The Queue: Mercenaries

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

Today's edition of The Queue is nice and lengthy again, after a spree of shorty-shorts. See, good things happen when people actually ask questions! Although since it's being posted so late in the day, I bet Adam will have trouble again tomorrow. Do him (and yourselves) a favor: Ask Adam a bunch of completely absurd questions so he has something to write for all of you tomorrow!

Airleagan asked...

"In the Ulduar Cinematic, the Horde and the Alliance both reject the idea of going into Ulduar, yet the players go into Ulduar and are on the Factions of the Horde and the Alliance, Why do we not Listen to our leaders or do they even matter because it seams the Horde just does whatever they want no matter what Thrall says?"

The players are a lot like mercenaries in WoW. Hired guns. Note that even in history, mercenaries often had a kingdom that they called home, while not serving it on the battlefield unless they were being paid or rewarded (or their inaction would've caused their own deaths). That was one of the advantages of being a mercenary. Oftentimes mercs were paid far, far more than regular soldiers, because they were the ones that desperate kingdoms turned to when they needed to bolster their forces. The mercenaries could have been horrible at warfare, but when a nation needs extra bodies to throw at a conflict, they'll take anybody. Being a dedicated mercenary to one nation was a pretty sweet deal. You serve the nation you want to serve like any other willing soldier, but they pay you extra. It was rarely a 'highest bidder' situation.

We are mercenaries, and while we call the Horde (or the Alliance) our own, we'll go where we're wanted (or needed) even if the Alliance (or the Horde) doesn't necessarily support that movement. Also note that neither Varian nor Garrosh specifically stated that members of the Horde and Alliance had to avoid Ulduar. It's just that neither of them are going to throw their support into the movement. We can go to Ulduar all we want, but we shouldn't expect the 7th Legion or the Warsong Clan to charge in and give us any reinforcements. We're on our own, and hopefully we'll be rewarded in the end. Or perhaps saving the freaking world is reward enough.

Lorethai asked...

"I'm a new player, just started a few months ago, and my main character is up to level 53. I only have the original game installed, and I'm wondering if I should wait until I top out at 60 to get BC, then wait until 70 to get Wrath, or if I should just bite the bullet (and credit card bill) and get both rightnow?

I just realized that I'll need BC to finish at least one of the Noblegarden quests, but I'm not sure that's a compelling enough reason to drop $30 more right now. Any thoughts?"

If you're only playing through WoW for the first time, take it slow. Play Vanilla to level 60, do the Plaguelands, all of that. The long time vets of the game probably don't ever want to see that stuff again, but it's still really great for first time players. Stay in Azeroth until level 60, and once you find yourself running out of things you can do on your own at that level, pick up The Burning Crusade and repeat the process until level 70. All of the content is great. The only people that should be rushing through it are the people that have seen it already.

The exception to this is if you're not intending to play the game solo and want to catch up to some friends or family members that are max level. Then you might have more fun if you rush, because I find WoW is infinitely more fun as a social game than a solo game. If that's not the case, then take it slow. The achievements will be there next year.

Molot asked...

"Why do most top raiding guild's require their members to download certain addons? If I can play to their level without them, why should I add something I'm not going to use. Is it my fault I can multi-task without the help of my computer telling me what to do next. Sure it makes the game easier, but where's the challenge in that?"

Many of the required addons are not only tools for you, but tools for the raid as whole. For example, requiring a raid mod such as ora2 or CTRaid or whatever other compatible equivalent you may have is not necessarily a tool for you, but also a tool for raid leaders and officers. It allows you/them to see certain information, and do things they normally couldn't like trigger raid-wide polls. If not everyone in the raid can respond to that poll quickly and easily, it's quite frustrating! That's just one example. There are also guilds that like using certain things for proximity on fights, and all sorts of things. You might not need it, but you'd be surprised how many of these mods are actually used to communicate between each other behind the scenes.

There are also mods like Omen which serve that purpose, or they did prior to threat values becoming visible in WoW itself. Some people may not need it anymore, but back in the day it was nearly essential, even if you were very good at managing your own threat. It meant that others couldn't see where you were on threat. That was (and sometimes is) a very important detail for the entire raid.

There are some things that don't need to be required (stuff like Grid isn't for everyone, but I've seen it required by some), but oftentimes the 'required' addons are things that make organization easier, or makes things easier for your fellow raids, not necessarily just you.

Hya asked...

"I see that there are capital city tabards now with the Argent Tournament. Can these be used for rep in heroic instances or are they just for show?"

They're just for fun and/or show. RP clothes, if you will.

Riley asked...

"I have a question: When is Game Fuel coming out? It's taking too damn long!"

We don't have a confirmed source whatsoever, but people who claim to have 'contacts' say early June is when we'll see it. Who are these contacts? Who knows. They could be magical pixies for all we know. June isn't guaranteed, but I'd honestly say that's a fairly likely date. Beginning of summer is a great time to release new soda flavors and that will roughly be the time that the Pepsi Throwback campaign ends, I believe. One campaign ends, another begins. Early summer is a good guess.

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!