The Queue: O Joanna
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.
It's that time again -- time to remind everyone that Joanna Blueheart exists and is awesome.
Magnus asked:
Am I wrong, or did Joanna Blueheart not make the cut for the Alliance garrison? I think she was the very first character requested when one of the devs asked on Twitter whom we wanted to have in our garrison and she has had something of a cult following of Alliance fans throughout the years. Seems like a missed opportunity by the devs if they had forgotten about her.
Joanna is nowhere to be seen. Despite Joanna seeming to be a genuinely competent Alliance figure that has gained a cult following, she doesn't appear to be on Blizzard's radar at all. Most of the returning Alliance figures for the garrison seem to be the "fun" NPCs -- people like Fiona or some of the dwarves from the Twilight Highlands. That being said, there certainly are some Alliance military figures that make an appearance. For example, Admiral Taylor plays a role in the expansion and Amber Kearnen hangs out in your garrison.
itsdeeps asked:
if Blizzard was able to release xpacs yearly but it was at the expense of a raid tier (not trying to play to what has now become almost a meme), would you be happy with that or would you be upset with a two tier xpac?
If the price was right, sure. I don't think they could produce $60 worth of content yearly. There are dev houses that can do that -- Assassin's Creed, for example -- but Blizzard hasn't proven their ability to do so. Or a desire to do so. I would pay $20 or $30 for an annual expansion at their current development rate, but not $50 or $60.
Whether it be expansions or content patches paid for by our subscription, I do wish Blizzard would figure out their release schedule. Early Mists of Pandaria rapid-fired its content patches and then we're back to a year of waiting.
Zapwidget asked:
The new model faces for male orcs, tauren, and gnomes are so far off the mark that I can't stand looking at my character select screen. Dwarves at least look decent, but why they decided to completely change the beard styles is beyond me. They couldn't even be arsed to get the gnome hairline right! Every single one of the default gnome hairstyles moves their hairline back to the middle of their head and gives them a forward combover.
They seem to be having difficulty with the faces in general. None of the faces look right for any of the races. That isn't to say they aren't good -- most of them are good. They just don't resemble the old faces at all if that was their goal. My rogue looks great, but she doesn't look like my rogue. She looks like a new character entirely. Hopefully work continues on that front, but we just might end up needing to come to terms with losing familiarity for awhile.
Biggiy05 asked:
Are flight paths still taking us on a scenic roundabout circle in WoD or are they finally more direct from A to B?
It depends on the flight path for the moment, they're still a work in progress. Some of the flight paths are ridiculously roundabout in a way that can't be intended -- taking you across an unrelated zone to get to where you want. Others are more direct. Another problem is when you're missing a connection but you aren't aware of it, so it seems like something is super roundabout, but it's only because you're missing a point in the middle. If you had that point, it would be direct.
One of the complaints I've been seeing lately is the speed of the taxi is just too slow. Even on a direct path, sometimes it feels like the taxi is lumbering through the air at a snail's pace.
@cooljeff2002 asked:
After all this time, why not more mixed race NPCs? Orc, Tauren, Troll never mix, or Humans, Night Elves, and Draenei?
We don't have confirmation that all such mixes are possible. I believe we only have examples of orc/ogre, orc/draenei, and human/high elf. And technically there's Me'dan, who is orc/draenei/human, but he seems to have been eradicated from existence. Something like tauren/orc might be completely incompatible. And probably a lot more trouble to design and model than it's worth. The first human/elf mixed race NPC we saw in-game was Arator the Redeemer in Burning Crusade and he used the standard high elf model.
I admit, I'd be super interested in seeing what a mixed race night elf/draenei character would look like. Probably awesome. The draenei hooves wouldn't be an issue -- Garona doesn't have them.
@DarkChakram asked:
If certain characters die in the new Dreanor, are they OFFICALLY dead? Or just dead within THAT timeline.
It depends on where they came from. Did they come through the portal with us from Azeroth? If they're dead, they're dead. Did we find them on Draenor and it's their Draenor version that died? Our version is just fine back home.
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!
