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The QueueFeb 2, 2018 12:00 pm CT

The Queue: So I panicked

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!

Okay, so here’s the thing. I didn’t have a Horde 110 when I bought Battle for Azeroth and as a result I couldn’t unlock the Nightborne or Highmountain Tauren. I had a level 104 Tauren Warrior, though, one of my oldest characters. He was my first Tauren, my first Horde character I rolled back before Burning Crusade came out and I’ve tried to get him to max level ever expansion just out of affection for him. But with that said, I have to admit I was having real trouble this time out. And Battle for Azeroth isn’t making me happy with the Horde, to be honest.

But I must have a Highmountain. I must.

And so, in a frantic day of Matt is sick to his stomach but he’s going to do this anyway I got my old buddy up to max level. Then I went and did the scenario where Magni tries to get Azeroth to go back to sleep because why not? I’m debating taking him to Argus for some Veiled gear before doing the Highmountain unlock scenario, because he’s like sub 800 right now in terms of iLevel. Look, I was sick, okay?

The Tauren are seriously still my favorite in WoW. Just the best. Can’t wait for a Highmountain Warrior alt.


TIM

Is the red star in the sky a post-Argus “scar” left from the opening of the portal to the Legion homeworld, or something else?

Yes.

Here’s another picture of my Tauren because that was a short one.

 


SOEROAH

Not only did Legion the expansion heavily lean on void to make us think the next expansion would be about void, but the allied race unlock chains all touch on or dive balls deep into void.

It’s amusing. “Bit of void. More void. All this void. ALL VOID. Nah, mang, the expansion’s about FACTION CONFLICT YO”

I tend not to be spoilery in the Queue — well, okay, I try to not be, at least — but my feeling is that Battle for Azeroth is going to be an expansion where the title means more than one thing. Yes, we’re fighting over Azeroth. My analysis of Sylvanas’ dialogue lately has me thinking this isn’t entirely her. She and Varian were almost civil to each other during the Broken Shore, but lately after losing the chance to enslave Eyir and make her people immortal, I have to ask myself if it’s all Sylvanas in there now. Like, what did Helya get in return?

So yeah, I also think we’ll end up fighting on behalf of Azeroth. I did the Whispers scenario just tonight to refresh it for me and I definitely think we’re going to see more about the Old Gods and the Void this expansion, even if they’re not the primary threats. I’ve felt like we’re going to get an A story and a B story for a while now, the A story being the Alliance and Horde ramping up for war, and the B story being how that war is benefiting the enemies of Azeroth and her people more than it is either faction.

I’m not basing this on any spoilers. I just feel like we’re getting a lot of Light and Void lately and with the Legion off the board for now until Sargeras inevitably gets out by possessing Illidan’s body just like he wanted to at the end of Nighthold, it’s time for the Light and the Void to start making their moves.


JONATHAN GANTZ

take a shot of vodka everytime Sylvannas says “the horde’ and means ” me”. take a shot of rum everytime she says ‘the horde’ as a way of taking advantage of actual horde loyalists.

prepare for death

I don’t drink, but I think it’s really interesting to look deeply at Sylvanas and her actions as Warchief and realize that there’s some actual depth of feeling here.

First off, she doesn’t trust the Alliance and expects an attack. She’s certain they’re going to pull something. She basically says as much when she gives you the quest to recruit allies for the Horde. A lot of what she’s doing in the lead up to Battle for Azeroth is based on this idea that the Horde needs allies because the war against the Legion cost it dearly — she even claims the Horde led the way during the Legion’s attack, which isn’t true but it sounds good. As we know, neither the Alliance nor the Horde really led the way they should have, they left the lion’s share of things up to the Kirin Tor and a bunch of class orders, and then to Velen and Illidan’s budding bromance.

But I really do think Sylvanas is uneasy as Warchief and she’s not necessarily being cynical here. I think she thinks war with the Alliance is inevitable and I’m not convinced you’re wrong that she says The Horde and means herself. But I’m not sure that’s a surprise, because it’s how she led the Forsaken for years. With the emergence of the Desolate Council and the Forsaken suddenly having opinions about things, she may be doubling down on a leadership style that’s served her well for years. There’s a lot of tension between her and both Baine and Saurfang in the Silithus cinematic, for example, and I think a lot of that comes out of her being an excellent leader during a war, but not necessarily very good at it during peacetime.

Man, I’m looking forward to Before the Storm. I really need to see how this all shakes out. But I’m surprisingly interested in Sylvanas right now, in the idea of her as a strong, canny tactician and strategist who is just utter rubbish as a politician.


SPENCER MORGAN

The idea of unlocking kul tirans to get varied body types irks me, I know it’s speculation. It still sounds like something that should be a tab in the barbershop.

In my opinion, if they’re actually supposed to be people from Kul Tiras, I’m okay with them being an Allied Race, but my original thought was that this should be something you can pick when you roll a Human at level 1 — that you could just pick between the three ‘body types’ as it were.

But the Kul Tiras models are pretty involved and I’d rather get them than not get them, so if making them an Allied Race means we get them, that’s fine by me. I honestly feel kind of strange about us going to Kul Tiras and unlocking Dark Irons instead of Kul Tirasians.

 


SCOTT LEYES

I am a bit conflicted; some of the “best” new cosmetic features of the new Allied Races are their tattoos (specifically, Lightforged Draenei and Nightborne), but these are almost always completely covered by armor. I found myself transmogging my new characters into the skimpiest possible outfits just to be able to see what makes them unique.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I actually LIKE skimpy armor.

One of the reasons I love Diablo 3 is that I can mog my Barbarian with a breastplate that is just woad on an otherwise naked (or barely covered in the case of my lady barb) chest. I wish WoW had this option. Just let us turn off chest armor already so we can show off all these tattoos.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I have my Highmountain and Lightforged alts. I guess I’ll use Durotan’s Battle Harness a lot.


CALORAT

I’m still disappointed that we got Lightforged Draenai, instead of the much superior and interesting Broken Draenai

Well, that’s just like, your opinion, man.

I do like Broken, and I would like it if we got them as an Allied Race, but I also like Lightforged and I’m glad we got them, too. Me, I’m disappointed we got Zandalari Trolls instead of Amani. I’ve wanted bulky Forest Trolls forever.


GALDWYNN

Q4tQ: If Blizzard adds a new class in the future do you think they will design an artifact weapon for them going through Legion, will they just start any new class at level 110 or higher going forward, or might they handle it another way?

I find it extremely unlikely that they’re going to design up to three new Artifacts for a new class, so yeah, I expect it’ll either be 110 to start (aka a Hero Class like DK’s and Demon Hunters) or that they’ll add Legion to the same scaling as Warlords and let you just blast to 110 on Draenor and skip Legion entirely, with the ability to finish most zones on the Broken Isles with some kind of workaround.

But just because I think it’s unlikely doesn’t mean they couldn’t decide to do it anyway. Honestly, I’m more of the opinion that there’s not much call for a new class. What would it even be? I feel like Allied Races are more likely going forward than a new class.

Okay, that’s the Queue for Friday. Have a good holiday, y’all.

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