The Queue: Trial and error

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.

Hello, everyone! Did you all grieve for me yesterday when The Queue never showed up? Yes, I apologize. My internet connection going down for 14 hours sort of caused some problems. But I'm back and better than ever! Well, I'm back at least. That second part is still up for debate.

Spoonman asked...

I have been hearing that the price for epic flying mount is going to drop to around 2500g, have you heard anything about this?

This is a rumor that shows up for every patch. Patch 2.3, 2.4, Wrath's release/3.0.1, and now with patch 3.0.8/3.1 it's back again. It's just a rumor that goes around, nothing from Blizzard lends any weight to it. Could it happen eventually? Yeah, probably. It wouldn't surprise me if the price came down one day in the future, like they ended up doing with ground mounts. Blizzard hasn't said anything about that, though.

Ian R. asked...

What ever happened to WoWInsider's weekly AddOn column? Having The Queue daily has ruined my paitence for all the other columns.

I think The Queue's absence yesterday foiled half of this question, but oh well! AddOn Spotlight has been spotty for a little while, but it'll be back full time in the near future. Keep an eye out for it.

actodd asked...

Which instances and raids have the most badges in them? I loved Kara's 23 (22?) and running heroic Bot for that extra boss kill. What are their equivalents in Northrend?

Naxxramas has 16 or 17 badges, and is a pretty quick jaunt once you've got the fights down. There's surprisingly little trash, so it's pretty much boss after boss after boss. The 5-mans in Wrath are shorter in general, so that one extra badge probably won't even really be a consideration. You can get three badges in twenty minutes in Heroic Azjol-Nerub. I think that beats anything The Burning Crusade had to offer.

HunterFromTheStart asked...

What about Fishing Lures, is there an improved one yet? And is there a fishing daily hidden away somewhere? I was kind of hoping for a new Fishing Daily, so that I could keep up my supply of fish hooks.

No new lures, no new dailies. It would take some puttering in the old world/on an alt, but if you absolutely need the 100 Skill lures rather than the 75s that you can buy on a vendor, you could always commission an engineer to make you a bazillion Aquadynamic Fish Attractors. They're the same as the Sharpened Fish Hooks, except they're crafted. Tedious? Yeah, but at least you can get a whole load of them made in an afternoon rather than a daily quest giving you 5-6 at a time.

Vjax asked...

Are there any daily quests that provide the opportunity for the new badges to drop like the SSO bags that had a chance to drop a BoJ?

I haven't noticed any and Wowhead doesn't list anything like that. BC didn't start handing out badges like that until very late in the game, so I imagine Wrath will be similar. Maybe not as late as in The Burning Crusade, but not for awhile at least, if they do it at all.

Healem asked...

I'm a priest (Disc/Holy) and want to start getting involved into Arena play. I own all the Season 2 gear for my class and most items that can be purchased with Honor points only. Coming next week, should i be doing Arena in my Season 2 gear or my lvl 80 Epics (Naxx/crafted/heroics epics)? Is S2 gear still viable?

The arena is one of those things where you don't really know until you try. You can math out PvE encounters to some extent, but not so much PvP. My gut says level 80 PvE epics will trump Season 2, but something like Season 4 would trump the 80 PvE gear. If you have the time, queue up for some skirmish rounds trying out different gearsets before the season starts. For a Healer, you'll pretty much want to see what lets you survive a focus fire.

Season 2 has a lot of stamina and resilience, but compare your HP in that to your HP in level 80 epics. I imagine there's a hefty difference, but does the Resilience you're missing make up for that and the load of spell power you gain? We just don't know yet. It might, or it might not. Like I said, run some skirmishes. It won't be the same as coordinated arenas, but just make a note of what kind of damage you have being thrown at you.

If you're getting 2-shot, that particular gearset isn't working. If a disorganized skirmish is tearing you apart, an organized team will kill you so hard Blizzard will delete your account and pre-emptively ban you from battle.net for Diablo III.

I would be doing much the same thing, skirmishing to test gear, but I lucked out and cheesed my Deadly Gladiator gear out of Archavon. I actually kind of feel bad about it.

Also, have you looked into the crafted PvP gear from Tailoring? Just search for Frostsavage on Wowhead and it'll bring up the full list. A little expensive to make, but it might be worth it to start the arena season off on the right foot.

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!