Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

What? Me lace a post title with jealousy? I would never do that! Never ever! Okay, okay, maybe there's some jealousy there. Can you blame me? Screw purps, I want me some orange. Orange is where it's at, cat.

erogroth asked...

I have a question about legendary items. Do we know what Legendary items are planned for WotLK? Are there currently any in the game? If not what are planned for the future or can we speculate? It sounds like Ashbringer will not be a item that a player will be able to get. Is that true? Also, what about upgrade quest for old world legendary items. It seems like so much work went into getting them (Thunderfury anyone?) that it seems a shame that they are worthless.

Wrath of the Lich King doesn't have any legendary items yet that we've seen. We really have no idea what Legendary items they'll be adding in the future, but you're right about speculation. The two that people assume we'll be able to get our hands on are Ashbringer and Frostmourne, but at this point neither of them seem particularly likely unless something awful goes down at the end of Wrath. If Tirion bites the dust (which will be disappointing now that he's getting real in-game build-up), we'll probably get Ashbringer. I'm willing to bet that if we get Frostmourne, it'll be 'powered down' a little lore-wise. We'll probably damage it in some way in the Arthas fight, or it'll lose some zing when it's cut off from its connection to Ner'zhul. Something like that.

Or maybe we'll get something else entirely for our legendaries. We don't know.

As far as upgrading old world Legendaries, Blizzard has said that they don't really want to do that, though nothing says they won't change their mind on it later. The items are really, really good when you can get them, but they really shouldn't be the only weapon you ever use. As cool as having a Legendary is, it'd be sort of lame if it's the only item you ever used ever once you get it.

Serrano asked...

Any word on recipes coming out to upgrade the Axe/Hammer/Swordsmthing epic weapons like Blazefury?

We won't be seeing upgrades to Burning Crusade items.

ryanthered asked...

Speaking of soloing content, is it possible for a higher level arcane mage to solo instances in the same way a mail or plate wearer can? Assuming equal character and gear levels. I ask because I'm used to playing melee and could really clear stuff quickly and now am leveling a mage and generally feel very vulnerable going into enclosed spaces.

It's going to largely depend on the encounter. Any bosses that are casters and don't melee very much, you'll take them out easier than most melee would as long as you're using all of the tools available to you. The other question is, can you kite what you're trying to solo? Raid bosses you probably won't be able to do that, but a lot of 5-man bosses you can get away with kiting them around a bit or using terrain to make them chase you while you pelt away.

It's really going to depend on the encounter, and I highly recommend experimenting before deciding you can't do something. If you can blow up a boss before he blows you up, success! You can't take a beating as well as a Warrior can, but you do have the advantage of starting at range and higher burst potential. Experiment!

AyaJulia asked...

I've just respecced my hunter from BM to Surv--not because it's the flavor of the month spec, but because I was to be sure my 10-man group has Replenishment--and I was using a Spirit Beast before, which I can't use anymore. All of my non-exotic pets are still only 75. What would be the fastest, least grindy/annoying way to level my pet?

The obvious answer here is "quests," but I already did all of the quests in Northrend for money. Yes really, all of them. ^^;

There are always daily quests for mobs to kill, or you can stick to dungeons and/or Heroics. It shouldn't take terribly long to level that pet, so you might want to go the dungeons route to dodge grinding out dailies. Heroics will bring you emblems and such at the same time, so there's some extra benefit beyond just pet XP.

If you don't mind daily quests, it might be a good time to work on some of your reputation. The Ebon Blade has a number of daily quests that involve just plain killing things, and the Sons of Hodir have a few of those as well. If those aren't particularly attractive, you might be stuck just murderizing mobs somewhere. Sorry.

Tags: arcane, arthas, ashbringer, blazefury, daily-quests, ebon-blade, frostmourne, hunter-pets, knights-of-the-ebon-blade, legendary, legendary-items, lich-king, nerzhul, order-of-the-ebon-blade, solo, soloing, sons-of-hodir

Filed under: Hunter, Mage, Blacksmithing, Analysis / Opinion, The Queue