Ask A Beta Tester: So long, and thanks for all the fish

Yes, folks, the proverbial fat lady has sung, and this is the last "real" Ask A Beta Tester. Tomorrow we're going to run an AABT that showcases the best, funniest, and most prescient questions we received, and after that -- bowing to popular demand -- the column's going to change gears somewhat and become Ask A Guy (or Girl) Something, or...I dunno, whatever we decide to call it. AAGoGS is cumbersome but oddly endearing, I admit.

Deri (among others) asks...

At 77, approximately how much money will I have made levelling up through quests?

At 77 you'll be eligible to train Cold Weather Flying for 1,000g, which I assume is what this is about. Will you have made that much questing? I'd made...I want to say somewhere in the region of 800g leveling between 70 and 77, but I also tanked and healed a LOT of instance runs, so my quest income was on the low side. So I'd say it's probably going to be very easy to finance Cold Weather Flying just from Northrend quests. If you're occupied with a lot of instance runs, just keep in mind that you'll be leveling proportionately faster than you're making money, though.

Morthas asks...

My first faction I am planning on hitting exalted with is the Kirin Tor, so I wonder wich startin zone would be the best to hit if I want to gain reputation with that faction?
Borean Tundra is the way to go. They'll give you a number of quests to complete both in and around the Nexus, but unfortunately it's not going to get you to -- or even very near -- exalted. The vast majority of your Kirin Tor rep is probably going to come later while running level-80 dungeons wearing their tabard, but you can also work on rep through Dalaran-related quests and some daily quests; you'll find a full list of reputation quests here.

Pat asks...

I want to follow the undead side of the story.....which factions are heavy on forsaken lore?

As RogueJedi says, you'll want to start at Vengeance Landing in Howling Fjord, and then move on to New Agamand and the Apothecary Camp. After Howling Fjord, continue at Venomspite in Dragonblight. This will get you pretty far down the Forsaken story in Northrend and will also reward you with oodles of Hand of Vengeance reputation.

Jay in Oregon asks...

Will the daily Shattered Sun Offensive quests continue to give out the amount of gold they're currently giving out, or will the amount diminish when WotLK comes out?

You'll find them rewarding around 3-4g a pop now with (on average) 10K experience now that you're leveling. I assume they'll go back to rewarding the usual amount after you can't get any experience from them again.

Jlocke asks...

Since you can create a DK if you have a level 55 character, does this only apply to your faction you have the 55, or can you make either a horde or alliance DK (Im on a pve server)

On a PvE server you can create a Death Knight of either faction; I had both a Tauren and a Draenei DK on the beta. In terms of which spec is most "fun" -- your mileage, as they say, may vary. If you're planning on doing a lot of tanking, a heavy Frost build will keep your healer from wanting to kill you. Blood, from what I understand of it, is shaping up to be the raid/sustained DPS tree. Unholy was how most DK's in the beta were leveling, perhaps because it has a lot of neat tricks.

Save asks...

I haven't read anything about it, I was wondering if there will be daily heroics?

There will be both daily dungeons and daily heroics given in Dalaran, the completion of which will reward Kirin Tor rep in addition to items/badges.

Norm asks...

Do you need to purchase the epic flying skill before you purchase cold weather flying?

Nope. But trust me, you'll want epic flyer in Northrend. The zones are huge.

Kurfroow asks...

I know there are 2 starting areas. Are there any key differences among rewards between them?
Like stats in the gear or an interesting pet reward or whatever.

Nope. Assuming an equal level of progression in either the Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord, your gear will come out roughly the same. The only factor that might swing you one way or the other is proximity to the early dungeons (Nexus in BT, Utgarde Keep in HF) and the items that drop there, as their loot tables are completely different.

I wanted to end by thanking our readers. This column was entirely dependent on our readers, commenters, and the questions/ideas you guys had, and it was tremendous fun for all of us here at WoW Insider to write and read. Keep an eye out tomorrow for what are, in my humble opinion of course, the best questions we got during AABT's run -- and if you're hitting a midnight launch party, we hope you enjoy the game as much as we enjoyed the beta!