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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe 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 3 of 8)
slim1256 Mar 27th 2012 12:29PM
My perception (and I'll preface this with saying I only regularly run with one person that plays a warlock, and his warlock isn't his raiding main) is that it's the flavor of the class that people don't like? I'll tell you that I rolled a Warlock Banker, with the thought that warlocks interested me nary a bit, so who cared if he chilled in SW at level 1 for years on end, raking in the gold?
That said, I've started playing him in my down time (all the way to twenty so far, boo-yah!), and I don't really have any objections to the play style so far.
Speaking from Shadow Priest experience, I personally find managing DOTs to be a bit of a PITA and not particularly fun, but with the right UI tweaks, it's not really that difficult. Clearly I don't have enough practical hands on experience yet to form definitive opinions, but I really feel like the warlock population problem is as much perception as anything else. I'd love to hear more dedicated warlock players' opinions on the matter...
Sally Bowls Mar 27th 2012 12:39PM
That is the interesting point. Warlocks can be perfectly fine raid members not OP but certainly not underpowered. Yet the incontrivertible facts are that they are underplayed.
It's not that people can't or shouldn't play locks; it's just that they don't.
anonymous Mar 27th 2012 1:20PM
For the first part of your question, I think it's a combination of multiple reasons for different people why warlocks are the least played class.
Part of the reason is that warlocks are currently one of the most complex classes in the game to play well. And no, I'm not saying that as an elite lock because I'm certainly nowhere near. But I do enjoy the class and its comparative challenges to other classes, although I'm also an admitted altaholic with an 85 of every class so I enjoy a wide variety of playstyles. Sometimes people just want simplicity in their gameplay and when they're having to work a little harder to do comparative damage on their warlock, they get frustrated and go back to classes with easier rotations or the flavor of the month.
I think Blizzard has done a great job in beta of separating the spells into their logical specs. My action bars have a fraction of the spells in Mists than they do in Cataclysm and it really helps solidify the uniqueness of each spec in a way that just feels right, to the point you don't even notice you're missing spells you used to rely on as bread and butter.
Part of it is also DoTs. Things don't blow up right away like they do with other classes, so there isn't that instant gratification they're either expecting or craving. Or they may have already rolled a shadow priest and don't see enough differentiation between the two to learn another class.
Part of the reason is also player mentality that, "OMG, these guys are EVIL," and they can't break themselves away from their real-life views on "demons" to play a video game character that, in their mind, goes against everything they personally believe in. It's similar to what I consider the "Tolkien Alliance" who refuse to even consider playing Horde (1/2 the damn game they're paying for) because of "nasty orcses, precious".
Part of the reason is also fear of being part of the stereotypical warlock perception. It's funny to talk about Hot Topic or locks painting their faces white and cutting themselves, but some people are afraid of being labeled as "part of that group" as if playing a warlock somehow inherently means the person behind the keyboard is emo.
I'm sure there are a ton more reasons but these seem to be some of the biggies.
Chance Mar 27th 2012 1:39PM
I think the main problem people have with warlocks is the ramp up time they need for their dps. I used to play a lock as my main, but have since moved on to tanking and now healing for my raid. Locks will always be my favorite dps class as it is the most fun class to play, however, in under ideal circumstances (which is almost every raid fight) a warlocks dps can suffer dramatically. If you can't be within melee range then Demonology is going to be subpar compared to the other 2 specs. If the fight requires heavy movement, if only for a short period, all 3 specs can suffer. Although all 3 specs use DoTs, and affliction itself gets a majority of its damage from the use of DoTs a surprisingly large amount of damage still comes from the filler spells (shadow bolt and incinerate). Destro is probably the best off when it comes to movement, as their most powerful attack (conflag) is instant cast, however it is on a cooldown and won't be up every time movement is required.
I'm not saying this is a justifiable complaint. If I switch my recount to damage done rather than dps I will still be climbing up higher and higher on the charts while the arcane mages drop from #1 to #4 in damage done. However some people look at the arcane mage doing 35k dps and think that the warlock is underpowered in comparison because on the same fight the warlock only pulls 30k, reguardless of the fact that the warlock did more damage done than the arcane mage.
The downside to a DoT based class from a cosmetic standpoint is that while those DoTs are ticking recount continues to calculate your dps, whereas classes that aren't using DoTs (arcane mage) or classes whose application of a instant cast DoT causes initial damage and thus can be spammed to keep the numbers up while moving (boomkin) get to somewhat cheat the meters to keep their numbers up in situations where a warlocks numbers fall behind.
As I said, I find this to be an unjustifiable argument, I would rather have a warlock doing more damage than a mage doing more dps (it seems contradictory but if you use recount rather than skada you will see it happening quite often). It makes players FEEL underpowered, even if they aren't.
With that said, there's also plenty of other points that other groups will complain about in reguards to warlocks. It just so happens that when I personally hear an excuse of why someone doesn't like warlocks I hear the argument that their dps is suboptimal in raiding situations. Personally I've never had this problem, after the initial ramp up which takes about 10 seconds my warlock sails through at #1 in both damage and dps.
roseclown Mar 27th 2012 2:18PM
Yeah, I never got way they were so unpopular as a whole. Whenever I was in raids back in Wrath it was almost always me (a hunter) and a warlock who competed for top damage. I could almost place bets that if there was a warlock in the party, I would have to double-time to beat them in numbers. (Not that I wouldn't always try to do well, but I must admit the extra competitive edge did me well.)
But as someone who doesn't play warlocks but have tried to (because they look so COOL), it's a number of things of why I don't have one.
The DoT style bores me. Yes, I said it. Its not that its bad, it just feels like I set up the traps and sit back with a ice tea while waiting for whatever it is to just die already. I get that in higher levels it is probably much more involved, but I just can't take it while leveling. Plus, as someone who started with a hunter, there are too many things are are similar yet not to the set up that just rubs me the wrong way, and makes me play like I'm a hunter on it sometimes (which never works).
And then, after learning more of lore is when I started trying out the Warlock, but then RP wise I couldn't get into it. It's just... how stupid/arrogant are you to make a deal with a race of beings that have destroyed planets, that have no real allegiance to you, and who are corrupted by a dark energy that makes them crazier then normal and you expect to be able to walk away unscathed? The tone of the trainers annoyed me, as it was always 'we are SO MUCH better then everyone! Yes, everyone! MWAHAHAHAHAHA.' I could get it if you knew the risks but felt this was the best way to discover a weakness in the Burning Legion/anyone who uses fel magic (or you intended to join them), but it was never that.
I get what could be fun about them, but these aspects just rubbed me the wrong way.
Hollow Leviathan Mar 27th 2012 11:40PM
My main is a warlock and I don't agree whatsoever with the high-pitched noises made over datamining from an early beta, and I am hesitantly excited about green fire, although that's less personally important to me as Affliction.
I'm still riding on a nice high because they removed farming soul shards from the game.
horsehog44 Mar 27th 2012 11:29AM
A few month ago there was a blue post about revamping the heirloom system. There was no real hints about what was planned or what was coming. Now that is beta is open and everyone there is leveling a panda. Is there anything new with heirlooms like the guild perks, new gear, or something eles??
Jason Mar 27th 2012 11:45AM
Heirloom Agi Staff incoming for Brewmasters and Guardians?
Puntable Mar 27th 2012 11:45AM
Nothing new. You can mail heirlooms to your new Panda. I'm really really hoping they add a heirloom fist weapon. Monks just look so much better when punching.
Boobah Mar 27th 2012 12:03PM
Ooh. Didn't think of that; the lava dredger won't work for monks because, unlike druids, they can't equip 2-handed maces. It's a point in favor of a new round of heirloom weapons, anyway.
Noyou Mar 27th 2012 1:29PM
Wowhead data mined an heirloom staff for monks but it has the headmasters charge art and no stats yet. Just the name, "New monk staff" or something to that effect.
reddshome Mar 27th 2012 11:56AM
QFTQ,
What is the diffrenece between the Public Test Realms and the Beta Test Realms? I have seen a lot of talk about the beta not being able to handle 1 million people at one time but on the other hand anyone can play on the Public Test Realms, you just have to transfer a character over. Are there more servers available for the PTR compared to the Beta?
Boobah Mar 27th 2012 12:10PM
The PTR survives by people just not caring enough about it. Presumably, if it has a queue to get on, they're getting lots of testing done anyway.
On the other hand, with the sheer number of annual pass folks wanting an early look and/or actually testing, they may end up needing multiple beta servers to avoid PR issues.
The biggest difference between the PTR and beta realms (for anyone with access to both) is that the 5.0 PTR won't offer access to MoP content, just the 5.0 upgrades (which will include any pre-expansion quests/events and class revamps, but not creating monks or pandarens.)
Spelio Mar 27th 2012 11:27AM
With the pet battle system coming, how many "new" pets do you think we will be getting?
I have been reading about it all and I am curious to know if the "wild pets" (i.e. Skunk - found in Duskwood) have their own unique models or if they share models from current pets. If I capture the Cockroach (found in the Hinterlands), is it the same pet that is available from the UC vendor or is it a "new" pet?
I know that there are many critters available to be fought and that some are unique to certain zones, but with pet battles not yet available on the beta, I can't seem to find any other information.
Boobah Mar 27th 2012 12:01PM
Ooh. Didn't think of that; the lava dredger won't work for monks because, unlike druids, they can't equip 2-handed maces. It's a point in favor of a new round of heirloom weapons, anyway.
Boobah Mar 27th 2012 12:02PM
sigh... reply fail.
But on the actual topic at hand, I'd guess if they have the same name, they're the same pet.
Spelio Mar 27th 2012 4:34PM
I like to think that Boobah but in the data files there is a "Cockroach" and then there is a "Roach". Different names and found in different zones. Does that mean the "Roach" is a unique pet/fight-able critter that is different than the "Cockroach"?
I was just curious to know if anyone else had any insight to this.
Ilmyrn Mar 27th 2012 11:27AM
I was reading through the Alliance Ragefire Chasm quests and it made me wonder. Does anyone in Blizzard READ these things? Tons of typos, grammatical errors, awkward phrasings, and more, all in four little boxes of quest text. It's not quite as bad as the Tol Barad daily quests, but it's close.
Shrikesnest Mar 27th 2012 11:32AM
There's a ton of writing that needs done very quickly, and not a lot of people who can write it on staff. In terms of both budget and time, writing is a very low priority. It's true in basically every video game studio ever.
Ilmyrn Mar 27th 2012 11:43AM
Yeah, but you wouldn't think it'd cost too much to snag a couple of desperate English majors fresh out of college and facingt a world without a huge number of paying jobs in the field, y'know?