The Queue: I would rather spend the holidays with…

I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t really get to participate in this month’s Splatfest for more than a handful of matches. It’s not that the theme was one I was super crazy about — I went Family, FWIW, largely because both of my brothers did and also I have no friends — but rather the flair that went into this particular Splatfest.

In addition to being a 48-hour “Frosty Fest,” each side’s ink was sparkly! Matches were a battle of pretty-looking silver and gold ink, all under a special, wintry night sky. It was cool, and I’m sad that I was feeling too “meh” to really do anything during this one.

In other news, Games Done Quick is currently on, and it’s something I always love to watch. Not that we’re sponsored or anything, but check out the schedule and tune into your favorite game. Me? I’m writing this while I watch a Splatoon 2 speedrun. Go figure!

Now, let’s Queue.

As far as I’m aware, the goal is to make it unique to the character group that earned the mount. I’m not sure if the non-account-wide limitation is a deliberate choice or a technical limitation, but sadly, you won’t be able to earn the speed increase on anything but the character that actually completed the ritual, with the group who helped you complete it.

There are probably a lot more than I can remember, but off the top of my head…

• The Linken quest chain in Un’Goro that starts at level 47. Man, this chain was always my first stop once I hit 47, and I looooove it so much. It’s a huge homage to Legend of Zelda, and it was also on Cheat!, which showed me cool things about the game.
• The Eastern Plaguelands questline involving that ghost girl. Pamela! That’s her name. It ends with the Battle of Darrowshire, which is fantastic all around.
• Mankrik’s Wife.
• The Green Hills of Stranglethorn, just because you need to suffer through it at least once.
• If you’re fortunate enough to make it that far, the Ashbringer quest chain.
• The Onyxia chains on both factions.
• Not necessarily a quest, but a Dire Maul tribute run.

Okay, I’m gonna stop thinking now, because the list is eventually just going to compromise all of Classic.

• Night Warriors. Booooo, Lightforged. Booooooo!
• Moira.
• AZEROTH’S WOONS, CHAMP’YUN!

No, I cannot agree here. Nathanos is amazing. He’s a total edgelord with the sass level of a high school mean girl, and it’s amazing. Plus, the voice acting is phenomenal. Do you really want to lose that?

That said, I actually wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t make it out of this expansion. That’s been my mini-theory for a while now, but I hope I’m wrong. I have noticed him saying “For the Horde” instead of “For the Forsaken,” which is interesting if deliberate. He’s had a few, very small moments of introspection, and I’m wondering how far Sylvanas can push him before he changes his motives.

As mentioned in the comments, it’s probably a technical limitation. Given it’s not just a simple cosmetic switch and you actually do turn into a different race, complete with racial abilities, there’s probably something that requires the account to have the races unlocked first.

Also, Night Elves can be Druids, but Nightborne can’t, so that wouldn’t work anyhow.

I have no clue! It sounds like someone else was having this issue, but I’ve seen no signs of missing anything outside the raid. Did you take a different route there than normal (portal from Org/SW instead of direct flight, etc.)?

I’m going to do some research, but before I do, I’m going to say that it’s Jaina’s boat. It definitely looks like the one in the cutscene with her. Horde-side, Sylvanas appears to have her own super fancy boat in the latest war campaign stuff, so it could only appear once you’ve made it to a certain point in the Alliance’s 8.1 chain?

I tried Jalamenos’ suggestion of going to the boat in the BFA intro quests, but you can’t actually get inside of it. Well, you can, but you’re not supposed to be able to, and the inside is missing a lot of doodads. So my guess is that it’s part of the 8.1 stuff, but I have no real clue.

Fun facts: The “incomplete” version of the boat in Stormwind only has the chair from yesterday’s Queue header, and it also has a random floating Elekk plush below the decks.

I think the Kul Tiran Humans will, especially if they come with the different weight variants rather than just one male and one female variant. They’re very different from the Humans we’ve had for ages, and I think it’ll be obvious when you’re playing a Kul Tiran versus an OG Human.

As for Zandalari, I think not allowing Darkspear Trolls to stand upright in the way both OG Orcs and Mag’har Orcs can will help. At the end of the day, I really only ever play new races because I want to see their stories. Allied Races have some degree of this, but not quite the level of the Goblin, Worgen, or Pandaren starter zones.

… So it’ll be the Druid forms that do it for me.

That’s all for today!