The Queue: Liz is still alive edition

Hello, friends! I am in fact still here… just not extremely here. And also very tired.

The tired part is normal, but usually I exist a little more than I do right now. Insomuch as any of us exist. What is existence, anyway? How do we know that we, in fact, exist? Do I know you exist? All of us are just voices in the ether, communicating via this sequence of symbols. Can you prove my existence? Can I prove yours?

We may never know. But I don’t feel very existent right now.

So let’s spend our mutual non-existence, maybe-existence, partial-existence, or straight-up existence in this social experiment we call the Queue.

I think I’m still alive, but sometimes it’s questionable. Time and space have both ceased to have meaning. The sun comes up, the sun goes down, and I never know where I’m going to be or when.

Anyway. I’m on a road trip with my mother. We have no particular destination and no particular schedule but I intended it to take 10 days and this is day 15. We’ve been doing a lot of ambling around, seeing a lot of things, and it looks like we’re continuing a while longer.

So I’m alive, but can’t yet say if I’ve survived my trip.

It’s been pretty interesting. We’ve covered a lot of ground. We drove a twisty-turny path through the Ozarks, with tall trees and amazing views on every side. When we stopped to take pictures, it was just quiet, in a way you don’t get in town. We’ve seen Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and yesterday we walked in the Atlantic surf. We ate some amazing fresh pretzels at a farmers’ market in Pennsylvania. We toured Gettysburg and a fort from the war of 1812. Visited a couple of presidential libraries. And we’re continuing to amble. We’ll see where we land.

I do wish I had more time to just sit around and read, though.

In my case, it’s the Kyrian’s Divine Toll for my Holy Paladin. Since Blizzard added Holy Power back to the Holy spec, the build/spend mechanic has felt awkward. (I’ve gotten better at it with practice, but it’s still a bit awkward.) With Divine Toll, I can instant cast an AOE’s worth of Holy Shock in all of the golden glory possible for a Paladin. It’s on-demand burst Holy Power generation, something the spec has very little of — and has even less of if you can’t safely stay in melee range. It feels like such a core, rotational part of a Holydin’s kit — both narratively, in that it fits the concept of the class, and practically, in that it provides a very specific power that fills a gap in our capabilities — that it’s weird not to have it.

Right now I’m playing as a Necrolord. Between set bonuses and the Necrolord legendary, it provides a pretty huge throughput buff. And unlike the Venthyr ability, which is a major raid cooldown that must be used at the right time to get the best use out of it, the Necrolord ability is a short cooldown that you can use whenever you need it. It’s more flexible — and, I think, more friendly to players who may not be highly coordinated. (Not that my guild isn’t highly coordinated. But I’m not usually highly coordinated.) So I really feel like ease of use and the size of the throughput buff makes Necrolord a big winner for Holydins right now.

But it doesn’t feel right. It’s not something that’s particularly in theme with the Holy Paladin. It doesn’t have a particular tie-in to our toolkit. And even though I think Necrolord is more powerful at present, I miss Divine Toll.

I definitely don’t understand Elden Ring enough to speak it.

Well, the electronics need names, obviously. What would you call them, otherwise? Phone? Computer? No, they need names. My current phone is named Leota. My laptop is named Donna.

I understand many people name their plants, but I haven’t gotten in the habit. I just can’t decide on names for them. And they’re living things — shouldn’t they get a say? So they’re unnamed.

And that’s all I’ve got, my existent and maybe non-existent friends. Let’s head into the weekend and make the most of it.