The Queue: Mike Sacco vs. the World (of Warcraft)
by Michael Sacco 
Aug 11th 2010 at 11:00AM
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. Mike Sacco will be your host today.
The only bad thing about The Queue is that I eventually have to stop playing the Scott Pilgrim game to write it. Life is about sacrifices.
Cbeefman asked:
Does anyone know if dual-wield tanking is still viable in Cataclysm? I know even now people say DW tanking is crap, but I just love the idea of being this awesome fighter charging headlong into battle with no shield and being the tank.
In Cataclysm, the blood tree is the only tanking tree available for death knights; given that death knights were the only class with the option to tank while dual-wielding, it's safe to say that that particular playstyle is dead and buried come patch 4.0.
Alpha5099 asked:
What happened to Lil' XT? He's still available on the Korean and European Blizzard stores but seems to have been removed from the U.S. site.
Digital items in the store have an invisible "quantity" that can sometimes run out. Blizzard eventually "restocks" them by adjusting the quantity again once it reaches zero. Near as I can tell, it just hasn't been "restocked" yet.
Sinnh asked:
So. I will be buying Cataclysm on release day, but after the craziness and overpopulation following Wrath release, I plan to spend the first weeks (months?) finishing BC reps. I may fly over the world to take in the new scenery, but I'm stearing clear of new content until things cool off. Question is, anyone else feel me, or am I just crazy?
This isn't necessarily an answer to your question, just an anecdote. Some of you guys may know that I worked at Blizzard for a few years. I came in a few months before the original Naxxramas patch came out. Starting out on the ground floor as a GM, I got to experience the thrill of launching The Burning Crusade firsthand (no sarcasm; it was actually a great time).
Now, at least when I first started, harassment tickets were the largest part of the GM work flow, because there were just so many of them. This can be attributed to a few different factors; the harassment policy was a little different at the time, for example. But the main cause was simply that people were bored, and when people get bored, they find ways to entertain themselves. These ways usually involved being a jerk. And we dealt with it, all day every day.
And then BC launched, and suddenly there were no harassment tickets. For at least the first several days, nobody was filing harassment complaints. We were stumped for a while trying to figure out why the number of incoming harassment tickets was so low, and then we figured it out: People were busy. It was WoW's first expansion, and suddenly they had a whole bunch of new stuff to look at and play with. People weren't being jerks because they were too busy being enthralled. Go figure.
Of course, everything went back to normal within a few weeks. But it was pretty heartening, for a time. Love, or at least Outland, conquers all.
Vanillabean asked:
Are there worgen/goblin faction leaders (like Varian Wrynn)? If so, where do they reside?
King Genn Greymane leads the remnants of Gilnean society. He's currently hanging out next to Varian in Stormwind in the beta. Trade Prince Gallywix is the goblin racial leader, but I'm not certain where he hangs out at the moment; he has a palace in Azshara, though.
Klausse asked:
Based on the recently datamined NPC models for Cataclysm, Malfurion appears to be shorter than Jaina, Varian, Sylvanas and Garrosh. What gives? I thought Malfurion was a night elf ...
The image you're referring to has the models out of scale. Malfurion is at least as tall as any other night elf in game.
MonJoe asked:
Of the new hunter races, which ones start with guns and which star with bows?
- Human: crossbow
- Dwarf: gun
- Night elf: bow
- Draenei: crossbow
- Worgen: gun
- Orc: bow
- Forsaken: crossbow
- Tauren: bow
- Troll: bow
- Blood elf: bow
- Goblin: gun
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: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 11)
Edge Aug 11th 2010 11:06AM
Tauren start with guns now?
Edge Aug 11th 2010 11:07AM
by starting with guns now i actually mean starting with bows now.
Samutz Aug 11th 2010 11:11AM
They start with a bow, but get a quest later in the Mulgore that gives them a gun.
Shassar Aug 11th 2010 11:13AM
They always did - I know, a tauren hunter was my first toon back when I joined in early BC :)
snowleopard233 Aug 11th 2010 11:14AM
Yeah, the guns were cool but they didn’t make the most sense from an atmospheric perspective. It would kind of be more likely that a race of nomadic people would find more use for bows than rifles, what with he former requiring less resources to develop, produce and maintain.
Chevela Aug 11th 2010 11:38AM
But but but.. COWS WITH GUNS? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMbXvn2RNI
(and I agree, bows make more sense for a nomadic, Native-American-ispired race)
Zelius Aug 11th 2010 11:54AM
@Shassar
I could have sworn the tauren hunter I created about two years ago started with a gun.
But I agree, bows make more sense.
Stoneblade Aug 11th 2010 11:56AM
Hmm.. I always took it as read that Tauren prefer guns to bows, as Bounty Hunter Korlark so plainly states, "Bah, no self respecting Tauren would ever be caught dead using a flimsy bow."
Cephas Aug 11th 2010 12:52PM
The change is actually explained in game. The quilboars stole their guns. You have to steal them back. http://cata.wowhead.com/quest=14456
JustPlainJim Aug 11th 2010 12:54PM
I made a Tauren hunter a couple weeks ago. He started with a gun. Past level 10 and no quests for any other weapon types, and I had to pay the usual 9-10 silver to get to use bows.
adam_johnson Aug 11th 2010 5:37PM
More importantly when can hunter treat throwing weapons like ranged weapons. I WANT MY TROLL AXE THROWER..... watchu wanna kill?
Zanaji Aug 13th 2010 7:12AM
I've always thought it odd that the only horde weapon trainer for guns is in the only horde city without an engineering trainer.
Branthan Aug 11th 2010 11:07AM
Maybe I missed it, but do we know how much flying is going to cost in the Old World when Cataclysm?
Samutz Aug 11th 2010 11:12AM
Nothing if you already have flying in Outland. There's not going to be any Cold-Weather Flying equivalent for Azeroth.
No one knows for sure about the cost of 310% speed skill though.
josh Aug 11th 2010 11:13AM
it doesn't cost anything. just fly
Shassar Aug 11th 2010 11:15AM
No Old Weather Flying?
Utakata Aug 11th 2010 11:22AM
From all reports I've heard...none, nadda, zip...
...but as with everything else in Beta that could change.
For example, Cold Weather Flying in Northrend was originally to be obtained by completing a quest in Wrath Beta, but decided to change (for reasons that where never really fully explained) before release to the 1k gold pop requirement of today.
snowleopard233 Aug 11th 2010 11:25AM
You need to go down to the DFV (department of flying vehicles) and apply for a license. The world leaders put it into effect after too many peeping toms were looking at their wives undressing twelve stories up. That, and the excessive practice of gnome dropping was leading to thousands of gold coins in property damage.
RogueJedi86 Aug 11th 2010 11:27AM
Of course it never made sense why you needed COLD weather flying to fly in a HOT zone like Sholazar Basin. :P
Utakata Aug 11th 2010 11:43AM
It is odd you say that, RogueJedi86. The original CWF quest (which is still available) is located in...you guessed it, Sholazar Basin. :)