The Queue: 32

Let’s hop right into it today, shall we?

We do sort of have ads on the launcher already, don’t we? If you mean unskippable ones, then I don’t think the launcher should have those at all. Similarly, I don’t think WoW should have any ads because we DO pay a fee for it already, which is a miracle in this day and age anyhow. Plus, it would feel completely out of place in that world.

Now, even though I don’t love the idea of it, I’d be okay with ads in Overwatch. I’d be especially okay with them if they were done in the same art style and felt non-intrusive. For instance, if instead of a poster for an Omnic-led movie we had an Omnic sipping down a cold, refreshing Coke Zero™ (#NotSponsored), I wouldn’t mind. Really, the key is feeling non-intrusive.

I’d say my hype is just kind of mid-tier right now? Story-wise, I’m really excited! Systems-wise, I feel like we don’t have enough info to really judge, but if Blizz continues WoW’s normal expansion trends, I feel like we can expect a refinement of BFA’s systems which haven’t been my favorite but could definitely click with some tweaks. Zones are one of my favorite parts of a new expansion, so I’m really excited to see those for the first time, though it’s a bit countered by a disappointment that we’re not getting a whole lot of them. Plus, the only zone I’ve seen so far is the one that’s probably my least favorite aesthetic. Features? It feels pretty light, and I’m nervous that the thing I’m most excited for (Torghast) will be too similar to Horrific Visions in that I’ll want to run it a lot but be artificially barred from doing so.

I’m not really dissatisfied with anything, but I also haven’t seen anything that gets me mega pumped for it. My favorite part of an expansion is the very beginning where I can make a mad rush to the level cap, and Shadowlands is going to give me that, so I can’t complain in that regard. But in many ways, I think WoW has reach a point where expansions are about refinement rather than overhauling. That’s not really a bad thing in theory, but it does mean it’s hard to feel like an expansion is going to be a huge change. And even though that leaves less room for major changes that I might hate, it also leaves less room for major changes I might love.

Sweet Yogg, yes. I hate, hate, HATE the need for Vessels to run Horrific Visions. There are plenty of solutions to that — make it like the Mage Tower where you can run infinitely during a window, lower the cost drastically, adding in a failure system, etc. — and I really hope Blizz implements something. A failure system like we have in Mythic+ would be a start, though I think maybe not the best. Plus, how would it work? Keys get downgraded, but HVs are the same difficulty every time.

I feel like a failure system would just speed up the process of farming CVs to run your next one, and in that case… why not just make farming CVs easier in general? Regardless, the HV system is incredibly frustrating on a larger level, but the punishment for failure feels especially bad. Lessening that would at least be a start.

Nope! If you don’t have Shadowlands pre-ordered, you don’t get to see the new Death Knight intro area. That said, I’m not sure if older DK races (the non-Allied ones) see the new intro when you do pre-order or not. I haven’t pre-ordered yet, so I couldn’t tell ya that part. But I did confirm the first!

I’m the wrong person to ask here, since I only started playing D&D last July, but I will say, I’ve noticed that the Monk in my one campaign can dole out some serious damage during combat and it feels like her turn never ends because she’s doing punch after punch on one enemy. (She plays whichever race lets you re-roll on 1s, too, so she has an extra layer of security there.) If combat is your focus, Monks seem like a fun choice.

I’m gonna give this one to Talisker. Although, I’d have to taste to confirm, and I don’t have either of these on me right now. In general, I’m not huge on smokey flavors, though, so whichever is less smokey is my pick.

We’re likely to get a Shadowlands alpha at the end of this month, maybe early March. But as far as class info is concerned, that probably won’t come up until a bit later in the testing process. I’m blanking on how much class design changes during the typical beta cycle, but I know that numbers tuning definitely comes last… and I’m pretty sure we see talent changes and the like pretty late into testing as well.

So, even if we are expected to get Shadowlands info soon, it might not be the type you’re hoping for.

Q1: Right now, I have 30 Corruption, and I mostly stick with Mythic+. I got myself the Tier 3 Infinite Star trait this week, so I’m happy with my setup at the moment. Ideally, I’d like to stay below 40 Corruption. I might be able to get away with under 60 in solo content, but there’s too much else going on in dungeons and raids for me to want to risk that extra Corruption effect.

Q2: It wills you to listen.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so uhh… I dunno, celebrate however you want! But like every day, be kind to people.

Also ask lots of questions for Liz. She likes that.