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

Today has to have some special significance. If you take the month and the year and add them together and subtract 2000 you get the day. The day. It's like, the world is going to end or something, and it isn't even 2012!

Oh well, here are the last questions I'll ever answer in The Queue, because it's the end of the world as we know it (which happens to be today's reading music).

Rhornez asked...

"Why are warriors so awesome?"

Okay, obviously this is a troll comment or otherwise just a question to get people mad about their classes, but I do want to take a minute to address why I feel there are some classes which fit more into the natural archetypes of RPGs than others; and this isn't to say that a less natural class (such as a death knight) is any more or less useful than a more natural class (such as a mage).

The way I see it there are three primary roles which are mainly filled by three primary classes. In the healer role, we have the priest -- the benevolent cleric who casts their holy spells on allies, healing them back to full strength. In the tank / physical DPS role we have the stoic warrior -- standing toe-to-toe against the evils of the world. And finally in the caster / magic user role we have the mage -- holding back in the group slinging arcane mysticism at enemies.

These archetypes are present in every game, from early D&D up through the latest RPG. There are now, obviously, many iterations and permutations of these classes, but the basic facts of each of them are little different than they were in the original D&D. In WoW, paladins are a cross between priests and warriors, shamans are a cross between all three, and rogues are... well, they're just like warriors without the tanking abilities. (And don't argue about rogues tanking stuff, it's not an intended part of their kit.)

I think this discussion is interesting and helps people overall understand the game and associated game mechanics better (which is why I'm including it in The Queue). If you know what identifies a generally warrior-based class or mob, you can quickly come up with instant strategies to deal with them. This becomes particularly relevant during leveling in a new expansion where snap decisions and analysis on mob strategy can be the different between success and death. Understanding the overall archetypes, and how they can counter each other, will only help improve your game.

Healem asked...

"What happened to the 'report lag' feature that was supposed to be coming?"

If you click on the red question mark in your action bars, you'll see a button to report lag. It's in the same area you go to get in touch with a GM.

Velzak asked...

"Any word on if Patches of Yesteryear is coming back ever?"

A draft is written, I'm fact checking it, and we'll post it later this week.

---

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!

---

Tags: class-archetypes, class-roles, comments, fansite, fansites, featured, guide, qa, question-and-answer, report-lag, roles, wow-answers, wow-comments, wow-daily-answers, wow-daily-questions, wow-guide, wow-player-questions, wow-q-and-a, wow-questions

Filed under: Mage, Priest, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, The Queue