The Queue: I have feelings about scenarios

Buckle up. Nerd rage ahead.

This isn’t a question, but I really wanted to get my two cents in. As someone who plays DPS these days, and plays DPS because he got tired of healing and tanking after doing it for years and years, scenarios ignoring the healer/tank/DPS trinity is what made them beautiful. Maybe it wasn’t great for tanks and healers, and that’s unfortunate, but it was the only group activity DPS could easily participate in. DPS were not shackled to the availability of tanks and healers.

Let’s say, as a DPS player, I have a free hour and I’d like to get something done in WoW. I want to queue up for a group activity. Oh hey, maybe I’ll queue for a wing of LFR! Oh, nope. The queue is over 40 minutes. How about a dungeon? Oh, 35 minutes. Neither of those options are viable. So what should I do? Nothing, I guess. I’ll log off and do something else.

In Mists of Pandaria, with scenarios, I could do 2-3 scenarios in that hour. No waiting for a queue. I’m in, I do my job, and then it’s done, and I got a little reward for it. Scenarios were something to do and that was what made them great. That’s why I want scenarios to make a comeback. In a game based so heavily on the holy trinity of tank/healer/DPS, tanks and healers own every other group activity. Until Blizzard implements a system that lets more DPS into dungeons relative to tanks/healers, let the DPS have their scenarios.

This actually surprised me: there does not appear to be a stablemaster in garrisons by default. You can unlock one by having the stables in your garrison, but given hunters need a stablemaster, tethering it to that specific building is odd. You can use the portal in your garrison to get to Ashran and use the stablemaster there, but I don’t think you should have to do that.

Bladespire Citadel and Karabor were both originally announced as faction capitals in this expansion. They backed away from that, but neglected to mention they backed away from it until shortly before launch. Both of those locations are massive and it’s obvious they originally intended to do more with them. You can’t get inside of Karabor anymore, but in beta, you could — it was huge, but untextured and unpopulated.

Initially, they gave a silly justification for it about how Ashran made more sense as a central hub for story purposes … and Blizzard, I love you, but that was the dumbest excuse ever. Ashran is so far separated from the story of the expansion that you can forget it exists. I think it’s clear they either ran out of time or they realized most players would be standing around in their garrisons anyway and it was easier to make Ashran with copy/paste assets from garrisons rather than put so much work into designing unique locales. Bladespire is in the same zone as the Horde garrison. Karabor is in the same zone as the Alliance garrison. While I would have loved to see Karabor, I can see why they’d opt not to do it from a time/effort point of view. Again: do I wish I could go to Karabor? Yes. But if my garrison is right next door, would I hop between them all that often? Not really.

Personally, I don’t think they cared about the lore/history of Draenor for that quest. It’s an easter egg for Burning Crusade players. Challe was the troll that hung around the super-creepy orphanage in the hills above Nagrand in Outland. You know, the orphanage with blood and guts and bones all over the place.

That quest wasn’t for the lorefiends. It was for the vets. And as a Burning Crusade vet, it was awesome.

Given I raid primarily through LFR? +100 Strength is pretty cool, I guess.

It’s possible, but seems unlikely. If I remember correctly, the developers’ previous reasoning for not allowing it is because battle pets are supposed to get participating players out in the world. You’re supposed to go out there and go adventuring while you hunt them down.