The Queue: Oh my hero

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) still knows all the lyrics to this by heart.

Adam asked if I would take over the Queue today. Adam works with opera stuff. When I hear opera, this is immediately what my brain leaps to because I am a huge nerd. We'll just leave it at that, other than a side note that if you don't recognize the above sequence you should immediately find yourself a copy of Final Fantasy VI for the SNES and play it. Question time!

Devin asked:

My dad and I want to merge our accounts, what steps do I need to take to allow this to happen? Also, I've heard that with two merged accounts you can't both pet battle at the same time, is this true? Are there any other pitfalls to two players having merged accounts that I should be concerned about (account security I'm aware of)?

If you are under the age of 18, you can certainly merge your account with your father's -- if you're over 18, I don't know if they'll let you merge your accounts. I'd say if you want more details about how it all works, you should submit a ticket via the Battle.net support page and just ask about it. If you're curious about the process itself, Big Bear Butt wrote a recent blog entry about the experience.

electrisserin asked:

Do we know when Hearthstone and HotS are getting their official relase? Blizzard may want to string all of these things out, and we already know that the new Diablo is coming out in the spring.

Absolutely no idea at all. Hearthstone should be entering open beta "soon," although we still don't know how soon that will be. As for Heroes, we haven't heard anything in regards to that title at all, yet. Maybe we'll hear more on both of those after the holidays!

Fizzl asked:

If you get get anything under the Winterveil tree this year, what would you choose?

A full set of 48 slot bags. Yes, I know they don't exist. But I'd be so terribly happy if they did!

Nosferatu asked:

I don't understand why it is taking Blizzard so long to roll out WoD. Blizzard has been saying for years they were going to speed up the development cycle. So why is a scaled down WoD taking so long to roll out? Maybe someone stood in the fire too long.

I'm not sure where you're getting "scaled down" from, because Warlords is anything but scaled down. Certainly they are using an Outland-style map, but it's been expanded and changed quite a bit from what we know as Outland right now. It doesn't feature any new races or classes -- but it features a graphics overhaul of both male and female models for the eight original races of the game, which is significantly more time consuming than just handling the models for one new race. Yes, waiting is sometimes annoying, but Blizzard has always said that they will not release a game until it it meets their standards of quality -- and they have some amazingly high standards. We'll get it when it's finished. And I'm sure we'll see some sort of beta sooner rather than later.

Frixton asked:

QftQ- I've been keeping up on the WoD news and there's one thing that keeps bothering me. Being the only guy I know to actively still partake in Archaeology, (I have it maxed and I spend all my crates on Troll fragments still trying for that awful sword) I'm wondering what the artifacts will be on Draenor? We already had Draenai and Orcs, could it possibly be Draenor fossils?

We haven't been told anything about Archaeology one way or another so far. But to make some guesses -- well, ogres seem to be playing a prominent part in this expansion, and there's supposed to be some major appearances by the arakkoa as well. We might even see some gronn artifacts, that would be pretty cool!

jeremy7 asked:

Q4tQ: I remember reading that we were going to be able to run the opposite faction's version of certain scenarios, but I have yet to have one pop and I run scenarios all the time. Am I supposed to individually queue for those or just wait for the RNG gods to smile on me? (I am specifically interested in seeing the Alliance side of the Theramore event before the xpac ends)

They were talking about Dagger in the Dark and A Little Patience. Dagger in the Dark was originally only accessible by Horde players, A Little Patience was only available to Alliance. They opened it up so both sides can do the scenarios. As far as Theramore goes, since there's an Alliance and Horde version of the same scenario, you aren't going to see the Alliance Theramore on a Horde player -- you'll have to make an Alliance character to access it.

@shamanrongar asked via Twitter:

In the spirit of the season, please tell the story of Greatfather Winter. (Unless you already did that. In which case, my bad.)

There's actually a pretty neat quest chain on both Alliance and Horde that will give you a book explaining just that. In Azeroth mythology, Greatfather Winter was often seen as a giant being that wore a cloak of billowing winter. As he walked the land late in the seasons, his cloak would blanket the land in frozen snow, creating a wintry veil over the land -- Winter's Veil. During this time of snow and frozen cold, the land would prepare for rebirth and renewal.

While the tauren chose to focus on the more natural aspects of the tale, embracing the parts about nature renewing itself, the dwarves likened Greatfather Winter to a personification of the Titans, largely due to their Titanic origins. The origins and meanings of Winter Veil have changed over time and with the influence of goblins, who have turned the celebration into more of a gift-giving, commercialized holiday. But everyone still feasts and welcomes the appearance of Greatfather Winter, even if they may have forgotten where his origins actually began.

@Orkchop asked via Twitter:

My raid's still trying to down Garrosh on Normal, and is been rough. Do you have any tips?

The single biggest thing to remember in that fight is that mind-controlled targets take priority over everything else. I mean everything. The other major thing to note is that the adds that spawn in Stage Two need to be killed away from each other. Letting them get empowered is a really bad idea. Those were the two things my guild really had to hammer down before we killed him.

ScottLeyes didn't actually ask anything, he just wrote this incredibly long and cool thing:

A Visit from Alex to WoW Insider...
'Twas the night before Xmas, when all through the Queue, Not a user was stirring, not even QQ;
The Posts had been made by the authors with care, In hopes that some questions soon would be there;
The Insiders were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of site-hits danced in their heads;
And Alex in his 'kerchief, and Adam in his cap, Had just settled a fight 'bout some dumb twitter crap,
When out on the 'net there arose such a clatter, Alex sprang from his phone to see what was the matter.
Away to the internet he flew like a flash, Tore open the site code and disabled the Flash.
The stylesheet on the head of the new-fallen code Gave the lustre of mid-day to user posts below,
When, what to his eyes that were nearly unconscious, But a miniature post, and eight tiny responses,
With a little old question, so old and so dumb, He knew in a moment it must be undone.
More rapid than eagles the responses they showed, And Alex whistled, and shouted, and read them aloud;
"Not, DRAH-nnor! it's, DRAY-nor! now, Loot Rolls and Swag! Oh, Warlords! NO, Garrosh! That orc is a Drag!
To the past of the Outland! Not time-travel at all! Will the expac be released before it's next fall?!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, The posts had piled up, like a mound to the sky;
So up to the post box the posters they flew, With their snarky responses, and lots of QQ.
And then, in a twinkling, Alex heard on his phone The beeping and ringing of posters unknown.
As he turned back his head, and had readied some slang, Down the site came with a bound and a BANG.
It was choppy and messy and didn't conform, And it looked like a virus was selling some porn;
His eyes-how they winced! his dimples how furrowed! His cheeks were all red, his lips had grown narrowed!
His editor mindset was drawn up like a bow And his code-ready fingers were ready to go;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
Alex had a red face and a pain in his belly, That hurt when he moaned, like a monster from Shelley.
He was ready for 'net war, his seat-belt was fastened, But he laughed when he saw what really had happened;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, And he knew now that he had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And posted a code-fix; then banned some dumb jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose, A quick belt of scotch down his gullet he throws;
He sprang to his iPhone, to his team gave a tweet, And they all texted back that they thought he was sweet,
But I heard him exclaim, as he loosened his brow,
"Happy Christmas to all, now go play some WoW."

Merry Happy Joy Joy Time, everyone!

That was just too impressive not to add to this. Alex will be taking over the Queue tomorrow, so let's give him a very nice Christmas present and come up with lots of questions for him to answer, okay? Happy holidays, everyone!

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!