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The QueueSep 13, 2017 12:00 pm CT

The Queue: I am not Liz

What a weird Wednesday we’ve wandered into, where one writer is — without warning — whisked away to write wisecracks in response to your whimsical wonderings. We will begin with a question which, as I am wont to do, wrecks this word-warfare with woeful wit.

“What?” you wonder. “Wreck in what way?”

Well, see, the question is about… Heroes of the Storm.


CYPHER WONDERS:

QftQ: I logged in to do some HotS, and ended up on the Raven Tribute maps and saw a bunch of red in the background. It took me a moment to realize that all the trees typically just brown or green now had apples on them ready to pick.

I spent far too long trying to figure this out, but I ended up finding an old gameplay video from a year or two ago that helped answer it. It seems that there is at least one set of trees — above the rightmost keep on the blue/left team’s side — that has apples on them, both now and in the past.

If you’re seeing apples on every tree, that’s different, but I only found this one particular set when I checked out the map on live.


GALDWYNN WANTS TO KNOW THINGS:

Do you think Blizz stashes some pet designs in case something like Irma, or the Mexico earthquake happens? Or do you think they were going to release Shadow anyway, but since Irma happened they are donating the proceeds instead of pocketing them? Or does Blizz always plan on doing a donation pet at the end of the year, but they moved the date up to help out relief efforts?

So, I remember at some point or another in the past, someone asked if (or maybe suggested that?) Blizzard “pocket” pets for when something bad happens and donations could help. Their response was something along the lines of that being… well, kinda dark, and working on the assumption that something bad will happen. Which, yes, that may always be true, but it still doesn’t look good if someone (least of all an entire company) has something in their back pocket in case lots of people die.

But, for a more definitive answer, we turn to the official blog post announcing Shadow:

Due to recent natural disasters around the world—and the great needs of those affected—we’ve decided not to wait for BlizzCon 2017 to release this year’s new charity pet. The immediacy of the events, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, flooding in South Asia, and countless other crises, have shown we need to act now.

So yeah. They have a charity pet every year, and it’s usually released in winter. In a way, I guess you could say that’s “pocketing” a pet, but I think of it more as an annual holiday charity.


LOTHARFOX CONTINUES THE SUB-RACE CONVERSATION:

With talk of subraces, are these simply skin colors? Or are these almost like new races?

For the Tauren, obviously Taunka and Yaungol have different models, and would be a different look that affected how gear fit them.

But for dwarves, if we had Dark Iron and Wildhammer, would they look exactly the same except with different skin options?

{PB} In my mind, sub-races in WoW would be more or less different skin colors. After all, they use the same wireframe model in almost all cases. The exception to that would be the upright Trolls, which share a wireframe model with Thrall, if I remember correctly.

I think the difficult part of adding sub-races is that they’d either need their own starter zones, or it would have to be explainable why the Wildhammer (for example) are suddenly down in Dun Morogh. I would be 100% okay with some hand-wavey “they traveled here because reasons the end” excuse if it meant we got sub-races, but I’m not sure Blizzard would be happy with something like that.


LORD OMEDON AND MOON HAVE RESPECTIVE QUESTIONS THAT GO HAND-IN-HAND:

Q4tQ: So, uh… refresh my memory via precedents and such… but given the “established pace,” shouldn’t we have word on 7.3.5 on the PTR like… REEEAL soon? Like well before Blizzcon?

QftQ: With this being the week that fully opens up Argus, how long are we expecting it to be before Antorus opens?

To answer both of you, the current pattern of content releases tells us we’ll likely see a PTR this week or next, and that Antorus will probably be open in early November (right after BlizzCon seems the safe bet).


ZEL HAS A LONG-AF QUESTION:
Q4TQ: I was recently watching the first season of BoJack Horseman on Netflix, and about two thirds of the way through there’s a moment that totally made a character click into place for me. The lovable slacker Todd (Aaron Paul) has just put together that his recent creative endeavor was ruined by someone else. Over the course of this realization he has been stringing together ever more absurd logic leaps and with each new connection he gets more and more excited, only to finally hit the truth and he goes from his moment of triumph to the crushing weight of what he just put together. It’s a profoundly sad moment for him which he nails the delivery on. In that moment Todd gelled as a character to me, more than just a loose collection of silly hijinks, he was someone who could actually be a part of the world and felt like he belonged.
Playing in 7.3 I just had the same thing happen with Illidan during the “Rejection of the Gift” cinematic. Illidan as a character never really wowed me, he always felt forced. He was the magic win button in his storylines. He helped stop the Legion in the War of the Ancients, he made the new Well at Hyjal, he was integral to beating the Legion in Warcraft 3, and now X’era has been laying the fate of the Universe at his feet. Having him stand up to his destined role made him feel more alive and a better character for it. We’ve all had moments where our fate seems out of our hands, where nothing we do will change anything about the World (of Warcraft) and seeing Illidan do something about it finally brought me around on him. I think that this is Blizzards best storytelling to date. With characters finally acting more like people who might have normal reactions to some of the craziness going on around them.
What do you think of Illidan and the other Story characters of 7.3? Do you think that this is some of Blizzards best story work to date? Have there been any other characters that seemed to be favorites to a lot of people who just didn’t work for you until one moment that helped you see them in a new light?

For starters, I like Illidan more after that cinematic, but I am not entirely sold on him — it humanized him, but didn’t make up for everything that bothered me about him before. I am absolutely loving everything that’s happening with Turalyon and Alleria (<33 bae). Mists had some great storytelling, but Legion is passing it up with the latest content, if you ask me.

As for a character I had to come around to… I never had super strong feelings about Tyrande, but her portrayal in War Crimes made me realize what a badass she could be when she needed. I would not want her to ever put me on blast.


WE’RE ALL MITCH NOW:

Lotharfox: Mitch told us he’s not Adam, so we know that. And Liz, while a bit uncertain, has told us she’s not Mitch. But, if Mitch =/= Adam, and Liz =/= Mitch, it could still be that Liz is Adam. Is it coincidence that Adam started writing the Queue regularly at the same time Mitch and Liz got separate Queues? No, it isn’t, and I’m lacking any proof for my claim.

MoveWoW: Aren’t we all Mitch at some level? O.o

I don’t have anything to add here, but I appreciate the discourse.


DILLENE LETS ME STEAL AND PROPERLY CREDIT SOME GOOD IDEAS:

So if we were to have a light side faction and a void side faction, what would we call them? “Army of the Light” is already established I guess. “Army of Darkness” would make sense for the void faction but what else could they use that wouldn’t lend itself to copyright infringement issues?

Off the top of my head*…

*Okay, some of those were not off the top of my head.

KALCHEUS HIGHMOUNTAIN HAS TWO QUESTIONS. TWO! AH AH!

Q4TQ: How come using an Argus portal doesn’t take me to the portal on the Vindicaar? It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s just that it’s ruining my immersion!

I still have to do 3 invasions to kill the Argus world boss, right?

  1. I’m not actually sure, but I have noticed that sometimes loading into the Vindicaar puts my character there before the ship itself, which makes me fall for a bit before being teleported back up. Perhaps having the portal take you to a lower floor would have occasionally caused you to hit the point beneath the ship that kills you? Who knows. I’m going with that because otherwise I have no idea.
  2. Nope! You can head to a Greater Invasion Point whenever you please. You will, however, also be able to get a quest from Illidan to do 3 normal invasions, so don’t forget to do that before you head to the lesser invasions.

XIV, IT GOES 1, 2, 3, 5, 7… OH WAIT, YOU SAID NAARU:

So… graveyards in Macaroni have a naaru instead of a spirit. The text above says Prime Naaru. Xe’ra doesn’t seem so exclusive right now. Thoughts?

When you first meet Xe’ra, she tells you she’s “one of the first naaru to be forged here during the great ordering of the cosmos” (emphasis mine). So she’s definitely not the only prime Naaru — despite being referred to as “the” Prime Naaru by Velen and Turalyon at times — but given the fact that the Prime Naaru are only in the Spirit Realm, Xe’ra may have been one of the last alive… until Blizzard decides to add another, of course.

That’s The Queue for today! Normally, I’d encourage you to “help” Liz find questions with totally relatable chatter, but since Anne is likely to follow me, I’d like to not experience her wrath, so try to actually ask questions.

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