The Queue: Wee little unicorns

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!

It's the little things in garrisons that make me happy. Like these teeny tiny unicorn figurines that the orc bartender in the Horde inn has apparently set out on display. Why unicorns? Who knows?

CaptainCakewalk asked:

Q4tQ: Is there anything anyone else has a hard time remembering in WoW like me with Void Storage?

I always forget about First Aid until some point near the end of the expansion when I suddenly remember there is usually an achievement or two surrounding it. Until then, there's just no need to level it up, really.

Fizzl asked:

Q4TQ: Does anyone know what graphic settings would affect raid spells aside from Particle Density? I always make sure to turn Particle Density up because I thought that was basically the only thing that controlled spell details.

You're looking for Projected Textures -- that and Particle Density pretty much covers what you need for most raiding. I used to have to turn them down with my old graphics card, but once I replaced it, I was amazed at the amount of stuff I simply didn't see.

ScottLeyes asked:

So, it's 2015. Monday is the first "real" work day at Blizzard. What news do you think we will get next week? Patch 6.1 release date?

I doubt we'll see a patch release date so soon, but we might see some information or a PTR build this month, if we're lucky. Usually patch release dates aren't hammered out until there's been substantial testing on the PTR to hammer out the majority of the bugs.

John22 asked:

Q4TQ: Garrosh killed Kairov. Really? He was shapeshifted, but he is a DRAGON! Dragon are hard to kill, have all kind of abilities and wouldn't he have reverted to his dragon form? Perhaps he is still alive but left a fake corpse? I realize that Gary did use a magical seashell, but he is a DRAGON!

Two things besides the shard helped Garrosh out with that one. First, Kairoz wasn't in dragon form at the time -- he was still disguised as an orc, and presumably died too quickly to shift back. Second and much more importantly, Kairoz wasn't expecting Garrosh to try anything like that. He completely underestimated what the former Warchief was capable of, and didn't even consider the possibility that Garrosh would attack him -- why would he do that? As far as Kairoz knew, Garrosh was completely on board with whatever he had planned, and should have been properly grateful, seeing as how Kairoz engineered his escape.

If Kairoz had been in dragon form, or even so much as suspected that Garrosh might betray him, I doubt that Hellscream would've gotten away with it.

Chrth asked:

Q4TQ What major Lore Events are considered "off limits" when it comes to developing RP backgrounds? Is anything a player character participates in considered legit, or are some events still considered bad form to claim you participated in?

Here's the thing with RP: You can make your character anyone you want him or her to be. You can make that character related to whoever you want. You can give them whatever kind of history you want. You can say that they participated in whatever major lore events you want. But the answer to your question, as far as whether there is anything considered "off limits," varies from roleplayer to roleplayer, guild to guild, and server to server. Some players are totally cool with any concept under the sun, some are very strict about adhering to lore. I've seen guilds comprised of people that roleplay draconic characters that are in disguise, mercenary groups for made-up kingdoms that don't exist, military organizations that have absolutely been mentioned in lore several times over, and just groups of friends playing whatever they like, however they like.

There's no wrong way to roleplay, you just have to be aware that what you create and establish for your character isn't necessarily going to be accepted by every other roleplayer under the sun. So here's where you make a choice -- create a character and a backstory that you absolutely love and sounds good to you, and then look and roleplay with the people that accept your character for who and what they are. Or, look for a roleplay guild with a defined theme or concept, and create a character who can fit within that established theme or concept. There's no right or wrong here -- it's all about how you want to play, and who you want to play with.

That said, from what I've seen, most roleplayers try to avoid claiming that they struck the killing blow on major lore characters that have died in dungeons or raids. Usually the furthest I've seen people go is to state that they were part of the invasion forces that did so, without specifically stating who they killed or didn't kill along the way.

opaque19 asked:

QFTQ! What happened to the Saberon in outlands? If they were all in one area and it blew up, I could understand that they were wiped out, but they are all across Draenor. Did our pre-explosion Draenor have any?

It hasn't really been stated anywhere, but I'd advise you to go to Outland and fight a few rockflayers. Note their stance and the decidedly feline noises they make. I think, or at least running theory in my head anyway, that the saberon got smacked full on with fel energy and devolved/mutated in much the same way as the Broken did. But that's just my opinion on it, it's not official lore -- there's no official lore explanation for it as of yet.

xeraphax asked:

Q4tQ There's always been an irresistible urge to jump into the middle of a portal when passing through. Any thoughts on why?

I jump through every portal I encounter. I think it's something to do with the fact that it's a round hoop object, and there's just some kind of subliminal urge to hit the bulls-eye, you know?

That's it for the Queue, be sure to leave plenty of questions for Monday's author to answer!

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!