The Queue: An Original Moocasso

Blizzard, you had better add this absolute work of art — perhaps the best prop item your artists have ever conceived — to Player Housing as a decor option. That will be all. I will not be taking questions at this time.

…except I will be taking questions at this time because this is The Queue, our daily Q&A column where the Q stands for — you guessed it — Questions! And Answer them we shall, right after I stop writing this intro.

Ever since WoW existed, people have tried to make the “Shockadin” — a caster Paladin that uses Holy Shock to deal damage — into a thing. Besides Holy Shock itself, the Paladin has had a few other nukes in its arsenal, such as Exorcism. So a ranged DPS Paladin that uses Holy spells to deal damage is almost a given. Fantasy-wise, it would be easier to see this spec as an Inquisitor. (No one expects the Paladin Inquisition!)

If we don’t go the full caster route, another avenue that they could explore — and that they’ve only recently started to with a few talents in the Retribution tree — is branching out to Fire damage, as well its subschools such as Radiant (Holy + Fire) and Holystrike (Holy + Physical). We could have talents and/or hero specs that allows you to turn your paladin into a… Burning Crusader of sorts. Taking vengeance to its extremes, and really starting to walk that fine line between justice and tyranny. (Sort of thematic with some of the possible story paths we’ve been seeing in the game, actually.)

Finally, a route that certain settings like D&D have explored is that of the Antipaladin. A paladin who has become corrupted and decided to pledge themselves to dark forces and use their powers for evil. It could be argued that this is what happened to Arthas in Warcraft 3, with his transformation into a Death Knight. But perhaps similar paths could be pursued by other individuals, and some sort of entity — from realms such as Death or Void — could enlist those wayward souls, resulting in a “Dark Knight” kind of spec that can still summon the Light, but to use it nefariously.

Oh yeah, the removal of Shadowstep might seem like absolute doom for Rogue players right now, but I think it’s extremely healthy for the game. For too long now, Rogue has been a very high skill cap class that can absolutely demolish the opposition with all of its gimmicks (of which Shadowstep is a major part) while feeling underpowered for the majority of players. Blizzard simply had to always consider that Shadowstep existed when desiging cards — and not just Rogue cards, or just Rogue and Neutral cards, but every card in the game, since Rogue is often generating cards from every single class. This is the kind of thing that will absolutely free up some design space, and it will probably shift Rogue less towards crazy high skill gimmicks and more towards the board, with things like weapons, pirates, stealth, strong tempo effects from Combo, etc. Honestly, I’m excited to see what happens from here.

But I’m even happier about the removal of Brawl. That, combined with a few other changes, makes me think that they’re trying to reduce the power level of the core set a little to give expansions more ways to shine. Having the core set have fewer staples lets them design new, exciting tools to accomplish tasks like wiping your opponent’s board. Whether that will lead to a more board-focused game again — something which I would LOVE to see — or not, time will tell.

I hope we do fight her, because if she survives yet another expansion, I feel like people are gonna get some real fatigue. The time to deal with Xal is right now!

I expect her to be the final boss. It’s been a while since we’ve had a final boss “at the expansion box,” so to speak. However, I expect some sort of twist, such as fighting her “real form” (whatever it is) instead of the elf, and that in itself is the twist. And, of course, the fallout from that final fight leads directly into The Last Titan — but we’re used to that by now.

With that said… the one leftover main antagonist figure we have for The Last Titan is Iridikron. But I think going from Xal’atath to Iridikron is a massive downgrade. Iridikron is absolutely not a strong enough character to carry an expansion as its main antagonist. That’s the only thing that makes me consider the possibility of Xal surviving.

It’s either that or the events of Midnight create a natural new antagonist that we can expect to lead things into The Last Titan in Iridikron’s place.

(Galakrond. My money’s on Galakrond.)

I don’t know about “most visible,” but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Vyranoth quite a bit as she helps us uncover the draconic past (Galakrond!) and go after Iridikron. I feel like those Dragonflight characters will make a big time return in The Last Titan — at least for a patch or two, maybe more.

Let’s see what the Steam Page says:

“[…] calls it a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger”

lmao. another one. I’ve lost count.

Joking aside, this game certainly looks pretty interesting, and I’m surprised it managed to fly completely under my radar until now! (So thanks for mentioning it.) I love HD-2D, and the gameplay reminds me of old school Secret of Mana-like games. It’s SUPER my jam. I’m actually really looking forward to it now.

But most of all, I’m extremely surprised that the creators of Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, Bravely Default, and Various Daylife have managed to create a new game with a relatively normal name.

Gimme pizza. P-I-Z-Z-A.

Of course not <3

Though Bossy will forever have a special place in my heart. Moo in peace, sweet queen. Moo in peace.

This has been The Cow. I mean, The Queue. I feel like I’ve said that once or twice before? Time is a flat circle.