The Queue: Well, that explains everything

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney totally took this over.

I submit the theory that there is not a question that can't be answered with the above video. Even if the video doesn't answer the question directly, it should throw the questioner into such a state of confusion that the question itself will be lost in time.

Moving on!

KrazyKorean728 asked:

Was there ever any reason given for Nalice being removed from Wyrmrest?

And loop_not_defined followed that up with:

Was she removed in the 4.3 PTR as a WotLK quest giver? Because I just did the Dragonblight/Black Dragonflight quests starting with Nalice last week, and I'm absolutely certain I saw her.

Fear not! The answer is simple.

In the novel Twilight of the Aspects, it's stated that Nalice took her leave of the Wyrmrest Temple shortly after Deathwing punched a hole in the world and said hello. Basically, the Black Dragonflight found out that their fearless, patched-together leader had returned, if a little more oozy than before, and they took off to either help him or hide from him.

In the game, players who level through Wrath of the Lich King content are actually at a point prior to Deathwing's emergence. So Nalice is still present, snarky, and handing out quests. If the thought of going from post-Cataclysm Azeroth back in time to Outland and Northrend prior to the Shattering is confusing to you, I suggest you watch the above video. It will make everything better, I promise.

Speaking of Wyrmrest Temple ...

estescs asked:

Regarding End of Time, do we have any clue who is responsible for Deathwing being impaled on the Wyrmrest Tower?

More than likely it went down like this: Deathwing won and proceeded to destroy pretty much everything in existence, just like the Old Gods wanted. And then, as everything that existed was dead with the exception of himself, he threw himself onto the tower just to make certain that nothing existed. Deathwing is not right in the head. None of the Twilight Cult are; they just want everything destroyed because apparently the end of the world is pretty keen.

Ben asked:

I just saw on another site that alchemists will be able to transmute epic gems. Have you heard anything yet on a possible prospect abilty?

That is highly doubtful. The transmute stuff you're talking about was datamined material, which means that it's not really 100% confirmed until you see it in game. There's been loads and loads of stuff datamined that never came to pass. What we do know as stated by devs is that raiders doing the Dragon Soul raid will receive geodes that contain a random sampling and random numbers of epic gems. Keep in mind, we may see a change as far as prospecting goes -- nothing, and I mean nothing is set in stone on the PTR servers until those servers go live. Anything can change at any given moment.

Joshua.kavanagh asked:

Is there a way to see the Dungeon Journal outside the game?

You can find the info on Wowhead, which is one of the many reasons I always have a tab with Wowhead open. But as for an official Blizzard thing like the Armory, nope, not yet. It'd be kind of cool if you could, though!

Skarn asked:

Sparked by a comment in the Breakfast Topic, What's your opinion on the various grinds in Cataclysm? Rep, gear, dailies, dungeons, etc. Improvements over previous grinds? Or a negative direction?

Overall, do you think Cataclysm is more "grindy," less or really not any different? Progressive or in decline? Actually, maybe that's a topic for a full on column. There ya go get someone on that. :)

Skarn. Honey. Have a seat. Let's talk about vanilla WoW for a minute and the original 1-60 grind. Did you hear me say grind? That's because it was, quite literally. Old leveling guides from the era of classic WoW went over the fastest way to level, and more often than not those ways involved going to Desolace or Azshara or some other completely out-of-the-way location and killing the same mobs over and over and over and over again to gain XP, because it was that much faster than running around the world and doing quests.

As for reputation, I invite you to take a look at the rep grind process for Hydraxian Waterlords, which was pretty much the first reputation that got you anything of interest in WoW, in the form of the item you needed to put out the flame glyphs and progress in Molten Core. My old raid main spent the better part of a year in Molten Core in vanilla, dutifully killing the same bosses over and over again -- and she was still only halfway through revered by the time AQ40 came out.

That same main turned in Runecloth to gain reputation with the other races of the Horde, so that she could get a raptor instead of the skeletal horse. This required turning in 60 Wool, then 60 Silk, then 60 Mageweave, then 60 Runecloth, and then repeatedly turning in Runecloth, one stack at a time. In vanilla, that original turn-in of 60 gave you 50 reputation. Each subsequent turn-in of cloth gave you 25 reputation. For those keeping track at home, to go from friendly to exalted took roughly 800 turn-ins. Of Runecloth. The stuff everyone was using for high-end tailoring and bandages in vanilla.

In Cataclysm, you get to throw on a tabard and run a bunch of dungeons until you're exalted, and you level so quickly that by the time you're nearing the end of a zone, you've almost outleveled it. As for the zones, you get to stay in that zone until it's complete, and you aren't sent halfway around the world for the heart of that one bad guy out in that tower in the middle of nowhere only to fly all the way back, turn it in, and be told that you need to go back and also get said bad guy's wallet, too.

The difference is night and day. Do I miss vanilla? Sometimes. Then I remember the blister on my finger from clicking the stupid cloth NPC for the 600th time and change my mind.

Jarett asked:

I haven't seen anywhere yet, but are Chaos Orbs coming unbound with this patch? There a blue post that mentioned it would happen in a "future patch" but didn't in 4.2.

The answer to this was no until it became a yes yesterday. Can you see the future, Jarett? Could you tell Attumen to drop a horse for me, please?

raleighpop asked:

will there be a new bh boss in the next patch as well?

Yes. His name is Alizabal, and he's available for testing on the PTR right now.

Matrillik asked:

We are going back in time and killing Mannoroth, who at a later point in time enslaves a bunch of orcs and Grom Hellscream in WC3, and ultimately fights Thrall and Grom in a sweet cinematic. Grom and Mannoroth sort of kill each other. If we're going back and killing Mannoroth, then does that mean that Grom never died?

Does that also consequently mean that Grom is the new warchief and that we destroyed the Alliance already?

You should watch the video above. It will answer everything, I swear.

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!