The Queue: Time for stabbies

Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A feature for all of Blizzard’s games! Have a question for the Blizzard Watch staff? Leave it in the comments!

I think they should just be re-tuned. Timewalking should be re-living those zones as they were at the time. Obviously classes have changed, that’s not an option, but everything else should be as true to the original version as possible. That’s the point of the feature, really.

If they want to update an old dungeon and add new stuff to it, they have a different way to do that. They updated Scholomance, Scarlet Monastery, Shadowfang Keep, and so on over the years. If you want to make it new, make it new. If it’s in Timewalking, it should be a throwback.

Sup.

My personal favorite raids I wouldn’t mind Timewalking:

• Vanilla Molten Core
• Burning Crusade We’re already getting Black Temple, but I’ve always been fond of the Serpentshrine/Tempest Keep duo
• Wrath of the Lich King Naxxramas
• Cataclysm Blackwing Descent
• Mists of Pandaria Throne of Thunder
• Warlords of Draenor N/A

No, seriously, there isn’t a single Warlords raid I liked. If I could erase Warlords from history, I would.

The newest skin releases, such as Sakura Auriel and all that, are still available for gems (a.k.a. cash.) They probably will be for a week or two, and as I understand it, Blizzard will continue to handle new releases that way. If it’s a must-have, you can buy it outright at launch. If you don’t mind waiting, you can play the loot box lottery. Either you’ll get what you want or, eventually, you’ll get enough shards to craft it. (Though your shard supply probably isn’t limitless. You can spend them pretty quick if you craft a bunch of stuff you want.)

Heroes of the Storm gives out free loot chests like crazy, so I do think there’s a “risk” that they’ll make less money. But loot chests are also tried-and-true revenue machines. So who knows, really. Personally, I think my Heroes spending is going to remain mostly the same. If I really want a skin, I usually buy it the first day it’s available. Since new things are available for gems, I’ll probably buy them to skip the entire loot chest gamble. I’ll be spending roughly the same amount, but also getting a bunch of free stuff I wouldn’t have otherwise paid for which is all still pretty cool.

I know people have reservations about loot boxes and honestly, I have some of the same reservations, but Heroes of the Storm’s approach to them is probably as user-friendly as a loot box system can be.

Not every hero will tickle everyone’s fancy and I think that’s fine. There’s a pretty hilarious phenomenon on the Heroes of the Storm subreddit you can predict without fail: When a hero from a certain franchise is released, the people who play a different franchise will roll their eyes and lament another insert-franchise-here character.”Another Warcraft Assassin? Where are the StarCraft heroes?” The very next hero to release is from StarCraft. “Ugh, StarCraft. Can we get another Diablo character?” Cassia releases. “Why did we get a Diablo character? I’d much rather have Kel’thuzad.”

Some characters are just not going to jive with me. Some characters will blow me away. Some won’t blow me away, but will still be fun. Personally, I don’t have any particular affection for Probius, Cassia, or Genji, but I’m not opposed to them being included, either. They’re fun even if they didn’t make me squeal with joy. Valeera is one of my favorites, even though I don’t play her very much. I think she’s rad. And super cute, but mostly rad.

At this point, I honestly don’t know who I’d like to see. Some of the joy in Heroes of the Storm is seeing what the developers present to me and what they’ll do with it. Getting hung up on one specific hero is bound to disappoint, because you can’t predict the specific hero they’ll implement out of their hundreds of options. I’d say a Draenei would be cool, but the Draenei are mostly one-note characters in WoW in terms of gameplay. They’re paladins. They have other aspects, but the most iconic Draenei thing is the paladin. Heroes of the Storm has that stuff covered.

There’s Velen, but… I find Velen terribly dull. I’d rather have no Draenei than Velen. Someone else can represent WoW priests.

Since I mentioned Serpentshrine in an earlier question, Lady Vashj would make me happy. She’d round out the Warcraft 3/Burning Crusade crew. Vashj and Maiev are the only missing characters, I think. Akama, too, I guess?