The Queue: Necromancy, models, betas, and more

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

I hope the alien landscapes of Draenor aren't totally gone in Warlords. My favorite zones from The Burning Crusade were the ones clearly created by the shattering of Outland, places like Netherstorm, Zangarmarsh (as a marsh rather than a sea), and Shadowmoon Valley. I hope they'll hold the same mystique prior to getting busted up. At least Oshu'gun should still be in Nagrand.

Drindaar_Lightkeeper asked:

What gives Forsaken their glowing yellow eyes?

I'd guess it has something to do with the fact that weird necromagic animates them from beyond the grave.

SirBroose asked:

I just invited a friend to try WoW and I plan to use my reward to pick-up a 2-person option, so I can show them around. So, I'm wondering, is there still a glitch that sometimes causes a rider in a 2-person flying mount to drop out when crossing zones, due to CRZ issues? I haven't heard about that in awhile. If so, are there any steps to avoiding that slowing down at the boarders, avoiding certain locations...)?

As others mentioned in the comments yesterday, it still happens. Anecdotally, it does appear to happen less frequently than it did before. Phasing seems to be the primary culprit, rather than CRZ, though CRZ likely still plays a role. Your best bet would be to avoid zones you know are heavy with phasing. Northrend would be your biggest threat here.

JeffLaBowski asked:

Man, tomorrow's Queue is going to suck. Let's take bets on who Alex pawns it off on.

Nope! It's me. I only pawn it off when I'm busy. When it's a tough Queue to write, I soothe my pain with copious amounts of whining. Usually in the privacy of my home office, unless the headache bleeds into Twitter.

GrahamDigance asked:

I'm not sure if this has been announced somewhere already (or if its just standard blizzard policy) but how will beta invites be issued for WoD? I remember with the annual pass a few years ago it got you access to beta. How will it work for WoD? just a random invite? or everyone has access if I have opted in(which I have).

Beta invites will be received randomly, and if it's anything like past betas, you'll be emailed your invitation. Be wary of phishing scams around that time. An opt-in isn't a guarantee of getting into the beta, it just puts you on the extremely long list of interested parties. Not everyone will get in.

the_DECk asked:

With the player models coming with WoD, (can't wait), do you think they could/would/should eventually go back & clean up some other older models too? For example, non playable NPCs, beasts, critters/pets, mounts, etc.? Now I know it'd be low priority, and they probably would not make a whole new model for an old mount or pet maybe, but they could perhaps at least give them a new coat of paint, i.e. higher resolution textures.

It seems likely that they will in certain, specific cases, but doubtful that they'll work their way through the whole game updating every single mount, pet, and so forth. Reader Liopleurodon linked a Twitter exchange between our Anne Stickney and developer Jonathon LeCraft, wherein LeCraft more or less sets their policy: they made a new frog model, but didn't replace the old one. They had a thematic place to make a new frog, so they did. It's highly unlikely they'll go back and update things just for the sake of updating things. They'll do it when it's useful to have a new model.

The new player character models will almost certainly be applied to NPCs throughout the world, though.

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!