The Queue: Dwarves!
by Michael Sacco 
Jul 10th 2011 at 12:00PM
I am unreasonably excited about The Hobbit movies, especially after seeing the new photos of the cast in costume that have been coming out. Above are Oin and Gloin. Gloin is Gimli's dad, in case you can't see the resemblance.
Iaim asked:
Where did the 'Working as intended.' meme come from? I've been seeing it a lot recently in the comments...
It's a phrase with long history in the software industry, not just World of Warcraft. Generally, a user will come to the company with an issue with the software, something that seems to be wrong, and the developer may respond that the issue is not actually a bug, that it's actually working as intended. Blizzard doesn't generally use this phrase when dealing with customers directly, since boy howdy do players hate hearing it, but it still finds its way into conversation sometimes. I believe it's still in one of the preformatted emails you'll receive from GMs when reporting something that's, well, working as intended.
Henri Poincaré asked:
Inspired by today's Around Azeroth: what _are_ Murlocs anyway? Amphibians? I'd say "featherless bipeds" but I think that category is pretty crowded in WoW already. [Extra geek points for identifying the reference]
The murlocs we see running around Azeroth are amphibians. They don't live completely in the water, just around it, like frogs and toads.
Necromann asked:
When is the loot a mob drops determined? I got the raven lord yesterday and I was wondering if the drop was determined when I zoned in to the instance or when I delt the killing blow?
Loot is determined when a mob is spawned. If you're dealing with an instance, the loot is determined when the instance is created.
soup_of_the_day asked:
Whatever happened to the Titan artifact that the horde and alliance were supposed to be fighting over? (The one that was said to be in the expansion from the trailer.)
The titan artifact was the Halls of Origination. It's the device that Algalon would have activated, had we not beat him. And we nearly activated it ourselves in Uldum by bumbling around like idiots with a pop culture reference.
Panduh asked:
Is there any chance of Blizzard implementing a new Hero Class mid-expansion?
It'll never happen.
Badmedecine asked:
What is up with the 2-headed ogres? Most are one-headed but some others, mainly caster, are 2 headed. Has this been natural to ogres, or did the Legion influence them somehow when they recruited the Ogres?
Two-headed ogres are just a rare variety of ogre; they're known to be smarter and more dangerous than ogres with one head. They've existed since before the rise of the orcs, who helped propagate two-headed ogres further by using magical relics called Altars of Storms. Cho'gall used to only have one head prior to his exposure to an Altar.
AltMaster asked:
How do respawn timers work?
On the Cata release date you couldn't kill a Naga without a new Naga appearing immediately on top of its own body to tear you a new one. As time went by the Naga began to breed more slowly. Yet, still, I can kill all 14 Rustburg Villagers just by standing on the far right dock and killing the respawns, and I can't count the number of times Problim has respawned instantly on his own corpse.
But it doesn't happen EVERY time. It seems to me to be tied to the number of people in the zone, but I'm not sure.
In recently created content especially, respawns are tied to the number of people in a zone. The more people who'd need access to mobs, the more will spawn and the more frequently they'll respawn when killed. This happens most frequently in starting zones and current game content, like the five new zones in Cataclysm, but it doesn't happen everywhere and certainly didn't used to happen anywhere.
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 8)
Nyarlahothep Jul 10th 2011 12:10PM
What is with ogres suddenly becoming a legitimate threat/power players? I get that chogall wanted to bring his people with him on his rise to power, but beyond him has there ever been an ogre that was not a bumbling barbarian? Having never taken them seriously and having slain thousands over the years, I'm having a hard time taking them seriously as anything but tools for other more conniving forces.
shammowh Jul 10th 2011 12:26PM
Lunk in Searing Gorge :P
adyuaa Jul 10th 2011 12:27PM
In Blade's Edge Mountains in Outlands, there is a faction of enlightened ogres called Ogri'la. Rep with them is classic BC grind. Among other things, they speak in full sentences.
themightysven Jul 10th 2011 1:23PM
the chieftan of the Laughing Skull orc clan is also an Ogre. Btw, Great clan name or greatest clan name?
trefpoid Jul 10th 2011 1:23PM
I got Lunk doing the Protectors of Hyjal daily the other day. I was so happy *o* most lovable ogre ever.
AudreyR Jul 10th 2011 2:05PM
Cho'gall has been a power player since the orcs sought to team up with ogres rather than eliminate them.
He became the chief of Twilight's Hammer mostly because the were a bit on the crazy side, what with wanting to destroy the world and all.
Once Guldan usurped Ner'zhul, he saw the benefit in having Cho'gall and his clan around to do some dirty work for him. Likewise, Guldan played into Cho'gall's nihilistic plans fairly well.
Kind of ironic that it was guy Guldan replaced that destroyed Draenor.
As to why are we seeing more orc power players now, there is simply more opportunitues for the more conniving one to make a showing.
Back on Draenor, ogres were not lead by other ogres, but by Gron, which led to a society where dumb brute strength would lead to better chances of survival. See, the ogre who could follow instructions without question was the least likely to die.
Sure the more intelligent ogres can follow instructions, but you can see where the environment would be conducive to them wanting to draw attention to themselves.
But the new world in which they find themselves, two-headed ogres have a much better chance to garner some power for themselves.
Jabadabadana Jul 10th 2011 6:47PM
It's kind of a cheat. Most of the Ogre Magi from WC2 are actually possessed by the spirits of the slain orc warlocks from WC1. So 2 headed ogre magi are an intelligent, nasty, threat, but they aren't quite ogres.
AudreyR Jul 10th 2011 7:32PM
That's been retconned. Ogre magi and the original Death Knights had nothing to do with each other. Instead, ogre magi are rare naturally, but were mass-produced by Guldan in the second war.
Where as now, the only things that were possessed by the orc warlocks were the corpses of the humans who died defending Stormwind in the first war. Guldan helped that along just before the second war.
Murdertime Jul 11th 2011 9:50AM
Ogres tend to vary hugely in intelligence, though their use of language is not always a reflection of said intelligence. Cho'gall, for example, was Gul'dan's apprentice and possibly the second most powerful mortal warlock.
There's actually beeen quite a few clever, dangerous ogres associated with the shadow council, most of whom are dead following you brutally murdering them during the events of the Burning Crusade expansion, with the major lore Ogres that weren't Den'targ and Cho'gall being killed in Shattered Halls and Slabs. Also, you knocked off King Mulgarr and his advisors.
So being a clever ogre tends to get you murdered by PC's.
Babaloo Jul 10th 2011 12:16PM
Dwarfs!?
http://store.steampowered.com/video/35480?snr=1_5_9__400
Skyrei Jul 10th 2011 5:21PM
The Dwarves in the picture look like tiny Klingons.
vinniedcleaner Jul 10th 2011 7:08PM
Hobbits!
Annalietta Jul 11th 2011 1:33AM
@Skyrei
That picture has been nagging me, it's just so wrong, but the closest I could get to why was that the dwarves look goth. You're absolutely right, though: they look like tiny klingon and that's not right...
jamie9966 Jul 10th 2011 2:02PM
At the start of the Burning Crusade, blood elf paladins got their powers by bending the light to their will, through M'uru who they held captive at the time. Since they no longer have M'uru in captivity, where do they now get their power from?
Ant Jul 10th 2011 2:13PM
If I remembering correctly, the Sunwell is now a holy source of power due to M'uru's heart being dunked in.
AudreyR Jul 10th 2011 2:20PM
The light. Same as humans, dwarves and draenei. Tauren are the odd ones out.
daan.leijen Jul 10th 2011 2:29PM
The sunwell was infused with the Holy Light in the patch 2.4 raid.
woshiernog Jul 10th 2011 3:42PM
@Ant
Does this mean that my dipping sauces becomes nuggets when I dip a nuggets into them?
Arrohon Jul 10th 2011 7:04PM
A wizard did it?
cloudhopper013 Jul 10th 2011 7:55PM
@ Wosh
I think you're trying to draw a relation between two very different scenarios. The fine points define it, dear.