The Queue: I feel like there's a joke in here somewhere
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 answering all kinds of questions today.
Have I mentioned lately how very odd it is to see almost every NPC and vendor in game suddenly showing up with fresh faces and gorgeous new models? It's a little disconcerting. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, but it's really, really weird right now.
arwilkes9001 asked:
In the Beta, have we seen what happened any of the orc NPC's that we fought during siege around Orgrimmar? Overlord Runthak & Ol Auctioneer Thathung & others, did any of them survive? Also are there any NPC's or flavor text that mention the events of the siege?
Overlord Runthak has been replaced by a new, bluer, taller Overlord. A troll overlord. As for Auctioneer Thathung, I haven't seen him. I have, however, seen the orc above, who may or may not be a distant cousin.
Chrth asked:
Q4TQ: Is there any reason outside of factional loyalty for Blood Elves and Wildhammer Dwarfs not to get along? I know there's an Ironforge Dwarf placed under the Imperius Curse by a Forsaken Warlock in the starting zone that is murdered as a "spy", but I don't see why Wildhammer and Blood Elves couldn't get along.
Well, they don't exactly have a lot in common. Wildhammer dwarves are known to have pretty close ties to nature and shamanism, blood elves don't really have a vested interest in either of those things. Blood elves are all about arcane magic and were, up until the Third War, fairly reclusive. They had no reason or desire to contact anyone outside Quel'thalas for the most part. So there wasn't really any reason for the two races to interact, much less ally with one another.
JohnEdwards asked:
What currently non-extant animals would people like to see for mounts? We've already got pterosaurs, utahraptors, triceratops, mammoths, smilodons and a few others, but what do folks REALLY want to see?
Oddly enough, I don't actually want to see any one animal in particular. However, the Red Flying Cloud that was introduced in Mists was easily one of my favorite flying mounts from the expansion, because it was small, sleek, and made it really easy to get screenshots from up above without accidentally getting a bit of tail or wing in the picture. I liked the new wyvern model for much the same reason. I kind of want to see another cloud-style mount again. But I'll throw it open to the floor, because I'm sure people have their own ideas for what they'd like to see!
Fizzl asked:
Since their first iteration, Garrisons seem to have evolved quite a bit and are seeming more and more mandatory. My questions are these: as someone who really just wants to gun it to level 100 as quickly as I possibly can, how much will garrisons "get in the way" of my leveling? If I do the introductory garrison quest and then ignore it until level 100, what are the negative effects of doing so? Basically I just want to know if I can skip garrisons and just level normally, or if that will hurt my leveling speed and/or level 100 progression.
Think of your garrison as less of a "mandatory time sink" and more of a stationary, ever evolving quest hub. It's not so much something you just stand around in to perform various menial tasks, it's actually a great source of XP in and of itself. There are always quests being offered, even after you've hit level 100, and they're usually related to where you're already headed to begin with. You don't need to send followers on missions if you don't really want to, you don't even have to put any buildings in if you don't want to, but honestly, missions take a minute or two to set up and get underway, and you get good rewards from doing them. You don't have to go out of your way to create buildings, but you'd be missing out on professions and even more potential quests and XP.
Your garrison isn't going to be this ridiculous time sink that you're going to be spending all day in. It's a place you flit back to every now and again and just as quickly leave on your way to elsewhere -- usually in a direction that your garrison sends you to go.
captainfreddy asked:
Here's a question: Why are the generally non-Intelligence stacking classes the only ones to realize that, in a world full of hostile demons and dragons and undead and elementals and bandits and cultists and Hoggers, strapping six inch thick plates of steel between you and everything else is a good idea?
Because the intelligence-stacking classes are busy standing back over there. Way, way over there. You know, far, far behind that one guy who decided to slap a refrigerator door on his arm and go punch said hostile creature right in the face a few times.
Dream asked:
Q4tQ: With 6.0 coming the raid changes will be here soon enough. I know Normal and Heroics are now more flexible allowing any number of people from 10-25 to raid, but is the actual flex difficulty going away also?
The term "Flexible" is no longer being used to indicate difficulty -- it's instead referring to the tech that lets you bring a varying number of players along on the raid. What we now call Flexible difficulty will instead be called Normal. Normal difficulty will now be called Heroic. And Heroic difficulty will now be called Mythic. While Normal and Heroic raids will use Flex technology, Mythic raids only allow 20 players.
Armenius asked:
Q4tQ: Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Golden Grahams?
That's probably the single most torturous question I have ever been asked in the Queue. Can I have both? Don't make me choose.
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!
