The Queue: I need healing

Sometimes life boops you off the edge of the map, and there’s nothing you can do. Other times it rains justice from above or drops the hammer down on you, and you’re not able to escape unscathed, but you do escape — and in those situations, it’s fair that you cry out that you need healing.

This is The Queue. I need healing, but the match ain’t over ’til the payload is delivered!

So here’s the thing. Even during the BC and Wrath days, when I raided regularly (from Naxx to ICC), I still didn’t have that as my end goal. It was what I spent most of my in-game time doing, sure, but I’d also run a lot of dungeons with guildies, do PVP, even duel people for fun semi-regularly. And level alts — though they weren’t nearly as numerous as they are now, they already existed.

When I play WoW, or any other MMORPG, my main goal is simply to “do stuff” on my main characters, and keep improving my gear, while also nabbing achievements and collecting stuff along the way. What that “stuff” is depends on a lot of factors, such as how much time I have available and how much friction there is to do that content, or how accessible it is.

Which is why things like gear upgrade systems are extremely exciting to me. The fact that I can just do my thing but still be constantly making progress — even if slowly — is ideal for a player like me, who is mostly casual these days. I want to spend my time having fun in WoW, but I want that time to be rewarded. I don’t think I have to gear up nearly as quickly as a Mythic Raider or someone pushing really high M+, and I don’t really need to get the same perfectly optimized gear that they’re getting — but I do think I should be gearing up, at an appropriate pace. My time needs to be respected, and rewarded with some sort of progression.

So the TL;DR is: my “broad end goal” is to see the story content, do my World Quests and events and weeklies, jump into instances when I can (whether it’s Timewalking or Mythic+ or LFR), and spread some of that across my main alts too — as long as all of those characters are able to constantly (and relatively easily) improve their gear, and earn and collect things. That’s what I play WoW for.

Back before I took a break, it honestly felt like I was playing a different expansion than everyone else. Most people seemed to be loving Dragonflight endgame, while I was hating it — and I even found myself missing Shadowlands (ultimate sacrilege!)

Now, however, my perspective has shifted completely. The gameplay changes in Dragonflight are fantastic; practically flawless. It feels like an expansion that respects my time and allows me to constantly find something to do, and whatever it is that I do, it feels like I’m making progress and earning stuff.

As for story, I admit that I’m not super involved with the current narrative — but a lot of that is on me. Since I did take a long break, I simply wasn’t there for most of it, so the Incarnates still feel like this vague, somewhat alien threat, and I don’t really know where characters like Fyrakk and Iridrikon came from, what they want, and what they’re all about. But there’s still time for me to get caught up on all of that. I do plan to eventually tackle the stories in places like the Forbidden Reach and Zaralek Cavern to see what I missed out. I like Vyranoth though; the Emerald Dream quests have done a good job of making that character present enough that I already feel acquainted to her.

(You had a second question in spoiler tags, but the answer is, sadly, no. 😔)

The Azerite Snake is shaking out the meta by itself.

Mining Warlock will likely be at or near the top until The Azerite Snake is inevitably nerfed. Which shouldn’t take too long, I don’t think.

1) Have you tried Brotato yet? I know you love Vampire Survivors (as do I), and people say Brotato is the next best thing. There are a ton of Bullet Heavens (or Vampire Survivor clones) out there, and most of them are of questionable quality — but Brotato seems to be the exception. It’s gotten good reviews, and I’ve seen lots of people who liked VS recommend it.

2) What in tarnation! That’s a tough one, ma’am.

The main things that usually make the transition from Constructed to Battlegrounds are specific cards, minion types, or keywords. Cards are hard to evaluate since the game modes have been shifting away from each other more and more. We didn’t get a new minion type in Badlands. So that only leaves keywords.

Quickdraw is pretty much impossible to translate to Battlegrounds since, most of the time, you’re playing the minions you buy or the spells you generate immediately. It wouldn’t make sense to give players a boon for doing what they’re always doing anyway — the mana resource from Constructed is necessary to make that mechanic work.

Excavate, however… I could, perhaps, see it work, in a modified form. Minions with Excavate would give you Treasures when played, and the more you did it, the better Treasures you’d get. But it would have to be a different set of Treasures from Constructed, requiring you to play a larger number of minions before getting to the real good stuff, I feel — or, perhaps, it could be tied to your Tavern level.

Either way, that’s all I can think of! I feel like a real wobblin’ jaw now, but ain’t it the truth: that dog just won’t hunt.

Of course! You miss all the chances you don’t take!

I heard she likes fresh leaves, and long walks on the hills. Maybe get yourself a nice bouquet — aspen, birch, maple, pin cherry, willow, some mountain ash — and take her someplace new, like Hyjal.

Go for it, my dear bull!

Maybe?

This has been The Queue! But changing gears for a moment, here’s an important post: we could really use your help right now. Make sure to give it a read, and if you enjoy the content that we provide — the posts, the podcasts, the banter on Discord or here in The Queue, anything — consider helping out if you can, or at least spreading the word if you can’t. Anything helps, and Blizzard Watch is only here today because of your support.

Make sure to leave lots of questions for Matt to answer, and take care, friends. Love you all!