The Queue: Welcome to spooky season

It’s October: the trees are changing colors, the ghosts are coming out to play. Time to sit under the stars as the nights get cold and see who comes out to play. (Probably a bear.)

But let’s not dwell too much while we wait. This is the Queue, our daily Q&A column where I will do my best to answer your questions and then we’ll all hang out in the comments section.

This is a particularly odd one, since Blizzard has been consistently posting about the Trading Post since it launched in 2023. The lack of a preview for October is an unexpected oversight. Even if they publish it shortly before NQT (New Queue Time), which would match my traditional luck, this would be running late. Usually the post is an early preview, to build excitement about the coming month.

Blizzard did show off the reward for completing October’s Trading Post in last week’s WoW Weekly, though it’s a pretty ordinary looking armor set. The Thornshadow Assassin’s Attire is a simple green and brown ensemble with a leather-like look, and a bandana.

But maybe it’s for the best. Even as I have personally spent half of the podcast going on about what’s in the latest Trading Post (admittedly, Matt helps), I don’t love the hype train. I like being able to do things.

Maybe this is a new way of doing things. Maybe this is an oversight and Blizzard forgot that September has 30 days. Maybe the person who did these got fired and they forgot to replace them. Maybe Microsoft is tired of giving away things for “free” and wants more things in the in-game shop. (Admittedly, I find this worse-case scenario unlikely.) We don’t know. But we’ll see if they publish a trading post preview on October 1 (at some point) and if they do it again next month, establishing a pattern.

By the time you read this, the Trading Post will already be here, so get shopping.

Unlocking transmog across armor types makes me think that further loosening weapon restrictions has to be next, and perhaps Blizzard will even include some new weapon transmog options in patch 12.2.5 when they roll out the rest of these changes.

I’m not convinced that Blizzard will be completely ditching all weapon restrictions, but they’ve continued to open things up over the years, and there are more weapon types they could unlock that would give more cosmetic options without completely losing the idea of the type of weapon you’re wielding. Like my Monk can transmog a staff into a polearm, but my Mage can only transmog a staff into another staff. Blizzard could make some more exceptions for weapons… and whatever they do, anything that gives us more transmog options is a good thing in my mind.

In the past we’ve seen a lot of recolors of existing sets, as well as some brand new designs just for the event. I’ve had a lot of fun with the four Sargerei Commander sets, which have some great pieces that fit into lots of looks, particularly their half-skirts and the flaming cloaks. Very striking, wearing a cloak that’s actively on fire.

Of course revisiting these zones is a good chance to collect original looks, but I’m interested in new styles and colors. Maybe some shades of gold that actually match. (I know, I’m asking for a lot here.)

But I’m a sucker for transmog, and I’ll be content collecting whatever’s available.

I think Blizzard is watching the numbers to see if it’s worth investing more into this. If people are playing, yes, it’s worth sinking the time into it for more heroes and cross-promotions that bring in more players to buy those heroes.

It seems like the game has had a resurgence with the introduction of Xal’atath, and if the numbers Blizzard sees bear that out, there can only be more to come.

I think this feels like a fun extra, but if it were around every month it would feel normal, not special. Keep having ’em come and go, it makes an event out of it.

If Blizzard adds major features to Forever, I hope they wind up in modern also. I already want to see the modern game get some of Forever’s new lighting tech (once the kinks are worked out), because it makes the game look extremely striking.

But if they add a whole new class? I’d like to play it in modern, even if it’s a very different take on the class. They’re very different games from one another, but they’re also a warped mirror of each other. Forever is an alternate version of early World of Warcraft, so it makes sense to have classes in Midnight that don’t exist there — we haven’t been to Northrend for Death Knights, we haven’t been to Pandaria for Monks, we haven’t been to the Broken Isles for Demon Hunters, we haven’t been to the Dragon Isles for Evokers. I can see why those aren’t in Forever. It makes sense that they aren’t.

But if you added a new class like a Tinker to Forever? That logic slips away. (Also, Forever would be a good place to introduce a Tinker and tell some more Gnome-focused stories. Not that I’m biased. It would just be neat.)

I love the idea of new content in Forever, but I hope Blizzard goes Diablo Warlock style for anything big like a class.

That’s all for today my friends. I hope you are enjoying the fall weather (whatever it looks like for you) and find a nice ghost to hang out with during October, when they walk plentiful on the earth. (No offense to the ghosts out there that prefer to float; it’s a figure of speech.) I’ll see you in the comments section.