The Queue: Leveling time, WoD system requirements, alpha, and the silent majority

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

You know what I like?

Bacon. Bacon is amazing. Someone should write a Queue about bacon...

Larcener asked:

Has there been any word as to the estimated amount of time it is going to take to level to 100 relative to the length of time it took to go from 85-90 in Mists? I understand it is 10 levels as opposed to only 5, however blizzard could adjust exp. so that 10 levels would take relatively the same amount of time. I personally wouldn't imagine that Blizzard would want to delay the start of end game significantly, and although you would have people still done quickly, I can't imagine that doubling the leveling time would be good for the majority of the player-base.

Blizzard hasn't given any sort of timeframe or comparative analysis of the leveling process. The only thing that we've heard is that it's going to be "fast paced." I take that to mean it's not going to be the grind like the original BC leveling was. I take it to mean that we're going to get a Cataclysm-like experience where leveling can take place over two very solid days of playing (or one day for those of us with mental issues).

I wouldn't worry about it too much, though. Blizzard knows that they need to provide a fast-paced leveling environment if they want people to get to end game and play with their friends. That's the main goal of Blizzard right now, too -- to play with your friends. Your friends aren't going to be level 98 for very long. They're going to get to 100 with or without you. So it's in Blizzard's best interest to make sure that you get there without much problem.

Now when you reach level 100 and the end game... watch out. I have a feeling that the gearing curve is going to be steep between major-tiers in Warlords.

Blazenor asked:

Not sure if this as been covered but will some of us need to upgrade our hardware for WoD?

If you can play WoW now, you'll likely be able to play it in Warlords. Really it'll run on any 5 or 6 year old computer, so don't worry about it. If you have reason to be concerned, you can check it out here when it's updated. We'll probably have a post on it, too.

Moonwhisper asked:

Hi , how can I get HotS alpha? I'm on Eu :)

I don't think that you can get into the alpha if you're not in it already. I know that people are saying friends, family, and press only -- but that's not true. The best thing you can do is to sign up for the beta in your Battle.net account and hope for the best.

Also to address the forever-question of why press is in the beta and everyone else isn't (since I've seen this in the comments already and in my Twitter stream), the press does a lot more than just sit back and play games. I've spent more time on the load screen or with the game paused than actually running around killing things. When the Warlords beta comes, 90% of the time you'll find me idle in Stormwind as I research things in game, then /afk to find writers to draft it up or write about it myself.

So sure, we're there... but it's work.

Drindaar asked:

Out of curiosity, is there a reason queue writers decided to answer questions that have already been answered in the comments? I am not complaining, but am genuinely curious. It seems slightly redundant to answer a question (and take up queue space) that has already been answered by someone else, especially one answer/fact based questions.

A lot of the times we don't see the answers, or at least we're not really aware of them. Other times the answers are not always right or as complete. And finally other times there's a compelling editorial reason to repeat the question for the masses in the main article. Comments get about 0.1% of the traffic the main article gets... so while all of you commenting are really important, there's a lot more elsewhere, too. AKA: "The silent majority."

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!