wow-q-and-a
Latest
The Queue: Suicide Mission
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 have to admit, I think about the suicide mission from Mass Effect 2 a lot when I go through the Dark Portal for Khadgar. I kind of wish there was a way to have an iconic in-game rendered cinematic, like the one for the Wrathgate, when you step through except instead of featuring some NPC (even an awesome pair like Bolvar and Saurfang Jr.) it featured your character giving a rousing Shepard speech, gathering up all of Azeroth's defenders (under your banner, no less) and charging through with that awesome Jack Wall music playing in the background. Sadly, since I don't think that's possible, you'll have to settle for listening to the music above and daydreaming about it. In my version, I go paragon, just in case that matters. alkalineheat asks: Q4tQ: blizzard has expressed they have no plans to make 2hand maces viable agian for enhancement shamans in Wod. Exactly who are they still viable for? It seems like I havent seen many equipped or even droped in ages. Arms and fury warriors, all DK's, retribution paladins and to a lesser extent feral and guardian druids. I used Gar'tok, Strength of the Faithful for a while even though it wasn't optimal for warriors.
The Queue: Big Blizzard, Warcraft RTS, and Alts
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. Let's dive into the deep end of the pool today and start tackling some of these questions and views. Hyde asked: Before the release of Wrath of the Lich King, a Blizzard developer talked about how they had some extra content planned in case the release of Wrath did not go they way they wanted. Now, we've had a very large dry spell of content without a peep about Blizzard having a back up this time around. Why did the company not have some extras? If Chilton is to be believed, they admitted to being "slowed down." Would it not be prudent to have something to fall back on?
The Queue: Tragedy
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. When you lose control and you got no soul It's tragedy When the morning cries and you don't know why It's hard to bear Anyway, let's answer some questions in this there Queue. What's that? There are no questions, just people talking about their favorite fantasy novels or movies or games? Tragedy. Bhuta asks: QfQ: With the hybrid "gear tax" disappearing in WoD... what incentive is there to roll a pure dps class? I mean, I've mained a lock since BC... but considering I can do roughly the same work in WoD and be able to not only DPS, but also heal (with a priest)... it's hard for me to justify sticking with it. I mean, sure there's nostalgia... but beyond that... the optional utility is hard to pass up. What are you thoughts? Do you want to heal? Every single time I've been in a guild, I've always ended up tanking, even when I joined as pure DPS, because warriors can tank and DPS. Druids and monks can tank, DPS and heal - guess which roles are the most represented for them? (Hint - it's not their DPS specs.) If you want to tank or heal, then by all means, play a hybrid capable of filling those roles. If you want to be sure that, when you join a guild, you won't ever be asked to tank and/or heal, roll a pure DPS. What you call optional I call eventually mandatory. The longer you play a class that can do a role other than DPS, the higher the likelihood that you will be asked to do it. If that's what you're looking for, by all means, play a hybrid. If you want to be a shadow priest and nothing but a shadow priest, you are in for a lot of cajoling. And if you're just a solo player or a five man player of a PvPer, then I think warlock is a very attractive option.
The Queue: A little out of place
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. Keeshan looks like he has absolutely no idea how he's gotten where he's at. Since he's in my Horde garrison, I feel a little bad about it -- if there's one place he probably doesn't want to be, it's in a tavern with a bunch of orcs. But since he's offering a relatively fashionable -- if kind of gruesome -- Bloody Bandana as a quest reward, I'm not going to complain about it. BlazeNor asked: Q4tQ: Think we will ever get birthdays for our characters (date of creation) by Blizzard? I had actually never considered that as a possibility for anything until you mentioned it just now. But that's actually a really neat idea, and now I'm kind of hoping we'll see something like that some day. Maybe have Lorewalker Cho send your character a little something, some nice dream brew or something like that on their "birthday", since he's already tracking everyone's stories and history anyway? Heck, I'd love to see that. Doesn't have to be anything complicated reward-wise, just a nice letter with a little acknowledgement of the day -- it'd be a cool little touch!
The Queue: Night elf dudes
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. Night elf males look surprisingly not disturbing or lumpy or weird at all, now. I'm just as impressed with them as I was with the human male models -- both were vast, vast improvements. Fizzl asked: So, The Legion can access Outland because it's exposed to the Twisting Nether, right? As opposed to Azeroth which is just... in space or something? So then how would Mannoroth, Kil'jaeden, etc. get to Draenor if it hasn't been exposed to the Twisting Nether yet? And more importantly, if they can just come and go between Outland as they please, why wouldn't Kil'jaeden have just appeared on Outland and taken the Dark Portal to Azeroth? Does he need more power to come to Azeroth no matter what sort of portal he's taking? Or is it just an oversight? How the Legion accesses worlds has nothing to do with being exposed to the Twisting Nether, really. In Rise of the Horde, Mannoroth arrived on Draenor via what Gul'dan described as swirling clouds and the sky breaking open -- implying a portal of some sort. He wasn't summoned by any rituals, it's just sort of assumed that the Legion sent him there via portal, possibly because the world was already fairly contaminated and corrupted with fel magic at that point. In the War of the Ancients, the demons were allowed entrance through a portal powered by the Well of Eternity.
The Queue: Mannoroth's dead. Dead like Zed.
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. Questions. We answer questions. MichaelEKirby asks: Q4TQ (or maybe more a PSA?): Saw this on MMOChamp: "Kil'jaeden and Archimonde are back, but not as bosses." So that pretty much kills the "all world, all dimensions are open" / only one Burning Legion across multiple planes of reality idea? Considering we see Grommash kill Mannoroth in the cinematic for Warlords of Draenor which is set 35 years in the past, if there was only one Burning Legion across all planes of reality, that would mean that our Grom couldn't kill Mannorth ten years ago, since he would already be dead. But no, since it's 35 years ago, both Kil'jaeden and Archimonde could make appearances, since Kil'jaeden isn't dead (he gets banished during his fight at the Sunwell) and Archimonde only died ten years ago. It's the double-death of Mannoroth that proves there's more than one Legion.
The Queue: In Name Only
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. Questions will be answered! Misconceptions shall be splintered! A Queue day, a red day, ere the sun rises! JodySchaeffer asks: Since this is a different timeline with no impact on our own history, I'm wondering why our characters should even care, story-wise, about these people who are historical characters in name only. That isn't Grom, that isn't Gul'dan, it isn't even really Draenor. The only redeeming thing I can think of is a Legion invasion at the end of WoD that destroys the fragmented timeline and sets up the next expansion. Have it so we can visit our Garrisons through the Timewalkers so they weren't for nothing. But yeah. Since they're so big on stressing these AREN'T famous characters from lore, why does it matter who they are at all? Well, there's several reasons. The first is pragmatic. The Iron Horde is coming through into our world, blowing up our settlements, and making war on us. So we should care about these people because these people are literally trying to murder us. I don't know about you, but I tend to be concerned when people want to kill me. From another perspective, it's like this - yes, that Grom isn't the Grom who died fighting Mannoroth to lift the blood curse. But he is Grom. He shares many life experiences in common with the Grom we know - he has as much right to be called Grom Hellscream as the other one did. Saying that's not really Gul'dan is foolishness. It is Gul'dan. It's not the Gul'dan whose skull ended up in Felwood, allowing Illidan to consume its power and become a demon. But it is Gul'dan. And the reason we shouldn't just ignore that fact is simple - even though his life has taken a different path than our Gul'dan did, he's still the same evil power hungry maniac, just as the Grom we'll meet in Draenor is still the bloodthirst orc whose howl drove fear into the hearts of others. They're not identical to the people we know, but they are similar, and that's a source of knowledge about them. We'd be fools to not use that knowledge to our own advantage. Up to you if your character is a fool, of course.
The Queue: Gnomelords of Draenor
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 can blame ScottLeyes for this one. It's all his fault. Bruin asked: Does Garrosh's Jaw look a little like Deathwing's jaw in the Cinematic? I assume that's the remnants of Y'shaarj? Nope! The tattoos are a Warsong thing -- his father had them as well. Garrosh had his done in the novel The Shattering, after Thrall appointed him Warchief and left Orgrimmar, just before Cairne confronted him and challenged him to the mak'gora that ended his life. Fun fact: When Cairne threw down and demanded the duel, he punctuated it with a full-out backhand across Garrosh's freshly-tattooed face. Ouch.
The Queue: Garrison stables are no joke
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. Sometimes I think about how weird it must be to have hooves and ride around on an animal that also has hooves. Imagine if horses had feet like us, only four of them. Wouldn't that weird you out just a little? Welcome to Saturday. Let's get to the questions. Jalamenos asked: If you could choose one minor character currently in WoW to be used in a future patch or expansion and be fully voice cast, who would it be and who would you like to voice him/her? Lorna Crowley. Bring in Billie Piper and make her a sass monster.
The Queue: But we will be conquerors
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 really like that line. That being said I think Grommash looks like Sean Bean with an overbite in this cinematic, so he's doomed. Also, let me be up front - I predicted October as the latest for this expansion, and I was wrong. It's worth admitting when you're wrong. DiavoJinx asked: Question! Has there been any evidence in Warcraft so far that mages can specifically manipulate magnetism (like Magneto)? I'm thinking if it's the "Iron Horde", then lots of iron in their weapons & armor along with wood, so we just need some fire mages and some magnetism mages to port in and take care of the whole situation. Shortest expansion yet! ;-) As far as I can tell, no, we've seen no such mages. Quite frankly, everybody uses weapons and armor made out of magnetic materials, like iron and steel. It's not like it would just be good against the Iron Horde. As to why mages can't do that... maybe they just haven't thought to try yet. Ooh, new level 110 spells!
The Queue: Beta testing, tanking, and fries
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 dig the questions today, let's get down to it. Zapwidget lamented: When will people realize that the beta is beta and that the purpose of beta is to test not just for bugs but also player reaction? Why do they assume that things in beta will change if nobody expresses negative opinions? Blizzard is not a psychic entity and is not capable of interpreting silence very well. If they don't hear that people are dissatisfied then they are very unlikely to expend further resources iterating and improving. Beta is not just early access. It's not just a preview of unfinished programming. It's called beta testing, not beta previewing. And then to complain about people offering opinions about the beta? That goes to show that people will complain about anything.
The Queue: It's the little things
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. Some of the most impressive stuff in Warlords so far, to me anyway, are the little things that are likely going to be overlooked by a lot of players. Carefully placed boots next to an unmade bed. A couple of books stacked up, light reading for whoever is staying in the inn. The leg of chicken, or turkey, or ... well, whatever Draenor's animal equivalent happens to be -- and it's got a bite taken out of it. Let's take a bite out of some Warcraft questions. Bruin asked: I have a question about avoiding spoilers. I'd like to play the game and be surprised. I ALSO really like the books, and sometimes comics. Should I avoid the Comic that got released until I play WoD? It depends. The comic itself takes place before the events of Warlords begin, but it involves characters that are seen in Warlords, and why they are the way they are. I wouldn't call it spoiler material, as it isn't giving away anything that we haven't already seen in promotional art or heard about at BlizzCon, but if you're doing your best to avoid absolutely everything related to Warlords, I'd skip the comic for now. I would also avoid Know Your Lore this evening, because I'm going to be talking about the comic in detail.
The Queue: We're MC Raiders
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 announcement of 40-man LFR Molten Core has me both excited and a little terrified. It also gave me flashbacks to Illegal Danish and the song that ran over the end credits. If you haven't seen the gloriousness that is Illegal Danish, you should probably go watch that now. While you're doing that, we'll just get to answering some questions. cromhar asked: "our final act in fighting the Warlords will be to defeat the Iron Horde utterly" I might be totally wrong here, but didnt Blizz say that the IH would be the "problem" in WoD only for a certain time before the story shifts to something else, like another villain/enemy? I thought I had read this a while ago, but maybe I am wrong? I don't recall anyone saying that exactly. I do know that I'm of the opinion that the Iron Horde isn't going to be the only big bad we fight on Draenor, and it might not even be the expansion-ending boss, either. There's too much other stuff on Draenor, and we've barely scratched the surface of it all, but we spend this first ramp up in the expansion systematically going through and getting rid of some of the worst of what the Iron Horde has to offer. I don't think we're going to dedicate all of our time to the Iron Horde. But again, that's my opinion, it hasn't been stated anywhere officially.
The Queue: With my big black boots and an old suitcase
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 was this or Seven Mary Three. Questions. Let us answer them. MichaelVakian asks: Q4tQ: What are your thoughts on Blizzard releasing the title of it's next Wow xpac at Blizzcon this year? I think this is almost certainly going to be the case. I'd be amazed if they didn't have an expansion to preview in some fashion. Not to sound cynical, but it's hard to imagine them doing a BlizzCon without a big tentpole announcement like a new World of Warcraft expansion. And frankly, after this content drought and the lost subs that followed along with it. they need to keep the future content patches coming to retain subscriber interest.
The Queue: Anniversary content, cosmetic enchants, and in-game pride
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. You know what's great? When our CMS works perfectly and I can write The Queue without having to muck around with stuff. Thus, this is a great day, and a great Queue. Let us begin. Luke asked: Does anyone have any idea whether the anniversary content will be for level 90 or level 100? Before or after the launch of WoD?
The Queue: Lifestyles of the rich and feathered
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. Say what you will about the arakkoa, but those guys are aces when it comes to construction and interior design. Let's get right to the questions, shall we? Fizzl asked: Q4TQ: What exactly is Blizzard's stance on Machinima tools? I found one that I'm interested in using, but it allows you to take control of the camera and alter lighting and all that (stuff a lot of machinimakers do for their videos). In short, stuff that is against the ToS... however, Blizzard seems pretty okay with the machinima community, so I'm curious as to how "safe" my account would be if I start to use this tool. Most places I look, people say it's just sort of an unsaid rule of thumb that Blizzard is fine with this but has Blizzard ever actually officially said anything regarding stuff that allows this sort of in-game (client-side only) visual manipulation? From what I am aware of, there's no real "official" stance on these types of tools -- especially since a lot of machinima artists use them for videos. All the tools do is affect the graphics on your end of the client. They don't affect the game itself, and they don't do anything to gameplay. You can use a machinima tool to take pretty images and video, but there's no way you can use that tool to cheat the game. If there were, that's where Blizzard would have a major problem, I think.
The Queue: I'm not paying you for this
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 know Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas is popular and everything but I'm pretty sure I don't pay my garrison dudes to sit around playing card games all day. I mean, come on. At the very least let me sit down and play a round or two, guys. sylvannia1 asked: Q4tq, do you feel that it was a mistake for most of the WoW devs to be on Twitter? There seems to be a bit too much analysing on everything that's said, and the short character limit means they often need to clarify what was said etc. I get its quick way to communicate with the player base, but I feel sharing news etc is bad on Twitter and should be on the official forums. Gosh no. I like the fact that the devs are on Twitter. Having the ability to interact with the public directly is cool. I don't think that the fact that they are saying something on Twitter has anything to do with the heavy analysis -- I think anything they say is going to be heavily analyzed at this point, regardless of the medium in which it is presented. I do think, however, that they might want to balance the Twitter-talk with forum-talk and blog posts in regards to news and updates, so that those mediums don't fall by the wayside. Twitter may be incredibly easy to use, but not everyone uses it.
The Queue: Your guess is as good as mine
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. Never let it be said that I don't play along with you guys. CatrionaShadowleaf asks: I didn't want to bitch about it in the Ashbringer KYL (because the TRUE Ashbringer is a stand-up guy) but dammit do the wives/mothers ALWAYS have to be stuffed into refrigerators? Can't characters just have mothers? Off of the top of my head the only mothers we really get any time with are Garona and Aegwynn, and of those two, one is currently dead. Lianne Menethil died off panel somewhere, Tiffin Wrynn died when a rock hit her in the head, I don't even know who Varian's mom was, much less Jaina Proudmoore's... there are other examples (Draka, Thrall's mom, also dead) but in general, I think it's a fair cop that WoW is hard on moms. Frankly, what I want is to find out that Anduin Lothar met a woman, fell in love, had a kid, and that woman is still alive, as is her daughter, who is going to show up and just kick all kinds of behind and become war leader of the entire Alliance because she's a chip off the old block. Because seriously, enough is enough with the mom killing. People's moms need to stop dying in WoW, it's getting weird. I guess Aggra's still around. Here's hoping she doesn't go to see any Zorro movies.
The Queue: In which a retraction is made
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 know, I wasn't exactly pleased about the idea of "capital" city locations being on Ashran -- I was really, really looking forward to Karabor. But after seeing the town on beta last night, I hate to admit it, but ... well, it's pretty cool. The inn is awesome, I love the trading post, the place is just being built so I'm assuming it'll get bigger later, but ... it's really not that bad. Consider me pleasantly surprised, and apologetic for criticizing it. It's not Karabor, but it's cool, and I could see hanging out there every now and again. Much better than the Shrines in Mists. CaptainCakewalk asked: Q4tQ: A nice question (I think so anyway!). What would be the one thing you would love to see in the game lifted from unused Lore in WoW / Warcraft Universe as a whole? I personally would love to one day go to Kul'Tiras as it seems like it would be an amazing place to visit! I would very much like to see Kul Tiras, provided they retcon Jaina's other brother Tandred back into the game and make him a swarthy burly crusty sailor dude a-la Captain Slam Beefchin from the Mists trailer. Then pair him up with guns-and-roses Lorna Crowley on a mission to get Gilneas back, because I'm guessing it would be tremendously entertaining to watch the two of them snipe at each other. I may have thought about this before.
The Queue: Bashiok, where is my loot?
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 found Bashiok. He's a very handsome tree person, but he didn't drop anything -- I'll have to re-visit him later. Fizzl asked: Lore Q4TQ (stolen from reddit): In WC3, what port did Arthas take to Northrend? There don't appear to be docks anywhere in Lordaeron so did he go all the way to Menethil? Or is it one of those things that just got overlooked and lost in translation? It was never really defined, but I assume that Lordaeron had ports at one point in time, before the Scourge went and wiped everything out. Silverpine does have a northern coast, after all.
