The Queue: He’s got souls but he’s not a soldier
I hope you find my stupid joke as funny as I do. I also hope that I’ve gotten that song stuck in your head for at least a little bit.
Listen to it while we Queue!
Q4tQ: do you actually check how many questions people have asked?
More or less, yes. When it’s my turn to write The Queue, I go through from the very beginning and find all the questions you guys ask. I put them in a Word doc as I go along, and when I’ve made it through all the comments, I pick eight or so from that doc. The exception here is if you ask your question in response to something else. I usually just eyeball top-level comments for questions.
Q4TQ: how much are you looking forward to patch 8.3? Anything you’re eager to do? Or is it just another patch?
Does the fact that N’Zoth’s story is already “over” before it even began bother you?
I’m not looking forward to it the same way I’ve looked forward to patches in the past, but I am looking forward to it. I’m incredibly excited for the Horrific Visions. I had a chance to do them on the PTR when it first dropped, and they were a lot of fun. I’m hoping they don’t get old quickly, though, which is a definite possibility. Also, given Mythic+ dungeons are a majority of how I spend my time, I’m also looking forward to the new Affix.
I don’t think “bother” is the right word, but I would have liked to see more Old God stuff before the final confrontation. I know we’ve had it throughout, don’t get me wrong. But I really would have loved a full Black Empire expansion, or at least more Old God stuff than invasionlikes.
I dunno. I’m excited for Shadowlands because it’s opening up the world in a way it hasn’t been in a while. I think the bigger issue I have is that WoW can’t deliver the content or the amount of story I want quickly enough. I get why, but it’s times like this I kind of wish Blizzard had a single-player game (RTS or otherwise) to deliver more Warcraft story but still through the medium of a game.
Will the regular podcast still be happening in Anne’s absence? She’s a huge part of it, but it’d be welcome during her sojourn too.
Q4the powers that be: who inherits Anne’s Queue?
And what about the podcast?
The podcast will be continuing, yes. Joe Perez of Lore Watch and D&D fame will be taking over for her. If the time changes to something I can make, I’m happy to pop in as a third chair. Doing the podcast is a ton of fun, but it’s hard to commit to regularly, especially given its middle-of-the-day time slot.
We’re still figuring out Queue things. Jovan is looking like a strong contender to take over, though!
Q4tQ: With how easy they’ve made other professions, do you think it’s time to do away with things like “can only forge Dark Iron items at the Black Anvil” etc. One place to smelt, one place to forge, and don’t even get me started on Lightning Steel.
Nah. It’s a role-playing game, and I think a lot of that has gone away in favor of conveniences. Which, hey, I get why Blizz has added the QOL changes they’ve added, but I still appreciate a degree of role-playing in WoW. I want more things that make us go out in the world to do things.
Has anyone heard anything about Jenafur?
Last I checked, it was kind of dead in the water. I don’t know if that speaks to the difficulty of the puzzle or the lack of interest in the game or both. It’s kind of sad, but at the same time, I would love if we had more easily approachable secrets that didn’t involve all the crazy stuff they seem to lately. If they add secrets that someone can stumble upon in the world and solve using in-game clues, I’d be happy.
Q4tQ Do you think there’s any reason to have a max level toon of both factions in Shadowlands like there was in BFA?
Not to the degree BFA does, but I certainly think there will be a reason to see both sides. Then again, I like to absorb the story. You’ll probably be able to see recaps if you’d rather that. I personally like to see both sides of the story, even if they’re minor things overall.
Really, when you think about it, most expansions have had at least one reason or another to level both factions. Some of them are smaller like seeing Jinyu or Hozen, others are obviously bigger. But I think you get to know the full array of characters by leveling on both sides.
Q4TQ: Should Essences be account wide? I have found now that I own all of them on my main I have started collecting them on an alt and I have to say it is terrible. I also don’t feel particularly accomplished to have them all rank 3 because they were so tedious and took so long to collect. If not account wide what should Blizzard do with them?
This might be a betrayal of my earlier statement about role-playing, but yeah, they should. Or at least they should be easier for alts. Maybe make it account-wide once you get the Rank 3 Essence. If they did that, I’d be fine if they made the class-specific ones drop from a unique place for each class, but that’s not really something they can change now. Regardless, I think this is a case where they should be account-bound in some way.
Q4tQ: what’s your favorite “that’s not how it works” game mechanic?
Asking because it never fails to amaze me that, no matter how far my warrior falls, she can take no damage simply by deciding, mid-fall, to leap at the ground. No magic, no nothing, just straight-up denial of the laws of physics. It’s awesome.
I always find the drowning mechanic funny. It seems like an arbitrary thing to put in the game to prevent players from being underwater too long but hey. If it’s something Blizz wants our characters to do, so be it.
That’s it for today! I hope y’all have a fun Thursday.
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