The Queue: The Big Bang of WoW Insider

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

Today's Queue is devoted to the very first post at WoW Insider. I doubt anyone who was around in 2005 thought we'd still be around and kicking in 2013, with no end in sight. I'm looking forward to co-writing the post in 2015 talking about the 10-year history of WoW Insider.

Maybe that'll be my final post here, I'll just ride off into the sunset, all Star Trek VI style. Spock can narrate my departure, and then several years later I can come back in a ribbon with a comedian and die in the lap of a Brit.

Demon Within asked:

Q4tQ: has there been any talk of how to fix the whole holy pally plate is for only one spec?

I think this is one of WoW's greatest blunders, and to be honest, I don't know how on Earth they can possibly fix this without doing an epic change. Here's the two solutions I see:

• Move holy paladins to mail gear, share it with resto shamans, and just ignore everything that was done in previous content

• Redo all the holy paladin gear to make it mail gear that can be shared with resto shamans.

Really there is no great solution, and if Blizzard were to ever do one, I suspect it'd be the first option -- just because it's overall less work and doesn't really negatively impact the end-game systems (and if anything, it makes them better). Blizzard commonly says that the end game is more important than other aspects of the game, and they're willing to unbalance things at the lower level in order to make the late game work -- and this is what would happen in this case.

Another possible solution, one that I don't really see happening, is to make the shock-a-din spec a reality in a fourth spec. That'd allow the gear to be shared and be more useful, solving some of the negativity. However, doing this would essentially require an entirely new class and play style.

Now before all the old timers jump me with their canes and walkers, yes I know people used to do this -- but let's be honest here: none were a successful end game spec. It was always gimmicks. Or they just had so much gear that they could simply faceroll and do decent damage with early end-game content. This was back in vanilla WoW -- you know, back in the day.

Mithrennon asked:

I know arenas, bgs and rated bgs all scale pve gear down to 496 itm lvl... But what about Tol Barad and Wintergrasp? Does pve gear get nerfed to 496 in those battles?

Nope, for world PvP your gear level does not get changed.

Heartfruit asked:

Why are all the guilds at the top of the race to world firsts (both 25 and 10 man) horde guilds? Are the racial that much better. Or is it more of an attitude thing?

Not to dismiss this, because I think there's probably some psychological thing going on -- but the first defeat of Garrosh was by an Alliance guild.

Taco Heuts asked:

I'm heading for the states next year on a vacation trip and we'll probably start/end in LA. Now I've heard the Blizzard HQ is located near there and was wondering if and how my friends and I (all fanatic WoW-players) could get a tour in there? Is it even possible?

Yes, Blizzard does now offer public tours. Be aware, however, that I've never heard of a non-press person actually getting a tour -- and while I'm sure they're done, it must be exceedingly rare to get one. Even as a press person, you have get an invite and know someone (in general). I've not been out in LA for one yet, although I've had a few chances. Hopefully one day the stars will align and I'll get to walk around.

I fully expect to find a picture of a few of us with darts in it (kidding...).

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!