The QueueJan 15, 2024 12:00 pm CT

The Queue: Just another frozen Monday

By Liz Patt

Okay, Watchers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ’cause it’s cold outs– wait, this isn’t an audition for Groundhog Day? Whoops!

My weekend involved cleaning the house and my emails. I still managed to play a bunch* of Diablo 3 at the kickoff of Season 30. This is the Queue — I am definitely not your regularly scheduled Cory, but we’ll still have fun today.

(* more than 12 hours and that’s all I’m going to say about it.)

SIX O’CLOCK ALREADY AND FELINAE WAS JUST IN THE MIDDLE OF A DREAM

What do you think the Season of the Orange Text D4 theme will be?

Well, I can tell you it won’t be Halloween-themed, and frankly, that’s incredibly disappointing.

We don’t have much lead outside of the orange text. The teaser for Season 3 during BlizzCon 2023 mentioned bringing in leaderboards through new weekly challenge dungeons called The Gauntlet, with the top weekly runs preserved in the Hall of Ancients. Even the seals you can earn don’t give away much. However, The Gauntlet and the Hall of Ancients are new permanent features, so while they’re getting introduced with the Season 3 patch, they may not be tied to the Season’s theme.

So far, we’ve had the Malignant (basically zombies) and Blood (vampires), so it’s safe to say the title will be equally ominous. My totally naive guess? I think it will be the Season of Zealotry, where the Army of Light begins randomly striking against the residents of Sanctuary in manic grief for their fallen leader. Regardless, we’ll find out more in the Developer Update Livestream on January 18.

THESE ARE THE DAYS WHEN AZURELANE WISHES THE BED WAS ALREADY MADE

Bankers of Azeroth, heed our call: Currency Exchange Services for one and all. Please. Seriously, with all the dead currencies, why is this not a thing? Thank You!

I truly, sincerely, 100% from the bottom of my heart, agree with this sentiment.

That said. I’m not a game developer, and I can still think of a veritable slew of complications that setting up something like this would introduce. Would you want to exchange like for like within the same expansion, as with the Shadowflame Crests? Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, as you could set up dedicated vendors in the expansion’s ‘home’ city.

However, if you want to cross-exchange between expansions or currency types, it becomes astronomically more complicated. What does a flightstone equate to in Battle for Azeroth? Should the rate be higher the further back you go, so a Dragonflight flightstone equates to 10 of a BfA currency, but 10000 of a Wrath currency?

So while I wholly agree with you, I can’t even begin to conceptualize a system of exchange that wouldn’t enrage at least 10% of the playerbase. My ultimate play is still to convert former expansion currencies and currency costs to gold. Keep the rep requirements if you want, so it’s not a total cakewalk, but just use gold.

CORY HAS TO CATCH AN EARLY TRAIN, GOT TO BE AT WORK BY NINE

Many of us are very cold right now with this massive storm. When you’re playing a video game where your character is also in an extreme environment, do you try and match your outfit to the environment where possible? I know I always felt bad for Aloy in Horizon: Zero Dawn when she was running around the frozen north in anything other than the frost resist gear.

Poor Aloy — exploring the frozen north in a single-layer animal skin outfit does not equate to warmth.

I did this exact thing during my first playthrough of Diablo 4 after go-live! I was really careful about ensuring sure my necromancer’s transmog was appropriate for the current region I was exploring in the story. But once Season 1 dropped, I wanted to apply the transmog I had earned from playing, so my previous plans of looking region-appropriate fell by the wayside.

That said, to this day, I wonder how much frostbite my WoW paladin experienced from Borean Tundra and Icecrown. I can’t imagine any plate armor is comfortable in those conditions.

AND IF LIZ HAD AN AEROPLANE SHE STILL COULDN’T MAKE IT ON TIME.

What is more fun, Diablo 3 Season 30 or Diablo 4 Season 2?

Liz is trying to get me to choose a favorite child here, and it’s not going to work, Liz. It’s not! It’s definitely not.

It’s totally going to work.

My problem with Diablo 3 seasons has always been longevity. Unless I’m constantly chasing leaderboard ranks, there’s nothing to keep me in seasonal play once I finish the season’s journey. And I’m just not one to chase an ephemeral status symbol like leaderboards. So, completing Season 30’s journey in my first 16 hours (while surprisingly nostalgic) pretty much put the pin in Diablo 3 for me for another 3 months.

On the flip side, Diablo 4 Season 2 kept me engaged until the holidays struck! I really enjoyed both the theme and the quality-of-life changes introduced simultaneously. I wanted to log in, level, tackle the Blood Harvest, run nightmare dungeons, etc. It was also more of a challenge to try and complete the season’s journey, especially compared to Diablo 3.

Once I finished the Midwinter Blight, I felt a little stuck. My necromancer is in this weird halfway space, where I can successfully run a level 90 nightmare dungeon, but the Abattoir of Zir is supposed to be the next step after level 100. Those 10 levels mean a world of difficulty difference. I may still try to tackle the Abattoir in the season’s final week, but I don’t expect to finish it successfully.

Diablo 4 Season 2 is the steady girlfriend, and Diablo 3 Season 30 is the season I turned my head to respectfully gaze at while walking. It distracted me for a day, but ultimately, I’m continuing to walk with Season 2.

‘CAUSE IT TAKES XERIANNE SO LONG JUST TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO WEAR

So I missed this when Red asked, but with DMF up (now done), What do you want to see added to DMF in the next Xpac?

We’ve seen them add the carousel, Rollercoaster, and then the Dance Dance Revolution. I’d personally like a vendor selling trade goods, so if I miss something, I don’t have to deal with 2+ loading screens to go get it. I’d also like some way to get an Archeology catch-up that doesn’t make you go old world forever looking for pieces to turn in in a random zone (go get fossils in Uldum, but it isn’t up to dig in)*.

*Haven’t looked to do this in a couple years but another reason it needs upgrading.

I want a vendor selling all the basic trade goods. No question. The number of times I’ve had to zone out to get five flipping Simple Flour in Thunder Bluff is just embarrassing at this point. I took my warlock (Tailoring/Enchanting) to the DMF last week and — surprise! — I had actually remembered the Simple Flour. AMAZING!

Until I got the tailoring quest and had to get thread and dye. The DMF is just mocking me at this point.

Alternatively — add a teacup ride. The more you click the wheel, the faster you get the Faire buff, but if you go too fast, you hop out and vomit. That seems fair.

KALCHEUS WOULD BLAME IT ON THE TRAIN BUT THE BOSS IS ALREADY THERE

How has your D4 season gone? Ready for the next one, or still have stuff to get done?

Season 2 has been absolutely phenomenal to play. I hit level 100, killed every new boss added (the Duriel fight can definitely be complicated the first time), got my class’ unique ring from Varshan, maxed out my battle pass and completed the Season’s Journey to earn the recipe for the Abattoir of Zir sigil.

I touched on this a bit in Liz’s question, that I’m in this weird sort of in-between state for endgame content. I can clear all the new bosses (yes, even Duriel) although Lilith still regularly melts my face. I’m still going to try clearing an Abattoir, but otherwise, I’m ready for Season 3.

LizP's cats, Belinda and Bettina, laying on a fluffy pillow