Ask a Beta Tester: Dalaran coins, environment effects, and AoE tanking

I ran into two common questions last night on the Dalaran coin post, so I thought I'd start off by answering those here. I apologize if we haven't yet gotten to everyone's questions; most of them, like Gurluas' question concerning The Missing Diplomat and the high elves in Northrend, we're just not 100% sure of the answer to yet, but I'll keep trying.

Keyra asks...

Just curious...the gold coins all have "Use: Throw this coin back into the Dalaran fountain", yet I've seen people commenting (as well as the author) that they'll carry the coin in their packs. What happens when/if you throw the coin back in?

When you toss a gold coin back into the fountain, you gain the "Lucky" buff for 2 minutes, increasing your chance to fish up any and all coins from the fountain (rather than fishing hooks or goldfish). You don't have to toss them back in if you don't want to, in which case they'll just occupy a bag slot like anything else, or you can sell them to a vendor (not for much). But most people throw the coin/s back in because fishing the coin up is enough to give you the Achievement for getting it. Particular coins would be carried solely for personal or sentimental reasons, i.e. I can definitely appreciate the irony and RP value of grimly hunting Arthas down like a dog while carrying a symbol of Sylvanas' wasted hopes.

Rexigar asks...

Question though, do we have to keep the coins for the achievement or does it count when we throw it back in?

It counts as of the moment you've fished it up. No matter what you do with it afterwards, the Achievement's yours. The same mechanic is true of everything else; once the game "knows" you've done something and an Achievement's gained, nothing can take it away.

Kolos asks...

Are there any Steamwheedle Cartel quests in Wrath?

I'm sorry about not answering this straight off -- I went to go find some goblin NPC's in Dragonblight for you to see if their quests gave any rep, becuse I honestly couldn't remember getting any from previous goblin questgivers in Northrend. Sadly, no Steamwheedle rep. I asked a few higher-level players as well, and they all said they haven't seen any either.

Erikamel asks...

I know profession info is still iffy, but should I be saving all the primal fires I have in my bank to start leveling Blacksmithing when Wrath hits? Or will there be easier patterns as soon as I get to Northrend?

If you have anything in your recipe inventory that displays as yellow or red right now, you'll still be able to skill up off those for a bit in Northrend. The bad news is that these high-end recipes from Outland tend to be tougher to make, so you'd be putting in relatively more effort for those skill-up points than you would for early Northrend recipes. The good news is that, if you've already got the mats on hand, you might as well; it's an easy way to get 5-15 skill-ups, possibly more or less for some professions. But yes, you'll train a number of red and yellow recipes straight off the boat in Northrend.

Nizari asks...

Do the regular and epic druid flight forms count towards the 50-mount achievement?

Unfortunately not.

Vinicius O.E. asks...

With the changes to give warriors and druids some AOE tanking abilities are they now as reliable as prot pallies tanking multiple mobs?

From my experience tanking in the beta on my Druid, and healing many Protection Warriors and Paladins, Druids and Warriors are significantly better at AoE tanking than they used to be, but tankadins still have the undeniable edge. As a Druid or Warrior, you will never lose early aggro to your healer, the hell of constant tab-targeting is mostly a thing of the past, and if you're significantly better-geared than your DPS, then spamming a markedly-buffed Swipe may be all you really need to do. But neither is it be possible to hold aggro against hardcore AoE damage that starts shortly after you make the pull. For stuff like that, you still need a pally. I still find myself marking a first and second DPS target on larger pulls because split DPS will still usually result in someone (eventually) pulling off me, but, at least presently, I don't feel the need to mark beyond that as I did for BC dungeons.

I don't mean to be too down on Warriors and Druids; I haven't had problems tanking in the beta even with trigger-happy DPS present, and neither have the Warriors I've healed. I'm writing this shortly after tanking a heroic Botanica PuG on the live realms with an Enhancement Shaman using Frost Shock on cooldown and a Seed-of-Corruption-spamming Warlock, and that served to confirm just how much better Druid AoE threat has become in the beta. But I think Paladins are very likely to remain, as Galmr writes, the kings of AoE tanking. To put it very simply, Blizzard's made it possible for bears and Warriors to hold solid aggro on pulls they might have had serious trouble with pre-Wrath, but their abilities are still inferior to Paladins' with respect to fast and consistent AoE threat.

Holybeast asks...

We just raided all of the Alliance cities and I was wondering, does killing Bolvar now fits also for that achievement "Storming Stormwind" or do we have to kill Varyan when patch/WotLK appears?

You'll have to wait for the patch; the killing of faction leaders for the Achievements For the Alliance! and For the Horde! is not retroactive, I assume because they don't drop anything that would readily identify the holder as a participant in a kill.

Cbeefman asks...

i've read that alot of items (e.g. tabards) are going to be purchasable in Dalaran and i've also heard that the same applies for mounts, do you know if the AQ40 mounts are in this list?

I've found vendors for tabard and pets but haven't yet found or heard of a vendor selling discarded mounts, but I'll keep looking.

Alpen asks...

Have you encountered any cool environment effects? Such as the tornado in Silithus or the jets of flame that sometimes erupt from the land in Hellfire Peninsula?

Many. You'll find steaming geysers and bubbling springs in the Borean Tundra, mist-shrouded shorelines and burning forests in the Howling Fjord, odd optical effects in Crystalsong Forest, and all over the continent are beautiful, beautiful skies with northern lights. I could go on, but suffice it to say that Blizzard knocked the whole "setting" thing out of the park. It's helped in no small part by a wonderful soundtrack (seriously; keep your music on) and thousands of tiny details like carrion birds actually sitting on giant skeletons and shoveltusk males fighting amongst themselves for dominance in a pack and not bothering to aggro you while doing so. Northrend is significantly more immersive world than anything you've seen in Azeroth or even Outland.

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!