The Queue: Panda wasteland
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is taking this thing over today.
I have no idea what's going on in the above video, but I think I can safely say that YouTube has some of the weirdest stuff.
Everyone ever I swear asked:
(Insert expansion questions here)
Guys, we can't say anything about anything until the NDA is lifted. Patience, please! And while you're waiting, you can read this nice Lawbringer all about the NDA and why it's there.
I have no idea what's going on in the above video, but I think I can safely say that YouTube has some of the weirdest stuff.
Everyone ever I swear asked:
(Insert expansion questions here)
Guys, we can't say anything about anything until the NDA is lifted. Patience, please! And while you're waiting, you can read this nice Lawbringer all about the NDA and why it's there.
Stephanie asked:
Sorry if this has been asked before but I am getting a new laptop in a few days. What is the best way to get WoW and my add ons onto the new laptop? Preferably with all my saved settings.
It's actually pretty easy to do. All you have to do is copy your WoW folder over to your new laptop from your old one. Just make sure it goes into the Program Files folder (or wherever you put it on your old PC), create a shortcut to the launcher on your desktop, and you're good to go.
Atanae asked:
My Q4tQ - Is there any explanation for the major discrepancy in Theramore's actions in Kalimdor? In Dustwallow, we see the "normal" Theramore, where we stop agitators from instilling a more warmongering mindset and we get some seed quests that show Horde infiltration of Dustwallow (which abruptly end). In South Barrens, you see a really "warmongery" Theramore - pretty much what the agitators wanted. The problem is: the South Barrens quests (30-35) happen "before" the Dustwallow ones (35-40).
Why would Theramore be so antagonistic in South Barrens and then revert back to a more peaceful stance later in the quest chain? And if the Dustwallow quests are reinforcing Jaina's peaceful views, why is she housing war machines? It seems as if the quest chain is backwards and we should have started in Theramore and ended in South Barrens.
Here's the deal: Way back in vanilla WoW, Dustwallow Marsh was the zone of unfinished ... stuff. The Missing Diplomat chain ended abruptly with no real conclusion. The chain involving the fire at the Shady Rest Inn also ended in a dead end. In fact, it seemed like Dustwallow was one of those zones that was just sort of half-developed at launch, kind of like Azshara, only with a few more quests.
However, the zone received a major makeover in Patch 2.3.0. Mudsprocket was added as a quest hub, more quests were added all over the zone, and the whole storyline with the Grimtotem tauren was added as well. The Shady Rest Inn quest chain was finally finished, and the Missing Diplomat chain finally had a resolution of sorts. It went from someplace nobody went to unless they happened to be killing Onyxia, to a viable quest hub that was pretty fun, level-appropriate, and had some pretty cool rewards.
Now this is just me guessing here, but given the sheer number of zones Blizzard had to revamp with Cataclysm, Dustwallow Marsh was really not high on the priority list -- because it had already gotten a pretty major revamp back in 2.3.0. So technically speaking, Dustwallow Marsh is almost in its own little timeline -- but not as far as lore is concerned. You'll see mention of the Shattering, and you'll see the physical changes the zone has gone through, but as far as attitudes and quests, they really haven't changed that much at all. The zone was touched, but it wasn't touched in anywhere near as much detail as the zones that really needed it, like Azshara.
Frankly, I don't think the decision was a bad one from a time management perspective. Would you rather Blizzard spend time redeveloping a zone that was already redeveloped or work on someplace that really, really needed that revamp because it hadn't been touched in seven years? So basically, with Dustwallow and Theramore, I wouldn't look too closely at the material presented in there -- because most of it was written out well before the Shattering ever happened.
@oathblade on Twitter asked:
Why does the N'aru G'eras in Shat have his own personal Vindicator bodyguards?
Because he's a darkened naaru and they're protecting the rest of us from him. I mean come on -- look at him. He looks pretty dark to me.
Seriously, though, it's probably because he's carrying a lot of valuable material on his person to sell, and they don't want him getting robbed. ... although how, exactly, a spinning, glowing windchime with no hands is carrying all that stuff is anybody's guess.
@BrokenRavens on Twitter asked:
At the start of the Vash'jir quest chain, a group of humans help the Horde in their assault on Stormwind. Is this odd? Is the central conflict of WoW seen inside the game as orcs vs. humans, or just Org. vs. Stormwind?
I'm assuming the humans you're talking about are the ones that show up to sail the Horde forces over to Vash'jir. In that case, you aren't looking at Alliance citizens; you're looking at mercenaries of sorts. They're on the side of whoever happens to pay them enough. They aren't really concerned with moral decisions -- or in the case of Bud, they're not really concerned with thinking at all.
The primary conflict in Warcraft started out as orcs vs. humans, but it developed beyond that when the Horde was formed in Warcraft III, and the Alliance as we know it was formed between Warcraft III and WoW. Now, it's pretty much Alliance vs. Horde -- and the mercenaries and middlemen don't really have a side. They simply side with whoever is paying them at the time.
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Reader Comments (Page 5 of 7)
Ullaana Mar 16th 2012 12:05PM
Take a look at this, 3 fingers and a thumb. So 4 developed digits but not like a true panda.
http://img0.178.com/chinagame/201110/113423110465/113424361221.jpg
eel5pe Mar 16th 2012 4:16PM
I remember reading in some random interview with the creator of the Simpsons that the reason that Bart and Homer and co. (and most American cartoons characters for that matter) only have 4 fingers is because it's much easier to animate than 5. So this could be related. It doesn't matter for human toons of course because our hand is basically an immobile fist...
Atanae Mar 16th 2012 11:35AM
I kind of figured *technically* Blizzard left Dustwallow alone because it had been recently redone, but then Dustwallow should have been the 30-35 zone and South Barrens 35-40 and then have someone at Fort Triumph send players to Thousand Needles.
That would have given Blizzard room to explain why Jaina's forces are in South Barrens AND why she's housing war machines. They could even have established that Hawthorne was secretly part of the Agitators, which would help explain the discrepancy.
Or, keep the zones as is and give all the NPCs in South Barrens the Stormwind tabard, including the ones near the war machines and down the second causeway. That would have everything make sense without resorting to flavor text.
Ah well.
llcjay2003 Mar 16th 2012 11:36AM
"although how, exactly, a spinning, glowing windchime with no hands is carrying all that stuff is anybody's guess."
Mmmmmagic!
Drakkenfyre Mar 16th 2012 11:44AM
I would expect a better question is why would he need guards to begin with?
You could actually get A'dal to attack things back in Burning Crusade (still might be able to) but it was very rare, and you had to kite specific enemies to him. If I remember correctly, he hits for over 200,000, and this was when your standard tank might have 15,000 life, and the absolute, top-of-the-line Druid tank had a little over 30,000.
Assuming he could do damage like A'dal, he could one-shot any non-raid boss at the time.
Boobah Mar 16th 2012 4:02PM
A'dal didn't always hit that hard. Once upon a time some enterprising folks kited a Fel Reaver to the middle of Shattrath and, as I understand it, the bot killed A'dal. The next Tuesday A'dal was buffed to the powerhouse he is now.
Killik Mar 16th 2012 6:21PM
The simple answer: those guys are the ones carrying his stuff.
Alternative answer: those guys are there to distract you with shiny trinkets while G'eras leeches away the Justice Points from your soul, with his sinister vampiric windchime powers.
Keith DeVault Mar 16th 2012 11:55AM
Q4tQ
Any news or predictions for the ever-elusive 11th character slot?
Ringo Flinthammer Mar 16th 2012 12:29PM
Prediction: You'll hear about this next week.
Twowolves Mar 16th 2012 11:59AM
Isn't there anything cool Blizz could do with Deadwind Pass? Sure, it's a small zone but it's strategically located and a few quest hubs wouldn't hurt.
Ringo Flinthammer Mar 16th 2012 12:29PM
It certainly is ripe for spooky stuff being added to it during Hallow's End or something. It's definitely a wasted opportunity of a zone.
And, honestly, who wouldn't want a reason to go back into Karazhan, in a post-TBC storyline?
Molly Mar 16th 2012 12:11PM
Question for The Queue: With resistances going by the wayside in MoP, what do you think Blizzard will do with vanilla-level crafted items that only have resistance stats? Some of those items (Brightcloth Robe from tailoring and the Volcanic set from leatherworking, for example) are great transmog pieces, but I'm worried they'll go the way of the dodo as a result of those stats being removed from gear. I'm hoping Blizz will keep them in the game for transmog's sake, but they're not exactly needed for leveling the professions so I'm worried Blizz will cut them.
Shinae Mar 16th 2012 1:03PM
There's at least one reason to keep them in the game: transmogrification!
My guess is that the resist stats will be changed to level- appropriate primary stats such as Intellect for cloth, Strength/Stam for plate, and randomly Int or Agility for leather and mail.
Fweet Mar 16th 2012 1:56PM
I was wondering the same thing about consumables. There are alchemy potions/elixirs that boost magic resistance. Will these be poofed or changed to have new effects?
Ringo Flinthammer Mar 16th 2012 12:27PM
"Frankly, I don't think the decision was a bad one from a time management perspective. Would you rather Blizzard spend time redeveloping a zone that was already redeveloped or work on someplace that really, really needed that revamp because it hadn't been touched in seven years?"
I love the long-needed revamp that Arathi Highlands ... oh, wait. :(
Paul Mar 16th 2012 2:06PM
I think Arthi Highlands was a victim of the aforementioned "not enough time to do everything" and a internal concern about continually kicking the Alliance out of the northern zones. Admittedly, there are new Horde quests in Arathi, so we get that feeling anyway.
I also feel that they failed to come up with a good idea, and considering how much Stromgarde get's brought up at Blizzcons and any lore discussions, it's actually understandable why. They would have to do so much work to Arathi that 2 or more zones would've been left out in it's place.
Nina Katarina Mar 16th 2012 12:30PM
You had posts for the first couple of Mists Screenshots Of The Day, but you haven't given us a place to talk about yesterday's screenshot with the bridge and the kites, or today's picture of a Forsaken in a cool looking hat. Aren't these news? Or are you guys just too busy?
Ata Mar 16th 2012 1:31PM
I think they were drawing our attention to the new feature on the main WoW page rather than making it a new sort of article here too..the screenshot galleries have a lot of space for talking on the images now, we don't need to discuss here...though it's nice, of course.
Caylynn Mar 16th 2012 12:31PM
Okay, so my birthday is Monday and my husband is getting me something from the Blizzard store, but I don't know what. Do I not have the best husband ever? I can't wait to see what goodie is in my email.
So my Q: if you could have anything from the Blizzard store, what would you choose? (Must be available in Canada.)
hwacha Mar 16th 2012 12:44PM
Lil' KT is the best thing ever.
Lil' Ragnaros is a close second.