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The QueueJan 30, 2018 12:00 pm CT

The Queue: The sound’s off, but the TV’s on

Blizzard has been kind enough to give the Blizzard Watch crew a heads up about today’s Q&A, which means there’s no possible way for them to drop big news while the entire editorial staff is out and about.

…Right?

Let’s Queue.


PFUZZYBUNNY, I’M SORRY TO DISAPPOINT BUT…

Q4tQ:
Maintenance and Dev Q&A [today]. What are the chances open Beta drops, too?

I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think Blizzard has ever done an open beta. The closest we’ve gotten to one is Mists of Pandaria’s, which people could get into with the annual WoW subscription thing.

As for a general beta — or more realistically, alpha — I think the chances of one dropping today are only high if they don’t announce pre-orders and Allied Races. If they do, though, I think they’ll want to give it a little bit of time before dropping the alpha. And by “a little bit of time,” I mean no more than three weeks. But that’s all a total guess. I’d be thrilled if we got alpha today!


A LOT OF YOU ASKED ABOUT THE Q&A
  1. My realistic hope for the Q&A is that we get Allied Races today as a pre-order bonus.
  2. My pie-in-the-sky hope is that we’re told more Allied Races and/or a release window for the expansion.
  3. My maybe-maybe-not hope is that we get detailed class information. How that information will present itself is up for debate, given we’ve had a chance to peruse datamining, but I’d love a class-based surprise answer.

SPENCER MORGAN USED MY NAME, SO I SAW IT:

Q4tMitch: Will HotS get the other windrunner sisters, will they all just be skins for Sylvanas?

PS take it easy on the splatoon binges. DO NOT INHALE THE INK FUMES

Having them be skins for Sylvanas would be a disservice to both of them. That said, I think we’re more likely to get Alleria than Vereesa, since she has the potential to offer a much different kit than Sylvanas. Buuuuuut, no matter the case, I think we’re a long ways off from either of them. Please prove me wrong, though, Blizz.


MISTAH JAY TAKES ME BACK MANY YEARS:

why is Salad Fingers in plate armor?

After Kenneth’s shore leave was over, Salad Fingers decided to leave for The Great War (NSFW?) alongside his brother. Of course, he had to don his armor before doing so — hence the plate.


FALLANGER, MY ANSWER IS YES:

qftq: do you think there will be a quest chain to move the history into bfa? something that last a few weeks, or an event or something?


ROWSDOWA HAS A GREAT QUESTION WITH A BORING ANSWER:

So, what happened to all the countless races from worlds destroyed by the legion that supposedly made up the army of the light? I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be a motley assortment of peoples from the Illidan novel rather than just lightforged. Did they all die in the Xenedar crash? Are they on other worlds? Did Blizz forget?

Canonically, I don’t think Blizzard would have killed them all off. However, as far as I know — which maybe isn’t all that far — the Army of Light was essentially trapped on Argus. If they had other forces on other planets, I think they would’ve reached out to them before reaching out to us.

More likely, it would’ve been a lot of time-consuming work to create the new models and races for atmosphere. Also, it would’ve meant everyone going, “Why didn’t we get X race as an Allied Race instead?!” Having Void Elves(ish) and Lightforged Draenei present means we’re exposed to those two Allied Races (and only those two) on Argus before they’re officially introduced.


SORRY, FALLANGER, I SHOULD ELABORATE, HUH?

Blizzard has mentioned we’ll actually be experiencing the Battle at Undercity in-game. My guess is that it’ll be a scenario like The Broken Shore. As for more quests, I’m hoping we get follow-ups to the Silithus stuff.

In any case, Blizzard always does some sort of pre-expansion event. Outside of the Battle at Undercity itself, I’d expect something on the scale of what we got before Legion.


LOTHARFOX, THIS ISN’T EVEN A CHOICE:

My wife emailed me to say she’ll be downtown tomorrow and we can have lunch…at 11 am Pacific. Really? Do I have to choose between my wife and the Blizzard Q&A?

No, you don’t have to choose — this isn’t even up for debate.

Obviously watch the Q&A.


HUSSKIES IS HOOKED ON PHONICS:

I just finished reading War Crimes again and I also did Stonetalon Mountain yesterday and I know it’s old news but 1) Stonetalon Garrosh has absolutely nothing in common with MoP / War Crimes Garrosh and 2) in-game Jaina has a completely different personality from how she was at the end of War Crimes.

Q4TQ: What other characters had completely irrational shifts in personality either in-game or between different media that you don’t like / confuse you?

Regarding Garrosh, that’s actually — and excuse me for linking to That Old Site — the result of a miscommunication. Stonetalon was a legitimately a different version of Garrosh than the one we ended with.

Outside of that… I dislike that Malfurion went from sleeping and noiseless to… well, existing in any capacity larger than that. I’m still slightly conflicted about all the hoops that had to be jumped through to make Illidan look like a good guy, but then he went and blew up Xe’ra and, I mean… that was just too good not to love the guy for.

OH! Grommash in Warlords. Dude basically hopped on the “Legion is bad” bandwagon when it meant looking good to us and he somehow got away with it.


MISTAH JAY, SORRY, BUT THERE’S NO COMPETITION HERE:

2BE: Baine vs Huln Highmountain

RUAHHHHH!!!!

That’s it for today. As a reminder, if the comments section lights up after the Q&A, please feel free to use our Discord to ask questions if you have any — Liz will appreciate it.

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