The Queue: Look at me, Drek'thar

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

If you're a Breaking Bad fan, I hope you enjoy the header image today.

AdamAldaine asked:

Now that Guardian Cubs have been released, any word on how many people have quit, how many economies have been totally ruined, how many accounts have been hacked and how much money Blizzard made through all of this? (/sarcasm)

In all seriousness: I know this will be anecdotal, but how much does the going rate seem to be? My server is about 13k-ish.

I sold a Guardian Cub earlier today for around 20,000 gold. On larger servers with more people available to put Guardian Cubs into the market, they are going for 5,000 to 10,000 gold or so. The price is varying wildly, which was pretty much what we all predicted. As the market settles, you'll see some standardization of price.

AdamAldaine asked:

Also, is anyone else having problems accessing them through the remote Auction House?

Yes. It's a bug and it is being fixed ASAP.

Mackgyver said:

If anything were to get cut, or delayed, it would be the pet battles. It's the most nonessential thing announced.

I really don't think that the Pet Battle system is going the way of the Dance Studio, and here's my reasoning: WoW is severely lacking endgame advancement that isn't endgame raiding. When I say severely lacking, I mean it in the largest sense of the word. There is nothing to do when all the quests are done and points accumulated. There is no system in game that you can further advance in after your character is as maxed out as you are willing to max it out. Pet Battles allow players to have alternate advancement past the level and "quest" cap, continue to invest in their characters and the game world, and not have to raid to do spend time in game moving forward.

Many other MMOs have systems like this in game already. WoW desperately needs something like it, and Blizzard knows it.

mahontyler asked:

Question for the Q: Any ideas on what the new profession/Secondary skill will before this Xpac. Brewing possibly???

There will not be a new profession for Mists of Pandaria, but there will be updates and upgrades to the existing professions, as with other expansions. The new skill cap will be 600.

calicojane asked:

Each expansion has had a pre release event in game. Demon attacks for BC; zombies for WoTLK; and elementals for Cata. Given that there is no Big Bad for this expac, what kind of event do you guys think we can expect for MoP?

The in-game events bringing about Mists of Pandaria will no doubt be big battles and events in the newly rekindled total war between the Alliance and the Horde. The first of these will most likely be the destruction of Theramore, followed by the Alliance reaction. Remember, it is naval vessels that are fighting that eventually crash into Pandaria, so in order to get there, we have to bring the war to the game in a bigger way before we can crash. Look for huge battles, big lore moments, and maybe some big character deaths or changes.

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!