The Queue: Gold Guns Girls

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.

Okay, well, maybe just guns in this particular Queue. But like I'd pass up an opportunity to link some Metric? As if.

Haimdall asked:

So, any respectable hunter knows about the arcane technology that is Godfrey's twin pistols of badassery. My question is: was a discrete model of the pistol(s) ever uncovered? If so, were any others? Is there any other indication by blizzard that pistols might be something other than a euphoric fever dream?

Originally, for Wrath (and this is a true story), there was going to be a new "pistol" item type added to the game, and hunters were going to be able to dual-wield them as part of one of their talent trees. There were going to be benefits and drawbacks to using pistols; I think you were supposed to be able to fire them while moving, or fire them at melee range, or something along those lines. For whatever reason, the idea ended up being scrapped.

I'd normally say that the fact that it was considered previously might make it more likely to be implemented again, but with that expansion having come and gone and Cataclysm not having featured them either, it looks like pistols will be forever relegated to NPC use only.

Slaytanic asked:

Is it possible to petition for a character name that is taken, but not being used? I've noticed I can easily look up level 1 charters now on the new armory, but the names I want, there are no records? Also, are there some names that cannot be used due to some type of copyright infringement? (Example: Metallica)

I'm not sure of the actual official policy nowadays, since those are usually kept private, but I've heard that some people have been able to free up names for use provided that the character in question was very low level and hadn't been played in an inordinately long time.

The only way a copyrighted name will be changed is if the copyright holder asks Blizzard to change them or make them unavailable. I think I remember hearing that some Lord of the Rings names (as in their direct, proper spellings, not Leggollass) are unable to be used in the game at all due to a claim by the copyright holder.

Keep in mind that RP realms are the only place where a lot of the non-offensive naming policy "violations" are enforced.

Devo_AS asked:

When are they going to add PvE loot to the Baradin Hold loot table? I have yet to see 1 piece of Shaman PvE gear on ANY of my toons and cant even count how many double PvP piece drops Ive seen (the double PvP Lock gloves with no locks in the group was the bestest!)

I know his loot table is ginormous but I feel like PvE gear has the same .1% chance of a rare mount drop from raid bosses :(

You said it yourself -- Argaloth's loot table is very large, and there are more PvP items in it than PvE. I've seen PvE gear drop plenty of times, but PvP gear is more common by virtue of there being more of it.

Fallemwarrior asked:

I think if they eventualy do add a new spell to druids it needs to be a fast heal, it seems to be the one thing every other healer has that a druid doesnt, Flash Heal, Flash of Light, Healing Surge, druids to compensate have either nature's swiftness, or swiftmend, but both of these have Cd's

This is my only real problem with druid heals

This was answered in the comments, but the druid equivalent of the fast heal is Regrowth. It's fast and has a high chance to crit.

Tigore asked:

Which books set in the Warcraft Universe would you recommend reading? I was thinking of reading Stormrage, The Shattering and Arthas: Rise Of The Lich King.

Also I was hoping to spread the word for people to request these books to be converted to eReader form, which you can do on the Amazon page for the books.

I think the best bet would be for you to look at the books available and see which parts of the Warcraft story you want fleshed out, because in that case, any of the books are worth reading. Personally, I like Christie Golden's books, like Rise of the Horde (which details the story of the orcs and the draenei prior to the First War) and The Shattering, the best.

Also, all of the books you mentioned, and it looks like all or nearly all of the other Warcraft books, are already available for the Kindle.

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!