The Queue: RIP Gladiator Stance

Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A feature for all of Blizzard’s games! Have a question for the Blizzard Watch staff? Leave it in the comments!

Sadly, it’s true. I loved Gladiator Stance, so I’m sad to see it go. Their explanation is they’re focusing on the main talent specs in Legion to improve/tighten those. Personally, I’d love to see Gladiator Stance come back later. Fistweaving is also going away for Monks, but I have no particular attachment to that, as I don’t play a monk. On my warrior, though, I loved having an offensive playstyle that utilized the shield — a shield can be so much more than something that absorbs blows. The shield can be a weapon, too.

It seemed they were teasing that to me, too. If not a 5-man dungeon, then utilizing it in some other way. At the very least, we know the crypts beneath Karazhan are being used for certain artifacts — notably a warlock artifact — so it’s possible that was all they meant. I hope not, though. Karazhan is a cool place. With Khadgar (using Medivh’s bag of tricks) back in the picture, and with the Burning Legion running rampant, it’d be a good time to visit it again. I see that place as almost a character unto itself, and when looking at Legion’s cast of characters, Karazhan fits right in.

I’m making an enormous pot of chicken soup today. I thought about making dumplings to go with it, but man, the deliciousness isn’t quite worth the effort.

It entirely depends on the game. Some games, I do quite enjoy playing against other players and find it to be a good, casual laugh, win or lose. Blizzard games, however, are built to be competitive. Every system in Blizzard PvP games is made for climbing a ladder, building up your matchmaking rating, and so forth. Nearly every match is a constant struggle, and that kind of struggle turns me into a very angry person when I lose. Hilariously, what I’m saying is, when a game’s competitive scene is balanced, I hate it. I don’t mind getting stomp. I don’t mind stomping. I don’t mind the occassional really tough, satisfying win. But when every match is that tough, that dark Hulk-like part of me takes over and I become a very angry, exhausted person.

So yeah, in Blizzard games, I tend to stick to playing PVE or against an AI. I don’t like being that internet rage machine over something as silly as a video game. Overwatch having no vs AI mode is a bit disappointing to me, but I’m not going to write the game off until I get to play it myself. It might be a good time anyway! I never know which games will set me off until I play them. And if it sets me off, I generally stop playing it, because I don’t like the person I become in those games. That’s why I stopped doing arenas in WoW. I almost lost friends over it.

Nope! Since it’s currently a side project, it got pushed way, way down our priorities while BlizzCon was going on. We had some intense prep immediately before BlizzCon, tons and tons of coverage during BlizzCon, and recovery time afterwards. Now that we’re getting back on track, we’re going to start posting that stuff again.