The Queue: You'll have to move fast
by Michael Sacco 
Mar 10th 2012 at 12:00PM
Sometimes I'm a little glad WoW doesn't have interactive conversations.
underground_slacker asked:
Maybe i missed something, but why on earth is the Dragon Soul airship boss backed up by Vrykul?
Was there any precedent for this?
I mean i get they could be disillusioned after losing both arthas and ymiron and be willing to join the twilights hammer cult, but some explanation would be nice y'know?
I just assumed that they were around because we're in Northrend for most of Dragon Soul. After Arthas' death, I'm sure a lot of them were looking for a new lord to die for. One "death god" is as good as another, right?
brentNelson asked:
If Blizz is going to give the monk class to all races except the two Cata races (Worgen and Goblin), won't it have to update the models for those races so they can animate stuff like rolls and flying spin kicks? I guess they might not have to, but I can hardly imagine an undead tucking into roll with their current skeletons.
There's definitely work being done the old race models to retrofit monk animations onto them. It's also been stated that there's revamp work being done on old race models anyway, so it's a two birds, one stone situation.
Xorthus asked:
We've only seen a couple Pandaren NPCs so far; what are the lore-consistent naming conventions for Pandas?
As far as I can tell? Regional flavor (Chinese style, in this case) first name, English compound word last name, like nearly every other race in the game.
Kyle asked:
I'm not sure how appropriate this question is - but over on the forums I noticed that Joystiq has been given diablo 3 beta keys to give away - Is that to the WoWinsider people or that other joystiq?
Just the mothership.
Sir Broose asked:
Is it safe to assume that if you pass out multiple scrolls of resurrection invites and have more than one person use them, that you will get multiple benefits - a spectral mount on more than one character, etc.?
You can only send out two scrolls per day, but yes, you can benefit from multiple scrolled friends. That way, you can get yourself a spectral mount on whichever character you like.
brian asked:
What do you think will be a good gold making strategy in the beginning of mists?
Commenter Puntable's advice is pretty good:
Do you mean the first few weeks? You have two options. 1. Sell all the materials you gather for inflated prices, and put off leveling your professions, or 2. Level your professions quickly to try and be one the first to sell the new crafted items.
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)
Stella Mar 10th 2012 12:11PM
Is there any point to having magic schools in the game anymore? Except for the Eclipse mechanic, damage might as well be divided into Physical and Magical.
I certainly don't see the need for hybrid schools like Frostfire, Shadowfrost, Shadowflame and Spellstorm any more.
Am I overlooking something?
razion Mar 10th 2012 12:28PM
Certain spell schools benefit from talents, mastery, and so on (plus fire or frost damage). Spells scale different from one another with stats, and making sure that certain schools pull ahead differently in different talent trees (and with some stats) helps make sure that there aren't any unforeseen oddities among a specialization (like a Frost mage using arcane missiles).
Of course this could be worked around if these talents just listed individual abilities, but then of course talent tooltips would be severely cluttered for wordspace and the like. In the long run, it would probably be better if the system didn't have to recognize spell type anymore, but as it stands now, it actually has a use in the system with talents and some masterys, so it may be a while before we get rid of all spell schools.
Necromann Mar 10th 2012 1:00PM
Also for lockouts. If my Mage gets counterspelled while casting fireball, I can't cast fire spells for 7 seconds but I can still cast frostbolt because I only got locked out of the fire school.
Robert Mar 10th 2012 5:29PM
On that note, there's nothing quite as much fun as noticing a melee walk up to you that you just KNOW is going to interrupt you, then respond by casting a spell from a weak school, so that the melee will have blown his interrupt and you'll be free-casting him to death.
Gigi Mar 11th 2012 9:11PM
I believe it's more for pvp then PVE. I play a frost mage in PvP if I get silenced while casting frostbolt I can still use my frostfire abilities, conversely if I am interrupted casting frostfire I get locked out of all my abilities. Which is why you don't cast frostfire bolt, you wait for it to proc.
On the other had some classes are screwed through silences. Best way to defeat a HPally is to keep them constantly spell locked as they only have one ability not tied to their Holy school and thats crusader strike.
j0ust Mar 10th 2012 12:12PM
Re. the video:
It's funny because it's true :s
Den Mar 10th 2012 1:17PM
It's funny because if they spent half the time it took to make the video to do some homework on the game, they would have known what they were expecting. From the start, the emphasis on STORY over game mechanics like free-form flight, housing, a crafting system with some substance, or anything beyond WoW's BG/Raid situation should have told people "This is an RPG with multi-player options."
When asked about end game, all the Bioware folks said, "We have raiding or you can make an alt and play again." This part said, "It becomes an MMO like WoW once you hit the level cap."
Sorry, I have no sympathy for people who play(ed) TOR and were surprised that it had a lot of RPG cut scenes and a WoW end game. Do a little reading instead of giving into hype you probably don't understand. I love TOR, but as a multi-player RPG, not an MMO.
naixdra Mar 10th 2012 2:00PM
Den, Den, Den.
That wasn't at all the point of the video. It was about how every conversation uses the same animations, how so often the option you pick doesn't mean what you thought, and how evil = hideous.
Tbh it was just another Bioware game, if you like Bioware you'll like TOR.
Wasn't for me though. I know I tread upon the sacrosanct, but I'm not really invested or interested in the Star Wars story. So a story based on something I don't care about in a story focused game is just the same old grind except with a boring conversation after every quest.
Besides EA supported SOPA so they'll not get one red cent from me.
Avan Mar 10th 2012 2:56PM
@Den:
No amount of 'homework' can prepare someone for Bioware's awful dialogue system. You could be having a conversation with an evil character, confronting them.
Evil Guy: "I'll kill the captain, steal this ship, and destroy that pesky temple!"
>> You select "I can't let you do that."
Your Character: "I can't let you kill the captain. Let me go do it for you."
It's an awful, awful system.
raingod Mar 10th 2012 2:58PM
Den, relax, it's a game, people have their own opinions. It's the internet.
SINisterWyvern Mar 10th 2012 4:47PM
Or you have it show dark side and light side point adjustment at all times and go from there without having any problem responding the way you want to respond?
Muse Mar 10th 2012 7:04PM
@naixdra,Avan Actually, the joke is that the guy who keeps hitting 3) expecting a nice option is an idiot. Guess the irony's lost.
Skarn Mar 10th 2012 7:59PM
I've run across a lot of choices that didn't match the "choice" text very well. Especially when trying to pick options your companion will like. There's some bizarre stuff. They don't even say the specific text on the option you pick, it might have worked better if they put the "type" of choice on everything like they do with [Flirt] and [Force Persuade]. Something like [Sarcastic], [Respectful], [Honorable], [Mean], etc would at least make it easier to choose what you want.
vocenoctum Mar 10th 2012 8:43PM
I've had plenty of options that weren't what I thought they would be, but nothing that bad.
And the kid one is an actual in game choice that has two options, both fairly accurate to description. So, not the best example, but meh.
And of course, the Light and Dark side is a part of star wars, so meh. The fact Dark Side choices make you look dark-sidey is also something that can be turned off.
So, would have been an amusing cartoon, if the situations had been more outlandish and not specific. (or better examples from the actual game)
Den Mar 11th 2012 1:07AM
Sorry, Bioware did that in ME2 and DA2. Did people not pay attention to those games or something?
vincent_cournoyer Mar 11th 2012 8:04AM
Yeah, they did that in ME2 and DA2 and it was a bad system. Actually, the conversation system is good, but the choices do not reflect what you want. You reply something thinking, hy, that's what I'd answer, and you character would say something similar, but slightly different and very sarcastically. Or you'd have a choice that makes you laugh real hard,. you pick it, and the line delivery is awful.
I thought the video was about how every single quest lets you kill people randomly. I've read about people just always picking the "dark" option and killing everyone and never having consequences...
RogueJedi86 Mar 11th 2012 11:47AM
Like Muse said, the bottom option on dialogue wheel is ALWAYS a renegade-type choice, so complaining that you picked choice 3 and said something dark is just silly. It's a BioWare staple. The game didn't say something unexpected, it said exactly what one would expect from the bottom/3 option. This has been in previous BioWare games, like Mass Effect where Top half=Paragon, Bottom half=Renegade.
Morimoto Mar 10th 2012 12:14PM
Q for the Q: Any word on a new Dungeon Companion book from Brady Games?
Hob Mar 11th 2012 1:32AM
Nothing on the official site, Amazon, or the vendor we use at the library.
I'd guess that Bradygames' ilevel is too low to see the new dungeons. They should really consider buying PvP gear from the auction house to increase their gearscore.
DarkSpade Mar 10th 2012 12:21PM
Think blizzard will use the Darkmoon faire's zoo to do some sneaky previews of MoP mobs?