Ask a Beta Tester: Gold, Atiesh, and Mr. Tirion Fordring

See what I go through to get you the juiciest beta information? That's three sharks I'm fighting off, all for you! Those things are vicious... but they were clearly have not been reading the beta forums, because they had no idea how overpowered Paladins are right now. But enough chatter: time for your questions!

Hoops asked....

How much gold roughly would you get from questing 70-77 (until you unlock the flying mount)? I was wondering if it would it be worth farming money beforehand or would the money from questing be enough.

I'm not 77 yet, so I can't exactly address the question as asked, but I can tell you that I've made about 400g leveling from 70 to 72. That's just from questing, vendoring trash & unneeded greens -- and it includes some stupid deaths, plenty of repair bills(I blame Dalaran for many of them!) , and training a couple of professions (35g to train a primary profession to the next skill level and 100g to train a secondary profession to the next skill level).

For more on money-making in Wrath -- and other questions! -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving things away here and there.

I imagine that when Wrath goes live, you will find more ways to make money (selling good greens or blues you come across on the auction house) and spend money (buying cool loot for yourself, further training professions). But I'm still guessing you'll come out pretty well for yourself -- doing quests has always been a great way to earn gold and Northrend zones are massive (the early zones each have three, four, or even five quest hubs per faction). I have no doubt that delicious quest money won't run dry until well after level 80. (But if you want a more direct answer, commenter Micgo did note that he netted around 2000g while going from level 70 to 77.)

For my part, I'm not going to spend my pre-Wrath hours farming -- I think quest gold will flow quite nicely after launch. (Though if you want one of those Dalaran rings, you may want to get a head start.)

Justin asked....

I had heard that Rogue's sap was being changed to work on more types of enemies. Can you list any changes to the types of targets that crowd controls like Sheep and Sap will effect? (I know I used sap as an example but I was actually more interested in Sheep specifically. My main is a Mage and I fear for the usefulness of Mage crowd control in a land filled Dragonkin and Undead, especially when other classes are having their crowd control buffed to affect those types of targets.)

Sap, rank 4, trainable at level 71, has the following skill description:

Incapacitates the target for up to 1 min. Must be stealthed. Only works on Humanoids, Beasts, Demons and Dragonkin that are not in combat. Any damage caused will revive the target. Only 1 target may be sapped at a time.

Existing ranks of sap have the same Humanoid only caveat.

Though I do not have a high-level Mage myself, I can say that I have not seen or heard anything that suggests changes to the ability. (Except for the glyph that turns your Polymorph target into a pengiun.) However, I can safely say that you're likely to run into plenty of Humanoid targets in Northrend to turn into sheep, turtles, pigs, or penguins. There are pirates, vyrkul, the Scarlet Onslaught... There are more than Undead and Dragonkin in Northrend.

Chris Anthony asked....

What are the drop rates on the advanced First Aid books?

I haven't, personally, seen any drop. However, I've polled the team and they seem to drop off higher level mobs (74+). Alex says he's seen a couple of them during his time in the beta, dropping in Drak'tharon Keep and Halls of Stone. Obviously we don't have enough data yet to give you precise drop rates, but with Alex having already encountered multiple drops, I'm hopeful it won't be too bad.

Tobias asked....

I'm curious, throughout Outland I enjoyed the motes + primals system, it gave fishing and engineering a nice little way of making money since almost everybody needed them. My question, does this system continue in Wrath?

Wrath does not have motes and primals -- but it does continue with a similar system. While mining in Northrend, I've encountered both Crystalized Earth and Crystalized Water, and when I get a stack of ten of one or the other, I can turn them into Eternal Earth and Eternal Water, respectively. Eternals are the new Primals. Alchemists can transmute one type to another and they're used in a variety of different crafting patterns.

Dalixam asked....

I have a question that's maybe not of much interest to anyone else, but I've wondered about it. When you learn mounts and vanity pets as spells, how are they listed in your character tab? Alphabetically or in the order in which you learned them?

Mounts seem to be listed in reverse of the order in which you learned them -- new mounts will be added to the front of the list. Vanity pets, however, seem be arranged in alphabetical order.

Superstone asked....

I know it seems like a petty issue but I was looking around at what gear looks badass on my Draenei priest I'm leveling and I looked at Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian, just because it'd be a cool little epeen item to have lying around and realized that with Naxxramas being moved does that mean that Atiesh will no longer be gathered for? Or will it be reintroduced as some 25 man questline for the new and improved Naxx in Northrend?

This one's an easy answer: we just don't know. If you search for Atiesh on Wowhead's Wrath site, you'll turn up the level 60 version of Atiesh, which has been updated from spell damage and/or healing to the new spell power stat, but is otherwise its ordinary level 60 self. WoWWiki tells us, "It is unknown if Atiesh will be still obtainable when Wrath of the Lich King comes out, as Naxxramas will be moving to Northrend." No one can get into Naxxramas yet, so how the dungeon will have changed from its previous incarnation is still a mystery.

I for one hope it gets updated and moved with the rest of the dungeon. It was an excellent item with some great lore behind it -- it would be a shame if Medivh's staff were gone from the game forever.

Darkshadow asked....

In the beta, is Tirion Fordring still in the Eastern Plaguelands?

Oddly, yes, Fordring is still hanging out in Eastern Plaguelands. He's also hanging out in Northrend. How does he manage to be in two places at once? Either we're talking powerful magic or Tirion has an evil twin brother. Well, okay, to be serious for a moment here, there are a couple of reasons he might still be in Azeroth. Perhaps Blizzard doesn't want to upset existing questlines and stories involving Fordring in Azeroth. And perhaps Blizzard just hasn't finished the game updates to Azeroth that they're planning on doing before Wrath goes live. Time will tell!

(Yes, I know there are other questions that have been asked recently about Fordring -- but addressing them would involve major story spoilers which I'm trying to avoid in this column. I promise you answers on what Fordring is up to -- in a different place, locked safely behind spoiler warnings for those who are interested in reading about the new mechanics in the beta without major gameplay spoilers. I'll leave a note here when there's more story to read!)

Tisen asked....

Are there new loading screens for the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor like there was when BC came out? Also what does the loading screen for Northrend look like?

Yes, there are new loading screens for the Eastern Kingdom, Kalimdor, and Outland. Check 'em out in our loading screen gallery!

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The Wrath of the Lich King beta is in full swing, and the WoW Insider crew is here to sate your curiosity with Ask a Beta Tester! Leave your beta questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em! And if you can't get enough Wrath, don't forget to check WoW Insider's Wrath Roundup page for anything we haven't answered here!