The Queue: This will all be plate come Legion

That’s right, everything you see on the Night Elf above (minus the swords) will be plate armor in Legion. And man, I feel like that’s silly, because if any armor has ever not been plate, it is that collection of a scale corset and thigh high boots joined to hot pants that is the Glimmering Mail set.

This is the Queue. Let’s talk about Blizzard games.

Honestly, they need to do something. Look at this page for the upcoming Glimmering Plate set — you’ll notice that every piece of the set is plate except the bracers. (Technically, the Coif is also going to remain mail in Legion as well.) This is an absurd thing to do. If I log out tomorrow on my level 29 warrior and don’t log in again until after Legion drops, she’s going to be wearing plate except for her hat and bracers and that’s just weird.

I don’t really care how Blizzard fixes this. One easy fix is to just let people mog to whatever armor type — finally your Mage can mog to plate and call himself a Spellbreaker! But if we’re not going to do that, maybe just let all this under-40 mail count as either mail or plate depending on if you’re a mail wearer or a plate wearer.

Short answer: I don’t know.

Longer answer — the problem here is that only Warriors and Paladins use mail until level 40, when they both stop using it and only Hunters and Shamans start using it. There’s no overlap — mail is Warrior/Paladin only until 40, and as soon as a character hits 40, it flips over. (Technically this is an oversimplification, as Warriors and Paladins current can use mail after 40, they just generally try not to.)

But Druids, Rogues, Monks, Hunters and Shaman all use leather from 1 to 40. Hunters, Rogues, Enhancement Shaman, Windwalker and Brewmaster Monks and Feral/Guardian Druids use agi leather while Balance and Restoration Druids, Elemental and Restoration Shamans and Mistweaver Monks use int or int/spirit leather. Right now it’s all good. But there’s no huge switchover for leather the way there is for mail — it doesn’t go from strength to agi the way mail does. With the switch the way it is, it’s safe to assume that int mail intended for use by characters below level 40 is for Holy Paladins and switch it to plate, but you can’t do that with leather. What caster leather is specifically for Elemental Shaman and not Balance Druids? What agi leather belongs to Hunters and Enhancement Shaman vs. Rogues or Druids or Monks?

I know that Hunters and Shaman start with mail at level 1. Perhaps their quest gear will all be switched over to mail as well, and perhaps certain dungeon drops will be mail. Right now, I honestly don’t know how they intend to handle it.

The story of the game works fine when you’re leveling as long as you’re willing to just accept that some expansions are set in the past — BC, Wrath and Cataclysm, for example. It’s a little weirder because the 1 to 60 game is also set in Cataclysm, and if you’re Horde there’s a whole heck of a lot of Garrosh there, but it’s not insurmountable.

But, let me just say now, the actual leveling process itself is messed up. Talents modify abilities you don’t even have. You end up tanking/healing without key abilities that inform your whole class and it feels like you’re broken for like 40 levels after you hit level 10. Even with the ability to level fairly quickly, a class shouldn’t feel like it’s not working properly for fifty levels. This is not right.

I’ve been playing WoW for well over a decade at this point and even I have a hard time figuring out what I should be doing when I play a low level alt. My Monk alt got so confusing (and so lacking in depth) that I couldn’t stand playing it anymore. This is definitely a concern, and it needs to be fixed, because Monks are one of the newest classes, if they feel confusing to level, how do the other classes feel?

I am beyond terrible at jumping in WoW. So so terrible. Wailing Caverns? I still can’t make that jump. Blackfathom Deeps? Same thing. The various treasure jumping puzzles in Warlords? Can’t do them. I am not the guy to do a jumping puzzle, I get frustrated and angry.

I don’t expect that, no. For one thing, some players don’t want to hit those levels. I have characters I very deliberately keep at low level, turning off XP once I get them where I want them. Some folks do this to PvP (I do it to test stuff out) and would be very unhappy if they couldn’t do that anymore.

I think Blizzard implemented the boost to help solve the problem of people who don’t want to level through all the old game’s content, and they’ll likely stick with it for at least the next expansion.

Dalaran was (and is) an extremely magical city. To quote what Archimonde says as he destroys the city —

Let this scar signify the first blow against the mortal world. From this seal shall arise the doom of men, who, in their arrogance, sought to wield our fire as their own.

Blindly they build their kingdoms upon stolen knowledge and conceit. Now they shall be consumed by the very flame they sought to control.

Let the echoes of doom resound across this wretched world, that all who live may hear them and despair.

The spell in question isn’t a very practical one. It’s essentially a giant middle finger to mortal mages, a demonstration of just how much better at magic the Eredar are than we are. It would work on a city like Silvermoon or Suramar, some place heavily invested with magic, but a city like Stormwind wouldn’t be as easily destroyed.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. I’ll see you all Friday.