The Queue: The Queue and patch 6.2

Today’s title rhymes, a feat I am excessively proud of. But enough about my terrible rhyming skills: let’s dive right into today’s questions, where we talk about The Queue, elemental runes, Hearthstone, Diablo 3, and more!

The trouble here is, as you’ve guessed, that we all have our own routines. Alex wrote The Queue yesterday at 5AM, but I’m writing this  at 2AM — and if my day had been less busy I’d probably have done it earlier so I could get to bed in a timely (ha!) fashion and not have to worry about finishing it in the morning. I suspect you’re usually fine so long as you get questions in before midnight; most of us are night owls and write The Queue late (or early, depending on how you look at it). Unfortunately, though, there are other reasons we might overlook questions: some questions we just don’t have answers to, some questions we might not be the right people to answer (for example, I usually skip past lore questions because I’m not an expert), and sometimes we just have a ton of good questions and pick the ones we think we have something interesting to write about.

And, yes, I’m already questioning whether this was one of those, because it doesn’t seem like I have any helpful advice. In short: everyone’s process putting together The Queue is a little different and every day the questions we have are a little different… which can make it hard to predict what will be answered when.

It’s time to play another round of “Guess the Patch 6.2 Release Date!” Because of Blizzard’s “when it’s done” release schedule, it can be hard to guess when the next content patch will arrive — but considering the size of patch 6.2 and the amount of work Blizzard still seems to be doing, I’d speculate you have some time.

Which is good, because it’s going to take time to collect the 900 runes you need to collect. If you manage to get every possible drop (clearing Foundry every week as well as getting runes from missions and work orders) you can hit that number in as few as three weeks — but if you’re less lucky or less dedicated to getting every possible drop, you can spend a lot longer at it (expect to spend eight weeks if you’re just clearing Foundry). So the question is… which countdown clock runs out first? I’m guessing we’ve got at least another month of 6.2 on the PTR, but I don’t think I’d put money on my ability to predict patch release dates.

Regardless, however, good luck!

Blizzard has been showing a lot of faith in upcoming titles, not just with Overwatch, but with Heroes of the Storm, too, which has not only a full line of merchandise but has also become a competitive esport before the game’s even entered open beta. Early merchandise certainly happens beyond Blizzard games, most notably for large titles from large publishers, where they have faith that the game will perform — and they’ll be able to push the merchandise. (A tournament on ESPN before a game’s even in beta, though? That’s just weird.)

Mostly, I think this speaks to the confidence Blizzard has in these games. The company doesn’t make games to fail: it spends a lot of time developing and honing titles and it’s pretty sure they’ll be successful well before they make it to market. And if Blizzard thinks it’s working on a flop? The company’s not shy about canceling titles that it’s dumped a lot of development time into if they aren’t going to work — just look at Titan, which was in the works from 2007 to 2014 before being canned (though certainly parts of Titan went on to be part of Overwatch). In short, if Blizzard wasn’t already sure this was going to work, we wouldn’t have even seen a game announcement, much less merchandise — Overwatch has come this far because the company’s convinced it has a hit on its hands, even though we’re still months from a beta.

We’re already on it! Or, more precisely, Matticus is already on it. Though we’ve recently been highlighting Blackrock Mountain adventure mode guides, we did talk about a few deck builds before Blackrock Mountain was released — and there will be more in the future. Look for a new Hearthstone column from Matt every Sunday!

If you’ve bought the tokens and kept them as tokens in your inventory, they’ll still be there just as they were when you left. If, however, you’ve bought the tokens and used them, then that balance is applied to your account immediately. Just as though you’d paid for your subscription with a game time card, once those days are applied to your account you can’t remove them — they’ll tick down one day at a time, even if you no longer have a recurring subscription set up.

If you’ve used your tokens and leave for two months, you’ll only have four months waiting for you when you get back (which still isn’t bad). If, however, your tokens are still in your inventory, you’ll be good to go with six months of game time when you return.

“Worth it” is unfortunately subjective here. I enjoy playing seasonal heroes, but it’s not because it’s necessarily worth it: it’s because it gives me a reason to jump into the game again and start fresh, playing with friends who are all at the same level as I am. It’s a fun restart — but is it the best investment of my gaming time? Maybe not.

I’m an immensely casual Diablo 3 player because I tend to be easily bored. When I initially played through the game’s story mode, I saw little reason to keep grinding through the same content over and over to improve my level and my gear — I played less and less until I didn’t play at all. This means that my more hardcore friends would outpace me — and when I did log on, no one I knew was in the level range to play with me, leaving me further discouraged.  But that makes seasons perfect for me, because it gives me a specific reason to dive back in and play with my friends.

The rewards include transmog pieces and legendaries, which are certainly nice — but they aren’t really a reason to spend as much time as it takes to level a character from scratch to get them. If you’re playing seasonally, you should play it because it sounds fun (or because you just really need a certain transmog item), not necessarily because the rewards will bowl you over…. because for the amount of time you’ll need to invest to get them, they probably won’t.

That’s all for today, dear readers! Check back tomorrow when Matthew Rossi will be helming The Queue.