The Queue: Late is better than never
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 8th 2010 at 7:00PM
This extremely late edition of The Queue is brought to you by Road Runner High Speed Online, because my connection went down for many an hour while I was attempting to write this yesterday.
Phoenix asked:
What's a welk!? They're all over Vashj'ir. Is it just a snail with a fancy name?
Basically ... yes. A welk (or whelk) is a sea snail. In some regions of the world, the term is a little more broad and includes other types of mollusk, and in other regions of the world, the term is a lot more narrow and only covers specific types of sea snail. The most basic answer, however, is that whelks are sea snails.
Many asked:
Okay, so whether you go to Hyjal or Vashj'ir is just personal preference, but which one takes longer to complete?
Vashj'ir. No doubt about it. I personally like Vashj'ir much better than Hyjal, but it's not a zone you'll be leaving quickly. The achievement, even if it is bugged to display too many required quests, would still ask more of you than Hyjal. Vashj'ir is wonderful, but you're going to be there for a while if you want to complete it before moving on.
An interesting note: Vashj'ir used to be even longer, during the closed beta. Those of you who have finished the zone and did the little quest chain with Budd Nedreck, where you smash his treasure, will remember -- that used to be Harrison Jones. The quest chain was much, much longer. You parleyed with the gilblin nobility instead of killing them outright, and it felt more like an adventure than comedic relief. A lot of the zone was streamlined like that. It was unfortunate but necessary. Vashj'ir was huge.
Mike asked:
Please?
No.
Penguinairsauce asked:
Do you need to buy Cataclysm if you want to train archaeology?
Yes.
Johnnytorrance asked:
Anyone know how bad it would be to fly over one of the enemy faction's main cities?
I wouldn't recommend it. You'll get blown out of the sky and die a very unfortunate death. If you don't like repair bills, stay out of enemy air space.
Matthew asked:
When is the next expansion coming out?
It will be announced at BlizzCon 2011. Everybody will expect it to launch in early 2012, but it won't launch until the end of 2012. Probably.
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 1 of 10)
Nyold Dec 8th 2010 7:05PM
Was there a WowInsider article featuring archeology and what you'll exactly do with it? I wasn't in the beta and I haven't gotten my Cata key yet.
Scooter Dec 8th 2010 7:31PM
Step 1 - learn it
Step 2 - Check your world map and look for a shovel marker on each area
Step 3 - Go to that area and look at the zone map. There should be a red field on the map saying where to look.
Step 4 - When in the designated area, use the archeology tool from your professions tab. A mounted telescope will appear with a light. The telescope indicated the direction of the artifact. The light indicates how close you are.
Step 5 - Keep using the archeology tool and eventually it will reveal the artifact.
That's all you need to know for now.
jfofla Dec 8th 2010 7:53PM
Even better, go to You Tube and look at Total Halibut's Video Guide.
Lukeyo Dec 8th 2010 8:59PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVZ9pkD6-v8
You might even be graced by the presence of Vince with Shamwow in the proceeding ad.
Darias.Perenolde Dec 9th 2010 1:22AM
I also like to tell people to just think of it like they're playing a game of "hot and cold".
Rylka Dec 9th 2010 9:38AM
A piece of moderately useful information, the telescope device points to the direction of the artifact from its point of view, not where from the point of view of where you are standing. If you want to be really precise, move to in front of the telescope before it disappears and face the way it is pointing so you can walk in exactly the correct line.
Red light means you have a fair distance to go.
Yellow light means that you are pretty close.
Green light means you are within about 10 body-lengths.
The radius on where you can dig to actually get the artifact is pretty tight. You have to be within a couple of body lengths to get it.
If you get a green light, march forward and get another green light with the telescope pointing back the way you came, split the distance between the last two measurements and you should be right on top of it.
carebear Dec 8th 2010 7:06PM
do the worgen and goblins have race specific non combat pets just like every other race in game?
Drakkenfyre Dec 8th 2010 7:42PM
Nope. Seeing as only those races can access those areas, it would present too much of a money-maker for people creating them.
Mail a bunch of gold to your character, log in, get the gold, then buy a ton of pets, and sell them on the AH.
There are, however, vendor greys exclusive to those areas. I don't know about the Worgen area, but on WoWHead they list chunks of rock from the Goblin starting area that you can only get there (chunks of the Kezen), While they aren't as valuable as pets, there is a market for such grey items. Anything that can't be gotten anymore, or is from a limited place like that, is worth something to someone.
RogueJedi86 Dec 8th 2010 7:47PM
Drakk, they could still sell their pets in the cities they live in in the main game. Like a Goblin Pet Vendor in Orgrimmar in their Slums, or a Worgen Pet Vendor in their tree in Darnassus.
Now that I think about it, Trolls and Gnomes don't have minipet vendors either do they? Not even in Orgrimmar/Ironforge. So I guess there is a precedent, mainly in a "if you live in a town that someone else owns, you don't get a pet" way.
Arlendor Dec 8th 2010 8:09PM
I don't know about Gnomes, but the Troll pet vendor (before the Sundering, I haven't needed to look for him recently) wandered around near where mage portals dropped you off in Orgrimmar and sold a collection of snakes. IIRC, there was no orc vendor, though.
ryanretherford Dec 8th 2010 9:23PM
The Gnomes have a Snowshoe rabbit I believe. It's sold in Dun Morough.
Sleutel Dec 8th 2010 11:17PM
@ryanretherford:
That's sold by a Dwarf.
gandar54 Dec 9th 2010 7:05AM
Were you talking about Argentina tournament pets? Because that makes more sense than what everybody here thinks.
Broon Dec 9th 2010 12:47PM
Trolls have a snake vendor. He circles the troll area in Orgrimmar. And he used to pace the Valley of Spirits before the Shattering.
Drakkenfyre Dec 9th 2010 2:07PM
That's true. I was assuming he meant pets in the starting areas since almost all of the other race-specific pets are sold in the cities.
Like you said, not all races have them, either. I guess with Gnomes and Trolls considered "outcast" from their original homes originally, they figured they wouldn't exactly be up and selling pets.
Gnomes could get a mechanical pet maybe? Rabbits would make sense, but they just stuck one in as an Engineering pet. So many mechanical animals in the game already, it's hard to pick one that would make sense that isn't already used.
Hawthornn Dec 8th 2010 7:08PM
I have a question about the Dwarf Racial, Explorer. I understand the survey faster part, but i know understand the part about finding addition fragments. On my main, each survey find i do gives me two artifacts. On beta I was getting 3. Do non-dwarfs only get 1 artifact per survey?
carebear Dec 8th 2010 7:13PM
everyone is supposed to get 3 and thats exactly what i was getting on tuesday.
Hawthornn Dec 8th 2010 7:21PM
Well I am only getting 2.
kobelayton Dec 8th 2010 7:22PM
I think OP is meaning to loot per 'discovery'. You can survey and discover artifact 3 times, dwarves have a chance to get more than 3 artifacts per dig site.
Hawthornn Dec 8th 2010 7:25PM
Yes, I am meaning the Loot. I am only getting two artifacts per looting. I know there are only 3 discoveries to be made per dig site. So dwarfs have a change of getting an extra dig? Or are we supposed to get extra looted artifacts?