The Queue: Professor Oak
by Adam Holisky 
Mar 27th 2012 at 11:00AM
I want to know how long it is before this character is discovered in the beta. In fact, if this is not an NPC that has something to do with Pet Battles, a great injustice will have been committed.
Ideally, he'll ask if you're a boy or a girl, too.
These things write themselves.
Nina asked:
I've read that there's a dead zone in monk healing, where they're horrible at it until level 18 and then overpowered. Have you run into any similar dead zones in the tank or mdps monk experience?
That dead zone is how it exists in the beta right now (as I'm told), but it's not a big deal because it's still very early beta, and as Kab mentioned, the specs are missing a lot of things. There won't be these problems at release.
Shepherd asked:
The last question in the Q has me wondering, is the flow to SW or ORG from the wandering ilse make sense? I am afraid it will be like "oh Hey you choose alliance so here's a portal to SW."
I think it makes sense from a gameplay perspective. Players are going to always need a central location to spike out onto the rest of the quest hubs. Stormwind and Orgrimmar are those central locations. And really, after you accept your citizenship into a particular faction, aren't you going to want to go and say hello to their main city at first? I know I would.
Shinae asked:
A guildie told me that the bonuses from the gathering professions are removed in the beta. Do you think this will make it into live? (This was the last thing I wanted to hear after spending my Sunday leveling skinning on my 85 mage after dropping maxed mining.)
They're not active right now, but there's no indication either way.
Jfofla asked:
It is possible that Blizzard will not allow questing during the Beta. What we have now, might be all we get. Look at how limited the Diablo Beta was.
Negatory. Blizzard said in its post announcing the beta that zones other than the new pandaren experience will open up eventually. We will see more than what we've got right now. There's no real way an MMO of this size can let all these new dungeons go live without extensive testing.
Cunningham asked:
Just curious what people think the requirement will be to use our flying mounts at 90? Sorry if this has been discussed already, I am returning to the game after a break.
From what we know in interviews, it's going to be a quest chain. Of course, that can change at any moment, so I wouldn't put a ton of weight on it. Blizzard tried the quest route in Wrath initially and then removed it, so there'd need to be something that changes for it to go forward in Mists.
When you do finally get flying at level 90, you get the Wisdom of the Four Winds passive spell, which allows you to fly.
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 8)
Noselacri Mar 27th 2012 11:02AM
Curiosity strikes me: How big are Pandaren in relation to other races? I can't, for the life of me, find any screen caps or beta vids of them next to anyone but other Pandaren or buildings.
Task Mar 27th 2012 11:09AM
It was shown at last year's Blizzcon, that they were as tall as Tauren. It might be a little different, but I do recall saying that the Panadaren were near equal to them.
boo Mar 27th 2012 11:17AM
In the beta currently, they are a bit taller than humans, not quite as large as taurens. MMO-Champ has a few pics floating around showing size comparisons to different races.
Shinae Mar 27th 2012 11:18AM
Pandaren look to be a bit taller than orcs and humans but shorter than tauren and worgen.
Some videos:
- at Varian's throne, http://youtu.be/585NIDcijW4
- next to a gnome at 0:55, http://youtu.be/NnaNgOFaIWo
- next to an orc at 0:45, http://youtu.be/3W_90afy_iU
Micksel Mar 27th 2012 11:23AM
Here's a picture of a male Pandaren standing next to a few of the other Alliance races:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-dungeon-preview/
They're big!
Shinae Mar 27th 2012 11:35AM
@Micksel: I used to recommend that picture, too, but now I would take it with a grain of salt. That pandaren is Chen Stormstout, so his model is likely larger than a PC pandaren model.
Knob Mar 27th 2012 11:36AM
Check MMO-C's MoP screens thread on their forums; there are quite a few comparison shots there. They seem to be about the height of Night Elves.
j0ust Mar 27th 2012 11:42AM
How big they are going to be is interesting. But what's going to hit everyone square in the face liek a Mack truck when MoP goes live, is how detailed they are in terms of expressions and animations compared to the existing races. They even have animated *hair", for gawd's sake.
In short, the Pandaren look like they belong to a different game entirely. Even the worgen and goblin models look distinctly second rate compared to what I've seen of the pandaren. So I shudder to think how terrible a human or tauren model is going to look by comparison.
Surely Blizzard must see this as well. I know they have their hands full sorting out gameplay issues with the Beta, and I know they've said that the racial modelling issue is important to them - but honestly? They should be working on new models for all the races as a matter of priority, seriously, and not just "soon". If they can't get new models and animations for the other races in for the launch, they should at least be looking to complete the revamp during MoP's patch cycle.
Otherwise? Pandaren are going to make everyone else look really *bad*, for a couple of years. And that's not a good situation to be in for people attached to existing mains (i.e. everyone)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hamKl-su8PE
Ebylon Mar 27th 2012 12:14PM
I'll take a slightly out-of-place looking model with the rest of our models being inferior, and giving the development team time to fit in more actual content, over my Orc having new joints and bouncy hair.
Elmo Mar 27th 2012 12:15PM
@Micksel
Oak: This isn't the time to use that.
see wut I did dur?
undeadgoat Mar 27th 2012 12:16PM
From the beta vids I've seen, the males are about the same height as a human female, shorter than a tauren or King Varian.
faytforsaken Mar 27th 2012 12:51PM
@Shinae- Is that Gnome on crack in the video you linked?! O.O I had to go back several times to pause it at the right moment from how fast that little dude was. xD
Noyou Mar 27th 2012 1:19PM
@Ebylon
To some people, the way their character looks IS content. What's the one thing you have expac in and expac out? That's right. Your toon. So when you stop playing for 2-3 months in between raiding or go to play another MMO, many of us will be here, questing, hitting our point caps, PvPing and grinding away. Is it bad to want to look nicer doing it?
tazklore Mar 27th 2012 2:40PM
Did anyone else notice the totem-like weapon the male Panda is carrying in the "at Varian's throne" video?
Artificial Mar 27th 2012 5:15PM
@faytforsaken: Youhavenoideawhatitsliketobeagnomewithyourmindracingamilliontimesfasterthatalltheslowpeoplearoundyou!
thedoctor2031 Mar 27th 2012 11:04AM
I know everyone has been getting uppity about all these things that have been talked about but aren't being included in Mists launch. But for me, this is really exciting, because it means they want Mists to launch sooner and it means they have a ton of stuff they can add in the future for me to be excited about. What are everyone else's views on these and what features do you want Mists to definitely have?
dazziq Mar 27th 2012 11:14AM
Curious….
It can be seen that Zandalar Isle is extremely close to Pandaria, just to the northwest, as seen here: http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2012/march/pandariaminimap.jpg
It is also stated via blue posts that the Zandalari and Pandaren had NO contact for 10,000 years, ever since the mists formed (http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3523213648?page=3#43).
This is baffling to me, given how very close they are.
I realize we’re in a world with extreme magics, but one would assume you could simply sail in precisely in the same direction you had seen the continent last and probably hit land, no? It’s not THAT far away from them, and it’s directly south/southeast. If the mists only cover the small area between the continent and the small island, it shouldn’t be that difficultly navigated, right? The trolls may not have had compasses, but they had to at least know directions well, given their continued trips to Stranglethorn.
What’s the deal with this mist?! I was under the (possibly misconceived) impression that the mists would cover a large area surrounding Pandaria, which further led to explorers getting lost and such. By those standards, the whole of the Zandalar island would be covered by the mists, causing its own set of problems for the inhabitants. Being that they have obviously traveled to far off lands (i.e. Stranglethorn Vale), they were obviously not plagued by an island-encompassing mist.
Perhaps I’m just confusing close proximity with ease of travel….
Thoughts?
Puntable Mar 27th 2012 11:23AM
My thought are... Maybe the mist blocked travel like a magical brick wall, or maybe trolls have not lived on that island for 10k years and there are just ancient troll ruins there, or maybe the trolls just recently re-inhabited the island after the mist lifted. I suppose we will find out soon.
Imnick Mar 27th 2012 11:23AM
Perhaps the mist not only concealed the island but teleported boats entering its boundary to the other side of the boundary
Suzaku Mar 27th 2012 11:24AM
That's an island occupied by Zandalari, not Zuldazar. Presumably just where their forces are amassing after sailing into Pandaria to help out their old mogu allies.