The QueueFeb 24, 2017 11:00 am CT

The Queue: Midnight Blue

Sometimes you just thing a moment is pretty.

This is the Queue. I’m listening to Mayhem by Halestorm. Let’s do this.

BOVEN WHITEHOOF

I’m a bit disappointed about no followup with Wrathion in the game, but at least we go Ebonhorn. He’s way cooler thatn tween-brat dragonboy anyway. Heck, my first character to go to Highmountain was my shaman and I decided she and Ebonhorn were an item right off the bat. I guess it was kind of a Maury moment when she learned her boyfriend was really a dragon.

I don’t have anything against Wrathion but man, I’m tired of hearing about him. Yes, he was in the Alpha/Beta. Yes, he’s nowhere to be seen now. Will he pop up again? I have no idea. It’s entirely possible he will. Last we heard he was doing something on Draenor, so who knows?

I’m even starting to feel this way about Jaina, and y’all know what a Jaina cheerleader I’ve been this expansion. I get that she’s not here and I really feel like she should be, but eventually you have to move on. There’s a ton of story going on in this expansion and sometimes it feels like we’re ignoring what’s here because of what’s not. In a game/store this large and sprawling with this vast a cast of characters, sometimes some of them have to step aside to make room for others.

I do like Ebonhorn as a character. I like the idea of this lone Black Dragon, uncorrupted, serving the Highmountain Tauren in gratitude for how Huln saved him from his father’s lair and the probably corruption he would have suffered at his father’s hands. And I’d like to see him interact with Wrathion down the road, along with his other brother Sabellian (Baron Sablemane.) I’ve been waitng for Sabellian to come back for over a decade now.

LOTHARFOX

How come some dragons, like Wrathion, who are still in the whelp age, can take on a humanoid form, but others that are older (other whelps that were hatched before him, dragons in the drake stage) don’t seem to ever take on such a form? There are also dragonkin that are in a four-legged, humanesqe torso form, can they turn into humanoids?

Wrathion is unusually advanced for his age due to his genesis from several dragon eggs and a Titan purification device. This might be a tendency amoug Black Dragons, however — at least one Black Drake, Kalaran, can assume a Human form.

Drakonids (including creatures such as Maloriak) are not dragons. There are various ways to create Drakonids, but most seem to be created from various mortals (including Humans) via magical experiments. Nefarian created his own in Blackrock Mountain, and the Bronze, Twilight and Nether flights all have Drakonids and Dragonkin, and in each case these creatures

Dragonspawn (the four legged ones) are of unknown origin. Neither Dragonspawn nor Drakonids appear to have the ability to transform into Humanoids like some Dragons can.

LORD OMEDON

Q4tQ: Is dungeon courtesy just… not appreciated or wanted any more? I have full-stopped PUGing as a tank unless I have a guild majority because it seems, when I do queue to DPS instead as I generally do now, the pace most tanks go at, literally doing entire dungeons in a handful of pulls, is not only ludicrous, but seeminly expected! Like, I probably have the gear to tank like a maniac and stress the healer out, completely disrespecting the content and the players along for the ride, but that seems the height of rudeness. Instead, I opt just not to tank in this environment, letting the ridiculous pace benefit me, all the while feeling for the healers and doing my best to “keep up.”

Is that the right answer though? Just “don’t tank if you can’t/won’t go stupidly, recklessly fast?” I mean, ok, I’ll abide, but doesn’t that basically mean a net negative for everyone if more courteous and respectfully cautious, old school tanks like me just… bow out of queueing?

It’s not new.

I remember all the way back in TBC I’d tank dungeons (and keep in mind, LFG didn’t exist yet, these were PuG’s assembled via someone going to Shatt and hitting up general and trade chat until we had a full group) who’d want me to pull half of Shattered Halls in one go and would get frustrated when I wouldn’t. (I was a Warrior Tank back when Thunder Clap only hit four mobs, so…)

We’ve seen this in Wrath (Oh God, tanking the ICC heroic 5’s when they came out was a freaking nightmare) and every expansion since. Sometimes I’m the tank pulling ludicrously fast, sometimes I like to take my time and I end up butting heads with a DPS. Sometimes the healer wants me to pull faster.

I’ve had groups that were fine, mind you. It’s not all bad. Something I’ve noticed in this expansion is people seem a lot more willing to relax and even try and help each other out. I’ve had people hand me gear that was an upgrade for me. But the ‘go go go’ mentality is hardly new to Legion. and I still hit it from time to time.

Ultimately, how I tank is simple: I tank at the pace I’m comfortable with, and if that’s too slow, they’re free to get another tank. I can easily sit down, pull nothing, and wait to be vote kicked and get another group as soon as I do. They’ll be waiting for their next tank, I’ll be half way through my next dungeon. If you don’t want to pull at a certain speed, don’t.

SAIK

So question on AP. They’re replacing the final talent which gives % increase come 7.2. So, if we get to artifact level 54 before then, we still don’t have to grind thereafter, correct? Because the amount of AP we’ve earned from artifact level 36-54 will be ‘refunded’ toward the new talents? I hope they’re not adding anything additional.

I remember reading that they said there would be a definite end to leveling your artifact back before Legion release. I just want to be done with grinding AP for my primary spec. The additional AK research will be quite nice for alts, though.

The AP will be refunded, but it won’t get you back up to rank 54, because they’re changing the scale needed for each rank in your Artifact post 7.2. Current ranks will not equal the ranks from 35 to 54 post 7.2 on a 1 for 1 basis. I believe the new scale is exponential, and it’ll be balanced out to some degree by increasing levels of Artifact Knowledge that will help increase how much you get.

So yeah, you’ll still need to grind even more AP in 7.2 even if all three of your Artifacts are currently maxed out.

Okay, that’s the Queue for Friday. I’ll see you guys next week.

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