The Queue: Costumes and Mounts, Where are we going next, and should we lose?

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

Let's Queue it up, my friends. No time for love, Doctor Jones! (With apologies to any doctors named Jones who might be reading this.)

bushkanaka86 asks:
QFTQ: What is the purpose behind limiting mounting with certain costumes and not with others? When I am Trick-or-Treating and I get turned into a leper gnome, or a pirate, or a ghost, I am able to mount. But when I become a geist I am not.

It comes down to whether or not that specific costume is of a model that has a mount animation. The ghost and pirate just use human models, and the leper gnome is just a gnome model, they have mount animations. Geists don't.

CaptainCakewalk asks:
Q4tQ: I know I'm jumping the gun a bit here (and this is likely asked a fair bit but I'm curious now) but a discussion within the Guild last night got us all thinking and the question was: What race do you think we will see in the next expansion after Warlords? Or, if you could have any race, what would be the ultimate playable race for you and why?

Orcs. I mean, we're just about to have this big expansion full of orc lore, it would be neat if they were playable.

I kid, I kid. I want vrykul. I also want ogres, yaungol, mantid, broken and eredar as variant draenei, and ethereals. In fact, I want the next expansion to just go hog wild with new races. Just hurl them at us, races, so many new races, each with its own starting area so that we don't even have time for any max level content.

To be honest, I have no idea what race they would introduce at this point. I'd say ethereals and ogres are the most likely, but I'm absolutely not betting on either.

Whiteout asks:
Question for the Magnanimous Queue:

Since the announcement of Warlords there has been considerable hubbub over an Alternate Universe expansion (though the correct term is alternate reality). Love it or hate it, people have been discussing it. My question is, what are the odds Blizzard will ever do something similar or identical for future expansions?

It depends on two factors.

1 - Does Blizzard have a story that they want to tell that deals with an alternate reality like Warlords?
2 - Does Warlords work as an expansion or are people just so hostile to the concept that it makes it seem prohibitive to try this kind of story again?

I have no idea at all what the next expansion is going to be. I know Blizzard is already working on it, so it's entirely possible it somehow continues the direction Warlords of Draenor has - we'll find out at some point, perhaps even at BlizzCon. But as far as estimating the odds, I couldn't. For all I know, World of Warcraft: Assault on Azeroth-Two is already 60% done.

MTA asks:
Who are the Alliance and Horde's strongest people? I'm talking powerhouse strong! I'm assuming for the Alliance it could be Jaina (then again I could be wrong too) but have no clue who it is for the Horde (and it ain't Thrall!)

Jaina is certainly a very good candidate for 'strongest' on the Alliance side, but she's got some rivals - both Tyrande Whisperwind and Velen are tens of thousands of years older than her which means they have experience she lacks, Tyrande is the chosen of the goddess Elune and Velen is the Prophet of his people and attuned with the Holy Light in ways no one else on Azeroth is - they could both be candidates for the position. Malfurion is the Archdruid, the one who's trained pretty much anyone else to ever hold that title (Hamuul was his student.) Varian's no slouch, either, and Shandris Feathermoon is one of the most experienced war leaders in the world. The Alliance has some powerhouses. Heck, I haven't even mentioned Muradin Bronzebeard. I would probably consider Jaina and Tyrande to be the top two in terms of how much destruction they could wreak if they were sufficiently motivated.

For the Horde, Thrall is a contender, whether or not you want to hear it. Dude can convince the elements to go pretty far on his behalf. After him, Sylvanas has potential - her people are ridiculously loyal and Sylvanas is a lethal shot, possibly the best archer in the world (if not, she's a close second behind Shandris) as well as skilled at using her undeath to power her Dark Ranger powers. Baine is probably the most physically powerful (even Garrosh respected his raw physical ability), and either Rommath or Aethas Sunreaver are the most magically gifted of the Horde's mages, while Lady Liadrin is its foremost paladin (sorry, Aponi Brightmane). I don't put Aethas higher because when he went toe to toe with Jaina, she took him and two of his Sunreaver mages out in one cast, and until we see Rommath go up against her, I don't think he'd do much better.

So if I had to pick just one from either side, it probably would be Jaina and Thrall, and frankly, I think Jaina could take Thrall.

valantor asks:
qftq so why do boosted hunters get rad looking character creation armour and my shaman got crazy timeless look alike stuff

The boosted hunter was boosted after 6.0.2 dropped, when boosted characters were switched over to the Blasted Lands instead of Timeless Isle, just like they will be in Warlords.

gazaa07 asks:
Q4tQ: Storywise, what do you think should happen at the end of Warlords? should we win like we always do? should we lose to show we're NOT the personification of Mars (or Kratos)? and why do you think that way?

Honestly, I don't mind if we win at the end of the expansion, but I definitely think we should probably get our rear ends handed to us at some point. And if that means we lose at the end of Warlords, especially if we then have to (as an example) escape through a portal to Argus or Xoroth, then I'd be okay with that. I always thought that it would have been cool during Wrath if we outright lost to Arthas/The Lich King at some point - I liked his appearance in the Halls of Reflection, but we mostly just run away from him there, he doesn't actually beat us. I'd have loved if, at the end of Naxx, after we take out Kel'Thuzad Arthas stepped through one of those portals and just laid waste to us.

That's the Queue for this Friday. Deinocheirus.

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!