The Queue: I said no, Julia

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.

I'm writing this in the dead of night as a distraction from creepy ocean noises. Look, I'll come right out and say it: I'm a huge wuss. I'm scared of everything. I'm afraid of the concept of being afraid. So when Wikipedia leads me to listening to Julia ... I need a serious dose of cute to set me right again.

Here, have a baby monkey (going backwards on a pig).

Andrew R. asked:

What is the piece of Deathwing by the Earthshrine in Stormwind? Is it a scale or piece of his armor?

It isn't a piece of Deathwing. It's his favorite d8. In heroic mode, he drops a zocchihedron instead.

Nix asked:

Has there ever been any discussions about learning professions by buying skill points with in game gold?

I am asking because on all alts I level, I always over level the zones where I would find the mats required in the particular profession bracket. Leveling always gets boosted in terms of xp required but professions always stayed the same more or less.

What are the implications of boosting profession leveling (for example till Wrath) by buying skill points instead of grinding mats?

I think we've discussed the state of early trade skills in The Queue before but not this particular avenue. The issue certainly deserves discussion. It's a big one. You don't get to level your professions while you level anymore, it has become something you have to do entirely at the level cap. You don't gather enough resources to skill up while you're leveling, and those resources are prohibitively expensive until you have an endgame income. You end up not doing it at all.

I don't know if straight up paying for profession skill points is the way to go, because that's what you're doing right now, really. Instead of paying for Linen Cloth, you'd be paying for the points the Linen Cloth would give you. That's not crafting. Actually creating items or doing quests that provide related activities is the way to go. Some sort of real rebalancing of trade skills to match how fast players level nowadays is what needs to happen. Leveling quickly and catching up with your friends is great ... but when every other aspect of the game lags behind you in the process, that doesn't seem to contribute to the game's overall playability.

Something akin to the Darkmoon Faire quests but available as daily or weekly quests would be good. One quest per month doesn't cut it when you're trying to get from 75 to 450.

theDECk37 asked:

What races that are currently playable do you thank could use the "choose your faction" action like the Pandaren are getting? Try not to think of the crazy headache it would be to re-balance the game for it, just go with your heart!

Personally I think the Blood Elves would be an excellent choice, especially since lore wise they supposedly fixed their magic problems, & there has always been High Elves in the Alliance, (since that's where they started out as).

Other thoughts?

The blood elves/high elves would be a fun split, for sure. Their entire race would be locked in an ideological civil war. You could have people like Lady Liadrin and her followers defecting back to the Alliance and rebuilding the high elven way of life. Velen has quite literally shown her the Light. It would make sense. Characters like Rommath could continue filling that darker, more sinister tone Kael'thas gave has people before his demise, continuing down the road of the blood elf.

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!