The Queue: My imaginary WoW novel

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.

Questions. Let's answer a few, shall we?

Orkchop asks:
If you were able to pick the subject and theme of a WoW novel, what would you pick, and who would be in it?

Honestly, while I don't know what period I'd pick, I know who I'd like to do a novel about - Sky Admiral Catherine Rogers. (Before I read War Crimes I wanted to do a Windrunner sisters novel, but now Christie Golden has pretty much topped that for me forever.) It really depends on what they do in Warlords, though - if she doesn't get any screen time in game, then I'd want to write about what she was up to during that period. If she does get some screen time, then I'd want to write the aftermath. But either way, Sky Admiral Rogers fascinates me - her responses to what the Horde has done in Southshore just seem more real than what you get from other characters. I like that she's absolutely not forgiving the Horde, and that she's fully willing to wage their kind of war back at them. I get the idea that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, but I also get that it's not natural feeling to expect everyone to just get over things. And we could definitely use more women in WoW's story.

Runner neck and neck with the Admiral would be Garona. Can you believe we've never gotten a Garona novel? Oh, she's been in books and comics and stuff, but never her own story. A half-draenei, half-orc character with ties to important characters from both factions, how have we never had a novel of her life? Crazy. What was her mother's name? How did Gul'dan raise her? What did she do before Gul'dan sent her to be his emissary to Medivh? What happened to her after she killed Llane and Orgrim Doomhammer tortured her almost to death? I know there's a lot of baggage with Med'an, but I'd love to see some 'Lone Wolf and cub' style action with Garona in the period between the Second and Third Wars.

EmberDione asks:
What's the easiest/best way for a player stuck on Thok to get a Garrosh kill for the achievement/mount/heirloom?

The absolutely easiest way would be based on if you knew people who were clearing it every week. Since you can run normal SoO cross-server now, getting a carry from people who do it every week would most likely be the easiest way. However, if you can't do that for whatever reason, the next easiest way would probably be to bribe whatever guild on your server clears it weekly to bring you along. Aside from that, you could try getting a few ringers in if you know people who do heroic content, but who likely can't get you in their run. They might have suggestions to help you get past Thok.

OQueue is also a possibility but they tend to want the achievement, which is stupid and counterproductive.

ScottLeyes asks:
How long, do you think, before we see Kerrigan invade Stormwind? HotS is leading up to ... ?

It's funny you should ask that question. A dashing, handsome, and somewhat ludicrous human being wrote a KYL about that very subject.

Ironshield asks:
I'm full up with questions...

I will endeavor to be full up with answers, then.

Is item upgrades going away in 6.0 or only after Draenor actually opens up?

Patch 6.0 is when they are going away.

What happens to our currently upgraded gear with 6.0?

It stays upgraded, but you won't be able to upgrade it any more, and the upgraded gear will be stat squished along with anything else.

Can Heirlooms be upgraded?

Nope. They drop at an equivalent ilevel to a fully upgraded epic (of the same flex, normal or heroic level) but they cannot be upgraded.

This is all leading to should I try to get an heirloom now or just wait for 6.0 guaranteed drop chance?

You can try now or wait until then, the item won't be upgradeable before or after 6.0, so it doesn't matter.

Also what happens to all our gear in WoD with stats that are going away, will they be randomly replaced?

As far as we know, yes.

DaringSkyMyke asks:
Thinking leveling from 1 as Fury, don't see an obvious heirloom weapon. Thrash blades until TG, or just level arms?

It really won't matter if you use one of the agility heirlooms until you get TG. You can also use the Skullforge Reaver heirloom, which has strength and stamina - the parry will help you stay alive, which is nice for leveling. I leveled a fury warrior to 85 in using the two Dal'Rend heirlooms, they worked just fine. You don't have to worry about being absolutely optimal until the heirlooms stop working anyway.

Xadowmun asks:
QftQ: Why Stormwind's symbol is a lion if there are no lions in Eastern Kingdoms (except Sambas i think)?

Sambas is the only male lion model currently extant in any part of the Eastern Kingdoms, yes. As to why Stormwind uses lions as their symbol, it's probably for the same reason many European nations used lions as a symbol long after the lion went extinct in Europe - when the human kingdoms first started expanding across the Eastern Kingdoms, there would have been more lions at that time, and the humans were impressed by their size and power. Indeed, Sambas' existence indicates that the same thing may have happened to the lions in the Eastern Kingdoms that happened to lions in our history - they once had a far wider range and were hunted by humans until they could only call the Twilight Highlands home. Just because we don't see any other lions doesn't mean they weren't there.

Jeffroyed asks:
Do you think removing bonuses from profs paves the way for learning more than 2 profs?

I don't think we'll be able to know more than 2 professions without using our garrisons to access them, but we've been told we can access up to four other professions via our garrisons.

And that's my time here on The Queue for this week. See y'all next time.

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!