Login with Patreon
The QueueMay 19, 2017 11:00 am CT

The Queue: Louder than Love

Chris Cornell died this week. There’s a personal soundtrack to the years between 1990 and 2000 that I accumulated, and he’s all over it — Seasons, Birth Ritual, Room a Thousand Years Wide  — so it immediately hit me how many times of my life were related to him and his work. Doing laundry in my college dorm listening to Superunknown, going on my first real college date to a bar where Jesus Christ Pose was playing.

I don’t have any commentary on what happens aside from that it’s a blow to me and a lot of others who the man touched with his music.

Okay. Let’s talk about stuff.


PRACTICALLY HALF THE COMMENTS

Some variation on a discussion of playable Naga, Vrykul, etc.

I may be in a minority here but I’m actually thinking that we don’t need any more playable races. We have a lot of them now. When World of Warcraft started, Alliance had Gnomes, Humans, Dwarves and Night Elves, and Horde had Orcs, Trolls, Tauren and Forsaken. Flash forward to now and we have Draenei, Blood Elves, Worgen, Goblins and Pandaren. That’s thirteen playable races. That’s not an insignificant number of options. Even if you divide them up by faction, each faction now has seven options, since both factions can play as Pandaren.

I have argued for playable Vrykul in the past, and probably will again. This is just me thinking about it while reading your comments. I mean, Vrykul are cool, but they feel too savage and samey for the Alliance (I mean, they’re essentially giant Humans with a slightly Cro-Magnon feel to them) and too Human for the Horde. I mean, I could see the Horde getting Ogres to balance it out, but it’s still more complexity I’m not sure we need.

That said, I love the armor on Ogre mobs in Highmaul and if playable Ogres means we get that semi-Roman looking gear, I’d be all for it.


SCOTT LEYES

Having Density 2 on the Blizzard/Battle.net/Launcher/App/PartyMachine kinda puts the kibosh on Blizz releasing their own FPS. What’s next?

I have no idea. I’m not going to belabor my ‘sandbox open world RPG’ thing because we’ve all heard me agitate for that one before (but please) but based on Blizzard’s love for multiplayer persistent online gameplay, I think a 4X might work. Starcraft seems tailor made for this, really.


SCUNOSI

You know I was thinking last night about seasonal events in OW, now that the anniversary’s been announced and I believe they finally gave confirmation that all the seasonal events would eventually be returning. I never really had any doubts myself as a WoW-player as one-time-only events are actually quite rate, but I guess I could see OW-only players being concerned they’d never see X event again.

This got me going down memory lane and actually, I did think of a pretty valid reason people could have been concerned, especially regarding the Summer Games event. I remember back in BC when WoW had an Olympics event with accompanying goodies including a tabard and pet. I feel like at the time it was assumed the event would be brought back at least every 4 years if not every year, but as I recall it’s never been brought back since.

I wonder if anyone has any ideas why they never brought it back? If licensing was a concern (I can’t remember if it was officially licensed like the Mtn. Dew stuff) it seems like a quick re-branding to “Summer Games” rather than the official Olympics brand would’ve made it very easy to use again. It just seems odd for a non-anniversary (therefore not tied to a specific year) event to not be an annual thing.

I remember the 2008 event because it rewarded the Spirit of Competition, and my wife very much wanted it so we got it for her. Blizzard has talked about bringing it back (since as you can see it wasn’t branded as an Olympics tie-in, so there wouldn’t be any licensing fees to pay) but they never have. I really have no idea why, we’ve had the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics since and they could easily have done so.


TKC

Transmog days that end in Y double play. Skimpy nelf fury warrior mog. Yea or nay?

I have to be honest, I imagine my Warrior looking at yours and saying ‘Aren’t you cold?’ But I suppose in a zone with fel eruptions everywhere that’s less of a concern. I’m not a huge fan of the chaps/bustier look myself, hut everyone has their own preferences and the set does all seem to work together fine.

I like the color matching. I don’t like those weapons (never have) but that’s a personal taste preference. I’d suggest Bonereaver’s Edge if you want to somewhat match the color and retain the short, almost a 1h size of the Dragon Wing’s you have.

But seriously, aren’t you cold?


SOEROAH

QftQ:

Leaving aside the politics of the Pathfinder system as a whole, I think basically everyone agrees that Pathfinder Part 1 is traditionally underwhelming.

Other than straight-up rewarding flying, what do you think it should reward as a stepping stone toward that goal? A mount? A better speed boost?

Personally, I think 20% is almost nothing, and in my ideal world I’d like it to be a 160-200% speed boost (over base speed, so a 60-100% boost over what it normally is) and allows your flying mounts to fly for something like two seconds at a time, with a ten second cooldown once they land, so basically a controllable, decent jump. That way it’s not straight-up skip-content kinda flying or something you can AFK for, but the speed and utility ought to be enough to help you cross most terrain with enough patience, without letting you, say, climb to the top of Highmountain trivially.

I thought much the same as you on that 20% boost until I tried to group with someone who had it when I didn’t. She was gone from sight every time I tried to keep up with her and it made it necessary for me to get Pathfinder Part 1 as soon as I could just so I didn’t rip my hair out in frustration. So I’m not at all sure I endorse making it even harder for people who don’t have it yet to keep up with people who do.

I’d sooner it rewarded a mount of some kind. Or a transmog cloak that looks like a pair of feathered wings or something cool like that.I think the idea of allowing your flying mounts to fly 2 seconds with a ten second cooldown would end up either being unworkable or annoying, so I’m going to stick with ‘new mount or transmog item’ and maybe a pet of some kind. Cool stuff that’s not going to provide any sort of imbalance.


ARAN SAMSON

In alternate Draenor, Ner’Zhul had a pretty strong connection with the void. Will wee see this manifest in some way with the Lich King?

No, because that Ner’zhul was a very different orc from the one who became the Lich King.  The Ner’zhul who displays those Void powers actually had access to the Dark Star, a Naaru in the void cycle, essentially on the edge of becoming a Void God like Entropius or Decimatus. Our Ner’zhul never felt the need to break the strictures of his clan and tap into Void magics because he wasn’t under the threat of the Iron Horde destroying his clan the way that other Ner’zhul was.

This isn’t to say the Lich King is incapable of touching Shadow magic, but it seems more necromantic in focus.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. Hug somebody you love. Let them know you care and you’re there for them. You never know when that’ll help.

Blizzard Watch is made possible by people like you.
Please consider supporting our Patreon!

Filed Under: Louder Than Love
Advertisement

Join the Discussion

Blizzard Watch is a safe space for all readers. By leaving comments on this site you agree to follow our  commenting and community guidelines.

Toggle Dark Mode: