The Queue: Good Monday

Hey, what do you know! We had a bunch of great questions for today's Queue, which is unusual for a Monday. I'm usually picking through scraps. I think that means this week will be a good week.
Necromann asked:
Do player character hitboxes differ? For example, can you hit a tauren farther away than you can hit a gnome?
I truthfully don't know if that's the case right now in Cataclysm, but yes, hitboxes were different from race to race for years, as well as their melee range. There were a few notable raid encounters in which this was a big problem, and specific races had immense advantages. As mentioned in the comments, the Lady Vashj encounter in The Burning Crusade had fen strider mobs with a small AoE fear pulse. You were supposed to kite them, and that was part of the challenge of the encounter. Tauren tanks had a large enough melee range that they could tank the mob outside of the range of the fear and wouldn't need to kite the mob.
Blackwing Lair's Firemaw made these problems a little more apparent, too. There were places gnomes could be out of line of sight of the AoE fire pulse that tauren were not. You could also lose line of sight on gnomes as a healer in places where you would have been able to heal a tauren.
There's a reason that, as a holy priest back in vanilla WoW, I wanted to murder our gnome warrior in his sleep. It wasn't just fantasy racism! He just loved tanking things behind rocks. It was a justified hate. Stop tanking behind rocks, you jerk! I hate you!
So yes, player hitboxes and melee ranges did (and potentially do) differ according to their character model.
Jason asked:
What's the grossest thing you've ever eaten?
I generally don't make a habit of putting gross things in my mouth willingly. I'm not against trying new things, but there's a line! However, I do eat a lot of "old man" things due to largely being raised by my grandpa, so my significant other would likely list things like pickled herring on crackers as gross things I've eaten. I, however, label them delicious.
I guess the first time I ate calamari I labeled it super-gross, but now I quite like it and eat it often!
Algorithmix asked:
A (nitpicking) question for the queue: After the Saurfang (jr) fight in ICC, why does Jaina Proudmoore refer to Varian has "my king"? I mean, he isn't really her king is he? He is king of Stormwind, while she is the leader of Theramore, which is independent from every human kingdom, as far as I know. And even if that were not the case, Jaina comes from Kul'Tiras, and if anything she would probably refer to their ruler (her brother I believe) as "her king".
Varian Wrynn is, at this point, the supreme leader of the Alliance as a whole. There isn't a single figure in the Alliance with more pull than he does. Dwarf loyalists would cite King Magni Bronzebeard, but he went off and got himself killed like a reckless buffoon. Ironforge has no king. The current regime in Ironforge has the Wrynn line to thank for being in power. The Gilneans may have been saved by the night elves, but look where Genn Greymane went to rally assistance: to Varian Wrynn. Theramore is a part of the Alliance, and so Varian Wrynn is most certainly her king. The dwarves of Ironforge treat him with that sort of respect, too. In the scene where Jaina calls Varian her king, Varian also commands Muradin to stand down. Muradin does so without question.
Stormwind is the seat of Alliance power and Varian Wrynn rules it. Right now, he's unquestionably the most important man in the Alliance.
Perhaps even more important to Jaina is the fact that the Wrynn dynasty is the last of humanity's line of kings. Even after the return of Genn Greymane, he's an old man with no heir. What's going down in Kul'tiras? Nobody knows, but we do know that Jaina personally killed off her father. Did her brother step up to the plate? Could he have stepped up to the plate? We don't know. It's possible Jaina ended the Proudmoore line. Varian Wrynn's line is humanity's final viable royal line, and Anduin is too young to rule. Varian is important to her and to humanity.
Plus, they're friends. Jaina cares about her friend. If I were a fanfic-writin' man, we'd be looking at Queen Jaina. Just sayin'.
Finnicks asked:
In your opinion, what's the best role for a raid leader? Healer, tank, or DPS?
I don't think it matters as long as other roles are filled with people that you trust to speak up and give good feedback. One person cannot see everything from all angles, regardless of role.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 13)
JoeHelfrich Apr 18th 2011 11:05AM
"What's going down in Kul'tiras? Nobody knows, but we do know that Jaina personally killed off her father."
Umm, didn't Jania just get out of the way and let Thrall do the dirty work? It's been a while since I played WCIII....
icepyro Apr 18th 2011 11:42AM
I think it was more like "hey Thrall, my dad is going to be here." and then when they were together, she did kinda get out of the way. So while the bloody blade wasn't in her hand, she would still do time in todays society for her part.
Charron Apr 18th 2011 12:49PM
There's also the fact that Calia Menethil, sister of Arthas, is still MIA. Just another option for royalty. WoWWiki does speculate she might be dead, imprisoned by the Forsaken, or working for SI:7.
Algorithmix Apr 18th 2011 1:20PM
The comment system ate my last reply, so here goes again:
Well, she didn't exactly kill him, but she neither did she do anything to prevent it. But according to Wowpedia, her brother rules Kul Tiras at present.
On the question I asked, while Varian may be the de facto leader of the Alliance, he is not its King. While I imagine that it is possible for Jaina to have give her and Theramores loyalties to Stormwind, this would seem to contradict a lot of what has been happening in the comics and books, in which she has tried to maintain some level of neutrality (for example by hosting a peace summit between Varian and Thrall).
And also, the scene in ICC took place before the Cataclysm, at which point Magni was still alive and kicking.
Ooglie Apr 18th 2011 1:25PM
I think Jaina's had her some orc borkin' and now no human will do.
Duco Apr 18th 2011 2:43PM
The Alliance is an alliance of separate Kingdoms. I think of it as kinda like NATO. Obama is the leader of the most powerful nation in NATO, but I can't see, e.g., Germans calling him "My President".
Though perhaps the British Commonwealth is a better analogy; Canadians do have the Queen on their currency even though they're a separate sovereign nation. Hmm...
MattKrotzer Apr 18th 2011 5:28PM
Or it could just be lazy writing.
Artificial Apr 18th 2011 5:50PM
Or it could also be that people just aren't that pedantic, neither Jaina nor members of the Alliance in general...
Felix_NZ Apr 18th 2011 6:21PM
Although a bit sloppy on Blizzards part, I guess it could be argued as a title of respect, rather than Jaina considering Varian to be her sovereign. As long as we don't have the 10,000+ year old Night Elf and Dranei leaders suddenly grovelling at his feet and calling him 'My King' I'll be ok with it, I mean he'd barely be a toddler to them.
cyndigirl47 Apr 18th 2011 9:30PM
On a similar note: In Day of the Dragon didn't they say Jaina's brother had been killed when his ship encountered an Orcish dragon mounted patrol? Or did she have a second brother?
Tim Apr 18th 2011 7:15PM
I'm in the middle of reading "Game of Thrones" and this is how things may work in Azeroth also. Stark has Winterfell, yet Robert was/is king of King's Landing, and there are other kings in the seven kingdom's yet they all pledge fealty to him. Probably how Azeroth works too. We have race leaders who pledge fealty to King Varian and then call him "my king".
theRaptor Apr 18th 2011 8:40PM
@Duco
Royalty doesn't work like bureaucracy. Generally in a system with royalty they all end up related to each other and so a "foreign" King might end up being the most viable candidate to fill a whole in local succession. And people in those systems tend to believe in the importance of having (strong) royalty. It isn't enough to grab some bloke off the street and call him the King.
IIRC all the human royal lines in WoW are descended from the Arathi line. That means Varian probably has a legitimate claim to most of the King-less kingdoms even disregarding intermarriage.
Methuus Apr 18th 2011 10:42PM
Bottom line on all this chain-of-command/fealty stuff:
Blizzard has been playing fast and loose and has provided contradictory information in the canon sources.
So any attempt to nail it down is futile because Blizzard is messing around with it as suits them. So if it suits the immediate story, Varian is Jaina's king. If the story demands otherwise a little later, poof, now she's running an independent kingdom.
Noyou Apr 18th 2011 11:06AM
Don't know if it changes in combat but i see some players with very large hitboxes whether mounted or not. Some have very small ones even though they are on a large drake. I will pay more attention next time I partake in some PvP ;)
Prelimar Apr 18th 2011 11:56AM
the hitbox question is very interesting to me, because, coincidentally, this past weekend i was informed that mine is apparently outsized. i have no idea what is the normal size hitbox for a human, and i have no idea why mine is different, but it apparently is. i am not blaming it for all my deaths. : )
Leneax Apr 18th 2011 12:40PM
Just my 2 cents on hit boxes.
I have no idea about different sizes for different races, but I doubt persons of the same race have different size hit boxes. It's probably server lag where they are able to hit you from further away than you appear on your screen. Test this while standing still to confirm.
Pam Apr 18th 2011 12:41PM
A person with Thunderfury on has a HUGE hitbox....we have a dude that hangs out in the AH w/ it on....
Homeschool Apr 18th 2011 3:05PM
Speaking as a Goblin Priest, seems like any tiny stair can disrupt my line-of-sight. Not saying that's necessarily a hitbox thing, but if the stairs are shorter than a tauren and taller than a goblin, I can't seem to heal up them. I've got to get to where my eyes are level with the floor before I get line-of-sight back.
I'm pretty sure I could see anyone within healing range even with the height difference. Jerks.
Nathanyel Apr 19th 2011 11:34AM
You don't see them with large hitboxes, you see them with large selection circles.
Mounts and hitboxes, on the other hand... as a Tauren, I could tell you stories...
Ranwulf Apr 18th 2011 11:08AM
Huh, no heir? But Greymane still have his daughter(Tess)!
Oh, and yes, I am pretty sure that moment in ICC was partially made for shippers.
Ran