The Queue: Downtime Blues

You know how sometimes there’s so much going on and it’s kind of overwhelming because there’s just so much that you kinda wind up needing to lie down even though it just makes everything worse? Yeah, that. And then, gamescom or whatever.

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us questions and it’s just one more bullet point in our to-do list so let’s start the pomodoro timer. And don’t let me forget I need to exchange this bathing suit top that didn’t fit.

This isn’t a combo per se, but I would love more of the little shiny swirly moth-style effects we had a tiny taste of back in Ardenweald. My characters are all Disney princesses, and need tiny woodland friends to really drive it home.

Though now that I’m thinking about it, those could also be perceived as flies and little stink lines, so maybe not.

I feel like almost any Blizzard IP except maybe Rock n Roll Racing would be better as a TV show. All of them. There are a few spots where the games are more impactful, simply because you have that instant empathetic connection when you’re the one behind the controls, but I honestly feel like Diablo 4 in particular would’ve been better if I could’ve just curled up on the big bean bag chair with some Doritos and watched the whole thing instead of futzing around with builds and trying to find vendors and all those damn Lilith statues.

The game part is fun, don’t get me wrong, but I’d really prefer all that narrative goodness in one great big bingeable chunk. In that vein, also, Overwatch. I love every single piece of those narrative concepts, but there’s no great way to shove them into a game unless they add in a PVE or co-op story mode, and I’ll just stare into space for a while here.

Yes! Anywhere you can log out instantly and it doesn’t trigger the whole ‘you sure you wanna?’ dialogue window will game you rested experience, and there’s no additional benefit to being in a capital — or even an inn in a capital — as opposed to other cities or inns, even if the inn is in a far-flung nowhere like Silithus. You could even log out in the Shadowlands or on the Exodar (if you’re playing Alliance).

However, that said, friendly reminder that you do need to log in to your characters at cap that you want to accumulate rested experience on. They won’t until you do.

There hasn’t been any indication of this so far, even on beta. Usually what happens is the tier sets are level gated, so they turn off once you hit the former level cap +1. That way you can freeze at-level for achievements and whatnot, but also your gear isn’t completely screwed once you set foot in leveling territory.

Though, like I said, there hasn’t even been indications of this on beta, so you may be cleared to just keep using your gear with its set bonuses indefinitely. I would assume that it’ll take you up through your first few dungeon runs — but then, the good gear from the previous expansion usually does regardless of bonuses, so meh.

That’s The Queue for today! Hopefully I’m not forgetting anything important. And yes, I did remember to pick up the kids from school, thanks.