The Queue: Serpent racing, soloing Black Temple, and more

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

I'm stuck in downtown San Francisco until Friday. I apologize to everyone who lives in or around San Francisco, but this place kind of sucks.

darkpanda asked:

Did Cloud Serpent Racing never take off? (No pun intended). I've heard barely any mention of it since MoP launched. Whenever people talk about non Raiding activities, it's completely ignored. Did it get lost in the shuffle or was there never any longevity to it to begin with?

I did it once or twice. It was bad. You weren't flying on your mount, you were flying on a vehicle was fairly obnoxious mechanics and the race course itself was not at all clear. I was not compelled to ever touch it again.

Revynn asked:

I didn't play during BC, but trying to solo Black Temple. Can someone explain to me why Illidan's adds in P2 are meleéing me for ~40K? I know it wasn't possible for tanks to have that much HP back then, so what exactly is going on that's making them hit me so hard?

Phase 2 is the fire elementals, right? First, you needed fire resistance gear to tank those back in the day. If you had no fire resistance, you were pretty much dead. Also, if you pull those elementals too far away from the Blades of Azzinoth in the ground, they enrage and their damage skyrockets. That was meant to 1-shot people back then.

If you're soloing them, that means you're fighting them both at the same time -- and if you're doing that, it's impossible to keep them both in range of their respective Blase of Azzinoth. At least one of them is going to enrage and you just need to deal with it.

Edit: Apparently you can prevent both elementals from enraging if you stand exactly in between both Blades. Thanks, readers!

@Garahel_ asked:

Do you think the Shang Xi's Academy from Pandaren characters will play a role in the future, or is it just there?

I would guess it's just there. I don't see why they'd make a callback on that.

@Jagoex asked:

What is Blizzard doing in Vegas, other than hitting the bars?

I am going to assume this question is asking what purpose they have in Vegas, and not asking for a detailed breakdown of their company agenda. I believe many Blizzard employees were in Vegas over the weekend for Blizzard's annual shindig -- their 2012 wrap party.

If you are asking me for their agenda other than hitting bars, I'd be willing to bet that's the only item on their agenda at all. Maybe throw in some gambling.

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!