The Queue: Wherein The Queue has as much consistency as Smodcast
by Adam Holisky 
Aug 10th 2009 at 11:00AM
So welcome back to a full week of The Queue folk, and indeed this week will be a full one for The Queue. As Alex and I have mentioned before, when patches roll around and other big things come up our availability to spend a couple hours writing The Queue and The Daily Quest diminishes significantly. But this week nothing is on the radar, so here we are.
Next week though, The Queue and The Daily Quest will only appear Monday and Tuesday; unless something unexpected happens. We have to prepare for BlizzCon and actually spend a few hours away from our computers packing and all that. But this week? We're all Queue'd off and roaring to go.
Milesdfreeman asked...
"Do we know anything about Patch 3.3 yet? What raids if any will it have? New features?"
We know patch 3.3 is going to contain the Ice Crown Citadel instance. We know that it'll be the last planned major content patch of Wrath of the Lich King. We know that it'll probably contain a light amount of class changes.
We don't know when it'll be. Most people who follow Blizzard closely agree that we'll see it on the live servers before the end of the year, if not sooner. But unlike last week, we don't have multiple independent sources telling us when it'll be released, so really your guess is as good as mine.
It's fair to speculate that there'll be another extension of the Argent Tournament somehow. Maybe just some new rewards and a new daily quest or two. I don't think we've seen the last of the Black Knight either. It's also fair to assume that the patch will wrap up a lot of the remaining ends of the Wrath storyline.
Hestonswallow asked...
"When will Blizzard release Cataclysm info?"
Well, first thing's first. There has been no official announcement yet that Cataclysm is related to WoW or anything. There is a TON of good speculation that it is, and I personally believe that it'll be the next expansion. But an announcement like that will only come from the opening ceremony at BlizzCon, which would be a week from Friday around 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT. That's not an exact time, just when the opening ceremony has occurred in the past. Look for more official info on the site in the next week or so. Trust me, we're going to ram it into your heads when you'll want to be paying attention to the site for the opening announcements at BlizzCon.
Zephryranthes asked...
"Has anyone ever leveled up from 1-80 without getting any achievements beyond the leveling ones?"
I definitely haven't heard anything about someone doing this yet. My thought is that you'd need to run instances a ton without killing the final boss, or else you'd get the quest achievements. And to that end, I'm not sure if it's possible to do when instances start to grant reputations, since you'd be running them so much that you'd be bound to run into reaching exalted with a faction, even if it's just the alliance vanguard.
It'd be interesting to see what the minimum number of achievements possible is to hit 80 though. I'm sure someone will do it eventually. Won't be me though.
Cadistra asked...
"If Tauren hate technology and the Arcane so much, what makes their crazy elevators work?"
Telekinesis? Some earth based water system we don't see? Even that's technology, but at least it's minimal technology. Blizzard kind of fails in the lore continuity there, I think.
Brigwyn asked...
"Why can't Hunters tame Druids?"
Multiple anonymous sources close to the situation with advanced knowledge of impending virtual modifications to the source tell me privately in secret that in Cataclysm Hunters will be able to tame Worgens.
I'm kidding.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com 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!Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, The Queue, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
CallMeIrd Aug 10th 2009 11:05AM
It's always struck me as silly that tauren hunters start out with guns. I mean, really? Also is it just me, or does this sentence make no sense: "before the end of the year, if not sooner"?
Amritrao Aug 10th 2009 11:14AM
Heh ... You can tell what he's going for, but yeah, that sentence is both a temporal and copy-editorial nightmare :)
snowleopard233 Aug 10th 2009 11:15AM
http://www.wowwiki.com/Horde_technology
I’ve never interpreted the Tauren as necessarily hating technology and the arcane like the night elves do, they just don’t really see the need for it as much as the other races. The night elves, on the other hand, have suffered greatly at the hands of such things to the point where they are frowned upon in their culture, but the Tauren are just comfortable with their way of life and don’t see the need to fix anything that isn’t broken.
As for guns, why not? In our world, we tend to associate guns with modern civilization and western expansion but the musket or basic rifle is really a very simply weapon and there’s no reason why a pre-industrial society like the Tauren wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to use and build them.
Moofius Aug 10th 2009 11:35AM
Cows with guns?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMbXvn2RNI
Tes Aug 10th 2009 12:49PM
snowleopard233: Bloody, maybe I should have thought about that more before nearly capping out my engineering on a night elf hunter
Moofius: Props for the reference. Not sure why the tauren hunters have guns either.. so good of a reason as any at this point.
Karilyn Aug 10th 2009 3:13PM
I always assumed the elevators ran on simple primitive hydraulics, perhaps something even as simple as a water wheel.
AKA something along the lines of what civilations used from 1000BC to near 100AD, like along the lines of what ancient greece or ancient china used.
The energy necessary to move the elevators is obviously rather minimal, because the two elevators are connected by a pulley to one another and go up and down interchangeably. Thus there is virtually no outside energy required to lower people down the elevator. And the only energy required to lift people in the elevator, is enough to overcome the mass of the passengers and the friction in the pulley rope.
Terethall Aug 10th 2009 5:45PM
What's so terribly wrong with "before the end of the year, if not sooner"? Sure, maybe "by the end of the year..." would make a little more sense, but the statement was perfectly clear to me. "Before the end of" as a general usage temporal statement in modern English tends to imply that the speculated event is more likely to occur closer to the "end" of whatever period is used, rather than closer to the current date. Therefore, realizing that people may interpret "before the end of the year" as meaning "sometime in December," Adam wanted to clarify that it could certainly arrive earlier than December, as there are quite a few people who speculate that patch 3.3 will drop in November.
Gothia Aug 13th 2009 9:21AM
I thought Tauren were emulating the indian culture? You would think that starting with bows would be more suitable, but maybe they were influenced by other cultures and adopted firearms.
Why can't you skin Tauren's or Hunter's pets after you kill them?
Zayd Aug 10th 2009 11:10AM
Getting to 80 would be damned tricky to do without scoring the Got My Mind On My Money achievement.
Charlie Aug 10th 2009 11:13AM
No mounts Either
There's alot of things that would be difficult. But someone might do it. Look at Noor the Pacifist. Getting to max level without killing anything.
impurezero Aug 10th 2009 12:07PM
Someone's nearly there: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Scarlet%20Crusade&n=Reticent
Original thread: https://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17779679689&sid=1&pageNo=1
Samsonite Aug 10th 2009 1:44PM
There are a ton of things that you could not do to pull the no achievement thing off.
Can't finish any dungeons
Can't pvp
Can't loot (money at least)
Can't earn rep
Can't do quests
Can't get professions
Can't get a mount
Can't explore
I started working on this with a Pally (cause using a DK is cheating), but it's terribly boring just grinding mobs endlessly. They will probably never add an achievement for doing it though because it would involve re-rolling. I don't know of any achievements that would require a re-roll. If they do add one though, it should be called 'Ironic'.
Worcester Aug 10th 2009 3:32PM
Also, can't get to Level 10, as even that is an achievement. Several other levels as well.
Can't be done.
Worcester Aug 10th 2009 3:34PM
I fail. DIdn't read the part of the question about "beyond the leveling ones."
My bad.
Charlie Aug 10th 2009 11:11AM
Wow jediking001. www.youfail.org
jediking001 Aug 10th 2009 11:12AM
hey hey le me alone! i hit reply but it didnt go though the 1st couple times!
Joetheserviceman Aug 10th 2009 11:17AM
Um... jediking001? It's not a reply fail its a massive "1st post" fail, for doing it, not actually being 1st, and then getting really angry about it.
About the Tauren elevators, I've always throught that they were pulley-operated, so although it's technology it's not magic or advanced Goblin engineering.
jediking001 Aug 10th 2009 11:32AM
noo i was goin 2 reply to myself and to the other guy n said itbut i failed.
Adam Holisky Aug 10th 2009 11:35AM
Consider this your warning, JediKing. No more first posts or no more wow.com, your choice.
jediking001 Aug 10th 2009 12:06PM
uhh woah O,o the 1 and onli. srry man i just messed up with the reply n i couldnt find a delete button 2 get rid of the extra posts. Sorry