The Queue: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good

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.

By the time you guys are reading this, I will have already picked up Alex Ziebart from the airport and we are likely already somewhere in the wilds of Utah on our way to BlizzCon. Thus is the magic of internet scheduling! We'll be up to shenanigans and keeping you all informed during the week. I promise I won't lose him in the desert. His girlfriend would kill me.

gazaa07 asked:

Q4tQ: Now that pre-Mists raids are soloable to a larger group of people, How far are you into getting the xmog you want to march into Dreaenor with?

Oh man. Have I mentioned I filled the entire second tab of void storage as my first act upon logging in in 6.0? I'm set for wardrobe, really.

wrathofkublakhan asked:

Quick technical question: if we can only wear three crafted pieces on our character (which is totally reasonable) -- does an upgrade count as one? Like one piece upgraded three times would equal three crafted? I hope that makes sense.

Nope! You're upgrading the piece, but it's still just one piece of gear, taking up one item slot on your character. Think of it like sticking a tinker on a glove, or a piece of leg armor on your pants. Your gear is still the same gear, it still only takes up on slot, it just happens to be slightly better than it was before.

ScottLeyes asked:

Anne, WHY do you like Med'an SO MUCH? I sit a "girl-crush" thing, or are you simply fascinated by his rich, deep story?

All ha ha joking aside here, I feel like I should point out that I don't really hate Med'an exactly. I don't care for his origin story because I think it takes a lot away from Garona, who is a bad ass in her own right, and Medivh, who is this giant icon. But it's not that he's a bad character -- he's a perfectly fine character for a comic book. He's honestly pretty much your basic comic-book superhero. And that made total sense for the Warcraft comics series, because hey -- comics are almost always over the top!

But to me, his style of character doesn't fit in with the style of the game. Medivh and Garona's son, the half-human/quarter-orc/quarter-draenei who is a shaman/paladin/mage whatever the heck else hybrid might make for an epic comic story, but in the game world, that sort of thing just doesn't exist, and for good reason -- it completely overshadows the heroic efforts of the players playing the game. It makes us look puny. That doesn't really feel good, not when we've been fighting a lot longer than the kid has, you know?

I don't mind if he's off out there in comic land. That's where he belongs. But I'd really rather never see him in game. Or mentioned in game. Or ... you know, canon in general.

yaminokaze asked:

If I'm shuffling professions around for WoD, is there a compelling reason to race to get them to 600 before launch? From what I've seen, catch-up mechanisms are common, and many Draenor recipes only require skill level 1. Is there anything to really make grinding up everyone's professions worth it, or should those that are switching just go in with skill level 1?

If you're switching, I totally wouldn't worry about it. The catch-up mechanisms are there for every profession, specifically for new players that are using their boosts to create level 90 characters right out the gate without any professions leveled. If you have the materials sitting around to level them a little beforehand, go ahead -- but don't go out of your way to farm materials or buy out the AH and level everything up to speed. You won't really need it.

@BigBearButt asked via Twitter:

I have a Queue question. With old raids easier to solo, are any of the legendaries able to be soloed 100% start to finish?

Yes! Pretty much everything with the exception of Shadowmourne is completely soloable if you've got some decent gear. The only reason Shadowmourne is not on that list is because there's a section of the chain that requires other player's participation -- for the blood infusion part of the chain, you have to be bitten by Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and then bite three other people. There's also a section where you have to pilot an abomination while fighting Professor Putricide, and that may require an additional player as well. It's not the fights themselves that make it difficult, it's just that there are specific requirements on that question chain that involve other players besides yourself. Everything else, including Fangs of the Father, should be totally soloable.

@Credgett asked via Twitter:

any word if the auctioneer in the shrines will be made available to all after WOD drops? Similar to how we got it in Dalaran

I logged on to the beta specifically to check on this for you. Unfortunately, H.A.R.V.E.Y. the mechanical auctioneer still told me I needed engineering to access the Auction House. Then he told me to go away. He's kind of rude. Whether or not this will be changed between now and release, I couldn't tell you -- but as of right now, the answer is no.

@wusheng_ asked via Twitter:

What do you think about a bronze dragon npc at the Vale, so we can go back to pre-garrosh golden-ness?

I would be really pleased to see this honestly -- not just because the Vale was beautiful, but because despite the repetitive nature of the daily quests out there, the storyline that played out with the Golden Lotus was one of the better reputation story lines in the game. If you played through it, paid attention to who you were talking to and what was going on with the story sections you were fed, it made the impact of what happened to the Vale hit that much harder.

Unfortunately, that really beautiful bit of storytelling is gone now, and I can sit here and tell you about it all I want, but there's no way you can go experience it for yourself. I'd love to see some kind of bronze dragon mechanic put in, and I'd love to see the original daily quests reinstated for that phased version. And maybe, since we're not in Mists anymore, the reputation requirements for each level could be eased up a bit, or the reputation rewarded from completing those dailies boosted a bit, so that the pacing of the story quests is more along the lines of what we saw in 5.1.

That's it for the Queue, be sure to leave plenty of questions for tomorrow -- and if any of you are headed to BlizzCon, feel free to say hello if you see me!

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!