The Queue: Gems are truly truly outrageous

I’ve written up two guides to gems this week, one for Cataclysm Classic and one for The War Within. And while they’re not hard to write per se, they require a lot of meticulous work and fact-checking which are not my favorite things to do. By the time I finish I want to immerse myself in a sensory deprivation chamber for an hour just so my eyes can listen to fragrances for a bit. Sadly I do not have access to one so I’ll need to content myself with my second favorite post-writing activity, video games.

ReMists is of course the big news alongside Cata Classic (which I’m skipping) but even though it’s been less than a week I’ve already made huge progress towards my goals. Which is good because I have a lot of other games to play — still need to finish Tales of Kenzera: ZAU and Persona 4: Arena Ultimax, and I’d like to get started on Unicorn Overlord. We’re also only a couple weeks out from Summer Game Fest 2024 — Assassin’s Creed: Shadows got a head start by announcing last week — and I’m sure there will more games added to my list that weekend. TL, DR: SO MANY GAMES.

So while I level my Goblin Hunter through remixed Pandaria let’s answer some questions!

I am not! As I’ve said a few times previously (and possibly only in Queue comments) I haven’t touched any Mario game since Super Mario Bros 3 originally released. Between the three games of that series as well as its predecessors (I particularly enjoyed playing the original Mario Bros game in the arcade back in the 80s) I’ve spent so much time with Mario that I no longer feel compelled to play any more games featuring him or his brother.

In terms of next Switch game I’m not actually sure. Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance I’ll be getting for PC, and neither Assassin’s Creed: Shadows or Metaphor:ReFantazio are coming to the Switch. So it’ll likely be a platform-exclusive indie game, Metroid Dread 2 (if we ever get it), or Professor Layton and the New World of Steam which isn’t even coming this year. Don’t feel bad for the Switch, though: I’m starting up Unicorn Overlord Soon™ and I still have both Zelda games to play so it won’t be getting packed away any time soon.

Most rares are scaled to your level, with a minimum equal to the zone’s minimum (so a Dread Wastes Rare would be minimum of level 35, while a Jade Forest rare you can attempt to kill right away).

Zandalari rares are the big exception, as their minimum level is 50 despite hanging out in all the mainland Pandaria zones. You’ll also want to be careful when engaging “rare elites” anywhere (such as the stationary Zandalari Warbringer), as they generally require a group to defeat — the rare elites in Timeless Isle are similarly difficult to solo.

A general rule of thumb is that the “Elusive Foes” rares listed in their achievement are soloable, while those that are “Powerful Foes” should be done with a group.

I’m finding it interesting, although I’m not sure it’s more fun than a normal leveling experience — definitely faster though. It’s both better and worse than I thought: I expected to become a machine of death by level 70 but the scaling seems to stay pretty even the entire time (which the exception of the occasional wonky outlier that got missed in tuning); while a tad disappointing it makes the experience less boring.

The cosmetics that you get from the meta achievements are nice (I especially like the trading post weapon recolors, albeit only for a couple classes, and the Kor’kron Shaman garb which every character can wear now) but in terms of the standard cosmetic Bronze purchases there’s a limit to how many recolors of ground mounts I care about so I have zero desire to collect them all. I’ll buy as many as I can because they’re probably time-limited, but I won’t be upset if I miss out on a couple crane mount colors.

One character can certainly get the job done, although you’ll hit 70 before you finish all the metas so you may want to plan on a second toon. I’m using the event to level races I don’t have the Heritage Armors for so if you’re missing any of those it’s a good method to get someone to 50 quick. If you don’t care about all the meta cosmetics and only are interested in a handful of Bronze purchases, one character to 70 is enough.

I am cautiously optimistic, but I’m not sure it’s what people think it’s going to be — and ReMists is the reason. Running the Landfall campaign reminded me that downscaled instances are a thing, as A Knife in the Dark has a solo mode in addition to the standard Scenario you can queue for. It’s quite possible that the Story Mode is similar in that it’s not designed to be run multiple times, but is instead a one-time run for, well, Story purposes. As such I can imagine it’s only a partial run through a few of the bosses (and likely not the final one) as a way to progress the campaign.

Could I be wrong and it’s the full raid in ez mode? Sure. But I’m not betting on it. If it is that, though, don’t expect it be available until the same week LFR unlocks the final boss, and maybe not even until after that.

Yes and no. Yes if you’re interested in playing both Classic and Retail as well as collecting as much as you can. No if you’ve only chosen one of the two main tentpoles of the WoW Sub and are content to not Do All The Things.

It’s a tricky balance for a game with a subscription to navigate: keeping players busy so they don’t take breaks but not so busy that they get frustrated and quit. I have to think at this point that Blizz has sufficient internal metrics to demonstrate that the Classic and Retail playerbases are distinct enough that the crossover is low, and that each group of players should be catered to regularly.

Season 4 concurrent to ReMists is a weird situation, though, and I have to think it’s motivated by concerns that the appeal of a “bonus” season isn’t as strong this time around. If you throw in the lack of affixes for Dragonflight Awakened raids you have to wonder if The War Within is going to dispense with the idea entirely if ReMists is wildly successful.

Liver I’ve never prepared for myself, and while I’ve had it once or twice in a restaurant I didn’t quite like it enough to add it my regular selections. Unless you count foie gras.

I tend to be open-minded when it comes to food; using the classic example of pineapple on pizza: I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t go out of my way to eat it, but when I’ve had it before I’ve enjoyed it. I also don’t have an issue with things like the Chicago-style hot dog. It’s just a hot dog with a lot of toppings some might consider odd; still a hot dog and if you like it go ahead and eat it.

I do have one exception though: Chicago Deep Dish “Pizza”. That thing is a casserole, not a pizza. I’m not saying it’s bad, just that words exist for a reason and calling it a pizza is an etymological violation.

Every toon I’m leveling or may level in ReMists is doing a Heritage Armor quest chain after the event is over and then they’re getting deleted. That’s my level of dedication to them.

It’s nothing personal, I just already have a ton of characters these days.

That’s all the time for questions we have today! Be sure to ask plenty of questions for Matt tomorrow, and take care of yourself! Eat, drink water, and get fresh air and exercise on the regular!