Latest / For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast / #251 - For Azeroth!: "The Vaults of the Forbidden Reach"

Transcript

#251 - For Azeroth!: "The Vaults of the Forbidden Reach" · For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast

0:00
A new 10, .07 patch arrives on the PTR which looks to change
0:05
Paladin's in a major way and we take a deeper look at the ABK
0:09
quarterly report and read between the lines this week on
0:13
for Azeroth. For the alliance for Azeroth.
0:36
Welcome back to for Azeroth. My name is Olivia and I am one
0:40
of your posts and joining me, as always is the wonderful villain
0:46
himself Manny. Manny, how are you doing?
0:49
How was the World of Warcraft and treating you?
0:51
Well, you know, I'm tired of being a villain.
0:54
Not going to change the name or anything that stays this.
0:57
I, I have been having conversations with different
1:00
World of Warcraft, like creators.
1:03
And with the various people that like, Play with and just
1:07
different conversations. And there is this entire thing
1:10
about like we didn't get enough is that really the feeling or
1:16
people feeling that like with everything that's happening with
1:18
dragon fight it just feels like it's not enough and I kind of
1:24
you know like you asked me if I had something to talk about
1:28
before the show that moved into a relevant topic and I was like
1:31
man how we could just go into news and then you ask me the
1:34
question and this comes up Up. So I'm sorry, I'm blindsiding
1:37
you here but like have you been enjoying dragonflight?
1:42
Oh absolutely. Yeah.
1:44
So you're still engaged I'm about as engaged as you can be
1:49
at this point like we've been in it for months now, right.
1:53
We've been at this span ssion for a while.
1:55
We're well deep into the season. We already have a patch under
1:59
our belts and there's another patch soon on the horizon and
2:04
soon after that, we know from The the roadmap that the devs
2:08
laid out for us that the next step towards 10-point ones.
2:13
Okay, so you're getting these patches and they're coming based
2:17
on what you're saying, they're coming quickly enough.
2:19
Mmm. But are they keeping you engaged
2:21
like ten point 0.5? For me was a few days.
2:26
Maybe a week Ashish of hitting that Trading Post and I'm glad
2:30
that come the start of the next month and we're in March it'll
2:34
be more stuff to get. It's A flash in the pan.
2:37
I don't think ten point 0.5. Really gave me anything to sink
2:41
my teeth into. Yeah let's call it bite-sized
2:45
content because it's coming fast but it's not it's not quite a
2:49
mouthful, I just feel like. Yeah it's like a handful of
2:52
popcorn so I got to ask you, ten point 0.5, excluding The Trading
2:58
Post. What else did you engage in from
3:00
that? Patch?
3:02
From the patch. I did the open-world content in
3:05
the first couple. Days.
3:06
And that, you know, it's pretty much a flash in the pan, but
3:09
that being said, I still have all the goals of season one that
3:13
I have that I'm working on. So a OTC is a goal that I always
3:17
have every season come rain or shine and still haven't gotten
3:21
that yet. I'm also for the first time
3:23
actually going for Keystone Master getting that achievement
3:26
done in so far that I've actually like been doing keys on
3:30
my own outside of when my guild mates and my other friends are
3:33
on, I still am engaged in this. Season.
3:36
Even if what was brought to us in ten point 0.5 was just a
3:40
bite-sized little morsel. I'm still I'm still engaged in
3:43
the season so I got to ask you about ten point 0.1 or 10.0
3:48
point to stuff, was the release candidate.
3:50
So, your Renown levels, getting that story out of there.
3:54
Have you hit all the stories at the high levels of renown?
3:58
So 19 of the Makar you get a little bit of story.
4:02
There's two story events in the dragon scale, so on, So on, have
4:06
you hid it all of those? Have you gone through those?
4:09
I have not. Not all of them, averaged out.
4:12
What's your renowned averaged out.
4:14
Probably like 17, 18 came around there.
4:19
So like I'm almost there and have you being like, jonesing
4:23
pushing towards getting it or has just been like incidental to
4:27
your play, you've been getting more renowned, instant at all,
4:30
to the play. I've been getting her now.
4:32
Like, most of my time has been spent going and engaging with
4:35
the profession system like mostly doing a lot of gathering
4:38
but I'm getting on like doing downtime activities.
4:41
It's mostly just like flying around getting Mining and
4:44
herbalism nodes and that's basically what I do so that I
4:48
have something that I can put up on the auction house and
4:50
generate gold to fuel my rating stuff.
4:53
So yeah, that's like the bulk of my time is just like gold
4:57
generating, which there isn't much gold generating in the
5:01
world content itself. Like there is a little bit of
5:03
passive gold that you can make just from you know going around
5:05
and Link stuff and doing the world question and engaging with
5:09
that, but where I'm finding the most fun in the season is in
5:13
doing the rating and doing the Mythic plus.
5:15
So outside of that like I don't really feel too much of a push
5:19
to do both quests and to really push renowned as much as I can
5:25
because I know that that's going to be something that I just get
5:28
naturally through playing the game over time.
5:31
Okay, well, I'm gonna swing back around to right now.
5:32
But the reason I asked you these questions and the reason I would
5:35
Would actually put these questions to the audience is now
5:39
that we've got all this stuff that we can skip or we just
5:42
skipping it all like we got so tired.
5:45
We got so tired of that Daily Grind of.
5:47
I gotta log in and do my world quest to get my calling done.
5:51
Do you guys? And I'm gonna put this question
5:54
back to you. Do you guys find?
5:56
Like I'm finding that I have a quote unquote Tuesday Rush where
6:00
I log in and I gotta do the weekly so that I can get the
6:04
reward. So this week we'll talk.
6:06
Out at later. But like, you know, it'll be
6:08
time walking like it is this week or it'll be the do five
6:13
World quest, plus get enough, renowned to get a bonus for
6:17
that. And also along with that, all
6:19
the weekly, here's what helps your professions here's Quest
6:23
that open up in the dragon Isles.
6:25
So to say, I feel like I do a Lion's Share of my stuff and, of
6:28
course, I could spread it out, there's nothing to stop me from
6:31
being like, I'm going to do a little bit here, a little bit
6:33
there, but I just slam through it, get it.
6:35
On Tuesday. And then the rest of the week
6:38
seems kind of listless, kind of seems kind of aimless.
6:42
I know that the world quest, reset twice a week, so you'll
6:47
get your first on Tuesday, then Friday evening.
6:51
It's when some new world quest come up, but generally I've
6:54
haven't been doing World quest much like you haven't been
6:57
doing, they'll be ones where all sort of look at, it'll be like
7:00
I, you know, that's a good chunk of gold or that one, there gives
7:04
like a hefty amount of renown. So I'll all cherry pick those
7:09
mmm. And I have been getting my
7:13
renowned up, I'm now mid-20s on a lot of them.
7:17
Which means some of them are like basically at cap.
7:19
I think the dragon scale stops at 25 and I've hid them in a
7:24
now, I'm getting Paragon but some of them are like right at
7:27
30 like tuskar. Which I'm trying to which I'm
7:29
now trying to get because hey, there's mounts there.
7:32
Mmm. But is it keeping me engaged and
7:35
for Me, I think that if I wasn't going hard at like now trying to
7:40
get Mythic plus and get that complete because I want to try
7:42
and get to the 20s and the higher stuff and so I'm doing 16
7:47
or less. So I can get my consecrated
7:50
Primal infusions and then be able to upgrade my gear.
7:54
I haven't been engaging with the professions in terms of
7:59
crafting, like yes Gathering, but I will say, and I really do
8:03
want to speak with bacon again. Mmm Gathering does not make the
8:08
money. It was making at the beginning
8:10
of the expansion of prices have definitely plummeted.
8:13
So I need a new gold making kick especially on those like rare
8:18
materials like the Titan orbs once they increase the drop rate
8:21
on that. A lot of the other materials
8:23
followed suit and plummeted and price because people were able
8:27
to craft more of the things that you were using those rare
8:31
materials. And because of that, all of the
8:34
materials just seem to Be less valuable there seems to be in my
8:39
personal experience, a little bit of dissonance between what I
8:42
was expecting out of my day to day, play in the World of
8:45
Warcraft. And what I actually see is
8:48
happening, but that's not to say that I'm still not engaged.
8:51
I'm just engaged in a different way than I thought I was going
8:53
to be. Well, I mean it is something
8:55
that I had asked questions about back when this was in Alpha and
8:59
beta. Was what's going to be that day
9:02
to day and play? What's going to keep me logged?
9:05
In. And I think it is nice that I
9:08
can step away, except for this period of time when I'm trying
9:11
to get my love rocket and so am logging in every day.
9:15
Mmm, it's who make those attempts?
9:18
I have been making attempts with all of my faults.
9:22
I don't care. That just the first one has the
9:24
bonus, but that's because I really want to get this Mount
9:28
and would be overjoyed. I've seen so many people get
9:30
them out. The real question is, does your
9:32
Nemesis habit already know? Okay.
9:36
But once that's over, I'm thinking about like generally
9:39
what I want to do with like my day-to-day and wow, you don't
9:45
need to engage every day but I think that it would be nice to
9:48
have something. Regardless, I genuinely think
9:53
10-point 0.7 is going to give a little bit more than ten point
9:58
0.5 gave and that's going to be our first story of the day.
10:02
So, this week link, see, was back on the forums and put
10:05
forward. TR notes for the most recent
10:07
build, one thing that is now available for testing, is that
10:12
the Forbidden reach is available for testing.
10:14
And if you guys remember back to episode 2 49, when I gave my
10:19
initial Impressions I said that there was no Quest that was
10:22
going out there, it was pretty much just desolate.
10:25
And yeah, that's because apparently, there wasn't really
10:28
anything outside of the vaults for testing.
10:31
So now that is open, we are probably not.
10:35
Not going to be covering story spoilers, but there are story
10:39
elements that are now being data mind that are going through.
10:43
And this is the patch that is going to based on their own
10:47
words. Show us where we will be going
10:49
in. 10.0 point one and I already have my theories and I'm really
10:53
looking forward to having a another conversation about that.
10:57
So if you're interested in having a conversation about
10:59
that, let us know because we'd love to get back Discord and
11:03
Kitty and impervium and sit down.
11:05
And talk a little bit more, have another bit of that compendium
11:09
episode and guess at where we're going next.
11:13
With that said, I did say that the vaults were the only thing
11:16
open for testing. And one thing we did say, in
11:19
249, when I gave my initial Impressions, was that each day,
11:23
those faults were being reset, so that you would go back in and
11:27
you would be able to open up new doors and everything that was
11:31
only specifically for testing. They are actually supposed to be
11:35
Tended to be a weekly reset and I think this is again like we
11:40
talked about at the top of the show, something that allows you
11:43
to do things over the course of the week without feeling like
11:47
you need to be in every day. And if I'm not doing everything
11:51
on Tuesday, this is something that I think will work assuming
11:56
that I don't. Otherwise, don't need those
11:59
primordial gems that come out of there and the ring, but like we
12:03
said, in our last episode, that ring, He's going to have those
12:07
three gems that you're going to put in, you're going to try and
12:09
get your combination of gems to then upgrade.
12:13
So it's going to have long legs on in the vault alone.
12:16
I'm just really looking for a small patch that just adding
12:19
story because I think that's really what I was hoping for
12:22
from these small, patches was just a little bit of story or a
12:26
fun exercise to go through. And I think the trading post was
12:30
good in the long run as a recurring thing.
12:33
That's going to be there every month, but may not.
12:35
Not have been really enough for to hold up a patch on itself.
12:40
Yeah, I hate to compare it to the selfie cam.
12:45
It's better than the selfie case.
12:46
Much better than this actually came up in my head.
12:49
It's recently came up in my head and I like, is this, what you're
12:53
bringing forward? Yeah, I mean, there was a little
12:56
bit of open world content that was brought in with the patch,
12:58
but it was just that one little area in val drossos.
13:02
That was where the only primordial future.
13:04
Yeah. But it was Just more of the
13:06
patients that have been happening since earlier on in
13:09
the expansion. So really, yes, it was new
13:12
content but it was more just the same enemies just in a different
13:15
area and with slightly different mechanics added, but overall
13:19
still had the same Vibe, the same feel.
13:21
So I didn't really feel too much like you were doing anything
13:24
radically different. It almost feels like an NPC
13:27
Battleground if I had to, like, quickly sum it up.
13:29
Yeah. But regardless 10-point 0.7 is
13:32
getting more content. One of those.
13:35
Pieces is going to be winter, felt full bork's, they're going
13:39
to have their own reputation. /Language grind, where you are
13:44
going to be learning to actually communicate with them /, get on
13:47
more friendly terms. So if you have played through
13:51
the Sojourner of the Azure span, or just done a couple of those
13:56
sidequest, you've come across the one.
13:59
Dwarf you, give those random responses and then you go and
14:03
help these guys against the Primal list.
14:05
Now it's going a little bit further and you can fully
14:08
understand their language. I think that's going to be a
14:12
great little side thing. And I'm definitely going to do
14:14
it. I'm really hoping that there is
14:17
some more history even if it's not directly connected with the
14:22
story. In fact, I think I would prefer
14:24
it if it's not directly connected with the Primal lists
14:27
and that sort of thing, it would be great because they are
14:30
species that has existed while the dragon Isles were secluded
14:34
off by themselves. Abs, if we got some of that
14:36
history of these lost years that said it's going to be a nice
14:41
little grind to go through something that you can do on
14:44
your days off when you are not working on your Gathering or
14:49
doing the raid or your push to Keystone master or Beyond.
14:53
Absolutely. And one of the big things that's
14:56
going to be helping you with those pushes are going to be
14:59
some of the class changes that we've seen in 10-point 0.7.
15:03
And so that includes Unholy death knight receiving.
15:06
Several changes with the file getting a lot of love havoc and
15:11
Vengeance. Demon Hunters.
15:12
Receiving some Buffs, including huge Buffs to have explained
15:16
Fury Talent fodder to the flame. Not only spawning closer to the
15:20
Demon Hunter, but also having reduce Health, in the case of
15:24
vengeance. You can get that buff that much
15:26
quicker mistweaver. Monks, receiving a bunch of bug
15:30
fixes and quality of life improvements Windwalker.
15:33
Monks the DPS version, receiving some improvements, to talents to
15:38
increase their single Target built, and allowing them to
15:41
specialize in that damage profile.
15:45
And the big headline of this is Paladin's, the previously
15:49
reported tiled and changes are starting to show up in the patch
15:52
notes. They are not all of the Changes
15:55
as they have said, in a separate thread from patch notes at
15:58
length. She put up, but there are over
16:00
100 line Point items that include reworked adjusted or
16:07
entirely new talents and abilities.
16:09
This is a major overhaul and I am so glad that they didn't wait
16:14
to 10 .1 or worse. Yet, the next expansion to make
16:19
these changes, this is going to be huge for Paladin's and
16:23
Generals but especially retribution.
16:24
You should paladins. Mmm along.
16:27
Those lines were locks have received significant changes
16:30
especially to their core talent tree, the class talent tree and
16:35
they're getting some reworked abilities, buff spells and new
16:38
talents on their own, which is exciting because I was playing a
16:43
warlock and put it aside because I wasn't happy with my
16:46
performance and roughly where it was.
16:48
I'm looking forward to this. My warlock still, you know, dust
16:51
off that foul every so often and play it during the week.
16:54
Eek the shamans and Priests, or also seeing bug fixes some minor
17:01
improvements. And there are few other classes
17:03
that are seeing some changes. Well, make sure you do.
17:07
Check out patch notes, that links you put in there's a lot
17:10
in there, we thought it linked in the show notes.
17:13
Beyond that. We're seeing some cool little
17:16
quality of life changes for everybody.
17:18
The file fumigators mask can now be transmog.
17:22
It's still just a cloth item and people are hoping that it
17:25
changes into a cosmetic item, but it is a unique item that was
17:29
popularized back in Wrath of the Lich King, where they have those
17:33
entire gas mask setups, and it would be very cool for people
17:38
who are doing that Undead setup or just want to have that
17:41
plague, which sort of setup. That have this transmog
17:45
available to them. And the last thing that has sort
17:48
of been flying under the radar, is a new feature that they're
17:51
putting in with 10.0 .7. And that is a real time chat.
17:56
Moderation. So this allows you to moderate
18:00
Whispers that contain harassing chat sent from a player that
18:04
you're not friends with being automatically hidden, you can
18:09
then have it set up so that the recipient will receive Receive a
18:13
warning that they've received a whisper with disruptive content
18:18
and then opt to see it if you decide that you want to see it.
18:22
Anyways, if the whisper is revealed you can then still
18:26
report it even though you opted to actually see this.
18:30
So if you're worried that lizard is being Big Brother here, you
18:33
can always just say turn this off or you can say let me see it
18:37
anyways. And then if you decide at that
18:40
point that yes, this has crossed the line for you.
18:43
Can then go about the normal procedure of reporting it or
18:48
blocking. Otherwise they have added a tag
18:51
in the chat typing bar to tell players what language they are
18:56
typing in. If they are not typing in common
19:00
or orcish, this is kind of nice because sometimes especially on
19:06
my Demon Hunter you won't speak in the common language of your
19:10
faction because with by Demon Hunter, if By speak Elvish.
19:15
I could speak to demon Hunters on the other side or I could
19:17
speak to avoid Elf on the other side of the faction line.
19:20
And it has actually helped me in periods of time.
19:23
I think warlocks can speak demonic and also break faction
19:27
lines like that or you can go out and buy the potion that
19:30
allows you to understand the language of the enemy faction if
19:34
you so choose. Yeah.
19:36
Nice little additional function put in.
19:38
Is there anything that was in here that you thought was kind
19:40
of cool? I mean just to add to the
19:42
typing. Filter that shows you what
19:44
language that is something that the are P Community has been
19:48
asking for for a very long time. So, I'm very glad to see that
19:51
it's being added into the game, but thinking about it.
19:55
Like that adds a lot of different layers to role-playing
19:58
features in the future being added in that.
20:01
You can have different quest lines or different reputations
20:04
that you do, then that language would then be added to your
20:08
characters like available languages and then now you can
20:11
communicate in dwarvish. With anyone who can communicate
20:14
your vision? I think stuff like that has a
20:16
lot of cool potential in World building in general and is
20:20
something that it just excites me a whole lot because just
20:23
having these like very specific things that they're not game
20:26
breaking. They're not anything that's
20:28
going to change the world but it's just something fun that if
20:31
you know you have it you can use it and it just adds some extra
20:35
flavor. So that's super exciting.
20:37
I'm glad that the RPG community and everybody who wants to use.
20:40
That is getting some love but Not the only love that we're
20:44
getting on Valentine's Day. Blizzard put out the share, the
20:47
love bundle. And do you want to tell us about
20:50
this? Yes.
20:51
So they released a pack that has every single pet in the store in
20:56
a bundle for a discounted price. So if you don't have any of the
21:01
pets, currently on your account, when you sign in, to the shop to
21:06
purchase this bundle, the whole bundle total will cost sixty
21:10
eight dollars. And ninety nine cents USB which
21:11
is a third of Of the price from buying every single, one of the
21:15
pets individually and there are 21 pets in total, and of course,
21:19
if you already own some of these pets, it will take that into
21:23
account. So make sure if you're
21:25
interested in getting this bundle, make sure that you're
21:27
signing in on the account, you already have some of these pets
21:29
on. If you do have them and it'll
21:31
automatically knock off a little bit of cash from the total
21:35
bundle price for you. For however many pets that you
21:37
have, it'll be available until February 27th.
21:41
So you have a little bit of time If you are interested in it.
21:45
Well at this time I would like to thank everyone.
21:48
Who is born in the show over at iTunes or the bonus role
21:52
production directory that's leaving five star reviews this
21:56
week. We would like to thank a jatis,
21:59
a cheetah's Edge. Atis is it's my interpretation
22:05
so would you date? Is I apologize for butchering?
22:07
Your name? And maybe jumping on the
22:10
incorrect pronunciation, but thank you.
22:13
You for your five star reviews and despite a horrible
22:16
pronunciation. You have said that this show is
22:18
frankly the best, the best, wow, podcast out there.
22:22
And I really do appreciate those strong endorsement.
22:25
So if you guys would like to support the show, please leave
22:29
us a five star review. Again, either on the bonus role
22:32
production, directory, or over on iTunes and we will give you a
22:36
shout out and read out your review.
22:38
Thanks Janice, thank you. We do have some more news too.
22:43
Into though this week in the World of Warcraft, it is time
22:47
walking week yet again, and this time around, we are going into
22:51
the burning Crusade again. So of course, as with every time
22:54
walking week, we do have the Quest available to pick up to
22:58
complete, five time, walking dungeons to get a cache of Vault
23:03
Treasures, which contains one piece of unfortunately, if you
23:07
are still looking for Tier gear, you're not going to be able to
23:09
get your tear out of this little cash.
23:11
And also since it It is burning Crusade.
23:14
We have access to the black Temple which this is available
23:18
for pre-made groups, anywhere from 10 to 30 players, all of
23:22
the bosses in the black Temple will be dropping 389 gear, which
23:26
is the same item level as the first four bosses of both the
23:30
Incarnate. So that base item level out of
23:34
the normal raid is what will be available in the black Temple
23:38
time walking version. You'll also get bonus.
23:40
Rep with all of the burning Crusade factions.
23:43
Completing quests and any kills that would award reputation if
23:47
you're wanting to go for those, either the tabards or for
23:51
faction titles and whatnot. Now is a good time to go do that
23:54
for burning Crusade. And then the next two weeks are
23:58
the arena, Skirmish followed by the pet battle weeklies.
24:02
So this is going to be pretty much your last chance to get
24:05
that high item level gear for the next couple of weeks from
24:09
the weekly Quest so get it while you can after that.
24:13
That week then we go back into time walking and we'll have
24:16
wrath time walking, but yeah, we're going to be in a drought
24:19
for a while. Remember guys, even though
24:21
you're not getting tear from the time walking dungeons.
24:24
If you get something that is in a analogous, lat you could use
24:28
the Catalyst and convert it into tier, mmm.
24:31
Also, if you're if normal is good for you remember, there's
24:37
different itemization that existed in the burning Crusade,
24:40
but beyond that though it's a bunch of That you can get doing
24:44
these time walking. Raids is actually quite simple
24:48
and if you have a piece that has maybe itemization that you can't
24:53
normally get on your your raid gear, then that might be
24:56
something that you are looking for.
24:58
But if time walking is not your cup of tea, and you and your
25:02
raid team are still working towards your heroic progression,
25:06
and that you are either have started working on razza guests
25:10
or haven't quite gotten to that final boss.
25:13
This involved a via carnets, you have good news this week because
25:16
they nerfed brazza, guess with the weekly reset, they knocked
25:20
some of the wind out of the store, m r as again has received
25:25
a couple of nerves in both heroic and Mythic difficulty.
25:29
So our heroic the health of Razz agathe was reduced by 5%, they
25:33
reduce the rate that fault Integrity drains during the
25:36
intermission phase and the Tempest swing periodic damage
25:40
was reduced by 20%, Which is Quite a lot.
25:44
He was Rejoice everywhere. And then the volatile current
25:47
damage was reduced by 15% as well.
25:50
So heroic is considerably easier to tackle that 5% Health.
25:54
It doesn't seem like it's a lot whenever they make any changes
25:57
that are small single digit percents like that.
25:59
It doesn't seem like it's a lot, but it is, it is a lot
26:02
especially when we're dealing in the millions of Health.
26:05
You have to compound that with the fact that they have slowed
26:09
down the rate, that Vault Tegrity goes a journey into
26:12
mission. So you fight razza guess you get
26:14
her down to 65 percent? You go into the intermission at
26:18
that point it's a race to clear off.
26:21
All those ads get onto the main platform.
26:23
Before the Vault Integrity goes down to 50% and the next phase
26:28
begins immediately. You get more time to do that.
26:31
If you start that phase faster and you have now more time
26:36
before it hits 50 percent, you get that additional Vault
26:39
Integrity to burn her down before the voluntary hits zero.
26:43
And then she puts you into the last phase, remember that?
26:46
Last phase starts. When you hit the 25% Health
26:49
threshold, or when you have the Vault Integrity, go down to
26:54
zero. And then, well, it's, there's an
26:56
intermission between and then you have to face the big storm
26:59
at. But if you can get there to that
27:02
25%, more consistently, that means that last phase that last
27:06
burn face is going to be that much faster and because she's
27:10
gotten a five percent overall health that Last 25% health is
27:14
actually that much smaller so hitting that 25% wall that much
27:19
faster that hard switch that much faster and then that last
27:23
25% being just less held overall.
27:26
He's going to help a lot of teams for sure.
27:29
That's not the only changes. We also saw a good number of
27:31
changes on Mythic difficulty as well.
27:33
They reduced the push effect of Hurricane wing on Mythic
27:37
difficulty so it doesn't push you as far the flame sword and
27:40
Harold's flame shield now absorbs 40.
27:43
Percent down from fifty five percent of its maximum health,
27:46
I'm ethic difficulty. Now the frost Forge sell it is
27:48
shattering shroud. Now absorbs, 20% less healing
27:51
on, Mythic difficulty the storm, secret acolytes Ascension and
27:55
now increases by 150 percent was 300.
27:58
So they reduce that by half and then the Tempest Wing, periodic
28:01
damage was reduced by 20% and I believe that that is compounding
28:06
on top of the change from heroic to, or is that different?
28:10
No. No.
28:11
It's straight through on her again.
28:13
And and Mythic is 20% from the value that it was before, okay?
28:16
But that is still solid. The volatile current that got
28:19
hit in heroic. That is a lot of the raid wide
28:23
damage that was going out that would cause teams for sort of
28:26
rot away in fact that when you're getting the push back
28:31
being reduced that's going to be huge in terms of the teams that
28:36
are using that, they'll speed boost to get through it faster.
28:39
That's a big thing that's been hurting my team in particular is
28:42
that that wave comes out and people haven't been topped up,
28:45
they spend a little too long fighting against that push back
28:49
and they're dead. And so seeing that being
28:52
adjusted, seeing the Tempest Wing, these are pain points that
28:55
they've noticed and they're allowing more people to survive
28:58
that which means you're not going to lose people over and
29:00
over and over time and maybe get that much further and secure
29:04
that kill. So I really am liking this.
29:07
Hopefully that means secure killing razi soon enough.
29:11
Yeah. With that said, we had the 100
29:15
guilds fill up the horde Hall of Fame and they've now introduce
29:19
these changes after that. I think it's the right time now
29:21
that everybody who has gone to the Hall of Fame has has done
29:26
that and now they're making these change, it changes the
29:28
Alliance side Hall of Fame has a lot more Gap, so I don't think
29:32
that they should have waited for that.
29:34
So, I agree with the timing of these changes as well.
29:36
I don't think it's going to hurt anybody's feelings because
29:39
you've already missed the Hall of Fame.
29:42
Now. Moving from that.
29:43
We're gonna go from The Raid floor to the earnings call.
29:48
And this is the ABK earnings call that came out.
29:52
Want to thank MMO-Champion for giving us a nice little summary
29:55
of what was said in that. But in terms of the World of
29:59
Warcraft early, dragonflight sales have not reached the level
30:03
of the prior expansion, but the community feedback on the title
30:07
has been positive. Think this is very interesting
30:10
and is actually more. The condemnation for
30:15
shadowlands, then I think of anything reflecting dragonflight
30:22
so many people just got really burned from shadowlands that
30:25
they've been hesitant to jump back in.
30:28
But the people who have have been very positive about
30:32
dragonflight, they then go on to say that the World of Warcraft
30:36
has delivered significant year-over-year growth in reach
30:41
engagement, and It bookings in the fourth quarter following
30:44
September, where the Wrath of the Lich King, Classic and the
30:47
November launcher of dragon flight.
30:49
I remember so many people classic first came out, were
30:53
just so gunning to get through the first expansions just to get
30:57
Wrath of the Lich King. So it does make sense that the
31:00
Wrath ledge king is pushing a ton of Engagement and probably
31:03
making up for the weaker dragonflight launch which they
31:07
did include in this. But I think that people who are
31:11
playing both, Are enjoying both the fact that we have gotten
31:16
changes to the formula for Wrath of the Lich King that it is not
31:20
exactly as it was back in the day means, people are actually
31:25
staying interested in what's coming next because they can't
31:28
just look back in history book and be like, okay, this is where
31:31
it's going, mmm, but Wrath of the Lich King and classic has
31:35
never been my forte. So I'll just leave that to the
31:37
people who have been enjoying it.
31:38
Yeah, I can speak on that, a little bit, just from personal.
31:42
Dance, is that I think the thing about Wrath of the Lich King
31:46
Classic, that is exciting for a lot of people like you can't
31:49
just look at the Playbook and know exactly what's coming but
31:51
we know, we know like generally speaking like what is in store
31:54
for us, in terms of like what's going to be available in the
31:57
raids, what's going to happen? When the new 5 bands come out
32:00
and all of that. So we know what we're going to
32:02
be expecting content wise but it's all the supplementary stuff
32:05
around that that is shaping the the day-to-day play that is kind
32:11
of up in the air as To what's going to happen.
32:14
And I think a lot of that is going to be informed by how the
32:17
changes they made going into the Old Wire patch are received.
32:21
And I think that when you have things like actual hotfixes and
32:25
tuning for classes, when back in like the vanilla classic era, it
32:30
was everything was sort of set in stone and that's what the
32:33
classes were all the way through.
32:34
I think that all is also somewhat exciting where you know
32:38
maybe this class isn't working as it should or is a little
32:41
overpowered or a little Empowered and it will be
32:43
addressed. I think that actually keeps
32:45
engagement going as well buff Elemental, shamans.
32:50
That's what people say well is it but going back to retail.
32:56
They have said that, the post-launch Subscribe subscriber
32:59
retention in the west is higher than recent expansions going to
33:02
say in the west because they can't count China anymore.
33:06
And I think that is a very well-crafted line because Their
33:13
subscriber attention is probably taking a huge hit because
33:17
they've lost an entire region. Yeah.
33:20
Lastly, on the warcraft stage and it is included this in World
33:22
of Warcraft. Even though it's a separate game
33:24
Warcraft, ArcLight Rumble continues to progress, well,
33:28
through Regional testing, but they didn't say when they would
33:31
release it. I am interested when that's
33:34
coming because that's being in, it's closed.
33:37
Testing period for a long time. Now, do you recall offhand when
33:41
they First put out that info. Oh gosh, ArcLight Rumble.
33:47
I think I think was announced in one of the think it was the most
33:52
recent like at home BlizzCon because they didn't do one last
33:57
year, but they didn't want the year before that.
33:58
And I think that's when it was announced, right?
34:01
So that would be over a year that this has been sitting
34:05
around. That is a, that's a lot.
34:08
Yeah. Well hopefully we'll hear about
34:11
more of it soon. Yeah.
34:12
Again, we've got BlizzCon. Supposedly going to be announced
34:16
sometime soon and maybe we'll hear about it.
34:19
More of it from there, but they haven't forgotten about it.
34:21
At least in the earnings call. Yeah, then we're going into
34:24
other blizzard games, OverWatch to the October launch of a watch
34:28
to and the new free-to-play model delivered.
34:31
The highest quarterly figures for player numbers and hours
34:35
played in OverWatch history. The player investment is also
34:40
off to a strong start with the Fourth quarter in Game, net
34:44
bookings at the highest level to date for OverWatch.
34:46
But notice none of those actually say anything monetary
34:50
which to me suggests that maybe they missed the mark with their
34:55
new monetary set up regardless for me personally.
35:00
I know this is not an OverWatch show but like I'm waiting for
35:03
that single player content that they said was going to show up.
35:07
OverWatch has always had this kind of bright world and I
35:10
wanted to know more about it and they do spend Tastic cinematics.
35:14
Oh yeah, and I keep saying, I want them to capitalize on it
35:17
Netflix series when all that sort of stuff and single player
35:22
content, is one of the best things that they could do for
35:25
it. It just has not shown up yet.
35:28
So I'm waiting for that. Moving on to Diablo Diablo
35:31
mortal on mobile and PC also contributed to blizzards fourth
35:36
quarter year-over-year growth, they said that engagement and
35:39
player investment trends for the title.
35:41
We're able at the end of the fourth quarter and into the new
35:45
year stable is not gross. Yeah.
35:49
But it contributed and I think that the backlash for a mortal
35:55
and all of the microtransactions and the craziness of like how
36:00
much they could whale did hurt the actual pickup of Diablo
36:05
mortal. A lot of people were like, you
36:07
know what, I'm not going to play it, it seems predatory.
36:09
Some people saw the streamers and how much they blew on It
36:12
like thousands of dollars in such and didn't want any part of
36:16
it. It is funny that they say it
36:18
contributed to, but did not want to highlight how much it
36:22
contributed to. Yeah, personally, I think that
36:25
they waited entirely too long to put in the ability to craft your
36:29
own of the legendary gems. That was the big contention
36:32
point from the outset of the game, right?
36:34
Like that was where all of this whale money was being placed was
36:39
in leveling up and acquiring in the first place.
36:42
These legendary gems. And it took them too long.
36:45
I think if they had like, realize that that needed to be
36:47
changed earlier and had implemented it.
36:50
Then I think the game would be in a little bit better of a
36:53
position. Well, the other Diablo Diablo
36:55
for is coming in June of this year, June 6, specifically for
37:01
people who are Diablo fans, that seems to be looking great.
37:04
We saw a trailer, just back a few weeks ago, that looked
37:08
pretty sweet. I am going to try it out.
37:12
Again, I always dip my toes into the Diablo series but I never
37:18
really stick around. We will see if this is the one
37:21
that keeps me there for a little bit longer.
37:23
Yeah, I have, I have for blizzard shirts.
37:27
One of them is a pride shirt. One of them is Warcraft shirt
37:30
and two of them are Diablo shirt.
37:31
So I am excited about the a blow for but Activision.
37:37
Also address the situation with Microsoft Microsoft and
37:41
activation are continuing To engage with the regulators and
37:44
are working forward to closing Church.
37:46
The transaction in Microsoft's Financial year ending on June
37:50
30th 2023 for those who have been keeping up with the
37:54
situation more and more Regulators are coming out
37:57
against the merger. They are putting forward
38:02
suggestions like breaking up. Activision Blizzard to spin off
38:07
the Call of Duty franchise separately from it to Blizzard
38:13
from Activision and have that spin off.
38:16
That last one does make me sort of like hope that that was
38:21
taken, but it is unlikely. A lot of people have said that,
38:25
it is more likely that this will go through what concessions?
38:29
They will have to make, I am not sure blizzard then had its
38:34
General reports where it reported its highest quarterly,
38:37
net bookings to date driven by strong growth of Warcraft.
38:42
The The reinvigoration of OverWatch and Diablo blizzards
38:46
segment, revenue and operating income grew 90 percent year over
38:52
year in the fourth quarter. And they attributed this to
38:56
saying, as their teams executed, against the substantial pipeline
39:00
to deliver well-received content across intellectual properties.
39:06
And I want to stop right here and say, if your team nearly
39:10
doubled its year, Over year and they were fighting against a
39:16
substantial pipeline to deliver well-received content.
39:23
Why in the world are you forcing stacked ranking for their
39:28
reviews? If the entire team worked like
39:33
hell to get you nearly double the revenue, you still feel 5%
39:38
of them needs needs developing. These earning calls when I see
39:43
that kind of growth when I see that it's happening.
39:46
Despite the fact that certain properties that have very
39:50
controversial, monetary setups are not being touted for how
39:55
much money they made and World of Warcraft, which clearly
39:59
compared to some of the other monetization schemes is so much
40:04
more. Player-friendly is getting all
40:07
these rave reviews. It seems to me that none of None
40:11
of this matches other headlines were they refuse to keep up with
40:17
cost of living increases and that they have to make double
40:21
the money? And yet still give 5% of of
40:25
teams a needs developing, which will hurt their potential
40:29
earnings and Destroy morale. Rant over.
40:32
Let's continue on here here. Warcraft over watching Diablo
40:35
grew strong year over year and each delivered over 100 million
40:40
in net booking. Networking is not gross refer to
40:44
previous rant blizzard had 45 million monthly active users up
40:51
from Thirty 1 million last quarter.
40:54
Note that they do not include year-over-year in that figure
40:58
game development teams through 25% year over year in 2022.
41:04
Specifically the game development teams that they
41:06
haven't been slashing at. Yeah because that was the
41:10
comment that I was going to make his life.
41:11
Like anytime we see these record earnings coming in from Blizzard
41:15
or Activision Blizzard calls. It seems like we're just waiting
41:18
for the other shoe to drop because we really had the most
41:20
profitable year ever and decide to /.
41:23
How many people um, Activision Blizzard increased
41:27
representation for those who identify as a woman or
41:32
non-binary to 26% globally as of the end of November versus 24.
41:41
Sent a year earlier. Congratulations on.
41:45
Patting yourself on the back for that 2% growth after year.
41:53
Representation for underrepresented, ethnic groups,
41:57
has increased to 38%, from thirty, six percent.
42:03
In the US over the same period. Here's how you lie with
42:08
Statistics folks. You cherry pick your best
42:12
segment. IE the us so that you can say
42:17
that you had two percent growth over the same period.
42:22
Yeah, doesn't look good. I feel this is very much them
42:28
trying to put lipstick on a pig. And then, of course, the thing
42:34
that they cannot put lipstick on blizzard remains focused on
42:38
finding alternative ways to serve the community.
42:41
In China, after destroying its relationship that it had for
42:46
over a decade with Nettie's. Yeah, these last three.
42:51
I mean, the just this last points going through in this,
42:55
this earnings call. It doesn't paint the picture
42:59
that I was hoping for at this point.
43:02
Certainly At least, you know, it within the last year of hearing,
43:07
all of the, all of the things that, that they were going to do
43:11
to, to, you know, fix fix the workplace and make things better
43:16
for the employees of Activision Blizzard.
43:17
It seems like almost it seems as though they are setting these or
43:22
have set these bare minimum goals and are hitting those
43:27
goals that they have set. And like you said, patting
43:30
themselves on the back for it when When what is needed in the
43:35
industry and something that blizzard Activision Blizzard as
43:39
a whole had a fundamentally fantastic opportunity to do to
43:44
set a precedent, to become a leader in the industry on.
43:48
I don't feel like this meets that bar.
43:51
So I feel that a lot of what they can possibly do, hasn't had
43:57
the full time to do it sure. They've made their agreement.
44:02
Is the eoe they have yet to settle or go through the court
44:09
case for their agreement with the state case, the SEC they
44:15
have been fined but that was purely on the fact that they
44:18
didn't give their due diligence to their stock owners.
44:22
And and so actually implementing the changes from that will take
44:29
time, I am glad to see it. In there, in terms of this is
44:34
The Benchmark of what they were doing beforehand because last
44:38
year they didn't have the compliances that they're now
44:41
having to do with the eoe and what they will grow from that
44:45
will only come as they hire people and I don't expect knock
44:49
on wood a full staff turnover in such a short period of time.
44:55
Yeah so hopefully the growth is that we're seeing is really just
45:01
the start of Bell curve and we're going to see some upward
45:05
trajectory in future earnings calls.
45:08
I am more just annoyed with them.
45:12
Patting themselves on the back for such little change and
45:17
really a, this should have been something that came out in a
45:19
diversity report of, this is where we're at.
45:22
This is where we're aiming. Because the biggest thing that's
45:25
missing is that they didn't put any goals for it, you can say,
45:28
oh, we're aiming for 1% at least before our next chord.
45:32
We are earnings and then they get 2% because that would put my
45:35
expectations one place and then they would exceed it where it
45:38
said, three percent at a hit two percent.
45:41
That would be setting goals working towards an objective and
45:44
hitting or missing and then trying to do better.
45:47
Yeah, definitely better in the next one.
45:49
That's where I'm at with with this the padding the back thing
45:53
can can move move forward. I'm not going to swear on this.
45:56
Show will go on the last thing. That is not in the show notes
46:00
that I do want to put forward is that That because we're doing
46:04
Activision Blizzard report, Activision Blizzard and blizzard
46:07
in particular, has mandated an end to their work from home.
46:12
And there has been a large outcry from the employees
46:17
against this. Many of them are finding that it
46:20
is so much more beneficial to their lies to work from home.
46:25
That they are just productive if not more productive, and that
46:29
the team has overcome many of the issues.
46:32
Shoes that they were facing in work from home.
46:35
Considering the great quality of work that has come out of dragon
46:40
flight. I would be tending to agree with
46:42
them but in a few short months they want to end that and have
46:46
staff come in at least three days a week ignoring covid,
46:50
which is still an ongoing concern and I will not get into
46:53
a debate about how much a concern that is there is the
46:55
fact that Anaheim and that entire California living
47:00
situation is very expensive. In Civ and blizzard doesn't pay.
47:05
Well, yeah. So a lot of people kind of run
47:10
the clock until they can no longer afford to work at
47:13
blizzard and this gave a lot of people options, a lot of people,
47:18
the ability to work remotely and move to more affordable places.
47:24
When blizzard was not keeping up with the cost of living
47:27
increases, especially this year, when we've had so much in terms
47:31
of inflation, Yeah I think the big concern there is when you
47:36
have a mandate to work from the office like that.
47:40
You as a company are inherently, just cutting off so much talent
47:45
from around the world. That could be yours.
47:47
If you have that option to be able to work from anywhere in
47:51
the world and you start mandating to go work from the
47:54
office. Even if just partially that's
47:57
still it's cutting out a significant portion of talent
48:00
that you wouldn't have access to.
48:02
With mandated working from the office.
48:04
So that's it just, it doesn't seem like a smart move at all,
48:10
like, from any any angle looking at it.
48:13
But that's also looking at it from the outside in and there's
48:18
a lot of discourse in and around the whole work from home or work
48:22
from the office debate and I know where I am.
48:26
I work from home and I don't want to see myself working from
48:30
an office. Any point in the rest, Of my
48:32
life. So I sympathize with, with the
48:36
employees of Activision Blizzard, and I hope that I hope
48:41
that they're able to affect enough change to be able to keep
48:45
that standard of living that they that they have enjoyed over
48:48
the last couple of years. It's a standard of living that's
48:50
been improved because many of them have not had to deal with a
48:55
commute, which is hours out of your day.
48:57
Both way, which is money on gas, which is Is the fact that they
49:03
can make food at home rather than going out to eat when
49:08
they're, when they're working at the office and haven't cooked
49:12
themselves a meal to bring in. There's a lot of factors that
49:16
working from home, increase the amount that was take-home pay.
49:21
Mmm, without having to just increase money that you're
49:25
getting on your flat paycheck. Yeah.
49:28
But that's enough of that. Today we are hopefully going to
49:33
get some more news. That is hopefully lighter in the
49:37
future. Yes.
49:38
But for now, that's going to do it for us live.
49:42
Where can people talk with us? You can find us over in our
49:46
Discord server, the for Azeroth Discord server, which you can
49:49
join by heading to bit.ly slash phase Discord.
49:52
And until next time, guys, may all your hits be grits.