The Queue: Butterfly in the sky…

The butterfly I’m interested in is unfortunately not in a book. If it were in a book I could just check it out at the local library (btw support your local library). But instead it’s a rare drop World of Warcraft mount, which is in every way worse.

Still, we persevere, holiday after holiday and kill after kill. Eventually this butterfly will be mine. Maybe.

Jetpack Cat is a force of joy in the universe, a light in the darkness of the future, a beacon of hope. Jetpack Cat exists, and so good remains in the universe. Long ago was she prophesied, and finally she has arrived in game.

Even I am excited about Jetpack Cat, and I don’t even play this game. (I grant I would probably be more excited if Overwatch League was still a thing, and I could watch Jetpack Cat enter the big leagues of esports.) There is no source of joy greater than seeing a cat flying around in a jetpack.

As long as the cat isn’t in your house when doing this flying. The joy of Jetpack Cat is best experienced from a safe distance.

I suppose first we should say what those announcements actually are, because I don’t think Blizzard hasdone a great job of communicating them if you didn’t watch the Diablo reveal video. This was a big reveal celebrating the 30th anniversary of the franchise, with new content for Diablo 2 Resurrected, Diablo 4, and Diablo Immortal. (Diablo 3 remains the neglected middle child while Diablo 1, the game that is actually 30 years old, isn’t even mentioned.) There’s a bit going on in all of these games, with Immortal revealing its 2026 roadmap and Diablo 4 reminding us of all the features coming in the expansion (there’s a developer update with more details on March 5).

But the highlight is a new class coming to all three games this year: the Warlock.

It wasn’t the class I was hoping for. Blizzard had projected the Lord of Hatred expansion as something of a nostalgia play, bringing back the fan-favorite Paladin class and taking us to the long discussed but never visited land of Skovos. Which happens to be the home of another fan-favorite Diablo class: the Amazon. I was pretty buzzed for that idea. Even the idea of the Oracles of Skovos becoming a caster class of some kind — Diablo 4 lacks in that department — was pretty cool, and had deep lore ties to the place we’re headed this expansion. I was hoping for an Amazon, but an Oracle would be interesting too.

Instead we’re getting nepo-baby edgelords, the class. The actual description of the Diablo 2 class says that Warlocks are powerful and wealthy, but are bored of their life of privilege and so they started summoning demons in order to gain the power to reshape Sanctuary in their own image and rule it. I’m not even exaggerating, that’s literally their backstory.

I was just ambivalent about this class. It wasn’t a class that I vibed with, but not everything has to be for me. But the backstory pushed me over the edge into active dislike. With so many possible stories, we’ve picked up a particularly stale villain arc and are setting it up as a player character. Blergh. Across three games. Blergh.

The Warlock is live in Diablo 2 Resurrected right now, which gives us a look at a caster who can bind demons or sacrifice them for power, and uses chaotic magic and eldritch weaponry. We don’t know much about the versions in Diablo Immortal or Diablo 4, except that in Diablo 4 the Warlock is always shown without his shirt on, so I assume that’s just part of the class. Maybe some kind of allergy to synthetic fabrics, I don’t know.

I’ve barely gotten started. I’ve set up talents and cooldown managers for a few characters, and put together basic builds, but I still have no idea who I’m going to play in Midnight. My addons remain a wreck, I still haven’t found a way to replicate several of my WeakAuras, DBM and GTFO scream so aggressively and startle me terribly so I have them installed but I’ve turned them both off, and I have no idea what to do with my unitframes. I tried leaving the Blizzard frames, but they’re so clunky.

Anyway, I suppose I’m ready for Midnight in that I have characters that are functional, but I’m still a mess of confusion.

A mage doesn’t need a weapon to turn an ogre into a block of ice.

Really, it depends on which humans. There are plenty of humans who could destroy a much stronger enemy without the help of a sword.

Just enjoying the vibes over here.

Please leave some butterflies for the rest of us!!

That’s all for now friends. Take care and I’ll see you back here next week.