The Queue: Friday?
@faience
The days of the week inevitably sneak up on me, and Friday — complete with this super-sneaky Queue deadline — always seems to come out of nowhere. Wasn’t it Wednesday just yesterday, when I didn’t have to think about writing the Queue? Or maybe it was Tuesday. Monday?
Well, I checked the calendar and it insists it’s Friday, so I guess I’m writing a Queue for you all.
>90°F and humid is no way to go through life. I strongly dislike August.
/melts into puddle on the floor
Q4tQ:
When playing D&D, do you do serious character names, or “whatever”? My long-standing record for naming a character was a week to name a half-elf rogue/spy Eventide Gamble … and then I shattered that mark with two weeks to name an elf cleric of Saint Cuthbert.
I named her Jilara.
A name needs to feel right. But “feeling” right is an ephemeral thing. You may come up with something that feels right off the top of your head, with no effort required. Or you may spend hours cycling through fantasy name generators and baby name lists looking for inspiration. It’s impossible to say how much planning it might take to get the “right” name.
Q4tQ: Which offensive boss ability do you find most impressive/annoying to deal with/easy to remember forever? I’m looking for iconic spells or attacks such as the gromits’ “hop”, except that gromits aren’t bosses and “hop” doesn’t do much.
FLAME! DEATH! DESTRUCTION! Cower, mortals before the wrath of Lord…NO – I MUST fight this!
I’m going way back with this one to say Vaelastrasz in Blackwing Lair. Narratively, Vaelastrasz has been corrupted by Nefarian, and is now forced to fight you. But before combat begins, he calls on Alexstraza’s help — which she provides, in the form of a buff to all players, who get massive mana/energy/rage regeneration. The whole fight is essentially on a timer due to Burning Adrenaline, which Vael casts on players regularly. It boosts their damage done by 100% and makes all spells instant cast.
Oh, yeah, and it also reduces your health until you die, at which point you explode and (probably) kill everybody around you. A buff like that has to have a downside.
It’s a mechanic that made for a very interesting fight that was on a tight timer. You could go all out because you had practically no resource restrictions. But the fight was inherently on a timer, because you would eventually run out of players. It was an unusual — and fun! — fight mechanic that Blizzard hasn’t replicated elsewhere, so it’s particularly memorable.
Poor Vaelastrasz, we hardly knew ye.
I got a “Shard of Rev” or some such nonsense
what do I do with it
do I eat it
Cory, halp
I’m not Cory, but I’ll do my best. First: do not eat the Shard of Rev. You don’t know where it’s been. You don’t know where the mob that was hanging on to it was keeping it. It could have been on the ground. It could have been covered in blood splatter from the fight. Really, you just shouldn’t put things you pick up into your mouth. It’s a bad idea.
So now that we’ve established that, just what is a Shard of Rev? These Shards are basically raid-specific gems for the Sanctum of Domination. These gems and (most of) the gear they go in only drop inside the raid — except for little Rev here, which drops from Mor’geth, the world boss in the Maw. If you want to use it, you’ll need to hit up the raid or grab a single piece of socketed gear for Honored reputation with Death’s Advance in Korthia. If you don’t do either of those things, then it’s just a shiny object to keep in your inventory.
So there you go! Enjoy your new life-leeching abilities. Just don’t try to eat them.
No, really, don’t eat them.
Q4TQ: Now that things have leaked are you excited for Hearthstone Mercenaries?
The leaked trailer is cute — Hearthstone always does great trailers, and this one even has a song, which is a sure indication of quality — but really I want to know more about gameplay before I come to any opinions. The Hearthstone team has been teasing Mercenaries in the vaguest way for a very long time now without offering much in the way of what the mode will actually be. I’m tentatively excited, and I suppose I have been since the mode was first announced. But I waiting to see more until I decide if I’m really excited about it.
Maybe it’s sign of old age, but I very rarely get hyped over trailers anymore. They’re deceptions designed to get us excited about a product that may not exist. A product we may never see. A product that my be completely unlike what we saw in the trailer. So a trailer may pique my interest, but my excitement levels are always going to be on the modest end until there’s real gameplay info, with more than just a catchy song to tell me something’s going to be fun to play.
There is an old Korthian proverb that goes something like: “To escape from shardhides only to rest near some gromits.”
A truer statement has never been made.
And that’s all for this Friday, until next Friday comes and sneaks up on me once more. Until then, I bid you a very good weekend.
Please consider supporting our Patreon!
Join the Discussion
Blizzard Watch is a safe space for all readers. By leaving comments on this site you agree to follow our commenting and community guidelines.
