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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Where am I going to wake up today?
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 23rd 2010 at 1:00PM
This Queue is going to deal, in part, with questions many people have asked over the last few months, some that we haven't always had answers for. But we do have an answer for this first question, thanks to a few Blizzard statements this week.
So many people have asked:
Where am I going to wake up today?
Recently, Blizzard has come out a few times and said that you'll appear at the graveyard nearest to the location where you logged out. So if you logged out in Stormwind, like yours truly did, then you'll show up in the Elwynn Forest graveyard to the south of the Stormwind gates.
So many people have asked:
How much time has passed between Wrath and The Shattering?
As best we can reckon, it's a few years, given Anduin's aging. We should have a Know Your Lore or another one-off piece explaining this. And yes, this means a few years have passed since your character went to sleep last night.
Nethaera said today, "Months into the future? Not quite." I really don't know how to read that -- either as more than a few months, which makes a ton of sense, or less than a few months, which makes no sense. After all, Anduin went from a boy to a teenager -- that happens in a few years' time.
So many people have asked:
Is there going to be another big patch to download on Dec. 7 when Cataclysm is finally released?
There will likely not be another big patch. It's entirely possible -- indeed, likely -- that there will be one or two minor patches between now and then, but the data for Cataclysm's new zones and stuff is already here. The endgame stuff just isn't accessible yet.
So many people have asked:
My friend said that you can fly in Azeroth starting today! ZOMG!
Your friend is wrong. There is so much confusion over what is and isn't in this patch that it's best either to read a detailed list of what's available in the The Shattering and what you have to wait for until Dec. 7. Read the list we published earlier today!
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider 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 3 of 17)
TashaLee Nov 23rd 2010 1:05PM
I wanted to log my gnome out in either Auberdine or South Shore just to see, but I sent her back to Stormwind. At least now we know how everyone will end up.
Quorniya Nov 23rd 2010 1:05PM
Question for the queue:
When Cataclysm goes live, will we be able to train our professions up to Illustrious Grand Master in Dalaran, or will we have to go to an "old world" capital city?
Sir Broose Nov 23rd 2010 2:37PM
I only fiddled with professions in the beta once and it was several weeks ago, but at that time, I had to go to Stormwind, because the trainers in Dalaran didn't have the new recipes.
Darky Nov 23rd 2010 1:05PM
No more major downloads? My data usage says Hurray :D
Hangk Nov 23rd 2010 1:05PM
"After all, Anduin went from a boy to a teenager -- that happens in a few years' time."
But might this be assumed to have been happening over the course of WotLK? Blizzard, in their wisdom, declined to outfit Anduin with a "gawky pre-adolescent 12 year old boy" model, but he was presumably growing up just the same as time passed.
Daedalus Nov 23rd 2010 1:17PM
That's the way I've taken it. As far as I'm concerned, most of the world changes have been happening over the last 6 years, as we've been doing the things that changed them.
Case in point: Edwin VanCleef. You might have killed him yesterday, but I would say, canonically, he died early in Vanilla WoW, and has been dead for years now.
The game just previously hadn't had the technology to show us these changes as they happened.
I, for one, think no time has really passed since last night. The elemental invasions were getting worse and worse, then boom, the world breaks. In the game timeline, I'd say it's only been hours, or at most, days since we logged out yesterday.
matt Nov 23rd 2010 1:20PM
I was just about to add a comment to this effect, I think the author may be reading too much into Anduin's age change. I can think of no good reason that Blizz should make dozens of models for him so that he can age before your eyes in the game. Last night, there was a 17yr old boy in a 12yr old model, today there is a 17yr old in a 17yr old model.
Also, keep in mind that the "end of wrath" was the day that statue went up in the Dalaran fountain. 10-ish earth months has passed since the LK was killed. I don't think that any time need have lapsed in order to keep the story congruous.
Grenwalis Nov 23rd 2010 1:33PM
*Spoiler altert*
The Shattering novel comments that Anduin is 13 years old and he is still that age when the world breaks at the end of the novel.
Scott Nov 23rd 2010 1:46PM
Growth Spurt... it's a bitch.
Eddy Nov 23rd 2010 1:45PM
I think the thing with Anduin could also have been that we've all been gone so long- there's really been no major reason to visit that part of Stormwind, and I imagine most adventurers aren't really traipsing into the throne room every few days just because they can- that he's aged while we haven't been looking.
I do want to know how long the campaign in the North was supposed to have been, though. Two years? Longer? I kind of want to put the Icecrown/Crusade bit in perspective- was that only a tiny fraction at the end, or did it drag out like it sort of felt?
Rodrigo Nov 23rd 2010 1:52PM
Wasn't there a mob in the new Hyjal who explained that it's been 10 years since Archimonde's Assault on the World Tree?
I think Cata is 10 years after the WC3 mission, if I knew the other time gaps of the expansions, I'd geek it out now...
Skarn Nov 23rd 2010 2:31PM
I believe that's correct, Rodrigo. Vanilla was 4 years after WC3. Burning Crusade was 2 years later, Wrath was another 2 years. (Game time, not real time.) So 2 years from start of Wrath to start of Cataclysm seems correct.
Sorry, Adam, it hasn't been several years since we went to sleep last night. Only a few days, probably.
Maribel Nov 23rd 2010 4:48PM
There's a simple answer to the Anduin issue. Ever played Sims 2? Your kids look the same age throughout elementary school, until they hit their teen birthdays. They twirl around, you see some sparkles, and next thing you know, the child is a foot and a half taller and wants to find someone to kiss. And buy a cell phone. Clearly, Azerothians age like Sims, and we just don't see Anduin's birthday due to the downtime.
Ronin Nov 23rd 2010 9:39PM
Yep, from the same post by Nethaera that Adam linked to:
"After all, we've spent a lot of time in the old world without it changing all that much, but time was marching on anyway. We're just playing a little catch-up and hope that it makes some semblance of sense to you. "
I don't see any reason to think that Anduin was frozen in age for the past six years, and that we have to jump forward by years _now_ in order for him to be in his late teens. It seems much more likely that he was aging all along, and they have just now given him an updated model.
Also, Nethaera's "Months into the future? Not quite." would, idiomatically speaking, mean that it has been something short of "months". There really isn't any other way to read that, IMO-- and it certainly doesn't make sense to me that by saying it, she meant it's been _longer_ than "months".
SlimPickens42 Nov 23rd 2010 1:05PM
Isn't it entirely possible that Anduin has been aging since the game began and we just haven't seen it until now? That would make it possible that it hasn't even been months.
Darky Nov 23rd 2010 1:08PM
I thought i heard somewhere on this site it was only 3-4 months since wrath.
jishdefish Nov 23rd 2010 1:34PM
You can't judge a time jump by one model's 'aging'. Anduin was using the generic Human Boy model, so that wasn't accurately portraying his age. Now that he has a unique model, it is. I think it has been a few months as the blue hinted. In a world of magic and sorcery, I'm sure that is plenty of time to reshape Azshara, coax trees to grow in Desolace (Druid magic rocks! They could end world hunger here with a few hundred fruit trees!) and to finish that bridge in Redridge. No discrepancy here. :)
Kynsia Nov 23rd 2010 1:53PM
so if he got older, does that mean we dont have to listen to that annoying girl complain about her doll in sw anymore?
Cromlech Nov 23rd 2010 1:56PM
@Kynsia
You might find that MUCH has changed after the Shattering...
Kadamon Nov 23rd 2010 1:05PM
Was that cinematic awesome or not?
Also, new loading screen is epic. I don't lag nowhere near as much either.