The Queue: Meat Loaf

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 (@Shadesogrey) would do anything for love, but she won't do that.

We had meatloaf for dinner last night. And by meatloaf I mean the food, not the rock singer, because that would just be weird.

RikOsborne asked:

Just how important is +HIT before max level? My rogue is 89. While leveling through Pandaria it seems that, every time I get one of those quest blues at the end of a storyline, it's naturally an upgrade in every way over my currently-equipped piece, except ... almost every time it shows -X Hit Chance. Basically, as I'm upgrading everything else, my +HIT goes down, down, down.

Is the stuff you're killing dying pretty quickly? Don't worry about hit. Is it taking forever to murder stuff? Maybe look at reforging a little hit. Honestly, I wouldn't worry overly much about hit until you reach level 90 and start hopping into heroics. At that point, you want to cap both your hit and expertise at 7.5% as quickly as you can, because otherwise you just won't be able to smack stuff around effectively. And that's no fun at all as a rogue.

concordantnexus mentioned:

It doesn't matter how many rounds of a fight a battle pet does, only that it used an ability - healing counts, passing doesn't

Oops, thank you for the correction! I haven't gotten fully into the Pet Battle experience myself yet, but my guildmates and coworkers certainly have gotten into it. Now that I'm done with rep grinds, I suspect I'll leap into Pet Battles full force this week.

Jimmy asked:

Q4tQ: Are you guys having trouble leveling alts? I'm an avid altholic but it seems since this expansion came out, I haven't made any progress on any of my still at 85 alts?Now the problem is not that I don't like leveling, in fact leveling is one of the main reasons why i have over 40 alts at diferent levels, no, the reason is because there is so much to do at max level that I just log onto my main and don't switch, sure my monk is already at 70 but thats cause monks are really easy to level if you just play them for at least one hour a day. P.S. by this time in Cata I already had 3 max level characters in full iLvl 346 gear.

I have one alt that is about halfway to 86, but that's it. Mostly I've been concentrating on my main because you're right, there's a ton of stuff to do when you hit level 90. Frankly, I'm pretty happy about this because I don't really like getting bored!

KerrySaulters asked:

My guild and I were discussing the new jeweled panther mounts and I made the comment that it would be cool that if Blizz would release one new one every month for the birthstone it would represent for the month. Do you believe that could happen one day?

I don't think so. But along those lines, I think it would be kind of a neat easter egg if the game sent you a mini jewel-toned cub the color of your birthstone for your birthday. No reason to do it, nothing to grind out, just some random NPC in game heard it was your birthday and wanted you to have a present.

crystalolgraphy asked:

Also Anne, can you post what pieces your Shado-pan transmog set used? Looked amazing!

Sure! The hat is obviously the Replica Shado-Pan Helmet you can purchase at exalted with the Shado-Pan. The chest, legs, belt, shoulder, and boots are all from the Flowing Water Armor set. Wowhead's got a great list of items that have that particular model. The shirt I'm wearing is the Sawbones Shirt from Scholomance. Unfortunately, you can't get that shirt anymore -- it was removed from the game when Scholomance got its revamp.

The gloves I was wearing were the Pirate Sinker's Gloves. I have since replaced them with Nightslayer Gloves, which you can see in the screenshot to the right. I plan to replace the boots with Nightslayer as well, just as soon as I retrieve them from Shazzrah's steaming corpse.

As for the weapons, I just picked up a Mardenholde Dagger off of the auction house and used it to transmog them both, because I like the way they almost look like fist weapons, and it matches up with the gray/red theme. It all goes together quite nicely!

CoreyRaynor asked:

Has anyone noticed non-pandaren members of the Golden Lotus? Like, occasionally I'll see a generic Golden Lotus Warrior that's a troll. I think it's really neat to other races of Azeroth joining the Golden Lotus.

It's actually pretty cool. When you start out with the Golden Lotus reputation grind, it's just pandaren in the Golden Lotus. As you gain reputation, you start to see the other races of Azeroth join in. By the time you hit revered, there's just as many non-pandaren as pandaren out there fighting.

You can see this kind of subtle progression elsewhere, too. Keep an eye out for Blacktalon Agents as you level. When you first start out in Pandaria, you don't really see them. As time goes on, you start seeing them pop up all over the place. It's kind of a subtle nod to Wrathion slowly making progress in Pandaria right alongside you.

wihenfung asked:

Q4tQ: Regarding the Emerald Dream. Reading the previous Queue answer about an Emerald Dream question made me wonder about something. My understanding is that the Planet of Azeroth was ruled by both the Old gods and their lieutenants, the elemental lords, for eons before the eventual arrival of the Titans and the reordering brought about after their defeat and imprisonment.

There are several versions out there of that origin story. The latest can be found in the Halls of Stone, during the Tribunal of the Ages event. In that version, it states that the Titans came first, organized the world, and then left. The Old Gods showed up, and the Titans returned when they found out something crazy was going on. The war between Titan and Old God happened, and then the Titans left again.

Which version is correct? I don't think we'll ever know unless Blizzard decides to clarify it.

@metallica155 asked via Twitter:

with group requirement being dropped for pre mop raids in 5.1, will certain boss mechanics be altered to make them soloable?

Yes! Actually, in the latest iteration of patch 5.1 PTR notes, Razorgore the Untamed, Viscidus, and High Warlord Naj'entus all had tweaks made to make them more easily soloable. I'm guessing others may follow, if they prove too tricky.

JosephFratoni asked:

Isnt the Emerald Dream untouched? So theres no cities or civilization correct? How is that a good expansion?

Imagine a world of primordial Azeroth crawling with dinosaurs, proto-tauren, trolls, and luscious jungle greenery. Maybe even like, some barbarian type dudes running around. Wouldn't that be cool? Somewhere on one of my computers I have some artwork stuff I did that was inspired by the idea of the Emerald Dream. I'll have to see if I can find it, and post it at some point in the future.

Think about it, though. Dinosaur mounts. Barbarians. Conan meets Warcraft.

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!