# World of Warcraft General Discussion **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 4, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294 "2009-03-04T17:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 227
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4521 "2009-09-01T18:53:43Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > It’s a thought, but I figured I’d hang onto Feral as a solo spec. I know I did try leveling Balance 10-20 and got tired of it quickly, but endgame Balance might certainly be a different beast. I’ll have to look into it when I get there. For now, I’m a very happy level 33 cat. Oh yeah. If you’re solo levelling, nothing really beats cat (unless things have changed drastically). But cat is a poor cousin to rogue in the end game. Boomkin gets far better DPS. The only real advantage to a cat is that if sh!t hits the fan, you can go bear long enough for the healers to rez the “real” tanks (speedbump tank) because shapeshifting allows you to do what noone else can do, go from DPS to tank without changing your gear (which you cannot do during combat). ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4522 "2009-09-01T19:06:01Z")
> [@col\_10022](#): > > But cat is a poor cousin to rogue in the end game. Boomkin gets far better DPS. The only real advantage to a cat is that if sh!t hits the fan, you can go bear long enough for the healers to rez the “real” tanks (speedbump tank) because shapeshifting allows you to do what noone else can do, go from DPS to tank without changing your gear (which you cannot do during combat). Actually, Death Knights can do this too (by shifting from blood or unholy to frost aspect) - with an emphasis on the “speedbump” nature of the tanking. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4523 "2009-09-01T19:07:39Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > That’s what my pocket healer has, and he likes it. There’s also a much bigger initial overlap in gear. (You can start out as Boomkin using your Resto set, but you can’t start out Feral using your Resto set. You’ll still need to expand it because there are some different stats–Hit, for example–but at least the Int, SP, etc. will still do you good.) I am Restocat and gearing up was a real PITA. One of our tanks is a prot/holy pally and he basically gets his healing set for free. > [@](#): > > Resto/boomkin: A Druid that has Restoration (healing) as its primary talent spec, with Balance (ranged DPS) as its secondary spec. Balance druids have a talent that allows them to shapeshift into Moonkin form, which allows them to do more damage. This gives them the nickname “Boomkin.” Yeah, the biggest problem with my feral spec is that when ppl want to trade off a healer for a dps, the boomkin usually gets asked to change spec instead of the feral. The only cool things about feral is that I can solo my dailies pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4524 "2009-09-01T19:28:03Z")
> [@col\_10022](#): > > I am Restocat and gearing up was a real PITA. One of our tanks is a prot/holy pally and he basically gets his healing set for free. I don’t follow, do you mean he uses the same gear for tanking and healing? That doesn’t make sense. A tank pally would be gearing for stam, strength and agility while a healadin would be looking for intelligence and spellpower, right? That’s what I would guess, anyway, but I’ve never had a holy pally. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4525 "2009-09-01T19:40:58Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > I don’t follow, do you mean he uses the same gear for tanking and healing? That doesn’t make sense. A tank pally would be gearing for stam, strength and agility while a healadin would be looking for intelligence and spellpower, right? > > That’s what I would guess, anyway, but I’ve never had a holy pally. From what I understand, Holy plate works extremely well for Protection. There’s plenty of Stamina AND Intelligence AND Spellpower, and Prot relies on spells for threat and survivability as much as Holy does for healing. At least that was my understanding, and I believe Blizzard is looking to change that. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4526 "2009-09-01T19:43:22Z")
Mm, disc priests. My guild pugged the cutest little disc priest for a Nexus run. Little undead with pink ponytails and a glowy pink halo thing. Very good at her job. Most priests I’ve encountered are either holy or shadow – I really can’t remember the last time I saw someone specced disc, oddly enough. Seems to run Shadow \> Holy \> Disc, at least on my server. Also I now have Don Carlos’s rocking sombrero, which I drag out and put on at opportune moments in group just to OVERAWE everyone with my styling trollish good looks. So if you see a female troll hunter in Dalaran with a sombrero, that’s probably me. XD ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4527 "2009-09-01T19:50:40Z")
On a side note, damn you extended maintenance. ☹ The one day I actually feel unwell enough to call in sick from work and I can’t even play WoW. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4528 "2009-09-01T20:05:27Z")
I hate Tuesdays. That is all. Q ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4529 "2009-09-01T20:59:31Z")
I was creeped out last night when a Troll Death Knight, err… wanted to be _friends_ with my Blood Elf paladin. My female Blood Elf Paladin. :eek: Yes, the avatar is pretty. I like the faces on the Female Nelf, Belf, and Draenei Avatars. Humans, too. Dwarf, Orc, Troll, and Tauren males are cool (and Gob/Worgen males should be in the future). So, I picked an avatar I liked. That does not mean I want to cyber! I left the guild, dropped him from friends, and silenced him from my sight. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4530 "2009-09-01T21:20:08Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Those who play WoW in say, Germany, they “hear” their NPC’s etc. in German, right? > > How do THEY handle different “regionalities/cultures” or is it even an issue I can tell you that in Spanish it’s been done Very Badly. For starters, a lot of things that shouldn’t have been translated (for example lastnames) have been. This is not the fault of the translators, who fought as hard as they could short of losing their jobs, but of The Powers That Be. Someone at the stratospheric level decided that the Bronzebeards would become the Barbadebronzes and there you are :smack: To continue, I don’t know if they’ve used different voiceovers for the Spanish-language servers in Latin America, but for the European ones they’ve used the same. Voiceover. Actors. Used by every other RPG out there and a few more. So, the voices will be familiar to anybody who’s played Dungeon Siege or Baldur’s Gate in Spanish. And all of them have the same accent, but different “voices,” which sometimes are very nice and sometimes pretty horrid. I think that studio must have only two women. So, instead of getting, say Dwarves from the Ebro Valley/Colombian highlands (we can “pass” for being from the other place easily) greeting the world with “¡quió!,” Caribbean or Argentinian Trolls (because an Argentinian who’s not at the edge of a nervous breakdown sounds eeeeeeasygoing to many other people) Mexican gnomes (and a Speedy minipet!) Draenei from Galicia (cos they’re on the move, hey, I didn’t say I’d thought all of this through!), Blood Elves from Las Rozas, which is the Spanish equivalent of being Valley Gals (or its equivalent from another country)… We get female trolls who sound like a fishbone stuck in their throat, male dwarves with a very deep voice, female dwarves trying to pitch lower than they really can (ok, so we get this in English too)… but all with the same accent, and an accent which, by trying to be “neuter,” ends up sounding “artificial” to half the speakers of the language and “snobbish” to the other half. Again, very, very badly. Mind you: perhaps half the people who are in European Spanish servers are playing the game… in English. Nobody has a problem with asking in General “LF tanke pa Bajonaga” and getting a whisper of “¿pá dónde?” (for where?) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4531 "2009-09-01T21:32:58Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Draenei are supposed to be Indian? Really? I never got that at all. I mean, yeah, the males got the “Tunak Tunak Tun” dance, but so what? Their accent doesn’t sound the least bit like something you’d get from a native speaker of Hindi or Urdu or anything else you might find in India–always sounded like some mangled combination of Greek and Russian to me. No, no, Draenei are from another planet… Nobody is “from” a real world place, unless you are going to tell me that male humans sound like they’re from Nu Joicy, female humans from Zebiya (actually, maybe it should be Güerba) and female trolls from Colombia. Where is MC Hammer from, by the way? Yeah, I know I could google it… It’s all a mishmash. The male dwarves and female dwarves both have sort’a-but-not-quite-Scottish accents (believe me, if they’d just gotten some of my Glasgow coworkers to say those lines, letting them change the vocabulary as fitting, most people would need a dictionary - even without letting them change the words, actually), but their dances are from places several countries away. Winter Veil has elements from the American and Northern European Christmases, but some elements are Russian and some are common, not just to Christmas all over, but to about any kind of festival that’s got both religious and social connotations (specifically the complaints about the original meaning and the current one, and about people inventing new traditions which aren’t traditional enough: Sanfermines, Andalusian Ferias; I’ve seen them in Costa Rica and Scotland as well). I hate the Macarena with the heat of a thousand supernovas, but I’m not going to complain about a bunch of toons dancing it, same as I’m not going to complain about having a Midsummer festival involving… maypoles? Isn’t it the wrong month? and San Juan-style bonfires. If the presence of Halloween offends you, let them know, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4532 "2009-09-01T21:41:16Z")
Level 75 and grinding… Ugh. I’m running out of steam - having my PVP-intended ret paladin nerfed halfway through my first ever 1-80 run didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4533 "2009-09-01T21:42:17Z")
😕 It may be a too-casual way of talking about a fictional character’s accent in talking about where they’re ‘from’, but that’s not unusual when talking about someone’s accent, regardless of setting. The male trolls sound like they’re ‘from’ Jamaica or Haiti, even if there’s no such thing as the Caribbean in Azeroth. So what? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4534 "2009-09-01T21:59:20Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > You know you have a Faerie Fire (Feral), right? You can use it in bear form and it’ll even do damage. I don’t get that for a few more levels. It comes at 18, right? ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4535 "2009-09-01T22:00:06Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I was creeped out last night when a Troll Death Knight, err… wanted to be _friends_ with my Blood Elf paladin. My female Blood Elf Paladin. :eek: > > Yes, the avatar is pretty. I like the faces on the Female Nelf, Belf, and Draenei Avatars. Humans, too. Dwarf, Orc, Troll, and Tauren males are cool (and Gob/Worgen males should be in the future). So, I picked an avatar I liked. That does not mean I want to cyber! > > I left the guild, dropped him from friends, and silenced him from my sight. Our toons can cyber? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4536 "2009-09-01T22:12:59Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > I don’t get that for a few more levels. It comes at 18, right? Well, now I’m confused. [It does come at 18](http://www.wowwiki.com/Faerie_Fire_(Feral)), but so does the normal [Faerie Fire](http://www.wowwiki.com/Faerie_Fire). So I’m unclear how you can be using it when you’re not 18 yet. Did you mean [Moonfire](http://www.wowwiki.com/Moonfire), maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4537 "2009-09-01T22:14:20Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > 😕 > > It may be a too-casual way of talking about a fictional character’s accent in talking about where they’re ‘from’, but that’s not unusual when talking about someone’s accent, regardless of setting. The male trolls sound like they’re ‘from’ Jamaica or Haiti, even if there’s no such thing as the Caribbean in Azeroth. So what? OK, I need to stop answering this thread at ungodly hours… There’s several “data points” which define where each race is “from,” and They (Almost) Never Match. To use your same example, the trolls sound Jamaican, but their huts and their dances aren’t. **Quasi** , there’s some videos of chicken druids dancing just behind bear druids that… I don’t know, you’re probably not old enough for that material. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4538 "2009-09-01T22:24:22Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > To use your same example, the trolls sound Jamaican, but their huts and their dances aren’t. So? We’re just talking accents. I’m pretty sure **SFG** is aware that no Greek or Russian lives in a hut partially made out of crystal. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4539 "2009-09-01T22:28:24Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > **Quasi** , there’s some videos of chicken druids dancing just behind bear druids that… I don’t know, you’re probably not old enough for that material. Seriously. Well, I was just checking on where to train for that and where to put it on my action bar? No telling _what_ they offer you level 80’s!😉 **Wolkie** has table-danced with some elf-chicks who were pretty much falling out of their tops IYKWIM? While waiting on Alex to come up, I’m playing a Pally elf (forgot the realm) and went to Cairne to play Quasi, but really wanna get back to my Alex warriors… Q ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/4540 "2009-09-01T22:37:33Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I can tell you that in Spanish it’s been done Very Badly. > > For starters, a lot of things that shouldn’t have been translated (for example lastnames) have been. This is not the fault of the translators, who fought as hard as they could short of losing their jobs, but of The Powers That Be. Someone at the stratospheric level decided that the Bronzebeards would become the Barbadebronzes and there you are :smack: > > To continue, I don’t know if they’ve used different voiceovers for the Spanish-language servers in Latin America, but for the European ones they’ve used the same. Voiceover. Actors. Used by every other RPG out there and a few more. So, the voices will be familiar to anybody who’s played Dungeon Siege or Baldur’s Gate in Spanish. And all of them have the same accent, but different “voices,” which sometimes are very nice and sometimes pretty horrid. I think that studio must have only two women. > > So, instead of getting, say > Dwarves from the Ebro Valley/Colombian highlands (we can “pass” for being from the other place easily) greeting the world with “¡quió!,” > Caribbean or Argentinian Trolls (because an Argentinian who’s not at the edge of a nervous breakdown sounds eeeeeeasygoing to many other people) > Mexican gnomes (and a Speedy minipet!) > Draenei from Galicia (cos they’re on the move, hey, I didn’t say I’d thought all of this through!), > Blood Elves from Las Rozas, which is the Spanish equivalent of being Valley Gals (or its equivalent from another country)… > > We get female trolls who sound like a fishbone stuck in their throat, male dwarves with a very deep voice, female dwarves trying to pitch lower than they really can (ok, so we get this in English too)… but all with the same accent, and an accent which, by trying to be “neuter,” ends up sounding “artificial” to half the speakers of the language and “snobbish” to the other half. > > Again, very, very badly. Mind you: perhaps half the people who are in European Spanish servers are playing the game… in English. Nobody has a problem with asking in General “LF tanke pa Bajonaga” and getting a whisper of “¿pá dónde?” (for where?) Very interesting, **Nava**. Thanks for taking the trouble to go into detail like that. Unrelated, but foreign-language voice overs for _television_ leave a lot to be desired as well. They get pretty close with The Simpsons, in Germany, but forget ALF! 🙂 Q [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294.md?page=226) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294.md?page=228)