The Queue: Glory of the Hero

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Hey, everyone. I just wanted to take a moment to remind all of you that Adam and I are not the same entity, even if we both have A names and contribute to the same column. There's been a lot of confusion over the last year, so let me repeat: Adam Holisky and Alex Ziebart are two different people. Adam is not Alex, Alex is not Adam. And when you throw Allison into the mix, Allison is neither Adam nor Alex and they are not she. Are we on the same page here? Great.

Herumor asked...

"As things are now without the Maelstrom, is there any point to adding the upcoming water mounts without a large water based area? I don't really see a use for them other than showing off, and even that's kind of difficult to do."

It's possible that they could be using those mounts to prepare us for something coming in the future. Once we reach somewhere that needs/benefits from aquatic mounts, some people will have already picked out their unique mounts from this place or that place and we'll be all set to start riding the waves.

There's also a possibility that they don't really intend for the aquatic mounts to be anything earth-shattering. The turtle mount could just be a fun little thing they added for fun and vanity. If 'fun and vanity' weren't a valid reason for adding items, a great number of our favorite things would be gone from WoW.

The water mounts could be prepping us for something big, but they could also be for /afking in Dalaran while astride a freaking turtle.

Scott asked...

"Who actually stays in general/trade chat anyway?"

Monsters.

Adrilankha asked...

"Any word in if the Red Proto Drake is going to be removed along with the Plagued and Black Proto Drakes in 3.1?"

I believe the Red Proto-Drake is staying in the game, I haven't heard anything specifically about Glory of the Hero, which is the achievement for Heroic dungeons. The achievement for Raids and Heroic Raids are going away, but nothing has been said about Glory of the Hero. Unless I'm very, very badly mistaken. If that's the case, I probably won't be getting my Red Proto-Drake because I've been a terrible slacker about Heroic Occulus!

Alucromancer asked...

"Where's the best place to go and watch Arena 2v2 strategy videos to better educate yourself on team compositions and class strategies? Also, are there videos of a known mage/rogue combo that can be used for educational purposes?"

I don't arena on (or with) a Mage or a Rogue, so I don't have much for you there. I do know where you can look for information on all of that sort of thing, though. ArenaJunkies is pretty much the go-to place for all things arena. Dig around, and you'll inevitably find what you're looking for.

Nahl asked...

"Any news on how honor rewards will trickle down in season 6? Will hateful gear be purchasable for current savage prices like we've seen in the past, or is Blizzard planning on doing something different this time around?"

We don't know yet. We'll let you know when we do.

Croe asked...

"I note in the patch notes the following changes for Shaman:

Bloodlust/Heroism: Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes, but Sated and Exhausted now last 10 minutes.

Can anyone explain the logic behind this? Why bother changing the CD to 5 minutes if you can't use it again for another 5 anyway?"

This is a change for raids, most specifically progression raids. In both iterations of the spell, you couldn't use more than one Heroism per encounter. Sometimes you could use a second, but it was very very rare. The big issue is when you're trying to learn a new boss, you're burning Heroism/Bloodlust every attempt to better your chances, and wiping after awhile.

Since the spell had a 10-minute cooldown, if you're waiting around for Heroism/Bloodlust, you waste a lot of time in your raid night. If you're not waiting, Bloodlust isn't there for you to use and the fight probably won't go the same way as it does with it. Two different experiences, not very helpful.

With this change, you still can't use it more than once per encounter, but the spell cools down faster for your next attempt. Most likely, it's going to be there for you to use every single attempt on a boss instead of half of them. As someone who spent an absurdly long time working on Sarth3D's 10-man version, I appreciate this change. No more sitting around waiting for Heroism to refresh between attempts.

Aelador asked...

"How do you get the Ulduar fragments to make the legendary mace?"

By beating Ulduar bosses on Hard mode.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!