The Queue: Been a week, all right

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

Yep. It's Thursday. Totally been a week. With days and everything. And to be honest, I'd be okay with it being over right about now. Here, have a video of my cat Sasquatch watching Star Trek TNG on the iPad. He's apparently not a fan. Special guest appearance by Puck, our middle cat, at the end.

rcmetzger asks:
Question: So there's a new rogue columnist right?

Follow-Up Question: If that's a yes, when will a new mage columnist be coming to theaters everywhere?

Yes, there's a new rogue columnist. Stay tuned to this site for news about other new columnists as well. I guarantee you'll be glad you did.

syankoff asks:
any lore behind the blind blademasters?

I personally wonder if Lantresor trained them. It doesn't actually say that Lantresor is blind, but if you look at his model his eyes are clearly messed up (being white without pupils) and he mentions having served under two Warchiefs (presumably Blackhand and Orgrim Doomhammer) so it wouldn't be that big a stretch to imagine Garrosh reaching out to the guy who gave Garadar such trouble. Remember, too, that Garrosh had a blademaster named Ishi as one of his personal aides during the Divine Bell questline, and Ishi ultimately failed when Garrosh tried to infuse him with the power of the Sha - perhaps the Blind Blademasters are other survivors of Garrosh's attempts to harness Sha or Y'Shaarj.

All we really know about them is that they're there. The Horde has a long tradition of Blademasters, though, so they're not really out of place.

Wellwow asks:
Does anyone know what the (melee) hit cap is for proving grounds? I'm thinking of making a set specifically for it (since I have so many timeless isle pieces).

For everything except dual wield, it's 7.5%, same as any PvE encounter. What changes in Proving Grounds is that your gear gets normalized down to 463, just like doing a challenge mode, so even if you're in full SoO epics, your gear will drop precipitously in terms of raw power, and you may need to reforge to ensure you have enough hit and expertise in there. The caps are the same, but the amount of those stats on your gear will drop.

therazorx asks:
Why do we end up fighting Nazgrim?(lore wise)

I haven't done the raid yet, but i want to know.. is he corrupted? Did he just choose to follow his warchief?

Okay, since you asked:
Nazgrim is loyal to the Horde and to his Warchief above all else. He knows that Garrosh is losing it, but he swore an oath, and even though he's willing to bend a little (like ordering the Kor'kron to the front of Orgrimmar so Thrall and Varok Saurfang can enter the city) he's not willing to betray his oath. In fact, for him, it's better to die a warrior's death honoring his oath, and at the same time by doing so he can be sure that the people who get past him are strong enough to potentially end this whole awful scenario. Horde players get a nice bit of RP when they get to him.

So yeah. Nazgrim knows Garrosh is wrong, but he can't just break his sworn oath to the Warchief. You, however, haven't been sworn to anything. So you can kill Nazgrim and thus, free him from his responsibilities, and you can stop Garrosh. If Nazgrim has to die to keep his honor intact, he's okay with that.

draknfyre says:
Chris Metzen said they had something coming up that would make Draenei players happy. Like most of his Alliance promises, nothing ever happened.

He didn't say when, just that it's coming up. If all the hints Wrathion is dropping about the return of the Legion are correct, we'll probably see a whole lot of Eredar/Draenei conflict soon.

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!