. Run dailies until your fingers bleed to get gear.
or
3. Run raids to get gear.
PvP has almost the same grind except it's battlegrounds and arenas.
Darren Mar 3rd 2012 12:17PM
Do you think Blizzard will take a few minutes while working on Mists and reduce the level requirement for the Outland cooking and fishing dailies? Its kinda dumb that they arent available until you character is already in Northrend.
ladygamertn Mar 3rd 2012 12:55PM
THIS!! Very annoying indeed.
Vaultnishi Mar 3rd 2012 12:18PM
Off topic, but so far i am enjoying Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and its very old school rpg with exploration and what not. You might like it if you enjoy the look of those games, with the old rpg exploration.
On a more related topic i really hope they do expand the Faire, its one of the areas i don't mind doing "dailies" and i don't think i will get burned out on them any time soon
Drahken Mar 3rd 2012 12:21PM
No no no. Final Fantasy Tactics is in the same vein as Tactics Ogre. The superior Ogre series came first! Give me more Ogre Battle damnit! It's such a shame that the studio who made the series was bought and absorbed into Square.... to make more FF Tactics. (Not that the GBA ones were bad, I guess.)
Fun fact: "Ogre Battle", "Let Us Cling Together", and "March of the Black Queen" (the first game) are all Queen songs. The head designer was a major Queen fan.
Tiek Mar 3rd 2012 12:51PM
Hell yes! I am playing Ogre Battle 64 currently, having just finished March of the Black Queen for the umpteenth time. These games were awesome and there needs to be more of them. Tactics Ogre is next on the list after 64. Brilliant games.