The Queue: That other dog

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today.

No wait! It's that dog!

Ice asked:

Some bosses and even players do weird type of damage school's like "Naturestorm", "Spellstorm", "Shadowflame". What kinda damage are they to their core, can it be resisted or what? Why are these needed to be in the game and what's the list of all those combinations in the game?

Let's use Shadowflame as an example. Shadowflame is a combination of fire and shadow damage, and a spell that deals Shadowflame damage will look at your resistances and deal damage with whatever school to which you're weakest. It lets bosses do their damage without you being able to cheese the encounter by stacking resists. Even if you have a ton of fire resistance, guess what? You're still less resistant to shadow damage.

Elbon asked:

I just started archaeology and leveled it to max, found the fossil pet, fossil mount, tol'vir mount and dwarf pet, my question is (since I haven't found any of the weapons, or armor), if its a BOA item will it be like heirlooms and you're able to equip them on lower level toons?

You'll notice that the archaeology BoA items have level requirements, unlike heirloom items. Those level requirements must be met for the item to be equipped by the character in question. Thankfully, most of the BoA items you get through the profession have purposely lower level requirements to make them useful for leveling alts.

Leigh asked:

Is there a universal shortening for 'Achievements'? I tend to use 'achies' but it feels clumsy and also can be misread as a shortening for archeology.

Cheevos.

Bulleet asked:

Any chance we'll see a Crusader Ram for Dwarf Paladins?

Unlikely; the point of special mounts for draenei and tauren paladins was because those races were never part of the Silver Hand, the OG paladin group on Azeroth, and ergo had no reason to ride the classic chargers. Dwarves, though? They've been Silver Hand bros for a long time.

Koleckai asked:

I remember reading something about the Wintersaber Quest Line and Rep changing in 4.1. However I can't find any information on it right now. Do you have this information or was I dreaming?

You're correct; on the PTR, it's been changed to function nearly identically to the current grindy Horde ravasaur quest line.

Xantenise asked:

So with 4.0.3, the fake instance gate in Stormwind near Old Town was removed. What WAS it for, anyway? In all the years I've played WoW I never found out.

It was nothing. There was no instance attached to the zone and no secret instance in the files that matched up with it. It was just content that never materialized, if it was even ever meant to.

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!