The Queue: Wood doesn't burn, 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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Yeah, I'm sure that bridge is safe.

Kidneph asked:

First time asker here, but here goes. Do you reckon we will see a pre-xpac event like BC to Wrath and so on? If so, what do you think it may be?

There have been various confirmations of a pre-expansion event. In the game files for Warlords of Draenor, there's a spell called 6.0 Invasion Opt-Out. Meaning, when the event happens, players who don't want to be interrupted by it can turn it off for themselves. Of course, it's datamined. It doesn't necessarily mean anything.

I expect the Dark Portal will open, the Iron Horde will pour through, and the invasion will be about pushing them back through the portal. Then we can pass through ourselves and shut it down from the inside. That's pretty much how the Burning Crusade event went -- the area surrounding the portal went nuts and there were random demon appearances elsewhere in the game world.

BapoThe-Paladin asked:

For the beta, does it have it's own little logo on the side in the battle net launcher, or do I just change the region for wow to the beta thing?

You use the dropdown menu under Region/Account to switch to Beta: Warlords of Draenor.

@Miatog asked:

With so much extra storage being given to us, do you think there will be larger or easier 28 slot bags in WoD?

I don't have a source for this, but I recall Blizzard was backing away from making increasingly larger bags over and over again. Their preference is better storage, not bigger bags. But storage has, historically, not kept up with the rate of new desirable items in every new expansion. The Warlords of Draenor storage additions will certainly help, but time will tell if it's enough help.

We're still waiting on heirloom and tabard storage, so those will help, too.

@andrefmt asked:

how much Gronn we fight on WoD Draenor?

Tons. Tons and tons. Frostfire Ridge has gronn and their evolutionary variants around every corner. Gronn, the bigger and badder magnaron, the weird ogre/gronn crossbreed ogron ... seriously, they're everywhere.

For the Horde, anyway. On the Alliance side, the gronn are more limited so far. We'll see if that holds up in zones beyond Shadowmoon Valley.

@KaltonEly asked:

Garrisons seems to be interrupting my questing a lot. Unintended consequence of no flying or just my OCD kicking in?

That depends on how it's interrupting you. What's the interruption? The quests that send you back to your garrison? Follower missions? If you want to engage with your garrison (like utilizing follower missions) then yes, it will interrupt you a lot. If you want to ignore it, you can largely ignore it once you've completed the quests to get it up and running.

As someone who does want to engage with garrisons, even I think the follower system is turning out to be a bit of a nuisance. I believe the plan is for follower missions to have varying lengths later on, but right now, all of the missions are 30 minutes. Without flight, you spend a ridiculous amount of time running back and forth. Once some of the beta issues have been resolved, we'll get a better look at their intentions for the system. It's too early to say for certain.

I would actually love the 30 minute length if you didn't have to go back to your garrison to retrieve the rewards/start a new mission. Star Wars: The Old Republic has the follower missions as a UI element you carry with you. Low level missions that only took 3-5 minutes weren't a bother at all because you could send people off on a new mission right from where you're standing.

@PhantomQuasar asked:

I've noticed on beta streams that the XP seems to have been drastically reduced for quests. Beta thing or permanent XP squish?

It's hard to be sure, honestly! XP needed to level is almost always drastically reduced early in beta, but I don't think there have been any statements saying that is the case right now. And with Blizzard's attempts to reduce the size of numbers, it might be that the XP numbers are just plain smaller across the board.

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!