The Queue: Not quite mutual destruction
by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 14th 2010 at 1:00PM
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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
I want to kick off this edition of The Queue by thanking you guys for submitting your armories to the reboot of Pimp My Profile. Our first edition will be hitting this upcoming Wednesday. In an ideal world, we'll have one for you every single Wednesday after that.
On to the Q&A!
RogueJedi86 asked...
"Why were the Dragonflight Aspects created/assigned if they can be killed with no repercussions whatsoever? Killing Malygos didn't do so much as give Mages a nosebleed, despite being the Custodian of Magic. And I doubt killing Deathwing will do anything to the earth either."
They're basically guardians and watchers, not the source of whatever power they hold. Malygos was not the source and center of magic. He was a dragon that was given incredible magic power and tasked with watching over that part of the world. Malygos dying doesn't mean there's no magic, it just means the Titan-assigned warden of magic is no longer warding it.
If Alexstrasza dies, everything won't die with her due to her being the aspect of life. If Deathwing dies, Azeroth won't disintegrate.
The Aspects were made to observe and protect. If anything were to come along and threaten the Titans' creations, it was their job to deal with it. It was also their job to make sure the evolution of the Titans' creations was going as planned. As we've learned in Wrath of the Lich King, there are a lot of threats and nothing is going as planned.
When the aspects stop protecting and start harming/destroying, it's time to put them down. It's like unplugging a security camera that's started to shoot laser beams at passing citizens.
Jamesisgreat asked...
"Question on authenticators - are they region specific? I play on EU servers but now live in the US, so would I need to order one from the EU Blizzard store, or would the US one work fine?"
I am almost entirely confident they are not region specific. The authenticators are all made by Vasco and, unless I'm mistaken, are shipped out of the US no matter where you're ordering them from. It would be a bit strange if they were region-locked.
Croe asked...
"Question: Is it me or do elemental shaman have extremely low dps compared to every other class?"
Without any additional information to go on such as level of content, your gear, or any of that... I'll say no, they don't have extremely low DPS. Their DPS certainly isn't on par with rogues, mages, et cetera, but it's not extremely low. If you think you might be running into some problems on your end, you could probably link your Armory in the comments and get some good feedback if you're willing.
Michael wales asked...
"If the classic zones are changing for everyone, what happens to those of us who are still leveling in those zones? Will our entire quest line change, will NPCs just be moved slightly so they aren't standing in the middle of a lava pit? Are we just screwed out of the early story lines and we'll magically be a level 60-70 working on WotLK content (which I don't have yet either)?"
Yes, everything will change around you, just like what happens when they do content patches. If you were still questing in Icecrown when they patched in the Argent Tournament, those terrain changes happened no matter what. The terrain will still change, whatever quest chains Blizzard decides to redo in Cataclysm will change.
You won't magically be level 60 or 70, no. They're not getting rid of old Azeroth, they're revamping and rebuilding it. From a story standpoint, if you're a level 19 questing in The Barrens when the Cataclysm happens... well, the world explodes around your level 19 butt, and now you're dealing with the fallout of the Cataclysm instead of slaughtering zhevras for their nonexistent hooves.
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!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 11)
evangelisiti Jan 14th 2010 1:10PM
They have four hooves, but apparently my character is physically incapable of noticing this or he has very high standards for picking up quest items. Maybe his bestial anatomy skill is too low :(
Nick S Jan 14th 2010 1:15PM
How great would it be if there was an Anatomy sub-profession that increased the drop rate of quest items?
Sylvarus Jan 14th 2010 1:18PM
It helps my ego to think that I am hitting those Zhevras SO hard, their hooves explode into dust, rendering them unusable.
Xanyr Jan 14th 2010 1:27PM
Headless Boars, nuff said
PodPeople Jan 14th 2010 1:32PM
I always figured it was as Sylvarus says, in the process of killing them you destroy or render the things "useless" for the quest purposes, and not that the animals don't have them.
Newchron Jan 14th 2010 9:13PM
I blame sloppy DPS for utterly destroying the quest items you need from animals.
Arktic Jan 14th 2010 1:35PM
Simple math:
Number of hooves on given Zhevra (usually 4), multiplied by the luck of the hunting player (did you kiss your rabbit's foot this morning?), multiplied by your personal Murphy's Law coefficient (did you find all your socks matched? Then you're due elsewhere), divided by the amount Blizzard hates you (no exceptions, it's over 9000) equals the chance of finding a hoof on said Zhevra.
rondesouto Jan 14th 2010 1:36PM
@Sylvarus
I LOLed, for real, at that one man. Thanks, that made my day.
Also, Centaurs in Desolace, they have 2 ears but, if by using Sylvarus's point, i'm just crushing those heads into unrecognizable piles of goo, so their ears are on recoverable.
themightysven Jan 14th 2010 1:38PM
due to years of players questing for zhevra hooves, most zhevra in the barrens have resorted to wearing one or more prosthetic hooves.
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Jan 14th 2010 3:36PM
@Nick S
Patch 4.0.2 Patch Notes:
"New Gambler secondary profession added. Getting any farther than Artisan Gambling requires a rare BOP drop from one slow-spawning type of mob somewhere deep in Feralas. Said mob is also the only source for the new gems, ores, leathers, et cetera."
Tori Jan 14th 2010 3:37PM
Anyone else notice a drastic increase in the number of Zhevras around Crossroads though?
I just started a new character and got to the Barrens, and when it came time for the dreaded Hooves quest, I found *packs* of Zhevra wandering around. The drop rate may not have improved, but the amount of Zhevras close together certainly helped instead of 1 every mile or so. :P
JoeHelfrich Jan 14th 2010 3:56PM
@nicks I actually think that skinning and cooking should give you a higher chance of getting animal parts off of mobs.
elstor Jan 14th 2010 4:00PM
Hillsbrad humans without skulls, anyone?
Possum Jan 14th 2010 4:06PM
As I leveled as a fire mage I just imagined that the applicable quest item had been burned to a crisp..
devilsei Jan 14th 2010 4:07PM
Tori, its called the Zhevra know exactly what is about to happen.
If the world was going to end for you in some cataclysmic, painful rain of fire, what would you do? Exactly. Try to get with as many chicks/dudes/whatever-your-orientation-is and do it to the limit.
The enlarged population of Zhevra are a result of this.
Bittercold Jan 14th 2010 4:15PM
@Elstor
you best be trolling, the drop rate on those skulls is 100%.
Jafari Jan 14th 2010 4:23PM
My first character was a mage, and honest to god, I actually started using frost spells on quest mobs because I thought my fireball must have burned them.
RNG results actually supported my belief for a few months, and I believe I even said to my wife one time, "I used frostbolt, and it still destroyed the [body part]!"
flawless Jan 14th 2010 4:32PM
I noticed that on elemental bosses, you can sometimes mine or herb them for additional quest items. However, this only happened for me in Northrend.
Dressel Jan 14th 2010 7:14PM
And from an Alliance perspective, if we can work out how it is that so many Goretusks can survive without a liver then I'm joining those binge-drinking dwarves!
Angus Jan 14th 2010 7:26PM
While I am all for the idea of hitting them so hard that they arereduced to ashes, I do think there is a problem with that.
First time it happens: "I AM AWESOME!!!! ALL YOU ZHEVRAS FEAR MY REAPING!!!!"
Fiftieth time it happens: "What the hell. I just want to get 3 more hooves. all I need is 3. There are four on any given of you bastiges. That time I barely tapped him. WHAT ARE YOU THINGS MADE OF, SILLY STRING?!?!?!! STOP EXPLODING!!!!"