The Queue: Beard obsession

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) is answering all kinds of questions today.

I don't know why exactly a good chunk of you were so completely obsessed with beards in yesterday's Queue, but okay, I'll indulge with a Cyanide & Happiness short that seems suitably appropriate for the topic at hand. Or chin, I guess.

Jorsha asked:

Q4tQ: is Coren Direbrew a whole long dungeon fight or is it just the boss fight like Headless Horseman at Hallow's End? I need Coren to finally finish off the Brewmaster achievement, but I really don't enjoy running dungeons so I've never done it. I love the H.H. fight because that's all it is.... just kill him, hope for the mount to drop (still waiting) and then move on. Cheers!

Coren is in fact just like the Headless Horseman. When you zone in, you do so right in Direbrew's room at the Grim Guzzler, and all you have to do is speak to him to start the fight. No trash, no dungeon, nothing but Direbrew and his cronies to take down. Easy enough! ... although be careful about pulling the rest of the bar while you're fighting him. It probably isn't that much of an issue these days, but I remember a few entertaining "oops" pulls when Coren was first introduced.

SeventhFloorDown asked:

The people in my guild have kept most of their Heroic gear through at least level 96 on the beta. I don't have beta access, but nearly everyone in my guild is fully Heroic equipped, and the hunter and shaman who posted about it are both ilvl 580. Anyone else have ths experience? Or something different?

This is honestly pretty normal, when you've got really good gear at the end of an expansion. I had full heroic gear and Fangs of the Father coming into Mists of Pandaria, and I don't think I bothered replacing anything until I hit level 89. Coming into Cataclysm, I had mostly heroic gear from Icecrown Citadel in Wrath, and it was pretty much the same experience -- I didn't start replacing any gear until level 84 or so. Typically from what I've experienced, most of my upgrades came from dungeons, or end-of-zone quests. The average quest gear wasn't worth replacing my own with. I kept some of it for transmog, though!

Cogline asked:

Is The Black Prince rep being taken out of the game also?

Nope! The reputation is staying put. To my knowlege, the only thing being removed from that quest chain is the Valor point section.

Although if you're talking about in Warlords of Draenor, I just checked on the beta. While all of Wrathion's chapter achievements are now filtered into the Legacy achievement section, the reputation is still listed under Pandaria rep. This might change at some point between now and Warlords' release, however.

Puntable1 asked:

Trade Chat now works in Garrisons, in case you still had any doubt where you will be spending your down-time in Warlords. Do you think it's too much isolationism for a MMO?

I'm actually really happy about this, mostly because it reminds me a bit of the chat channels enabled in Wildstar's housing areas. It was nice being able to talk to people while futzing around with home decor. I don't know if I'll hop into trade chat very often, but I'm glad the option is there. In regards to spending all of our down-time in garrisons -- I don't think it's going to work that way. From my experience on the beta, I get sent back to my garrison every now and again, or I go back there to sort through completed missions, start a few work orders, or finish a few errands, but while I'm there I get quests that send me right back out in the world.

What it leaves me with is the sense that there isn't exactly a lot of down time in Warlords, or at least there isn't while you're leveling. After hitting level 100, who knows? I imagine I'll see when I get there, but for the leveling experience, I think there are going to be far more people in the world, and less people camping out in one central location or another. That's what it feels like right now, anyway.

greenhooves commented:

Well now I need to know the extent of Anne's Beardological knowledge.

This one time I had a boyfriend with a beard who inexplicably decided to shave it off because he thought I would like it better that way and his chin completely disappeared. Beards are terrifying things and, upon proper application and growth, should never, ever be tampered with.

gazaa07 asked:

Q4tQ: In relation to Azeroth, where exactly is Draenor (our Draenor, before it became Outland)?

It was somewhere out in the Great Dark Beyond, a.k.a. outer space. There's never really been a physical location given to it in the sense of coordinates or anything like that. When it became Outland, you could see Azeroth from the Black Temple -- but keep in mind Outland's skies were almost like tears in the Twisting Nether rather than proper sky. You don't see Azeroth at all while you're on Draenor in the beta -- there's no indication it's physically nearby or anything like that.

pj asked:

if you had to choose forever: horde or ally? and why?

I honestly don't know if I could make that choice. Here's the deal -- I've been primarily a Horde player since the latter days of vanilla WoW. But I also like playing Alliance, and usually have an Alliance alt or two that I play through after I'm done with the Horde leveling. I like the feel of Horde towns and quests, I like the sort of primitive grit and sense of being stuck in a perpetual dust bowl. I grew up in a desert, that probably has something to do with it. The Horde races are visually interesting, I've always liked the quests and story.

On the other hand, the Alliance stories are also incredibly fun to play through. Alliance towns are full-out fantasy meccas with castles and sparkling spires and magical crystalline structures and there's this general sense of high fantasy/nobility that I also find appealing. When I play my Alliance alts, I really enjoy playing those and experiencing the sides of the story that I don't see just by solely playing Horde.

So trying to make a decision like that is kind of like asking me which side of the story I would like to be able to read forever. It's like asking me which half of a book I'd like to ignore. I can't really bring myself to make that kind of choice, and I'm really, really glad I don't have to -- I don't know if I'd be playing the game, otherwise. But hey, other people might have their own views, so if you guys want to share them in the comments section, please do feel free!

Also feel free to leave a lot of Warcraft questions for Alex, as he'll be picking the Queue back up again tomorrow.

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!