The Timewalkers: What Might We Expect

While I still don't think it's a 100% guarantee that we're heading to a past version of Draenor (though I'm not ruling it out,) I think we can probably assume that the Timewalkers will play some role. After all, Burning Crusade was certainly not a "time travel expansion," but it did introduce the Caverns of Time dungeons. There's always some tangential stuff.

The Timewalkers first appeared in the now-defunct Collectable Card Game as a small faction made up of mortals who are basically taking over for the Bronze Dragonflight now that Nozdormu has lost his Aspect powers.

Or did they? (Dum-dum-dum!)

The Timewalkers have a distinctive Tabard with an Infinity symbol (kind of an odd choice, given the connotations "infinity" has to time travelers in WoW.) Timewalkers come from all walks of life, from Paladins to Mages to Hunters to Death Knights. But this tabard is what really identifies them as a member of the organization.

For Horde players, early on in your exploits through the Jade Forest, you encounter Lorewalker Cho. He tells you about his ancestors before asking about yours (it's kind of sad the Alliance doesn't get to do this, as you get a cool little peak into your character's past.) The very subtle thing that you could easily miss is that one of the images of the Pandaren that Cho presents to you is wearing a tabard - a tabard with an Infinity symbol on it.

The Timewalkers have essentially four jobs, and you encounter each on the Timeless Isle. Historians have a fairly mundane task - they research history. Though given their organization, I imagine Timewalker Historians are held to a somewhat higher standard of accuracy. Watchers are the spies of the Timewalkers, slipping into other times to keep an eye on the events of history. Wardens are the Timewalkers' protectors, serving essentially as security to the others, and Weavers are the Chronomancers who actually manipulate the fabric of time itself to heal any rifts or, presumably, erase paradoxes.

So far, the Timewalkers have shown up as a quasi-faction in game. You cannot gain reputation with them, and really they mainly serve as flavor NPCs for the Timeless Isle. But I could very easily see the Timewalkers becoming a major faction, not unlike the Earthen Ring or the Kirin Tor.

More radically, some have suggested that Timewalkers could become a class. Whlie currently the Timewalkers appear to belong to existing classes - pretty much all of them - the various Timewalker jobs almost seem like they could be the names of specs.

Imagine, for example, Wardens as Tanks, Weavers as either healers or caster DPS, and Watchers as melee dps.

It actually doesn't sound that crazy, though flavor-wise, it would be stepping on the toes of Mages a bit.

There have been a lot of fakes out there, and just for the record, I'm pretty sure this one is fake too, but someone put forth the idea of a plate-wearing class that uses shields, with Warden, Watcher, and Weaver as the three specs.

Generally, the prevailing theory is that the next class has to use mail armor, because all the other armor types have three classes each. Yet on the other hand, no one but Holy Paladins use intellect plate, and Mail shares the Agility stat with Leather. There are already eleven specs that compete for agility rings, trinkets, necklaces and cloaks. Compare that to eight that use Strength. Perhaps it's not so crazy to imagine a new plate class. Sure, using intellect plate would not really help matters much, but it would mean more classes that could use both caster and tanking shields.

I'm VERY skeptical about the prospect of a Timewalker class, but if this does somehow get announced tomorrow, it could very easily become my favorite class in the game (at least in terms of flavor.) I always wanted a battlemage (a plate-armored class that combines Arcane magic with melee) and this looks like the closest thing you could get to such a thing.

Anyway, Blizzcon is now I believe 20 hours away. We'll find out soon.

Let's See How Wrong We Get It!

Blizzcon is now only a day away, and we will be hearing about the next WoW expansion.

Just for fun, I thought I'd put down, for the record, what the prevailing (insomuch as there is such a thing) theory is about expansion 5. Either this will look like some kind of cool prophecy (or at least an intelligent reading of the hints we've gotten) or it will be a hilariously backwards, totally wrong mess.

So here's the synopsis, taking a whole bunch of sources and filtering it through my brain:

The next expansion will be called Warlords of Draenor. After his defeat in Orgrimmar, Garrosh sits as a prisoner at the Temple of the White Tiger, waiting to stand trial for his war crimes and his desecration of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Yet Garrosh has a most unlikely ally: Anduin Wrynn. A faithful young man, Anduin makes it his mission to redeem the very man who nearly murdered him a year ago. The Light offers redemption, after all, and redeeming Hellscream would be a great victory for a priest of the Light.

Meanwhile, Kairoz has been deeply troubled by the visions he has seen thanks to the Timeless Isle. He worries that the timelines are falling prey to some new threat. And most disturbingly of all, he sees himself as the instigator of the oncoming chaos.

Anduin does not fully grasp the danger of meddling with the time ways. Perhaps after finally getting Garrosh to open up, he suggests using the powers of the Bronze Flight to travel back in time so that Garrosh can confront his father - the person who set Garrosh on the path to his madness.

Anduin, so devoted to the cause of redeeming the former Warchief, breaks him out of prison and the two find some way to travel back in time.

What may have been done with the best intentions nonetheless could have dire consequences. The Timewalkers and the Bronze Dragons fear that the two might undo the timeline, which could be devastating. Meanwhile, Horde, Alliance, and Pandaria must track down the most wanted criminal in the world.

But there's another person who has a keen interest in seeing what happens next: The Prophet Velen.

Velen is convinced that Anduin is destined to lead the Army of the Light - the grand unified strength of Azeroth that will one day destroy the Burning Legion.

Anduin is heading off into a dangerous world - just as the Horde is beginning to form and ravage the land with their bloodlust.

Velen may remain mysterious, because he knows what must happen for the young prince to become what he needs to be. And besides, he has his own past self to watch out for the boy.

So what do we get? A past version of Draenor, before it was shattered into Outland. We get new character models, and either Ogres and some other race for the Alliance, or Demon Hunters, or something else.

New level cap is 100.

We get "Timewalker" dungeons, scaling our level and gear down (though keeping all our abilities.)

We get a bunch of Orc and Draenei lore.

Major figures include Anduin, Garrosh, Gromm, Velen, some new Draenei characters, Nozdormu, Kairoz (uh, and, um… hopefully some female characters.)

Major antagonists include Burning Legion, the Old Horde, the Shadow Council, and the Infinite Dragonflight.

We see a profoundly different version of Outland, with perhaps some entirely different zones as well as some intact versions of Outland zones (Farahlon, for example, where Netherstorm is today.)

We get a UI for "toys" like we did for pets and mounts. Also tabards, hopefully.

Final boss is not Gromm Hellscream (I really can't believe we'd have Hellscreams as back-to-back end bosses.)

So there it is: for the record. I look forward to laughing at some of the more outlandish (ok, pun technically not intended, but I stand by it) things that prove false.

Who's Getting the Big Overhaul?

Every expansion brings changes. Sometimes they're big changes, sometimes they're moderate changes, and sometimes they're just tiny tweaks.

Indeed, some classes have remained pretty similar to how they were in Vanilla, while others are practically unrecognizable.

Despite cries of homogenization, the underlying mechanics of a lot of classes have shifted considerably over the lifespan of WoW. So let's take a look at each class and see what has changed and what is likely to change in the future.

Warlocks:

Warlocks got a huge overhaul in Mists of Pandaria, finally killing the Soul Shard mechanic for two of the three specs, and turning it into a somewhat central thing for Affliction in addition to the Cataclysm-era utility.

The three Warlock specs feel very different, while still retaining that "dark caster" flavor. I think we can chalk up the Warlock revamp as a big success, so I imagine we'll only be seeing a few tweaks in the next expansion.

Mages:

Mages are kind of the baseline of casters, that all other caster specs are built on. But is that enough? After all, all three Mage specs are basically "keep up your Mage bomb, use your main nuke until you get a proc, and then use that other spell." Mages are fun, but the distinction between the rhythms of its various specs is pretty thin.

I'd like to see an alternative to the Mage Bomb, focusing the Mage more on direct damage. I don't know if we need alternative resources, except perhaps building a new UI tracker for Arcane Charges somewhat akin to the Holy Power meter.

Also, the level 90 tier feels like a punishment for hitting the level cap, and that's not good. "Oh, you liked just going through your rotation? Tough, Evocate always forever!" or "Grats on 90. Now stand in this circle forever!" or "Take raid damage forever!"

Priests:

Hey! It's the one class I can't really comment intelligently on! I don't really know what issues Priests have, except perhaps that I don't know how mobile Shadow is compared to other casters.

Druids:

…It's the other class that I can't really talk too intelligently about. Personally, I'd like to take another look at the active mitigation abilities of both Rage tanks, perhaps tying survival more into offensive abilities, as they do for the other three classes.

Monks:

Monks are in a remarkably good place considering how new they are. I can imagine maybe simplifying Brewmasters a bit (maybe give them a chance to use Breath of Fire more?) and perhaps allowing Fists of Fury to be used on the move (or making it more of a situational ability.)

Rogues:

Oh man, if anyone was in need of a Warlock-style revamp, it's rogues. Rogues have only been slightly tweaked over the years, and fundamentally, they pretty much work the way they did in Vanilla (relatively speaking.) First off (and this is something I think Ghostcrawler once said,) the need to be running Slice And Dice as well as Rupture for all three specs is a little absurd. Granted, Assassination doesn't really need to worry about the former once it's up, but I think playing around with fewer "maintenance" finishers and more interesting active finishers would be a good step.

And maybe let the combo points build on the rogue instead of the target? This would seriously make Rogues way, way more fun to play.

Hunters:

Hunters got their most profound change in Cataclysm, and while I think Focus is a little more awkward to deal with than, say, Energy, the fact that they are a ranged class with absolutely no penalty for moving is a pretty strong niche.

The main thing Hunters need is a reduction in button-bloat, perhaps making some of the talented cool downs into passive proc effects (you're just going to hit Dire Beast every 30 seconds anyway, right?)

Shamans:

Totems got a big revamp in Mists, and while it's sad not to have our little forest of glow-sticks anymore (I remember one time I was in a dungeon group with three shamans. It was pretty insane,) the spells feel like they have more of an impact now.

Does Enhancement need some kind of different resource system? Possibly, but that's the only really world-shattering change I could imagine for the class.

Warriors:

Warriors are in a pretty good place now. The changes to Rage took some getting used to, but they feel a bit more like a real resource now. Granted, that's slowed down the rotation a bit, but the class seems to be working.

Like the Guardian Druid, I might take a look at Protection and the way its active mitigation abilities work. The Prot Warrior toolkit has always been a little crowded, and I think the active mitigation changes have exacerbated it a bit.

Paladins:

Since the Cataclysm overhaul, Paladins have made sense in a way that they didn't really before, at least for the melee specs. I think they could spare a look at some of the "filler" abilities, like Holy Wrath, and possibly give Consecration back to Ret (it's so iconic!) but overall, I'm actually decently happy with Paladins.

I guess the one issue is that haste is really the only way to affect the rotation. Imagine if crit could somehow generate more Holy Power? I also miss the old Divine Purpose, which would cause you to occasionally have your Crusader Strike and other such spells generate an additional HoPo.

Death Knights:

Main thing I would do? Shuffle the talents so that the Runic Empowerment/Runic Corruption/Blood Tap tier is the very first thing you get to decide on.

Death Knights are somewhat locked into their rotations based on their resource system (though Soul Reaper found a way to sneak in there.) I think the real space for expansion here is Runic Power.

Also, Runeforges are awesome - don't get rid of them - but let's have DPS specs take something other than Rune of the Fallen Crusader. Currently, the only other DPS rune that gets any play is Razorice, and that's only because DW Frost DKs already have FC on the other weapon.

Alternatively (and this would suck, because we'd have to start buying enchants) you could make weapon runes more like Shaman Imbues, and have situational ones that would really do better in different situations (you might actually use Lichbane against Undead!)

But don't do that. I like my free enchants.

Warlords of Draenor Trademarked in Europe (Update: In the USA as well)

With Warlords of Draenor trademarked in Europe now, it seems very, very likely that we know the name of expansion 5.

Given, however, the fact that the name is all that we know, there's still a lot to be asked. After all, in one of my theories after the reveal of the name "Mists of Pandaria," I was convinced that we would have an island-hopping expansion with Azshara fighting the Kvaldir (with all their mistiness.)

Ok, maybe I wasn't convinced, but that was my theory, and it was way, way off.

There are rumors floating around that we'll be traveling back in time to deal with Gromm Hellscream, Garrosh's dad. The theory goes that Garrosh travels back in time to meet his dad and maybe avert everything that has happened (though whether this is an example of Garrosh trying to redeem himself or simply trying to mess with time to make himself the winner is up for speculation.)

Anyway, I'm a little skeptical of that because dammit, we've had enough focus on the severely screwed-up Hellscream family. Frankly, I don't think we really need to put much focus on the Orcs for a good long while, as they've had a central role in Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria already.

That said, given that it seems evident that we're heading to Draenor/Outland, we'll definitely be dealing with at least some Orc stuff.

While I'm a huge advocate of a time-travel expansion, I would still want the narrative to move forward. I want to see the Alliance growing more confident and proactive. I want to see the Horde struggling with the aftermath of their civil war.

I also think that an expansion that focuses on time-travel would need to deal with many different time periods.

That said, there's a lot of potential here to not simply retread a bunch of Orc stuff. For one thing, this could be the golden opportunity to do a ton of stuff revolving around the Draenei. I'd love to see how a society of ageless devotees to the light might come into conflict. Perhaps some are not as devout as the ones you typically come across. What was the society they built for themselves on Draenor like during the thousand years before Kil'jaeden tracked them down?

Of course, we could be missing a big part of the picture. After all, Mists of Pandaria was ostensibly about Pandaria, with the threats of the Mantid, Mogu, Yaungol, and Sha. Who, then, with only that information available to them, could guess that we'd be fighting the Zandalari and that the final raid would be to unseat the Warchief of the Horde, battling through the streets of Orgrimmar?

The "Dark Portal" expansion had us battling it out at the Sunwell, and the "Scourge" expansion had us fighting Old Gods in a giant, magnificent Titan city. The "Black Dragon" expansion had us jumping between the Elemental Plains and fighting Twilight's Hammer.

Every expansion throws at least one curveball, so the fact that "Warlords of Draenor" would clearly focus on Outland in some new way does not rule out some of the things we might also want.

Four days left before Blizzcon, and then we'll know. But at the very least, I think Warlords of Draenor is looking to be a very strong contender for expansion 5.

UPDATE: Warlords of Draenor is now also trademarked in the United States. While you never know when someone will do a little change to the Matrix and we'll see the same cat walk by us in the same direction twice in a row, I'm going to go ahead and say that Warlords of Draenor is a practical guarantee for expansion 5.

Free-For-All Speculation on Warlords of Draenor

I'll admit there's a bit of a "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" wisdom to be considered when speculating on Warlords of Draenor, but as I said in a previous post, this does really feel like it could be an expansion name.

So what kind of features could we speculate about this expansion?

First off: there's a possibility that this could be a time-travel expansion, taking us back to the earliest days of the Horde, or perhaps going way back, to a period before Kil'jaeden ever found Draenor.

It would have to be post-Draenei arrival, given how the planet was named by them (I guess the Orcs and Ogres just called this land.... "this land.") There's a thousand years of history between the arrival of the Draenei and the birth of the Horde, so you could certainly work in plenty of stuff.

I guess the one thing that could be tricky in an Old Draenor expansion is that there wouldn't be a lot of non-Orc or non-Draenei lore to explore. In the latter case, we would at least be getting some stuff for one of the most neglected races, but in the former, we'd be getting yet more stuff focused on the most overused race (4/9 of the Hearthstone Heroes are Orcs - enough said.)

Even in Mists of Pandaria, we got some decent story development for Orcs, Pandaren, Trolls, and Blood Elves (and... Humans? Kinda?) I would hope that they'll try to include more races in the story going forward - within reason (I know we can't always be dealing with the Forsaken and the Worgen, as much as I wish we could.)

While I am totally into Time Travel as a story conceit, I think I'd actually like to see modern Draenor as well. We could, after all, be getting a Cataclysm-style revamp to Outland (I imagine redoing 10 levels is easier than 60,) but wherever we quest from 90 to 100 (or 95, if they change their minds) I would imagine would have to be new zones.

The time-travel conceit would make that doable. After all, you could do the Fields of Farahlon, which are, in the modern day, the ruined Netherstorm, but supposedly looked not unlike Westfall back in the day.

Alternatively, we could get just totally new zones on a different Outland fragment - essentially a new continent of that planet.

I do think that a Draenor expansion could work out for both playable Ogres (as a Horde race,) and Demon Hunters. While I do think that revamped vanilla races are likely on the docket, it does not strictly rule out new races as well. Alliance counterparts could include Arrakoa (meh,) Ethereals (cool! though they seem more like a neutral race,) or possibly High Elves (hopefully this would coincide with new models for Blood Elves, with eye color and voice being the main differences.)

Still, I am a little curious about the whole "Warlords" aspect. The most obvious interpretation is that it's about the founding members of the Horde, but I also wonder if we're actually talking about something totally different.

Consider, for example, that with Illidan gone, there's a bit of a power vacuum in Outland. Akama leads his Ashtongue Deathsworn and rules over the Black Temple. We know that Maiev tried to kill Malfurion and may have fled back to Outland, ironically following in the footsteps of Illidan.

Could this title refer instead to our getting involved in a struggle for power in modern Outland?

A whole lot of gasoline has been thrown on the speculation fire, but there remain big questions to ask. One week, guys. One week.

Warlords of Draenor

Blizzard has just trademarked the name "Warlords of Draenor." Given the timing of the filing, the apparent legitimacy of the trademark (unlike the Dark Below,) and the fact that this could easily fit into one or two of the most obvious next directions for WoW, I'm 90% confident at this point that this is the name of the next WoW expansion.

And with a name like this, we have some very clear implications. Assuming this is legitimate (and I think we have a lot of reason to believe it is,) we will definitely be heading back to Outland, and dealing with Azeroth's sister world (with a hell of a case of sibling rivalry.)

The name does hint, however, at some funny stuff. For one thing, it refers to Draenor, which is the name the planet had before Ner'zhul broke the planet into Outland. Could this imply we're going to be seeing a past version of Draenor? Will this be a journey into the past? If so, what time period?

The "Warlords" part of the title would seem to imply the early days of the Horde, perhaps letting us interact with such founding members as Blackhand, Ner'zhul (pre-Lich King,) Gul'dan, Grom Hellscream, Durotan... basically a whole bunch of Orcs.

But, on the other side of things, this would be a fantastic opportunity to flesh out the Draenei. We could see what Draenei society was like before the Horde's genocide against them. Despite the Orcs being the natives, it is the Draenei who built most of the most impressive structures in Outland, such as Auchindoun, Shattrath City, and the Temple of Karabor (now known as the Black Temple.)

I could also see this as an opportunity to add the Ogres as a playable Horde race, though I don't know what they would balance them with on the Alliance side.

If the expansion were to take place at a later date, we could see the early days of the Alliance expedition.

But the whole time-travel aspect is purely speculation. We could, after all, be seeing a modern version of Draenor. Perhaps we'll be exploring other parts of the planet that broke off during Ner'zhul's portal-spree.

I would expect to see more of the Burning Legion, but with a name like this, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will be center-stage. On the other hand, with the Orcs kind of serving as the main villains of Mists (well, other than the Sha,) I doubt we're going to have everything focused once again on the Horde.

This would (fingers crossed, oh man) be a great opportunity to bring in Demon Hunters as a class, but I'm going to try not to jinx it.

Anyway, all we have is a name at this point. While it's not a perfect guarantee that this is the name of the next expansion, I think that it's an extremely likely possibility.

We will, of course, find out more details as time goes on, but I think WoD or "Warlords," is pretty likely to be expansion 5.

Blizzcon in One Week!

Happy Dia de los Muertos! (Ok, in fairness, I'm writing this on Halloween, so Samhain Sasta!)

It's now (when you're reading this... if you're reading right after it goes up) one week from Blizzcon 2013. We're all very excited to hear about the next WoW expansion, especially given how well things have been kept under wraps.

But rather than looking at the big picture now (since that's ground I've covered many times,) I thought I'd speculate more on the nitty-gritty features that will be coming with WoW 6.0.

New Character Models:

I don't know if they'll have all the new models for the vanilla races finished in time for Blizzcon, or possibly even in time for the expansion itself. This will, after all, be a total of sixteen new models (or twenty if the BC races get revamped,) with all the new faces and hairstyles and everything.

I think that we can expect to see equivalent options for all the old face-styles, skin colors, hair colors, and hair/beard styles, but I hope that, like they did in Wrath (with the introduction of the barber shop) they will add new ones.

We have heard that they had pretty much finished the Dwarf, so I think it's likely that this will be one of the first to be rolled out. Personally, I'm most excited to see how they revamp the Undead look, which I consider to be the most glaringly flawed vanilla model.

Scaled Content:

It's almost a guarantee that we're going to be getting some way to scale our levels down to do old content. My main question is whether they will take into account the difference between a raider decked out in purples versus someone in a mix of questing greens. Will the iLevel be set, or will it simply scale proportionally?

There is, also, the question of rewards, but I'm hoping that it will be something that helps with character progression without taking away from new content.

Talent System:

While the Cataclysm talent revamp seemed big at the time, it wasn't enough. The Mists revamp, though, was. I doubt we'll see a huge difference in the revamp beyond simple tweaking.

New Races or Classes Depend on the Subject Matter of the Expansion:

We could get playable Naga (though they'd have to figure out solutions to mounts, pants and shoes,) but only in an Azshara-specific expansion. We could get Demon Hunters, but only in a Burning Legion expansion. Without any idea what expansion we're going to get, I can't really make a call on any of those.

More Timeless Isle-style stuff:

The Timeless Isle isn't perfect, but it's a pretty successful experiment in providing undirected gameplay. If they could iterate on the ideas they came up with there, adding more unusual interactive events and a clearer reward structure (can we please put the kibosh on random-stat gear?) they could come up with a really cool kind of exploration-based gameplay.

Some Kind of Profession Revamp:

They haven't really said much about this, but I think professions are one of those aspects of the game that don't really work out as well as they could. Sure, some of the recipes you can make at the cap are pretty awesome, but for making leveling gear? Nah, pretty crappy.

There's also the problem where they think people are making alts just for the professions. If professions were made account-wide, you could do some crazy things, though you'd probably just have to get rid of the profession bonuses, like the gem sockets for blacksmiths. It might be a pain if everyone was expected to max out every profession.

At the very least, they need to make leveling the profession - while leveling - more rewarding.

Some Kind of Raid Difficulty Consolidation:

Most likely this means that Flex Raids will replace Normal Mode. Frankly, when the majority of the players don't raid on "normal," you're probably using the wrong word to describe the difficulty. It seems Heroic can be the soul-crushingly difficult type of raid, while Flex can be for more casual guilds, and LFR is for the people who can't fit organized raiding into their schedule. If there are any guilds whose feelings would be hurt because Flex is too below them in difficulty, they could simply try to step up and do heroics.

However, given that, I'd like to see Flex Mode work more like Normal and Heroic do now, where you can save the instance and work your way up through it. Maybe it's as simple as letting you keep going after completing whatever wing you queued for (unless it's the last one.)

Player Housing:

Sunsong Ranch proved that there's a decent justification for having a little solo-space in the world. I fully expect some sort of new farm to be introduced in the next expansion, as this was an excellent and popular feature in Mists.

I also think that player housing would be a great solution for Alts. I would love (love) if I could see my other characters hanging out in my player housing, allowing me to access their gold and non-soulbound inventory (and professions?) Throw in some trophies for big accomplishments (like displaying Legendary Items on weapon/clothing racks, or mementos from expansion-ending bosses.)

Transmog Revamp:

The Diablo 3 version of Transmog has quite a few improvements over the current iteration of WoW's. I'd love to see some of its ideas (like simply "unlocking" looks and not having to actually keep the item in your inventory anymore) brought over. It might mean getting rid of Void Storage, but I'd be fine with that if it meant not having to worry about the inventory anymore.

Toys Getting Their Own UI:

Mists gave us a ridiculous number of weird vanity items, like the Puntable Marmot or Mr. Smite's Compass. But apart from the super-pain-in-the-ass-to-make bag pattern off the August Celestials, we didn't really get much more in terms of inventory space, so now we've all got our bags clogged with this stuff. Getting rid of the physical objects in favor of a UI space, like they did for pets and mounts, would really solve this problem. Hell, with that and the aforementioned transmog revamp, I'd have an absurd amount of bank space (cannot wait to level up so I can just vendor all the timeless pieces I have.)

Crafting that War... World...

I think we're going to see a lot of this stuff, though I'll admit that the last couple things I mentioned were a little more wishful thinking than predictions. There are other big aspects of the game that I'm looking forward to (I'm really hoping we see more 5-man dungeons this time - like, back to the BC/Wrath levels,) but these things, which are mostly cosmetic or quality-of-life changes, seem pretty doable, and consistent with what I believe their thinking on the game is these days.

One week to go. Let's see how I did!