The Queue: Earthquake bonanza

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

Today we're going to skip the wacky shenanigans that usually plague the intros to the Queue. Instead, I'm going to blow your minds with the news that Chile's recent earthquake was large enough that it has potentially moved the Earth's axis and an Earth day is now shorter because of it.

dav103id asked...

"When running Shadowfang Keep during Love is in the Air, did anyone else notice Arugal on the other side of the courthouse gate when you first enter the instance? Has he always been there at that location or was he added for the Love is in the Air boss event?"

That's always been there, but it's incredibly easy to miss. That little event starts up as soon as you take a few steps into the instance, so if you take a right to get started instead of running straight ahead up to the gate, you can miss it completely. I ran Shadowfang Keep dozens of times before I even noticed it the first time. I was amazed that I managed to miss it for so long.

Kragragh asked...

"I am about to install WoW on a new computer. Do I have to swap out all 11 discs then patch? What's the quickest way to install the full set with both expansions from scratch?"

The Wrath of the Lich King installer can install the whole thing, you don't need to start from Vanilla and work your way up. Pop the Wrath disc(s) in and you're good to go.

Suzanne Flowers asked...

"In TBC we were able to fly in and out of anywhere in Shattrath City. Why are we not allowed to use flying mounts inside of Dalaran? Why the change? I can't remember any issues with people being mounted in Shatt."

Like other readers mentioned in the comments yesterday, the primary reason given is that they want Dalaran to feel more like a city. They wanted people on the ground and in the streets, running around and mingling together. In Shattrath people could float around wherever they pleased and zoom from point A to point B on their epic flying mount. They didn't like that. It's also a much smaller city that is far more laggy than Shattrath ever was. If everyone could sit around on their flying mounts, the streets of Dalaran would be completely hidden by the sparkly wings of dragons. That's no good.

Personally, I thought Shattrath felt a lot more like a city than Dalaran. Dalaran is far too small and compact. It kind of feels like I'm doing my trading and banking in Barbie's Magical Dollhouse.

Faith Trust asked...

"Is there a reason why caster heirloom trinkets don't give you mana back when you are healing in a group? ...is it a bug?"

It's not a bug. Those trinkets require killing blows. They're not for healing, they're for murder. Heirlooms are aimed at making solo leveling as quick and painless as possible and aren't really aimed at roles like healing or tanking.

Harsesis asked...

"What is the purpose of the 1 hour wait time to get your money from auctions? I remember that it wasn't always this way, I believe a patch during BC implemented this, but I never understood the change. I guess the same question could be asked about the purpose of the 1 hour wait time to mail stuff to other characters, where it is instantaneous to mail between alts."

I believe that when this was all implemented, the reason given was that it slowed down the money laundering process that gold sellers will use to distribute sold, stolen and purchased gold. It makes it harder to move funds around, and the gold seller doesn't have instant gratification when they sell off the entire contents of a stolen account. There's a waiting period involved, and that slows things down and makes it all a bit more risky for the hacker.

Those concerns aren't really there when you're mailing items from one character on your account to another on the same account.

Elish asked...

"Why is it that the Titans couldn't kill the Old Gods, but we can? So far the world hasn't fallen apart due to their destruction and while it will (thanks Deathwing), it's not because of the whole roots of corruption. Everywhere it says that the Titans could only contain the Old Gods to allow order to blossom, yet we just walk into their prisons and execute them. So if we keep killing Old Gods will Azeroth be torn apart?"

We certainly don't know for sure what the consequences will be, but Chris Metzen mentioned at BlizzCon 09 that we'll see the ill effects of what we've done sometime down the road. Somewhere, sometime, there will be ramifications.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com 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!