The Queue: Deadmines serenade

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 liked Westfall's new storyline and the Heroic Deadmines revamp, but man, sometimes I wonder what it would have looked like if it were in fact turned into a musical extravaganza. But having the boss sing at you while you were fighting would be admittedly distracting. It'd probably feel like raiding the Small World attraction at Disneyland.

Jorsha asked:

Q4tQ: with the notice yesterday of the patch 6.1 build heading to the PTR, I have to ask, what is the difference between a PTR and a Beta?

A PTR is usually the term used for a patch. A beta is a term used for something larger, like an expansion or a new game. They both mean the same thing -- it's a realm created for the specific purpose of testing new content/features/mechanics, but a beta is usually much larger scale. In addition, PTR realms are open to everyone from day one, while beta realms usually require an invitation or code to get in, at least in the earliest stages.

MusedMoose asked:

Psychological question for the Queue: my main's a night elf mage, but I spent some time this past week raiding using Manastorm's Duplicator, and found that I really enjoyed being a gnome. Despite having played this character since Cataclysm hit specifically because I'd always wanted to be a night elf mage, I'm now considering race-changing to a gnome. I'm 6'2" IRL, so now I'm wondering - do I enjoy playing a gnome because there's something nifty about kicking ass while being that small? Or am I overthinking things, as per usual?

I'm 5'3", and I think gnomes are pretty fun to play. Part of it is the reason you suggested -- it's kind of fun to picture this tiny little creature defeating a ridiculously huge monster. Part of it is that because gnomes are so small, the animation for their run cycle is a little faster, so it feels like they're moving at warp speed even though they're covering the same amount of ground in the same amount of time as everyone else. To me, that also feels pretty fun.

This is also why I could never really play a tauren -- to me, it feels like they're moving really slowly, when in fact they're just taking much, much longer steps than everyone else.

wrathofkublakhan asked:

Chauffered Chopper: Summon a chauffer to drive you around on a chopper. how does this work?

That is a PTR item, and since the PTR servers aren't actually up and running yet, I have absolutely no idea. But we'll find out soon enough!

rjjagoda asked:

Did they sneak a nerf into the garrison mines? I didn't see any carts today. No follower assigned.

Nope! Mine carts don't spawn every day, they appear to be on a pretty random cycle. Sometimes I'll get carts for several days in a row, sometimes I won't see carts for a few days, sometimes it'll seem to settle into an every other day pattern.

skawilliams asked:

Should some currency be added for completing heroic dungeons? I only spent a few weeks on them, got all the gear I needed and completed the Inn quests. It feels like there's no reason to continue, which is a shame considering how much time was spent creating the dungeons.

I'm honestly not sure what kind of currency they could add. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice idea -- because you're right, once you finish all the quests and get all the gear you need, there's little reason to continue doing heroics, unless you're going for achievements or challenge modes. But everything seems to be pretty plentiful at this point. There's a lot of places and ways you can get Apexis Crystals, there's a lot of methods you can use to get Garrison Resources, plenty of Primal Spirits seem to be dropping, and there are more than enough ways to make gold. So I'm not sure what they could really add that would get people excited enough to run heroics again, even if they don't necessarily need the gear. I'm going to open this up to the comments: Do you guys think there's some resource or another that seems to be in short supply, something that might be worth running heroic dungeons to get?

WrecklessMEDIC asked:

Alright, so my rogue has maxed out his Engineering and I've bought every recipe from the Garrison Engineering Hut that's available. My other 2 buildings are a Jewelcrafting Hut (which I'm still using to level up Jewelcrafting), and the Enchanting Hut to disenchant extra gear and keep my gear enchanted. My question is, which building should I remove and build a Salvage Yard? The Engineering Hut or the Enchanting one?

If you've bought every recipe and made every item you want to make, you can safely drop the Engineering Hut. Since you're an engineer, you can just make more Gearspring Parts on your daily cooldown if you find yourself needing to do so. Enchanting is something that will continue to come in handy throughout the expansion -- every weapon upgrade will need a new enchant, after all.

convoyb asked:

I suppose the next question is, whether the final legendary will still be relevant by the time it becomes available. Maybe they should make the final result be an heirloom for the next xpac?

The legendary chain in Mists was relevant throughout the entire length of the expansion, not just when we got our cloaks. Mind you, the cloaks were pretty sweet, and they were very useful for that final tier of raiding, but all the other items we got along the way -- the gems, sockets, meta gems, all of it was useful in its own way as we progressed. The same applies to Khadgar's ring. It might not be legendary yet, but it's a powerhouse of a ring that I will happily keep equipped for as long as I need to. I'm guessing we'll see a similar kind of progression with Warlords -- the final iteration of the item will be obtainable right around when we see that final tier of raiding open.

I wouldn't mind an heirloom again, though. If they wanted to go the Garrosh route and have heirlooms for the next expansion drop from the final boss of this expansion, that would be perfectly fine with me!

Razwick92 asked:

Non-wow-specific QftQ: Do you have any personality traits/quirks/etc. that effect the way that you play certain games? If so, what are they? I ask because I'm playing Dragon Age (if you hadn't caught on to that) and I always have this really stupid point in every Bioware game where I spend far too much time trying to figure out which character I want to date. I know a lot of people go outside their sexuality when it comes to character relationships, but man vs. woman is a -probably irrationally- frustrating question for me.

It depends on the game, but generally I tend to favor the characters and companions that are grounded and down to earth. When you've got otherwise perfectly ordinary people that are thrust into an extraordinary situation, you've got the ones who will totally dive into that whole divine intervention mysticism angle, the ones that will immediately begin to research and try and find rational explanations and solutions for the issue at hand, and then you've got ... that guy. You know, the one that looks at the giant hole in the sky/end of the universe/rise of some demonic entity/arrival of a god and say, "Wow. Well. Uh, okay, that's a little weird. Next?"

I like the ones that are able to look at the weird, say "Dang, that's pretty weird," and move on. They're grounded in reality, and don't take the world too seriously. And in games where things tend to get super serious a lot of the time, I like a little levity every now and again.

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!