The Queue: Whimsyshire

Finally got to go to Whimsyshire this week — was killing a treasure goblin and boom a portal opened when he died and I ended up turning unicorns into paste. I felt really bad about it until the legendaries started dropping. Then I didn’t feel so bad.

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

I’m going to be honest. I don’t have a faction bias. I have an anti-Forsaken bias. I straight up don’t like them, as a player race in the game. I don’t think they should be playable, because their actions in game lore are so outright despicable that I dislike the immunity from repercussions being a playable race gives them. The Horde? Well, I didn’t like Garrosh’s Horde, so I’m not fond of our forever Cataclysm leveling experience, but I found it mostly a case of both factions did bad things… except when the Forsaken would roll in and hit towns with the Plague.

Why would I rant about the Alliance taking Lordaeron from the Forsaken? The Forsaken have invaded Gilneas, Arathi and Alterac and wiped out Southshore, none of which were ever part of Lordaeron. What, is it just the Forsaken’s right to take anything they want because they’re dead and everybody should just meekly accept it?

“Oh, you were living here? Well, you’re goo now. Forsaken’ed!”

I’ve mained Horde from time to time, I have a Tauren I keep leveled despite how unrelentingly awful the Horde questing experience is for me as someone who liked playing Horde before Cataclysm. Now, going from 1 to 60 on the Horde side is an unrelenting drumbeat of ‘Hey, we murdered some more folks and took their stuff, but it’s cool, hey, you’re standing on some elf corpses there. That’ll never get off your boots.” Honestly, I’ve never liked the Forsaken, I’m never going to like the Forsaken. Tauren? Absolutely. Trolls? They’re pretty cool. Orcs? I’ve played an Orc sometimes, they have some of the same issues as the Forsaken but much less horrifying in my opinion.

I get the tragedy of the Forsaken. How they’re trapped in a horrid parody of life, unable to truly feel without the torment of their curse, how their bodies are rotting and they’re rejected by their former friends and families (the ones that survived, anyway) and can’t really feel the warmth of life anymore. I get it. I comprehend Sylvanas’ whole ‘we have to survive by any means necessary’ thing. I just don’t like it, and I’m not the only person who remembers when the Horde was a ragtag band of outcasts who came together for mutual defense, and who liked it that way.

From the perspective of the Alliance, the Forsaken have taken four kingdoms and are trying for more. Why in the name of the Light shouldn’t they try and take all of it back? Because horrible monsters want to keep it? It’s like arguing the people in The Walking Dead should just let the zombies eat them already.

Both Anne and Joe play Horde on their mains. And the above opinion is all mine, you’d have to ask them how they feel about leveling as Horde. For me, I miss when the Horde was underdogs. If you like the Horde as it is, cool, glad you enjoy it. I don’t.

Blizzard started banning people as soon as Overwatch dropped, basically. I won’t pretend to know how serious a problem Aimbotting is, but I do think they’re already hard at work finding and banning people for it and any other form of cheating in the game.

Overwatch is hugely popular. Blizzard wants it to stay that way. They’re going to go after cheaters.

Gelbin Mekkatorque.

In fact, ditch those other two guys and have Kelsey Steelspark and J.D. Collie in there, too. And they can be talking about finally retaking Gnomeregan and transforming the entire city into a mecha to battle the Legion.

Let’s get some Gnomes up in here already. Teach the Legion to fear Azeroth once and for all.

So here’s my tally — I have 1 of each race as a Warrior. Literally every single race. Five of these are near or at max level.

I also have another group of every single race as a Warrior, but the opposite gender from my original group. I even rolled two Pandaren when Mists came out just to keep the groups even. So that’s 28 characters.

I then also have another male Draenei Warrior, and another Tauren Warrior (this one a female) for 30 toons. I have six Paladins (one at 92, the rest between 47 and 77) one for every race that can be a Paladin (female Human, female Dwarf, female Draeni, female Tauren, male Blood Elf) and a male Tauren Paladin.

Then I have 2 Shaman (male Draenei, male Orc), four Death Knights (male Night Elf, Female Night Elf, Male Tauren, female Worgen) and a male Worgen Hunter. And one female Gnome Brewmaster Monk. If I’m not counting incorrectly (and I may be, I’m somewhat tired) that’s 44 in total.

I also have several characters I’ve lost on various servers I never play on anymore that I have to hunt down and delete when I want to roll a new character, most of them are level 10 to 16. I’m actually capped on characters, but I only remember the ones I just listed.

Sure. I mean, if it’s a huge PITA and would cost us a raid tier, then no. But I wouldn’t be opposed to (as an example) Forsaken ladies getting something a bit newer. Heck, I’d be okay with all dances being available. Perhaps some kind of studio could be introduced that would let your character learn new dances.

Again, just my personal opinion:

Demon Hunters are a blast to play. I’ve been envious of Mitch every single time we stream on the Alpha/Beta because DH’s are crazy fun.

I think Arms and Fury Warriors are lower on DPS than they should be but I’m loving how they feel, if that makes any sense. They actually feel distinct and engaging, Rampage is awesome, and I really like the new animations. Once we get DPS and self healing bumped up a bit DPS Warriors will get my nod.

A lot of people say Death Knights, but I’m digging mine so far. If you were a huge 2h Frost player I can see not liking DW Frost, but I enjoy it, and both Blood and Unholy seemed fun to me.

Survival Hunter is a big yay from me. Very much enjoyed it.

I also liked Outlaw Rogues. I know! I’m saying something nice about Rogues, I feel unclean. But it’s true, I dug Outlaw.

Okay, that’s The Queue for today. I’m gonna have to put in a lot of Greater Rift time this week.