The Queue: It's been so long!
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) really likes betas. Hint hint, Blizzard?
Look at those little talking birdies. Just ... look at them. Oh hey, Warcraft questions!
JediExcel asked:
So re reading Rise of the Horde again, and was struck by a thought. In the real world, Nerzhul was tricked and Guldan was a willing participant in the turning the orcs against the draenei. Now Garrosh shows the alternate time line orcs of their corruption, and thwarts the burning legion by preventing them from drinking the blood of Mannoroth. But the war is still going on in this alternate time line. Unless I missed something, this seems to show the orcs are still a bunch of d- er, determined jerks. Thoughts?
That's kind of a tricky situation. We don't know exactly when Garrosh went back in time to -- just that it was at some point before the orcs were offered the Blood of Mannoroth. Keep in mind that the orcs and draenei had been fighting each other relentlessly up until that point -- Mannoroth's blood was given to the orcs just before they attacked Shattrath City. But every other major city had been utterly destroyed by then. So it's entirely likely Garrosh may have arrived in the middle of this war between draenei and orc, and didn't bother trying to stop that. Why would he, when the draenei make excellent opponents to train the Iron Horde's killing skills on before they head to Azeroth?
Alternatively, it may just have been too late for the orcs to hold up their hands, apologize, say "our bad" and move on. Keep in mind, the orc race as a whole aren't a bunch of pacifists. They may be described as a shamanistic society, but they're also as aggressive as all get out when provoked. Pecking order is usually established by who's strongest, not by who talks the most sensibly. Weakness isn't tolerated.
Also keep in mind we're talking Garrosh Hellscream, here. Do you really think he's going to go back in time and say "Okay guys, stop fighting now. Apologize, you were totally in the wrong. We'll make friends and have these scum that joined the Alliance on Azeroth totally be our friends?" Heck no.
@theshoeboots asked via Twitter:
Why isn't there Gnome Paladins?
Logically speaking, I guess you'd have to say that they've only just started using the Light in any form. Gnome priests weren't a thing until Cataclysm. Way back, we're talking first Dark Portal days here, the Holy Order of Northshire Clerics was pretty much smashed to pieces during the First War. Archbishop Alonsus Faol saw this, and decided to try something a little different. He trained clerics in martial combat, and knights in the ways of the Light. These guys were the first paladins. It's not just something you magically learn overnight. It's not easy.
From a plain old boring game balance standpoint, they had three races on the Alliance side that could already be paladins. Horde side, there were just the blood elves. So they added one new Horde race for paladins -- tauren, leaving three on the Alliance side, two on Horde. Similarly, dwarf shaman were added so that Alliance had two available shaman playing races. Keep in mind that paladins were Alliance only, and shaman Horde only, until Burning Crusade came out. They wanted to add some variety in choice -- they didn't want to water down what the class is, or how it came to be.
@JetrixAdune asked via Twitter:
Lorewise, is it possible for a Pandaren to be "evil.". We've seen corrupted Pandaren but never outright evil.
It depends on your definition of evil. On Pandaria, if you let yourself fall too far into hatred, anger, violence, fear, despair, all those negative things, you're pretty much an open buffet for the sha. On the Wandering Isle, there's no such restrictions -- but being the only evil guy on a small remote island perched on the back of a giant turtle is...kind of a ludicrous notion at best. What would they strive for? To control the island? Shen-zin Su wouldn't be having any of it. There are certainly angry pandaren out there (cough cough, Taran Zhu), but there aren't any that are really down in the depths evil for the sake of being evil, no. It would probably be at best, a really weird idea to most pandaren.
@temprow asked via Twitter:
what are the odds we get wow news today? The fact carbot is releasing a WoW cartoon has to mean something is coming.
Considering the fact that Carbot is neither owned nor licensed by Blizzard Entertainment, (to my knowledge, anyway), I wouldn't really say a cartoon release is an indicator of anything. It makes about as much sense as saying we're going to get WoW news because Adam Holisky has suddenly stepped away for lunch. One has virtually nothing to do with the other.
This doesn't mean of course that we can't fervently hope that it means something, anyway. But there's no real connection between the two.
@Blinkerton asked via Twitter:
is it possible Wrathion is behind sending Garrosh to Draenor? This way he strengthens the Horde for the impending Burning Legion invasion he has foreseen in the legendary quest line? Or is it possible that he just follows us to Draenor to "help".
Nope. We've been told that Wrathion will make a cameo at best in Warlords -- as far as we know, he's not going to be a major player. Wrathion was pretty much done with Garrosh Hellscream once he demonstrated how good of a leader he was by turning half his faction against him. And Wrathion is very much invested in protecting Azeroth. Unleashing the Iron Horde on Azeroth isn't exactly something that works towards Wrathion's stated goals.
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!
