Ask a Beta Tester: The Borean Tundra, Paladin spells, and more

Welcome to Ask a Beta Tester! We're not going to waste any time today, and just jump in feet first with Jerematic's question...

Are there any other world PvP objectives, beyond Wintergrasp?

There aren't any objectives as far as things you can capture, no, not really. However, there are little PvP areas in certain zones. For example, there are PvP quests in Grizzly Hills. You take the quest, you are PvP flagged as long as you have the quest, and you have to complete it in a nearby area. In the Grizzly Hills example here, the Horde and the Alliance are duking it out in a massive logging camp that they've chased the Venture Co. away from. Have you ever wanted to ride down a river on the back of a huge log? Wrath'll do it for ya.

Chalios asked...

I'm a prot pally and I was wondering that since Blessings of Kings is going to be 2% stat increase base with an extra 8% on the improved version, will Greater Blessings of Kings start off with 2% as well at base and scale with the improved version or will it still be 10% and provide me with an extra 4 talent points?

The Greater Blessing will work the same way regular ol' Blessing of Kings works in Wrath. 2% per talent point. You don't get to skip out on spending 4 talent points.

Rylia asked...

Regarding professions: what's the minimum character level required to get grand master profession level? i.e. if I want alts with every profession, how high do I have to get them?

It looks like level 60 is required for gathering skills, 65 for crafting skills. Although there are some oddities there, too. Play it safe and aim for level 65.

saldat asked...

Is there any news on allowing engineers to change specializations in WotLK?

Nothing that I'm aware of, no.

Sherp asked...

How much gold do Daily Quests earn in WotLK? Do they average 10g like the SSO dailies do, or is it more? Are there any other easy moneymaking venues?

More, depending on the quest. The super easy dailies that require no combat will give you around 15g at the level cap. The ones that require some work and fighting will give around 25-30g. Dailies remain the easiest way to make money unless you enjoy farming things, then gathering skills will always be worth absurd amounts of gold. Always.

BlindSeerWolf asked...

I read that Arugal and his werewolfs(worgen) are coming back in WotLK. Have you seen him/them?

I hate giving away story spoilers here, but considering this one was put forth by Blizzard themselves multiple times, I suppose it doesn't hurt to confirm it. Yes, I've seen Arugal in Northrend. I won't tell you where or when, however. I'll leave that bit a surprise. You, too, shall serve!

Fobok asked...

Maybe a simpler question than you're used to, but... I've heard some people complain about Borean Tundra, but no specifics. What's wrong with it? Is it the zone design, the look, the quests?

Borean Tundra is, overall, better than most of the zones we've seen so far in World of Warcraft. Compared to the rest of Northrend, however, it's severely lacking. It just sort of has a lot of random different things going on that do not necessarily flow together very well. You move from area to area in the zone and there's very little that meshes it together. You just sort of wander around doing random stuff. This is the zone with DEHTA, for example. Just a lot of weird things.

Borean Tundra is also home to The Nexus. The Nexus is cool, but doesn't look anything like the rest of the zone and is completely cut off from the rest. That's fine, it's awesome and looks how it's supposed to look. The issue is that's not the only example of it here. It seems like the Borean Tundra should be three or four smaller zones, rather than one big one. I almost wonder if this is the first zone they worked on for the expansion, because it lacks a lot of polish and finesse you see elsewhere.

It's not a bad zone, though. It's just the least good in Northrend. There are definitely a lot of really cool, epic quests, but they're mixed in with a lot more fluff and 'meh' content. I recommend doing the quests here eventually, even if it's only after you've run out of things to do everywhere else. There is some cool stuff.

Just because it's not my favorite zone doesn't mean everyone dislikes it, though. I have friends that adore it and will be leveling there first. Me, though? Eh. Borean Tundra, more like boring tundra. /laugh track.

Ally_pally asked...

I have a rather technical question. wowhead.com reports Seal of the Martyr's Judgement as receiving 25% bonus from weapon damage as opposed to the Horde's Seal of Blood which renders a 45% bonus from weapon damage. What are we really looking at? Is this a "balance testing" to figure out which Blizzard will use for both, or is alliance getting a toned-down version?

A quick glance at wotlk.wowhead.com shows that they use 28% of weapon damage for the seal. Both Martyr and Blood are identical. Were you looking at the Live version of Seal of Blood, perhaps? The spell's base numbers have been toned down a bit in Wrath to reflect the fact that Ret Paladins pwn face.

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!