The Queue: Wrath of the Lich Queen

It’s so nice to have a space all to myself, where I can kick back and relax, totally unbothered by my arch-nemesis Mitch. Ah, yes, truly, Wednesday is a good day. Peaceful and—

Whaaaaat, only tentacle chat? How did that happen?

— Mitch 💙 (@MitchFizzl) June 7, 2017

🙃

— Mitch 💙 (@MitchFizzl) June 7, 2017

Sigh.

Do not encourage him!

That’s a tough one. I still think WoW is a great game, and the storytelling in Mists, Warlords, and Legion has all been fantastic. (Sure, we were all sick and tired of the game during the Mists and Warlords lulls, but both expansions had some great stories to tell… at least until we all got tired of Orcs.) The leveling experience is pretty lousy now, because talents and skills have been designed with a mind towards end-game content and there are points when leveling where you just don’t have enough of your toolkit to be effective. Then even without heirlooms, you zoom through zones, advancing past them well before you’ve finished the storyline… and that means that the story stuff that I’d recommend WoW for is missed.

So, honestly, I think it’s a great idea that expansions come with a level boost to let newbies catch up and dive into current content. Because starting from level 1 is a disjointed experience where neither gameplay nor story make much sense.

But in doing so, new players miss out on everything before. They never get to defeat Illidan or Arthas. They miss that weird Welcome to the Machine quest. They will never understand our MORE DOTS jokes. World of Warcraft is this grand, shared experience that many of us have participated in for years. It makes it something of a clique that can be tough for newcomers to break in to or even understand.

But despite all of that… yeah, I’d still recommend it. I’d just be sure I was there to hold their hand a little more than I might have at launch, helping them learn the ropes find a guild of likeminded players so they can have fun on their terms.

It’s still a great game, even though it’s a different one than it was a decade ago.

Like Mechagnomes? That could be  interesting, giving us an opportunity to dive into the lore of the Titans. After all, if there’s a whole race of mechanical beings, who made them? Do they have a purpose or have they, like the Death Knights, freed themselves from their masters’ control? It could be a throwback to Wrath, which was an expansion I think a lot of folks enjoyed.

But the practical matter… Horde or Alliance? Or do they get to choose, like Pandaren? Or does one faction get a mecha-something and the other get something like Earthen (which would mean even more chances to explore Titan lore).

Regardless, it does feel like it’s time for a new race (or two) — we haven’t seen any since Mists, and that’s been more than four years now.

Did you hear something? I thought I heard something. Did it just get colder in here?

That’s all for today, everyone. In case you aren’t used to the new schedule yet, Anne will be here to answer your questions on Thursday and Rossi will be here on Friday. (So make with the lore questions, people!) Weekends are Queue-less (sorry), but you can always hang out in Friday’s Queue to chat or leave questions.

I’ll be back less week — hopefully to fewer tentacle comments.