The Queue: Who needs a title with that picture?

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'm glad I waited until the wee hours of the morning to write today's Queue. If I didn't, I wouldn't have been able to use that picture of Zarhym as today's header, courtesy of Ben Brode's Twitter.

Benjamin Seeberger asked:

with the introduction of Warlords of Draenor and the retirement of the legendary quest in its entirety, are new players going to have any clue who Wrathion is, unless they are rogues? Will his storyline make any sense in Mists when the legendary questline is taken out? Will the Timeless Isle make any sense? How will the departure of the questline impact Pandaria's storyline?

I never even bothered with the legendary cloak quest chain, but I could follow the Pandaria storyline. And I read spoilers for the Wrathion story elements. There were too many parts of the quest chain that just seemed irritating, and totally not worth it for someone who doesn't raid beyond LFR anymore. So yeah, I think the overarching story of Mists of Pandaria will make sense. Wrathion's stuff is neat, but not integral.

What interests me, though, is that Wrathion's story as a whole is extremely limited. His first quest chain (as a person, not an egg) was rogue-only. His second quest chain was something of a slog with a legendary attached to it, which is now being removed. Wrathion is set up as a seriously influential individual in Azeroth, but you're almost required to look up his story outside of the game. Even if everyone playing the game got the legendary cloak, most people still missed out on his badass introduction.

Definitely some weird development choices happening there.

draknfyre asked:

I got invited a second time to the HoTS alpha. WTH? Maybe it's because I never installed it after getting the first invite months ago (I was waiting until they forced you to use the Battle.net client, and they finally did.) Anyone else get a second invite?

I think everyone got a second invitation -- at least, enough people that everyone on our staff that I asked about it received a second one. I think it was an oopsie on Blizzard's part, possibly related to the technical alpha coming to a close in the near future.

Bugboy asked:

Describe in detail the economic issues facing the early Arathor Empire, with specific detail on its transition from a barter to a currency-based economy;

Uh.

Explain the legal basis for the Amani declaration of war upon the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. Extra credit: cite word-for-word King Dathremar Sunstrider's historic 2nd response to the Amani Foreign Secretary;

Well ...

Based upon existing legal traditions of the various nations of Azeroth, construct a model International Court of Justice for the settling of disputes between nations, kingdoms, republics et al. Specific attention should be paid to questions of jurisdiction, reconciliation of conflicts of existing law, and composition of the court.

Punch them until they stop whatever it is they did/are doing..

RufusHonkerIV asked:

I'm growing a beard. I'm one week in. When does the itching stop?

Genetics have damned me to a life of no facial hair, so I have no idea. I've been told some beards itch forever, though. That sounds horrible, so I doubt that's the case for everyone, or no one would have a beard.

I'd say you're lucky I tackled The Queue today instead of Anne as scheduled, but I'd bet she knows more about beards than I do. Which is not an implication that she has a beard, mind you.

Chrth asked:

Is it worth holding on to the Timeless Tokens for a new level 90 at the start of WoD, or will the quest rewards from Tanaan Jungle be better?

Tanaan gear will do you. Unless you have some pretty sweet highend raid-level epics, Warlords pushes the reset button pretty fast just like every expansion before it.

Chrth asked:

Has the Molten Core Anniversary LFR been confirmed to be every boss from the original instance, or will we just be fighting Ragnaros?

I don't think they've explicitly stated all of the bosses will be present, but the text of the 10 Year Anniversary announcement implies it:

They do describe it as a "gauntlet" so I doubt it's just a Ragnaros run.

didax asked:

Is there anyone else that misses the WotLK-styled daily heroics?

Yes. I liked the built-in encouragement to do something a little different, but still having a choice in whether I actually did it or not. Hitting a Random button doesn't feel the same ... even though it is pretty much the same, since the quest was random.

Sometimes what feels good in video games doesn't make a lot of sense.

Jingknight asked:

What happened to the WOWInsider show? Didn't see anything saying it was not going to be on.

Scheduling conflicts made it not happen this week. We generally don't announce when we aren't doing one. It seems silly to post what isn't happening rather than what is happening. If you don't see a post stating we're going live at some point, you can assume we aren't.

alexanderkrizak asked:

Goblins are a short, humorous race with a technological bent. Gnomes are a short, humorous race with a technological bent. So why do Goblins garner so much more respect than Gnomes, both from the player base and from Blizzard themselves?

Gnomes have always been a little too bubblegum for me. They're goofy and silly to the exclusion of anything else -- you'll never meet a serious gnome. Now, I'm not saying gnomes have to be gritty, but it's extraordinarily hard to care about them when every single gnome in the narrative is a carefree goofball. We saw more than silliness out of Mekkatorque in the faction leader short story, but that isn't in-game, is it? And while gnomes are supposed to be the Alliance's awesome engineers, it's usually a dwarf filling that role when the position requires some sort of forward action. It's always the dwarves manning the tanks and the big guns and the demolitions.

The goblins, meanwhile, take action while maintaining their silliness. They build cities on contract, they have a grip on the Azerothian economy, they mass produce war machines and use them/maintain them on their own. They have a clear motivation in their quests -- even if that motivation is to get dat gold. Gnomish quests are similar, but lacking in motivation. Let's do science! Okay, but why? Because science! Is there something to gain here? Will we benefit from this? Science, teehee!

And while the mobster motif of the goblins can be grating sometimes, at least it's a personality. Gnomes just bounce off the walls to no effect.

Gnomes have plenty of potential for being cool, but still light-hearted. They just don't do anything.

thebl4ckd0g asked:

why do people insist on shortening his name to Garry? It seems kinda lame. I literally twitch any time I see somebody calling him Garry. It's Garrosh. GARROSH. I don't see how shortening his name by 2 letters, and changing one of them from O to Y makes it any better than just saying GARROSH. All I can think of is people are just too damn lazy to type, and that makes me sad for this planet.

I've always interpreted it as mockery. He's overstayed his welcome and isn't taken as seriously as he used to be -- Garry makes him seem diminutive. I might be way off base.

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!