Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 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 4 of 8)
RogueJedi86 Mar 27th 2012 11:55AM
Firefox and Chrome have spellcheckers built in(just to illustrate it's not that hard), surely WoW's quest writing program has one too. My spellchecker often shows me that fictional words are "misspelled" words, but regular words should be no problem.
The Dewd Mar 27th 2012 12:11PM
But right now, it's all just placeholders.
You could just as easily see a quest that says "kill 10 boars, turn in" but the final version is the extensive quest text we all know. All they have to have in the beta, especially at this point, is just enough information for the players to know what to do. They'll fix it later - right now they're too busy with, well, EVERYTHING, to worry about fixing stuff. (Plus, don't forget, they have to clean it up eventually to send it off to all the localization teams for translation.)
Luotian Mar 27th 2012 12:12PM
More than likely, guys, they aren't writing it in Word or Firefox. They're writing it in code, much like HTML in a website creation program. It may not have inbuilt spelling and almost certainly no grammar checking (as even Firefox does not have that).
When you're writing, you should be far more concerned about content initially and that is likely the stage they are at. They may get back around to checking it, it is still early beta, but who knows? The content is far more important than a comma, splice.
That being said, if they ARE looking to hire desperate English majors (although you're very long about their being few jobs in the field, we just need to get creative about where we apply) I may know one...
Imnick Mar 27th 2012 12:17PM
They do employ people to do this reading, they're called Beta Testers
Boobah Mar 27th 2012 12:17PM
Beginning of beta, folks. Better to have the quest in, functioning, and understandable than to wait for the polish. Presumably they don't bother with spell-checking (and other polishing) until they're sure that the quest will actually be substantively the same (and actually present in the finished product.)
I'd be really surprised if they don't use spell-checking software in the polishing passes, but letting an overzealous (and poorly supervised) spell-checker at your text is as likely to make it worse as better when you're dealing with the realities of transcribed speech, which is what most quest text is supposed to be.
Skarlette Mar 27th 2012 3:20PM
I have a B.A. in English, and I'd be more than happy to help them proofread their quests! Hint hint, Blizzard, gimme that beta key now... /sigh
In Cataclysm beta I did submit some bug reports for that sort of thing: typos liek tihs, missing words, the wrong kind of "too/to/two", etc. I didn't go overboard because I figured someone would proof the text eventually but some were so bad that I couldn't help myself. Also, some could potentially be confusing and make it more difficult to do the quest.
Bottom line, though...beta is beta.
Nagaina Mar 27th 2012 3:37PM
What Imnick said. Seriously, something close to 99% of my alpha/beta testing experience for Cataclysm consisted of finding new and exciting ways to break Old World Flying and writing "you really need to hire a copy editor for your quest text" bug tickets.
Shrikesnest Mar 27th 2012 11:29AM
If I may grab some space here to harangue the public:
Please manage your expectations. Beta season is upon us. I guarantee that at least one thing you really like is going to change or get scrapped before Mists launches. If you get your heart set on a new ability or talent, you -will- get your heart broken for no reason. They are going to be announcing and canceling new stuff constantly, and every new build will redesign things. Things that you will want. Things that you would have really liked. Testing is a volatile, experimental process.
So please try to be temperate about things, if for no other sake than your own. The beta process can be fun, or it can be an ulcer-inducing ordeal; th choice is yours, and the difference is what you choose to expect.
Dude Mar 27th 2012 11:29AM
lol do I detect some pet battle homage there.
Transit Mar 27th 2012 11:33AM
NOT a question for the Q, just an observation. I know this is now quite the place for this but I could not think of another place to post this.
A few months ago on wow insider there was a 'know your lore' about there possibly being an old god under tristfal.
Today there was a post on 'bubbles of mischief' about a rare spawn called "Gibblewilt".
http://bubblesofmischief.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/gibblewilt/
One of the phrases he says is;
[Dwarvish] “The darkness beneath Tirisfal will consume us all…”
This backs up the OLd God concept pretty well I think.
That's it.
Boobah Mar 27th 2012 12:23PM
It just means Gibblewilt thinks there's something nasty under Tirisfal. And leper gnomes aren't known for their sanity.
It doesn't mean he's wrong, either, of course.
Ryan.akens Mar 27th 2012 11:48AM
Blizzard said they are doing beta invites in waves. Does that mean that once you are in you are in for the rest of it or when the next wave comes out the previous people are done?
Imnick Mar 27th 2012 12:19PM
Unless it has changed dramatically from their other betas, once you are in then you stay in
Skarn Mar 27th 2012 12:20PM
Once you are in, you are in for good. Unless you screw up and get yourself banned.
RogueJedi86 Mar 27th 2012 11:51AM
For lore, maybe Pandaren should start just outside Ironforge/Thunder Bluff. For Alliance, Ironforge makes more sense because the Dwarves are kindred spirits in their jolly attitudes and love of beer. For Horde, Thunder Bluff makes more sense because the Tauren are more kindred spirits in their laid back peaceful attitude that the Pandaren would relate to. I can't see the Pandaren relating to humans, or to Orcs. Maybe to the trolls, but Orgrimmar is barely a troll town anymore since the Trolls got kicked out to Echo Isles.
If we don't see anything in the game that has Pandaren and Dwarves drinking together, I'll be disappointed. Put a boozing Pandaren in Ironforge at the bar across from the barbershop(the closest hearthstone location to the AH/Bank foyer area).
slim1256 Mar 27th 2012 12:17PM
While I see where you're coming from (specifically with dwarves/Ironforge) - from a technical and game play perspective, SW is a waaaaay better choice.
I mean- the layout of IF is abysmal compared to SW. You have to run three quarters of the way across the city to get to a damn mailbox, for crying out loud!
If they updated IF to be a bit more convenient as they did with SW, then - sure thing. Send the Pandas to IF. Otherwise, SW is the way to go, in deference to leveling characters. IMO.
Ullaana Mar 27th 2012 12:46PM
While it's true that IF has fewer mailboxes( The Commons, The Inn just NW of the Commons, The Military Ward, and Tinker Town) you only need to run about 1/3 of the way around to reach one.
I think Pandaren going to IF first to get their banking and mail, as well as have a few brews would be a good story point. A couple low level quests to get them introduced to IF as well as send them to SW wouldn't hurt.
Noyou Mar 27th 2012 1:31PM
@Slim
Let me respectfully disagree with your opinion that SW is a "waaaaay better choice". But it is appropriate to put them in SW so they can go punk Hogger right away ;) I will do what I normally do then, go grab the quest to take the shoes or whatever it is to Loch Modan and go collect bear butts and spider parts.
Omegan01 Mar 27th 2012 3:04PM
Orgrimmar and Stormwind also have harbors, so the pandaren fleeing the Wandering Isle would naturally show up there.
moobinator Mar 27th 2012 11:55AM
So right now The Wandering Isle is designed around Panderen learning to become Monks, I know its extremely early Beta, but here is my question:
If a Pandaren is to become lets say a Hunter, where does he/she start, do you hink they will increase the quest line to include all possible Panderen classes? and What if you make a Troll Monk, where do you learn your Monkish ways? Do you think they will put a monk trainer in each of the starting Zones Seems like it would take away from the Zen like learning of the monks if now they just go Kill Boars for 10 levels.