The Queue: Merry Happy!

Whoa! What’s that sound? Is that the tippy-tapping of secular boots on the roof? Oh, well, it must be yet another sign that it ’tis the season, because rumor has it that non-denominational Mr. Winter is on his way!

Hopefully everyone that is celebrating a holiday this week is having a joyous and relaxing one, and hopefully both Mister and Greatfather Winter delivered plenty of delightful items for you to play with.

While we wait to see whether we can get people to move their giant mounts out of the way to grab presents in Orgrimmar and Ironforge, let’s answer some questions!

It’s almost insane the disconnect of these two Hunter moves; a long-missed feature is finally being returned — except for Marks who are losing their pets entirely for some reason? It’s weird. Fortunately, I suspect the “Marks losing pets” aspect will not survive the PTR and gets rolled back before patch 11.1 goes live.

I get it, a petless Hunter spec was a desired thing in the community for the longest time, but that was before Survival went melee and Hunters got the Lone Wolf talent. I don’t think anyone was asking for this change. Again, I think the outcry prevents it from happening but it blows my mind that someone thought that this was something that should be done.

I honestly haven’t given this much thought because, well, I was out of town when the news broke. I need to see how easy it is to swap; if it’s a one-click change that can be done anywhere out in the world if not in combat I’ll probably only actively carry one or two pets on each Hunter. If it’s a little more involved I may still keep three available all the time so it’s easier to grab the spec I need — I just may switch up the spec each pet brings based on how much I want them to be front-and-center when out in the world.

I can state unequivocally that my original boar pet Baldrick is definitely going to be seeing a lot more play time.

A tough one to answer because a lot of it depends on my mood at any given time. Here’s my top five in no particular order:

• Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant
• Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord by Boney M
• The Snow Came Down by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
• Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg
• The Little Drummer Boy by the Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister)

To be honest, I kind of like where it’s paused at right now. I do want Dagran to continue to grow as a leader so I’d like to see him continue to explore and be a part of the main NPC groups in the future, but I’m otherwise content with Magni, Moira et al getting a break for the time being.

That said: I still want to see even more of the past, starting with the War of the Three Hammers. It’s time to reopen the Caverns of Time!

Dracthyr have been in suspended animation for over ten thousand years; they’ve missed so much! So I’d get them a chess set modeled after Medivh’s.

Wow, the mind boggles at the possibilities! I’d want someone who would get into the holiday spirit and would want to spend time with me and my family. Someone fun-loving but also able to handle the randomness of being outside their video game to hang out.

I’m going to go with Yunaka! I’ll just make sure any valuables are secure beforehand.

Speaking of eating at Christmas…

• Smoked pork tenderloin. I’ve never done it, but I would love to one day.
• Best thing ever! … because snow rarely ever sticks around for more than a few hours around here anyway.
• There’s a county park bordering my property; with suitable time I could probably cut down enough trees to create a barricade of some sort. I’d need a lot of preparation time, though.

For awhile there I was stunned by the lack of Atlus news at the Game Awards. It feels bizarre to me that they haven’t officially announced in the pipeline.

Fortunately I was able to inject some hopium into my veins: clearly it’s going to be announced as a launch title for the Switch 2 when that console is revealed at some point in the next 96 days. It almost makes too much sense!

Note, I don’t think that means it’ll be a Switch 2 exclusive, just that there’s a bunch of major publishers sitting on title announcements because they want to be part of the marketing around the Switch 2.

That’s all the time and space for questions today! Enjoy this pic of Baldrick while you plan on questions to ask for Matt tomorrow — ask plenty!

Be good to one another, and I’ll see you in another queue next year!