The Queue: Panda wasteland
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is taking this thing over today.
I have no idea what's going on in the above video, but I think I can safely say that YouTube has some of the weirdest stuff.
Everyone ever I swear asked:
(Insert expansion questions here)
Guys, we can't say anything about anything until the NDA is lifted. Patience, please! And while you're waiting, you can read this nice Lawbringer all about the NDA and why it's there.
Stephanie asked:
Sorry if this has been asked before but I am getting a new laptop in a few days. What is the best way to get WoW and my add ons onto the new laptop? Preferably with all my saved settings.
It's actually pretty easy to do. All you have to do is copy your WoW folder over to your new laptop from your old one. Just make sure it goes into the Program Files folder (or wherever you put it on your old PC), create a shortcut to the launcher on your desktop, and you're good to go.
Atanae asked:
My Q4tQ - Is there any explanation for the major discrepancy in Theramore's actions in Kalimdor? In Dustwallow, we see the "normal" Theramore, where we stop agitators from instilling a more warmongering mindset and we get some seed quests that show Horde infiltration of Dustwallow (which abruptly end). In South Barrens, you see a really "warmongery" Theramore - pretty much what the agitators wanted. The problem is: the South Barrens quests (30-35) happen "before" the Dustwallow ones (35-40).
Why would Theramore be so antagonistic in South Barrens and then revert back to a more peaceful stance later in the quest chain? And if the Dustwallow quests are reinforcing Jaina's peaceful views, why is she housing war machines? It seems as if the quest chain is backwards and we should have started in Theramore and ended in South Barrens.
Here's the deal: Way back in vanilla WoW, Dustwallow Marsh was the zone of unfinished ... stuff. The Missing Diplomat chain ended abruptly with no real conclusion. The chain involving the fire at the Shady Rest Inn also ended in a dead end. In fact, it seemed like Dustwallow was one of those zones that was just sort of half-developed at launch, kind of like Azshara, only with a few more quests.
However, the zone received a major makeover in Patch 2.3.0. Mudsprocket was added as a quest hub, more quests were added all over the zone, and the whole storyline with the Grimtotem tauren was added as well. The Shady Rest Inn quest chain was finally finished, and the Missing Diplomat chain finally had a resolution of sorts. It went from someplace nobody went to unless they happened to be killing Onyxia, to a viable quest hub that was pretty fun, level-appropriate, and had some pretty cool rewards.
Now this is just me guessing here, but given the sheer number of zones Blizzard had to revamp with Cataclysm, Dustwallow Marsh was really not high on the priority list -- because it had already gotten a pretty major revamp back in 2.3.0. So technically speaking, Dustwallow Marsh is almost in its own little timeline -- but not as far as lore is concerned. You'll see mention of the Shattering, and you'll see the physical changes the zone has gone through, but as far as attitudes and quests, they really haven't changed that much at all. The zone was touched, but it wasn't touched in anywhere near as much detail as the zones that really needed it, like Azshara.
Frankly, I don't think the decision was a bad one from a time management perspective. Would you rather Blizzard spend time redeveloping a zone that was already redeveloped or work on someplace that really, really needed that revamp because it hadn't been touched in seven years? So basically, with Dustwallow and Theramore, I wouldn't look too closely at the material presented in there -- because most of it was written out well before the Shattering ever happened.
@oathblade on Twitter asked:
Why does the N'aru G'eras in Shat have his own personal Vindicator bodyguards?
Because he's a darkened naaru and they're protecting the rest of us from him. I mean come on -- look at him. He looks pretty dark to me.
Seriously, though, it's probably because he's carrying a lot of valuable material on his person to sell, and they don't want him getting robbed. ... although how, exactly, a spinning, glowing windchime with no hands is carrying all that stuff is anybody's guess.
@BrokenRavens on Twitter asked:
At the start of the Vash'jir quest chain, a group of humans help the Horde in their assault on Stormwind. Is this odd? Is the central conflict of WoW seen inside the game as orcs vs. humans, or just Org. vs. Stormwind?
I'm assuming the humans you're talking about are the ones that show up to sail the Horde forces over to Vash'jir. In that case, you aren't looking at Alliance citizens; you're looking at mercenaries of sorts. They're on the side of whoever happens to pay them enough. They aren't really concerned with moral decisions -- or in the case of Bud, they're not really concerned with thinking at all.
The primary conflict in Warcraft started out as orcs vs. humans, but it developed beyond that when the Horde was formed in Warcraft III, and the Alliance as we know it was formed between Warcraft III and WoW. Now, it's pretty much Alliance vs. Horde -- and the mercenaries and middlemen don't really have a side. They simply side with whoever is paying them at the time.
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!
