The Queue: I wish WoW had Barbarians

Now, admittedly, Titan’s Grip Fury Warriors are close. But man, I really wish that when they’d designed World of Warcraft they’d made a Knight class that was all about shields and tanking or single weapon mastery and a Barbarian class that was all about going ape with a couple of gigantic weapons and just wrecking things. I absolutely love the way Fury works in Diablo 3, and it’s a mechanic I wish World of Warcraft had.

Also, I wish that your class selection changed your character model somewhat. Like, if you were a Paladin, you’d get the glow of the Holy Light or the Sun or whatever leaking from you, Warriors would get a little bit bigger than other classes, Rogues would be a little hard to see around the edges, etc etc.

Look, I can’t do every Queue with some weird conceit that it isn’t actually me writing it. Sometimes, y’all just have to accept I’m writing this Queue. If it makes you feel any better, I just killed Ordos and he didn’t drop my shoulders, so we’re all suffering.

I’ve successfully done +15 once this expansion, as a DPS, and I’m pretty sure it was an utter fluke and the group only brought me along because it was 4 in the morning and they were desperate. It is not easy, and I frankly hated the experience. If you’re doing it for Balance of Power, I would suggest to you that you wait until at least the 8.2 raids have been out for a while.

Let me ask you — what merch would you be interested in? Just T-Shirts? Would you want bags? I’m curious what y’all would be interested in buying. We have had merch in the past like the Fjarnskoggl (sp?) shirt, so I’m interested and I’d be sure to pass it on up the chain to Adam if y’all had good ideas. Like an action figure of me. That would be cool.

No, both the Gnome and Tauren Heritage Armor come out in Patch 8.2.

Let me tell you a secret.

Sometimes I go back and read my own writing and pick out the parts I like and laugh, or nod along and say ‘nice’ to myself, or otherwise get a little rush at what I did right. It’s the other side of that voice in my head that tells me that everything I do is crap and I should stop trying — it’s essentially me getting to actually enjoy my own work.

In addition, at times I read other people I work with and note the things they do right. The columns I wish I’d written. The lore theories I admire. Even though they and I work here at Blizzard Watch (or on other projects) I don’t view admiring a coworker’s work as a bad thing.

If I read something I worked on and it seems particularly well done, I will in fact say so. I see no reason not to. For example, I wrote a piece that will go live sometime next week, and it’s fantastic. Also, all of my books? Each and every one has moments I’m very happy with. I think enjoying one’s own work and the work of others close to you is absolutely a good, healthy thing.

Doing an art panel like that and being suddenly struck by a choice that someone on the team made, and commenting on it? Frankly, I think it’s better than false humility. BFA is an extremely beautiful expansion. They did in fact make a lot of great design choices in terms of the art, and there’s no point in pretending they didn’t.

Ordos entered the game on September 9th, 2013, a little less than six years ago. I killed Ordos weekly until the end of Mists of Pandaria and began farming him in small groups as soon as I got to max level in Warlords of Draenor, and have been killing him ever since. He drops an item of gear that is named after me. I have never seen this piece drop. Not even once. Not in almost six years.

Without being mean about it, I’m afraid I just don’t care. As far as I’m concerned nobody should get anything they want until I get my shoulders.

The best Warcraft novel ever is The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb, who also wrote a ton of AD&D stuff including several Forgotten Realms novels like Azure Bonds, and worked on various Guild Wars expansions.

For stuff that directly touches WoW, you’re right, Christie Golden is very good, especially War Crimes which actually got me to feel sincerely bad for Sylvanas Windrunner. Knaak gets a bad rap, and I get why, but his Diablo books are pretty solid and I did like his Dawn of the Aspects quite a lot.

I would always recommend The Last Guardian first and foremost, followed by War Crimes, Lord of the Clans, Rise of the Horde and then the collected Dawn of the Aspects.

Okay, that’s the Queue for this Friday. Be kind and ask lots of questions for Anne’s Monday Queue.