The Queue: Black Friday

Man, Black Friday is just fun to type and say. I’m not a huge fan of runaway consumerism, but when I read the phrase Black Friday I imagine something far more portentous than what we actually get — it sounds like the day the first Space Needle gets destroyed by Martian Separatists or the arrival of the Taklarsaza flesh looms.

Instead, it’s the day people can and will beat you unconscious over who gets that Bratz doll.

Anyway, it’s the Queue. Here we are now.

If we look at actual human history, we have lots of examples of royal courts packed with intrigue, treachery and deceptions. With a race that has subsisted on pure magic for over 10,000 years (and had established a society that endured for thousands of years before that) Machiavellian deception is likely as natural as breathing to them. As a result, when everyone plots against everyone else, you can sort of hide in plain sight — you can engage in all sorts of shady dealings because everyone is engaging in shady dealings all the time.

In essence, in a society where everyone is hiring assassins and employing spies and mercenary thugs to gain short term advantage, long term planning is easily concealed. People will assume you’re up to something, and as a result, you can be up to something entirely different and disguise it as the expected scheming.

I don’t even have one yet.

Yes, it will be fine. I leveled a Warrior up to the 40’s or so with no heirlooms just before the Invasion event (then I went crazy and leveled like three of them to 100) and at no point did I use heirlooms on him and it was fine.  As long as you put in a little effort to keep gear current (get weapons from dungeons and or quests that give blue weapons if at all possible) it’s absolutely painless.

To my mind you don’t really start to feel like it matters until level 45 to 50.

I’m going to be both honest and a little salty here: Jaina’s lack of presence in Legion is a huge, glaring omission and a big sore spot for me. The opening was a huge example of why she should be here — in terms of raw magical power we don’t have any mages better than she is. I’m fine with her as a character saying No, I’m not going to work with the Horde, they can’t be trusted because, frankly, the Horde already had a pretty awful track record for working with the Alliance before they put Sylvanas “I straight up betrayed my allies in WCIII to get my hands on Lordaeron” Windrunner in charge. Frankly I’d be a touch leery of her too.

But in terms of there being no role for her in Legion, that’s just freaking absurd. My fear is (based on whispers in the Il’gynoth encounter) that they’re going to do something awful with her. That’s not at all what I want. I’d love to see Jaina come flying in on the deck of a Kul Tiras warship (yes, she’d make them fly, she’s a freaking wizard, Harry) with a host of them at her back and start tearing the Legion a new one, but whatever happens with her, I absolutely do not want yet another heel turn for a character. Not Jaina. Her anger at the Horde isn’t misplaced, and it’s time we deal with a character who is both justified and angry for once.

Sweet Anduin Lothar, yes.

They’re both awesome. Fury is the more explosive spec — I will never, ever get tired of hitting the Rampage button, it’s like you just go crazy and just start pounding on people with two huge hunks of metal — but Arms has some really awesomely fancy moves. A Colossus Smash sends my Night Elf up in the air to come crashing down on people, it feels like a colossal attack. No freaking way someone’s blocking that one.

Both Mortal Strike and Slam feel different. It’s not just swinging the sword or axe or mace or even polearm (I know the Artifact is a sword, I’ve written like two KYL’s about it, but yay transmog) there’s a heft to MS and Slam feels like you’re attacking with your whole body.

Plus with the proper talents you can be a lot harder to kill, which is fun.

Quite frankly, in a vacuum (if you’re not paying attention to relative power compared to other classes) just as aesthetic experiences all three Warrior specs feel awesome. I encourage you to play as whatever strikes your fancy, they’re all great.

Right now it’s a tossup between Hunter and Paladin. I’m willing to leave this up to y’all.

Which class should I level to 110 next?

— Matthew Rossi (@MatthewWRossi) November 25, 2016

And don’t think I don’t appreciate it, Husskies.

I do not think Sylvanas and Genn can work together, no. I suspect we’ll be going as the faction that deals with the Tomb of Sargeras, I think they called it the Legionfall or something similar at BlizzCon. As for Anduin, I suspect the people of Stormwind would prefer if their new king, who doesn’t have an heir and isn’t nearly as seasoned a fighter as his father was, not go traipsing off to another planet just yet. That’s what we have adventurers for.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. I hope those of you that celebrated a holiday yesterday had a good one. I’ll see y’all next week, take care and be happy.

Oh, and since it’s Black Friday, I’ll do some hype. Go buy my books. Go buy Alex’s books. Buy all sorts of books. Buy books completely unrelated to me. Just buy some books please.