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The Queue: My cat is the best rogue ever
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. That's my cat Sasquatch. He is adorable, and also, apparently he's a master of stealth. Just look at him up there. Oh, wait, you can't, because he's just that stealthy. Right now, let's answer some WoW questions! The way Sasquatch would, with all the craft and guile of a master of subtlety. Failing that, let's just hide under a rug. Bapo-The-Paladin asks: So do all three world bosses share a loot lockout, or is it just Drov and Tarlna? The hotfix makes it sound like it's just them, since Rukhan also drops higher ilvl gear? Based on my reading of the patch notes it's just those two. I don't think there's a third for this to be applied to yet anyway.
Getting started with pet battles in Warlords of Draenor
Though the basic battle pet system hasn't changed, if you're a pet collector heading into Warlords of Draenor you'll find plenty of new pets to collect, six new tamers to beat, daily battles at your garrison's menagerie, new achievements, and a new pet-centric currency. So where's a potential pet tamer to begin? We'll walk you through all of the pat battling Warlords has to offer. Find and fight Draenor's pet tamers There are six new tamers to battle in Draenor, one for every zone (excepting Tanaan and Ashran). You can fight each tamer once a day in exchange for 4 Pet Charms, which you can use to buy pet-centric gear at your garrison. In addition to fun toys like costumes and pet treats, you can buy bandages, and battle-stones. Amongst that gear, of the most interest to pet levelers will be: Marked Flawless Battle-Stones for 15 charms, Flawless Battle-Training Stones for 3 charms, and Mystery Bags which a random family battle-training stone for 2 charms. Here's who you'll need to fight (and where you'll need to go) for your pet charms: Cymre Brightblade, Gorgrond (51, 71): Strategy Ashlei, Shadowmoon Valley (50, 30): Strategy Vesharr, Spires of Arak (46, 46): Strategy Gargra, Frostfire Ridge (67, 64): Strategy Taralune, Talador (49, 81): Strategy Tarr the Terrible, Nagrand (56, 10): Strategy
The Queue: It could all be about the pet battles on iPad
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today. Welcome to another week of Warcraft -- let's talk about WoW today, shall we? Sgracy asked: Do you think they should allow the battle pet game to be separately available on iPad, etc? I think it would do really well like Hearthstone, and Blizzard could make money too. I subbed 1 year back and really liked collecting battle pets. Since there is no pokemon on mobile yet, it would do really good.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: The mystery of Archmage Khadgar
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Last week, we talked about the history of Khadgar -- a mage who had the unfortunate fortune of being apprenticed to Medivh, the Guardian of Tirisfal, just as the Guardian unleashed an angry bloodthirsty rampaging army of orcs upon Azeroth. It wasn't Medivh that carried out this task, but the spirit of Sargeras that lingered on inside him, passed on from his mother, Aegwynn. Although Khadgar eventually figured out this plot and confronted and defeated Medivh directly, the consequences for doing so were dire -- Khadgar found his magic and his vitality sapped away, aging from a youth to an old man near instantly. The loss of so much of his precious mortality weighed hard on Khadgar, but it didn't stop him from accomplishing the seemingly impossible -- closing down the Dark Portal not once, but twice. The second time would be the last anyone would see of Khadgar for years, because he shut it down on the Draenor side of the Portal, stranding himself and the rest of the Alliance Expedition on the shattered wastelands of Outland until we found him again in Burning Crusade. And now, it seems Khadgar has closed the Dark Portal for a third time, with the aid of heroes both Alliance and Horde. Yet there's something strange about Khadgar, a peculiar mystery that keeps getting stranger the longer I look at it. Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition. The following contains speculation based on known material. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore.
The Queue: Sha crystal power, make up
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. Since I already had one short video yesterday, I figured I'd do another one today. If you haven't seen Just Another Summer Night in full, you really should watch the whole thing. Let's get to the Warcraft questions ... or actually, first, let's look at a comment. atanae commented: For those of us old enough to remember beanie babies... If Blizzard made plushies of all the battle pets...yeah...license to print money. I never collected beanie babies. I couldn't throw money hard enough at Blizzard to collect plushie battle pets. Priorities... This is something I have wished that they'd do for years, and I have no idea why they haven't jumped on that particular licensing opportunity yet. No idea!
The Queue: Mom's not home
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. The above film was a little too short for a Moviewatch, but just right for a Queue header. I could totally see a couple of goblins doing this, too. What's the Azeroth equivalent of Vine? Do we have one? Should we have one? hordak asked: is there a way for alts (or toons in general) to fly at 85 in Pandaria? I thought I saw something about a tome on the BMAH, but it wasn't specific and my google searches have come up short. There is a book called Grimoire of the Four Winds that is Bind-on-Account so you can send it to your alts. However, the book is only available in the Black Market Auction House in Nagrand, and the starting price is 1k. Leveling is pretty speedy these days, so unless you're dying to fly prior to level 90, honestly I'd say just use your ground mount.
The Queue: Sunday is my birthday
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. It's been a rough month. Physically, at least. I've been unwell, let's put it that way. Anyway, Sunday is my birthday and I'm pretty excited about it. Excited enough that I'm going to address Sheoll's comment about galloping crocodiles here instead of as a WoW question, because, well, it's not a WoW question yet. (But it could be. Come on, WoW devs, give us some panzercrocs.) I've liked terrestrial crocodilians like Pristichampus for years, but Serano's galloping crocodiles are evidence that crocodiles were a very broad group with significant variation between members. Crocodilians are an incredibly successful group, the only surviving archosaurs besides birds, and its fascinating to see them in the fossil record varied from 40 foot long, 9 ton Sarcosuchus to tiny Araripesuchus, with body plans for completely terrestrial life, semi-aquatic, and even fully aquatic lifestyles. Seeing crocodilians with fully upright gait still blows me away. One of the concepts I love when discussing paleontology is that of deep time - essentially, instead of trying to create a narrative for these animals (like, as an example, the one that argued dinosaurs were doomed to extinction because they were more primitive than mammals, which has been entirely disproved by now) you have to realize how vast the periods of time we're discussing. The Cretaceous alone was over 79 million years long. That's just the Cretaceous, that's not even counting the Triassic or Jurassic, nor periods like the Permian that predated them. Essentially, it's impossible to compress that much time into anything like a meaningful narrative - too much happened that we don't know, can't know, and will never know. It puts a birthday in perspective, let me tell you. Anyway. World of Warcraft questions. Let's discuss them. CaptainCakewalk asks: Q4tQ: Seeing as there has been a rather enormous amount of mounts in Warlords, I am wondering what is your favourite so far? A pig. Specifically, this pig. Now if only there was a boarcroc mount in WoW.
The Queue: Pressure pushing down on me
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. My birthday is in six days. What did you get me? You didn't get me anything, did you? This is my sad face. You can't see it, of course, because it's just that sad. And also because I didn't actually take a picture of it. Let's all just listen to my favorite David Bowie song, which also happens to be my favorite Queen song. PhantomQuasar asks: How would you like to see the Garrison evolve in the next expansion? What could be done to improve this concept even more? The three ideas I've seen for Garrisons that I've liked so far are as follows: Warcraft style Garrison PvP, where you and your followers (acting as hero units ala Warcraft 3) do battle against another player and his followers. Mobile Garrisons - maybe an airship like the Skybreaker or Orgrim's Hammer, or gigantic naval craft, or if we go up against the Burning Legion maybe something like a Naaru dimension ship. Heck, maybe we can get our hands on Tempest Keer. And maybe it can transform into a giant robot. Yeah, I like Macross so what? Dance Studio. Just make it happen already. I don't necessarily think it should be the same Garrison, or even called a Garrison next time, but if we're going to evolve the concept, I love the idea of a mobile base that takes you from zone to zone. Kind of a quest hub that follows you around.
Know Your Lore: Khadgar, of the Sons of Lothar
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. He has successfully managed to close the Dark Portal three times now -- an astounding feat, no matter which way you look at it. As former apprentice to the Guardian of Tirisfal, Khadgar has had a long and storied life -- a life lived fast forward, that now seems to be traveling in reverse. If we've learned anything about Khadgar so far in Warlords of Draenor, it's that this mystery mage has far more up his sleeve than any of us would have guessed upon our first meeting with the mage in Shattrath City during Burning Crusade. He's lively. He's peppy. He's downright snarky at times, and full to the brim with witty banter and wittier planning. Khadgar is a man of many talents, the least of which involves the destruction of Dark Portals and the ushering of armies. And in between all these madcap adventures, one has to wonder if Khadgar ever imagined, at age seventeen, staring at the tower of Karazhan, just exactly what he would spend his life getting into and out of as gracefully as any dancer on Azeroth.
What to do after hitting level 100
Congratulations on hitting level 100! But after 10 levels of fairly directed content, what to do next can be a big question mark for many players. So to help you get started, we've built a list of just where you can go from here, whether you're interested in soloing, raiding (though raiders-to-be may also appreciate this guide by our friend Matticus), collecting... or just about anything else. Wondering what to do next? Let's dive in. Pick your level 100 talent After going for ten levels without any new talents or skills to deal with, you might forget that you get a new talent when you hit level 100. (I know that I did.) Be sure to select yours for both talent specs if you tend to switch back and forth.
The Queue: This is a Placeholder
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've had this song stuck in my head for a while now, so you guys get to follow me on a trip down memory lane. I think one of the more entertaining memories I have from vanilla is that invariably, when something messed up with the servers, it was always the boats and graveyards that seemed to be affected. One minute you were sailing away, the next you were falling to your death at a graveyard in Stonetalon Peak. Why Stonetalon? Mysteries, my friends. Mysteries that will never be explained. midnightlurker asked: Do you think there could ever be a T4 garrison? It looks like there's space to expand past the south gate. Absolutely! If they felt like doing so, they could expand out a bit. Or just put in level four buildings without changing the map, that would probably work too -- they'd just have to be careful to design the buildings within the same footprint that the level three buildings already take up. It really just comes down to whether or not they feel it's necessary.
The Queue: All about that base
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 love my garrison and I probably spend way too much time in it. But I really like the whole home away from home base that I built all by myself. It's cool. I can invite my friends to it. I keep discovering new and weird things about it, every day. Did you know the NPCs really hate it if you sit in chairs that they're allowed to sit in? They will either stand directly behind you and breathe down your neck to try and get you to leave, or stand directly in front of you with their butts in your face, trying to accomplish the same thing. It's like living with a fleet of cats. They'll leave you alone unless you want to be left alone. slipperee asked: Q4tQ: Who is your favorite follower and why? Mine is Blook because who doesn't like having a big ogre/gronn stomping around? At the moment, I think my favorite follower is still Lantresor. I loved his story in Burning Crusade, and I was really happy to see him again on Draenor this time around. But I tell you what, if Cro Threadstrong ever somehow magically made his way into the follower database I would never, ever, ever deactivate him. Ever.
The Queue: What's up with Gorehowl?
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. Those of you who had a holiday yesterday, I hope it was festive. Those that didn't, I still hope it was festive. I hope you had random festivities just happen because you're cool and you should get to be festive all the time. Now let's talk about World of Warcraft. Our first question is one I've mused about before. ChaosInHyrule asks: do both Garrosh and Grom wield Gorehowl? if so, did Grom ever notice? Yes, and yes, sort of. When Garrosh was transported to Draenor, he didn't have Gorehowl - he left that behind in the chamber the Heart of Y'shaarj was discovered in and where the forces of the Alliance and Horde faced the Sha of Pride. When Garrosh informed Grommash of what Gul'dan's offer would mean, the elder Hellscream wielded Gorehowl in the fight against Mannoroth. But when Garrosh took Grommash's place as Warlord of the Warsong Clan from Garroshar in Nagrand, he was using Gorehowl, and when we see Grommash in flashback scenes like the one in Shadowmoon Valley, he isn't using Gorehowl, which implies that he entrusted it to Garrosh along with the responsibility of leading the Warsong. So, since it seems that Grommash let Garrosh use Gorehowl, he probably did notice that Garrosh was using it.
Know Your Lore: Ner'zhul and the breaking of the pact
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. This is one of those times when we're talking about the Warlords version of a character, and not the original. This is not the Ner'zhul we know - this is not the elder shaman who united the orc clans while being manipulated by Kil'jaeden. Although this Ner'zhul is certainly a respected shaman and the leader of the Shadowmoon Clan, he's not the same as the orc we know - he hasn't made the same choices. And yet, he is Nerzhul. The deathspeaker, the shaman who watched the stars and listened to the stories they told him. On the Draenor we now explore, history has unfolded differently. Some things are the same - Ner'zhul's student turned on his master and sold his soul for demonic power, and attempted to lead the orc clans as a whole into slavery and a genocidal war against the Draenei. But on this world, Ner'zhul wasn't so easily deceived. There are differences between the worlds even before Garrosh Hellscream's arrival - and those differences, great and small, have led to a different Ner'zhul, who made different decisions, and brought about a dark destiny for the Shadowmoon Clan. Was it worse than the rise of the Old Horde? In some ways, of course it couldn't be - at least the orcish clans of Draenor still own their own souls. All, perhaps, except Ner'zhul and the Shadowmoon.
Know Your Lore: The Molten Core
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. In the deepest parts of Blackrock Mountain, the Dark Iron toil relentlessly, slaving away at the whim of an ancient, terrifying master of flame. The Molten Core, as it is called by the denizens of Azeroth, is not this creature's home. Instead, it is the home of a dark ritual gone terribly wrong, a ritual that not only backfired, but subsequently resulted in the enslavement of an entire dwarven clan. The 10th anniversary of World of Warcraft has some extra special goodies this year, including an updated, 40man LFR version of the Molten Core. Although many players lurked in its depths in the original iteration of the raid, the story of the area and how it came to be was scattered all over Azeroth -- because the tale begins long before there were dwarves, clans, or anyone to call Blackrock Mountain by name.
The Queue: Draenic marshmallows
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. Look, I'm not going to argue the mechanical wonders of goblin engineering. I mean I'm a goblin engineer and everything. But I'm wondering where the heck this particular goblin managed to find marshmallows on Draenor -- I'm not objecting, mind you. I'd just like some for myself, thanks. BlazeNor asked: Do anyone know if the rarity of followers effect the benefits to the profession shops they are assign to? Nope! All rarity affects is how many traits your follower has, which in turn plays into how good they are at completing missions. An uncommon follower with the ability to work at the Engineering shop will offer exactly the same things as an epic follower that has the same ability.
The Queue: Not cute
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. You might think the above screenshot is incredibly cute. Aw, look at the little podlings! They've found an elekk to ride around the town. Yes, it's very adorable until you target the podlings, realize they are in fact Hungry Podlings, and then have to deal with the disquieting possibility that they are eating that elekk alive. Podlings are gross. Benjamin Seeberger asked: So once I hit level 100, how much time will it reasonably take me to actually get to ilvl 615? Not too long, all things considered! Questing in Nagrand will help considerably -- the rares out there drop some pretty high-end rewards, and quest rewards are also pretty good. You'll end up doing some dungeons as well, but with the changes to Personal Loot now guaranteeing you a piece at the end of an LFG dungeon run, you'll find yourself there in no time. You've got until January to run Molten Core, so there's really no need to worry about whether you'll be there in time. It took me a few days, but that was less because it was difficult and more because I didn't have a ton of time to run dungeons for gear right off the bat.
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.
Know Your Lore: Nobundo
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. One of the fantastic things about Warlords of Draenor is getting to see the way history provides context for a life. By seeing how people have changed, and how they could have been we get a sense of how they are, as we know them - and for me one of the most fantastic changes to contemplate and understand is that of Vindicator Nobundo, a stalwart draenei paladin, who in a different life became Farseer Nobundo, first draenei shaman. Nobundo's story is one of overcoming horrific loss, enduring not just the destruction of his way of life but a corrosion of the body that threatened his very soul, and his ability to overcome and become someone who could inspire his people to a new path displays his strength of spirit. The Vindicator Nobundo we meet on Draenor - the one who helps fight the Burning Legion forces in Talador, who comes to Nagrand to help calm the elements - has not endured the same trials as Farseer Nobundo. He has not come out the other side of seeing his people nearly destroyed, his body warped by fel energies, his connection to the Holy Light severed. And yet, he is Nobundo - he embodies everything the Farseer was, everything he lost to become who he is today. So who is Farseer Nobundo? And who is Vindicator Nobundo?
The Queue: Dungeon difficulty, Dungeon Queues, Boost a warrior.
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. I'm one of those people who liked Mists of Pandaria. I thought and still think that it was a solid, well designed, well developed expac with a lot of solid new lore, well designed content, and that its major flaws were a lack of dungeons as the expansion continued, some PvP issues, and that deadly year plus with no new content at the end. So while I'm heartened to see Warlords having a positive effect and people excited for it, I'm not down on the 'stupid pandas' trip a lot of people seem to be on. If you didn't like Pandaria, that's your call, but it doesn't make those of us who did less intelligent than you. It's just a matter of taste. That said, I'm in a paraoxysm of joy over the draenei lore in this expansion. I haven't leveled Horde yet - my tauren's getting impatient, but I have so much to do on my main it doesn't feel like the right time yet. Draenor is an incredibly well designed and executed expansion so far. It's a joy to play through. Bugboy asks: Q4tQ: I haven't gotten into the new dungeons yet, but recall that, difficulty-wise, they're supposed to be somewhere between Cata and MoP. Is that about where they are? I'm of the opinion (based both on my own experiences and those of my friends) that some dungeons are harder than others. Slag Mines has issues if you're melee, as an example. I'd definitely argue that they veer towards the Cataclysm side of things. Skyreach and Auchindoun didn't seem too bad.