The Queue: Time to hibernate

What happened to October? I blinked and somehow it just disappeared, which feels like a first for this year. I hope you all had safe and fun Halloweens. We didn’t even see any people out trick or treating in my neighborhood. So I spent the evening drinking a nice dark beer and watching the new show on Amazon Prime; Truth Seekers. Which was fun, if a little scattered. I don’t think it knows what kind of show it wants to be, it does have a stellar cast though! Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Malcolm McDowell, and even Susan Wokoma — who you might recognize as the voice of Princess Talanji. There are worse ways that I could’ve spent my Halloween. The rest of the year is all downhill from here though. If only there was some way I could just sleep through it all…

While I try to hibernate for the rest of the year — it’s time for The Queue.

Chromie does help, she just moved time back a whole hour so you could have more time to work on your Heart of Azeroth before the expansion ends! But she also does show up in the Heart Chamber at some point, so in theory, the Bronze Dragons are helping. What that help actually entailed was never made clear. Maybe if Essences were introduced one patch earlier there would’ve been a quest to get a power infusion for your Concentrated Flame from the Bronze Flight. I bet it would’ve been something awesome like “using Concentrated Flame takes ten seconds off of your cooldowns” or “Concentrated Flame gives a haste buff to friendly targets and slows enemy targets.” Just something to really nail the Chronal magic that they get.

We’re running out of time for one this year for sure! In theory, there should be one soon, at least if they’re still able to keep to their earlier comments about multiple new heroes coming out this year. Their Fall event is almost over so maybe we’ll get some news about one with the Winter event. As for who we’re getting? We’re due for another ranged assassin, the last one that got added was Orphea and that was two BlizzCons ago! Or something really wild and wacky because BlizzCon is when they like to do the big flashy ones, that would’ve just happened in a non-plague year.

So as always I’ll throw out a Core replacer hero, someone like your Yogg Saron or Overmind. Smack a giant hero instead of your Core that changes the buildings and the minions that match to something more in line with them. Give them a kit that focuses on buffing allies and deploying temporary stationary things into team fights. Like summoning a giant bashing tentacle next to the tribute on Cursed Hollow. With talents that can buff up your lane presence through beefier minions, summon additional team fight tentacles, or provide stronger buffs.

In a more traditional hero, Baal is still sitting on the bench and is one of the most requested characters still left unadded. He’d make for a pretty interesting character if they gave him some moves similar to Samuro with his clones. Or there’s Milhouse Manastorm! Give him a bunch of Shadow/Arcane spells, and let him go wild and try and bring Impending Dooooom to the Nexus.

I think that’s the problem with them being in a mostly fantasy game. As soon as they start to become not a joke race, it causes such dramatic shifts to the world at large that the narrative has a hard time keeping up. Why learn to be a Mage when you can just get the latest Gnome tech that shoots Fireballs flawlessly and has a built-in Polymorph function? It’s a tough nut to crack.

We’d probably have to have a full expansion built around the Goblins and the Gnomes causing and then solving a giant world-ending problem or three. A giant joint effort to create a new technology-based Dark Portal to go exploring, only the things on the other side of the portal were not as friendly as initially assumed. Throughout the whole expansion have the heroes of Azeroth contribute to building a giant bastion city on the new planet, while working with different factions of Gnomes and Goblins who want to fix the problem in different ways.

Doing that runs the risk of getting too “sci-fi” for some people’s tastes though. I know more than a few people who were turned off at the idea of traveling to Argus in the Vindicaar, saying that spaceships(vessels) don’t belong in Warcraft. Maybe if it was just using portals that would be ok, even if those portals were covered in bronze tubing and powered through weird explosive based generators.

I don’t tend to do much in the way of story plotting as I’m leveling a character. I’m usually leveling a character to fill a need in my stable. Like needing a lockpick since my guild’s rogues are super flaky and never get my lockboxes back to me promptly, or playing through a new Class Hall in Legion. If I’ve liked how leveling was with them, and when they reach the max level and still feel fun to play that’s when I start getting invested.

Yeah, you’re right on the money. You’ll play through the zones in order the first time you level a character. Starting with Bastion, then going to Maldraxxus and Ardenweald before finishing in Revendreth. That should put you pretty much at level 60. I haven’t done the route in a while, and there have been lots of changes to the Shadowlands leveling in the meantime but you should be looking at roughly 10-15 hours. Playing in a group does tend to make things go faster, since you’ll be able to make larger pulls without having to slow down as much to heal after, but there is also the human factor. More people means more potential bathroom breaks and distractions to slow you down.

Nope. I’ve leveled new versions of a couple of classes, but never the exact same combo. If I wanted to play my Tauren Shaman again, I’d just play my already made Tauren Shaman.

The original Addams Family is a while before my time, although I do remember watching the movies and the New Addams Family when I was growing up. While I know the gist of the Munsters I’ve never actually seen anything with them in it. So I’d have to give it to the Addams family on this one. They’ve stood the test of time and keep coming back. Even now there is talk of Tim Burton making a new new Addams family tv show. I just hope that they can convince Oscar Isaac to be Gomez.

Probably Revendreth. There are oodles of decadent foods on display in their Inns, and their endgame Covenant activity is planning a fancy party. What’s a fancy party without amazing food?

Today’s Anna Earworm™: Time Warp

I hope that you all have a safe and happy week. Make sure to leave lots of questions for Anna to answer tomorrow!