The Queue: Dry your hollow eyes and let’s go down to the water
Queue?
Queue.
QUEUUUUUUEEEE!
Q4tQ: Actual question and not my usual “hey my opinion is this” phrased as a question. How the hell do Esports compensate for the mercurial nature of game balancing? Part of the reason I just can’t take Esports seriously (I respect the opinions of those who enjoy them, I just can’t be bothered to watch) is because I imagine entire tournaments getting thrown for a loop when the devs, say, let all the air out of Mercy for the umteenth time. Do they like proclaim “the game will be built to X date’s specs” or something? If that’s the case, what happens when like, right after team X wins all the cash the devs say “yeah that build had this character too powerful and we found another pocket of air on Mercy to deflate?” How can they take that so calmly?
Seriously, total bind spot for me here and I’m actually rather curious.
There’s probably a longer answer to this, but the short version is that esports tournaments are usually played a build or two behind. For example, last BlizzCon, Junkrat had come out a few weeks prior. Initially, Blizzard was going to have Junkrat playable in the HGC finals. After player feedback (read: complaining), they decided that it would upset the balance a bit too much and decided against making him playable until HGC 2018.
That’s actually a rarer case in that Blizzard went back on their decision because of how players responded. All the same, builds that esports players compete on have usually been around for a while, so they’ve gotten the hang of them.
Plus, everyone is on the same playing field, so it’s more a matter of those players finding it fun/tolerable to play on the PTR enough that they’re ahead of the game when changes finally hit the tournament builds. No, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and I obviously can’t speak for professional esports players, but I imagine if they had a huge issue with the constant adjusting, they’d either quit or call Blizzard on their release cycle (like with Junkrat).
I’m leveling a DK at the moment and queuing for dungeons as DPS (tanking is torture). I’ve noticed that the group finder is finding a tank way earlier than a healer, this definitely wasn’t the case before the level scaling patch. Is anyone else noticing a dearth of healers? As someone who leveled a healer recently I’m not surprised – leveling dungeons are harder to heal than entry level Legion stuff, which is crazy.
I haven’t noticed this, but I also rarely pay attention to who gets queued when. I will say, another factor could be that out-gearing dungeons is a lot easier to happen nowadays, and when you out-gear a dungeon, it’s (in my opinion) a lot easier to just mindlessly charge into as a tank. So you probably have a lot more people rolling tank spec on their alts and going, “Eh, I’m overpowered, I can just pull this whole place and the healer will spot me if needed.”
QftQ. Should I buy the transmog Yak now or wait until we know what will be on the Vendor dinosaur mount and how the transmog crafting items will work in BFA?
There’s no way the dinosaur will be cheaper, and we still don’t technically know if it’ll have transmog or repair vendors. If you can afford the yak, go for the yak.
Q4tMitch: Tacos or Burgers?
Tacos are more easily made vegetarian, plus it’s Taco Tuesday, so I have to go with tacos. That said, tacos at their best versus veggie burgers at their best? A good veggie burger is reaaaaally hard to top.
Q4tMitch: As a Mitchland foot soldier of the 4th circle (meaning I have drunk of the black goo 4 times). I’ve grown to taking advantage of my advanced metabolism to recover from battle by consuming slain enemy soldiers. Thing is, the other Mitchlands foot soldiers give me leery looks; and mutter to themselves when I pass by.
The label of cannibal bothers me. I mean, is it even cannibalism when your face is a toothy beak with 3 eyes? Your Mitchtations™ have altered me so much, I must jam a probing tentacle into the skull of a POW and use his body to write this very letter. Perhaps they are merely jealous of my status as a higher lifeform.
They know not what life is like in the 4th circle. Do not listen to their whispers or take note of their leers. There is one voice to follow, and one voice alone. Continue onward, invigorated even more than before — show them what true loyalty looks like.
And use the unbelievers for more letter-writing, even if you don’t have a letter to write.
QftQ: Has the Azeroth map in Alpha changed to reflect the addition of the new islands yet?
Nope! The zones themselves are still using the “realistic terrain” look, too. That said, we do know where the isles are located based on the features trailer for the expansion. The Zandalari Isles are northwest-ish of Pandaria, while Kul Tiras is northeast-ish of Tol’Barad.
Question for the Queue: How many nerfs does it take before you begin to re-evaluate how your Main is geared for PvE? PvP? Raids?
Just a question. No correct answer that I know of … :-)
/salute
4Azeroth
Personally, I’ve never encountered this. But if I’m doing anything besides LFR raiding, there are usually logs being run. Because of this, I can compare myself to other players of the same spec, with a similar item-level range, over the past two weeks of recorded logs. If I’m doing poorly in that particular bracket, then yeah, maybe I’ll reevaluate what I’m doing. Otherwise, as long as I’m not waaaaay behind the other DPS (or even tanks) and I’m not dying so often as to be useless, I don’t really think about this sort of thing.
It’s official; I have senioritis. I do not want to study. Not even my fun classes. I pulled the first all nighter in quite a while just a couple weeks back, because my time management skills around assignments has died a terrible death.
I just… I want to play WoW and Overwatch and write fanfic. I do not want to write any more case briefs. *headdesk*
This is going to be a grueling six weeks…
Odd moniker aside — inflammation of the senior?!? — I think I suffered this pretty much every year after the first exam was over. Advice I rarely took myself: Reward yourself with WoW or Overwatch or fanfic-writing in between studying. Set an amount of time, number of chapters, or some other easily measurable goal, reach it, and take a break with something that you enjoy. But only allow yourself so much time with the reward before going back to studying.
Oh, and maybe go for a walk or something. The fresh air is nice.
2BE: One Punch Man Doomfist vs Garrosh
METEOR STRIKE!!!
(Doomfist for sure.)
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