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The Queue: The fate of Sky Captain Swayze and Ka'anu Reevs

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host for today.

My two new favorite NPCs in World of Warcraft are Sky Captain Swayze and Ka'anu Reevs of the Kor'kron Air Command. In the past, I have been very vocal about my disdain for "lazy NPCs" design in which a clever name that just replaces letters or flat-out names the NPC after the pop culture reference is created for content. Haris Pilton is the queen of all lazy NPCs, for instance, because it's not even a joke on Paris Hilton -- it's just her.

Sky Captain Swayze and his best orc buddy Ka'anu Reevs, however, are stalwart heroes, best friends, and champions in the highest regard. Whatever happens to them after that fateful jump and subsequent tentacling, I hope they survive. I hope they live on. In the name of freedom. I want Sky Captain Swayze and Ka'anu Reevs to be surfing off the shore of Pandaria for years to come.

You're about to jump out of a perfectly good airship, Reevs -- how do you feel about that?

mord asked:

Is raid finder too easy with 372 gear? I think Raid Finder was tuned for ilvl 365. I can understand why they decided to initially set it to 372, but I have a hunch it will eventually drop to 365 in a month or two. Have blues hinted at this possibility?



The Raid Finder will never be "too easy." People are completely missing the point of the Raid Finder if you ever think that it is "too easy." The Raid Finder is not meant to be difficult. Yes, it's meant to pose interesting challenges to players who are running it, but by no means is it meant to challenge you on the level of normal mode or heroic mode difficulties.

The reason the Raid Finder is built the way it is boils down to the fact that as a game mechanic, raiding is a pretty poor one. Think about it -- content is difficult, it used to be extremely time-locked and artificially gated, and it's logistically difficult for the everyday player. These are not people who needed to learn to play but rather people who just didn't have the time.

The Raid Finder's difficulty is to give all of those people the chance of at least seeing the encounters and being a part of the grand story without the traditional traps and gates of raiding in an MMO. MMO raiding is this weird anomaly that exists as game content moves toward accessibility over exclusivity. For people who legitimately feel threatened by the Raid Finder, I just feel like I'm at a loss for words sometimes. Why are you threatened by the Raid Finder? Because it's easy mode? Because someone could say, "Well, I defeated Deathwing and saved the day!" and did it via the Raid Finder? What the hell does that matter to you if you beat the fights on a harder difficulty?

As for whether or not they will lower the difficulty or, rather, lower the ilevel required to raid, I think they keep it up high to increase the chance of success each LFR group has of completing the raid wings. They would rather require higher ilevels to get in and have more innate successes than to lower the ilevel and have too many frustrating encounters and experiences. It will probably stay where it is.

razion asked:

Okay queue-goers, let's brainstorm here for a minute. What is the quickest way to do the quest "Test Your Strength"? Alternatively, what is the most AMUSING way to do so?

As usual, my go-to spot for farming experience-yielding mobs are the ghosts and undead in Icecrown due north of that awful area where you do the stupid jousting with the commanders. They die extremely fast and give you a grisly trophy. The most amusing way is PvP in the Darkmoon Free-for-all Deathmatch because that thing is a joke. Remove players from groups in there, in my opinion.

Darkseid asked:

Okay, so Blizzard introduces the Raid finder... Then makes none of the Rogue legendary quest or items attainable through the raid finder....

But... because of the Raid finder, you never see anyone forming PUG raids.

So the question is...

How are any Rogues who aren't already part of a raiding guild supposed to have ANY shot at completing or even starting the Legendary dagger chain...

Seems like piss poor planning on Blizzards part. Or, a ridiculous continuation of what they started with Cata, of basically trying to force everyone into a guild.


Legendaries are intended for players who are part of a guild in which the time, dedication, and logistical work is more difficult than your average encounter or quest. Not everyone is meant to have legendaries, as they represent one of the highest echelons of rewards in the game. PUG raids will form in time as players get geared up from Raid Finder and get more familiar with the fights. It just so happens that right now, there is an easier way to PUG raid, and it's Raid Finder.

Hal asked:

I understand Blizzard giving reforging duties to the ethereals... in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. Why in blazes did they take reforging out of the other cities?

I had literally no idea there were reforgers in other cities.


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!