The Queue: Shiny raptor toesies

Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A feature for all of Blizzard’s games! Have a question for the Blizzard Watch staff? Leave it in the comments!

Fun fact: There’s a nice glyph that will turn the Shaman ghost wolf form into a ghost raptor instead.

Even more fun fact: Sheddle Glossgleam will happily make your raptor talons sparkle if you ask politely.

The end result of these two discoveries was everything I could have ever hoped for.

Fun story: Way back in the early days of WoW, non-combat pets were items you carried around in your bags. When they first introduced the ability to “learn” a pet and eliminated the bag space issue, there was a problem where people suddenly lost their beloved pets. Blizzard patched in a solution, and people got their pets back — but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a problem like that one happen since. So you’re probably safe insofar as not “losing” anything you’ve learned in the wardrobe — even if there’s an issue, they have backups of all this information. They wouldn’t just leave players hanging in the case of a lost or malfunctioning wardrobe, they’d find a way to fix it.

I think by this point in time they’re probably used to it — I mean, you’re living in Dalaran, mage capital of the world. I’m sure strange magic stuff is pretty commonplace there. I bet you both inns and all shops have some kind of secret back room with comfortable chairs and seat belts installed, just in case of emergencies. I’m honestly surprised they don’t have signs around town warning visitors and tourists as much: “Warning: City May Move In Event of Catastrophic Emergency.”

Nope! Your garrison is no longer a glorified gold farm as of Legion. You’ve spent an entire expansion in there, it’s time to go see the rest of the world now.

Yes — all Warcraft soundtracks are available on iTunes, as well as the Taverns of Azeroth soundtrack, which features tracks from Azeroth’s inns. You can get the soundtracks from other Blizzard games as well — even the Overwatch soundtrack is available for purchase, if you want that one.

Prices are always high at the beginning of an expansion, regardless of whether or not there was an easily obtainable gold source in the previous expansion or not. Fortunately, you’re going to have a lot more gold in your pockets just from leveling — you get a lot of gold from quests and selling quest rewards you don’t need. But really, I usually stay away from the AH altogether for the first couple of months of a new expansion release — if I need something, I’ll either go out of my way to farm it, or just wait until the prices invariably come down.

Short answer: It was Kazzak. Longer answer from the Burning Crusade game manual: “With the future in peril, a relic of the past has also surfaced, radiating renewed energy. This relic has enabled Lord Kazzak to activate the current Dark Portal, thereby reopening the gateway to the shattered realm of Outland.”

Kazzak was stranded, you see, after the events of the Third War. After the Burning Legion was defeated, Kazzak and his Legion forces retreated to the Blasted Lands. Once there, all he could really do was terrorize the local populace, and wait, somewhat impatiently, for the Dark Portal to open back up. It’s never been confirmed in game to my knowledge, but I’m pretty sure that’s why he chose that particular location — it was the closest he could get to Outland.

Once he found that relic, he was able to open the Dark Portal himself, and he didn’t stick around. He immediately took off through the Dark Portal to go lead the Legion forces on Outland, and left Highlord Kruul behind to both defend the portal, and look for the shards of a powerful weapon — the Glaive of the Aspects — while he was at it.

That’s it for today’s Queue — if you have any questions you’d like to see answered, be sure to leave them in the comments below!