The Queue: Back to the grind

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.

We've recharged our batteries with a nice, long holiday weekend, but now it's time to get back into the swing of things.

Jtrain asked:

I noticed that Thunder Bluff and Undercity look almost completely untouched by the Shattering. Have the devs ever stated why Orgrimmar got all the love? Are they ever planning similar makeovers for the other cities?

I don't think the developers have ever explicitly stated it, but Orgrimmar and Stormwind are the capitals of their respective factions. In Cataclysm, the expectation is that Orgrimmar and Stormwind are going to be the center of Horde and Alliance culture. The other cities are cool and you can use them, but when it's time to really get down to business, Orgrimmar and Stormwind are the places to be. They put their design resources into the cities they want you to use.

It's not just Thunder Bluff and Undercity that were neglected. It was every city but Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Darnassus had a few small changes, but that was only because they had to hide the worgen away somewhere, so Blizzard gave them a tree to sleep in.

Nobody is ever going to go visit the worgen out there after they've gotten their Gilneas tabard. Ever.

Rhyme asked:

Please tell us which new classic zones are the best to do while we wait for Cataclysm!

I haven't done all of them, so I can't do a breakdown of what's best on every continent. Here are a few notes from me, though:

• Skip Arathi Highlands. There is nothing worth seeing there and you don't lose out on anything by skipping it. I don't think it's included in the leveling curve at all. If you're an Alliance player questing in northern Eastern Kingdoms, you can go from Wetlands to Hinterlands with no issues at all. You just have to run straight up the middle of Arathi from one zone to the other.

• Alliance players, the Western Plaguelands are incredibly depressing for you. If you thought losing territory off-screen was demoralizing in this expansion, have fun losing even more of it on-screen!

• Eastern Plaguelands, however, is fantastic. Really. Everybody must do this zone. I wish I knew which designers at Blizzard were responsible for this zone so I could shake their hands, because it's fantastic.

• Horde players, roll a Forsaken character. Do Tirisfal, Silverpine and Hillsbrad in the proper order. The Forsaken are dag nasty.

Illidius asked:

Exactly how much time has elapsed between the Shattering and now? A few days? Weeks? Years? It seems unlikely that all of the bases and reconstruction have taken place within a few days.

We will probably never know the answer to this question. Some of the changes in The Shattering were a direct result of the Cataclysm, yes. However, some of them were changes that were already in progress during Wrath of the Lich King or were building since vanilla WoW. Not every change in patch 4.0.3a was a result of the Shattering, so a straight "it's been six months" sort of answer probably isn't even possible.

Avan asked:

Is it just me, or does every major character/raid boss in WoW sound like Thrall? Ragnaros, Nefarion, Deathwing, Algalon, Deathbringer Saurfang, Varian, Garrosh, Hakkar, Mr. Smite, the list just goes on and on. And on and on and on and on. And. On.

That's because Chris Metzen voices pretty much every major character/raid boss in WoW. I don't know if he's done all of those that you listed, but I know that he has done Thrall, Ragnaros, Nefarian, Algalon and many others. My ears tell me he has done Varian as well, but I can't say that for a fact.

Next expansion, Jaina Proudmoore is going to have a deep, gravelly voice. I'm sure of it.

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!