Latest / For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast / #358 - For Azeroth!: “Beta Build Anxiety”

Transcript

#358 - For Azeroth!: “Beta Build Anxiety” · For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast

0:00
Do try to go in with an open mind.
0:01
Don't go in expecting them not to hit the mark, because they
0:04
won't if you expect that. So try to go in with an open
0:06
mind and then when they don't hit the mark then you can be
0:09
upset. Victory for the Forsaken.
0:14
For Lauderon for the Karen tour. For.
0:19
Pandaria. For.
0:22
Calendar to the burning region. For Gilnaeus, but has not died
0:29
for the Lich King. For the.
0:33
Sindora for the Alliance, for the Horde, for Azeroth.
0:42
Hello and welcome back to another episode of For Azeroth.
0:46
I am one of your hosts, the true villain, Manny, or just Manny,
0:49
and I am joined by the other two parts of the Triumphant, first
0:53
joining us from the woods in the north.
0:56
Not quite N we have Lex rants. Hello Manny, how are you and
1:02
how's the World of Warcraft treating?
1:03
You. I'm doing OK.
1:05
I think we decided that every episode we would put you in a
1:09
different state. So how are things going in cold,
1:13
wintry Puerto Rico? They're going, they're going
1:16
amazing down here in Puerto Rico.
1:19
I, as I'm sure everyone knows, I'm a Giants fan.
1:23
And also this might surprise you guys, play World of Warcraft.
1:26
So the fact that Cam Scataboo is officially a World of Warcraft
1:29
player is making my entire life. You say funny words, funny man
1:35
going to Sean, who might understand what in the world
1:39
she's talking about. Hello, Sean.
1:41
How are you doing? Hi, Manny.
1:43
I'm doing pretty good. Lex, are we friends because I
1:45
look like Brian Gable? Well, he's not a giant anymore,
1:49
Sean anymore, so I guess we're not friends anymore.
1:53
Well, we had a good run. We had a good run.
1:55
You, yeah, I can't mean this poor man fell so far like coach
1:59
of the year to fire it in like. Three, it'll happen when you
2:02
don't win a game. When they started, they started
2:04
2 and 8 three years in a row. Not a recipe for success.
2:07
This is now an NFL podcast fact for him.
2:11
Man, I'm doing good. I think you asked me how the war
2:13
crusher treated me. War Crusher treated me good.
2:15
Spent a little time on the beta today messing around with my UI.
2:18
Have to say, got up to a spot that I'm pretty happy with.
2:21
Still. One or two things that I really
2:25
would like to see addressed, but overall not displeased with
2:29
where we're at. I'm sure we'll talk about the
2:31
beta launch after so we won't get into that.
2:33
And also special shout out to the FAZ community who took it
2:39
upon themselves to start finally, after I don't know how
2:43
many episodes of me asking recommending names for what we
2:47
call the FAZ community. Can I just give we have a list
2:49
running. We have.
2:50
We're going to do an official vote now.
2:51
Manny hasn't agreed to this yet, but Manny doesn't make all the
2:53
rules. We're going to do an official
2:55
vote in the FAZ Discord at some point.
2:57
We don't know when yet to vote on what we call the FAZ family.
3:01
And here's the options we have currently.
3:04
Faznatix, I'm gonna try not to give my opinion on any of these.
3:08
I don't wanna sway the vote when it happens.
3:09
Do you? Do you want me to say it so it's
3:11
flat? Yeah, that's, yeah.
3:12
That's why, yeah, you say it with the disdain that you've
3:15
been reading them for yourself. All No.
3:17
No, no, we're gonna, we're gonna call it down the line.
3:21
Where where is this again? Is this in our suggestions?
3:24
Suggestions. Yeah.
3:25
And then I'll pin it, but it's. I I got it already just anybody
3:29
who wants to throw in it's in the FAZ discord bit dot LY slash
3:33
faz discord and then I'm going to go through this.
3:35
The potential listener tags. We have FAZ Natix, FAZA holics,
3:41
Fazzers, Fazians, FAZ heads, faz family, Fazarothians, FAZ hands,
3:49
which I have earmarked for people that were going to hire
3:52
as like support staff. So I maybe I've slightly vetoed
3:56
that Faz holes and true villain fazzies.
4:03
And so there you go. I did, I, I was very, I was very
4:06
neutral on that. I may have put a little emphasis
4:09
on FAZ hands, but that was not the stain.
4:11
That was neutral Fazz hands. Yeah, I'm excited.
4:16
So it's been a good day. And we had a good showing on
4:19
Monday on the House. The person who came and looked
4:21
at it looked at six houses that day.
4:23
And I, I threw the Grapevine. Our realtor told us that our
4:26
house is their favorite of the ones they looked at.
4:28
And today they asked how much our property taxes were, which I
4:31
guess is typically a sign that they are considering making an
4:34
offer. No offer yet, but house watch is
4:38
still a go, but it's in spiritual high right now.
4:40
Oh, and actually came to visit it is.
4:42
Do you guys not do the little thing where you have like a
4:44
little little sheet and it lists out like have you, to your
4:47
knowledge, have there ever been rodents?
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How much do you like, how do you get your heat?
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How much do you pay per month on average?
4:53
Do you know of any like history of flooding?
4:56
Like do you guys not have that cute little sheet?
4:58
No, we do. That's PCDS personal or property
5:01
something disclosure, yeah. Or PDCS, maybe PDS, maybe it's
5:05
just PDS property, property disclosure sheet.
5:07
We do have those. They have not requested 1.
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So if they don't ask for one, we don't provide one.
5:13
All they asked was yeah, they have to ask for it to get it.
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I. Guess I don't know if I I assume
5:18
that they were just provided automatically to me, but it
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might just be that my like realtor was like.
5:22
Your realtor should be asking. That's just genuinely smart.
5:26
Anyway, they're good if the person has been sorry, sorry.
5:29
Anybody who's here for Warcraft talk, skip ahead to, I don't
5:33
know, 13 minutes. I'm sure it'll be there, but we
5:36
will certainly be done the house talk by then.
5:42
So the disclosure sheets are great if somebody has lived in
5:44
the house for a long time because they can answer those
5:46
questions. We've been here three years, so
5:49
we'd be able to answer a few of them, but we can't go into our
5:52
house is 112 years old. So when they're like, has there
5:55
been any history of flooding? I, I don't know, there wasn't in
5:57
the last three years, but I can't tell you what happened
5:59
before that. And then if you're buying a
6:01
house that was a flip, if somebody bought it and flipped
6:03
it, those are almost entirely useless because they never lived
6:07
in the house. They have no way to answer those
6:08
questions so well. They are good to get and
6:11
definitely good to ask because especially if the person who
6:13
lived in the home for a long time, they're not always super
6:17
relevant. Yeah, my house was like kind of
6:19
iffy because it was being sold by the, the previous owner had
6:23
passed away a couple years ago and so it was their kid selling
6:25
it. So like some of it obviously
6:27
they'd known since like it was their mom and they grew up here.
6:30
But some of it they were just like I, I don't know what you
6:32
paid for heat in a month like. Yeah, yeah, OK.
6:37
All right, man, if you want to, if we want to do the actual
6:40
show, it's 100. And yeah, we got so Eppie's in
6:43
the chat and he's in the UK, he heard 112 years old and he's
6:46
like, oh, you have a new house, 'cause all the houses in Britain
6:48
that didn't get destroyed during the World War 2 bombing are like
6:51
400 years old. Well, that might be that might
6:57
be where you come from. Your mileage may vary.
7:00
But let's say we're gonna pat that, put that aside and we're
7:03
gonna get into World of Warcraft because there is a lot of news
7:05
to talk about. Yes, hard steel is a thing.
7:10
Moving on, we are getting the warning overlooked.
7:14
The community is focused on the beta, but there is 11 point 2.7
7:20
coming in under the radar. So that is going to be titled
7:26
the Midnight Prologue, The Warning, and that is due out
7:30
December 2nd in NA and December 3rd in the EU.
7:36
It's got a number of things including a Quest storyline that
7:39
includes Varissa Windrunner. Apparently they're just
7:42
inventing Windrunner sisters all of a sudden.
7:44
Said of the two that we know and Eritor investigating Visions and
7:49
Prophecies. As part of that content update,
7:53
we're going to be allowed to get into housing in Live, which
7:57
means all those people who are fuming about her steal will
8:01
suddenly open up their wallets and not care anymore.
8:03
We will be getting an updated new player experience, which is
8:07
good for returning players or new players alike.
8:10
It's going to get you up to speed.
8:12
That includes A revamped Exiles. What is it called?
8:16
Exiles Aisle. Reach.
8:18
Exiles Reach Thank you. The story through Dragonflight,
8:23
the revamped experience of going through the war within all of
8:29
that is going to be available. We will also be getting access
8:34
early access to housing. Like I said, the new lore
8:38
walking quests have been updated where we get 2 new quests that
8:42
are about stuff irrelevant to midnight.
8:45
So we've got the Lich King and his assault on the Sun well, the
8:48
last time the Sun well was assaulted.
8:51
And we've got the tainting of the Sun well by Illyria,
8:55
Windrunner and the creation of the Void Elves.
8:58
So there's there's a lot of things there.
9:01
Pandyrians, you're finally getting your heritage armor and
9:05
I believe that is all of the races now with here to Jarmer
9:09
with the pandarians completed. You guys could double check, but
9:13
I I believe that to be the case. Time walking turbulent time ways
9:17
is returning 10 weeks of time walking folks, set your
9:21
calendars from December 2nd, do 10 weeks and you know we're not
9:25
getting the new expansion before then.
9:28
That includes 6 new dungeons that are going to be in from
9:33
Shadowlands and you reward. So we'll get the new mounts that
9:37
come from shadow lands and and such from there.
9:40
If you like transmog pets and such, that'll be there.
9:43
And something near and dear to my heart, the Brawlers Guild is
9:47
coming back. It is a delayed release on that
9:50
time gating whatever buzzword you want to use that is coming
9:53
on December 9th. There will be some new bosses,
9:57
there will be a revised encounter order and they're
10:00
going to be a new rewards including a new rendition of
10:03
Bruce. I'm hoping the old rendition of
10:05
Bruce will come back because I missed, I missed one of those
10:08
Bruce versions and housing decor as well.
10:12
Housing Decor rewards already being put into stuff.
10:16
So that's a lot of things to tie this over in the winter
10:21
holidays. Are you guys excited for this or
10:23
is your mind squarely focused on beta right now?
10:26
Let's start with you, Lex. I am really excited about this I
10:31
so I think I might have mentioned on the show when I do
10:33
beta, I'm trying very hard to avoid story.
10:35
I want that to be something like I I, I understand that I'm going
10:38
to experience spoilers as a creator, but I would like the
10:41
actual experience of the story to be something that I
10:43
experience live with my friends. So I, I have, there's not a ton
10:48
that I do on the beta. Like I log in to test individual
10:52
things feel like, oh, I'm curious about Prey or like, oh,
10:54
I want to see how this system's going to work or how this
10:56
system's going to work. But it's not like I'm spending
10:58
hours on beta. I'm kind of just, yeah, I
11:00
suppose obviously more so alpha, but that's the mindset I'm going
11:03
to bring into beta. It's like, oh, if I'm curious
11:05
about something I want to be able to talk about with my
11:06
friends, we'll talk about on for Azeroth with my friends, then I
11:10
should pop into beta. So I am really feeling the
11:13
content content Well right now, right?
11:15
I, I don't have a ton of like gathering or side things I do.
11:19
I'm really pretty hyper fixated on AOTC and we got AOTC.
11:22
And so I'm finding it harder and harder to convince myself to log
11:25
in and having story and beginning to access housing and
11:30
then do things like that and feel like World of Warcraft is
11:32
alive again. I think it's going to be really
11:34
good. And I do also know this is going
11:36
to be a long lull and it always is before expansions.
11:40
I mean, just because, you know, if we're saying at least 10
11:42
weeks, that's mid February, it's mid November.
11:46
So that's what Oh my God why can't I do basic math like 3
11:50
months at least? Yeah.
11:53
Like we'll count the mid February and mid mid November is
11:56
one month, then you add December and January in there and you're
11:59
three months. Yeah, yeah.
12:01
There you go. There you go.
12:02
Yeah. So I mean, it'll be the
12:04
holidays, it'll be there'll be plenty to do.
12:06
But I am really happy that we're going to be getting some fun
12:09
stuff relatively soon. Yeah.
12:13
I like that it is all pick up experiences.
12:15
It's not something that I need to work weeks on weeks on.
12:17
So in that way, like as I'm away for holidays and visiting
12:22
friends and family, more friends and family, I will definitely be
12:28
less scheduled with my wow time, with my play time and video
12:32
games in general. And so like, yeah, being able to
12:35
be like, hey, I got some time. Let me jump in and do Brawlers
12:37
Guild or one of these law walking is I think this this is
12:41
the right content for the time if you're focused on life, Sean,
12:46
any, any impressions on your end?
12:49
I'm really excited for the lore walking experience.
12:51
I enjoyed the three that we got at launch of Lore Walking and I
12:56
anytime we get a chance to talk about the sun, well and Arthus
12:58
and the elves, I'm all for that. I am the opposite.
13:02
I feel like we're moving at breakneck speeds.
13:04
I can't believe you think there's a lull right now.
13:08
I feel like 10 point, not ten. I feel like 11 point 2.5 just
13:12
came out and maybe that's because of the weird gating or
13:16
sorry, the weird delay on turbo boost being unlocked and yeah, I
13:24
just feel like you guys like, oh, it's you know, we're we're
13:27
moving so. Fast.
13:28
I was neutral. I didn't say anything Intel.
13:30
Sorry, but Lex Lex saying we're in a lull right now.
13:33
I just don't I feel that at all. I am actively engaged in the
13:36
beta so maybe that helps to why I don't feel that way.
13:39
You also. Do Legion Remix, which I haven't
13:41
been doing. Yeah, that's true.
13:42
But that's like an hour 4 * 3 to 4.
13:49
Times a week you can help me drag myself through Legion
13:51
Remix. Man do I need help.
13:53
Anyways, keep going. So I don't know.
13:56
I'm just there's still a lot of work that needs to happen on the
13:59
add on situation in UI and beta and I don't think three months
14:02
is enough time. Sorry, let me let me let me make
14:05
one clarification to what I said.
14:07
There is a lull that is healthy and normal between expansions in
14:10
fact and I, I I do agree that content is coming out really
14:13
quickly and I think probably too fast.
14:15
I am still deeply on team, but be realistic with yourself
14:20
delay. You know, a, a late release is
14:22
better than a bad release like Bazdev.
14:25
Do not, do not go to Ian Hasacosta.
14:28
So I'm sure cares deeply about what I say and be like Lex said
14:31
that she feels like there's a lull.
14:32
We got to push it up. Like I, I, I, I stand by
14:36
everything I've said before. I think this is moving too
14:37
quickly. I worry about how much they
14:40
intend to do in the next few months.
14:42
I I worry about how quickly they're putting out content in
14:44
general. And I based on my playstyle and
14:48
what I'm focusing on, I don't really see a ton.
14:51
You're not. You're not jumping on housing.
14:55
I, so I am excited about 11 point 2.7.
14:57
I'm, I, I think that and I actually do think housing is
14:59
probably going to be one of my, I think that it's going to be my
15:03
legion or my, my remix where I kept saying I'm not going to be
15:05
interested. I'm not going to be interested
15:07
in it. And I think that once I have
15:08
more things that hopefully fit together better and, and that
15:13
are more stable like that, it feels like I'm building
15:15
something versus just like going in and like playing with stuff,
15:18
knowing that I'm going to, it's going to be deleted and, you
15:20
know, a month. I think that that is going to be
15:22
very exciting for me. And I think I'm going to have a
15:24
lot of fun organizing, sprucing things up.
15:28
OK, Epidemi in Chad is saying that like housing might be what
15:33
brings them back to retail. I've, I've seen some people who
15:37
have been playing on the beta and and so forth really be like,
15:42
Oh my goodness, this is, this is my Wow now in its entirety.
15:46
So there's definitely some people who are super excited
15:49
about it. I've got to try it.
15:51
Like I had like Full disclosure guys, I have played all of 0
15:58
seconds of housing throughout alpha and beta and like I had
16:03
people like pushing and asking questions and stuff and I, I
16:06
just could not be bothered. Maybe, but unlikely.
16:11
I try it and I go, Oh my goodness, this is everything.
16:15
But we'll see. Again, different, different
16:18
strokes for different folks. But that leads us to the thing
16:22
that has been pulling more of my time and definitely more of
16:25
Sean's time. We have the midnight beta itself
16:30
which was released this week on the masses because the servers
16:37
definitely couldn't handle it. So there was a mass of something
16:39
going on and that was unleashed to everybody who had
16:42
pre-ordered. Your accounts were flagged over
16:45
the course of the day and I believe everybody who has
16:48
ordered should be in now. If not, do contact Blizzard.
16:53
If you pre-ordered the digital edition.
16:55
Correct. Yes, if you pre-ordered the
16:58
digital edition, if you have pre-ordered the collectors or
17:01
physical edition, I don't believe that they've done any
17:07
way of sending them those codes out in time.
17:10
We also did a giveaway right here on Faraz Roth.
17:14
We had three lucky winners that one on our Twitter account, on
17:20
the YouTube comments and of course on Instagram as well.
17:24
And considering how successful it is, we will be doing another
17:28
one of those again. So if you are not currently in
17:31
the midnight beta, if you are looking to get yourself a
17:34
digital code, we'll we'll definitely be doing another
17:37
giveaway soon before the end of the year.
17:39
So stay tuned for that. With that said, let's talk about
17:43
the beta. Sean, let's hand this out to
17:45
you. Yeah, so the beta launched on
17:47
Tuesday to fanfare. Servers got bodied.
17:52
There was a lot of issues with lag with disconnections and I
17:55
didn't be able to get in character copies were non
17:58
functional at the beginning. Workaround started to develop,
18:02
Blizzard rolled out a number of hot fixes and the latency ensued
18:08
even through to today. There's been a couple of rolling
18:09
restarts on the realms and they've been applying servers
18:12
stuff for the servers to try and fix it.
18:14
Folks are still, if you get through the intro portion, the
18:18
the Sumwell intro portion to get through that, which I, I mean I,
18:22
I did with almost like I had some lag, but it wasn't
18:27
unplayable for me. But there are people who it's
18:28
unplayable for. But as soon as you get through
18:30
the intro version, go back to Orgemar, Stormwind or Dorngal,
18:35
turn on war mode and then go back to Sunwell because there's
18:39
only like 6 of us with war mode on and then the latency is gone
18:43
basically. So that's what I did.
18:45
I got that tip from Mr. GM which worked out really well.
18:48
On a side note to that, if you're running around the beta
18:51
in war mode attacking people who are questing in the Eversong
18:55
Woods, you can get launched into the sun big.
18:59
No, no, no. If you're in war mode, do your
19:03
war mode like fly. You fly.
19:06
You do what you want when you do what makes you.
19:08
Infiltrating. You're the ones infiltrating war
19:10
mode for your own purposes and taking it away from the people
19:13
who want to do war mode. When they deserve.
19:15
Their war mode spaces don't gentrify them.
19:18
When people are actively using war mode as a way to bypass the
19:22
latency, and you know that they are.
19:24
They can get stabbed and there's 04K and 120 frames baby and.
19:30
Even on top of that, if you're in war mode because you love PvP
19:32
and you love the fight and you attack somebody who doesn't
19:36
attack you back. Big honor, Big honor.
19:39
Farm that honor. You're gonna need it for the end
19:41
game. I if I was Homelander, I would
19:44
fly to each of those people's homes and I-beam them that.
19:47
Seems like a lot of PvP war mode for somebody who's speaking so
19:53
fastest. Are you sure that you wouldn't
19:56
jump down at them in your little cloud car?
19:58
Jump out and use these Insignia on your belly to Care Bears.
20:02
Stare at them. Listen to Care Bears where
20:06
gangsters are right. I won't take less than that
20:09
anyway. War mode will get rid of some of
20:11
their latency, but lots of stuff is going on.
20:13
Transmog is turned off currently, so the new transmog
20:16
systems coming into place. And before anybody panics, if
20:19
you happen to have the script that lets you look at the
20:22
transmog window and see the current placeholder for what the
20:27
cost of a single transmog outfit is, please keep in mind it is
20:31
just a placeholder and Blizzard hasn't officially said that it
20:34
will cost us 40,000 gold or outfit.
20:37
You know, they likely did that to prevent people or like, even
20:41
if people found it, to deter them from activating a system
20:46
that they don't want. Yeah, like I.
20:48
Said it's just a placeholder so please don't panic if you see
20:51
that it hasn't been reported anywhere yet, so hopefully we
20:54
can avoid the pissing of blood that we normally see when people
20:58
get information that is is only half of the story.
21:02
I got to ask. I got to ask though, what would
21:04
you say is a fair fair price considering the transformer
21:07
system is like almost set it and forget it.
21:10
Yeah, I think between 5 and 10,000 is probably fair per
21:13
outfit, especially because you're not slot per outfit,
21:16
yeah. Because you're outfits.
21:19
I can see that. All right, Yeah.
21:20
Yeah, because you're going to want like you can have a
21:22
separate outfit for for war band, You can have a separate
21:24
open for war band screen, You can have a separate outfit for
21:26
housing. You can have a separate outfit
21:28
for in major cities because of this reason.
21:32
People are going to want to have and like I have, if you go look
21:34
through right now through my transmog, I have like 32 outfits
21:36
just on my paladin, like just my paladin and then every other
21:40
character I have a lot of them. So I, I, I think between 5 and
21:44
10,000 is probably reasonable. If you go through the like an
21:48
experience of questing, you're going to be upgrading your
21:51
transmog more often typically. So, you know, even if you look
21:55
at say between 5 and 800 gold per transmog, it's like that you
21:59
do every time you change an outfit between 500 gold.
22:02
I think 10,000 feels reasonable. That's like the equivalent of, I
22:07
don't know, 20 different times of fully transmogging.
22:11
I, I think 40,000 is cost prohibitive.
22:13
I think that's, that's awful. I think, I think 40,000 would be
22:17
an awful choice personally, but it's just a placeholder for now.
22:21
That just feels like a year. So now if you want to have one
22:25
of the transmog for each of the four different ways that you can
22:27
have it now we're looking at like 160,000 gold like just for
22:34
just for transmog like it doesn't, it would never, it
22:36
would cost, it would take you would have to transmog so often
22:39
to get to that value, you know what I mean?
22:42
So I think I think between 5 and 10,000 per outfit is fair.
22:46
So, but there I think it's on a slot basis by it's per slot
22:49
basis or whatever the equivalent of that breaks down to
22:52
personally that's what I think. Yeah, I agree with Sean as the
22:55
resident doesn't actually make money, girl.
22:57
I think that that's a level that does actually like you will get
23:02
that amount just doing general content.
23:05
So it's going to be enough that people aren't like switching
23:08
every 10 minutes. I mean, unless they have a ton
23:10
of gold, but you know, it, it'll feel like you did something like
23:14
you paid for something, but it won't feel like, Oh my God, I
23:17
guess I can't transmog this season.
23:19
Like I honestly, yeah, 40,000 I would be seriously considering
23:22
whether I wanted to send a transmog 5 to 8, whatever.
23:30
Like I I again, I wouldn't do what I do right now where I
23:32
change my transmog every single, you know, rain night.
23:35
But yeah, I totally have a few going with that.
23:38
Yeah, yeah. So that's happening right now in
23:42
the beta. There's no level 90 prebuilt
23:44
characters yet, so you are going to have to level through the
23:46
story. If you're somebody who's wanting
23:48
to avoid that, get to level 81 and then you can just farm
23:51
follower dungeons for experience.
23:52
It will take you longer, but you can do it.
23:54
They have improved the follower dungeon AI, it seems like, in
23:58
this build from what it was on the previous alpha builds.
24:01
So that's good. And they made some more damage
24:06
meter adjustments. We can now see damage taken as
24:08
one of the items track. The damage meter itself is still
24:11
not functional, but we we can see the things that it will
24:14
track. And then we just have to assume
24:16
we're going to be able to drill down on those RAID frames not
24:20
yet implemented and still the external defensives tracker not
24:27
functioning the way everybody thought it was going to
24:29
function, still functioning just as a, as a tracker, still no
24:32
debuff tracking. Hopefully all that stuff comes
24:34
in, in a later build. And I would, I know it's not in
24:37
the show, but I would like to talk about Ian because we talked
24:39
about last week, some of the AI, the, the UI stuff, and Ian made
24:42
a post on Reddit replying to comments from the interview that
24:48
he had with, or the meeting that he had with DBN and bigwigs.
24:50
I'd like to talk about that just for a second because I think it
24:53
sort of fits here in with the beta and the UI stuff.
24:55
And that's Ian. So we had talked about last week
24:57
that the, that Ian had stated that they didn't want to have an
25:01
audio counter counting down from 5:00 to 1:00 when a a mechanic
25:06
was happening because they they didn't want, sorry, Ian didn't
25:08
want add-ons to have that functionality because it would
25:10
feel mandatory. He felt that if we were going to
25:12
have an audio counter counting down from 5:00 to 1:00 that it
25:15
should be built into the game. But they currently don't intend
25:18
to do that because they plan to have it so that their own visual
25:23
and audio cues in the terms of the boss speaking should be
25:28
enough to to give you this information without needing that
25:31
countdown. And then if it's not, if it's
25:34
not working, the team you know is always has the option to
25:35
include it. And I do want to get your
25:38
thoughts on it. I I am bewildered by that
25:41
statement because the combat warning timer literally gives us
25:46
a countdown from 5 to one for the abilities in visual format
25:50
on the screen. So I don't understand the
25:53
difference between letting us read it and letting us hear it,
25:55
and how one is an advantage and 1 isn't.
25:58
Audio noise is different than visual noise if I had to go with
26:02
anything. If you have multiple counter
26:04
down timers going like the bars, you can look at 1 and isolate
26:08
and be like OK, that's the one going through.
26:10
If you have multiple voices going off that are all counting
26:14
down, being able to figure out which one is which is is too
26:19
much audio noise. So that's one thing they would
26:23
need to then change it to be like this one actually talks,
26:28
but this one doesn't. In such a situation, which which
26:32
is in my mind then becoming a Pandora's box and that might be
26:36
why they're doing it. That said, if that is the
26:38
reason, I would rather they say that and then we deal with the
26:42
realities of that confusion rather than the what was put
26:46
forward. But like there are different
26:48
levels of information that people can absorb that differs
26:53
based on not only the person that is getting that
26:56
information, but the type of of way that it is coming at you.
27:02
So whereas some people are visual learners, some people are
27:06
tactile learners, some people are auditory learners.
27:08
All of that also factors into the way that UI sometimes
27:12
screams at you if it is a boss ability.
27:18
And this is sometimes harder to do in a in a council fight than
27:24
in a single boss encounter. Like I can still remember in my
27:28
dreams, in my nightmares, right where where somebody would be
27:33
like, break yourself upon my body.
27:35
And I go like, OK, I better throw a dot on so it gets
27:38
bounced back to me. Like I know that immediately.
27:40
I can't name that boss, but that what that that one voice line.
27:45
I can say that was stone core. I can say it was the the big
27:48
giant. I, I can say that he throws up
27:51
the a shield at that point and then I, and then you need to
27:54
reflect damage on yourself because you've been given a
27:58
debuff that after a certain period of time petrifies you.
28:02
And if you don't take damage to break that debuff you, you won't
28:06
be able to run out and he'll one shot you.
28:08
And I know that. And I've never needed a
28:10
countdown timer for that. I've never needed a visual thing
28:13
for that because I can immediately link that voice
28:16
line. And if they can design things
28:17
like that, then I guess I don't need a countdown timer.
28:21
But that is 100% Blizzard putting the onus on themselves
28:26
and the accessibility conversations sometimes get lost
28:31
in that. And I guess as an aside, flat
28:35
out anybody who is in The Who can hear me now, OK, we talk
28:41
about ideals, we talk about accessibility and making sure
28:45
that point of views are considered, that people who have
28:49
those point of views, as many point of views as possible and
28:52
perspectives as possible are in the room having that
28:55
conversation. But I also need to ask people
28:59
not to fall for a Nirvana complex, OK?
29:04
It is ideal that we have as many perspectives in the room as as
29:08
possible. We often fall short of the
29:10
ideal. Sean, Lex and myself Will always
29:14
say that we want you to get your opinion out there because every
29:17
point of view should be there. This entire show is built to
29:20
have different points of view. Get your perspective regardless
29:25
of how you play to the developers, but also get it to
29:28
us. I would love to have a more
29:30
informed perspective based on what somebody says to me.
29:34
That is like, OK, hey, you know what?
29:36
I hadn't considered that. And I'll think about that going
29:38
in the in the future. And that will give me a just a
29:42
far more informed opinion. I'll be thankful for it.
29:45
But I need people to stop trying to say that hey, because this
29:51
can't be done perfectly. We shouldn't have this
29:53
conversation at all. If you want to push and say
29:56
like, Hey, this is a better way of doing doing it that helps
29:59
this perspective. That's a constructive
30:01
conversation. If you try and shut down the
30:03
conversation because it doesn't perfectly aligned with your
30:08
perspective, I don't want to have that conversation.
30:10
And that's that's what I want to preface this with.
30:14
That said, I think there's a lot of different things that they
30:17
need to consider, including how much in information overload
30:22
they put in there. If we've got 20 different timers
30:24
going off and all these spell effects, they all get lost.
30:28
That's why we started turning down spell effects on people
30:30
that weren't us or the boss. Same thing with audio cues.
30:34
I cannot have 5 different countdown timers going at the
30:37
same time. I will lose it.
30:39
And so I, I'm looking for something cleaner and I think
30:43
just distinctive voice lines that I can then go like that's,
30:49
that's that ability or that's 5 seconds ahead of that ability.
30:52
And I can sort of learn that. I think that is something
30:55
strong. Otherwise they're going to have
30:57
to, and they do that as voice lines anyways.
30:59
But I don't think that works with a a generic encounter
31:03
timer. That's a fairpoint.
31:06
I don't know exactly how I'd fix it.
31:08
I think the first. So I have a few points I'm going
31:10
to probably make in in relatively rapid succession, as
31:11
I love to. Do I'm monologued?
31:13
Go ahead. So the first thing I'd say is I,
31:18
I, I think that's true about the voice lines.
31:20
That could be really useful. I do think the Blizzard has a
31:22
tendency to fall into a little bit of a, a trap where they'll
31:26
make an accessibility feature. I'd be like, look, it'll work.
31:28
It's just harder, right? Like, yeah, you can learn to
31:33
countdown from the voice line and figure out exactly how long
31:36
it's going to take after the the voice line goes to the spell
31:40
cast and learn to count that every single time.
31:42
It's totally doable. It is significantly harder than
31:46
people who can, you know, have the visual processing at the
31:49
level where they could easily look at a countdown timer.
31:51
Who's going to have that, you know, the first time they run
31:54
in. Although, I mean, and I think
31:57
this is kind of Blizzard struggling with the like, like
32:04
if, if they're going to cut things, they are putting
32:08
themselves like, no, no, if, if, if they're going to say we have
32:13
to like we, we, we are not going to give you options to only have
32:17
certain timers, like to only announce certain things.
32:19
Like you cannot go in and change the voice line for XYZ or, you
32:24
know, you can't change how this is presented versus this is
32:26
presented. You have to, it's, it's all or
32:28
nothing. Or you can maybe get an add on
32:29
that's going to like filter a few things out.
32:31
But it's really like it's, it's the on or off.
32:35
You're kind of right that they are saying, well, if you're
32:38
going to do like we, we have to do every single countdown.
32:41
And so if there's multiple spells going, you're going to
32:43
have one voice doing a 15 second countdown and one voice on the
32:47
five second of the last 10 second countdown.
32:49
Like like, yeah, that's right. That's going to be a monstrously
32:51
chaotic. And I think that they are I I I
32:56
kind. Of put the burden on themselves.
32:58
Right. And I, I keep falling back on
33:00
the same frustration that I think I, I was talking about
33:02
last week, sorry to, to preface it, I, I have a tendency to talk
33:06
to myself a lot. And so sometimes I forget what I
33:09
said on the podcast, what I just said in my mirror.
33:11
So if I ever say like, yeah, the thing I said last week and
33:13
you're like, Lex, you did not say that.
33:15
That's 'cause I, it was all me babes.
33:18
But I, I feel like we had this game that was particularly
33:22
accessible because we had all of these options.
33:25
And I under like, I, I, I understand the argument Blizzard
33:27
is making for why they're choosing to take away the
33:30
options, but it is taking World of Warcraft from one of the most
33:35
accessible games. I, I think arguably ever, right,
33:39
due to the sheer customization ability of add-ons to one that
33:44
is, is just going to exclude certain people like Eon, Sorry,
33:47
Eon Ian openly said that he thinks that being able to like
33:51
visual processing is a requirement of rating, right?
33:54
That that he, he, he is on not not just him.
33:56
It's not like this. He is the only person making
33:58
these decisions, but he is the name that we have that that that
34:02
is a requirement of high level content, which does mean that
34:06
people who historically have been able to play World of
34:08
Warcraft are no longer like they are determining that they cannot
34:11
do high level content, right? Then there's no way around that
34:14
if if that's the determination you're making.
34:18
They can no longer do high level content in the way that it is
34:22
designed now. Right.
34:24
But if they're saying they're unwilling to make a game like
34:26
if, if, if they're saying it's a hard line for them, they will
34:29
not make a game that doesn't like high level content that
34:32
does not require visual processing like blind players
34:37
can't. That inherently excludes blind
34:39
players. If if visual processing is a
34:41
mandatory aspect of rating and of Mythic plus, which they've
34:46
stated it, that's part of their ethos that that does just cut
34:50
people out. So the game already cuts people
34:56
out at A at a certain point the game cuts it cuts you out if you
35:02
are like 100% blind. They do not have like the, they
35:08
used to have like back in Wrath where it would be these markers
35:12
that would be 3D projected and you could tell how close close
35:15
you were to something and it would be.
35:16
And based on programming now you'd be able to like get some
35:20
sort of auditory warning when you're close, when you're facing
35:22
something that that sort of thing.
35:24
And in and in that way, the programming that we have now
35:29
with the limitations that didn't exist back then, the game was
35:34
more accessible. But I don't think that is a fair
35:39
line to draw because the same people who created that would
35:43
use that to utterly trivialize so much of the game that they
35:50
would then design around it or lock it out, which they ended up
35:53
locking out. They would then design around it
35:56
so as not to design A game that would be trivial to somebody
36:01
with a certain set of abilities and therefore make it impossible
36:04
for somebody else. So like this sort of it becomes
36:08
impossible. So for a second of the audience
36:11
to play is always a battle back and forth between like the power
36:15
of the add-ons, whether for accessibility or just raw power
36:19
for other other means. And what do developers have to
36:23
do with that power in mind if they bring the baseline and the
36:31
highest potential closer together, that variance, right?
36:35
Because what basically they've been trying to do, they don't
36:39
need to design with so many hoops to jump.
36:43
It doesn't need to be that you get an ability and you need to
36:47
already have been pre spread. That means that the countdown
36:51
timer isn't as necessary. You could get an ability on you
36:56
and with some limited vision know that it's upon notice on
37:02
you because the graphics are basically unignorable to most to
37:08
most vision and then you have time to move away in a
37:13
reasonable time. Whereas if you had the the
37:17
custom timer and you had the thing that measured how far you
37:22
need to be, they'd have to be like, no, no, we need something
37:25
to force them to to collapse and they need to pre spread
37:28
immediately. As just an example off the top
37:31
of my head, again, I'm not a designer and everything, but
37:33
like what the game requires of us today is at a different level
37:38
than what the game required of us 5-10 years ago.
37:42
Because they keep having to. They feel, even if you don't
37:46
agree, that they have to escalate according to what tools
37:52
the community has embraced. That's that's fair.
37:56
And, and, and the other thing that I do want to just like
37:58
point out is that I'm speaking for a community I'm not a part
38:01
of. And I actually haven't heard
38:03
like since the big Undaunted post.
38:08
I don't know that I've I've heard specifically from people
38:11
who will be affected by this. So I'm kind of speaking vibes
38:14
based. And so I think for I don't know,
38:18
right, I actually haven't like I haven't read up on on what
38:21
people are are feeling right now about the loss of add-ons.
38:25
This is my able bodied view of what like how how it looks to
38:30
me. But it's possible that if I were
38:33
to be, you know, talking with folks in the blind community,
38:35
they would be like, no, actually like this.
38:38
Yeah, yeah. Like what you're describing,
38:39
Manny. Like if somebody was playing
38:42
World of Warcraft. Now, if they do, like, nobody's
38:44
playing, who wouldn't be able to see, like how we wouldn't have
38:49
some visual processing. I, I again, I genuinely do not
38:51
know. So I and, and one other thing
38:57
that I've, I've said a few times I think is I actually think I'm
39:03
going to have more fun with this system.
39:05
I'm concerned about how it's going to cut other people out.
39:08
But like realistically, yeah, I would rather that, you know,
39:10
there's more things that I'm learning and figuring out on my
39:13
own time and that we do have the ability to do these like blind
39:17
dunge or blind raids that are truly blind.
39:19
And it's just like, Oh yeah, like it's blind, but also DBMS
39:22
in your ear telling you to spread.
39:23
So how blind is it? Right.
39:24
Like that, that is actually really fun for me.
39:26
That's a fun way to play. And I'm, I'm excited to see how
39:28
that's going to, you know, challenge me as a raid leader.
39:32
The one other thing I do want to say, though, Sean brought this
39:36
up in a YouTube video that is on our page.
39:38
So go check it out. If you're wondering what I'm
39:39
talking about that the way that Ian is talking feels very
39:43
similar to shadow lands and the concept of like pulling the
39:45
ripcord. And that is something that I
39:47
think is, is resonating with me a lot with my like frustrations
39:52
with Blizzard right now is I think, and I, I, I said a few
39:55
times like, Oh, it's crazy that, you know, a year ago or that an
39:58
expansion ago, we were all so excited about what Blizzard was
40:01
doing and feeling. They were so responsive and, and
40:03
listening so much. And now all of a sudden we're,
40:06
you know, flipped. And then Sean and I are talking
40:09
about how frustrated we are with everything.
40:11
And I think one feeling I am getting is that Blizzard learned
40:19
the responsiveness was prized and they've kind of turned it
40:24
into the main way that they. Advantage, right?
40:29
Like there's a part of me that's like, man, if everyone is
40:33
telling you they want audio countdowns, why are we waiting?
40:37
And like, why are we like, Oh no, we're going to like put it
40:39
in and then we'll figure it out later if we really want it.
40:42
As I'm saying this out loud that the thread that I'm drawing is,
40:44
is, is less clear, but I think the, the, the core argument I am
40:48
feeling is like, I don't feel like we have to Guinea pig
40:54
everything. I feel like if the community is
40:56
saying very clearly that something matters to them,
40:58
telling me, oh, well, we'll look at it later.
41:00
Like, let's, let's try it as it is and we'll look at it later.
41:03
Doesn't necessarily feel great. Although I'm, I am also hearing
41:11
the hypocrisy of the times that I have said, like, I want them
41:13
to make firm decisions and not worry about what the people say.
41:17
So maybe it's just this is one thing that like I am among the
41:20
people saying it and I'm like, no, don't make a firm decision
41:22
here. Yeah, a lot of good points, a
41:24
lot of good points on both sides.
41:27
It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out.
41:30
I am curious. We're going to find out very
41:31
soon how it shakes out though, because they're also announced
41:35
when the beta launch that we'll be getting limited RAID testing
41:38
and some ethic plus testing as early as next week.
41:41
And we got our RAID schedule with the raid testing schedule
41:45
as always, or as has become the norm, we're not going to be
41:48
testing end bosses. And I want to get into the raid
41:50
schedule here in a second. But just before we do, and I'll
41:53
throw it to you, Manny, to to walk us through the raid testing
41:56
schedule so we can get some more information on this before we
42:00
do. I want to say a huge thank you
42:02
to all of our patrons, especially Mike Taco, our newest
42:06
patron for Azeroth will always be free.
42:08
But if you enjoy the content we produce, please consider
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pledging to our Patreon at patreon.com/FAZ.
42:14
Or if you're so inclined, you can leave a review on your
42:17
podcast listener of choice. And that helps Shogi's
42:20
discovered, gets get discovered, and keeps us on the air yapping.
42:25
So yeah, we have a raid testing coming up.
42:27
So we're going to get in like we're going to see implemented
42:31
Blizzards promise that raid fights will be designed with the
42:34
new restrictions in place. Can't wait for that.
42:36
And we're also going to see what life is like without add-ons,
42:39
without weak auras. And we can hopefully, if it's
42:42
turned on, it's not currently functional, but hopefully will
42:45
be. For raid testing.
42:46
We'll get to see combat warnings, the combat timeline,
42:49
and the damage meter, which keeps gaining new functionality
42:54
every build. Man, do you want to walk us
42:56
through the raid testing that's coming up?
42:58
Yeah, so looks like they're going to have a lot to show us.
43:02
This is Midnight Season 1 raids, which includes 3 different raids
43:06
if you recall. Starting on Wednesday, November
43:09
19th, we get Heroic, the Dream Rift, Avrazian, Vorazius, and
43:17
Saladar. Do you see now why I passed this
43:20
off to? You Oh, yeah, Yeah, because of
43:21
the names. Don't worry.
43:23
Saladar is is salad bar. I guess that's minor, more minor
43:27
spoilers, friends, but this, this is going to be a lot of
43:30
words. Salad.
43:31
Thursday, November 20th, we continue heroic testing.
43:35
We've got Belorin, child of Alar.
43:38
We've got Valigor and Ezerak. And if you have been on the
43:42
alpha for more than a minute, you have already seen these
43:45
guys. They are the void Dragons taking
43:49
flame to Silver Moon. So just look up, they're there,
43:52
they're names, you can see them already.
43:54
Then we have the Light Blinded Vanguard.
43:56
I'm not going to explain that because that's major spoilers.
43:59
Thursday, December 4th we start mythic testing.
44:04
Dream Rift will be opened as again and we have the same 3
44:08
bosses as the previous Thursday being tested again.
44:12
Then on Friday we have again Mythic testing for those same 3
44:18
bosses on Mythic difficulty. But in addition to that, Void
44:23
Spire Normal will be opened up starting on the Friday and
44:29
opened all the way through to the Monday, December 8th.
44:33
So a lot of testing, a lot of going through there.
44:36
These do not include end bosses for for some of these raids.
44:41
Obviously we've got a one rate, sorry, A1 boss raid that's
44:47
there. We've got the opening, the
44:50
opening raid of the Void Spire and then we have the March on
44:55
the Sun. Well, or yes, I'm, I'm not sure
44:59
of that name. It's the March on some some.
45:01
Queldenas it's thank you. Dream rift is the six boss raid,
45:05
Queldenas is the 2 boss raid which has no testing and then
45:09
the void Spire as you mentioned. Is that the single boss raid
45:11
that'll be open only in normal it looks like for that weekend.
45:13
I thought Void Spire was the first one with the raids.
45:18
The Dream Rift is the one boss and then March on Queldenas is
45:22
the final one. March on Culdenos is definitely
45:26
the two boss raid at the end. Yeah is No, you're right, you're
45:32
right. Boyd Spire is the six boss raid
45:34
and Dream Rift is just one raid. Yeah, just one boss.
45:37
And so, yeah, that testing is gonna be open again.
45:40
It's not just the bosses that we're excited to see.
45:43
It's the fulfillment of a lot of promises because it can only go
45:49
so far with the restrictions over the add-ons if they do not
45:53
do the work in the encounters to bridge that gap at this point.
45:57
So I'm excited, I'm excited for that.
46:00
I'm nervous for that. This, there's a lot riding.
46:03
This will be coming again mid November and going into December
46:08
as well. So it's and I correct that
46:10
there's a pretty chunky break there.
46:12
So because these days are only one day things, it's not like
46:14
the beta where the things that existed already roll over.
46:18
Yep, because US Thanksgiving is a thing and they do have that
46:20
break in the in between that week.
46:22
So yes, you are right to note that.
46:24
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you're like next week,
46:27
that's crazy. I can't do that.
46:28
Don't worry, babe. Just come.
46:29
Into that yeah, it's coming back around in mythic.
46:32
I want to talk about, you mentioned your nervous Manny.
46:34
I would like to just talk about some of the things that maybe
46:38
not necessarily you're nervous about, some of the things that
46:41
are not yet implemented in beta that are kind of mandatory for
46:45
rating. Yeah.
46:50
So just off the top of my head and maybe how should we do this?
46:54
Should I, why don't you tell me, is there anything that you could
46:56
think of that's currently not yet one of the beta that we
46:58
should have for rating? I start Manning or Lex, I don't
47:03
care who. I have a couple of things.
47:04
I don't want to just list these things.
47:08
I mean like RAID frames obviously.
47:10
Yeah, we need frames. RAID frames is a big one not yet
47:12
implemented. We do have data mining that the
47:15
icons are in the files, but the options of different layouts
47:20
doesn't exist yet and the RAID frames are still the old RAID
47:22
frames. So that's a big one that we
47:26
would like to see on for next week.
47:29
A transmog that's mandatory for writing.
47:32
I mean, if you look good, you play good, right?
47:34
That's got to be on there. You know what?
47:36
I'm going to throw out that if they are testing it, either we
47:42
need to be able to purchase the tier and then be immediately
47:47
jumped up to 90 when we get in there or we just need to be able
47:50
to be able to make level 90 pre made before we start this.
47:55
So that's one thing. One thing that I definitely want
47:58
to see, I haven't seen like on the alpha, we are able to like
48:01
go into the raid and then we go up to go up to 90.
48:05
So I'm assuming that is likely to be the case, But I would love
48:11
to have those 90s beforehand just so people can get a, a kind
48:14
of work working feel for their classes at 90 before we go in.
48:19
Beyond that, honestly, I, I, it's a lot of the things that
48:27
they've said that I need the fulfillment of.
48:31
I need interrupts to well, I guess it's not necessary for
48:36
rating, but we've got the, we do have coming in week two and
48:39
three of of it. We do have mythic plus coming
48:42
in, coming in. Like the changes for that.
48:46
Even in this bill, they've made some changes so that healers do
48:49
20% more damage. I'd like to see that a little
48:52
bit change because I don't think a 20% extra damage on a disc
48:57
priest is equal to a 20% more damage on some other classes,
49:01
right? Like Monk getting that 20% more
49:04
damage? Hell yeah.
49:07
But Holy getting 20% more damage, I don't know.
49:13
We've seen some very generic changes where they've taken out
49:18
the aura changes that they've had.
49:22
So you're looking at, if you are looking at the patch notes and
49:25
you see your class getting like a 2% overall damage decrease or
49:29
a 5 or 8% overall damage swap, it's just because they are
49:34
flattening out an aura. You had some weird aura that was
49:37
like either decreasing or increasing your damage under the
49:40
hood by 8% and they're like, let's just flatten that out and
49:44
start fresh. So just calm down guys,
49:49
Enhancement shaman, you're not like 2% nerfed.
49:51
You're probably about the same, right?
49:53
I think death Knights was one that got like 8% or something.
49:56
One of the one of the specs, I think it was frost.
49:58
It's it's not to like take frost Outback and shoot it.
50:01
Don't worry, you're good. And then I'm hoping I'm hoping
50:07
that the picking up threat at the beginning and that being an
50:12
easier smoothing for for tanks is working as intended because
50:18
you just have less buttons, less function to like make up for
50:22
those sort of things. So this is like I'm looking for
50:25
the fulfillment of a lot of things that they said were were
50:28
coming. But in terms of add-ons testing
50:31
arrayed, the logs are still there.
50:33
So even if I don't have like the direct damage meters in there, I
50:39
don't need the I don't need the damage meters.
50:42
I can grab logs and be fine for like getting information as I so
50:46
as I so need to peruse through that.
50:51
We've already talked about rate frames.
50:52
I think that that's a big one. I'm hoping that the cooldown
50:58
manager in terms of externals is there because I feel like that
51:02
is just something that like in terms of coordinating,
51:06
especially if these are groups that aren't like set teams, like
51:11
the, of course, those guys who erased the world first, they're
51:14
going to know to do all the call outs and they're going to be
51:16
listening for that and they're not going to be done.
51:18
Me stupid me like I might. Actually, yeah, I actually think
51:23
we all collectively misunderstood what Blizzard said
51:27
when we thought they were giving us what we asked for.
51:30
So they took away everybody, our ability to see everybody's, you
51:33
know, cooldowns and stuff and healers and DPS and Ray and
51:38
tanks as a unit were like, listen, it would be really good
51:41
if we could at the very least see when somebody has defensives
51:45
available or at at, you know, defensives available, pie in the
51:49
sky, but at the very least externals that they can assign
51:51
to somebody. And then the next, you know,
51:53
within the next week or two, Blizzard came back and today we
51:55
thought about it. We're going to let you guys
51:57
track external defensives. And we all thought that meant
52:00
they're going to let us see when Paint's up is available.
52:04
But the implementation in the game is just that, they're.
52:06
Going to show you on you. When you have paints up on you,
52:09
yeah. So we all collectively were
52:12
like, oh, they listened and they're doing this.
52:14
They were like, sorry now. I'm gonna give you and Lex the
52:17
the I don't just. Mean one. 100% but like, but,
52:20
but like, I know you're talking about community wise, but like
52:23
literally you and Lex when we were talking last week and I was
52:27
just like, Oh yeah. So your personal cooldowns are
52:30
now visible. And so like, that would mean
52:33
that he, Kelly can run. And you guys were both like, no
52:36
Manny, no Manny shaking your your heads because the cooldowns
52:40
are still a hidden value. And that means that you cannot
52:45
know for sure if something is getting cooldown reduction or
52:48
comes back up, that sort of thing.
52:50
And it has to be tracked with the internal cooldown manager.
52:53
But that's exactly the kind of thing where it's like, hey, I
52:56
sent paints up. Is it going to be available in 2
52:59
minutes? And because you like, even if
53:02
you know your paints up is available, no add on can talk to
53:06
each other in combat. Those channels are shut down
53:09
when you're in the middle of an instance or when you're in the
53:11
middle of an encounter. So you can't send Hey my pain
53:14
Subs back up. You can't send.
53:16
Blizzard. Blizzard can build it in to tell
53:18
us. That's what I thought to do.
53:19
And so like that's, that's that's what we're saying.
53:21
Like we thought it was there, but you guys said no, no, no,
53:23
you cannot do that. Last week, can I?
53:26
No, we're talking about two different things.
53:28
Can I, can I reveal myself as an, as a surprisingly different
53:30
style of idiot? When we were talking about like
53:33
you can track external defensives.
53:35
I did understand that it was like defensives, you, you can
53:38
track them now. I, I did understand that they
53:40
just meant that you were gonna like, it was gonna be presented.
53:42
And I was like, I'm really surprised you guys were so
53:44
excited about that. I thought like, obviously it's
53:47
gonna show you and I'll pops up. So I didn't, I didn't understand
53:51
what you guys wanted them to. Do yeah.
53:53
But I, I will say when I was raiding at when I was pushing
54:03
harder in raids and I had a really great raid lead, not to
54:08
say that my raid lead is not really great.
54:10
They pushed us through mythic and so they are definitely able
54:12
to do it. It's just that in this this last
54:15
year schedules everything, they were like, no, no, we're only
54:17
doing heroic. But having a raid leader or that
54:21
21st person who was doing those call outs and and saying like,
54:26
hey, Lex, you're sending your cooldown for the next one, blah,
54:31
blah, blah, you're on plate. That kind of raid calls that is
54:34
now automated. I do kind of miss that.
54:39
And I don't think that as long as it's not coming in such a
54:43
flurry again, that information overload, right, to have that
54:46
come back will distinguish skill even in and especially in guilds
54:57
with different abilities. Because when you if you've seen
54:59
Undaunted raid, because we did, I've done race world first
55:03
coverage where we were doing it with the Dojo when we were
55:06
looking at less represented guilt.
55:08
And one of those guilds was Undaunted and seeing them do the
55:11
calls, the calls and they all have on their screen just like a
55:15
little picture in picture. And there's the raid leader and
55:17
they are signing and they are doing different things to do
55:20
these call outs because they can't rely so much upon other
55:25
other things, right. But even at A at home level,
55:31
having your raid leader be like Sean, use your defensive
55:36
everybody popular, popular defenses for this one.
55:40
For the next one, we're using healing tide or spirit loop or
55:45
whatever, right? Hey, we're all going to be
55:48
sneered. Let's get your roar from druid
55:51
#4 shaman #3 you're going to use your wind rush totem on the next
55:58
one. That kind of coordination used
56:02
to be far more commonplace. It is more automated at the top
56:06
end and just less present in general at the lower.
56:11
End frack those pugs, they shouldn't get to raid anyway and
56:19
I do want to know what. They do with fractose.
56:22
Yeah. Well, that won't, that doesn't
56:23
get cut. Frack is good.
56:24
Oh yeah, Fractose. Yeah.
56:26
I do want to say one thing that we haven't mentioned that is
56:28
missing that we can't do yet that I think next to raid frames
56:31
is the next most mandatory item that needs to be implemented and
56:35
I'm terrified it won't because they're not even talking about
56:37
it some way to track debuffs right now, the only way to know
56:41
if you have a debuff on you is to look next to your mini map
56:44
where all of your other debuffs are and all of your buffs are
56:46
moved back. If you have but then but Manny
56:50
it it, there's no way to filter it so it tracks time warp it
56:53
tracks. If you're a dead knight and you
56:54
used purgatory, it tracks all of those things like it's it is a
56:58
terrible, terrible, terrible way to track debuffs.
57:01
That needs to be the cool down manager has a buff tracker.
57:05
Just add another row for debuffs.
57:08
OK so here's here's the thing. Add the row for debuffs right?
57:13
So I can track my important personal debuffs right?
57:19
And then on the debuff things allow me to filter it so it is
57:23
only externals. I do not want a duplication,
57:28
right? And I want the ability to just
57:29
be like in PvP. These are the debuffs that I
57:32
have on me from everybody else. I don't care about my own ones
57:35
because I'm tracking that in in the cooldown manager, right?
57:38
I want just a single bar, even if it's a separate debuff
57:43
tracker that is just, or a toggle where I go.
57:47
I only want external debuffs to be tracked.
57:50
I do not care about about my internal ones because I will
57:55
track that separately. I, I think that is another issue
57:58
just that's kind of inherent to the ethos that Blizzard was
58:01
giving us, because I'm sitting here trying to think of even how
58:03
they would give you what you're looking for, Sean and like.
58:07
It's not possible. Right, because they they
58:09
wouldn't. It would have to list every
58:12
possible debuff from every mob in the game, right?
58:15
Exactly. Because if they're telling you
58:17
they don't want, they don't want it to be possible for these
58:19
things to make decisions for you.
58:22
I mean, I guess they could, they could do what they love to do,
58:24
which is the like, important and less important, which is a bad
58:29
system. And like, and if I don't have
58:32
granularity control over that, I, I, I frequently disagree with
58:35
the DBM makers of what's important and what's not.
58:39
And so I, I, I simply do not think I'm going to agree with
58:42
Blizzard more. So I, I, I, I, I think what I
58:47
was when I was thinking of this, I think the thing they could
58:48
probably do the closest to what you're looking for would be to
58:52
give you the opportunity to turn, like to go in and manually
58:56
turn off. Like you can do a debuff tracker
58:59
and then like remove time warp and remove like your internal
59:04
debuff. So I I can see that being
59:08
possible, but you'd have to do that for every single boss by
59:11
hand. Or just have two debuff
59:14
trackers. 1 debuff tracker is debuffs that are instituted by
59:17
players and items and the other one is debuffs that are applied
59:21
by enemies. And then the debuffs applied by
59:23
enemies you put down next to your unit frame.
59:25
So you can see if you have a debuff on you from a boss or
59:27
from a mob or a bleed or a poison or whatever and then
59:30
leave the player initiated debuffs.
59:32
Your time warp, your forbearance up by the mini map because
59:37
they're fine there. That would be the the way to do
59:40
it. You need you.
59:41
They're going to need to differentiate debuffs from
59:43
enemies versus debuffs generated by players.
59:47
And there's no, they're not even talking about it.
59:49
So the only way you're going to have to know if you have a
59:51
debuff is by hoping that whatever they put on your
59:55
character in the middle of your screen, you can see.
59:57
I hope. Just don't be a melee, I guess.
59:59
Don't be a melee player. I can't see them now.
1:00:03
And I have air horns that go off when I get them.
1:00:04
I still, still don't know when I have stuff on me.
1:00:06
You know what I mean? Like.
1:00:08
Yeah, yeah. So like more visible debuffs,
1:00:12
including full screen effects that something that they've
1:00:16
said, right, if it is important that they want you to know about
1:00:20
it, that they want you to deal with it, having a full screen
1:00:23
effect is a damn good way of doing it.
1:00:27
If they want you to know that you need to spread out from
1:00:32
everybody else that that big circle around you, right is a
1:00:36
good one. But I also would like, I think
1:00:38
that's something that that that players have said in in the
1:00:43
discord that I think that they should do is further clarify
1:00:48
spell effects in in the game. I do love how you can tell what
1:00:54
a meteor is right, what to soak in, what to, to avoid what is
1:00:59
going to push you one way or or another, like forced movement in
1:01:03
Final Fantasy 14. It doesn't need to be exactly
1:01:04
like that. Final Fantasy 14.
1:01:06
Every boss looks like you're in a disco floor and not actually
1:01:08
like fighting some mythological creature.
1:01:11
I think there is some there is some immersion breaking that's
1:01:15
happening there. And I, I think that Blizzard has
1:01:19
always said that gameplay is king, that gameplay matters.
1:01:26
And so if I've got to choose between a little immersion break
1:01:29
so that a mechanic is clear and less frustrating, I'm going to
1:01:33
go that way. And so I'd like that.
1:01:36
That said, again, if a debuff is on me and I need to react to it
1:01:41
without like DBM or weak orders or whatever screaming at me 5
1:01:47
minutes before I enter a fight, that I need to watch out for
1:01:50
this. Also being able to have a little
1:01:52
bit of grace to react to it is another part on it.
1:01:56
And that's part of the design that they need to put into into
1:02:00
this. And that's not something that is
1:02:02
going to be just with the the raids that we're testing coming
1:02:06
up in these upcoming weeks, but also going forward.
1:02:11
Because once you do it, you have to keep doing it.
1:02:14
You screw it up in Tier 2 of this expansion or Tier 2 and
1:02:19
five expansions from now. You've made this problem for
1:02:21
yourself, Blizzard, it's on you, right?
1:02:24
And so as much forgiveness or benefit of the doubt, I'm
1:02:28
willing to extend the Blizzard in terms of moving in this
1:02:32
direction. You've put the workload on
1:02:35
yourself. You need to hit it every time
1:02:38
going forward now because you've removed other people's ability
1:02:42
to compensate for your mistakes. We know it can be done.
1:02:47
Dementias is a fantastic fight that requires no weak or like
1:02:50
mythic Dementias, you require no weak gores for it.
1:02:53
Everything is visually clear to understand.
1:02:55
Even though the majority of the mechanics are purple on purple,
1:02:58
it's still very easy to see what is what, where goes where, with
1:03:01
the exception of Gravity's and you're overlapping devourers and
1:03:04
you make those puddles that's even still playable so you can
1:03:07
do it. I don't understand why we live
1:03:09
in a world where you show us that you can do that and then
1:03:11
you still give us Fractus. That is infuriating to me.
1:03:14
It's like, no, I totally get it. It's like your kid coming home
1:03:17
early instead of rate, you know, two hours past their their
1:03:19
curfew. It's like, no, we can do that.
1:03:21
No, no, no. What what it is is that they're
1:03:24
like, oh, I really want to do this.
1:03:25
Like you can't do that anymore. They're like, just give me one
1:03:27
boss. I just want to screw with those
1:03:29
weak or kids one more time and they're like, all right, fine,
1:03:31
you can do Fractalis. And that's what we got friends.
1:03:34
That's what we got. We'll see we're.
1:03:37
Going to find out next week. That's the exciting part.
1:03:39
We're going to find out next week.
1:03:40
Raid testing is next week. Get in there, jump on the beta,
1:03:43
there'll be lots of groups going in.
1:03:44
LFG if you want to get in, there'll be lots of pre made
1:03:46
groups. Actually get in there and have a
1:03:48
look and see if Blizzard does all of the things that they've
1:03:51
told us they're going to do. I'm excited to find out.
1:03:54
I can't wait. Do try to go in with an open
1:03:56
mind. Don't go in expecting them not
1:03:57
to hit the mark, because they won't if you expect that.
1:04:00
So try to go in with an open mind, and then when they don't
1:04:03
hit the mark, then you can be upset.
1:04:07
Yeah. Or be pleasantly surprised when
1:04:09
everything everything was good. Yep.
1:04:12
But with that said, we've been talking for an hour and her
1:04:15
skill is still a thing. So until next time, may all your
1:04:18
hits be crits.