The Queue: This header is Mitch’s fault

I had a funny intro all written up in my head and ready to go. All I needed was a solid Wrath of the Lich King screenshot and it would have been perfect. But instead you get this, because Mitch derailed my line of thinking by sending in this screenshot. Which we of course had to have an argument about, because this is clearly a gross invasion of that seal’s privacy.

I mean, really, that kind of behavior is just not cool. Leave the guy to enjoy a nice bubble bath in peace, wouldn’t you?

Unfortunately, none of us have seen Dog… at least not yet. When I asked the team if there had been any Dog sightings, Alex responded in typical Alex fashion:

I must be heartless because I don’t give a damn about that dumb nameless dog.

Alex’s heartlessness aside, I think I don’t think I’m the only one who’s attached to Dog. We found him on Pandaria and saved him from starvation, after which he followed us home to our farm. Then he followed us even further, to our Garrison on Draenor. Is he going to abandon us now? Or did we abandon him? (Cue crying over Jurassic Bark.)

If he doesn’t show up in Legion, I at least hope he found a good home somewhere — preferably with someone who doesn’t have a busy raid schedule and can stay home to scritch his ears.

Mistah Jay posted a link to Diablo 3’s official blog, and he’s right: that’s usually the best place to find basic info. The downside is that the info isn’t always in one place or organized to make it easy to find… so here’s the 101:

• There’s an all new seasonal journey, in which you complete a series of achievements to earn rewards. For completing Chapters 1 – 4, you’ll get a full class set. For completing the rather more difficult Conqueror chapter, you’ll earn an extra stash tab. For a full rundown on the journey, see the Diablo forums.
• New Conquests, which are season-specific achievements.
• Cosmetic rewards including more of the Conqueror’s Transmogrification set as well as a portrait frame, the Wickerman pet, and a pair of wings.
• The ability to reuse an old character in a new season via Season Rebirth. This resets your character back to level 1 and drops them into the latest season — it’s a good way to play in the season without using any new character slots.

The Season started on January 15 and is set to last for about three months — so get to it if you want to complete your seasonal journey and collect your class set!

However, while you didn’t ask about it, the new season launched shortly after patch 2.4 went live — and the patch had its own new batch of content:

• New zone Greyhollow Island, located in Act 5 in Adventure Mode.
• New sub-zones the Eternal Woods in The Ruins of Sescheron and the Royal Quarters in Leoric’s Manor.
• New set dungeons, which are dungeons designed — rather than randomly generated — to test your abilities using your shiny new class set. Diablo Fans has a great rundown of where to find each set dungeon and complete it.
• You can now pay for an extra chance to upgrade your legendary gems in a Greater Rift — but the higher level the rift, the more it will cost.

Though I definitely have some quibbles with the current Artifact system — like how we can get Artifacts for alternate specs and level them up — as a whole I really like it. I enjoy the story elements of picking up these powerful, lore-filled weapons and using them in defense of Azeroth… and having claimed them, it’s hard to see why we’d set them aside when the next challenge comes along. (Though the real question there is just what will be a bigger challenge than the Legion?)

So, yes, I hope the system continues and your Artifact weapon continues to level up with you… and prevent you from having to endlessly raid to get that one weapon that never seems to drop.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Did I say yes?

With the general devaluation of professions that came with Warlords of Draenor, gathering professions feel more useless than ever (though crafting professions aren’t much better off). While class halls don’t have the same easy gathering methods that Garrisons did (at least not right now), which might give gathering some value in Legion, gathering professions are hardly exciting. Roll them into their associated crafting profession and let us do something more interesting.

Okay, I admittedly was not going to touch this hot topic but when I asked on Twitter if anyone had questions for the Queue he reminded me that he did. So here I am, trying to answer it — and hopefully without starting a war over it.

I am personally of the opinion that the distinction between alpha and beta is a semantic one. Yes, an alpha’s an earlier version of a beta, but betas can be pretty rough, too. I even think that it may be a good sign that Blizzard is letting players into the dev process earlier than usual, because they’re taking feedback on the game even in this unfinished stage and addressing player concerns (even if not as much as we’d like them to). So if the option is to have an alpha now or wait through weeks (or months) of silence before Blizzard felt the game was polished enough to be a beta… I’d rather have this.

But this is starting to feel like that long, content-less slog at the end of Mists. It’s hard to get enthusiastic about playing my live character when there’s all of this upcoming content… and it’s hard to get enthusiastic about playing or leveling alts because I’m just going to have to learn them all over again. If we wind up waiting until September for Legion… ouch. That’s a long dry spell.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t go down that way, because I’m already so bored of Tanaan Jungle.

There’s a story behind the Karazhan Crypts. There has to be.

Probably involving your player character being followed around by ghosts you can’t see when you manage to sneak in and explore.

That’s all for today, dear readers. Be sure to check back tomorrow for another round of Q&A with Mr. Matthew Rossi!