The Queue: It is definitely Thursday and not at all Friday

I went out of town over the weekend, and the result is that my sense of time is even more off than usual. But we at least have one thing that’s consistent*: Mitch’s Thursday Queue! Thank goodness it’s not Friday or anything. Boy, would that throw me into a tizzy!

Anyhow, now that we’ve established that it’s definitely Thursday, let’s Queue!

*Except when it’s not. Which is thankfully not the case on this day, which is Thursday.

I am 100% going to be using some of the Holy Priest Artifact appearances while playing as Shadow. It’s something I’ve wanted for years — and a point I literally asked about in an interview before BFA was even out — so I’m really happy to see myself finally able to transmog to a staff that literally has “Void” in its name. Granted, I won’t be using a lot of the Holy or Disc appearances… but there are definitely a few I’ve been eyeballing for a long time, since they fit Shadow quite well (in some cases, better than they fit Holy or Disc).

I’m being completely honest here when I say I only have a vague idea of what you just asked. Ardenweald is pretty, but my main is going with Maldraxxus, and it’s usually a long time into an expansion before I even consider leveling another character. As a result, I haven’t focused on what Ardenweald has to offer because I know it won’t really affect anything I do for the next 6-12 months.

I think Soulshapes are critters you can turn into like foxes or squirrels or something, but that’s my best guess. If so, I want to turn into a koala. Or an anteater. If those aren’t options, they really need to be. (And if I’m totally off the mark on all of this, um… oops.)

I’d love it if WoW had more emotes, like you said, but I’d also like it if those emotes (at least some of them) were unlockable. FFXIV does this, and it’s kind of exciting to see all the potential poses and whatnot you can unlock. I know that’s not everyone’s favorite approach, but I like collecting things and it’s kind of fun to look at another playing T-Posing in the middle of a major city and go, “Huh, I wonder where I can get that emote!”

Outside of emotes — and I know this probably won’t happen — I want to see dyes for armor. Let me change the color of different pieces the way I can in Diablo (or, again, FFXIV). Not only would it lead to a lot of fun looks, but dyes could be rewards for any number of activities, as well as a great way to make Inscription feel meaningful. Frankly, I don’t even know what Scribes do nowadays…

I think we’re going to have Arthas well before 9.3. Between the glance at him in the Afterlives teaser, the statue of him going on sale, and this spoiler-ish tweet from Wowhead that I’ll let you click at your own risk, I’m pretty sure we’ll see Arthas sooner rather than later. In what capacity, I couldn’t tell you.

Frankly, I don’t want Blizz to overdo it on Arthas, so my guesswork here is a bit influenced by that. My hope is that, if we see him, it’ll be in a limited capacity, popping up in a storyline or two and then disappearing. He’s an iconic character that helped me fall in love with Warcraft in the first place, but he’s had his moment. If we get more of him, I want it to be done right.

TL;DR – I expect Arthas, but I expect it much sooner than 9.3.

This is honestly a fantastic question that I don’t think we have an actual answer to. Logically, it makes sense that at least some of the rising Forsaken and Death Knights would have spent time in the Shadowlands before being resurrected. But no one seems to ever mention it.

Perhaps when a soul goes to the Shadowlands but then returns, it doesn’t keep its memories from when it was there. A big throughline with this expansion is how mortals never go to the Shadowlands (and they especially don’t leave if they do get there). Another throughline in Bastion involves keeping memories of your mortal life. Put two and two together, and it seems like maybe we’re not remembering everything that’s happened to us.

That’s at least the best explanation I can come up with. It still doesn’t quite explain how we can occasionally talk to spirits who seem to know nothing of the Shadowlands but do know everything about their mortal lives.

Honestly, this is one of my issues with Insanity sticking around as a resource instead of just being removed in favor of, say, Shadow Orbs. I’m not saying they’re a perfect solution, but it just feels like Insanity doesn’t make sense as part of the Shadowlands design for Shadow Priests*.

I don’t have a good answer to your question outside of “nerf Insanity generation” (which, to be clear, I don’t want) or “add something else that uses Insanity.” The problem with both of those is that they throw off multi-target fight cadences. Maybe Blizz could toss us something that uses a varying amount of Insanity, kind of how Execute works (or worked?) — perhaps Mind Spike could reappear in this capacity, without the whole DOT-wiping thing? But even then, balance could get tricky, and it could throw off Devouring Plague usage for single-target fights. It’s a bit of a conundrum, but I honestly wouldn’t hate seeing another Insanity spender for specific situations.

Or Shadow Orbs. Just bring those back. And also make them ravens.

*Unless you take Legacy of the Void.

Man, I feel like I’m gonna forget something here. While it’s not technically gone, I still miss the clutch saves I used to get with Void Shift in PVE. It’s not quite the same as a PVP talent with much more limited use.

You know what I really liked (at least in theory)? Way back when, moving around increased the proc chance of Auspicious Spirits compared to just standing still. I always thought that was a cool mechanic, even if it’s not one you can game as easily when min/maxing.

But as far as abilities goes, I really liked the look of Halo (especially when you got a lot of Priests doing it at once), and the practical use of Mana Burn in PVP is sorely missed. Funny enough, I don’t mind not having Void Entropy (the DOT from Warlords). Three DOTs feels like enough to me. Any more than that and I start to feel like an Affliction Warlock.

So, my immediate thought was that I’d make all spiders have some sort of glow or incredibly noticeable color that would make it so I could basically know where they were at all times and kill them thusly. But then I thought a bit more and realized I might be inadvertently subjecting myself to constantly seeing spiders everywhere, and it quickly turned into a nightmare.

So, uhh… I guess I’d make fire purple instead. You know, kind of like in that scene at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy.

That’s all for this Thursday Queue! Please enjoy your weekends when they finally arrive, and be sure to ask Liz lots of questions because tomorrow is Friday, her day for the Queue.