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Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today.

I’m on the fence about some of the Diablo III system changes announced yesterday, but at least half of ‘em are pretty good changes, so I’m definitely continuing to look forward to playing my wizard (best class) when the game comes out some time this year.

Erik asked:

What do you feel the odds are that Blizzard will still add the older tier content to Raid Finder? Have them on Normal modes, after the nerfs it should be possible for 25 random people to handle these days. I ask because if there really is no more content patches left, that is a long time to go until Mists.

Couldn’t say. Blizzard devs have expressed a desire to hook up the Raid Finder to older raids, but with cross-realm raiding, you don’t really need the Raid Finder at all for really old raids. For stuff like Firelands or BoT or BWD, I’d imagine there are some issues with figuring out how many people you’d need for a “full” group — 25 is probably overkill with BoT and BWD when everyone’s in 378+ gear from 4.3. And would they need to have a Raid Finder difficulty mode as well? Would you just play them on normal mode? That would defeat the Raid Finder’s purpose as raiding with training wheels on. If it did have a Raid Finder mode, what item level gear would drop? 346 would make the raids even more pointless than they already are; leaving them at 359 would mean no difference from the loot that already drops in normal mode.

Lots of considerations; no easy answers. As much as I want people to see previous tiers of raiding, I’m just not sure it’s worth development time that could be spent giving us Pandaria, which will ship with all its raids hooked up to the Raid Finder.

OK, I’ve had a day to think about the recent announcements regarding the Dragon Soul raid and the progressive nerfs that will be rolling out at the end of January. My thoughts on it have evolved from my initial confusion and even disbelief. I freely admit, when I first read that Blizzard was introducing an ICC-modeled debuff to the raid, I was incredulous. I didn’t see why it was necessary, and I said as much. Several of you then upbraided me on Twitter, and frankly, you gave me things to think about that I hadn’t considered. This dovetailed with recent statistics posted on MMO-Champion about who’d completed Dragon Soul in the Raid Finder vs. normal mode. This led me, inexorably, to the following conclusions:

The Raid Finder is head and shoulders above normal mode raiding in terms of popularity. 35% of level 85 players have completed Raid Finder vs. 4% completing normal mode; that’s a huge, huge shift. Keep in mind that Blizzard has more exacting statistics available internally, but this serves as an indicator of a trend.
Fewer than 200,000 players have finished normal mode Dragon Soul. I’ll admit, I found this shocking. With the exception of Ultraxion and Madness, I found Dragon Soul to be undertuned and figured many more players would have completed the raid than this. One commenter on Twitter even blasted me for my elitism, when I had been under the impression I’m a fairly middle-of-the-road raider. These numbers bear that out.
Over 1 million players have finished Dragon Soul in the Raid Finder. Both this statistic and the preceding one are as of the end of December 2011. But how ever they’ve changed and how ever the more precise Blizzard statistics play out, this is still a very strong indicator that normal mode Dragon Soul isn’t the cakewalk some of us thought it was, myself included to some extent.
Almost 800,000 players finished normal Firelands, and the majority of them did so after the nerf to Firelands. I think this fairly well speaks for itself.

The waveform of raiding collapses

What I take from all of this is that Blizzard is smarter than I am. The devs have got a long way to go to be more irascible than me, but if they say they’re seeing a lot of guilds hitting a roadblock in normal mode, I believe them. It’s tempting to reply that that’s what the Raid Finder is for — and I know I did so myself — but I think we’re missing the point with respect to Raid Finder and difficulty levels. Normal mode raiding isn’t meant to be where the true tests of player skill are found; that’s what heroic modes are for. Normal mode raiding is meant to be the normal level of difficulty for a coordinated group. It’s meant neither to be easy nor to be particularly difficult.

The reason the Raid Finder is less challenging is not entirely so players with less time to min-max and work on strats can see the content. It’s also because it has to absorb the stresses of raiding with a complete pickup group lacking voice communication, without being able to assume the group will have all the tools a normal raiding guild brings to bear.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. Welcome to our feral cat edition, brought to you by Chase Hasbrouck, aka Alaron of The Fluid Druid blog. Let the face clawing begin!

I was tired. I’d traveled to the End of Time, participated in one of the biggest moments in the history of Azeroth, and helped the spiritual leader of the Horde kill the spiritual leader of the Alliance (who, admittedly, had tried to kill us first). I’d never felt much of a calling to the Dream, but a few hundred years of meditation sounded great right about now.

Peering over the scales of my drake (I’d have flown myself, but they insisted), I gestured to the large dragon in flight beside me.

“You know, you dragons are always causing trouble,” I shouted as the frigid wind of Northrend whipped by. “Can’t you just drop me off at the nearest forest and call it a day?”

Nethestrasz chuckled. Through some queer trick of the dragons’ magic, they were fully understandable, even in dragon form.

“If a forest existed that would be spared from Deathwing’s flames, I might join you,” he replied. Unfortunately, any further reply was drowned out by a sudden, loud cracking noise as the earth split asunder before us, revealing a gigantic earth elemental.

“Well, looks like it’s time to be troublesome,” I thought. Wordlessly, I nodded to Nethestrasz, and our army turned as one and dove for the surface.

This week and next, I’ll be covering everything you need to know to DPS your way through the new Dragon Soul raid encounter. I’ll provide a quick capsule strategy for those attempting the fight in the Raid Finder, then describe the changes to the fight for normal and heroic modes.

In high fantasy, the archetype of the priest is a patient, powerful figure whose strength comes from his vigilance and his faith. This iconic archetype exists in World of Warcraft as well, manifesting in the form of inspiring heroes like Tyrande Whisperwind or Prophet Velen. Want to follow in their footsteps? Well, you’ll have to roll a priest … At least, that’s what you had to do prior to patch 4.3. Now, thanks to transmogrification, all cloth wearers can finally “take the cloth.”

This week, I’ll be showing you how to create the look of a traveling, battle-ready priest. With the draped hood and cloth foot wraps, I want to call on the idea of a medieval monk or friar sent to a far-off land on a divine errand. The set is wearable by all cloth wearers, so even mages and warlocks can get in touch with their holy side. Most of the key pieces come from a recolored version of the Absolution Regalia (priest tier 6), with a few twists to make the outfit look less crisp and uniform.

Head Cowl of Benevolence Boss drop (Teron Gorefiend in Black Temple). Since patch 4.3 went live, I see advertisements for Black Temple gear runs frequently advertised in trade chat, so it shouldn’t be too hard for you to eventually pick up this helm. If you’re really in a hurry, organize your own group, and bring as few clothies as possible.
Shoulders Amice of Brilliant Light Boss drop (Shade of Akama in Black Temple). Just like with the Cowl of Benevolence, get yourself into a Black Temple run and cross your fingers.
Back No transmogging necessary. Turn your cloak display off.
Chest Gossamer Robe Random world drop, obtained through the Auction House or farming (level 45 to 50 rare or elite mobs). Ramstein the Gorger in Stratholme has some of the best drop rates for this robe. You may also opt to use Garments of Temperance, which drop off Gurtogg Bloodboil in Black Temple. Garments of Temperance are a recolor of the Vestments of Absolution (the original tier 6 robe for priests) that matches Cowl of Benevolence and Amice of Brilliant Light. I personally don’t like the look of it for a priest because the recolor makes it appear very militaristic. It might be your style, though, so feel free to give it a look.
Shirt None.
Wrists No transmogging necessary; gloves will hide them.
Hands Gloves of Unfailing Faith Boss drop (Essence of Anger in Black Temple). If you have any trouble getting these gloves in a Black Temple run, you should know that a lot of different glove types work here (though the bucket-style ones give this ensemble a rather striking, powerful look). For something more subtle, you could try a pair of gloves that display under the cuffs of your robe instead of on top of them (like Zaetar’s Gloves, The Witch Doctor’s Wraps, or Heroes’ Gloves of Faith).
Waist Unyielding Girdle Tailoring belt. The pattern for this belt is a random world drop from The Burning Crusade that requires eight Primal Mooncloth, 16 Primal Earth, and one Primal Nether to make. A veteran tailor from the TBC days will probably have the pattern, so ask around.
Legs No transmogging necessary; the robe will hide them.
Feet Sanguine Sandals Random world drop, obtained through the Auction House or by mucking about at lvl 20. Despite being a green item, these boots seem to be quite a common drop when leveling. Every blood elf I’ve ever leveled has sold at least one pair of these to the vendor. If you somehow can’t find them through leveling, try farming trash in Blackfathom Deeps.
Main-hand weapon Silvermoon War-Mace Random dungeon drop, obtained through the Auction House or farming (level 63 to 71 elite mobs in TBC dungeons). I picked this mace specifically because its silver color palette matches the off-hand perfectly. You can substitute just about anything, however, depending on your tastes. Warlocks and mages (who can’t use the mace) will probably want to get a silver-hued, one-handed sword (like Heavy Copper Longsword) as a stand-in so they can sport the “you shall not pass!” Gandalf look.
Off-hand weapon Sanguine Star Random world drop, obtained through the Auction House or farming (level 25 to 32 mobs). This may be one of the hardest items for you to find, since there aren’t any specific places to farm it from and the stats on it won’t necessarily prompt the average player to post it on the Auction House. I recommend keeping an eye out for it and praying to the Holy Light. Once you are able to find it though, this is a universally amazing off-hand weapon for transmogging purposes. It’s a staff as an off-hand, people!

Each week, WoW Insider’s Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond — your addons folder will never be the same.

Keeping your interface neat and tidy while still retaining a lot of your precious information can be a tough feat. Some poor souls never get away from a disaster UI, started and finished in sadness, shame, and wreckage. Do not fret, young ones. There are addons that can help you be neat and tidy without too much work on your part. I promise.

Glance was an addon that I first discovered while trolling through the comments on my various columns, as am I known to do. My readers are a steadfast bunch, always willing to show support for their man and recommend some great tools to players in need. Well, as it turns out, I am one of those players in need. A few weeks back, I got an email that asked me what was an easy way to get into LDB bars and addons, and I didn’t really have a great answer. The first thing that popped into my head was the concept — the bar addon works as a dock for other LDB plugins. It didn’t feel right explaining the whole thing in that way, so instead I went looking for an addon that resembled LDB but didn’t take the setup some LDBs require. That addon is Glance.

At a Glance

Glance works as an LDB bar-type, FuBar-esque information display that hangs out at the top of your screen. Everything is included without having to go out and find the separate modules and plugins. The downside to having everything included is that it’s not going to get added on to — the thing comes as is. That downside turns out to be an upside for many people who just want this specific set of features — and it’s a pretty robust feature set.

Modular addons are still my favorite type of addon because you can turn on and off pieces of the addon to save on CPU and memory usage, if you care about that sort of thing. One of the menus allows you to check or uncheck the modules you want to have active. The customization options allow you to scale the top bar, create mount and pet lists so you can summon a specific set of pets and mounts, auto-repair without a separate addon, and even view some party member stats as well.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World’s a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

Kael’thas Sunstrider wasn’t just your typical, run-of-the-mill villain. When his diabolical plans in Outland didn’t work out, he headed to the Isle of Quel’Danas with an even more diabolical scheme. Tempest Keep may have been a setback, but Kael’thas had a contingency plan in place — and a second lair in which to set up shop. Sure, we may have mowed him down in short order, but at least he had a backup plan, right?

When you’re roleplaying a villain, the last thing you want to happen is to get caught and have all your evil plans foiled for good. Therefore, a clever doer of misdeeds should make like Kael’thas and set up a backup plan, just in case the first one doesn’t pan out. And if you’re looking for a second evil lair (or simply didn’t find the appeal in last week’s Kalimdor locations), the Eastern Kingdoms has plenty of places in which your evil villain can plot to his heart’s content.

Perched high above the Blasted Lands is this evil summoning area, used in a quest chain in the area. However, when there are no questing players to be found, this place is perfectly deserted and perfectly suitable for a bout of evil summoning. Featuring a large demonic circle carved into the rock face and several petrified remains of foolhardy adventurers, this location has a creepy vibe suitable for any villain’s diabolical plotting. And since it’s in relatively close proximity to the Dark Portal, the Altar of Storms and Karazhan, it’s a perfect position of power for a villain to conduct grand schemes.

Located at coordinates 44, 26 in the Blasted Lands, this location is at the top of the peak. If you have not done any questing in this area, you will have to fly to get to the top of the peak; the spirit at the base of the peak will not teleport you up. For low-level characters, it would be recommended to get a summon or a ride up to the top; the Blasted Lands is crawling with level-56-to-57 mobs that will make short work of low-level villains.

Mastering mastery and the combat table

Warrior tanking is still mobile and engaging. For warriors who mainly tank in 5-man groups (and I’d say, for all tanks mainly in 5-mans), no one tank class is so far above any other that it’s worth worrying about balance at this point. We know that 5.0 is going to see significant changes to tanking and tanking stats, so reworking tank balance at this point would probably be a bad idea.

Right now, it’s possible to hit the magical number of 102.4% combined block, dodge and parry to render a warrior tank unhittable by normal attacks. If you’re a long-time warrior who looks at that number and says “Hey, waitaminute,” you’re right — it’s the same number we used to aim for to push crushing blows off of the table, and it used to only be reachable via Shield Block.

Please keep in mind that combining block, dodge and parry to hit 102.4% does not mean you’re actually not being hit at all. It means that no hit will be unmodified. In other words, if a boss swings at you, the hit is going to be a dodge, a parry, or a block no matter what. Remember, blocks still connect with you; they simply lose some of their damage to the Block mechanic. For a warrior, a blocked attack does 30% less damage unless it is a Critical Block, in which case it does 60% less damage. Using Shield Block, a warrior who is already completely covered on the combat table can increase his or her chance to Critically Block by up to the full 25% extra block from the ability.

Mastery is still the strongest stat for tanking warriors right up until you hit that combined Block/Dodge/Parry chance of 102.4%, but once you’re there, stacking a ton more won’t do you any real good. Once all attacks are going to be a block, a dodge or a parry, making more of them blocks will just mean you take more damage, ultimately, since dodges and parries are complete avoidance while blocks just reduce incoming damage by 30/60%. There’s no way to increase how much damage a block can reduce outside of Critical Block’s effect, and mastery doesn’t make it reduce damage any more than that 60%; it just makes it more likely blocks will be Critical Blocks when you use Shield Block.

In essence, focusing on mastery until you’re at that combined 103.4% makes perfect sense, but focusing on it beyond that is fruitless. This means that past that point, stamina is again your best friend. This is certainly more nuanced then the old days of Icecrown Citadel tanking, where people just mindlessly stacked stamina. Now you need to play a kind of Avoidance/Mitigation Tetris, shuffling toward 102.4% combined before starting to work on stamina.

It’s no secret that it’s a lot easier for paladins to hit this than us, but it’s still possible in current gear to get there, especially with proper gemming, reforging and enchanting. This is the reason people say mastery is too good for tanking warriors and the reason we’re going to see changes in 5.0. Right now, however, it’s your best gearing strategy. Rendering incoming damage nice and predictable is the goal, and it’s achievable.

As far as the two- and four-piece set bonuses for tier 13 protection, well, two-piece is really nice. Four-piece isn’t bad except that it forces warrior tanks to make a choice I don’t think they should have to make. (I wouldn’t be in favor of it for any tank, but I don’t write a generalized tanking column, so warriors are the class I talk about here.) Making Shield Wall into a lesser man’s Divine Guardian just steals Shield Wall from us and forces us to rely on Last Stand too much. (As it is, since Last Stand and Rallying Cry share a cooldown, some tanks don’t even take LS anymore.) It’s up to individual taste, of course, but since Shield Wall is the big warrior tanking cooldown, I don’t like making warrior tanks nervous about using it.