Latest / For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast / #315 - For Azeroth!: "Hand Impressions"

Transcript

#315 - For Azeroth!: "Hand Impressions" · For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast

0:00
Why don't we just do this ourselves?
0:01
Lex, can you animate? And I can I no.
0:06
I can't either. We can.
0:06
Just try a little stick figures. That'll be basically, yeah.
0:10
And that. You do hand puppets.
0:11
Except all of my puppets will have to be dwarves and gnomes,
0:14
yeah. 'Cause you have your tiny little
0:15
child hands. For calendar.
0:19
To the burning region for Gilnaeus or has not done for the
0:26
Lich King. For the.
0:29
Cindori for the alliance. For the Horde, for Azeroth.
0:39
Hello and welcome back to another episode of For Azeroth.
0:43
I am one of your hosts, Manny, AKA the true villain Manny and I
0:47
am joined, of course by the other two parts of the Triangle
0:52
of Good because I screwed up last time.
0:55
First introducing to my left lex Rance.
1:04
Hi, Manny you. It's up to you whether or not
1:11
you want to keep my screaming laugh in the audio version of
1:15
this podcast. Well.
1:17
Actually, I do want to give a special thanks to the third
1:20
member of the Triumphant who has been editing these last couple
1:24
of episodes. Mr. Sean.
1:27
Hello, How are you doing? Manny, I don't have it in me to
1:29
tell you that the triangle of good is what Japan, Italy and
1:33
Germany called themselves during the war.
1:35
Wait, are you? No, you're making that up.
1:38
I don't know how you've managed to twice paint us as the bad
1:41
guys. Wait, Manny, Manny Seinberg,
1:43
He's, he's making this up, right?
1:46
I've never heard that before. It's making it up.
1:50
I would have no no the the the axis of evils was AUS propaganda
1:55
thing. Yeah.
1:56
And for any of our listeners who are history fans who are
1:59
violently screaming at their radios right now that I made
2:02
that up. Yeah, I did make that up.
2:06
Yeah. OK.
2:07
All right. You know what?
2:08
We're going to get two more. We're going to call ourselves a
2:10
pentagram. There's no negative mentions on
2:13
that. Yeah.
2:15
But aside from, like, running through, like vague, you know,
2:23
associations with bad, evil things from the past, how has
2:26
the World of Warcraft been treating you guys?
2:28
Have you guys been diving into the World of Warcraft?
2:31
John, let's just start with you. Yeah, so I've actually been
2:35
playing, believe it or not, a little bit of Season of
2:37
Discovery lately. And I also bought a Tartarus,
2:44
which for those of you who don't know, is like one of those
2:47
single keypads. It's like got 16 keys on it and
2:50
a thumbstick, and it's just for your left hand and it replaces
2:54
your keyboard for key bindings. And I had one of the past, but I
2:57
had to get rid of it because I have tiny childlike hands that I
3:00
didn't think that it fit, but I wanted to give it another go
3:03
because I've been seeing them a lot lately.
3:05
For those for the audio listeners, Manny's holding his
3:08
hand up to the camera right now and it's huge.
3:12
I'm very jealous of his pianist fingers.
3:16
That's a normal sized hand. No, Lex, my hands are like
3:19
Cabbage Patch Kid size. Look at this.
3:20
I'll hold this up. I have a Cabbage Patch kid on my
3:23
desk here and I'll hold up his hand and you'll see that my hand
3:28
is roughly the same size as his hand.
3:31
Yeah, yeah, that's actually exactly what happened.
3:32
By the way listeners, Sean does have Cabbage Patch sized hands.
3:36
Yeah, and the weird part is my fingers are stitched together
3:39
like his, so it makes it really hard to hit the.
3:42
So the so this this device that you use, how do you actually hit
3:46
these 16 keys? Tell me about.
3:48
This it's just like a keypad anyway, it's I'm slowly adapting
3:51
to that to see if I can get used to it.
3:54
I want to try and improve my DPS.
3:58
Right now I think my biggest issue when DPS ING is that when
4:01
I have to move, my rotation goes all the shit.
4:06
We're allowed one swear word and that was it.
4:08
So with this I have the thumb stick for my thumb and hopefully
4:13
that can help me resolve that issue.
4:17
The other option is I I have a razor not a mouse, the Trinity
4:21
and I could put the 12 button side panel on the side and but
4:26
my fingers are small but my thumb is so fat that those
4:29
buttons are too small and I hit 2 at the same time all the time
4:33
so it's hard for me. Fascinating.
4:36
I have. I'm horribly proportioned human
4:38
body. I'm a mystery of science.
4:41
Yeah, Manny's get. Manny's got one of those mice.
4:43
But you have those nice lean pianist fingers, Manny, you're
4:45
like. OK, but the thumb, the thumb
4:49
isn't there. So what I do?
4:52
Well, my thumb is like a giant sausage.
4:54
Look at this. It looks like one of those
4:55
little cocktail wieners. Again, your camera's off off and
4:57
this is horrible radio. No, you're fine.
5:00
You're you're fine on the thumb. But what I would suggest people
5:03
do because like I've had this problem with the the Raisin, not
5:05
a. Wait, wait.
5:07
Sean, put your thumb back up. You have your thumb is smaller
5:11
than Manny's. What are you talking about?
5:13
Because I'm farther from the camera than no.
5:15
You could what I understand proportional size, Sean.
5:21
Hold on, let me. Newborn info.
5:22
Let me hold my thumb up next to something for size reference.
5:26
See how? See how this thumb covers
5:27
multiple keys and for the for the audience, it's like so I'm
5:33
like my the start of my thumb to the first notch.
5:36
I can easily cover up three starting to touch the the 4th
5:39
right. What I would suggest for people
5:41
who have this right is all these keys one through 6, the top
5:46
half. Ignore them on your mouse.
5:48
You can hit them with your with your other hand.
5:50
What I would suggest is you keep all of those bindings on your
5:56
keyboard, the ones that you use for your mouse, you're going to
5:59
rock your thumb so. You see, I have a seven.
6:03
I have a 7 button mouse. Well, Sir, you're not going to
6:06
have an issue. Adriani has a 12 pad I.
6:09
Also have I also have a a gaming mouse like the 12 pad mouse.
6:14
Yeah, you also have regular Manny's normal size.
6:17
Thumb. Manny could have been a a hand
6:20
double for Adrian Brody in 2002's The Pianist.
6:23
Like he's got a beautiful face. You don't know Adrian Brody.
6:26
I. Don't know.
6:27
First, they don't. But I here's my advice for
6:29
people who want to use and just use the tip of your thumb my
6:33
man. Just do.
6:37
It's not that you you can differentiate between these
6:39
keys. It takes a little practice.
6:41
You don't have to only use half of your 12 key mouse.
6:45
Like, no, no, no. But my brilliant thing is, is
6:49
that I don't have to move my thumb.
6:50
I just tilt up and I could press the lower part because my thumb,
6:53
because now it's there and I could tilt down and I could
6:56
press this without even ever moving my thumb super fast.
6:59
I don't. Have the dexterity, the muscle
7:01
control to not just mash the meat of my giant get.
7:05
There, Sean, you have to work on it.
7:06
It takes time to the first few weeks you're like, this is the
7:08
worst thing I've ever done. And now I literally, if you like
7:11
I once had to like I tried to play video games on a like a
7:16
laptop, like a normal, a normal keyboard without with a normal
7:20
mouse and I couldn't do it. I don't understand how you cast
7:23
spells with your no, it's impossible.
7:26
Although I will say the one thing this has done is it means
7:29
that I have never gotten out of the habit of keyboard turning
7:32
and will never get out of the habit of keyboard turning
7:34
because my mouse is for casting and aiming.
7:38
My hand is for moving. OK.
7:41
All right. Slightly aside from this, do you
7:44
guys use modifier keys along with your pads?
7:48
Like Shift plus one or whatever? Yeah, I use alt.
7:52
I can't reach shift because my fingers are so short, but I do
7:56
use alt because alt Alt is perfectly spaced for me to just
8:03
smush my giant thumb into it, so I use that.
8:07
I use Alt. OK, maybe maybe Sean's wouldn't
8:11
be over with this pianist thing because like, moving my thumb to
8:13
alt is like contracting my hand together in this weird you have.
8:18
These luxurious long fingers, you're like salad hands over
8:20
there. You just have this beautiful
8:23
grease. You could probably go pinky to
8:25
thumb, right? Afraid from 1:00 to 9:00.
8:29
I suppose I was. I was told by my loot teacher
8:30
that I'm particularly long 2. 00 Manny, that's a tanky finger
8:34
you've got there. Wait, what is this?
8:36
What are we testing? Pinky to thumb.
8:39
How far from the one can you go across the top?
8:42
I mean again, am I allowed? How much am I allowed to
8:44
stretch? You stretch it all the way out.
8:45
Manny's hitting zero there. He's got a.
8:48
A Missouri hitting zero. Yeah, I I hit 0 comfortably.
8:50
I hit the minus key alright. I get to 6, I can reach 6.
8:58
No, you're lying. I'll drop a picture in the
9:02
discord. This.
9:03
Is this is this might be OK for those of you who are audio
9:07
listeners? We don't have a video chill
9:11
anymore, they're all audio listeners.
9:14
OK. The best radio they've ever
9:17
heard. We've lost 100 viewers.
9:20
No, no, I'm going to bring it around the The title card for
9:26
this episode is going to be a picture of Sean reaching from
9:29
1:00 to how forever party can reach.
9:31
I don't believe he. Said for a second.
9:35
You. Literally you have to be holder,
9:38
your hand would have to be like a scrunch together like a child
9:42
could reach me on 6. Second, I happen to have a child
9:47
nearby. Let me just no, I'm joking.
9:51
We'll put some pictures in the discord.
9:52
If you're in the forest around Discord, bit dot LY slash fast
9:56
discord, come on in. Send us pictures of your regular
9:59
sized thumbs and fingers. And people with hand fetishes
10:02
are going to join a discord. Yes it works.
10:05
It works. Your kink is not my kink, but
10:07
your kink is OK. If you join our discord because
10:10
you have a hand fetish and you listen to our episode, more
10:12
power to you, my man. Yeah.
10:14
Please, please talk about wooden Warcraft.
10:16
Next week we'll talk about shoeless foot pedals.
10:21
OK. So Sean, you're working on
10:23
improving your game. That's what I'm doing and I'm
10:28
playing a little bit of season discovery.
10:30
OK. All right.
10:33
Lex, have you had any time between the puppy rights?
10:39
Oh God, no, I still haven't. I'm I'm so excited.
10:42
We finally have a date that we're getting the next season.
10:45
Now I'm like over the moon about that.
10:47
And I think that for me is going to be my hard line of like this
10:50
is when I have to stop saying, oh, but if I play video games at
10:53
night, I don't get puppy snuggles.
10:55
I don't get to snuggle with my puppy for four hours straight.
10:58
She's like this. And then she likes to put her
11:00
and she sits over next to me and she pretends she's not going to
11:02
snuggle. And then she looks over at me
11:03
and all of a sudden she like runs her little body over
11:05
George. She goes to bed and she takes a
11:07
little poppy snuggle. And if I play video games, I
11:08
don't get that. I don't get poppy snuggles.
11:10
So I can say that until the date, which I will not say yet
11:14
because I'm sure we're going to say it as a big announcement.
11:16
We know. And then 11.111 point.
11:18
Oh, it's coming out. I mean, Lex, in the business, we
11:21
just call this a Segway. So let's talk about the news
11:24
then. The first big news is that this
11:27
week we got the release date for Patch 11.1 undermined and so.
11:35
He was undermined. It's not.
11:36
It's not happening anymore, you guys.
11:38
So on February 25th, the patch will go live in NA and then of
11:45
course that will be the 26th in EU and the 27th in China because
11:50
China's back in. That means that we will have
11:55
that week with all of the time to go through the story and
11:58
check out the dry system or ignore it as you so please.
12:01
And then the following week, that is March 4th, that is when
12:07
season 2 will officially begin. That is when we will have our
12:11
new Mythic Plus lineup. Remember that Mythic 0 also
12:15
follows that lineup. Heroic also follows that lineup.
12:18
So if you are trying to do achievements that require you to
12:22
complete dungeons at mythic level or higher, which there are
12:25
some even though the meta chief is not there, you're going to
12:29
have to hammer those out before it switches over.
12:32
And also on that, on those days, we will be getting the new raid,
12:38
the Liberation of Undermine with the fight it's on. 8 boss raid
12:45
that culminates with a fight against Galliwicks and I am so
12:49
looking forward to taking that fat goblin down.
12:54
I just want mods guys. I just anybody in the sound of
12:57
my voice. I just need a mod that puts a 2D
13:02
image of Bobby Kotick's face over top of that goblin.
13:07
So when I down this guy, I'm not going to ask you for a Blizzard
13:12
unless unless Blizzard, you've done something a little spicy
13:15
with Arachnophobia mode. That would be good too.
13:19
I've got to be honest with you, I kind of think Galley looks
13:22
already looks like Bobby Kodak. Oh yeah, that's true.
13:25
You don't even have to do anything.
13:27
Just open your. DM It's like if you just found
13:29
him after he rubbed a bunch of money on himself.
13:32
But yeah, I'm looking forward to the raid.
13:35
I'm looking forward to this new season with the Mythic Plus, and
13:38
we have received a ton of Mythic Plus changes.
13:44
Before we dive into those changes, the build that came out
13:49
recently was a release candidate.
13:53
So that already told us that like we were getting close even
13:56
before they released this this date.
13:59
But we received a number of hot fixes and and changes just today
14:03
as at the time of this recording that have huge ramifications.
14:07
They are really doing massive changes to classes to the to
14:12
mythic plus as well. One of the big ones.
14:16
And we'll talk about the Mythic plus changes first before we
14:19
touch the class stuff. One of the big ones is a 10%
14:24
blanket nerve to all health of all creatures in mythic and
14:31
Mythic plus just from the get go cut.
14:34
And while that might seem like, oh, that's just 10%, that
14:38
actually compounds as the levels go up because it is the, as you
14:44
go up in key levels, that is a compounding percentage of the
14:47
health. And if the initial health is
14:48
down by 10%, that means that the 10, the sorry, 7% before you
14:53
hit, before you hit a certain level and then 10% afterwards,
14:57
all of that's also smaller. So like this is a huge cut all
15:02
the way through mythic Plus. And I, I, I'm surprised this
15:08
happened. This is huge.
15:09
Are, are you sort of taken aback?
15:11
I know, Sean, you were doing a lot of testing recently.
15:14
Were you expecting such a heavy blanket nerve?
15:20
No, I don't think I was. But from a standpoint of
15:26
Blizzard and sort of the vitriol that they put up with for the
15:30
entirety of Season 1 and how unhappy people were with
15:33
dungeons and how everybody said how hard everything was.
15:36
It was too tough for them to come out and basically say
15:38
here's a keystone and a half levels worth of health taken
15:42
off. I think maybe we're looking at
15:45
Mythic plus launching the easiest it has in a long time
15:51
and also in a really good state because a lot of the they they
15:56
also made targeted changes as well that are are really good.
16:00
Really like every every week they come up with new Mythic
16:03
plus tuning with new Mythic plus patch notes.
16:05
They're all bangers that everything has been working
16:07
towards making the dungeons more accessible, and that's good
16:12
because the more accessible it is, the more people will engage
16:15
with it, and that's good news. Yeah, this almost feels more
16:21
about messaging than about balance.
16:23
Yeah, I, I do agree with you on that, Lexus.
16:26
Does this, does this interest you?
16:30
Does this make you more likely to like sort of dive in, or at
16:33
least give you like a reason to look at it even if you don't
16:37
ultimately dive in? Yeah, I mean, I do want to get
16:39
back into tanking again. I want to give it another try.
16:41
I want to give it a fair shake, shall we say.
16:44
And I, I mean, I am not opposed to it feeling kind of easy.
16:49
I like it when things are easy because then I feel good about
16:51
myself. Thank you, Blizzard.
16:55
I mean, I want to make sure obviously I, I've said
16:57
repeatedly on the show like I don't think that everything
16:59
should be for me. And I want to make sure that the
17:01
people who really want to push and try hard and you do hefty
17:05
things, they should have really hefty top level things that they
17:07
can do. And I want my fun little dinky
17:10
stuff. So I as long as it's not going
17:13
to make it so that mythic plus isn't fun for the people who
17:15
like mythic plus to be hard and painful.
17:17
I'm I'm down. That's good news for you, Lex.
17:21
What's that? Mythic Plus is infinitely
17:23
scalable, so making it accessible and quote, UN quote
17:28
easier for people who are just getting into it or people who
17:32
are only engaging with it because they like it at a
17:34
surface level or people who are just engaging with it for the
17:37
gear. It doesn't affect how much fun
17:39
those people at the top end can have because it's infinitely
17:42
scalable. It just means instead of doing
17:44
20s, they'll be doing 20 fours. Love it.
17:46
And that'll make them happier because they're seeing bigger
17:49
numbers. They're like big numbers.
17:50
Look how much better I am 20 fours this season.
17:54
I love this. That's true.
17:54
Then never mind. I think this is perfect.
17:56
I think it's the best change I've ever seen in my life and I
17:58
think that they should every single season, they should nerf
18:00
Mythic plus a little bit more, and I think this is a huge win.
18:04
This also means getting 3K will be easier for all of those mount
18:07
farmers out there who were like Oh my God, how much is it going
18:10
to cost me to get 3K? Well, it'll cost you a little
18:12
less, or you'll be able to attain it yourself.
18:16
Like, don't, don't talk to me about how much it'll cost.
18:18
I talked to this one team. I was like, oh, I want to.
18:23
I wanted to get like the the raid mount and I've never bought
18:27
raid mounts, but I wanted to get the mount from Ansarak Mythic
18:30
and I, I've talked to one team, they never got back to me.
18:34
So like, sometimes it's not even about the gold.
18:37
That's maybe that team needs the next two weeks to make sure
18:40
everybody on their raid team has gotten the mount and then we'll
18:44
be looking at sales that that mount is available the whole
18:47
expansion. So you'll be able to go back and
18:48
get that that that'll drop guaranteed the whole expansion.
18:53
Oh, really? So about specific nerves,
18:58
because I think there are some huge nerves in here.
19:03
Anybody who's on the Priory of Sacred Flame, the last boss has
19:08
a blinding flame. Sorry, blinding light effect,
19:10
that same thing as confessor, like charges up, you look away
19:16
and if you don't look away, you're blinded and you stumble
19:18
around for a bit. And she also can like 1-2 punch
19:22
you because she'll shoot this laser beam and if you're blinded
19:24
and don't know where to move, you'll get torched.
19:27
They nerfed that effect by 95%. The amount of time you spend
19:34
blinded is way less and I think that makes the move just in
19:39
general less frustrating. I'm worried some people will
19:43
just be like, wow, whatever, like like it doesn't matter that
19:47
much and I can just go through it.
19:48
But like, Oh my goodness, this is like it is pinpoint shots
19:53
like that that are in my mind are designed to like remove
19:58
frustration points, not necessarily balance, but
20:00
frustration points. Sean, you've been talking about
20:04
like the the consecrate that the that the enemies drop after the
20:10
second boss and how much better those are.
20:12
Are there any other specific ones that you're looking at that
20:16
are like Oh my goodness. So all of Theater of Pain, all
20:20
of MacDonald Workshop are improved simply by adding the
20:24
new visuals. We have run through it a couple
20:26
of Times Now and it's just wild. We spend the whole time going,
20:30
they change nothing. This mechanic has not changed at
20:32
all, except now I can see where it's landing and it feels like a
20:37
huge nerve. It's amazing how much better it
20:39
feels when you don't have to guess where the mechanics going
20:42
to hit. And I love it, but but I want to
20:44
just specifically call out that blinding light change by 95%.
20:47
That is a massively good change because no matter how many times
20:50
you tell people don't stare into the eclipse, some orange idiot
20:53
is going to look right at it. So it's really good that we have
20:58
this because no matter how many times you tell people they don't
20:59
look at the blinding light, somebody's going to stare right
21:02
at it. And now they're only going to be
21:04
dazed for like a second and a half, which is nice.
21:09
I think that one thing that I, I was looking at was in theater of
21:14
pain, they have that withering touch that used to hit like
21:18
everybody on the party and now they dropped the just two
21:22
people, just two people get affected.
21:25
That is such a huge change that went from something where you're
21:29
like, OK, I need to bring other people than my healer to help
21:34
deal with this effect or I have to deal with a diss priest for
21:37
that Mass, that Mass clear. And now any healer can deal with
21:41
it. And if you happen to have
21:43
somebody who's along with you, you can just instantly get rid
21:48
of that instead of waiting for that eight second clear to to
21:52
then go do it again. It's such it's such a great
21:55
change. This this to me, like I was
21:57
talking to a friend of the show, a personal friend of mine and
22:01
how people are saying like, oh, this, this meta is very set.
22:05
It's going to be the same, the same healers, the same stuff.
22:09
And with the changes that they have been making, it just seems
22:13
so much more wide open for people to play what they need
22:19
to. Obviously a meta will form.
22:22
I am not saying that a meta will not form.
22:24
I'm just hoping for a meta that is less dominant, less
22:29
compulsory to people who are just running sixes and sevens
22:33
that are like, Oh my goodness is too punishing.
22:35
I must go with whatever the best things are that people tell me
22:41
there is. And honestly guys, if you do
22:43
want to know that info, obviously radar IO has like
22:46
breakdowns every week of what what's there.
22:48
You can find that out there. Moving on from the changes to
22:57
sorry, the changes from dungeons to the classes themselves,
23:00
because we were just talking about meta, we received a
23:04
landslide of changes of different nerfs and buffs to the
23:12
different specs. Lex is somebody who is looking
23:15
to tank again. Is there one particular 1 you
23:18
want to point out here? Yeah, so they made a kind of
23:21
bananas interesting decision and they just lumped up all of the
23:26
tanks damage. I think the lowest one is 15%,
23:29
but primarily about 20% for every tank.
23:32
The the 15% that I saw was for Rhett Paladin.
23:37
Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. Prop Paladin.
23:39
Rhett Paladin is not a tank. And brew master.
23:44
And brew master OK, And the argument is basically that the
23:47
damage, tank damage is too low. It hasn't been moving with at
23:52
DPS as DPS has been going up. And so they're kind of just
23:56
brought like everyone is getting a ton more damage, which is
24:00
interesting because I how is kind of was under the impression
24:04
that tank damage was supposed to be pretty low.
24:07
We were having an an interesting conversation in between the
24:11
three of us before the show. I kind of thought the tank
24:15
damage was supposed to be like 50 or less percent of DPS,
24:19
right? Like if everyone's playing at
24:20
their top level that we should be hitting around there.
24:23
And apparently that's not correct, is what I've been
24:25
informed. Yeah, it's, I mean the game.
24:30
In order to play the game, you need tanks.
24:31
In order to have tanks, tanks need to have fun.
24:33
In order for tanks to have fun, it would be nice if their damage
24:36
was somewhere at the range of 75% or so in mythic plus of DPS
24:42
and not in raid and raid obviously something vastly
24:43
different. If you're a single target your
24:45
tanks aren't going to keep up pace as much.
24:47
But in mythic plus, 75 to 80% of the DPS that ADPS is doing is
24:54
what I think most of the community like aims for.
24:56
You'll see occasional one of us where a tank main will link ADPS
25:01
meter where they're on top and you know they yuck it up and
25:04
it's a good time. Usually leads to nerves for that
25:07
class. But yeah, 75% is like the target
25:11
because then you feel like you're contributing and it's
25:12
fun, right? You need, there's a shortage of
25:15
tanks folks and there's a shortage because there's a lot
25:17
of pressure on them. They're usually the ones
25:19
responsible for the routing, the ones responsible for the shot
25:21
calling. You want them to have fun and
25:24
they're going to have that. If you look back historically,
25:27
the game was healthiest when tanks had fun and times when
25:30
tanks had fun with times when tanks had stuff like Vengeance
25:33
where they did more damage. Yeah.
25:36
So if they're. Doing like 75% of the DPS.
25:40
Why not just take four really good tanks and a healer?
25:45
Why not? Why?
25:46
Not OK, I will, I will. OK one I feel like above 75 in
25:52
my mind is is reaching heights that I wouldn't be comfortable
25:56
with. I think 75 is actually my higher
25:58
part and I'd say and my and I think my range is about 15%.
26:02
I really think that like tanks that are really focused on
26:05
survival and so have geared for survival should go down to
26:09
roughly 60% because you are giving up that damage to like
26:12
make sure that you live. But if you're willing to give up
26:15
some survivability, I think jumping up to 75% is a is a
26:19
decent number. In the in the conversation I had
26:23
said I wish that DPS could take 75% of the hits that tanks could
26:28
take. And I meant I meant that like
26:31
flippishly to sort of poke there.
26:33
I do think that there is an issue about survivability that
26:36
obviously Blizzard has has already mentioned.
26:39
It shouldn't be that as soon as your tank goes down, you are
26:42
guaranteed a full wipe. That's something that nobody,
26:47
nobody wants. There should be a the ability
26:49
for somebody, especially those who have a tank off spec to be
26:54
able to like hold for a little bit so that healer or whoever's
26:58
got the battle rest can get the tank back up and into into
27:00
action. So by that I mean that like
27:03
using a defensive stank stance if you're a fury warrior, being
27:07
able to shift into beer form if you're a druid or whatever,
27:11
whatever it is, just to hold for a little bit, not too long,
27:15
maybe be able to take one tank Buster, but not but not much
27:20
beyond that. I think that that sort of
27:23
flexibility should be there. So tanks being able to do this
27:28
damage at roughly 7060 to 75%, that seems healthy to me and I'm
27:32
glad that they are doing this. I think we shouldn't have tanks
27:34
anymore. I think that that would solve
27:36
the tank shortage. Yeah, no, just. 4D four DPS and
27:40
a healer DPS should be able to take all the hits.
27:43
Then all the DPS players would have to learn how to read so
27:45
that they could figure out their path to take when they're
27:47
pulling the dungeon. Well, I don't know how to read.
27:50
Didn't you have to quit tanking? Like OK.
27:53
That's a fairpoint. They they have that shield
27:57
because they take the brunt of the criticisms from from the
28:00
team right. And then when they deflect it,
28:03
that's when the healer takes it. It's all part of the holy.
28:06
We could. Just we could just go full Final
28:08
Fantasy and we could just make it linear and then the tank does
28:10
not the tank just, you know, you plot on forward and then you
28:13
don't need a tank. I'm going to blow your mind,
28:16
Lex. I'm OK with it.
28:18
You can send five DPS, send 5 tanks, none of that matters
28:24
because mythic plus is infinitely scaling and you will
28:29
get to a level when you can no longer do that.
28:32
There was a group back in shadow lands that ran 5 tank dungeons
28:37
and they were one key level off from title range.
28:41
So they didn't get title as just 5 tanks, but they were able to
28:44
do up to one key level below title range.
28:47
I think that the breaking the Holy Trinity should allow for
28:53
you to serve some progress. And we recently had a tournament
28:57
that that I put on as part of the dungeon Dojo.
29:01
And we had one team that was 4 boomkin and a mage right?
29:07
And they pushed through keys and got to like keys of like fives
29:10
and sixes and stuff. And that was like amazing to
29:13
watch and that like, I wish they had shifted into guardian form
29:18
war to sort of rotate it, rotate through and maybe they would
29:21
have gone further. But just as boomkin and a mage
29:24
through kiting through through snares and stuff, they were able
29:28
to progress through the dungeon. And I'm I like that that's
29:31
available. We talked a few weeks back about
29:33
the ring and how it was having some teams not use healers at
29:37
all. I'm less about that, right,
29:41
because that is because that is not mastering your class to a
29:44
level where you can go further than you really should.
29:47
That is using a like literally slapping on a ring and then
29:52
slightly adjusting the way that you play.
29:56
We had five tanks in that same tournament, right?
29:59
And I think that perhaps even if tanks aren't doing damage, if
30:04
they are able to do off healing in a significant fashion, that
30:08
can contribute greatly. In Dragonflight season 2, we had
30:14
a short lived meta where because of the amazing off healing of
30:20
paladins, they weren't bringing healers and they were pushing
30:23
high level keys. So I think that the games can
30:26
sometimes do it, but you got to give an edge to the DPSA
30:31
significant edge to the DPS in DPS so that there's a reason to
30:34
take them. You have to give a significant
30:36
edge to survivability to the tanks so that there's a reason
30:41
to take them, and you need to give a significant advantage to
30:45
sustainability and maybe CC Blizzard, maybe CC to the
30:50
healers so that there's a reason to take them.
30:54
I was going to say, I will say, and I'm going to sound a little
30:56
bit like I'm being snarky and I mostly am, but I'm kind of not
30:59
the based on this conversation, the a group that's really out of
31:03
alignment is the healers, right? They're the only group that
31:06
consistently people feel like they like if if you're playing
31:08
around with these groups, it nobody's run A5 healer dungeon.
31:12
So maybe maybe if we're doing big percentages, maybe give some
31:16
big percentage of survivability to the healers.
31:18
So I could have my first full, you know, 5 healer dungeon.
31:21
I think that'll be sick. I think that'll be very fun.
31:23
I'm all four healers doing more. Let's give you, let's give the
31:26
healers 20% extra damage. Let's do it.
31:29
John, want to want to hear my hot take.
31:32
Oh man, this is where Manny tells us he hates healers.
31:34
No augmentation to Voker gets switched to healing.
31:40
Yeah, you know, 100 yes, they they switch to healing and the
31:44
escrow survivability. They can then start buffing the
31:46
tank the tank into healer again. But like, can you balance that
31:51
against other healers? That's a scary thought.
31:55
That will be interesting. I would like to see that as like
31:58
a thought experiment. Well, and like in first person
32:02
shooters, usually the groups are tank, DPS and support or even
32:06
just DPS and support. And usually there are things
32:09
like that where like the buff. And part of that is because
32:11
first person shooters are a very different game than an MMO.
32:13
But I, I, I honestly would consider a buffing class to be
32:19
more aligned with a healer than with the DPS.
32:21
And I think that's one of the reasons why augmentation of
32:24
ochres tend to struggle like it it, it's, it's hard to figure
32:27
out how to track them and how to put them on charts correctly
32:30
because they're not really ADPS, They're not really doing
32:33
increase damage per second. They're there to increase the
32:36
skill of the other people around them, which is identical to what
32:38
a healer does. Like, I mean, not identical, but
32:40
it's very similar to what a healer does, where a healer
32:42
exists not to do things on their own, but to make it so that
32:44
other people can do things more successfully and more
32:46
efficiently. Yeah.
32:47
And I feel like when you're talking about healer damage,
32:51
right, and their contribution, because like there's a point
32:53
where if the healer is able to passively keep the team afloat,
32:58
like there have been in some seasons of mythic plus, well,
33:00
druids are great. They slap on their hearts and
33:03
then they switch into Kitty or boomkin and, and supply a
33:06
significant amount of damage. So there have been points where
33:09
it's it's like that disciplined priest is like the poster child
33:13
for this. They damage to do healing.
33:15
And if they can provide a sufficient enough of healing and
33:19
they just start wailing on on damage and this priest becomes
33:23
very, very much better in that way.
33:27
If you have something that is like, OK, I don't directly deal
33:32
damage to the enemies, but I will buff the others to
33:35
contribute damage, right, Then that would be a significant way
33:41
of having healers that are also like fighting for that same slot
33:46
of like, hey, I can also contribute damage or
33:49
survivability and stuff. But that again, is an entire
33:51
thought experiment and maybe it maybe something we could do on a
33:54
bonus episode or something. But moving forward from that,
34:00
though, I I got to talk about my poor boy, my poor boy
34:05
enhancement shaman, which, Oh my goodness, Baz, Baz Dev, whoever
34:13
you are, wherever you are, what the hell did I do to you?
34:19
Because well, you know, it's I I'll, I'll, I'll fess up to it.
34:24
Enhancement shaman was looking incredibly strong for mythic
34:30
plus the AOE damage that enhancement shaman was doing was
34:34
just it needed to be reined in. And that's the specific things
34:38
that have been targeted with this with this series of hot
34:42
fixes. So on top of the particular
34:48
spell that was doing a ridiculous amount of single
34:51
target damage, which was lava Lash, they have reined in the
34:58
AOE. So for both elemental and
35:01
enhancement Shaman, well actually elemental just got
35:07
visual changes just to make sure that they don't flood the entire
35:10
screen with effects. But enhancement however had one
35:14
of their buffs cut in half. Their tear set bonus get a 3%
35:20
drop for for the crash lightning chain lightning thing, their
35:25
chain lightning damage is flat out reduced by 15%.
35:29
Their ability to spread damage based off of a ability and
35:34
Stormbringer cut by an additional 20%.
35:38
The secondary damage of our main ability wailed by 15% and then
35:44
moving into single target, we had a roughly 25% reduction in
35:53
the duration of a proc that we that gave us a single target
35:58
procs. We had the buff to that same
36:02
proc slash by an additional 30% where it used to buff 12% per
36:08
stack. Now it's getting hit by 8% and
36:13
just just to make it oh so sweet are tier set which used to
36:20
increase the the damage that we dealt to the primary target with
36:26
an AOE enabler change from doubling it to only giving it
36:33
75%. So they have rained in a ton of
36:38
stuff and that's not even talking about Totemic, which
36:41
again, their one talent got wailed for about 30% and then
36:48
the base damage of the main part of Totamic got hit for another
36:53
10%. So enhancement everybody who was
36:56
afraid that an enhancement shaman was going to go
36:59
absolutely wild in season 2 and be a runaway hit.
37:06
I'm not going to lie, I think we still are think that they may
37:09
actually need. To Manny fast.
37:14
Are you listening to this? Started that.
37:17
Out. I'm not.
37:18
I'm starting with that. No, no, I think, I think having
37:23
played having like saw, saw this and like jumped in and then went
37:27
on training dummies, I was like, actually, this doesn't seem that
37:30
bad. But like with all of those
37:32
nerves, they went from like grotesquely beyond like.
37:36
And I'm not sure if John, you've been running with some
37:39
enhancement shamans on PTR. Yeah, I almost only ever play
37:42
with Stanky. OK, so stinky enhancement
37:46
Shavin, the content creator does a bunch of events.
37:49
Yeah, the the AOE was significant.
37:54
The changed from the tier set that we began the the PTR
37:59
testing to what it now is only helped that and these changes to
38:06
rein it in and the way that they targeted it because Lava Lash,
38:11
I'm not sure if people have been paying attention, Lavalash was
38:14
making up something like half the damage that was being thrown
38:17
out and like, and that's out of a list of like 15 different
38:22
individual sources. Lavalash was making up like 40%
38:26
of the damage if you buffed into it.
38:29
And with the with the changes that they've made, this should
38:33
put Enhancement Shaman in a place where it will be good,
38:38
maybe not even the best, but still a competitive spec.
38:44
I'm really glad for enhancement shamans, it's been so long since
38:47
they've had an opportunity to shine.
38:49
It's nice to see them getting one next patch.
38:52
Listen, the the the fact that we got two in a row maybe right is
38:57
maybe unheard of. Enhancement has had its winter.
39:00
Let us have a little bit of time in the sun.
39:03
Two seasons ain't that bad. That's fair.
39:06
That's fair. That's fair.
39:07
All right, OK. All right.
39:11
John. Yeah.
39:12
Can we talk about Warriors this patch?
39:19
Because. We can.
39:20
So we're going to 20% damage buff like all tanks and a 10%
39:27
buff to Mountain Thane. There was something with
39:30
Mountain Thane, they got a 10% buff, Thunderblast, Thunderblast
39:34
and then Arms and Fury both I think.
39:39
I don't know if this is the second week in a row or if this
39:42
is just patch notes catching up to previously announced buffs,
39:47
but I think it's the second week in a row.
39:49
Have gotten damage buffs to the tune of like 20 and 30% on
39:53
almost all their abilities. It's grotesque, like I was just
39:57
like like 20% is the lowest buff, 40% to whirlwind on arms.
40:03
But now I want to say this is happening because they've been
40:09
so far below every other DPS class and I want to point out
40:13
something. I would like to point out that a
40:17
lot of these buffs that are happening to Fury warriors
40:20
specifically maybe wouldn't be needed if Fury didn't get gutted
40:25
at the start of the War Within based on heroic dungeon profiles
40:30
do. You have any opinions on that
40:33
shot? I do not.
40:35
I am not a flex. I am on record as saying I am
40:37
not a game dev or a. Human Psychologist.
40:42
Or a human. Yeah, Not a people psychologist
40:45
either. Yeah.
40:48
So warriors just getting lifted back up to the middle of the
40:52
pack where they feel comfortable, I guess.
40:56
Yeah, a lot of changes. There was actually changes.
40:58
I realized we didn't talk about this last week because the news
41:01
broke after we recorded and we didn't drop it in our channel.
41:05
But they changed the raid renowned track for the raid and
41:09
they moved to where the raid skip happens and how the raid
41:13
skip works and they removed the dinars.
41:17
But they have said they are not gone.
41:20
They're just not going to be in the renowned track where they
41:23
were. They're going to reappear in
41:25
some other way. We don't know what way.
41:28
Yeah, I guess. OK, full transparency, there was
41:33
an episode that never made it to air where we initially talked
41:36
about the renowned track. For those of you who may not
41:40
know about this, this is. Did we not air that episode?
41:44
No, that was the the. Oh, was that the that?
41:46
Was the episode where we're like, yeah, woke up next board
41:49
and we're like. Yeah, I was.
41:53
It's like when you it for anybody who's listening, the
41:55
kind of episode it was is the kind of episode like you,
41:58
something really bad happened at work and you're really
42:00
frustrated. You go out with your friends
42:02
drinking heavily that night, and one of your friends really loves
42:05
Patrone tequila. And so you drink a lot of
42:08
Patrone Gold and then you drink a little bit of rum because rum
42:13
makes you angry and you want to be angry.
42:15
You want to feel that anger. And then you send a text message
42:17
to your boss to let him know exactly everything he's doing
42:20
wrong. That was the episode that we
42:22
didn't hear. Lex was smashed on tequila.
42:27
It was wild. I am actually quite surprised
42:30
that individually the two of you both were like hey did you put
42:36
that up? I have never gotten like the the
42:41
morning after DMS like episode. Yeah, it was pretty wild stuff.
42:47
Manny tried to break up with Fazdev in the middle of it.
42:49
It was crazy. It was.
42:51
It was so we got 2 truths and lies.
42:53
Is that what we're doing here? Crazy stuff.
42:55
Anyway, Yeah, so there's a raid renowned track where they give
42:58
us all kinds of fun stuff. They have changed that track
43:02
right now. There was a raid skip that was
43:05
happening at like week 17, I think it was.
43:08
It was sorry, it was, it was rank eight.
43:11
It was, was rank 8 to week 8. You would have gotten this raid
43:13
skip. They've moved it to rank 5.
43:16
So after 5 weeks you get it. And initially it was open.
43:21
Once you got to week 8, you had the skip for every boss, like
43:25
for every difficulty. But now it's changed.
43:27
You have to kill Mugsy. That's the boss that you skip
43:31
to. You have to kill Mugsy once per
43:34
difficulty and each difficulty that you have killed him on.
43:37
After we ranked five to week five, you will get the skip.
43:40
So once week five hits any guilds that have already
43:43
previously killed him on normal and heroic, the skip will be
43:46
unlocked for them in normal and heroic, and then any guilds that
43:50
have killed them on mythic the skip will be unlocked for them
43:52
on mythic. And then that Then going forward
43:54
when you get your kill, you get it so you don't have to do 3
43:56
kills anymore which is great. I heard Jin talking about it on
44:01
Live laugh Lore and he mentioned how he couldn't recall the last
44:05
time he got a raid skip because he almost never gets 3 kills of
44:08
the boss required the skip. So that's good.
44:13
That's a good change. And that also makes it better
44:15
for teams that are progressing because that week 5 mark is
44:17
when, especially in heroic when a lot of teams that have already
44:19
had it, we would have for sure. And then they also had dinars.
44:24
So the dinars or the bullions which people use to
44:28
deterministic buy items. There was one at week 17 and one
44:32
at week 19 on the track and everybody I think unanimously
44:38
was unanimously was like, those are terrible spots to have those
44:41
at that point the raid tier is over, like what are we doing?
44:46
And so Blizzard removed them from those spots and they have
44:49
said scars are came out and said, hey, these are going to be
44:51
back. We just are not having them
44:53
where they were on the renowned track because they heard the
44:56
feedback and they want to put them somewhere that makes more
44:58
sense. I think this raid track is
45:04
pretty cool. I was fine with them being at 17
45:07
and 19. It's more a matter of messaging.
45:10
At 17 and 19. It was, I've had the worst luck.
45:15
Let me immediately fill in that spot and that's what I think
45:18
they were being positioned at. I just think that a lot of
45:20
people look at dinars as I've been waiting for six weeks, six
45:24
weeks, and I need my my best in slot item so that I can actually
45:28
compete. And four other people have
45:31
gotten it over the course of these weeks.
45:32
So I'm falling behind. Come on, Blizzard, why are you
45:35
screwing me with RNG? And it's like, OK, so I think
45:37
that's a disconnect of where Blizzard was positioning them
45:42
and where the community really wants them to be.
45:46
The community wants them as bad luck protection to be used while
45:49
they're still progging the raid. Blizzard had them in a spot that
45:53
they were bad luck protection long after most teams would have
45:56
been done progging the raid. We have different definitions of
45:59
bad luck. I guess yeah, maybe.
46:03
Yeah. Not getting the item you want
46:05
from the video game you play is my definition of bad luck.
46:09
I would have meant to say is players versus the game devs
46:12
have different definitions of bad luck.
46:15
Players definition of bad luck is not getting it while they're
46:17
like actively playing game tests is like never getting this item.
46:22
Right. Yeah, the tears about to be over
46:24
and you don't have it yet. Thank you.
46:25
You'd have it for sure, honey. Yeah, It's all yours, baby.
46:28
That's your ring. No.
46:29
Worries no fuzz, but there is a lot of good stuff here.
46:33
They have recently put out a a video.
46:36
I do like that about the the goblins like oh look at this for
46:39
now track and it's great and it's like how are we even making
46:42
money on this? So I think that it it's cool.
46:46
I'd like to see this repeated the raid renowned tracks.
46:51
I'm not sure if there's other places I'd want to see this in.
46:55
I could see it in like a I'm working with whoever the delve
47:01
buddy is in season 3, which is obviously going to be Bran
47:04
again. Or if they put it in midnight.
47:07
I wouldn't mind this because like the the journey track is
47:10
already kind of the same thing and just standardizing it.
47:13
So everybody knows like, oh, for now track, I know how this works
47:16
and it's all over the place. Just it seems good.
47:18
I like this. What do you guys think?
47:21
I like simplicity. It makes me happy.
47:24
And I have to remember 20 different things, especially
47:26
this is on a podcast, so I have to, like, actually pretend I
47:28
understand things so I can, like, sound intelligent and
47:30
like, I know what's going on. Yeah.
47:33
Make it easy, please. Always.
47:36
Yeah, big fan of the renowned track.
47:37
I think it's fantastic. Hope to see more of it in the
47:41
future. You know, iterate on it, tweak
47:43
it a bit as it needs to be tweaked.
47:44
But yeah, big, big fan. Big fan of the renowned track.
47:47
And I also do want to give a special shout out to Blizzards
47:50
social media team because they've been doing a lot of
47:52
those like undermined goblin shorts and they are fantastic.
47:56
The voice acting is incredible and I'm pretty sure it's just
47:58
one of the members of the team. I actually think it's Eric from
48:00
Generic Live. No, it's an AI voice.
48:03
No, it's not. Every time he does it, somebody
48:06
says it's an AI voice and he's just be getting like he's just
48:09
like that's funny. And then he's like lost the
48:11
humor of it because it keeps on happening.
48:13
Yeah, yeah, they're, they're really, really good.
48:17
I've really been enjoying them so keep those up please.
48:20
With that said, our last bit of news is a little interview.
48:24
I guess we kind of talked about this at the beginning, but just
48:29
when Galliwick's ring his ugly head, so too is Bobby Kotek.
48:36
Bobby Kotek had an interview where he talked about a little
48:43
bit about the World of Warcraft movie and made some some
48:47
comments about how he didn't like it, how it distracted the
48:50
team and LED to delays and patches in expansions, and also
48:56
went so far as to say that having seen it himself, it was
48:59
one of the worst movies ever. His quote, not mine.
49:02
I still haven't seen it yet. I I think this is a great piece
49:08
of marketing on Blizzard's part. Get me that ad on.
49:11
I am now like I was like not really feeling this expansion
49:15
now I hate galliwicks. Yeah, it's an interesting take
49:22
have as somebody who's read Play Nice because it Bobby Kodak kind
49:27
of just didn't like anything that Blizzard was doing was kind
49:31
of my take away. This is not like I I it was
49:33
months since I've read the book. So this is a a nuanced take, but
49:36
based on at least that reporting, it seemed like he
49:39
kind of just wanted Blizzard to stop being Blizzard and start
49:42
being a like, you know, media grinding machine, which, to be
49:45
fair, kind of seems like Xbox did too.
49:47
And they're kind of winning, But not not that not that this stuff
49:51
feels like media grinding, but like a lot of the stuff that
49:53
Kodak really wanted, like these on really set schedules we have,
49:56
you know, we're always publishing at these certain
49:58
times. You know, we we can consistently
50:00
we're like, you know, there's always new content.
50:01
We're getting a new expansion out every, you know, a year and
50:03
a half. Pump, pump, pump, pump, pump,
50:05
pump, pump. Those are all things Kodak was
50:07
pushing for. And it does kind of seem like
50:09
Microsoft succeeded in convincing Blizzard to do, or at
50:12
least the Blizzard has decided are good ideas.
50:15
So I'm rambling. What I was meaning to say is
50:19
Bobby Kotick thought that the team was distracted because they
50:22
were doing something fun instead of doing, you know, putting
50:25
their nose to the grindstone and making heartless, emotionless
50:27
content like Call of Duty. Say it ain't so.
50:30
Yeah, I mean, like, OK, Kotek has his vested interests and so
50:38
all the stuff that he said in this just made sense from his
50:42
perspective. The the World of Warcraft movie
50:46
was not something that his company would directly profit
50:49
on, so he would call it a distraction.
50:52
If it had been far more successful and brought people in
50:55
more into the franchise, I think his criticisms would have been
50:58
far more far more muted. And I think that the World
51:03
Warcraft movie could have been that.
51:06
But I think he made a fair criticism that it is a very
51:13
insular self congratulatory entry.
51:17
Like a lot of it requires prior knowledge.
51:20
It's not going, it's not going to be somebody sitting down and
51:25
talk to their date and be like, oh, that's a blood elf.
51:28
Like that's not what is going to be happening here.
51:30
It's going to be people who are already fans who are able to get
51:36
those references, are able to know move through all was at the
51:39
end was the big thing he said. So I think that that was
51:41
actually a fair criticism. But again, knowing the history
51:44
of Bobby Kotek, knowing exactly what his motivations were, I do
51:49
think that he was unnecessarily critical and prioritized stuff
51:54
based on his pure interest alone.
51:56
And. Can I just say Bobby Kodak never
51:58
agree with me again if I state an opinion publicly first?
52:02
Keep it out of your mouth. There we go.
52:06
OK. Let's hope that you don't get
52:08
the lawsuit following it, Lex. Is getting rid of the right here
52:13
Bobby Kodak diss track? Oh man.
52:19
But I do have a question for you guys and maybe for the audience
52:22
too. Like obviously we've seen some
52:25
great success with TIE insurance or other things.
52:28
There has been the arcane is a is a big one, being one of the
52:35
most expensive productions that ever.
52:37
But there's also being stuff like Fox Machina and and such
52:42
that have had TIE insurance or things that have gone through.
52:46
Do you think that there's any future for that in World of
52:49
Warcraft? So many people look at like
52:50
Overwatch and those things are like, oh, give me a miniseries.
52:54
There's something that could be done for math and multimedia for
52:58
World of Warcraft. And like what kind of format
53:01
would you envision it in? Hi, Sean.
53:03
I'm going to throw this one to you first.
53:05
Oh, OK. Yeah.
53:06
On Netflix animated series please.
53:10
Or a trilogy following the fall of Arthur's The Lich King
53:13
starring Henry Cavill. So either a trilogy of movies
53:16
specifically following Arthur's specifically with Henry Cavill.
53:20
If you do this and you don't cast Henry Cavill, what are you?
53:24
What are you doing? Or a Netflix animated series?
53:28
Because I really do think nailing the style of of Warcraft
53:32
is hard. The movie.
53:33
I am a huge fan of the movie. The movie did a great job of it,
53:36
but I think that adds a huge cost to the budget.
53:39
Whereas in even animated series it's a bit easier.
53:41
I don't know if you guys watched it when.
53:42
You say animated, do you mean like traditional animated or do
53:45
you mean like 3D animated or do you mean like cel shaded?
53:49
You ever watched the Dragon Prince?
53:51
Cel shaded animation. OK, cool.
53:52
Yeah, I would. The dragon Prince I would take,
53:54
I would take an arcane style. Either of those was great.
53:58
Not I'm not a huge fan of the style they use in the
54:01
Castlevania Netflix series. Yeah, or even like the original
54:06
avatar. Like give me some of that too.
54:09
I don't care. Just give me Blizzard in my
54:11
veins. Yeah.
54:12
So I think animated series, I very specifically think they
54:17
should do an animated series. It is a new story set in the
54:21
World of Warcraft, like the world of Azeroth, the World of
54:24
Warcraft. I say it so I don't know the
54:27
name of my own planet. And it like there should
54:32
obviously be like some like references to what goes on in
54:36
the game. But the point should be it is
54:38
written in such a way that it will be an interesting story
54:42
regardless of whether or not you know the lore.
54:44
Because I do think one of the biggest issues with Warcraft
54:49
media at this point is that the lore is just too expansive.
54:55
And I think that was one thing I felt with the World of Warcraft
54:57
movie is that it felt like it was just kind of this like
55:00
random chunk of time. And on the one hand, that made
55:04
it feel kind of like, oh, wait, why are we starting?
55:06
We're starting here. OK, that's an interesting call.
55:07
All right. There's a lot of stuff that you
55:09
need to understand if you're going to jump into this part of
55:11
the story. Oh, and it's ending here, But
55:12
this isn't, this isn't the climax of the story.
55:14
There's so much more that needs to happen before you really
55:16
understand what any of this means or why any of this is
55:18
important. But you kind of have to do that
55:21
if you're going to use the established story because the
55:24
established story is massively long and you know, you could be
55:28
like, oh, we're going to do this expansion, but everyone has
55:30
their own take on it because they've played it and also we've
55:31
played it. So we've kind of been through it
55:33
already. Maybe the like artist is isn't a
55:35
bad call because I think it's a really interesting story, but I
55:38
really think the best call would be animated, yes, to like cut
55:40
down on the cost and also to kind of keep it magical without
55:44
it feeling funky and silly, which is it's difficult with
55:48
live action. It kind of struggles to cross
55:49
that line, but I I think really making the point being like here
55:54
is a a story that we are telling that you will understand the
55:58
references if you have played this game for your entire life.
56:02
And if you haven't, we are going to assume that everyone's
56:05
starting at .0 and explain everything.
56:07
This is a a new completely from scratch, new characters knew
56:11
everything. We're going into it.
56:13
All right, here we go. Alex, I got a pitch for you.
56:15
We follow the return of a veteran of the Second War to his
56:19
family's home in Stratholm, and we go through them sort of
56:24
dealing with the aftermath of the war.
56:26
And there's minor things around the city that they deal with,
56:29
you know, small side quests, sort of like Witcher esque.
56:32
And it's only 8 episodes and it ends on the eighth episode with
56:36
because there's famine happening and they're so grateful because
56:38
they've received a shipment of grain.
56:44
Like really make us fall in love with these characters, really
56:47
tug on our like we become like, we love these.
56:50
He's got kids. We love them.
56:51
We see them struggle and and stride and they get better and
56:54
everything. Like we fall in love with these
56:55
characters and they add the series ends, you know, they're
56:57
grateful for this shipment of grain that's arrived from.
57:00
I can't remember where the grain comes from, but yeah, that would
57:03
be that would. Be incredible exactly like
57:06
you're You're taking established lore, but you're developing an
57:09
entirely new story that none of us have any connections to.
57:14
Yes, What that is exactly what I think they need to do and I
57:16
think they'll bring in more people.
57:17
I think I mean the same way that my understanding is that's
57:19
pretty much what Arcane did is they took established
57:21
characters, but they made an entirely new story.
57:25
But again, I don't play League of Legends now, so I haven't
57:27
seen Arcane, but that's my understanding.
57:29
I the way that you successfully make a video game story,
57:34
especially a story as big and as like an MMO specifically, is
57:37
you. You, you make it separate.
57:39
You make it so you don't have to be a player to understand it,
57:42
because being a player is not going to benefit you in the
57:44
understanding of it. Or we could do a blood elf
57:47
family in Dalaran and they're just talking about all the
57:49
wonders in Dalaran, everything they've seen, and this kid who's
57:52
trying really hard to learn how to join the Kieran tour and
57:54
they're studying and they're working hard.
57:56
And then it ends with Jana cracking open the sky and
57:59
teleporting into town to banish them all.
58:02
Do you really just want to? You really want a traumatic
58:04
ending you hate? Do you hate happy ending?
58:06
I want people to hurt if you don't feel something.
58:12
I do feel that what you're saying, Lex, makes perfect
58:16
sense. And I think it's the best way to
58:18
do it. The way to bring people in is
58:22
give them a jump off point. You can reference events, but
58:26
you never get in the middle of them.
58:28
If it was even just like some, some kids like, oh, I'm going to
58:33
I'm going to join the the storm wind army one day.
58:36
And he's like growing up in the in the Chapel and like somebody
58:40
comes in and like tells a little bit of story and then that
58:44
person goes off. And then he goes into the to the
58:46
town and maybe you hear about stuff, but he's on his own
58:49
adventure of like, oh, he doesn't join the army.
58:52
He become, he becomes an adventurer.
58:54
His sister gets lost. He's chasing after his sister.
58:56
And then like that could be his entire thing where it's like,
58:59
oh, he makes his way through Ellen Forest and he gets he gets
59:04
to the Westlands and it's like, and he comes across like these
59:07
remnants of the Tofias and stuff.
59:09
And like, people will be like, Oh my goodness, I know that
59:11
place. I know that place.
59:12
I can visit that place, I can visit that place.
59:14
People who are new to it are like, oh, what, what are they
59:16
talking about? And they do a little bit of
59:18
explanation of it and it would be great.
59:20
And it wouldn't tie into like the big thing happening on the
59:24
Dragon Isles or the big thing happening in the Dornegal or
59:27
whatever. It would just introduce players
59:30
to the world. I think that is amazing.
59:32
But also a period piece. And the grain comes at the end
59:36
just so half the audience is like.
59:39
Oh, happy audiences. Anybody who doesn't know their
59:43
story is like, oh, right on. Like a crane.
59:45
The town is safe. Anybody else who does is like,
59:48
Oh no. And in my mind.
59:51
You do, you do. Nothing to tell people what
59:54
timeline you're in so that it completely tears them apart when
59:58
it happens. But like, that's glorious.
1:00:00
Yeah, I think you guys are such great ideas.
1:00:02
Why don't? We just do this ourselves.
1:00:03
Lex, can you animate? I.
1:00:06
No. I can't either we.
1:00:08
Can just shot a little stick figures that'll be basically
1:00:11
yeah and that we. Can do hand puppets, except all
1:00:14
of my puppets will have to be dwarves and gnomes, yeah.
1:00:16
Because you have your tiny little child.
1:00:17
Hands have you have you seen the show at sunny in Philadelphia
1:00:25
yeah this episode is the gang beats a cease and desist the.
1:00:32
Gang meets. You're right, yeah.
1:00:34
Thank you everybody for listening.
1:00:36
Until next time though, all your hits secrets.