wow-q-and-a
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The Queue: Release the Kraken!
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. Surprise! It's me! Writing the Queue the way I do sometimes. I decided to release a kraken today, I haven't done that in a while and I got to missing it. Besides, all these krakens piling up around the house, it's crazy, I can't get anything done. Snitch76 asks: Is there likely to be any more beta patches before 6.0, or any changes between the last patch and 6.0? I'm really hoping for a few last minute changes to my class(es) of choice! They did one last night. They'll keep doing beta patches until they're satisfied with balance, so you really can't be sure they're done until they outright say they're done.
The Queue: I swear it's a screenshot
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 is a small fountain/shrine/draenei structure along the path between the borders of Shadowmoon and Talador. I'm not exactly sure what purpose it serves, or what those pretty glowing lights are, exactly, but it's beautiful either way. Jalamenos commented: Seriously, that header image. I thought it was concept art at first because it's so beautiful. It's absolutely a screenshot. The fun part is that Draenor is absolutely full of scenic vistas like that one, and the one above. Honestly, this is one of the other reason I don't mind that we don't have flying right now in Draenor -- if you could fly everywhere, you'd miss running into these scenic little areas, and that would be an absolute pity because they are gorgeous. The whole world is utterly gorgeous.
The Queue: Plants are pretty awesome
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 been in the Warlords of Draenor beta since it began and there are still environments that completely take my breath away. Whoever was doing all of the plants and trees and grass and mushrooms and other assorted flora of Draenor deserves a crate or two of cookies. Klok asked: For what reason(s) does one need 5 Warriors? Well I imagine when being attacked by a rampaging army of bloodthirsty orcs, the more warriors you have, the better off you'd be. But seriously though, I think we can just safely say that Rossi really, really, really loves the class he plays.
The Queue: A great many words
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. So I missed the seventh anniversary of The Care and Feeding of Warriors, which makes sense, because I don't get to write it any more. It's strange because for the longest time, it was the lynchpin of my week here at WoW Insider - every Thursday night (like tonight, as I write this) I would sit down and I would think to myself 'Okay, what next? What are we going to talk about next?' and then I would do it. In a way the Friday Queue has taken that role, but it's not the same - as maddening as it could be to try and come up with another 1k words about warriors week in, week out, it was also something I really loved doing and it's something I dearly miss. Still, I'm grateful y'all let me take a whack at your questions week in, week out. I have nothing negative to say about paladins. They do their thing, I do mine. Live and let live, you know? Anyway, here is a Queue for you. Let's talk about World of Warcraft. Maybe there will be some warrior questions. I would like that. (Yes, I know they discovered a new species of Ankylosaur this week.) Krhe asks: Q4TQ: I'm not sure if this has ever been asked or answered but once we replace our Legendary cloaks in WoD will we ever to be able to xmog our new cloak to have the same visual effects as our Legendary? I can't say never but as of this morning (1 am eastern) the answer on the beta was a resounding no. You can't mog to legendaries and you can't mog special spell effects from one item onto another. So even if you could mog your legendary cloak appearance over your new cloak, it wouldn't duplicate the special effect of the cloak.
The Queue: World chat, flying, and legendary disappointment
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. Hey I don't know where this idea came that I hate Death Knights. I hate Paladins. Paladins stink guys. Xlol asked: What if I can't win a Silvershard MIne or Kotmogu PVP by the time 6.0 comes out? I've done Silvershard 15 times and have lost every single one of them.
The Queue: Beard obsession
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 don't know why exactly a good chunk of you were so completely obsessed with beards in yesterday's Queue, but okay, I'll indulge with a Cyanide & Happiness short that seems suitably appropriate for the topic at hand. Or chin, I guess. Jorsha asked: Q4tQ: is Coren Direbrew a whole long dungeon fight or is it just the boss fight like Headless Horseman at Hallow's End? I need Coren to finally finish off the Brewmaster achievement, but I really don't enjoy running dungeons so I've never done it. I love the H.H. fight because that's all it is.... just kill him, hope for the mount to drop (still waiting) and then move on. Cheers! Coren is in fact just like the Headless Horseman. When you zone in, you do so right in Direbrew's room at the Grim Guzzler, and all you have to do is speak to him to start the fight. No trash, no dungeon, nothing but Direbrew and his cronies to take down. Easy enough! ... although be careful about pulling the rest of the bar while you're fighting him. It probably isn't that much of an issue these days, but I remember a few entertaining "oops" pulls when Coren was first introduced.
The Queue: Dinosaurs because it's Friday
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. Yesterday, I deliberately didn't go on and on about dinosaurs. So today, I'm not being nearly so restrained. Dinosaurs. Lots of dinosaurs. Also some mosasaurs and pterosaurs because hey, prehistoric critters, good enough for me. Portuguese scientists have apparently discovered the smallest dinosaur ever to be found in Portugal. I love when we find new tiny dinosaurs, because it helps remind us that they were living creatures that filled every niche. A rare dinosaur find in sub-Saharan Africa. Bruce is officially the largest Mosasaur skeleton on display in the world. Congratulations, Manitoba. Pterosaur species named after flying creature from Avatar (the James Cameron movie, not the airbender TV show) Alioramus skull seized by US Federal agents from smugglers Okay, that should keep me calm for a while. Let's get on with the World of Warcraft questions, which I suspect will be disappointingly dinosaur free. FabioKasecker asks: Q4tQ: I know that the questline for the cloak will be gone on 6.0.2 and with the release of WoD, but what about the vendor? What if I don't have enough gold to buy the second cloak for a second spec when WoD drops? Will I still be able to buy it after the release of the next xpac? The vendor isn't going anywhere. If you completed the quest before it is removed, you can still purchase the items.
The Queue: Legendary decisions, Lore, A boring lack of dinosaurs
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. No dinosaurs today. We are going straight into the meat of the Queue. Arthonos asks: With all the flack that Blizzard is getting right now over their decision to remove the Legendary quest chain, do you think they should be more upfront at the release of an expansion what will and will not be temporary content? More importantly, why should a company destroy content it created? I can see if the intent is to update or upgrade stuff, as they did in Cata, but this is removing content that would remain entertaining even after it has served its purpose as a source of loot. This is one of those times where I'm not happy with a decision but my unhappiness with said decision doesn't seem to be the same as everyone else's unhappiness with said decision. I don't care that they're taking a legendary out of the game or making it so people who don't have the quest by 6.0.2 can't start the quest. But I feel like making it so people who've started the quest can't finish it once Warlords drops is a bad move. Even if we feel like those people have had plenty of time, the legendary cloak is a huge ball of RNG luck, tons of time and dedication, a lot of really hard single player moments, that stupid lightning serpent on the Throne of Thunder - if people are on any part of that quest, they've done a ton of work, and to my mind they should be allowed to finish that work. Just zeroing out the quest and getting rid of their quest items doesn't sit right by me. Maybe I shouldn't care. But I really don't like the precedent that sets. The idea that the coming of a new expansion should erase all that effort. They've removed legendaries before - you can't get Atiesh anymore - but this is the first legendary that was simultaneously accessible and yet felt like such a personal achievement. Maybe that's why it has to go - a level 100 player could probably breeze through the chain. It still feels weird to me. That's my take on it, which doesn't really directly answer your question because I have no idea if Blizzard knew they were going to take the quest out when they introduced it.
The Queue: Merely a setback
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) has invaded the Queue today. Just when I thought I'd finally gotten rid of him, Millhouse Manastorm has shown his face again, this time casually dining upstairs in my garrison's inn on the beta. Apparently being eaten by a giant mutant crystal worm was merely a setback. ... at least he isn't trying to summon Kil'jaeden or anything, I guess? JordanPhillips asked: q4tq: if UBRS is being revamped to be max level, what happens to LBRS? If I recall correctly, both UBRS/LBRS utilize the same starting entrance area. They are actually two separate instances, now! The main entryway when you zone in right now is un-instanced on the beta, and the once-locked door to UBRS is now an instance portal. There's a portal to LBRS under the bridge. I sort of wish I still had my UBRS key now, because as of 6.0.2, it's a completely useless relic of a bygone era.
The Queue: Fandral Ewing
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. After reading all the comments on yesterday's Queue, only a scant few of you guys seemed to recognize the Dallas reference. So I figured Bobby Ewing would make yet another return from the dead in today's Queue. You're welcome. As an aside, I vaguely, vaguely recall when this episode of Dallas aired, mostly because my mother was so incredibly ticked off that she almost chucked the remote control across the room. It was also the last episode of Dallas she ever watched. lib.feathers asked: And just where would Fandral Staghelm be taking said shower? You can't leave out important details like that! The bathroom. ... where else?
The Queue: Gold, mountains of it
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 still think it's weird that David Ogden Stiers essentially sings a duet with himself here. But besides the weirdness of one man playing both villain and sidekick, this video is pretty relevant today. Let's jump into the questions, shall we? Darkwraith asked: Q4tQ: with the deploy of 6.0, does anyone know if our Valor will simply be scrapped away or it will be converted to Lesser Charms of Good Fortune? Gold. Mountains of it. (What did I tell you? Relevant.) Well, maybe not mountains. But you're still getting gold. robertjamesftw asked: Q4tQ: I know Rossi tweeted this question to Dave Kosak, but I didn't see an answer: Who is the voice actor for Maraad in the Lords of War series? That would be Crispin Freeman. He's also done the voice work for Thalen Songweaver and Commander Lindon.
Breakfast Topic: What do you think of Durotan?
The latest edition of Lords of War was released yesterday, and I have to say it's my favorite so far. The voice acting was top notch, and the story was slightly less in-your-face with the violence and vengeance. Instead, it was almost touching, in a way -- with a haunting warning message that makes it absolutely, abundantly clear why Durotan and the Frostwolves aren't currently hanging out with the rest of the Iron Horde. It was also cool to see some younger orcs, and get a look at Geyah before she became the Greatmother we all know from Garadar. This is, however, the first time we've seen a story that is pretty blatantly divergent from the lore we already know. In our history, Durotan's brother was never mentioned -- maybe he got himself killed at a young age, maybe he simply didn't exist, we don't really know. I think the only thing bothering me right now, and I should really just let it go for the sake of the story but it's becoming harder to do so, is how the heck did Maraad know any of this was going on? Why would he be talking about Durotan's virtues, when in our version of history, Durotan was the one who unveiled Telmor and allowed hundreds of draenei to be brutally murdered? Obviously the story is from an alternate version of history, but the Maraad introductions are becoming increasingly implausible. But I'm doing my best to just ignore that aspect, because frankly the animated tales are some of the best stuff I've ever seen. With beautifully drawn stories like these, I think I can let one draenei's mysterious all-seeing knowledge of everything orc related slide. What did you guys think of the latest Lords of War? What do you think of the Frostwolf Clan -- and what do you think of Durotan?
The Queue: Spinosaurus was aquatic
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 right, more dinosaurs. Why? Because I love dinosaurs, and also because we have news about Spinosaurus, one of the most famous predatory dinosaurs and also one of the largest predators. Specifically, a new skeletal reconstruction based on fossils found in Morocco in 2008. This is a big deal because before that, we didn't have much at all for Spinosaurus, since the original fossils were destroyed during World War II by Allied bombing. The idea that the Spinosaurus was aquatic isn't a new one - the shape of its teeth and molecular analysis of the fossils suggested a marine diet - but the skeletal reconstruction gives new, physical evidence to support the idea. At up to twenty tons, Spinosaurus is definitely one of if not the largest predatory dinosaur ever, and it's suggested that it survived by hunting and eating sharks. With teeth like the ones it had (conical, for catching fish) it definitely specialized in fish eating. Fifteen meters long, twenty tons, this was a massive animal all told. Jpec07 asks: How likely is it that the in-game face re-customization feature will make it to live from beta? I only ask because some forum posts have been met with skepticism. Pretty likely, all told. Pretty darn likely. It's coded, it's in the beta, at this point taking it out is reversing a solid amount of work that served to include it. It's possible, but not very likely, that they would do that. Also, we have the following from Rygarius. @ChoriSC2 Yes, we're working on writing up the details to explain it in more detail. - Rygarius CoffeeBird (@Rygarius) September 10, 2014 So I'd say that's pretty much a done deal. I'm 95% sure.
The Queue: Honor, Molten Core iLevel, valor achievements, bugs, and shoulders
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. Thrall. I think this game needs more Thrall. Don't you agree? They should make an entire expansion about Thrall. Zuhani asked: Will it still be possible to get honor points without PvPing, as it is now? I don't mean getting like 16 points when killing something in VoA, more like being able to "buy" honor like you currently do with JP? I would use this honor to buy old PvP gear for transmogging. Or will old PvP gear be available for gold in the future?
The Queue: iGold, iTickets, iBrawlers, iClass
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. I'm going to be honest here. I have a few hundred dollars waiting to buy an iWatch. Hype. Arthur asked: With the three auction houses merging into one with 6.0, is there still a good reason to restrict players from trading items and gold between factions on the same server?
The Queue: Orc pattern baldness
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. Apparently Thrall has also been under an undue amount of stress lately. Either that or he just forgot to put in his extensions before heading to Draenor. jabrone77 asked: QfortheQ: Are the Lords of War series about our respective orcs or alt Draenor? The comments in yesterdays post about Grom seem to overwhelming point to that being OUR Groms story, but I thought the series was about alt Draenors orcs. Which is it, and if it was ours, why no baby Garrosh? It has been stated that the histories shown in Lords of War are applicable to the alternate timeline versions of the orc warlords -- the orcs we'll be seeing in Warlords of Draenor. Theoretically. This makes my brain hurt, but I think in this case, we should probably just let it slide and focus more on the history being shown, less on Maraad's knowledge of the subject and where he obtained that knowledge. Because timeline-hiccup-induced migraines are horrible.
The Queue: What a Drag
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. Do you guys remember when the Drag in Orgrimmar used to be dark? I mean, there was a distinct delineation between the rest of bright and sun-baked Orgrimmar and the Drag. It was dark in there, and it didn't matter what time of day it happened to be. I miss that a lot -- it broke up what was otherwise a fairly monotonous red and orange color palette. I kind of wish it would come back again. ElPrede asked: Q4tQ: what is the one villain you would have rather seen as an ally? Either faction or neutral, doesn't matter Fandral Staghelm. I think he still ranks highest on my list of "characters with fascinating back stories that could have been developed into so much more but I guess they needed to fill a raid boss quota." The guy had a ton of potential, particularly as a foil/counter-view for Tyrande, something that she just doesn't get with Malfurion at all.
The Queue: Dreadnoughtus fears nothing
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. Haven't done a dinosaur queue in a while. And well, they named it Dreadnoughtus schrani. I mean, come on. It's a dinosaur that weighed 65 tons, it's one of the most complete Titanosaur skeletons ever found, and it has a name that immediately made me think of one of the cooler of all warrior sets. So yeah, the video above explains how amazing this find was, how it's changing what we know about these truly massive dinosaurs, and most importantly it weighed more than a 737. Just think about that for a second. A full grown Dreadnoughtus could squash an elephant under one foot and barely notice it. The heaviest estimate for Giganotosaurus is 13.8 tons, which means it would be like a moose getting attacked by a house cat. Anyway, let's get on with the questions. SintraEdrien asks: Why do people think that they deserve (or you owe them) your Battle-tag just because you've been polite and friendly in guild or chat or where-ever? I try to be that all the time, but I'm not comfortable giving out my Blizzard identity (what Battle-tags essentially are) to others whom I don't really know. With the rise of addons like oQueue, people have gotten used to just handing their Battletags out. It's an essential part of cross-server random group forming in order to PuG content like Siege of Orgrimmar or the August Celestials/Ordos. As a result, for many people, the Battletag has become essentially just the same as being friended in game, and they don't really consider how it extends to other Blizzard games - such as Starcraft 2 or Diablo III or Hearthstone. There are all sorts of privacy concerns that not every player is comfortable with when dealing with the Battletag system. I only accept Battletag exchange requests from people I know I like playing with enough to be grouped with them multiple times, so I relate to your discomfort. Not all players understand how personal this can feel to us, however. For people who've grown comfortable with random cross-realm grouping, it may not even seem like an issue.
The Queue: The Phantom Queue
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 guys seemed to appreciate the music in yesterday's Queue, so have an amazingly well done, remastered version. I promise I will not suplex this Queue when I am done answering questions.* Tschekt asked: Q4tQ: With the Dark Portal being redirected to Draenor, what happens to all the Alliance and Horde forces left in Outland? Are they forever stranded with no way of returning home? Or is there some way to rewire the Dark Portal to reconnect it with Outland and rescue them? Both the portal in Stormwind's mage tower and the portal in the Cleft of Shadow originally teleported players to just outside the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. In beta, they now teleport players directly to Hellfire Peninsula. In Hellfire, there are portals that go directly back to Stormwind and Orgrimmar. So there really isn't a problem there at all -- nobody is stranded in Outland, it's business as usual.
The Queue: The Rogue Queue
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 got so many rogue question yesterday, thank you guys! I'm calling today the rogue Queue, because there are quite a few rogue questions to be answered -- but I've also mixed it up a little for those of you that have no love for the sneaky sneak stabbing class. I had so many questions there was no way to address them all -- if your question wasn't answered today, check back tomorrow. I may answer more from yesterday's Queue at that point, depending on how many questions come in today. Speaking of questions ... let's get right to them. C.H. asked: Do you think the WOD train level will be more like the train level in Goldeneye or Shadows of the Empire? I'm hoping for the Phantom Train sequence from FF6. It was the best. And I'm not just saying this on the off chance that we'll be able to suplex the train.*
