Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe 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 4 of 10)
Starsmore Dec 8th 2010 7:28PM
What's the new hero class? ;)
brian Dec 8th 2010 7:59PM
It's called "N/A."
Because we got races this time.
Lemons Dec 8th 2010 8:26PM
Superdruid.
Yep.
Throw away that dusty old regular druid and reroll.
Xiorin Dec 8th 2010 7:31PM
Are free server transfers expected for the realms who have to wait nearly 2 hours to get in to play?
I waited a lil over 2 hours yesterday and I've been waiting 45 mins so far today with at least another hour expected to go. (and it's only getting worse as the day progresses)
Drakkenfyre Dec 8th 2010 8:22PM
A new expansion just came out, what do you expect?
Unless you have a server under a few hundred people, all of them have queues.
zweitblom Dec 9th 2010 12:58AM
I am playing on several servers and have yet to experience a login queue *shrug*
Possum Dec 9th 2010 2:19AM
No queues here but he's right, it's an expansion it'll die down. It sucks for now though.
Arcane Death Dec 9th 2010 10:19AM
There are free transfers out of some of the most popular EU realms at the moment. I just transferred to Ragnaros-EU last week and had to queue to play for the first time ever on Tuesday. Queue was about 20 minutes, but no problem logging in yesterday so I am sure it's just a temporary issue.
Nioki Dec 8th 2010 7:37PM
Question for le queue:
If I purchased the regular edition of Cataclysm and used the key for my account to start playing, then later on came across a copy of the Collector's Edition, will I be able to use the key from the Collector's edition to get the pet? Or is it limited to one key per account?
Drakkenfyre Dec 8th 2010 8:21PM
Yes, you can click "Upgrade Account", and add it, and it upgrades it. However you do not get the original key back.
Some people have said if you CALL them instead, they can release the old key for reuse, but I don't know if they can or not.
They added the ability to add another key to your account sometime during Burning Crusade.
NynjaMonkii Dec 8th 2010 7:53PM
You can upgrade regular editions to collectors editions later. I had done that for both BC and WotLK before using the Cata CE straight up. But I fear the Cata CE is going to be a lot harder to find than the BC/WotLK CE's were.
RogueJedi86 Dec 8th 2010 7:43PM
It's been 2 days since Cataclysm launched, where's the typical Blizz press release on "5 million copies sold in 24 hours!"? We had press releases like that for BC and LK pretty quickly, but nothing yet on Cataclysm. Has Cataclysm just not sold a ton, or is Blizz waiting a few days before they post a sales report to the media?
Henry Dec 8th 2010 7:51PM
We'll see what they say after a week.
Lemons Dec 8th 2010 8:15PM
I'm guessing they're still compiling the data somewhere. I hope it beats Modern Warfare or whatever ridiculous shooter is #1 atm.
Spiff Dec 8th 2010 7:45PM
The druid's seal form seems very zippy in Vashj'ir, maybe even as zippy as the seahorse mount (and like all druid forms, more convenient). Do we know if seal form + Sea Legs + Glyph of Aquatic Form = seahorse mount speed?
elvendude Dec 8th 2010 7:59PM
I'm not 100%, but it feels faster than the seahorse.
I need to get a buddy to race me, though.
scherbaddie Dec 8th 2010 8:38PM
install the addon Monkey Speed and tell us!
gewalt Dec 9th 2010 8:00AM
I raced my wife on her seahorse yesterday, aquatic form is exactly the same speed as the seahorse, glyph had no effect.
so the "bonus" druids get is they get their fast swim about 10 quests early and its instant/combat castable. pretty nice bonus actually. tho I still occasionally ride the seahorse cause it looks awesome.
William Dec 8th 2010 7:45PM
As a mage, I put feather fall on myself before going into the cannon for IN WITH A BANG in the Swamp of Sorrows. Is there any way to measure how far I actually went?
Pyromelter Dec 8th 2010 7:56PM
Yes.
Download TomTom the addon. Put a way point at your starting location (ctrl-right click on the world map). Jump in the gun and then land. After you land, right click the way point at the starting location, and then do the command that puts an arrow pointing to that location. (I forget what its called, something like "set tom tom arrow to this point" or something.) Under the arrow will show the distance between the point you are at, and the point at which you started.
grats on traveling over a kilometer or however far you went :)