The Queue: Lore questions? Oh, boy!
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 9th 2011 at 11:00AM
Patch 4.0.6 has been out for an entire day now. Are we enjoying ourselves, readers? What's your favorite change from the patch? Personally, I'm a fan of being able to see exactly how close I am to reputation-capping with my guild from week to week at a glance.
While you talk amongst yourselves, I'm going to dig into today's Q&A.
Thyen asked:
I know that the Alchemist Stones are now unique-equipped. Does that mean I can only have one of them equipped (only one of any variety), or can I equip two, if one is Vibrant and the other being Lifebound?
The tooltip says Unique-Equipped: Alchemist Stone (1), so you can only equip one -- no matter what flavor -- at any time. You can have the intellect alchemist stone equipped in your healing set, and you can swap it out for the stamina stone when you switch to your tanking set, but you can never have both of them equipped.
Emrys asked:
Wasn't Deathwing the Aspect of Earth?
Indeed. He still is! Once he fell in with the Old Gods, though, they gave him a new role. He's not so much the guardian of Azeroth anymore; he's a herald of destruction. It would be odd for him to use the title Aspect of Earth when he's destroying it all.
Dr. Knox asked:
When a Chaos Orb drops in a heroic, I can't roll on it. Has the orb looting system changed since Wrath? Was my DPS not high enough, or what?
You need to have a profession that uses the Chaos Orbs leveled to at least 425 skill to be able to see them. If you don't have an appropriate profession or it's far too low, the game figures you have no use of the Chaos Orb and locks you out of them.
razion asked:
What makes Thoridal the Star's Fury exactly legendary? Who did it belong to?
We don't know who it belonged to at all. It's legendary because it shoots magic frickin' arrows. It's elven in design, so we can assume it belonged to some incredibly important high elf, but it's never been named who that was. In the case of Thori'dal, it was the strength of the weapon that was more important to adventurers than who held it in their hands previously. Presumably, nobody could be arsed into asking about where they bow came from after they stole it from one of the most powerful demons in existence. Because honestly, magic arrows. Do you need to know more?
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 12)
Zalvi24 Feb 9th 2011 11:02AM
can wow insider make a list of the exact buff, food, consumable or enchantments we cant use in arena, i get confuse sometimes when im doing 3v and i wonder why it wont work inside
Neirin Feb 9th 2011 12:03PM
In general, if you have to use something from your bags, it can't be used in arenas. Items excepted from this rule will say so on the tooltip. For example: the alchemist-only flasks specifically state in the tooltip that they can be used in arena.
Magus Feb 9th 2011 2:04PM
Try a Wowhead filter: http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=cr=155;crs=1;crv=0
Spazmoose Feb 10th 2011 1:21AM
This would be a good question to ask over at EpicAdvice.com so that the answer can persist, and you don't have to go looking through forum after forum to find it.
Kunikenwad! Feb 9th 2011 11:03AM
Here's a lore question for The Queue: What time frame do the Worgen and Goblin starting zones take place in? Goblins and Worgies can be Death Knights, so it must mean before WotLK, yet it seems like they are new additions to Orgrimmar and Darnassus respectively. Thanks!
Drakkenfyre Feb 9th 2011 11:10AM
Worgen starting area takes place a couple of years before the present.
Worgen Death Knights are people who were in Pyrewood Villiage, and were kidnapped by Arugal to be experimented on. Remember that villiage and it's Worgens have been around for years.
jealouspirate Feb 9th 2011 11:12AM
The Death Knight thing is explained through loopholes, roll a Goblin and Worgen DK to see the explanation. Basically they were outliers (really, this question has been asked and answered so many times).
Both the Goblin and Worgen zones start shortly before the Cataclysm. This should be pretty obvious to anyone who's played those zones since the Cataclysm is occurring all around you at about level 5.
MikeLive Feb 9th 2011 11:13AM
Worgen DKs aren't the same as the other playable Worgen. Their timeline starts about a year before the Cataclysm, and was the start of a major shift amongst it's population into Worgen. Worgen DKs were those who were previously converted some time before under the control by Arugal, and were made into Death Knights by the Lich King like the rest some time before Wrath. The Goblin starting zone starts on the day of the Cataclysm, and their DKs were just any Goblin around that got raised shortly before Wrath (same as Worgen and all other races) and joined the Horde, whether they were Bilgewater or not.
sphere777 Feb 9th 2011 12:03PM
Here's some hand-waving for you: The Scourge already had chosen Goblin and Worgen DKs before the death of Arthas. Only when the new races entered Cataclysm did they become available to players. Maybe so?
Drakkenfyre Feb 9th 2011 11:23AM
jealouspirate, I suggest you play a Worgen. The starting zone starts a couple of years before. You are told how much time had passed after you are turned into a Worgen roughly. Time jumps to right before the cataclysm.
watspr02 Feb 9th 2011 11:36AM
How can worgen be death knights lore-wise though? I thought once you were a worgen, you couldn't be raised as an undead period. Since all death knights are undead then that would mean that worgen cannot be death knights. I understand game balance-wise that they didn't want to have a race that couldn't be a death knight, but is there any lore explanation or is it just a toss in?
jealouspirate Feb 9th 2011 11:37AM
Yes, my bad, the Worgen one starts a couple of years before the Shattering and then catches up around level 5.
The Goblin one seems to start on the very day the Cataclysm occurs.
Dendallin Feb 9th 2011 11:58AM
@jealous
Actually, none of the DKs are undead except the Forsaken ones. If they were, the human undead would look like the Forsaken. Instead, they are Death Knights like Arthas was. Completely living, just with the powers that were bestowed upon him by Frostmourne and The Lich King. Therefore, when Arthas took up the mantle of Lich King, he was able to convert other beings to his will, turning them into Death Knights. This is why the Lich King himself was necessarily present when you rise as a Death Knight. His minions like Morgaine or the Four Horsemen don't have the ability to raise others as Death Knights, only the Lich King. At least this is from my understanding.
TL;DR - Death Knights aren't undead, they are still their starting race, just with the powers of a Death Knight.
Drakkenfyre Feb 9th 2011 12:04PM
Dendallin, wrong.
You can not only choose undead skins for each race, but you are specifically shown you were raised at the start.
Turn to your right. You see them raising people, and whether or not they are suitable to make a Death Knight. If they are, they are given the starting gear, if they are not, they are rekilled. Guess where you came from?
Nagaina Feb 9th 2011 12:14PM
@Dendalin ~
Actually...the Death Knight manga rather implies that *being horribly murdered* is pretty much a prerequisite for becoming a Death Knight. See: Thassarian and Koltira, who were both pretty explicitly killed as part of the process. Forsaken Death Knights just have a leg up in the 'already dead' department when the knightification mind-screw hit, would be my guess. Also, while we're on this topic...Darion Mograine was raised from the dead as a death knight with Ashbringer still stuck through his chest, on the spot, by Kel'Thuzad, so methinks that the Lich King's personal involvement might not be a strict necessity to the process, so long as the Lich King can eventually plug himself into your skull/soul and start whispering sweet nothings at some point. My guess would be that the only living servants of the Scourge were in the Cult of the Damned and that the confusion about whether or not Death Knights are alive or undead comes from problems with game play mechanics versus storyline segregation -- I personally roleplay my Death Knight as an *undead* elf.
Bulbasaur Feb 9th 2011 1:51PM
Definition of a Death Knight:
First Death knights: bodys of dead human paladins with the souls of dead orcs warlocks. You're free to be as evil as you wish.
New (and actual) Death knights: people who got raised by liches (the lich king, Kel'thuzad) but not in the same process as the undead, but similar to the firsts dk. Your dead body is raised and empowered, and your dead soul wich was sucked first by a lich is now retourned twisted. Also you're a slave.
Artificial Feb 9th 2011 2:16PM
@watspr02: "I thought once you were a worgen, you couldn't be raised as an undead period." You thought wrong. This seems to be a common misperception. Worgen are immune to the undead plague, and to Sylvanas' val'kyr magic, at least without the LK backing it up. This does NOT mean they cannot be raised as undead, period.
RogueJedi86 Feb 9th 2011 2:19PM
Here's a question to throw onto this, complicating it:
The DK starting zone takes place before the Worgen and Goblins join their respective factions as playable. That means the DK starting zone shows playable races before they become playable. So how come any potential future playable races aren't shown there? Maybe Blizz should include NPC DKs of all the NPC races just to have an out there. Maybe Furbolgs will be playable one day, maybe not. The Lich King would drawn on many minions of all races, not just the ones known to be adventurers(playable). A jolly old Tuskarr DK would be amusing. Maybe a Harpy DK, Gnoll DK, Ogre DK, High Elf DK, etc.
Draelan Feb 9th 2011 2:20PM
I have my own thoughts on why worgen cannot be turned "undead" ala the Silverpine quests, yet can become DKs. Basically, I see it as they cannot be EASILY resurrected. Rather than being able to be resurrected by any Joe-Shmoe with a degree in Necromancology, it requires a great deal of power to properly resurrect a worgen as an undead. Thus, only the Lich King and his highest-ranking minions (most of whom we killed in WotLK) would be able to do so successfully.
Am I grasping at straws with this explanation? Yeah, pretty much. But it's the only reasonable thing I can come up with.
Cyrus Feb 9th 2011 2:59PM
The very first part of the worgen starting zone, when Gilneas is getting overrun and your character is getting infected, takes place years before the Cataclysm, maybe even before vanilla WoW. Then your character loses his or her mind and lives as a bestial worgen. Your character regains their basic human consciousness and self-control coincidentally around the time of the Cataclysm and develops further control over their dual nature while fleeing Forsaken invaders in Gilneas at the same time.