The Queue: Into the land of poor life choices

Pandaria is beautiful, but it’s also where everybody makes their worst decisions. From the bodyguards who locked Anduin in a cabin on a sinking ship to keep him safe to, well, all of us, crash landing in a new place and immediately wrecking the joint. And that’s not even mentioning Garrosh, the one we should have locked in a cabin on a sinking ship at the beginning of the expansion, then instead of spending an expansion grudgingly completing his quests (we want to level up, and there isn’t exactly an opt out button) we could have gone and chilled out on Sunsong Ranch, found a beach to relax on, or honed or dragon racing skills (an early taste of what was to come!).

I’m still heading back to Pandaria, but I do have a few regrets.

But for now, let’s Queue.

I think a release date is very possible at Gamescom announcement next month. Per the roadmap, Player Housing is sitting right at the beginning of winter. If you go by the calendar, that puts it in December. If we get pre-patch in December, then we would likely get the expansion in January. However, if we go by the Blizzard’s patch-every-two-months cadence, with 11.2 rolling out in August, we would get 11.2.5 in October, 11.2.7 in December, and 12.0 in February, with the full expansion launching later that month (or perhaps in March).

Either way, an August announcement is entirely plausible. The War Within was announced at BlizzCon, nine months before launch. Dragonflight was announced seven months before launch. Getting the Midnight release date next month is less lead time than we’ve had on recent expansions, even if we do assume it won’t launch until February.

So I say we have pretty good odds of knowing the release date soon.

I actually haven’t. I think the rotation assist doesn’t play nicely with Bartender — I tried it out but I wasn’t seeing buttons glow other than they normally would for procs. I also tried the single button assist, thinking it might still help me figure out a rotation for my Mage, a class I just can’t wrap my head around. However it just seemed to flash between random icons which didn’t necessarily seem to match what I was casting.

I haven’t dug into it more than that. Maybe it doesn’t like my addons, or maybe it was a little buggy when it first launched, but I haven’t gone back. (Maybe I’ll download Hekili to learn a Mage rotation.)

There’s no specific catchup mechanism, but everything will get a bit of an item level boost when the patch rolls out. Playing and doing quests in K’aresh will likely net gear upgrades for under geared characters and alts, with quests dropping ilevel 642. If and when you have enough gear to complete them, Tier 8 Delves will have 684 gear (694 in the Bountiful Delves chest and in the Great Vault).

Patch 11.2 also adds the Reshii Wraps cloak for everyone, which starts at ilevel 694 and can be upgraded to 730 — even if you don’t max it out, that’s good gear. And the D.I.S.C. belt, which is available now, starts at ilevel 691 and can be upgraded to 701 — that’s already comparable to Manaforge Omega Heroic gear. Even early in the patch, you should have these two pieces, which are quite good even at their base level.

So no easy single catchup mechanism, but lots of ways to boost your gear!

You are significantly overestimating my commitment to rep grinds, I’m afraid, because I did Steamwheedle until I got the Everlasting Noggenfogger Elixir and then stopped. I know there are mounts and other rewards, I just am not enthusiastic enough to grind through four (five?) renown bars to get them.

In short, I have not done enough to have a point of comparison here. I burn out on rep grinds quickly, even though I know this one certainly isn’t the worst, it isn’t my brand of fun.

That’s all for today. Take care of yourselves everybody, try not to wreck Pandaria, and I’ll see you back here this week!