yaks
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The real reason I hate the Timeless Isle
I hate the Timeless Isle. I hate the lack of clear objectives. I hate the pseudo-platformer elements. I hate the pouncing tigers, stomping rock monsters, and the shield bearing Ordon yaungol (all of which have abilities I'd be perfectly happy to deal with in a dungeon but am inconvenienced by when I just want 50 Lesser Charms of Good Fortune for the week). There's also the unconventional grummle mailbox that requires two clicks instead of one, and the apocalyptic typhoon of random consumable items wrecking my bag space. But above all of those there is one thing I hate more than anything about the Timeless Isle ... The yaks.
The Queue: I forgot I was writing this
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 your "Hey, it's that guy" guy today. So yeah, I totally forgot I was supposed to write this today. I was running some dungeons, and suddenly this bolt of terror rocketed down my spine. After I dealt with that ghost, I remembered I had to write the Queue for today because folks are getting to go to BlizzCon and once again, I'm not. I'm not bitter about it, but I am wistful that I never get to meet any of y'all. Anyway, let's do some Queue diving, shall we? BlackSeal asks: If they announce a new expansion Friday (which is almost a certain thing), do you think we will also see the cinematic for the expansion on Friday as well? I can't recall if they had a showing of the Wrath, Cata and Mists cinematics that are currently in the game to kick off the expansion on the day of announcement at Blizzcon or not. (I am pretty certain the BC cinematic was shown as it is in the game at the time of announcement? Didn't we have to wait a while past Blizzcon for the Mists one? Uncertain as well about the others) The cinematic almost always comes much later than BlizzCon. Wrath, Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria all had videos at BlizzCon that showcased the work already done on the next expansion, but none of them had the actual in game cinematic to the best of my knowledge. (I remember the Wrath of the Lich King video from BlizzCon very well, but I'm not as sure about Cataclysm. I do know that the cinematic with Deathwing's narration was not done yet.) So there will almost certainly be some kind of video at BlizzCon, and it almost certainly won't be the actual cinematic we get when Corgis Unleashed finally is released.
A farewell to yaks
It was an evening in early December when I logged in and heard the news. I hadn't taken two steps across the Valley of Strength when a whisper popped up in my chat window. "There is a Ruthers exploit!" A rush of excitement shot through me. What kind of exploit could have existed for my beloved yak companion? "What? How? Explain!" I typed back. When the answer didn't come immediately I began tugging at my brain for possible explanations. Was there some sort of raid boss mechanic that could be negated with Ruthers? Could Ruthers kill raid bosses?! I became giddy at the thought. After minutes of trying to work out how Ruthers might tank Sha of Fear, a reply finally came. "Ruthers isn't on the GCD. You can make a macro with '/cast Ruthers' Harness' a billion times and spam it. Raine just summoned like a thousand of them." I booked it out to the Barrens straight away, assembling the macro as my Mimiron's Head carried me to a secluded little spot -- If this exploit did what he said it would, I couldn't go spamming it in the middle of Orgrimmar. After a mere 11 lines I hit the 255 character limit. "This will have to do," I thought as I landed on the grassy mountain side. Dragging the macro to my action bars, I took a deep breath, then pressed the key. %Gallery-179805%
Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite vanity item in Mists of Pandaria?
Holy punchable turnips, Batman! Mists of Pandaria is packed with an extraordinary number of vanity items to amuse us (while simultaneously stealing away our bag space). There are flippable tables, Botticelli clam shells, puppy hordes, and lovable (albeit misunderstood) yaks. Anne wrote up a nice guide to getting some of them earlier this month, but I'm certain there are still more out there. So here's a question: which one is your favorite? Obviously my favorite is Ruthers' Harness ... Nothing beats a yak by your side, gently nuzzling you with love and affection so you don't have to be scared of the dark (and rogues). But I also like Mr. Smite's Brass Compass, since I suffer from height envy whenever I play my tiny blood elf. What about bag space? How are you managing it all, given that the Royal Satchel is so expensive to make? Have you had to delete anything to make space for a new vanity item, and which items were worthy of that space? I myself deleted the Magic Banana and Puntable Marmot (I've never been impressed with the Prairie Dog model) but kept the Turnip Punching Bag and Covered Basket. You know, so I could go on picnics with a turnip ... And Ruthers.
This is a very, VERY fast mount
While exploring The Veiled Stair, I found myself on a mountain cliff overlooking the very northwestern sliver of Jade Forest, on the border of Valley of the Four Winds. Down below me was a river, the green hills of Jade Forest, and ... Ooh a gold elite! Base jumping off the cliff, I began my merciless attack on the Sungraze Behemoth, a monstrous, sleeping Mushan. For a gold elite it didn't put up much of a fight (though it did have a lot of health) so I was quite surprised when I looted a mount from the Mushan's corpse. Wait -- no, that's not a mount. After reading the tooltip over a couple of times I realized that I had looted a curious sort of mount that could only be used in Valley of the Four Winds, and only had three charges. But it was a very, VERY fast mount, the tooltip told me. What could that mean? And only three charges? Since I hadn't finished leveling yet, I wondered if maybe I should save it for long trips between quest hubs. Not long after finding the Oddly-Shaped Horn, I was wandering around Kun-Lai Summit, just south of Shado-Pan Monastery when I found another gold elite with a name: the mountain goat Zhing. After killing the goat, I looted Bag of Kafa Beans and at this point I was too curious to care about it being a limited use item. I clicked on the bag and woosh! Off I went! Off a cliff. Yep, that's fall damage. Ow. Ow.
More mounts in the Mists of Pandaria beta
The most recent beta patch has added a handful of new mounts -- including yak mounts, which are automatically super-awesome because they're shaggy ol' yak mounts, and that's awesome. Don't argue with me. And if for some reason you're not willing to clutch a yak mount to your bosom (perhaps you're cruel, wicked, evil and wrong as wrong can be -- I don't judge), you can content yourself with the Amber Scorpion or the Crimson Riding Crane. The Crimson Riding Crane is going to be a frontrunner in the Mounts That Look So Wrong with a Tauren Perched on Their Back contest. I just know it. Personally, I want both the Grand Expedition Yak and the White Riding Yak, and I want to ride them by standing on their backs, one foot on each. But I'll settle for just being able to ride them -- because, yaks. Did I mention that yaks are awesome yet? Sorry if I left that out. Yaks. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Yak mounts lumbering your way in Mists of Pandaria
Yak mounts? In my Asia-inspired continent? It's more likely than you think, according to Blizzard community rep Bashiok. Today, he confirmed on Twitter that the shaggy beasts of burden we saw in Mists of Pandaria preview screenshots will be available as mounts when the expansion hits. What wasn't indicated was whether or not the yaks are the official pandaren mounts; I'm leaning toward no, but we'll see. We were actually just discussing what the pandaren mount might be when this news came out. Blizzard joked about it at BlizzCon, with its mockup of a pandaren mount as a huge bouncy ball with a seat on top. Mat McCurley's personal opinion is (verbatim) "probably, like, a big frog maybe?" I feel it'll probably be something a little more dignified. Like a rickshaw. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!
