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The Queue: Fangs, mob kiting, classes and blood elves


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

We're a bit late today with the Queue. Please accept my sincere apologies, but I squarely blame this on terrible allergies that the editorial staff has in spades.

Seriously spring, just go away.

Chrth asked:

Night Elves, fangs or no?



Surprise! Fangs are happening. We heard an update last night on Twitter about this. The version that was presented yesterday was an earlier version. The final version will have fangs.

Arthros asked:

Do you find it difficult to play classes you find too similar to your main? I've been playing a Priest since launch, yet each time I manage to get a caster alt to max level and geared I just find myself thinking "This is ok, but I'd be having more fun melting faces as Shadow."

I try really hard to not play classes that are similar to each other. I like to think that I've got one healer, one ranged DPS, one tank, and one melee DPS. In reality I play every class (and am attempting to have them all maxed for WoD), but the similarity in gameplay is such that I don't like repeating archtypes.

One of the biggest problems with games in general right now is that these large archtypes are carried over in relatively the same manner from game to game. That's one of the reason any MMO is just labeled as a "WoW clone" -- which actually is a bad term because WoW is just a D&D clone. There is an ability out there for the play styles to be thrown on its head somehow and have an entirely different direction and setup of play. I don't know what that is, and what it looks like, but there has to be a way for a completely different style of play to evolve into a new overall class.

As to your exact question, yes, I do find it difficult to play classes that are too similar. Whenever I play my rogue I have to readjust and remember he's not my warrior. I can't just faceplant an entire set of mobs.

Zadji asked:

Back in the old days, players could kite open-world bosses/elites into capital cities for loads of fun. This is no longer possible...Was it because those bosses were kited so often that they spent all of their up-time killing guards in capital cities?

It was a combination of things that lead to their removal. From what I remember and from discussions I've had with designers and other folks about this, the main reasons are:

  1. Server Lag. At the time the servers were just not able to handle it.

  2. Mob purpose. Technically kiting a mob that's unkillable due to game mechanics that are already in place (like having to kill a mob with a special dagger) is exploiting a mechanic. It's not really done out of malice, but still, it's not using the mob for its original purpose.

  3. Client Lag. Clients lagged out when there were a few hundred people all damaging a mob at once. This really decreased stability.

  4. Gameplay. When you see a mob that's unkillable and just beats you to a pulp, you're going to get upset with the game if you don't know what's going on. For new players this can be very very intimidating.


Rik asked:

Is Valeera a High Elf or a Blood Elf?

Blood elf.


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!