The Queue: Medic!

Okay, I get it: everyone’s excited about Rexxar joining Heroes of the Storm. However, I’m more excited about the StarCraft heroes to come — especially the Medic. Because, really, who wouldn’t want to play a support that can airlift in and out of an area with ease?

Still, I get it, you like Rexxar and Misha. That’s fine. I’ll just airlift myself directly into today’s Queue questions.

We’re just coming out of a long run of Diablo content in Heroes of the Storm, and though Rexxar doesn’t quite fit in with this theory I suspect the game will be delving into StarCraft next. Why? Because the only unreleased heroes they’ve announced are from the StarCraft franchise: the warrior Artanis and the support Medic. Of those, I expect Artanis to come first because Blizzard announced him first — but since the two announcements were right on one another’s heels it could really go either way. Whatever’s coming next, we’ll probably see it in three to four weeks.

For skins, if they do go with a StarCraft theme, then I’d expect to see Warcraft and Diablo characters to get StarCraft-inspired makeovers. (Ghost Sylvanas, anyone?)

For Aiur!

Despite the fact that Blizzard is starting to do more announcements at third-party events, I don’t think they’ll be abandoning BlizzCon any time soon. With more new titles than ever, it’s going to become increasingly difficult for Blizzard to cover everything in the limited time and space they have for BlizzCon. Sure, they could expand the convention to cover additional days or to take place in a larger space, but it makes a lot more sense for them to spread the news out and leave BlizzCon for deeper dives into content that really cater to a fan audience (rather than a general gaming audience).

Doing events beyond BlizzCon keeps Blizzard games in potential players’ minds and in the gaming press, while holding everything back for BlizzCon just means there’s less for everyone to get get excited about year-round. Sharing the love, especially as Blizzard has added new titles to the roster, seems like a smart marketing move — and it’s better for fans located in other parts of the world who can’t necessarily make it to BlizzCon.

I still expect BlizzCon to be packed with news this year, with plenty of new stuff about Legion… even though BlizzCon attendees didn’t get the Legion announcement itself.

As to the band not being announced… maybe it’s just me, but it seems like they inevitably announce that late in the game. I’m sure it will come up soon, though. (Now that I’ve written this, Blizzard will probably announce it immediately and make this answer inaccurate before it even gets published.)

Though I can only speak for myself and my party-mates, it feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve run any of these encounters. Wrath of the Lich King came out in 2008 and Burning Crusade came out in 2007 — and that’s just a long time to keep dungeon strategies in your head.

I certainly felt rusty diving into Timewalking, and sometimes it took a wipe or two to remember that, oh, this is how that mechanic works. For my part, I felt things coming back to me — things I probably hadn’t remembered or thought about in years — as I played, eventually feeling quite certain of how the content went… but it took time for me to reach that point.

In a crummy timewalking dungeon, I’d advise patience insomuch as possible. Even if everyone played these when they were new — and players who came along after those expansions launched may well not have — it’s been a while. Timewalking is rather like going down memory lane together… with all the pain points and wipes that can imply. But if you know how the fights work, a reminder about mechanics wouldn’t be misplaced (and some group members might appreciate you jogging their memories).

Hang in there, though, and you’ll get the loot eventually. (After all, if you want the mount collection, you’ll have to hang in there.)

Okay, let me preface this by saying I am a lousy Hearthstone player and you probably shouldn’t take my advice. Got it? Good.

That being said, I’m amused by the possibilities of playing a Warlock deck along the lines of the infinite Dreadsteed deck we saw recently. With deathrattles triggering twice as often, that seems like this build would only get more ridiculous. And, heck, even if it doesn’t win it’s bound to be fun, right?

Though we don’t publicize it — in part because we don’t always follow it — we actually do have a schedule for class columns:

• Paladin (Holy): Monday
• Monk: Monday
• Paladin (Protection): Tuesday
• Shaman (Restoration/Elemental): Wednesday
• Shaman (Enhancement): Thursday
• Rogue: Thursday
• Paladin (Retribution): Thursday
• Priest (Shadow): Thursday
• Priest (Holy/Discipline): Thursday
• Hunter: Friday
• Warrior: Friday
• Death Knight: Saturday
• Warlock: Saturday
• Mage: Sunday
• Druid: Sunday, though the column is currently on hiatus while we look for a replacement for Chase Hasbrouck, who’s stepped away from the game.

Though class columns only go up once or twice a month, there are enough of them that you should see a new one almost every day… as long as we keep to the schedule, which, I have to repeat, we don’t always do — sometimes, despite everyone’s best intentions deadlines slip or content is pushed back because of a busy day. For this week’s class columns, you can look for Shadow Priest later today, Warrior tomorrow, and Death Knight over the weekend.

That’s all for today’s Queue! As always, leave your questions in the comments for Mr. Matthew Rossi to answer tomorrow.