The Queue: It’s complicated

Yes, my Warrior works for Odyn. Yes, I realize Odyn’s done some… questionable… things. But there are literal demons everywhere, so I had to pick the lesser of two evils.

This is The Queue. Let’s chat.

I don’t know if they changed anything, but if they did it wasn’t in Legion, because that exact thing was happening to me all the time back in Warlords. I’m currently borrowing a friend’s PC, and I haven’t had this problem on that machine, but on my late, lamented PC I definitely saw that happen all the time.

Blizzard changed how the game stores information back when they were working on Warlords, I suspect that’s a part of it. They switched away from MPQ in patch 6.0.2 with CASC, a new compression format. So that might be part of why you’re seeing that on an older machine (just as I did).

I have no idea, but I’m keen to make stuff up. So:

1. Perhaps the cannons are intended to be installed on top of the Legion structures to defend them from an aerial assault by the gigantic Alliance gunship that nearly took the Legion out at the Tomb of Sargeras.
2. Similarly, they might be intended for use against any aerial attack from the Nightborne in Suramar, before the Nightborne caved in and let the Legion just walk right in.
3. Maybe even the other demons hate those freaking Felbat things.
4. Felsoul Hold is adjacent to Azsuna, perhaps the cannons are intended to help the Legion create a second front and push into that zone from the other side, eventually meeting up with the Legion forces near the Illidari Stand.
5. Seriously, Felbats? The screeching. The fel guano. The demons are glad to see you shoot them down.

Absolutely nothing is worse than fel guano.

I’m in total agreement with you on Skovald.

But Odyn’s case is trickier. I like to call Odyn a jerk on the podcast, but he’s not that simple to describe. He was appointed Prime Designate by the Titans for his role in the defeat of the Old Gods and their servants. But he doesn’t seem to have been capable of keeping the loyalty of his fellow Watchers or swaying them with his arguments.

The whole reason teh Halls of Valor even exist separate from Ulduar is because Odyn threw a hissy fit when the other Watchers agreed with Tyr and helped empower the Dragonflights to defend Azeroth. Note that the other Watchers entreated the Titans themselves, and it was the Titans who empowered the five Dragon Aspects against Odyn’s wishes. So Odyn thought even then that he knew better than the Titans themselves.

So Odyn had Helya use the same magic she’d used to help Highkeeper Ra create the Elemental Planes to help rip the Halls of Valor out of Ulduar and into the sky. If he hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have been vulnerable to what happened next, because his entire plan for the Halls of Valor was against the Titans’ plan for Azeroth, as Helya tried to tell him when he revealed it to her. Rather than listen to her, he turned her into the first Val’kyr, also against her will.

So had he not done this in the first place, then when Loken came to Helya looking for help against Odyn, she would have told him to pound sand. She was loyal to Odyn, thought of him as a father, and he used her loyalty and then made her a slave.

So while yes, Odyn seeks to defend Azeroth, the way he did it bred discord and dissent and ended up with him exiled behind the same barriers that keep the Elemental Planes from crashing into Azeroth. (This makes me wonder if Deathwing inadvertently weakened those barriers, which would be ironic, Odyn rescued somewhat from his prison by a being he thought too inferior to do anything.) Odyn’s intentions are good, but he’s arrogant, thinks he knows better than anyone else despite evidence to the contrary, and committed a very serious crime against someone who did everything for him.

For looks? Ashkandi.

For lore? Strom’kar. Strom’kar is the weapon Lothar should have, by right of descent, been using.

And yes, that was my wife’s hunter dual wielding Thok’s. I helped her tame him.

I frankly love the Warrior Artifacts, but they ARE fairly Alliance oriented, and pretty Human-lore centric, since the Warswords and the Scale are both Vrykul weapons and Strom’kar was a Vrykul-forged weapon remade by Thoradin and enchanted by Elves.

See, part of me wishes Warriors to have actually gotten six Artifacts, three per faction. Alliance would have actually only gotten two, though, because instead of either Strom’kar or the Warswords, they would have gotten Varian’s sword Shalamayne. Arms would use the sword as Shalamayne, Fury would split the blade (as Varian did on the Broken Shore) into Shalla’tor and Ellemayne.

Horde, however, wouldn’t use Shalamayne. Instead, there are several candidates for a Horde Arms weapon – Broxigar’s Axe is a strong one, for example. But honestly, I’d rather that Horde players would find Cairne’s Bloodhoof Runespear and I’d probably have gone with some new axes for Fury, perhaps based on the one that Durotan uses in Warlords of Draenor. Or maybe Brox’s axe could split into two or make a ghost axe or something. I just know I’d like it if the Horde and Alliance Warriors had different weapons.

But man, I really dig Strom’kar and the Warswords, so I’d hate to lose those.

Assuming we’re not including “a writer who loves video games and is paid to write about them slowly going blind” here (I joke because otherwise I start sobbing and can’t stop) then I’d have to say that’s a good one. But for my mind, I think the torment sweepstakes has to be won by Azeroth itself.

It is a sapient being, so far as we can tell. which is infested by multiple Old Gods. These creatures seek to corrupt it from within, but when one was removed it ripped a ghastly wound in Azeroth that bled pure magic out into the world. Now, the surface of Azeroth is infested by things that routinely wreck shit up, stick a branch into the Old Gods’ beehive and get them all riled up (that’s gotta feel good) and at one point they blew Azeroth’s face off.

Poor Azeroth.

That’s the Queue for Friday. I’ll see you guys (hah, see you) next Tuesday.