Shadowlands

I feel like calling her 'Mankrik's wife' is a bit dismissive -- in fact, I suggest we just call the guy 'Olgra's husband' for an entire expansion, see how he likes it -- but regardless, in Shadowlands we'll finally get to meet Olgra, whose husband misplaced her all the way back in the original Barrens of World of Warcraft.

We officially know when Shadowlands will be live, which I’m sure is a big relief for a lot of us. For myself, I’m just hoping that I figure out which character I’m taking to 60 first by then — it’s a toss up between my Dwarf and Night Elf Warriors for me.

I like my Dwarf a lot but my Nelf has unfinished business this time around.

This is the Queue. Let’s talk about stuff.

We now know it's about a month to World of Warcraft's next expansion, Shadowlands, barring any unforeseen complications this time around.

World of Warcraft patch 9.0.1 — the fabled "pre-expansion patch" — is now live on the PTR, bringing with it many Shadowlands features, including the Scourge-packed pre-expansion event, which we now know is going live November 10th.

World of Warcraft Shadowlands is currently in beta, and now has a release date of November 23, 2020.

With every new expansion, Blizzard brings us new battle pets to collect for fighting and sometimes for accompanying our characters around the World ...

This week, Matt Rossi and Joe Perez explore more possibilities surrounding Sylvanas and her motives including her deal with Helya for the lantern, why she broke the Helm of Domination instead of wearing it, and what Shadowlands realm she would have landed in had she not been killed by Frostmourne.

The way leveling in Shadowlands works, you do 1 to 10 in Exile's Reach or some other starting zone, then from 10 to 50 you either do Battle for Azeroth content or one of the other expansions, from Cataclysm's revamp of Azeroth to Outland, or Northrend, or Pandaria, or even alternate Draenor or the Broken Isles.

Since the Shadowlands pre-patch I’ve been working on my fist weapon transmogs, farming up The Bladefist from Highmaul, Fist of the Deity from Gundrak, and the Abomination’s Knuckles from ICC. I’m annoyed that I didn’t already have the Abom Knucks, cause I used to tank ICC with them back in the day. But apparently I forgot to keep them, which is irritating because I kept literally everything else. Luckily, they dropped for me.

The new customization options mean that I’m basically spending gold to make my characters match their outfits, so I don’t think I’ll have any money in Shadowlands but regardless I do enjoy fisting. I know the horrible connotations of that, and I don’t care, I enjoy my new fist weapon playstyle just that much.

This is the Queue. I’m filling in for Liz. Let’s do this.

This week, Matt Rossi and Joe Perez explore Gul'dan's prophetic last words in Legion, the fate of Gallywix at the end of Battle for Azeroth, and the clues about the true motive of Sylvanas Windrunner in WoW Shadowlands.