The Queue: Looking back on 10 years of WoW
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today.
Consider this one a slightly more personal Queue than most, because today's the start of WoW's 10th anniversary celebration, and that means telling a little story. That screenshot above is from just before I got my Sulfuras, which I still have - I've had it for eight years now. But I wouldn't have gotten it, or done any of the raiding I did then, or even played this game at all if not for the fact that WoW let me talk to Julian, my wife (she wasn't my wife yet then) when we were separated.
World of Warcraft was our means to stay in touch after we were parted for a while, and it became something we did together - we ran through Southshore and up to Scarlet Monastery together, back before you could just queue for dungeons, when the only way to get summoned was via a warlock. Before Blackwing Lair was even out, we ran Molten Core together. We were both guilded together, raided together, and before that we leveled together. World of Warcraft has been special for me entirely because of how it made a bad patch for the two of us better, let us share sunsets on the docks, let us camp that annoying Horde druid who kept ganking lowbies outside Southshore and just kill him until it wasn't any fun for him anymore. I proposed to Julian during a Molten Core run.
The game has been a part of our lives. It is just a game, admittedly so, but it's a game we shared, a game that we met friends in, a game we played together. A game where I was once forced to level a character entirely so I could stand in a swamp and cast Heroism so that my wife could tame a special rare pet.
It's been a heck of a decade, World of Warcraft. I might not be married if not for you. I certainly wouldn't have a job writing about you if you didn't exist. So thank you.
And now, for your questions.
Zheo asks:
QFTQ: Next expansion - Legion or something else?
I can guess if you want. I have absolutely no evidence to support this, I'm making up an answer based entirely on my personal beliefs, no one's told me anything - but I think it's pretty likely that at the end of this expansion we well and truly tick the Legion off. I would not be surprised if the next expansion was the Legion come around again.
That being said, I'd be okay with a completely different expansion. I still think a gnome themed expansion could work.
jpec07 asks:
Huzzah for roleplay!
I'm probably going to tear up when I sent my Draenei through. Just because feel.
Q4tQ: In Mists, we saw scenarios introduced as an alternative to dungeons. But in Warlords, they have really come into their own as summary pieces and epic conclusions to quest storylines. Are there any pieces of Warlords that you think will be refined and more seamlessly integrated next expansion?
I'm paying extremely close attention to how Ashram shakes out. That could be one of the things that really changes how PvP goes in the future - if Ashram is successful enough, we may see future PvP designed around similar principles. I also think we may see things like the events again - they're an interesting way to get XP and gold without having to get or turn in a quest of any kind.
And yes, RP can be a lot of fun. It's sort of like writing a story, really, and I enjoy that.
tck882 asks:
Ferpetesake, I've been playing since release and my main is only level 96. How in the world are people rocketing to 100? I have followers who are higher level than me.
Well, I'm fairly good at leveling a warrior, so once I actually got uninterrupted playing time (I basically played all Saturday and Sunday) I didn't find it hard. Here's some advice -
Do all the quests in a zone.
Do all the events in a zone. Clear the place out.
Gathering professions give XP when you use them to gather. Do that.
I'm really not kidding about events. They're worth a lot of XP.
RyanWilliamVoll asks:
Will there be a minimum iLevel requirement to queue for the anniversary Molten Core 40, or do you just need to be level 100?
It seems to be ilevel 615 at the moment. I'm hoping this changes. I'm 610 at the moment and I've run something like twenty five dungeons and haven't seen a single drop yet.
foxkelfonne asks:
So is the next logical step for garrisons to finally implement Warcraft III into WoW as garrison PvP?
If it were completely optional that could actually be kind of fun. You could work it sort of like the Garrison Invasion, only it could be your garrison forces against another garrison's defenders, with the followers of each garrison serving as the troops. I could dig that.
And for the final question of this Queue, a fairly long and involved RP question. If that's not your thing, you can stop reading here and skip on down to the comments. There will be plot spoilers for Warlords of Draenor in this question and its answer.
robertjamesftw asks:
Like you, my personal backstory for my Draenei warrior is that he's ancient, remembers Argus and was with the initial exodus under Velen. He's also cynical as hell, thinks Velen is an idiot ("What kind of 'prophet' didn't see us getting exterminated by orcsjQuery19106380108643234149_1416558841000"), and frankly thinks the only good orc is a dead orc (makes working with Thrall a prickly experience). Punching through the Portal to stop the Iron Horde, and finding out that he could participate in a version of "history" where the Draenei people did not get slaughtered and Karabor still stands as temple of Light was an uplifting experience. Watching Velen sacrifice himself and being part of Yrel's journey has given a tiny little spark of hope to his aged soul and put a few minuscule cracks in the cynical shell that encases it.
To find out during a run through the holy mausoleum of Auchindoun that there are corrupt traitors among the Draenei that are selling our people out to the Legion has turned him into a tower of rage such that it's surprising to me that he isn't perpetually rage-capped. Seriously, when I play him, I actually feel that cold black anger as though it were my own.
How is your warrior coping with that? How's he viewing Yrel? As old as he is, is he treating her like some upstart kid, or does he feel like she might have greatness in her that he feels he can support?
Honestly, I'm pretty sure my character is following her around hoping that he can step in the path of whatever is going to destroy her and take the hit for her, dying himself but preserving his people's last hope. I mean, she's got the Prophet's Sigil, she's clearly been marked to lead our people, someone has to make sure she lives long enough to mature into the role. I mean, she does ludicrously dangerous things. And I'm ancient, and I've lost everything - and while this is Draenor and these are draenei, they're not the draenei I know, which to my eyes is a great thing. The draenei who are living in the Exodar on Azeroth are the battle hardened, trauma-suffering survivors of a mass genocide. If it costs me my life to keep these draenei from suffering that same fate, well, I already died on that world once.
On the other hand, there's my wife's counterpart to consider, and the counterparts of our children. In my world, they all died. Now, suddenly they're alive. I know it's not them intellectually, but it feels like it's them and that's a hard thing for all of us to deal with. It's a strange for them, really - they're version of me died, and now, suddenly there I am but older and clearly I've been through a hell they can barely comprehend.
So yeah, I'm willing to support Yrel, even if it ends up killing me too. I mean, looking at it from my perspective, my death could save Yrel, our people, my wife and children from a fate I've already seen happen - and I'm not even a paladin or priest, I can barely even touch the Holy Light outside of the naaru's gift. Yrel is a paladin who was directly chosen by Velen and who Maraad believed worth sacrificing his own life for. Who am I to argue with them? I'm just someone who picked up swords a long time ago and never figured out how to put them down.
And that's the Queue for today. Happy Anniversary, everyone.
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!
