The Queue: Halfway there

Did you know that it’s June? How did that happen? I swear that last time I looked it was March. Clearly, this is all Chromies fault, it reeks of timeline shenanigans.

While we get that sorted, I take you to now to — The Queue.

I think we’re still a little ways away from any open beta. There are still two whole zones — Ardenweald and Maldraxxus — that haven’t been added, as well as the Covenant’s Soulbind system. On top of all of the various new character creation stuff for original races and the new Horde starting experience. June might be too early, maybe July? Especially since it’s feeling like we’re going to be seeing a later in the year release. I wouldn’t expect it later than August. It’s easier to test raid mechanics when you can let whole raid teams make characters.

The Mechagon acid rain is such a great example of a temporary thing that players can do to change the world. I really hope that they can find ways to bring that little mechanic forward into more zones. Simply by virtue of it being something that players control it’s more impactful than a simple weather effect changing what mini-pets spawn in a zone. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for there to be more things like certain pets only showing up when it’s raining, but players getting to control spawns is just cooler.

Maybe we could see the Warfront systems of buffing troops and collecting resources brought out into the rest of the world. Similar to structures from the Broken Shore, have players contribute to building up a factions base in an area to make their questing and gathering easier in that part of the world. Playing a squishy mage and want an Abomination to tank for you? Go collect bits from surrounding creatures and bring them back to your base for re-animating. Or strap a pair of Gnomish manipulator arms on your back to help you pick flowers while mounted, but only if players have been supporting their local Gnomish Thinkatorium.

You’d have to balance it carefully so that a single player could still meaningfully contribute to whatever is present in the zone, or the features wouldn’t be nearly as interesting when the next expansion hits. But I’d love to know that while I leveled or quested in the zone that I was helping to change things in the world around me, even if it was just for an hour or two.

That’s a tough one. Since to get into higher key pugs oftentimes you’ll need a higher ilevel of gear or a higher raider.io score, and in order to get the gear and the score, you have to get into higher keys. It’s a vicious cycle. Especially for DPS characters who are plentiful in the premade finder.

You’ve hit the nail on the head though, the easiest way for you to get started as a solo player is to start your own groups. If you have no key and want to get an easy one, I’d suggest making a group for Mythic Freehold or Underrot. They’re fairly straightforward dungeons and each of them has the added benefit of dropping mounts at the end.

It’s going to be way easier if you happen to be a tank or healer. I’ve listed keys in the 5-10 range with my Mage and another DPS and we only get signups as soon as we have a tank or healer. A trick to making your listing look better is to relist every five minutes or so. That can help to stop people from assuming you’re someone who went afk or forgot you had the group finder going.

As for the keys themselves don’t be scared! Level two and three keys only have the Fortified/Tyrannical affix and the extra health and damage from being higher than 0. Things might take you a little longer to kill, but you only have to worry about everything you were worrying about before. Of the two Fortified is the easier to deal with, simply because you can use crowd control if you need to make a big group easier to deal with. Or if the worst happens and you wipe, there’s a chance that you killed something in the group and have less to deal with when you come back.

As for the timer, don’t pay that much attention to it when you’re first starting out. Pull the dungeon as you’re used to, let the healer stop and get mana if they need it. Don’t feel like you have to make giant multi-group pulls like players do in the Mythic Dungeon Invitational. There’s more time than you realize. Even if you don’t complete it on time you still completed it and can get shiny loot out of your weekly chest on Tuesday!

1. All toys that change my appearance and last into combat.
2. All other toys that change my appearance and don’t last into combat.
3. Ai-Li’s Skymirror so that I can copy someone else who used one of the toys from #2 and use it in combat.
4. Vrykul Drinking Horn so that I can make my bear — or any of the new appearances from the above options — even larger.
5. Puntable Marmot

The Lich King casted defile.

It grew too large because of Kyle.

It was all his fault.

That his friends couldn’t survive the assault.

Now his raid won’t have reason to smile.

In Heroes of the Storm, it’s getting the perfect Rocket Ride while playing Junkrat. Especially if the target is someone like Sgt. Hammer. Double especially if the Sgt. Hammer has the talent where they get stealth when they go into siege mode.

“Oh, you thought you were hiding? Eat high explosives!!!”

It’s the best feeling.

In World of Warcraft, it has to be watching a Twilight Devastation take chunks of health off of anything I’m fighting. Each one from my bear is hitting for 30% of my health — and let me tell you, dear reader, that’s a lot of health. I love each and every one of my giant purple spotlights of destruction.

Today’s Anna Earworm™: Livin’ on a Prayer

As always I hope you have a good week — and stay safe.