The Queue: My own personal h*ck

We have pantry moths. Word to the wise, pantry moths become moths after being pantry larva. I don’t want to elaborate much more, other than I feel like I should give the Diablo 4 team a guided tour of my kitchen right now, just so they can capture this degree of creeping, disgusting horror. Or maybe Tirion Fordring circa 2006, just for a quick snack.

This is The Queue, where you ask us questions and hopefully you’ll forgive how short some of the answers are today, because I’m googling “how to make homemade flamethrower.”

So, not to use my platform to influence y’all further, but I really, really hate the new monetization changes to Hearthstone. I don’t necessarily dislike the new currency, because tiered currencies are pretty standard in mobile gaming. It’s more the fact that I can’t earn the new currency in play, at all, ever, even in tiny amounts, which feels exploitative — though frequently this non-monetary currency generation stems from things like watching ads, and I’m grateful that’s never been an option in Hearthstone.

I’m finding that I really dislike the overall structure of the Battlegrounds pass and how it works, since it feels like there’s no point to continuing to play for the rest of the week once I finish my initial quests. I played one (1) game yesterday and I would’ve likely finished them already if my lobby had included Demons or Murlocs, and even though I do get more (points? XP? numbers? Man do I hate all these systems) for wins, it still feels lousy to continue playing without the extra quests boost. Honestly, I play Battlegrounds because it was a low buy-in, low pressure way to unwind. And now that’s firmly a was, and I’m not sure how much I’m going to feel compelled to play as a result.

I’ll disclaim that I tend to be notoriously thrifty, especially as far as cosmetics go, and Blizzard’s prices for them in particular make me gag. For me, the Battlegrounds pass would be basically paying $15 for 2 extra hero choices per lobby, which just isn’t worth it. I’m also very petty, and will absolutely cut off my nose to spite my face, and I used to have this option mostly for free, via the 6 month WoW sub, so I’m feeling extra petty about it.

We have no idea at this point! I’d say to grind out the DK starting zone now. Well, now-ish — you still have a few weeks, and it’s probably week-before-Christmas-Rockefeller-Center levels of crowded grossness right now. I’d probably wait a week. But regardless, we’re not sure whether it’ll go away, so hop to it if you want it.

I mean, if you’re asking me, I’ll always say to follow your gut and do what you like doing. Want to play an alt? I’m not sure how effective it would be, and there’s certain to be a reconfiguring of leveling numbers after the .0 patch, but if you want to play an alt, you should.

In general, I’ve found that advance gearing doesn’t tend to amount to much. You usually find stuff to replace everything while you level, though the first couple levels can be a little rough if you’re playing a weapon-dependent class like Rogues. But remember, transmog is forever. Definitely plan on hitting the prepatch events for this reason alone, just in case.

What the heck? Yes. YES. I’m a vegetarian and even I know you should always season meat. This is why people repost cooking tiktoks. Kal, I swear.

If you’re wondering which spices I use to season taco meat, it depends. If we’re talking traditional ground in regular old tacos, I’m a convert and unofficial spokesperson (only because they cannot legally stop me) for B. T. Leigh’s Somethin’ to Taco Bout. And yes, it goes well in vegetarian meatless crumbles, too. Their Jalapeno Business sauce is also really good in burritos, or huevos rancheros, or as a spicy swirl in white queso.

I’d be hungry just thinking about it if it weren’t for all these h*ckin MOTHS.