The Queue: Merely a setback
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) has invaded the Queue today.
Just when I thought I'd finally gotten rid of him, Millhouse Manastorm has shown his face again, this time casually dining upstairs in my garrison's inn on the beta. Apparently being eaten by a giant mutant crystal worm was merely a setback. ... at least he isn't trying to summon Kil'jaeden or anything, I guess?
JordanPhillips asked:
q4tq: if UBRS is being revamped to be max level, what happens to LBRS? If I recall correctly, both UBRS/LBRS utilize the same starting entrance area.
They are actually two separate instances, now! The main entryway when you zone in right now is un-instanced on the beta, and the once-locked door to UBRS is now an instance portal. There's a portal to LBRS under the bridge. I sort of wish I still had my UBRS key now, because as of 6.0.2, it's a completely useless relic of a bygone era.
antonius_prime asked:
Q4tQ: Has there been any indication yet from Blizz about the Northrend Commendation Badges? They're missing on the vendors on the 6.0 PTR, and the thought of having to repeatedly wait for rep farming is annoying...
Nothing yet. You might want to get all those Northrend reputations out of the way before 6.0.2, just in case.
Chrth asked:
Q4TQ: With Scotland voting on Independence this week, which race do you think would be most likely to leave their current faction if put to a vote?
Horde side ... maybe the Forsaken? Probably the Forsaken. Sylvanas has a pretty good stranglehold on Lordaeron now, and she's got a way to keep the Forsaken going with the val'kyr. Out of everyone, she's probably the least thrilled about Vol'jin's appointment as Warchief, and frankly the matters of the Horde hold little interest to her.
Alliance side -- and hear me out -- the night elves. Why? Because the Alliance has done next to nothing for them in all the time they've been allied. Sure, that whole helping hand during the Third War was totally appreciated, but nothing has been done about Horde encroachment in Ashenvale, Stonetalon, or Azshara. Nobody's really actively trying to help them clean up Felwood. In fact the only really visible allies they have in the Alliance are the worgen, and that's because they saved them from certain death in Gilneas. There's no purpose to the kaldorei being in the Alliance.
ElizabethDresser asked:
Q4TQ- what's going to happen to the 90 challenge card fights in Brawler's Guild in WOD? Will they stay 90, be retuned to 100, or be eliminated in favor of WOD card fights?
I believe every encounter in the Brawler's Guild is being re-tuned for level 100. I'm not sure about the challenge cards, but I'd assume the same applies to them as well. I think boss encounters might be a little different -- I seem to recall someone saying that Hexos wasn't going to be on the menu anymore (thankfully).
RyanKomisarz asked:
Speaking of lore characters and class representation....what is Vol'jin supposed to be anyway? He's classified "Shadow Hunter' and I assume that means bows/arrows/daggers/ and etc. But we get to the Dagger in the Dark Scenario and it's like LOOK HE'S GOT TOTEMS AND IS THROWING LIGHTNING NOW!
He's a Shadow Hunter, officially. What exactly entails being a Shadow Hunter ... well I don't think that's ever been clearly defined in terms of in-game lore, because it's not really a class we get. You'll see a lot more Shadow Hunters popping up in Warlords, though.
Puntable1 asked:
Who is your favorite Follower, and why?
I'm kind of delighted that I have Lantresor of the Blade. I loved his quests in Burning Crusade, and I was totally excited to see him again in Warlords. I kind of wish his model were slightly more indicative of his half-orc heritage, but hey, we can't have everything. I'm happy enough just to have him wandering around my garrison and doing missions for me.
Ron2 asked:
Whenever the topic arises of Justice and Valor being removed, and Justice gear being repriced in gold, somebody always asks whether a wealthy toon can just buy raid gear the minute he reaches level 100. That seems like an obvious no, but I can't say that with any confidence because I haven't heard of any reputation gear or other gearing mechanisms outside of dungeons and raids. How will we gear up in Warlords? Are we going back to "raid or die"?
I certainly hope not! We aren't going to have a ton of reputation gear, but there is a metric ton of crafted gear, there's gear from dungeons, heroic dungeons, and yes, even raiding, but I would hardly call raiding "necessary." If you want to raid, then yes, you probably want to get the raid gear. But if you're not interested in that aspect of the game, there are plenty of other ways to get some perfectly good gear.
Alibarem asked:
Where is the best place to start a new player looking to learn the 'lore' of Warcraft? Like, if you were going to sit down with someone who has never played a Blizzard game, where do you begin to explain the story?
I co-wrote this book called the World of Warcraft: Ultimate Visual Guide that was written pretty much for that purpose -- it's a visual guide, so it's got tons of pretty artwork, but it's also a basic lore primer. It goes over the entirety of Warcraft's story from the original RTS games to Mists of Pandaria, but in bite size, summarized chunks so as not to be too overwhelming. You aren't going to get all the nitty-gritty details, but for someone that just wants a general introduction into all things Warcraft-lore related, it's a pretty good start. From there, you can pick out the parts that are interesting to you, and go check out other novels, or even Wowpedia for more details.
We also do lore columns here on the site, and Rossi and I have both tackled summarizing Warcraft's story in Know Your Lore, too. There's a lot of material to be had there.
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!
