Comic #738: Coming Soon (Patreon)

This one went through a few different versions before I settled on what you see here.

I played around on the PTR, saw the placeholder talent, and thought it would be a funny idea to have Keydar treat the placeholder as if it were a real talent. At first I thought maybe he would love it, and be outraged when it was inevitably replaced. Then I switched to the idea that he would be frustrated that it didn't do anything.

My first version started with the second panel, and the final panel contained both the talent tree and the bug report. I wanted to have the punchline also be the reveal that he was using a placeholder talent.

In theory this initial version was better in every way. The reveal was a lot stronger and unexpected. The problem was the sheer amount of exposition I would need to reveal in the final panel. The reader would have to look at the talent tree, look at the tooltip, then look at the bug report window. It was too much.

Not to mention I wasn't sure how to even fit all those elements into one panel. I also would not have been able to put in all those talent jokes in that form. They would have distracted even more from the punchline.

The end result might have a weaker punchline, but the premise is stronger. So on the whole I feel the comic is better.