The Queue: We all really need a nap

No, I didn’t die this pull. I don’t know why you would think that. I just really needed a nap.

Probably we all really need a nap.

This is the Queue. Let’s chat.

It’s slightly less dramatic than a Goblin Hunter feigning death. I mean, it’s up there, but come on, have you seen a their feign death animations?

I think WoW had danced around this line for many of the twenty years it’s been with us. The Alliance and Horde have been at each other’s throats on and off, but there has almost always been another, larger threat that has required us to combine our efforts and to defeat it. We buddy up, help each other out, defeat the Burning Legion, and then…

…the cycle repeats. We’re back at each other’s throats, and then — oh no! — there’s a world ending threat…

We’re currently in a string of two mostly cooperative expansions, where we are working together (more or less) to defeat larger foes than one another. I would like to think this is an ongoing trend, and we’ll keep working together. After all, cross-faction play and cross-faction guilds have co-mingled the factions more than they ever have been — even if there are players out there who don’t participate in or like cross-faction play, the game supports cross-faction to an extent that I don’t think it could be untangled again. (At least not from a systems level.)

But also… world of Warcraft has those twenty years of cyclical history of the Alliance and Horde teaming up to fight a big bad, and then going back to one another’s throats. It’s been two expansions, but I think I need another expansion (or two) before I’ll believe we’re into cooperative play all the time.

You are safe to head into Undermine. It can still be busy, but the week one crowds (and the week two crowds) have definitely thinned.

However, crowds aren’t gone, particularly around the Incontinental Hotel because that’s where the raid entrance is, so you’ll have players congregating. Rares also spawn extremely quickly, and there’s a world boss in this relatively small zone so there can still be a lot of players and activity… it’s just not what it was in the first weeks.

No no no.

Live in a van and make YouTube videos of living in a van (down by the river?) and become a viral video sensation to fuel your lavish van lifestyle.

I think there is a possibility Method catches up. Everyone is currently on Mug’zee, and Method has been getting his health down much faster than the other two guilds did — that is, they’ve made more progress in fewer pulls. I don’t think it’s likely they’ll catch up, with both Liquid and Echo having about a hundred more pulls on Mug’zee than they do, but I don’t think it’s impossible for them to close the gap.

But as to the rest of the race… Hotpot Hero is the only other guild that’s gotten as far as One-Armed Bandit, and they only have it in the 50% range. Everyone else is on Sprocketmonger Lockenstock or earlier.

I think it’s Echo and Liquid’s fight to lose. If they hit a huge roadblock (or if a nerf goes out while one guild is asleep but the other guild is raiding), other guilds could catch up. But I think the gap is so wide that Method is the only one that could catch up right now. Everyone else is realistically fighting for fourth place.

That’s all for now, Queue. I hope you are having a pleasant Friday, and have a good weekend planned. (Or a weekend of nothing planned. That can also be pretty good.) I will catch you back here for more discussion next week, possibly even on time.