The Queue: Eggramar

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!

No yolk you guys, I may have cracked and mislaid my original Queue header for today. But while I was scrambling and thinking over easy ways to whisk up a new one, I remembered that eggstraordinary NPC in Krokuun who will happily replay any Argus cinematic, and I hatched a plan to exeggcute what is probably one of the best screenshots I’ve taken to date. I’m so glad I didn’t chicken out and scratch this idea.

Omelette you absorb this, but before you start showering me with what I’m sure will be several dozen eggcellent accolades, let me answer your questions, okay?

Yes — sort of. Each zone in Draenor still has a minimum level of entry, but the max level for every zone is 100 now. In other words, quests and zones won’t go green or stop giving you viable experience as you level — you can finish out a zone in its entirety without worrying about losing out on XP.

Keep in mind that all of these changes are on the PTR — they aren’t finalized. But what you’re looking at here is a bit of a balancing act. In order to make zones scale properly, mobs need to scale properly, too. That means there’s a trade off here. Instead of bulldozing mass amounts of mobs for a paltry chunk of XP, you’re fighting mobs that are appropriate for your level, and getting an appropriate amount of experience for it.

Since you’re fighting something appropriate for your level, experience-wise, it’s going to take a little longer to kill it. That’s where the time discrepancy comes from. The key here is finding a balance between giving XP appropriate for your level, and offering you enough of a challenge to warrant that increase in XP.

Part of all that PTR testing is no doubt finding the balance that works and feels right to players — which is why they’re asking people to hop on, level, and give their feedback on these leveling changes. It’s a massive undertaking, but one that should in theory make the leveling experience feel much more satisfying.

I doubt they’re going to ditch the concept of new races entirely. But Allied races definitely make sense in the context of the new expansion. We’re fighting a war, we need allies to help us out. None of these races are “new” exactly — they’re variations on races we’re already familiar with, people we’ve encountered in our adventures over the years and in Legion.

Future expansions will doubtless focus on something beyond that war, and potentially introduce brand-new races we’ve never seen. I’m pretty sure if we’re being given a brand-new race to play with, the starting zones will make a return so we can get familiar with the new race in question.

Also keep in mind that the Allied races are going to be unlocked via quest chains — we don’t just get them straight-up. In a way, those quest chains could be viewed as a starting zone of sorts. It’s just a chain we have to complete to play the new characters, rather than a series of quests to make those characters available for play in the real world, like the Worgen, Pandaren, and Goblin starting zones that begin in their own instanced little world we can’t go back to.

We don’t quite have an answer to that yet, but we’re assuming it’s going to work just like Argus appearing in the sky. It didn’t appear for everyone at first, but when the last wing of LFR opened, it popped up for everyone. Presumably, any changes made due to events in Antorus will play out the same way. Right now, however, the PTR isn’t reflecting changes for everyone, just for people that have completed Antorus. That may change as the PTR progresses — we’re keeping an eye on it.

Hati.

No really, that’s the only thing I’m going to keenly, irrevocably miss. The other weapons and weapon abilities are nice, don’t get me wrong. I like how Xal’atath always has interesting quips for my Shadow Priest, I love that my Druid has the Scythe of Elune, heck I even like the Fist of Ra-den from an aesthetic standpoint.

But none of them really compare to Hati, who has been way more than a weapon — Hati’s my buddy. I don’t know what my Hunter is going to feel like without her best friend by her side. Yes, I have a ton of other ridiculous pets to choose from, but Hati was always there too.

And the really upsetting part is that you saved Hati from dying when you got him — his spirit is bound to Titanstrike, now. What does that mean for Hati, when we get rid of the weapon? Are we seriously going to go Old Yeller on our pal? I don’t know if I can handle that.

They haven’t mentioned any changes to reputation at all, so I’m assuming it’s going to work the same way it’s always worked. You’ll gain reputation for whatever happens to be in that zone — so an Orc in Blood Elf territory is going to earn Blood Elf reputation for quests. If you’d like to keep earning reputation for Orgrimmar, there’s always the faction tabard route — you’ll pick up plenty of reputation just by running dungeons.

That’s it for today’s Queue — if you have any questions you’d like to see answered, be sure to leave them in the comments below!