The Queue: Dinosaurs, Twitter Questions, and a hug

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.

I don't really have a favorite dinosaur. Or it's more like I have so many favorite dinosaurs I can't pick one. And to be honest when I do sit down and think about my favorite dinosaurs, my opinion changes with the research to a degree. At the moment, I'm fond of Deinocheirus with those massive arms. But a lot of people ask me what's the deal with all the dinosaurs, like there's a proper age to like them, and I'm way, way over the limit. So I'll try, just this once, to explain what the deal is with the dinosaurs.

They were our superiors.

They were better suited to life on Earth than the mammals. This is indisputable. They first arose 231 million years ago during the Triassic, at a time where our own therapsid ancestors were recovering from a mass extinction that nearly wiped out all life on Earth, just as the mammals were starting to evolve. Our ancestors. Us, in potential. And our ancestors, with their highly evolved teeth, with the start of the mammalian body plan that we see today in everything from tigers to dogs to sheep to cattle, lost the competition with the archosaurian dinosaur clans. It's just that simple. For over one hundred and thirty five million years, mammals went head to head against dinosaurs in the evolutionary arms race. And in all that time no mammal larger than a modern housecat thrived. The dinosaurs won. Their dominion was so total that even after the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, it was birds that first evolved into truly massive predators feeding on our mammal ancestors.

So that's it. Dinosaurs are proven winners. They lasted for one hundred and thirty five million years, and they still exist today in the form of birds. And you'll notice that no mammal has managed to push birds out of their aerial niches. So yeah, I like dinosaurs, and I see no reason not to keep liking them for the rest of my life. I realize this was a huge digression, but to be honest, it simply wouldn't have been right for me not to talk about dinosaurs in this edition of The Queue.

This edition of the Queue will likely be very, very long. I got quite a few questions on Twitter, and there's 981 comments, so we're going to try and get through as many of those as we can.

Sean Boyle asks:

Here's one for you Rossi. Why haven't we seen any Naga or Ethereals on Draenor?

Naga are native to Azeroth. The ones we saw on Outland were part of Lady Vashj's contingent, pledged to Illidan's service. Etherals are also not native to Draenor, but were cosmic exiles whose native world of K'aresh was destroyed by Dimensius the All-Devouring, and in the process of trying to save their people from his arcane devastation the Ethereals lost their corporeal forms. Neither group was on Draenor thirty five years ago in our timeline, and as a result, they aren't on the alternate Draenor we now explore.

Greendye asks:

Create the ideal mount/mog/race for your warrior-- ANYthing can be a mount, anything can be armor, absolutely any race.

Honestly, a tank. I mean, come on. It should be a tank, and it should be designed to look like warrior tier 6, Onslaught and the Bulwark of Azzinoth.

Zadji asks:

Question: What are the chances that races will get new jokes (/silly) at some point? Male Dwarfs and Male Trolls in particular need a boost. Related: does anyone use these? Sometimes I like to do this right before a BG starts.

No idea, but I agree that we could use some updates. But the human joke about two tents must stay.

Atanae asks:

How would you define the lore of a warrior for each race? i.e.: what makes a Tauren Warrior different than a human warrior?

Warriors as a class are nigh universal because every race on Azeroth can pick up a big weapon (or two) or strap a giant shield on and go off to fight. A warrior is, in simplest terms, someone who wages war and everyone wages war, but the way your character's race interacts with that is rooted in the traditions of that specific group. So a tauren warrior is much more a guardian of her or his people, someone who fights quillboar and centaurs and has roots in the long period of migration and harassment the tauren went through. A human warrior, on the other hand, is rooted in human history on Azeroth - remeber that humans started out as outcasts stranded on a distant shore, surrounded by hostile peoples, and they rose to become the effective masters of the Eastern Kingdoms via nearly constant war over thousands of years. Each race is in a similar position - a forsaken warrior is shaped by her death and undeath, by the way forsaken are viewed by others and how they've had to fight to exist, while an orc warrior is just as shaped by the traditions and experience of her people. All are warriors, but that doesn't make them all the same any more than all shaman or all paladins are the same. Indeed, because everyone could be a warrior, you can actually see a lot more variation than in classes that are restricted to a few groups.

dr_bombay asks:

why won't Lantressor stay in the mine like I've ordered him to?

Because it's awful down there. That orc craves the beauty of the day.

Scott Leyes asks:

WHY put Gladiator stance in at level 100, instead of earlier, so you could actually USE IT TO LEVEL?

Because we needed a level 100 talent for protection. Honestly, at this point I think Gladiator Stance should just be default - if you spec prot, Battle Stance should go away and Gladiator Stance should take its place.

Lissana (Hi, Liss, say hi to everyone in UR) asks:

How many selfies of your character will you post on twitter with your selfie camera?

42.

Martin Longpre says:

I think we should have a special edition of the queue where the writers ask questions to the commenters.

Technically we've been doing that in our Breakfast Topics over the course of the site's existence. But I agree it might be fun to do a Queue where we ask you stuff.

Robert James asks:

If you could travel to any point in the timeline of Azeroth to change *1 event*, what would it be, and how do you change?

I'd stop Arthas from burning his boats and bundle his behind up to be delivered back to his father, thus preventing him from ever becoming a death knight. This would lead to Muradin finding the sword, of course, but he wasn't of any mind to pick it up - I expect he'd collapse the cavern on top of it. Without Arthas as a DK, we'd have no one to tell Illidan to consume the Skull of Gul'dan to gain its power, and therefore Tichondrius would have been at Mount Hyjal.

Wait, this is starting to sound like I made a mistake.

Ironweakness asks:

if there was ever an era of peace on Azeroth, where would your Dranaei warrior go to hang up his shield? What would he do? would he pick up a trade? Start a family? Live as a hermit in the woods of Grizzly Hills?

Honestly I'm pretty sure my draenei warrior is stopping on Draenor. It feels right. Stop the Iron Horde, save his people, and then rest, at long last. So yeah, once this is all over, he's probably going to chuck it all and head to Karabor for a life of contemplation. Like Brother Cadfael but with tentacles.

Red asks:

Favorite WoW dinosaur: raptor, devilsaur, pterrordax, direhorn, thresher, stegodon, diemetradon, other?

Either Oondasta or Thok. If one of them is male (usually the biggest T-Rexes were female, but as so many of you argue when I go on about dinosaur feathers, this is a fantasy game) then I'd love to put Oondasta and Thok in a room and see if they get it on. Yay for Thoondastak the Ultimate Devilsaur.

Matt Pruett asks:

Would you be irritated or excited if Khadgar had a villain turn at the end of WoD?

Probably excited. Especially if he pulls off his mask and it turns out he's Thok or Oondasta under there.

D.Blaston asks:

What's your favourite damaging warrior ability other than heroic leap? (and not including bladestorm)

Well, probably Shockwave, then. I just like it. I like the idea that I'm doing some kind of Hulk Stomp! move and sending a blast of pure force in an expanding cone in front of me. Runners Up would have included Dragon Roar, Bloodthirst, and Shield Charge. Titan's Grip if you get really loose with the definition of damaging ability.

Razwick92 says:
So I just sent off an application to be a lighting/visual effects artist at a semi-local VFX house. Deep breaths required. :S Wish me luck.

Good luck, Razwick92. I'm not sure I'm the right person to wish anyone luck right about now, but you have my best wishes for you.

Molis says:
Comments

Load

Now

Please

Did they? I'm curious. Let me know.

jpec07 asks:'
Q4tQ: Should I just craft a Strength shield for my Warrior? I just switched an alt to BS so I can do the upgrades thing, but I've been hard pressed to bother with it.

There's only one in Highmaul (two if you count LFR, but I don't have the patience/motivation to endure that), and my guild probably isn't going to get there for a week or two yet (and there's no guarantee it would drop).

Yes, you should.

dwbberry asks:
Q4TQ: Is there actually any new lore or questing content in the new patch? All I see is the garrison improvements, class changes, and stuff like that. I've read that the raid isn't necessarily coming with the patch. Any new quest areas?

So far as I can tell, no, there is not any new questing or lore content outside of the next stage of the legendary quest - I expect the new legendary follower will have some lore and questing involved.

And that's The Queue for this Friday. Before I go, though -

Bring it in. All of you. Yes, even you, Chrth. Get on in here. Let's go. Hug time. Consider each and every one of yourselves hugged.

And always remember that you are a therapsid, just like Gorgonopsid here.

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!