Yak mounts? Yak mounts!
Latest Mists of Pandaria talent updates
Guide to the Darkmoon Faire
Blinded Iraq war vet raids with a little helpMichael Sacco
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Mega Bloks wants fans to channel their inner Thrall
by Michael Sacco 
on Feb 22nd 2012 (7 hours ago)
- Pose like Thrall (Stand proud, warrior!)
- Pose as Thrall (cosplay)
- Pose with Thrall (BlizzCon statue, figure, etc.)
Yak mounts lumbering your way in Mists of Pandaria
by Michael Sacco on Feb 21st 2012 (1 day ago)
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!
Filed under: Mists of Pandaria
The Queue: Comeback Kid
by Michael Sacco on Feb 18th 2012 (4 days ago)
The new Sleigh Bells album is almost out! Aaahhh! I've heard the whole thing and, minus this song and one or two others, it's a lot less raucous than I thought it would be, based on Treats. I still like it, though.
Simpsons Rule asked:
I have a question: Has the Daily Quest column been canceled? There hasn't been a post since January 27.
Nope! Not in spirit, anyway. Some of you guys may have noticed slight changes in the format here, and this is one of them. Basically, we're trying to make sure that really cool stuff like interesting community blogs and fan creations doesn't get lost in our daily content cycle. To that end, we're spotlighting things more individually and not under a single banner like The Daily Quest. You'll note we've done this with other columns as well, like our roleplaying column, among others.
Filed under: The Queue
The Queue: You will die, we promise
by Michael Sacco on Feb 12th 2012 (10 days ago)
It's pretty nice of Blizzard to make sure you know that its game will kill you.
Coffee asked:
With the arrival of account-wide achievements, do you think Blizzard will add something where our achievement points have some in game effect? For example, special vendors that will only sell to you if you have greater than 3000 achievement points, another vendor that will sell different items if you have over 5000, etc...
Like I said on the podcast recently, I've learned never to say never about anything Blizzard could possibly do in relation to WoW, but the devs have stated several times that they never intended for achievement points to be a real currency. So, I doubt it, but with account-wide achievements and other systems changes coming with MoP, we'll just have to wait and see.
Filed under: The Queue
The Queue: Re-Vita-lized
by Michael Sacco on Feb 11th 2012 (11 days ago)
I wasn't planning on picking up a PlayStation Vita, but then they told me there'd be a full-featured Uncharted game at launch, and welp.
Philster asked:
Very happy that they are going to allow achievements account-wide. It will definitely help me towards playing different characters more often.
What achievement are you MOST proud of? Mine is still Loremaster, as it was pre-Cata, and took a very long time to do. Though once I get What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been in May for finishing Children's Week, that will be up there also.
Personally, my favorite achievement is Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10-man). It was the first time I had really been involved with progression raiding when it was relevant; we had a dedicated group, and we all worked hard to clear that place every week until we did it, and we were still up there in terms of timing. It was my first and really only experience raiding at that level. I've raided before, but not really with a purpose. I saw that rusted proto-drake and knew it had to be mine, so I did it.
The Queue: Garbage Day!
by Michael Sacco on Feb 10th 2012 (12 days ago)
Hope you guys are as pumped for Skullgirls as I am. Any game that has someone yell "GARBAGE DAY!" when they shoot a pistol is a day-one purchase for me.
Soulestream asked:
Do you think they are allowing account wide achievements because they have decided to do the item level / stats squish?
No, I think the devs' stated reasoning was honest: They know that, after seven years, you're probably going to have a bunch of achievements on a guy you don't feel like playing as much anymore, but you keep playing because that's the guy with all the achievements. Making achievements account-wide means that you don't need to play the guy you hate just to maintain momentum (and a title you like that you can't get anymore).
Filed under: The Queue
1 million people signed up for the WoW Annual Pass
by Michael Sacco on Feb 9th 2012 (13 days ago)
The Annual Pass's benefits are pretty alluring -- you get the standard digital download edition of Diablo 3 for free, as well as the Tyrael's Charger mount for your WoW character. It's likely that other benefits will be added to the pass over time, too. All you have to do in return is agree to pay for a year of WoW. The "agreement" itself doesn't appear to be legally binding, in that you can still cancel your subscription, at which point Blizzard will remove the benefits you received, no harm done.
What makes the Annual Pass so interesting, though, is that it's actually a better deal for Blizzard than it is for the players. With the past few quarterly subscriber number drops interpreted as doom and gloom by outsiders, Blizzard needed a way to make sure that those numbers either increased or at least stopped slipping. With Diablo III and more Starcraft II on the horizon, not to mention other potential MMO threats, it was vital that Blizzard figure out a way to keep people paying even if they weren't playing. The Annual Pass, with its attachment of a "free" game, did the job perfectly. Blizzard gets to look good to its investors and umbrella company, and a million of you get a horse and a hack-and-slasher.
Filed under: Blizzard
The Queue: Superb Owl
by Michael Sacco on Feb 5th 2012 (17 days ago)
Why can't I find out anything about this Superb Owl?
dinojake15 asked:
Any word yet on MoP's system requirements?
I got a little 10.5.8 MacBook that can just barely run Cataclysm. Just wondering if I should start saving money for a new computer now.
Blizzard has been incrementally increasing WoW's system requirements with each expansion, so it's safe to assume that MoP will require even more muscle than Cataclysm did. I don't think it's been announced just how much more muscle, but if you had trouble running Cataclysm, you're going to have trouble with MoP.
Filed under: The Queue
The Queue: A giddy thing
by Michael Sacco on Feb 4th 2012 (18 days ago)
This Queue is excellent. *throws The Queue on the ground; it shatters into a million pieces* Another!
Ellyon asked:
My main is a resto druid. Lifebloom triggers Replenishment and I keep a stack of Lifebloom on a tank for, ideally, the whole fight. Last night I was in Raid Finder and noticed that Replenishment kept falling off. I would refresh Lifebloom just to make sure, but Replenishment didn't return until some other moment: a moment when I was not casting or refreshing Lifebloom. I'm wondering, is there a priority system that another character is the trigger for Replenishment? With my style of healing, Replenishment should be up the whole fight, but I regularly saw it fall off and was not refreshed at the moment I would have expected.
Commenter metafarm answered this one really well, so here it is for posterity:
It gives 10 party or raid members (with the lowest mana left) 1% of their maximum mana every 10 second for 15 seconds, or 1.5% over the full duration. Each time it is triggered, the 10 most needy members are recalculated, and those people either receive the buff, or have it refreshed on them.
Filed under: The Queue
The Queue: A sudden increase in prudishness
by Michael Sacco on Feb 3rd 2012 (19 days ago)
"Finally," you're saying right now, "Sacco is back with more YouTube videos of songs he likes." Yer darn right!
Puntable asked:
I'm not sure I really want to ask this question, but here goes. Blizzard has been changing a lot of the armor models on females, such as black mageweave leggings, to cover more skin. Why the sudden increase in prudishness after 6 years?
Well, Black Mageweave Leggings haven't changed since launch. What other instances of an "increase in prudishness" can you provide? If you need evidence that Blizzard hasn't stopped putting in revealing armor for women, check out rogue season 11 gear.
Filed under: The Queue
