The Queue: Got rid of the hot pants

Still leveling the Hunter. Don’t have hot pants on anymore.

It’s the Queue. Let’s chat.

Single favourite implies that I just get one, out of all of those franchises. So let’s talk Diablo. I still remember, all these years later, playing the original Diablo on the PlayStation while my friend Paul was housesitting in DC and I was hanging out with him. Got to the end. Beat Diablo and pried the Soulstone from his head, saw the demonic form change back to Prince Albrecht. Then, to my unbelieving eyes, I saw the view shift as the character I was playing took the Soulstone that held the essence of Diablo and jammed it into his own head.

I mean, clearly this was an extremely bad decision on his part. But I still remember going What the pirate ghost was that extremely loudly. All these years later, and the shock of that moment stays with me.

Well, thank you, but trust me, no one at Blizzard is silly enough to listen to me.

Oh man, classes I’m terrible at playing would include Mages, Warlocks, Priests, Druids, Monks, Demon Hunters, Shaman, Rogues, the aforementioned Hunters, and Paladins. I’m okay at Death Knights and I’d like to think reasonably good at Warriors. My enjoyment of playing a class doesn’t really translate into actual talent at playing them, and vice versa. I currently have a max level Paladin, Death Knight and hopefully soon a Hunter and Shaman, in addition to my various Warriors. But I’m really not very good at any class aside from Warriors, which I’m decently okay at.

Okay, this is not me saying I didn’t like Legion, because I did. But Warlords gets a bad rap, I think in part due to how long it went between new content and how truncated the expansion felt overall (plus a LONG content drought at the end) and I’m on record from back when we were all still playing Warlords as having loved the leveling experience in that expac. I think the leveling in Legion is so connected to your Class Order Hall campaign, and it can be freeing to just go to Draenor and just start adventuring.

I do think Warlords was an excellent expansion that ended up suffering from the lack of content once you hit max level. It ended up creating a feedback loop where players weren’t capable of being objective about how good the expansion actually was, because they were tired of nothing new happening, especially once we hit the last patch and it felt like the mid point of an expansion, not the end of one.

One of the Blackrock Mountain instances. I love the way all the various raids and dungeons in that mountain interconnect, and the idea that once, Blackrock Mountain was essentially this huge interconnected sprawling Dwarven city proves just how industrious the Dark Iron Dwarves really were — imagine, before the Dragons and Ragnaros came, all of Blackrock Mountain was one city. From Blackwing Descent and Blackwing Lair at the top, down to Upper and Lower Blackrock Spire and the vast fortress they represent, and finally down into the enormous Blackrock Depths, it was all one city once.

It actually makes me want to play a Dwarf, that’s how cool I think it is.

Guys, Mitch is an adorable little tyke. He’s like what, five? I mean, I assume. You all look five to me. Anyway, no, he’s not evil. He’s a little scamp sometimes, but trust me, you want evil, you’re looking in the wrong place with Mitch.

Mitch is a genuinely nice person.

I mean, the last few pre-patch events weren’t recycled and they were kind of a mixed bag — people were meh on the Iron Horde invasion of the Blasted Lands and the destruction of Nethergarde, loved the Legion Invasions, and were decidedly mixed about the burning of Teldrassil. I don’t think the decision to revisit the Scourge was a hastily made one, nor was it laziness, but rather a desire to connect Shadowlands to previous expansions. I mean, we’ve been told from the end of Wrath that the Lich King was needed to keep the Scourge in check. Now we get to see why.

Also, the WoW audience is pretty nostalgia driven at this point — that’s literally all WoW Classic is and some players absolutely love that game, even though it’s literally just a retread. So why not get the event that makes the most sense from a lore perspective — with the Helm of Domination destroyed, the Scourge should absolutely run wild — and also get the nostalgia that some players crave?

I mean, I’m not personally excited about it, but I’ve been around for a while and I played this one kind of twice, once when Naxx 40 went live and then later when Wrath came out.

Okay, that’s the Queue for this Thursday. Remember that Liz is going to be here tomorrow, please be kind to her. And be kind to yourselves. It’s a rough old world out there.