The Queue: Put them in front of me
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi is the dark force behind a triptych folded cardboard sheet with a lot of tables printed on it today.
It's no secret that I spent a lot of time playing pen and paper RPG's. This is a story from one of those.
Friend of mine was running a Werewolf: The Apocalypse game, one of White Wolf's original "Noun: Definite Article Gerund" games. I actually liked both Werewolf and Mage: The Awakening, just because you could do some crazy stuff in these games. I turned an ancient vampire into a chair once! Paid for that one in paradox, whoo boy. Anyway, so we're at the table, all of us playing werewolves (as you do) and we've discovered that the mayor of the city is in league with the Wyrm (the game's ultimate antagonist, think Sargeras meets a Captain Planet villain) and has a host of Nexus Crawler minions waiting for us. One of our more (up to that point, anyway) meek and mild players is incensed with this betrayal and she says "I'll tear out his heart for this!"
The GM smirks and says "First you have to get past his private army of fomori."
She takes off her glasses, stands up straight and says with an actual growl "Put them in front of me."
And that, my friends, is why I love gaming. Put them in front of me. Let's get on with the show!
Slothcloctimus asks:
Question: Why is there not a third phase in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms? I love the first phase -- when you first enter and all the pandaren are coming in for the first time. It feels like you're part of something big. Then when you hit 90 and start the Golden Lotus quests, you get a second phase where you're holding off the Sha attacks and the mogu and everything. The dailies kind of dragged on, but I love how the story ended with the epic quest at the end. Then I turned the quest in, saved everything....and flew over the same bad guys still there on my way out.
The easiest reason why that is comes down to the fact that you can (and I have) keep doing those dailies after you hit exalted and do the big 'save the vale' quest. Since daily quests are a source of valor points and lesser charms of good fortune, they don't 'end' even though the storyline has been completed, and so you keep on seeing the mogu attacking the vale.
The questlines are in effect completed in Throne of Thunder, and as a result the mogu assaults on the Vale continuing make a certain amount of sense - Lei Shen wants the Vale back under his control because of the secret he knows that sleeps beneath its surface. The one from the Dark Heart of Pandaria scenario. As a former Titan construct himself he knows all about that.
Also, if you happen to have killed Lei Shen on any raid difficulty, you've noticed that he drops a helmet, a 2h axe and a polearm. Those are the helm, axe and spear you lose in those quests. I just find that kind of thing neat.
Narillen says:
Flexible raid sizes. Huh.
First off, I'm gonna say it - I totally called it. And now that I've said that, I'll puncture my own warm balloon and say this implementation is fairly different, and better, than what I proposed. I like that it's based on letting people still raid with irregular sizes and just bring friends, that it's got no matchmaking built into it, that it's a step up from LFR in difficulty. I like that it's a step below normal mode, so that it won't necessarily compete with the struggling 25 man raid size in the middle of an expansion. I like that it's the first stage, a test implementation to shake it out, see where the bugs are and more importantly see what impact it has on the game. I really, really like the idea of flexible raid sizes.
Now we get to see how the implementation holds up, huh? I'm optimistic, for once. You can tell it's June.
GordonSullivan asks:
Is it worth noting achievements on character transfer anymore? Since achievements are now account-bound instead of character-bound?
The way I look at it, you still earned them. Plus, if you earned an achievement on a different character, it's worth bringing that up because it shows you have proficiency in more than one class (unless it was the same class... not that I've done that okay I totally have) and all that. Still, it doesn't hurt to tell people if you're say applying to a guild what classes you were playing when you earned raid achievements if you're using them on your app.
jmsecc asks:
Q4tQ: I've caught a couple mentions of a nerf to the Chess event... has it been brought down to a predictable level? I hadn't gotten a chance to do anything about the Raiding With Leashes 2 achievement/drops, but want to get to them this weekend. What should I expect? more RNG madness or a slightly less frustrating experience?
It's actually much less painful now. Medivh's cheats, which were the only real problem I ever had soloing it, are much less damaging and they happen with lower frequency. In addition, the pieces themselves use abilities less often, so overall it's just much less difficult. You might die on your first attempt, but after that you'll get a sense of what's happening and it becomes, if not easy, then at least quite manageable.
Derekk asks:
QftQ: Regarding the whole Recruit-A-Friend deal. I'd like to do this, but I'd like to do it by creating another account for myself. I checked the FAQs and couldn't find an answer, so here goes. If I create a new account, will I need to re-buy all WoW expansions again? Would I have to reinstall them on my computer as well? Sorry if I sound like an idiot with this. I just want to know how much money I'd need to really toss away.
You do need to buy WoW again, and while you can get up to Wrath with a Battle Chest purchase, you'll likely have to buy Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria separately. You won't have to reinstall them, though. You basically just need the license.
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!
