The Queue: Rolling dice to predict the launch date announcement

Y’know, I don’t say this too often, but this week went by kinda quickly. I mean, I know we have a day or so left until the weekend but all the same.

Then again, this could all just be the effect of time normalizing after Covid slowed everything down. Who knows! What I do know is…

…it’s Queue time.

So for funsies, I rolled a d12 and then a d20 + a d10. I got a 9 on the first one and then a nat 20 (!) plus a 5 on the second two.

So, according to my rolls, the expansion will be announced on 9/25. That’s a Sunday, but y’know what? I’m sticking with it.

This is something that WoW has done some of but still relatively little compared to what I’d prefer. FFXIV, on the other hand, does a great job of having the player utilize and revisit the full world.

I don’t know if WoW needs to go fully in that direction — they’re different games with different focuses — but I do wish we’d see more of the old world and check in on old friends and such. I’d absolutely love to see World Quests that cover events in Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms and have those directly affect the zone over the course of an expansion.

Basically, the overhauls that Darkshore and Arathi got in BFA would be great to do to a lot of old zones, and I feel like Blizzard could do it via World Quests or 5.1-style quest chains.

I think Zovaal was powerful, both in the sense that he had power himself and in the sense that he had access to power that would help him rewrite reality. I do not think either of those things makes him a well-written bad guy.

Was he the worst villain we’ve ever faced? No, of course not! The threat was really there, and before Dragonflight was announced, I genuinely thought he might win and rewrite reality to set up the next “chapter” of WoW.

But Shadowlands is over, and all Zovaal ever amounted to was a plot device. He’s the bad guy who showed up out of nowhere, laughed and said he’s been here all along, did some vaguely evil things, and then died. He’s a one-season baddie, and that’s a shame.

I know nothing about either of these, but I love purple and that dress on Gnomeferatu is divine. The Gnome wins!

Woooo! :D Keep it up, praise Yogg, and congrats in advance (or belatedly?) on hitting 60!

First off, welcome back and congrats on the fixed lappy! o/

Second, it all depends on your goals. If you want to catch up on Shadowlands stories and get some alts ready for DF? Now is perfect, especially with the 50% XP buff currently happening.

If your goal is “being geared enough” by the time DF launches, I wouldn’t worry too much. The first couple zones may be a little rougher if you’re using the green vendor gear, but like all expansions, quest gear will reign supreme over most Shadowlands gear (unless you’re using some of the top-end stuff, and even then, it usually makes it about 7 levels in).

That’s all for today! I’ll probably see you all next week, and if I don’t, I’ll see you when I see you. Cheers!