The Queue: I understand my own sleep schedule

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.

For me, sleeping too long is a curse. I hate it. My body hates it. If I wake up from a too-long nap or way-too-long sleep, I feel groggy and weird. Rather, I usually sleep for a set amount of time, between five to seven hours, and then I'm up for the day. No naps. Can't do naps.

So, of course, when I fall asleep at 8 p.m. for some reason, I wake up at 3 in the morning. Let's answer some questions, shall we?

alzeer asked:

in the last two expansions we got "Chill of the throne" & "Sunwell Radiance" to counter the tanks`s high dodge value by the end of expansion. but in cata we didn't get smiler buff (yet), was the dodge formula changed so it is not needed any more?

There are a few factors that relate to the fact that there will not be a need for Deathwell Radiance in the future for gear during this raiding tier. First of all, the number of raiding tiers for the Cataclysm expansion was smaller than those of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, meaning Blizzard had another entire set of gear ramping up a player's powers and abilities. That tier of gear essentially needed to be dealt with -- thus, Icewell Radiance.

Not only that, but the focus and design of the Cataclysm fights were different beasts than in Wrath. Wrath bosses in ICC needed Icewell Radiance in order to hit your tanks for lots of damage. Tanks in Wrath were never in any other state other than full health or dead, meaning that the stamina imbalance and ludicrously high mitigation rates necessitated the use of a debuff. In Cataclysm, fights are designed to leave the tank vulnerable to other damage, as well as the boss, leaving bosses in Cataclysm without the ability to one-shot appropriately geared tanks. Even if you are too hard to hit by the boss, Cataclysm encounters will make sure you're taking damage, jumping over the need for Deathwell Radiance.

Sunwell Radiance came into effect because Blizzard had no way to really predict the crazy amounts of gear inflation and power creep, so it stuck in a quick solution for the time being. Wrath was a first failed attempt, and Cataclysm provided the first real testing grounds for better gear progression at the endgame. Because of the fact that there were fewer raid tiers and more loot planning, Blizzard has dodged the bullet this time.

Who knows what awaits us in the future? My guess is that once we hear about whatever item level squish is happening with the next expansion in one way or another with skew with values enough, we will be in a whole new world.

dave73 asked:

In Well of Eternity, Illadin says "The stench of sulfur and brimstone...". Brimstone is, in fact, another word for sulfur. Did someone mess up? I find it hard to believe that made it all the way from the writer's desk to the live game without being caught by someone at Blizzard.

"Sulfur and brimstone" is a common misuse of "fire and brimstone," unless it does in fact mean a stench that smells like both sulfur and its counterpart sister word brimstone. This is most likely just a mistake. It happens.

mandapanda00001 asked:

Is there any chance I'll ever see my mage's different conjuring food again at max level?
What if I seriously miss conjuring strudels on my mage? ;_; I remember making my mage table for our ICC raids and telling them on vent/raid chat "Tonight's strudels are strawberry! :D" I know they're always cooking and stuff. I guess I'm just nostalgic and wish that instead of cake I could choose to make biscuits or strudels or cookies for my conjure food. Small and minor in the grand scheme of things!

I'll just go make strudels in real life then.

To be honest, Blizzard should just make mage food give you back a percentage of health and mana and give you a new type of conjure every five or 10 levels. Having a huge assortment of summonable food might be cool, and they all give the same benefit, much like how mounts were changed so that every mount scales with riding level. Then mages would get a new fun customization flavor aspect to their characters. Sounds neat to me.

@blueearth77 on Twitter asked:

Do you think blizzard will be more or less focused on phasing in MoP?

I think there will be the same amount of phasing in Mists of Pandaria as there was in Wrath or Cataclysm. It's inevitable, really, but it works because changing the world around you is the holy grail of MMOs. If you can change the static world around as a player explores in it, you've achieved what The Vision never could.

Personally, I love phasing and micro-instancing, allowing players to have seamless experiences while still retaining the capital cities and hub world aspects of the genre.

Elarwen asked:

What happened to the "Ask A Faction Leader" column?

I'll ask Mr. Sacco about it today, just for you.

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!