The Queue: Spin me right round

I’m sorry (not sorry) for that earworm. So let’s get on to the Queue, shall we?

If you need to destroy a weapon, the only way to do it is hurl it into the fires of Mount Doom.

Honestly, when Destiny 2 was first announced to be joining the launcher, I figured that was why they changed the name to “Blizzard” rather than “Battle.net.” After all, while us old school Blizzard gamers know what Battle.net is, people coming in just for Destiny 2 would have no idea. The branding would be confusing.

Sure, it would still have been confusing with Blizzard branding,  but at least Blizzard is a known part of Activision Blizzard.

I guess my final answer to this question is who the heck knows. Changing the name never made a lot of sense, and changing the name back after deciding to change it makes even less sense. Some things in life you just can’t understand, and I think we have to accept that this is one of those things.

Mercy definitely doesn’t look her age, and Mei even comments on it:

Mei: Doctor Ziegler, I don’t think you’ve aged a day since I last saw you.
Mercy: And neither have you, Mei.

Mei has an excuse for it (she’s been in cryostasis), but Mercy simply… hasn’t aged. Why? The short answer is that we don’t know. What we do know is that she’s a scientific genius and certainly worked to alter some members of the Overwatch team, including Genji and Reyes. Using the miracle of science to keep herself young doesn’t seem out of the question… though if that’s the case, one wonders why she hasn’t shared this secret with the world (or at least her teammates). She comments to Reinhardt that he’s “not getting any younger” and should consider retiring from the hero biz, which seems odd if that were something she could fix.  After all, in another dialog she suggests she could repair Ana’s eye — so why wouldn’t she help Reinhardt if she could?

It’s very curious. I like think she’s some kind of evil mad scientist — a secret evil mad scientist — but Anne disagrees.

{PB}This conversation started in the comments with a discussion of BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea, which is one o f those experiences that you would just like to erase from your brain so you could do it again for the first time.  Some games are such emotional gut-punches that you wish you could do it again — and while you can always replay, it’s just not the same. You know what’s going to happen. The surprise is gone.

There are a lot of games that would be on my list. Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age 2, BioShock and BioShock Infinite, Dishonored 2, and probably a lot more that are just slipping my mind right now.

In the Blizzard-verse, there are some moments in WoW that would be great to experience again for the first time, but I think it’s a lot harder to produce a huge emotional reaction in a shared environment like an MMO, when you inherently can’t have a huge impact on the game. Wrathgate, maybe, and the Yesra plot in Legion. And maybe the classics, too. Diablo 1’s ending sticks with me as a fantastic twist, and I honestly don’t remember how I reacted to Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne.

Some of the class hall campaigns feel really, truly epic. Shaman is definitely up there, as they re-established the Elemental Lords after we spent most of Cataclysm destroying them (Ragnaros, Al’Akir). Bringing together the elements in defense of Azeroth felt amazing.

I think Death Knight wins this one, though. Not only are you doing truly terrible things and raising your own Four Horsemen, but we got some serious story about the Lich King… and I can’t think of a way in which this ends well.

Least impactful class campaign, though, definitely goes to Monks. I main a Monk and did this campaign first and was subsequently shocked to find out other classes move mountains to save Azeroth. Monks just make some beer.

I tend to run old content on my main — a Monk — since she’s my best geared character. (Plus Monks have Roll and can really zip around.) But I will switch to Mistweaver spec to do it. That’s not the obvious choice, and I stumbled on to it completely by accident. The secret (such as it is) is that Windwalkers and Mistweavers both have Spinning Crane Kick, a solid AOE that will tear through low-level mobs. However, Windwalkers need 3 Chi to cast it… which is annoying to get in a low-level dungeon where everything dies in one hit. You’re constantly doing single-target attacks to build enough Chi to AOE.

Mistweavers don’t have Chi, so Spinning Crane Kick just costs mana. Go in as Mistweaver, spam Spinning Crane through the dungeon, and switch back to Windwalker if you really need to for a boss. But chances are you won’t have to.

This has been your regularly scheduled terrible gameplay strategy session with Liz. I’ll be back at the same time next week, but in the meanwhile be sure to ask your questions for Anne tomorrow. Bye!