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The Queue: Valor points and Wite-Out spills
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. When Jaina's new white hair was first revealed on her character model, I thought it looked ridiculous. Over time, though, I think I'm getting used to it. I still wish the border of white and blonde matched the flow of her hair better, it looks like an unfortunate Wite-Out spill at the moment, but it doesn't seem quite as bad to me as it once did. Eh! @urban_infection asked: What should we do now that VP will not be reset? Spend them or save them?
Should Moonglade return to being the druid's Peak of Serenity?
Leveling up a monk is good fun and rather speedy. Starting from level 20, monks can complete daily quests that allow them to practice key skills and also reward an experience buff that stacks up to 48 hours. All they have to do is use their Zen Pilgrimage skill to send their spirits to the Peak of Serenity and interact with their Monk trainers. No other class has this kind of training, but the druids used to have something similar in Moonglade. Once upon a time, leveling up a druid was much more difficult than it is now, and arguably more fun. Each form had a class quest to go with it and the Moonglade teleport spell was used to get these quests, as druids needed to speak to the druid trainers in the Cenarion Circle in order to advance as a shape-changer. Granted, the Aquatic Form quest was a royal pain, but it was a rite of passage that I thought made sense. There were no daily quests, nor was there repeated training as to how to use the forms, but the class quests did make advancing as a druid more rewarding. I think they should revamp Moonglade to return it to its former glory and use the Peak of Serenity as a model for training druids how to use their forms and other key skills.
Aiding the Alliance: Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage
Tyrande Whisperwind has been a central part of the Alliance since way back in vanilla WoW. She was one of the key figures in the events of Warcraft III, and she's had a substantial role in the course of Azeroth as a whole -- she was there at the Sundering, she was there at Mount Hyjal, and as far as we can tell, she'll be around much longer than that. Truthfully, my issues with Tyrande are not as substantial as those I had with King Varian Wrynn. Even in vanilla WoW when nearly every other faction leader sat idle, she was called front and center to cleanse Eranikus in Moonglade. She's active. She's powerful. She's faithful. She's as close to perfect as Alliance faction leaders get. There's only one problem: Malfurion Stormrage.
Breakfast Topic: Did you accomplish your Lunar Festival goals?
Your first kiss. The night of your senior prom. Lunar Festival 2011. Some events are just so memorable they live in your heart forever. And though we may wish they could last forever, they don't -- all good things must come to an end. Try to hold back your tears: Lunar Festival, the World of Warcraft in-game holiday based around the Chinese New Year, has come to an end. Personally, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself now that the event is over. I've been spending the past few weeks obsessively running old and outdated dungeons on my max-level characters, watching 20 different people standing around Moonglade without any idea about how to summon Omen, and deleting tons of spam-like in-game mail from all sorts of "elders." And what do I have to show for it? Nothing, because I still haven't done the stupid Children's Week PvP achievements. (And I probably never will.) But enough about me. What about you? Did you accomplish your goals for the Lunar Festival? And, gosh darn, how are you ever going to survive the next 40-plus months without experiencing the joy and fun of the holiday? World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Breakfast Topic: Culture permeates
One of my favorite things about World of Warcraft is how much culture seeps into the game. I don't mean the influences of Asian architecture in Moonglade, or the Native American aesthetic of the Tauren race. I mean the references to internet memes, pop culture, and literature. These little things always make me smile, and they're one of the many things I missed during the 17 days I played Aion last year. Eastern games might have been where I found my first love, but it's Blizzard's flair and style that turned me on to American game development. In fact, those little jokes are a lot like a warm blanket that keeps me toasty warm on those chilly nights... But do you know what's better than an ordinary blanket? Friends at Blizzard, please hear me out. Do you see the image above? I want one. I want one like I want a Slap Chop or a Bedazzler. I want to get on my Snuggie in the World of Warcraft. I want one for the whole guild. It would be perfect for those drafty raid instances! My ordinary tabard just doesn't keep me warm from head to toe... Okay, my absurdity level is getting out of hand.
The purpose of Achievements, and how it's changed over time
Moonglade has a good post up about the pros and cons of achievements. Nowadays, achievements are everywhere, but when they were introduced to the game a while ago, they were seen as a great way for Blizzard to integrate an idea that had really taken off on Xbox Live (and that an impending competing MMO, Warhammer Online, was implementing for themselves). They were mostly seen as a benefit for the solo player -- even if you hit level 80 and nabbed some awesome gear, there'd be some optional fun for you to have in the future.Since then, achievements have changed quite a bit -- I'd argue that they're actually more used in groups than in solo play, as raids check players for achievements when inviting them, and guilds use achievements to rate where their proficiency lies. There are certainly still lots of things for solo players to do (every holiday, achievements come to the forefront again), but titles and mounts have become the main goals there, not just optional points. As Moonglade says, instancing and checking up on what players have done seem to have become the main point of achievements. What was just a bragging competition on Xbox Live has transitioned to a real yardstick in terms of what a player focuses on in game and what they've done so far.Is that bad? I don't think so -- Blizzard has done with achievements what they've done brilliantly with all of the other features of their games: borrow them, polish them, and then make them better. If you look through that old thread, most of the talk was about achievements pushing people to keep playing the game, and that happened, but I think one thing Blizzard has done is use achievements as a way to see what people have done so far as well: what instances have you run, what quests have you completed, what titles do you have already? There's lots more value to achievements than what any of us originally envisioned.
The Queue: All your fault
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.You know, I was getting bored of that whole musical intro thing, but having it around certainly made these preambles easier to write. What do you write here every day about a daily Q&A column? Guess what, guys! We're A'ing more Qs! Shock! Awe!So you've broken me. Congratulations. I am now a hollow husk of a man that can do nothing but uphold the status quo. I hope you're proud of yourselves. Here it goes again. WootZoot asked... "Any word on if Blizzard is working on a new novel or RPG book?"
15 Minutes of Fame: Character art inspires Cenarion Circle raider
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about at 15minutesoffame (at) wowinsider (dot) com.For all the WoW players who sink into Azeroth to escape the travails of the world outside are others who seem set ablaze by the ideas, energy and connections sparked during their gaming. Among the inspired: Aislinana of Cenarion Circle, whose casual interest in assembling a sweet character portrait of a guildmate has morphed into a growing passion, with a growing fan base clamoring for their own portraits.15 Minutes of Fame: Tell us how you got started doing character portraits – because you're not actually a professional artist or long-time hobbyist, are you?Aislinana: Well, we were hanging around in Black Temple after a raid finished up, so I snapped a screen cap of my friend's priest, Kallindril, and said I'd spruce it up in Photoshop. Little did I know that it was going to turn into an obsession for me. I mean, I've always loved taking screenshots. I take them all the time to capture something awesome looking, much like I do with my own digital camera. So I've had an eye for this stuff. I just started to retouch/edit and then eventually started painting in effects in Photoshop.
Insider Trader: Fishing, the final stretch
Until very recently, with patches 2.3 and 2.4, fishing was a skill mainly taken up by those players aching to relax. Casual questers who couldn't play for hours and be all business, or raiders looking to escape the pressure, took to their favorite remote and beautiful areas with a rod, some music, and a <DND> tag. In my small and tight-knit guild, fishing often meant story time. While I was feeling Zen fishing from the Forgotten Coast, another guildmate was storming the shores along Stranglethorn Vale, and we would exchange anecdotes and gossip. We took pleasure in our secret source for cloth, leather, ore and greens, as well as fish for alchemy, and helped finance our level 40 mounts through fishing. Still, many players, if not most players, seemed to find fishing boring, slow and annoying. Fortunately, fishing has never been necessary for any character if it does not provide pleasure. Even cooks, who stood to benefit the most from fishing, could work around it, and push through any rough patches by buying small stashes of certain fish from other players. Of course, now that fishing is more lucrative, its secrets more widely known, more people have shown an interest. As cooking became more important, so did fishing, not because you couldn't maximize cooking without it, but because some of the best buff foods are made with fish. Those who need a constant supply can't rely on the auction house. Recently, Robin Torres wrote up some tips to leveling fishing at level 70, and this week, Insider Trader is taking an in-depth look at maximizing your fishing skill. For the inside scoop on reaching 375 as quickly as possible, or as profitably as possible, head on through the break.
Player vs. Everything: Pointless mini-zones
How pointless are so-called "pointless mini-zones," really? Michael did a post the other day which examined the history of a zone in EverQuest called Surefall Glade. Hitting his links gave me a nice little walk down memory lane -- I have fond memories of Surefall, being an old-school EQ fan who cut his teeth in Qeynos Hills, back in the day. There really isn't all that much to the zone, though. It's like the article says: a cabin, a lake, an archery range, and a few hidden caves with some bears. There's nothing to do but raise your fletching skill, and nothing to kill that's worth killing. Eventually they added some stuff to it, but it was still never anything more than a small, transitional town. Surefall was the essence of a pointless mini-zone: Most players never had any compelling reason to go there. Still, did it add something to the game with its mere presence? Like Moonglade in World of Warcraft, you could argue that it was kind of a neat place for players to discover and hang out. We get so focused on the "content" of these games that sometimes we forget that exploring a new zone you've never seen before, even if there's really nothing to do there, is content in its own right. Besides, does every single zone in our MMOGs have to be a big quest hub tied to a specific zone? Can't some places just be places?
The Lunar Festival is underway in Azeroth!
World of Warcraft has a ton of special holiday events all year 'round, most of them in homage to real-world events. The Lunar Festival is no exception. Coinciding with Chinese New Year, the Lunar Festival has more to offer players than just eye candy. Inhabiting every major city in Azeroth, on both sides of the fence, stand elders of each race, ready to provide special Coins of Ancestry to those who show respect. These Coins may be redeemed for various novelty items.And don't forget to check out the fireworks celebration in each city that begins after sunset and runs each hour. This event will run until February 23rd, and today, which marks the actual Lunar New Year, there will be festivities Stormwind, Thunder Bluff, Booty Bay, and Moonglade. For a complete listing of elder locations and rewards, check out this link. Kung Hei Fat Choi, warriors!
Blood Pact: The real Lunar Festival
Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman. He's recently started to plumb the depths of SSC with his 0/21/40 build and bragging about 8k shadow bolts.Today being the first day of the lunar new year (for the eastern hemisphere at least), I shall lay my shadow bolts down and talk about something close to my roots: the Lunar Festival. Hey, even evil warlocks come from somewhere, you know.WoW's Lunar Festival is based pretty closely on the real life Lunar New Year that millions celebrate all around the world. It's a really nice gesture on Blizzard's part to move in-game festivities each year to match the real life celebrations, as Lunar New Year doesn't fall on the same day each year on the 'normal' or Gregorian calendar. In fact the 15-day festival is determined by the lunisolar calendar, and it begins on the first day with a new moon of the new lunar year. This is the third year we're having the Lunar Festival in WoW: 2006 – The Lunar New Year was on Jan 29; WoW's Lunar Festival was held Jan 27 to Feb 14. 2007 – The Lunar New Year was on Feb 18; WoW's Lunar Festival was held Feb 16 to Mar 8. 2008 – The Lunar New Year is on Feb 7; WoW's Lunar Festival started yesterday and will continue till February 23rd. What happens during WoW's Lunar Festival, besides Asian-style outfits, fireworks and funky red decor around towns?
There is no Dana, only Omen
Happy Lunar Festival! Ae as we celebrate the festival of the moon in World of Warcraft, we should take pause to reflect on the many dogs in our life. From the hounds in MC (can't you just hear your old raid leader yell: "LOOT THE DOGS!"), to the annoying wolves that get in our way when farming Netherweb Spider Silk. But for a short time, there is no other top dog on the block then Omen.Hanging out in Moonglade, he's a real pain. Before you even think of killing him, you need to get to Moonglade first. Since I mainly roll with my warrior when attempting new things, I wasn't able to just take the easy way to Moonglade and teleport myself there. However, many thanks to Toast who filled me in on a little tip: talk to the Lunar Festival Night Elves in any major city to get a scroll that'll teleport you to Moonglade. To get the scroll all you have to do is complete a quest that has you light off a few fireworks that you can purchase from a near by vendor. Easy as pie.Once you arrive in Moonglade, head up to the northeast corner of the map, in particular around coordinates 53, 35. You'll find the quest "Elune's Blessing" from Valadar Starsong, giving you the task of killing Omen for some handy rewards.
The Lunar Festival begins today in Azeroth
This annual in-game holiday is scheduled to coincide with real life Chinese New Years. Asian style outfits, ceremonial fireworks, delicious dumplings and a once-a-year raid boss are all part of the celebration. Quests send you to find 50 coins and turn them in for various goodies as well. It's a fun RP event taking place across player cities throughout Azeroth, but mostly centered in the Druid village of Moonglade.The real question this year is if this holiday is going to upgrade the event like they did for Hallow's End. Will there be fireworks in Shattrath? Elders in Arcatraz? Revelers in Zul'Aman? Shouldn't a major celebration like this have Omen dropping some welfare epics, too? Recently they promised an older holiday would get a make over. Is this the one? We'll have until February 23 to find out.%Gallery-15360%
