The Queue: A bunny!

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. This week, Matthew Rossi's rabbit Grimalkin is using her priestly powers of mind control to answer your questions about World of Warcraft.

Hello.

Do you have any greens, or perhaps a carrot or two? No? Some pellets, perhaps? Or a banana chip? I enjoy banana chips and would gladly eat one now if you happened to have one.

You don't have any of that? I disapprove. But as I told Matt this morning while he was giving me some carrots, I'll fulfill this duty of answering your World of Warcraft questions. You're sure you don't have any banana chips? Not even one?

Hmmph.

Salty asks:

When Cataclysm starts up, will us 80's have a rested xp bonus?

Well, Salty, I think it is unlikely. I don't believe that max-level characters still accrue rested benefit (Matt reports that none of his seemed to in either the start of Burning Crusade or Wrath), so it is probably not going to happen. It seems likely that Blizzard prefers that you experience the content fully on your first play-through and only adds shortcuts after. Still, if you have a level 80 character or characters and you'd like him or her to gain rested, simply leave those characters in an inn and roll a goblin (I approve of their ears) or worgen (I disapprove of their presumed bunny-eating ways). Your 80 toon/toons should accrue rested as normal in that scenario, as will any 80 characters you leave in inns once Cataclysm has launched.

Andrew asks:

Any insight into what the design intent for varying buff durations could be? Why, for example, are paladins' blessing buffs 10/30 mins, while druids and mages have 30/60 min buffs, and others, like Horn of Winter and warrior buffs are just a few minutes? What is the point in making us keep track of all these buffs? I've been leveling a paladin tank through the dungeon finder lately, and let me tell you, it's a pain in the ass having to refresh blessings on everyone every 10 minutes.

As a priest myself, Andrew, I have often wondered about this very thing. When not using Mind Control to encourage my humans to bring me carrots and especially banana chips, I'm often pestered for Prayer of Fortitude. Luckily, a disapproving glare will quell the cat's insistent yowling for buffs.

Still, I'd have to say I think it's a legacy of the original game. Varying buff durations then were far more restrictive, and in a large part, buffs that added damage output in some way tended to fall off more quickly than did purely survival/longevity ones like Fort or Arcane Brilliance. In addition, warrior buff durations were most likely intended to interact with warrior rage generation as a means to bleed off additional rage and only became tedious as rage generation became less spiky. (We know shouts might actually generate rage in Cataclysm.) Finally, it seems likely that different buff durations are intended not only to preserve class feel (so totems tend to provide more powerful buffs but require more management than paladin blessings) but also to keep homogenization under control. We've obviously seen several changes to buff durations over time (from vanilla to today, they've tended to get longer), but it's anyone's guess if Cataclysm will continue Wrath's trend towards buff homogenization and normalize their durations further.

Crewdie asks:

Is there any point in me getting Cold Weather Flying on my 70 alt? I mean, it will make questing the last 10 levels way easier, but will I need it to fly around the Old world come Cataclysm? It's not that cold there, but it wouldn't surprise me for Blizz to force me to buy it, even though it isn't technically a skill increase.

To answer your question, I meditated on the two different aspects of it while chewing on a bit of leaf and letting the sun warm me. Then my nose got itchy, so I scratched it. As far as I am aware, there has been no announcement yet on whether or not you'll need Cold Weather Flying to fly in Azeroth itself.

Anyway, yes, there is a point to buying cold weather flying for your 70 alt, and that is that even in Cataclysm, it will make the 70 to 80 stretch in Northrend much, much easier as well as letting you do quests in Icecrown, Sholozar and the Storm Peaks that require it. Unless we're informed that Cataclysm will be providing some other zones for leveling from 70 to 80, we just don't have anywhere else to go to get those levels, which we'll need to experience the next expansion 80 to 85 content.

Plus, we're not in the expansion yet, and we're at least several months away. You could have your 70 alt to 80 by that time, easily, and having Cold Weather Flying will only make it all the easier. Yes, absolutely, you should get it. And then get me some carrots. They grow in Crystalsong, but those snooty Dalaran cooking quest givers are hoarding them.

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!