Thanks for the likes, SFG! 
On that second pic, D says I look like I’m wearing a dunce cap.
Well, okay, yeah. I admit sometimes I feel like I am, but that is actually one of four shelves on which my surround sound speakers are sitting!
I sent those same pics to Lisa at WoW Insider, but I don’t think they’ll make it into the article which should be out “early afternoon” today. (pacific time)
Thanks
Q
Regarding the prison battle: I think what I’ll do is just tell the group leader I’m new there and let him advise me what to do. Good idea or not?
I’ll do some more reading first, and make some notes, but yeah I found that very tough going and even died a couple more times after leaving the battle last night.
I really need to go back to Hyjal and tackle that Doubt quest again as well after being killed there a few nights ago.
And the abuse I took offense to was “Wolkenlaufre, you &*%# noob, get the *&( out of here!”
Thanks
Q
From someone who never does PvP and avoids it like the plague unless she needs to: PvP is terrifying and full of assholes. Follow the mob and attack people who appear to be healing. Just go with the flow. People will bitch at you no matter what you do unless you’re a PvP master. Tol Barad is also a bad one right now because it awards things that solo people want, so a lot of inexperienced people who would never walk into PvP without needing the solo items (like me!) are going in. Let it roll off your back and don’t feel bad.
In addition Quasi you can tell the group leader you’re new, but chances are no one will advise you. It’s not you, it’s them. It just seems to be a PvP battleground thing.
Well, I’m really surprised at how well I took that. Don’t know if it’s the meds, but I don’t and can’t let myself get upset. If it ever starts, it’s tough to stop it. So I didn’t respond and just left.
If it had happened here say, 5 years ago, I would have gone into a rant and probably would have disappeared for months.
So, I like playing the “loner outlaw” with his one member guild, just quietly trotting or flying from one quest to another with as little interaction as possible.
My bank vault is stocked with consumables geared toward lower levels which I send to new players after watching them for a bit to make sure they might not be alts (tough to tell). I know you’re probably not supposed to do that, that it is for guild use only, but I don’t care. It makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile.
Plus, it keeps me from having to buy another vault! :)
Q
Awesome! I’d been keeping an eye out but hadn’t seen it yet. Can’t get there from work, but I’ll see it as soon as I get home.
Good way to deal with it. After all, WoW is a game, and the point of a game is to have fun–if you’re not having fun, time to do something else!
Your bank, your rules! You could take everything out and sell it or even just delete it and nobody could say boo to you. I like the idea of mailing it off to new players; kind of makes you a bit of a guardian angel. 
Someone dispensing abuse in Tol Barad is not worth your time. I’d recommend that next time this happens, before you leave enter: “/ignore Jerk’s Name”. This will add them to your ignore list ensuring that next time you try TB there’s one less raging idiot who can detract from your fun.
Other Dopers have already covered the TB strategy fairly well but I’ll chime in too. I think that TB is great for PvP beginners; you help your team by fighting by a flag with other group members. It’s chaotic and tends to be low on tactics. Use your map to see where your teammates are, then join them at one of the bases. Try to stay alive as long as possible and <Tab> target around focusing on low health opponents. When you die, check the map again and go to another concentration of allies.
I would not do that. The “group leader” is chosen at random, may know less about the battle than you do, and won’t have time for detailed instructions anyway. I think you’ll do fine just following the mob.
Definitely don’t sweat the hyper-competitive assholes that insult you. Everybody was new to that BG once, nobody owns it, and it’s open to anyone that queues up. Part of the challenge is trying to win with whatever motley collection of players make it into the fight each time.
RealID cross-realm grouping is in beta!
I’d pay for it if my friends reliably played WoW, but they kind of drift in and out several times a year, which is why I switched servers in the first place.
I’m seriously pissed off that they’re charging for this service. It should be baseline. Selling pets and mounts is one thing; selling basic game functionality is another entirely.
Dear Y’all
I have in my bags 2 poles which I received as quest items. One bejeweled and one bone. I myself am still fishing with Seth’s pole.
When I checked their worth, they aren’t worth much and it is recommended I vendor them, but I wanted to check with you guys because neither of them appear available on the auction availability list, and I was wondering if some of you fishermen might tell me I could charge a lot if I auction them anyway.
Rep: If I want a “higher powered” pole, I have to be exalted with the Kaluaks, correct? How do I do that when I can’t get any quests from them? I’m maxed out on the fishing skill. I don’t remember even getting any rep from them and what I do have is nowhere near. I am still honored. Can one get more rep from their Saturday fishing tournament?
Another one of my special “short bus” questions: Is there any way to tell if a quest area you’re taxxing to is enemy occupied BEFORE one goes there? I ask because several times now, in the quest “Blood Is Thicker Than Water” I have flown into the Valiance Landing Camp only to find that a battle is on the way, and if I don’t join it, I am teleported out, which has been a huge waste of time.
I have decided that if that happens, I WILL go ahead just for the experience and the hp, but I wanted to ask the question anyway.
Oak, Okay. I get what you’re saying. I’m going to try this again later tonight. I’m not letting anyone chase me off just because I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do. 
I appreciate everyone’s input on that.
Thanks
Quasi
Do you know this to be true or are you being anecdotal? What i mean is, one side cannot massively outnumber the other in TB?
I have posted before about a notorious Multi-boxer on my realm. He mainly is Horde, but has a pretty large number of Alliance toons as well. He often AFKs his alliance toons in TB, which, if what you say is true puts us at a severe disadvantage and i will become much more vigilant about reporting him.
PS, when i say multiboxer, i don’t mean 2 or 3… i mean like 25. Its hard enough when he’s there defending a base and all 25 of his toons attack the same target at the same time… but its even worse when his AFK alliance toons are there taking up our raid spots :mad: Blizz seems not to care if he multiboxes… but in Wintergrasp for example they did suspend him a couple of days when he would use his alliance toons to occupy vehicles and just sit AFK in them so we could not use them (when alliance was attacking). Maybe they will suspend him for this too.
I’ve run in to a multiboxer in BGs a few times. This guy runs 5 identical Tauren shamans, and one-shots people by having all 5 simulcast chain lightning on a single target. It’s tough to counter that–but killing the center toon seems to screw him up. I think that one is the “driver”, and the others follow him or something. A couple of DKs yanking his toons apart helps, too…
The poles are Soulbound and can’t be auctioned. If you’re not using them, you should sell them. (Check them versus Seth’s pole–I think they have a higher bonus to +Fishing.)
Correct. The best fishing pole in the game, aside from the one you get if you win the STV tournament, is the one from them. It’s actually better than the tournament pole, IMO, because it lets you breathe underwater when you wear it.
If you’re Honored with the Kalu’ak already, that means you probably did all of their quests in Northrend. Now the way to get to Exalted is a tedious grind of daily quests. There are three different dailies available from Kalu’ak in different areas of Northrend; you just have to do them every day, and eventually you get to Exalted. I can’t check it from here, but I think this page should have more information on where to go.
No, no way to tell, other than with PvP zones like Wintergrasp and Tol Barad. I have no clue what could have been going on in Valiance Landing Camp, though. That shouldn’t ever have world PvP of the kind that would teleport you anywhere.
This is absolutely the way it works; it was announced as a feature of the zone. They had too many balancing problems with Wintergrasp, so TB is always restricted at a 1:1 ratio. This is why AFKers are especially dangerous (or beneficial, if they’re on the other side). It also means that the queues suck for the more populous faction on any realm where there’s a heavy faction imbalance.
*Emphasis added
Since it’s unlikely that the person owns 25 computers and, even if he did, impossible to operate 25 simultaneously, it sounds like you’re describing a dynamic where a person can control all 25 toons with a single keystroke. How is that possible? Blizzard is fairly tolerant of add-ons and macros, but surely they wouldn’t allow something that advantageous, especially considering WoW’s PVP-rich environment (even on “non-PVP” servers) and the fact that the overwhelming majority of its constituency don’t give up a rent payment every month to play.
I’m a relative WoW noob, but an EverQuest veteran. EQ has one PVP server and PVP activity on “normal” servers in nil, outside of the rare duel (I haven’t seen a duel on a normal server in 6 years–different mentality combined with a much lower population, I guess). Point is, even with EQ’s light PVP environment, they wouldn’t allow that kind of overwhelming advantage.
What gives? How is that possible?
IMO, the only advantage an “underwater breathing” fishing pole could offer is if the game allowed you to fish underwater. Since you can’t, you’ll never be underwater when you have it equipped, unless, of course, you lack any kind of other “underwater breathing” item. But don’t (shouldn’t) most players at the level you can acquire this fishing pole already have some kind of underwater breathing item or ability? Do you really want to have this equipped when you’re fighting underwater, considering high level toons would be forsaking their usual melee weapons which, I presume, do more damage and definitely have better stats?
I believe there’s one way. Listen to the WorldDefense chat channel. If the zone you’re flying into has lots of “<place> is under attack!” warnings, you may be flying into a battle zone… or maybe just one flagged douchebag screwing with NPCs.
It’s not definitive, and 99% of the time it’s not worth joining the channel for, but back in the old days (pre-TBC), I’d make a point of tuning in before I caught a bat from UC to Tarren Mill, because there are few things as fun as landing at TM and discovering that the flightmaster, all the bats, and most of the quest hub NPCs are being camped by a crowd of top-level Alliance… and you have 3 seconds to live.
Ahh, good times, good times…
You can log into different WoW accounts on the same computer at the same time. If he’s got five computers capable of running five sessions of WoW each, it’s possible I guess. Then you need software to translate your keystrokes and mouse movement to all 25 instances of WoW you are running.
Awesome interview. Well done, Quasi.
Yes, Valiance Landing Camp is the Alliance base in Wintergrasp. It is the only flightpath that will teleport you out like that. Unless they’ve changed something you can tell if there is a battle going on on the world map if you click on the Wintergrasp area. You can also see it in the battlegrounds queue screen.
