Ask a Beta Tester: More Titan's Grip

We're back again with today's round of Ask a Beta Tester questions. I tried to answer as many as I could, but time is a fickle mistress and I was going to write some sort of metaphor here but I can't think of one, so if you would all be so kind, come up with one for me. If I didn't get to your question today, don't worry, we'll be doing these for as long as there are questions left to answer. Just post it in the comments section below, and we'll try to get to it as soon as we can.

Jamesisgreat asked: How much gold are you getting rewarded per quest on average? I mean is it worth us saving up our gold for Wrath or are quests going to reward 100g a pop or something?

Most quests throughout the starter zones give around 5g each, though group quests offer more. On top of that there are the green rewards you don't use that you can vendor, so you don't need to save a lot of money. I advise saving up a little bit though, because questing to 80 is not going to get you the (roughly) 8,000g you'll want to buy the ring that ports you to Dalaran. You won't be totally broke at 80 if you don't save money now, but you won't be able to run around and buy whatever you want either. Northrend is a big place, so that ring will be nice even if you only use it for the portal. You can be free to set your hearth elsewhere.

Arkkoran asked: Will there be more character customization options in Wrath of the Lich King? I play a female troll and tauren. The troll isn't in that much of a crisis, but let's face it, almost all tauren look identical once they're in armor. I know they're adding new hair styles and colors for hair in Lich King, but anything else? As a side note, if you know, what new styles are in store for tauren? There isn't much hair(other than fur) to work with on them. More specifically, can you change fur color in the barber shops?

It seems pretty consistent across all races that the bottom three 'sliders' on character creation is what can currently be changed in the barber shop. For a Female Taurn, this would be Horn Style, Horn Color, and Hair Style. The fur color you chose at character creation is the one you're stuck with, it seems.

As far as further ways to customize your character besides armor, I don't really know what's coming our way. There's a lot that isn't quite implemented yet (the new hairstyles aren't even in) so we don't really know. Blizzard has hinted at tattoos (brands for Tauren, I guess) and that would be pretty awesome, but none of that is currently in beta, and who knows if that will even be in Wrath. I'm willing to bet we'll never get an option to adjust height/weight.

moomento asked: I was wondering whether we can keep the honor we have currently in BC and spend it at level 80 in Wrath. My level 70 Warrior has about 20K honor and I just plan to PvP with him until the expansion hits and was wondering whether the honor I get on him now will be of any use at 80.

As far as I've seen, none of the new PvP gear is in the Wrath beta. The level cap is currently 77, so maybe we'll see it when they push the cap to 80. However, WoW Classic used the same honor points we use now. I think you'll be safe doing what you're doing, but keep an eye on WoW Insider and other Wrath resources in case that changes before the expansion launches.

Ian R. asked: Can Forsaken Death Knights heal themselves with Death Coil?

No. Forsaken are classified as Humanoid and not Undead for balance purposes. They get no special treatment as far as immunities and vulnerabilities.

Everrest asked: As an avid Frost Mage I'm curious how many of the mobs you've encountered in beta have frost resistance (or immunity!?). Is it a problem Frost Mages might only be facing irregularly or are 75% of the mobs made to resist cold spells?

I haven't noticed there being many mobs resistant or immune to Frost, and not moreso than anything else. There are the usual Water and Ice elementals but there are Nature and Fire elementals as well, and everything in between. These polar bears may be accustomed to living in the cold, but a solid block of ice hitting them in the face still hurts.

BigDaddyJay asked: I have a question about Titan's Grip. What I keep reading is tha tthis talent is great for early level grinding, but not so much for instancing. What's been said is that overall DPS output isn't quite what some had thought, so having two slow 2 Handers isn't as good as two 1 Handers. My question froms from the fact that I've seen a lot of the new gear from the Beta contains Haste Rating. It seems that it would be significantly easy to stack a lot of haste, almost negating the 20% slowdown inherent in the talent. How come nobody is talking about the abundance of +Haste gear and it effect on Titan's Grip?

Nobody is really talking about it because it doesn't help. In theory Titan's Grip should be a DPS increase, but it isn't at all, and it actually scales terribly. Your weapons swing slower than they would naturally, but they hit for the same amount as they would used alone. It uses the same AP and Haste conversions that it would before the slow effect, meaning less DPS per AP. Math-wise it makes perfect sense for that to happen, but when it comes to gameplay it means you don't scale as well as you would with two 1 Handed weapons.

Additionally, you swing so slow that your rage generation is absolutely gutted. Sure, your specials will hit for a ton when you get to use them, but you're going to be horrifyingly rage starved. All of that Haste won't help Titan's Grip keep up with two 1 Handed weapons in its current form, because those 1 Handed weapons just plain get more benefit from Haste.

Also, for a raiding build, if you don't get Titan's Grip you can pick up Blood Frenzy from Arms while having Bloodthirst and Improved Berserker Stance from Fury. Your raid will love you. Sure, you'll only be 4/5 in Imp. Zerker, but that doesn't really matter when you compare it to the benefits.

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. Elizabeth kicked things off with some Death Knight questions (among other things) and Alex took to the stage from there. Don't forget to check WoW Insider's Wrath Roundup page for anything we haven't answered here!