Latest / For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast / #291 - For Azeroth!: “The Launchers”

Transcript

#291 - For Azeroth!: “The Launchers” · For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast

0:00
Yeah, I I don't consider the the workforce part of like your main
0:06
play the. Employees aren't people.
0:10
For capitalism, no. Corporate Manny is here for the.
0:15
Karen Tour. For.
0:18
Pandaria for calendar. To the.
0:23
Burning. Region.
0:26
For Gilnaeus, but has not died. For the Lich King, for the
0:33
Sindori. For the Alliance, for the Horde.
0:38
For Azeroth. Hello everybody, and welcome
0:45
back to another episode of For Azeroth.
0:48
I am one of your hosts, Manny, AKA the true villain Manny, and
0:52
joining me today are two parts of The Triumphant completing the
0:57
trifecta. We will start with, of course,
1:00
Lex. Lex, how are you and how's the
1:03
World of Warcraft been treating you?
1:04
Oh, the World of Warcraft's been treating me so well, Manny.
1:07
I've been popping right along. I've been having the time of my
1:09
life. This is spoiler alert.
1:10
I guess I'm enjoying the War Within.
1:16
OK, OK. And going to the absolute Sultan
1:22
of salt who may not be so salty this week.
1:26
Sean, how you doing? Manny, Manny.
1:30
Manny. Manny.
1:31
Manny. Manny.
1:32
Oh Manny. I'm doing good.
1:36
I am doing good. The war within has reignited all
1:41
the fires within. That that is good to hear.
1:45
That's good to hear. And it seems like Lex is in
1:48
agreement. We should just dive right into
1:51
it because like our weekend Wow is of course, like what this
1:55
story is going to be because The War Within is here.
2:00
We've been playing it. We've been playing it through
2:03
early access. We've been playing it it in the
2:07
launch. And of course, we took a break
2:10
from that to do this episode. You guys are welcome.
2:16
I was thinking about whether I could do another delve before we
2:20
got into the episode and I was like, no, I have to log on.
2:26
It's like, oh, Sean said he was going to be late.
2:29
Maybe, maybe I could just grab Bran and jump in.
2:32
Maybe literally. That is exactly what was going
2:35
on in my head. So they like Full disclosure,
2:42
Sean is not skipping meals he did eat before this podcast.
2:46
So at least we got that that in. I, I, I've just been really
2:52
enjoying it. So let's break this down.
2:54
Let's do this chronologically, OK, right.
2:57
So we get through with the show. Thursday rolls around and guys,
3:03
it's go time for those with the early access.
3:07
So when I ask each of you, what did you do with your early
3:12
access time? Like what was your kind of
3:14
structure? Did you take full advantage?
3:16
Did you miss some days? How did it go?
3:18
Let's start with you, Lex. What did you do with your early
3:21
access? So I got early access, I logged
3:24
in. I was like, this is going to be
3:26
story time. This is the the days that I'm
3:29
going to spend doing the story and only the story.
3:33
I get in, I start doing the story, I'm laser in like I am
3:37
focused. I am snapped.
3:39
There's no, you're not getting me off the story.
3:41
And then the story says, we're going to introduce you to a new
3:44
exciting thing. It's called a delve.
3:46
You can do one. And then I did the delve and
3:49
then they were like, you can, if you want to do another delve.
3:53
And I was like, are you serious? I can do another delve.
3:56
And then I finished that delve. And then they were like, if you
4:00
were so inclined and you could in fact do the same delve again.
4:03
And I was like, hey, yo, you know me.
4:06
And so I immediately got my to Tier 3 with Delves.
4:10
And then I was like, I'm going to go back in and do Tier 4.
4:11
And then they were like, there's no Tier 4.
4:13
And that was the saddest day of my life.
4:16
And then I did the story again. OK, OK, so then doing the
4:22
delves, doing the delves, getting all the way up to Tier
4:25
4, which is currently locked away, and then going back to the
4:29
story. Did you get through the story on
4:32
day one? Did you marathon?
4:33
Did you say, OK, I've got this much time to play and then come
4:37
back through? Like what was the continuating
4:39
story? You got to 80 though, right?
4:41
I did get to 80. I got to 80I thinking about
4:44
three days, like on Sunday is the day that I got to 80.
4:48
I am while I may be youthful within this group, my soul is
4:54
deeply middle-aged and so I I have set limits.
5:00
I will be going to bed at 11:00 every night and I will log off
5:04
an hour before so I can read before bed because otherwise I'm
5:07
just going to be too jittery to go to sleep.
5:10
So I've been trying to log off around 10.
5:12
So no, I did not. I did not marathon on the story
5:14
and in fact I still have the like very last chunk of story
5:18
left to do. Once I hit 80 and it stopped
5:20
giving gear and I was just giving flight stones.
5:22
It's been kind of hard for me to motivate myself to do that when
5:24
I'm like, I could go do world quest, I could go do more
5:27
delves. I am, interestingly enough,
5:30
locked out of gear from delves. I cannot gain anything from
5:33
delves except the joy of doing a delve.
5:37
Wow, I am so glad to hear that you love Delves.
5:41
I mean, like we will talk about that and that in a bit.
5:45
My experience with Dells is a different beast.
5:48
I am sorry to say. I want to say that I dislike
5:55
Dells, but it might be beyond that at this point.
5:59
Like there is like I got all the keys and such and I could get
6:03
get the upgrades and people like hey Dells, you should do it.
6:06
And I'm like, yeah, but I could also just throw it to Monday
6:10
where it's the furthest possible day away from me having to step
6:14
foot into a delve again. I, I, I think I actively loathed
6:18
Delves right now. I got, I think I got to wait for
6:21
them to get more difficult or something, 'cause it's like, I
6:25
see that smoke and I'm like, Matt might as well be a brick
6:28
wall. Turn around.
6:32
Sorry. Sorry, Lex.
6:34
OK, so you. Continue to have the time of my
6:36
life. I don't know what's going on
6:37
over there, but best of luck to you.
6:39
OK, well you know what we could do is like purely
6:43
hypothetically, we could see if your Internet works with my
6:47
account in delves just for science reasons so that I can
6:51
get that stuff done for legal reasons.
6:55
I am joking. Wow, I fully pulled a Sean on
6:58
that one. It did.
6:59
That's my line. You stole my line.
7:03
Like, wow, shades of Sean, but going to the genuine article
7:10
then Sean, what did you do with your early access?
7:14
I Manny I I'm going to steal a a quote from a friend of the show
7:20
Pico and I'm going to say that the early access weekend felt
7:25
like a spa day. It was a spa vacation.
7:29
I went in, I went in with the here.
7:31
My my plan for early access was 3 characters leveled on 80 to 80
7:35
on North America, 1 character leveled to 80 on the EUI got in.
7:38
I started doing the quests and in the in Dorne and Dornegall
7:42
there, the Isle of Dorn and immediately said, you know what,
7:46
screw all that. I threw that whole plane out the
7:48
window. And I spent the entirety of
7:50
those four days going through every quest in every zone,
7:55
getting Sojourner locked up for all three, for the three that
7:58
you could get it and then down to the two missing ones and how
8:02
a fall, which you then were able to get done up before the actual
8:04
launch and one of them. And, and I just completely, 100%
8:11
immersed myself in the story, the questing and the zones of
8:17
war within. And it was the best time.
8:21
I wasn't, I didn't even stream. I stopped streaming completely.
8:23
I was like, I'm just this is, this is for me.
8:25
This isn't for the audience, this isn't for my friends.
8:28
I'm not hanging out in discord with anybody.
8:29
This is me and these stories and I, every zone has like one major
8:36
lodge quest quest chain that just gutted me.
8:40
And I, they resonated with me and I loved them.
8:43
And up until this morning, I was ready to become a lamplighter.
8:48
I was gonna, I was forsaking mythic rating.
8:50
I was forsaking dungeons. I was going to become a
8:53
lamplighter NPC in Hallow Fall for the remainder of the war
8:57
within. That was gonna be my role.
8:59
But all of that changed today when I did the campaign quest
9:03
that unlocked globally today, unlocked in the EU today.
9:09
And that was the Storm Rider chain.
9:11
And Manny, Oh my God, I am ready to be a storm rider.
9:17
I am ready. I'm so glad that The War Within
9:20
is when you're going to discover role-playing.
9:22
Let me know if you need a vampire.
9:25
Yeah, Lex, hook me up. What is this?
9:28
Like, I'm like, OK, so Lex, what did you do?
9:31
And instead of like, oh, yeah, you know, I just meandered like
9:34
hang up with my. She's like, I was locked in on
9:35
the story. I'm like, who am I talking to?
9:38
Like what? And then I'm like, OK, OK, fine.
9:41
That is a little bit of that. Let's go over to Sean.
9:44
Sean. So what did you do Manny?
9:46
I relaxed and I went about my own Merry Wade did nothing.
9:51
Did somebody replace my Co host here guys?
9:54
Yeah, it's bizarro world I had. So at the end of the early
9:57
access, I have one character at level 80.
10:00
I have all of my other characters in Dornegall because
10:07
I went and got the crafter crafter cash that you got for
10:11
picking up crafting things there and got a bunch of enchanting
10:14
mats. And then I have 3 characters who
10:17
all happen to be blood elves who I have turned into enchanting
10:21
mules to specialize in different branches of the enchanting tree.
10:26
And that's, that's it. I, I, I actually put away alts.
10:30
I'm not gonna I I don't have any intention of playing any alts in
10:34
the war Within. I'm going to play just my
10:35
warrior who is a disenchanter and I I love it.
10:41
The story is just so good. The zones without early access,
10:45
and I know we're going to talk with this soon, but without
10:48
early access none of this would have happened.
10:50
I would have been locked in on raid prep from the beginning
10:55
that four days. Like I said, that's spa weekend.
10:58
Let me meander it. Let me to quote Pandaria slow
11:02
down. It's like you dilly dally.
11:04
That's what I've been saying. I spent all my time dilly.
11:06
Dally, dilly dally. Dilly dally dace baby wildfire
11:11
it. Was great, I loved it.
11:14
Oh, and I also hate doves. Wild.
11:20
Blowing my mind. OK, OK.
11:27
Have you have you at least done the delves needed to for the
11:30
like campaign slash get like the Rep and all that?
11:34
Have you done those? No, I stopped.
11:36
I didn't do the 2IN ashkahet, I didn't do those two and I think
11:43
I only did one of the ones in hollow fall.
11:45
I actively so I I play tank. There is.
11:50
If you play tank, there is no fail state in delves.
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You cannot. I don't.
11:56
I don't even know how I got up and walked away from my desk,
11:59
came back and there was two mobs hitting me and Bran just kept
12:02
lobbing healing potions at me, keeping me alive while I wasn't
12:05
even at my desk. If you are a tank, I was just
12:08
like Bran, just let me die. Really, this feels like Nirvana
12:11
for you. It's like oh sweet I can AFK
12:14
forever in person so. That's my issue is there's no
12:18
fail state, so they just become monotonous and long.
12:22
And it's like, I know I can't lose and knowing I can't lose, I
12:27
just want you to be over. Just be done.
12:30
There's no challenge, there's no risk, and it was I hate to say
12:34
it, but you know this was only up to Level 3.
12:35
There's no challenge expect to level threes.
12:37
That's that's for those who are listening who are right now
12:39
screaming at their car radios. Of course you couldn't die.
12:41
It's a Level 3. I understand that I played them
12:44
up to a level 8 on the beta. It's the same.
12:48
There is no fail state for tanks, which then just makes
12:52
them tedious. They become a chore that I have
12:54
to do. They are Tor gassed 2 point O
12:57
for me. But the good news is once I hit
13:01
like week 4 and I've done up to a level 11 or level 13 or
13:05
whatever the Max is and gotten my achievement, I never have to
13:07
go back. OK, OK.
13:11
As for me, I obviously marathon that first day.
13:17
I went eight hours, got my first character up to level 82nd. 2nd
13:26
character took me a couple days because I actually leveled that
13:30
through mining and Irving. That was the the quote UN quote
13:36
farming mule that went all the way through.
13:39
And then the third character, my warlock, I actually only have it
13:45
76. I want it.
13:47
I ran it through dungeons to like grab a bunch of a bunch of
13:51
stuff to disenchant and everything.
13:56
And my 4th character is I think like 71 or or something like
13:59
that. But like generally it was first
14:04
get my character up to 80 be have that ready.
14:07
Second character was like maximized gold making on on the
14:13
gathering. And my goal was, oh, you know,
14:17
I'll make like 100 KA day and that will be like good.
14:21
My goodness, those first couple days just blew it out of the
14:24
water. I did miss a couple of days, of
14:27
course, because of because of the personal matters that I had
14:30
to attend to. But I, I was, and I think I
14:36
still am in just full like frenzy on trying to keep
14:40
everything going. Because as soon as I think, hey,
14:43
I'm getting on top of one thing, they unlock heroics and now I've
14:46
got to go gear up through heroics and going through that.
14:49
They have two new story chapters that came out today.
14:53
They're both amazing. I I'm only through like one of
14:57
them. You should quit your job so you
15:00
can so you can play Warcraft. That's that is an official for
15:04
as our author recommendation to everybody, you should quit your
15:07
job to play more war with it. Just be a streamer.
15:11
It works. We can all be streamers.
15:14
You can do it too. Can we get the Shawn disclaimer
15:19
before we get into? Trial for legal reasons, I am
15:21
not a career advisor. Please do not quit your jobs to
15:25
become a streamer. It's incredibly difficult to
15:27
make that a full time career. Thank you.
15:32
Oh, I honestly, I wish I had more time like I it's, it's just
15:37
a great time to be playing the World of Warcraft right now.
15:40
The there's all this stuff to do.
15:43
I haven't even had a chance to really farm mounts.
15:44
I recorded the first episode of Hail Xalatath, which is my lore
15:53
podcast because apparently I don't talk enough about Wow
15:56
here. So now I'm talking about World
15:59
of Warcraft. 3 hours a week over two podcasts plus because, you
16:03
know, we rarely keep this under an hour and it's just it.
16:06
Like I am enjoying every part of this except for Delve.
16:10
Sorry Lex, there's just a lot to do.
16:13
The auction house has just been on fire.
16:16
They had to take it down just this evening.
16:20
I don't know what's wrong with it.
16:22
We had prices all over the place when it was early access and it
16:27
was so fast that I just stopped trying to list it like I use
16:32
TSMI. Just stopped trying to list it
16:34
with TSMI, went in and I would go, OK, here's something like 5
16:39
levels down that might be like 200 or more percent over what
16:45
the current thing is. And I'm like, I'll list it there
16:48
because I know it'll sell right down to there.
16:50
I was just making so much gold and that was great.
16:53
And be an auction house goblin being fun is not something that
16:58
I have experienced for a long time since like BFA when I was
17:02
trying to get the auction house mount.
17:04
Did you guys find anything that you, well, I mean, Sean, you
17:08
just explained how you're now A1 character player.
17:12
Per region. One character per region, OK.
17:17
That would have been clear like. One character per region, OK.
17:20
But it'll be a little bit before I jump on the EU region.
17:22
But yeah, I want 1 character per region.
17:24
OK. Not including not including my
17:26
enchanting mules. Yeah, I don't consider the the
17:32
workforce part of like your main play.
17:36
The employees aren't people. For capitalism, no.
17:41
Corporate Manny is here. No, like, I mean like I've got
17:47
what, 11 level 70s or higher, right.
17:52
And I don't count them as like even alts.
17:54
They're just there because I use them to just like see lore and
17:57
stuff. I wanted to explore the story of
18:00
the of the mage and so I made it a mage and that will go through
18:03
the Legion storyline and all that stuff.
18:05
But it's like they're one sneeze away from deletion.
18:09
They don't count for anything. They've got like 5K each to
18:13
their name. Just in case I need to buy
18:14
something and I leave. I leave them there.
18:17
You have. 5000 gold on 11 level 70 characters.
18:23
Manny, do you want to give me some?
18:28
Money, Sean. Sean over there is just like
18:31
splurging on on tokens left to right.
18:34
He's like, oh you know what, I need 600 K, let me just buy up
18:38
two tokens. We're not no, we're out of we're
18:41
we're in the post Farrock mount sale season.
18:44
So I'm flush right now with gold token season doesn't come around
18:47
till like the midpoint of the the expansion.
18:52
Y'all, I reached 80,000 gold by just like working the auction
18:56
house during early access and I was like I'm so proud of myself.
19:01
This is such a big achievement. I have so much money.
19:04
So yeah. Sometimes I listen to you to
19:06
talk respectfully and I'm like, oh wow, I, I am.
19:10
I'm a casual, but joyfully I'm a joyful casual.
19:14
What about you, Sean? Have you been doing any auction
19:17
house stuff? What is what is your nest egg
19:19
saved from postphyrax season? You're like at one or three
19:22
million. I was so it was 2.1 mil total.
19:27
I had 1.4 in my war bank and then the rest on my main and 90K
19:32
on a Demon Hunter for some reason.
19:36
Just logged me in and found it. That was nice but I have not
19:40
been So everything that I've gotten so far all I have been
19:44
levelling up. Like I mentioned enchanting on 4
19:47
characters and alchemy on one character and I would just
19:52
mostly just buy the mats that I needed off of the auction house.
19:55
Obviously with enchanting I was able to disenchant a lot of
19:57
stuff that I got through the levelling process and through
19:59
the heroic dungeon spam, but I have not sold anything yet.
20:03
I've been dumping the enchant in the Gill bank for Gill this to
20:05
throw on their stuff and I probably I might I have a hard
20:12
time. I am.
20:14
I'm one of those RPG people who, at the end of every Final
20:17
Fantasy, had 99 elixirs, just in case.
20:21
So I have been fishing and I have food and meat and stuff
20:24
from from questing that I'm like, OK, I could just dump this
20:27
on the auction. Or saying people like Epidemi
20:29
and other people who are much smarter than I am, much better
20:31
at making money than I am, have said sell it now and when you're
20:34
ready to level cooking, just buy it when it's cheaper.
20:37
But my brain is like, or you keep it now so you have to buy
20:42
less later in case there's an emergency fish shortage.
20:46
No, that's true. That's true.
20:47
There could be. Tip to everybody.
20:49
I know there's like a tip section, but I have to, I have
20:51
to say this to everybody including my Co host right now.
20:55
Yeah. You sell everything now.
20:58
Even if you have to buy it all back.
21:01
Everything you sold back a week from now, you will still get
21:04
everything you sold plus a healthy margin of profit.
21:08
It's just. Keep your bag clear.
21:10
No, no, no, you guarantee, Manny, can you guarantee right
21:14
now on episode 291 and four hours are off that the fish
21:17
prices are going to go only go down from where they are?
21:21
Can you tell me that with a certainty?
21:24
There's no chance. Fish prices are going up with
21:26
certainty. Like this is the least nuanced
21:29
style bee. I am willing to pay you the
21:32
difference if they are higher than they are right now.
21:37
Pick a fish, any fish. Blizzard just released a new
21:40
blue post there cutting fishing rewards in half.
21:44
Doesn't even matter. They could do that.
21:47
It wouldn't even matter. See, Manny, what we should.
21:49
Do those are just hot fixed? We need to trade account
21:54
information, so then you can auction all of my stuff and I
21:58
can do Dallas for you. This is legal.
22:00
This is OK. OK, wait, wait.
22:03
Sean, please do the disclaimer again.
22:05
For for legal reasons, Manny and Lex will not be sharing accounts
22:10
to log in for each other. Yeah, it's sometimes like we
22:18
just we need to switch brains for a little bit so we can get
22:20
the stuff done. What you need to do is like, you
22:23
just need to go visit Manny at his house while he happens to be
22:26
logged in, and if he gets up to use the bathroom, you can move
22:29
his character so that it doesn't get killed in a delve.
22:32
That's so true. Move it right to the office.
22:33
He does have to play a Demon Hunter though.
22:35
I won't play anything else. I spent three hours playing my
22:38
priest on stream and it has convinced me that I made the
22:42
right choice switching to Demon Hunter and I will not we we got
22:47
to zoom. If you're not nooming, what are
22:49
you doing? Would you say you were not
22:51
prepared for priest? I was not prepared.
22:53
Well, I I I get the joke. It's a funny joke.
22:56
The issue potentially is that I'm like, I yeah, I was not
22:59
prepared for priest. Never mind.
23:00
I take it back. You're right.
23:03
We're just sticking with that. Thank you.
23:07
I also would have accepted. No, Sean.
23:08
No, I wouldn't say that. No, Sean, I would never say
23:14
that. OK, so then the next part of it
23:19
is with early access, people got their fun spa days, they got
23:26
their time to concentrate on the lore.
23:28
They got their time to dive into whatever money making scheme
23:32
they thought they could pull off.
23:34
But we also had other things that happened once launched, it
23:37
happened and there was a lot of unrest before the official
23:44
launch happened. A lot of people feeling like
23:48
they, like the FOMO was in full effect was really what was
23:51
happening. And it didn't actually get
23:54
better once launch came around because we had several
23:58
communities that seemed very intent on just, I guess being an
24:05
elitist full on top hat monocle. Oh ho ho you guys, you launchers
24:11
finally cobbled together the copper to finally get over to
24:15
the Isle of Dorn. And I wish I had just
24:18
spontaneously made those lines up.
24:21
But some people decided to go full transmog, wait at the wait
24:26
at the Isle of Dawn and mock launchers with this little RP
24:31
that they did on RP realms. And if that wasn't bad enough,
24:36
because that was like, you know, you could ignore it or you might
24:38
have missed it underneath all of the initial events that were
24:42
happening on PvP realms or not on PvP realms, but it people who
24:47
had war mode on. Unfortunately, when they got to
24:52
the Isle of Dorn, it wasn't the Nauruvians that were the most
24:55
dangerous threat. It was actually other players
24:59
that had decided to form up into gank squads and slaughter all
25:06
the 70s right as soon as they crashed down from Dalaran and I
25:12
wish this was a one time thing. But much like rear hunting or
25:18
farm groups, there were many listings for gank squads around
25:25
Dal to get the launchers. And that is absolutely tragic.
25:31
Lex, your eyes say that you had not heard about this.
25:34
No, I hadn't heard of any of this.
25:36
I thought we were all just happy little campers who were inviting
25:39
all of our besties back into the game.
25:41
Like, hey, you all, thank you for making launch so easy
25:44
because there was so little server pressure when we were
25:47
coming in. Now it's your turn.
25:50
Look, she's evil. Like I thought we were having a
25:53
good time. And honestly, Lex, it was, it
25:56
wasn't even the people, just the people who were partaking in it.
26:01
There were streamers out there that were like, well, you guys
26:04
are idiots. You should have turned off war
26:05
mode. What the hell were you were you
26:07
thinking? Isn't.
26:09
PvP servers like war mode required like I don't I don't
26:13
think you could on PvP. No, no.
26:15
Oh, I don't know all. Servers now have the option of
26:17
turning war mode on and off. You can only turn war mode.
26:22
Actually you can turn war mode off at any rested area.
26:26
You can turn war mode on at any major capital city like Storm
26:31
and Orgemar or places like Valdrakan or Dornegal now as
26:38
well. But when you are landing in from
26:43
Dalaran and Dalaran's no longer there for you to turn it off
26:45
there and you haven't done any of the questing so that you can
26:49
fly over to Dornegal and turn it off there, you are in a very bad
26:54
situation. Well, and also that, you know,
26:56
not to sound like someone's mom, but even if everyone who didn't
27:01
want to get ganked went in turn off war mode, that doesn't
27:03
change the fact that the people like had a goal of making
27:07
people's launch experience worse, right?
27:09
And again, I don't play PvP because I hate PvP, so I don't
27:12
fully understand the dynamics of a PvP server.
27:14
I know that you guys love killing each other.
27:16
It's your favorite activity. If everyone's happy, everyone's
27:19
happy. But if people were not having a
27:21
good time because of it, vibe's still there, you know?
27:26
It's it's a very different thing because I typically like to
27:29
level with war mode on. There's an experience bonus.
27:34
There's also a kind of increased camaraderie when you could
27:39
attack each other, but you are so both focused on what you're
27:43
doing that you don't. And like, there's also a bit a
27:48
bit of tension for when you are at like certain points and
27:53
there's that alliance group there and I might want to save
27:55
my cooldowns. Like there's, there's a lot of
27:56
reasons that playing with war mode on works for me.
28:00
And there's, there are times when it just doesn't work and I
28:03
turn it off. If I was looking back and
28:05
managed to like think about this beforehand because I didn't even
28:08
think about it, I would have been like, oh man, I would have
28:11
made sure war mode was off and I would not have done that.
28:14
But like hindsight 2020, victim blaming or whatever it is, it is
28:19
like you said, the the intent was there and the intent is what
28:22
makes it so bad. John.
28:24
Yeah, throwing it to you. What was your take on all of
28:27
this? People suck I guess is my take
28:31
there. So at first I thought the RP
28:34
screenshot that went around where the guy was like let's
28:36
welcome the launches as they scraped together their copper.
28:40
I thought it was meant to be. And I still hope part of me
28:43
still wants to believe that it was meant to be a light hearted
28:49
mean. You know what I mean?
28:50
It wasn't meant to be mean spirited.
28:52
But unfortunately, Twitter has shown, again, I, I didn't see
28:58
the names personally 'cause I have so many people muted and
29:01
blocked. But I have seen that there are
29:03
people who have given proof to the fact that they actually
29:07
believe some of these things, which is shitty because there
29:10
are so many reasons somebody might not have had access to the
29:13
early access, whether it's through funds or through
29:16
whatever disabilities. There's so many reasons why.
29:19
So we shouldn't be trying to like class divide each other in
29:22
a video game. The government does enough of
29:24
that already in real life. Sorry, that's a joke.
29:27
Actually, for legal reasons, I don't actually think that Canada
29:29
is a great government. Yeah, the PvP thing, I don't.
29:34
I like Lex. I don't PvP because I would
29:37
rather put my fist into a food compactor than the PvP because
29:42
that's how it feels. I get angry, I get frustrated.
29:45
There is no world where the extra 10% experience makes up
29:50
for the lost time in running back to my corpse, running back
29:54
to my corpse and waiting for this be able the ability to
29:57
respawn my death corpse. Crawling my way to a rested area
30:01
to turn warm mode off. Getting into the rested area,
30:04
turning warm mode off and then having to go back and find where
30:07
I was questing. Yeah, so I, I understand.
30:14
I, I, I get it. Some of those people just
30:16
wouldn't know. Some of them would have been
30:18
experienced to be peers who would know.
30:19
Hey, you know what? We're all really shitty to each
30:21
other all of the time. Maybe I should not go in here
30:24
with warm mode on? OK Lori, let me let me defend
30:29
the PvP like obviously there is the obnoxious view and with a
30:34
ten level. A10 level, anybody who was on
30:37
the beach farming level 70s, they're the shitty ones.
30:40
So if you went to the beach, you're a PvP and you went to the
30:44
beach or the landing zone to farm people loading into the
30:47
game at level 70 and have your laughs, you're you're kind of a
30:50
garbage person. But also that isn't just the one
30:58
faction that's doing it. It was both factions.
31:00
When those two people or those two groups meet up, they'll
31:03
start, they started fighting each other.
31:05
There became a protect our side versus the other one.
31:09
And that is that can be a very cool organic like let's attack
31:15
South Shore or let's attack Crossroads sort of sort of
31:18
moment where it's like, let's defend the launches against
31:21
these attacking 80s. And then it becomes this big,
31:26
this big war. And I think that can be a very
31:28
cool moment if the, if it's a reaction, it's like a counter
31:31
protest almost. And that can be a lot of fun and
31:35
redeeming for the PvP community. That's fair and I I was
31:38
wondering if there wasn't some degree of people gathering to
31:41
fight back. And like again, I want to be
31:44
clear, I don't PvP because I don't like it.
31:47
I don't like any of the vibes. I don't like the energy as in
31:51
like the I don't PvP in anything.
31:52
It's not like I only don't PvP in World of Warcraft.
31:55
So I will defer to like if PV peers want to tell me actually
31:59
this is normal and fun and we were all having a good time and
32:02
we just love to have massive repair bills.
32:05
I'm not a PV peer. No skin in the game.
32:08
Fib in our chat said it is the people, it is people hunting
32:13
people that is like bullies picking on freshmen when they
32:16
enter the school. Yeah, like that, That's the kind
32:20
of mentality that kind of started it.
32:23
And I think that like the fighting back, that is the the
32:28
redeeming part. Just one gets way more coverage
32:31
than the than the other because it is the inciting incident
32:34
really. Yeah.
32:36
I mean, I think this all to some degree kind of speaks to, I'm
32:41
jumping the gun a little bit, but I wasn't really in love with
32:45
the idea of early access. And I think that to some degree
32:50
Early Access proved that because part of the joy of a new
32:54
expansion is that you get camaraderie, right?
32:58
Everyone is having this big joyous experience together.
33:02
And we're all like hyping each other up and we're all feeling
33:04
so excited and energized and like happy.
33:07
And we're, everyone's in their discord talking away about
33:09
what's going on. And like, that's a, a thing that
33:12
the community shares. And I think what Early Access
33:15
did to that is by dividing the community, those of us who got
33:20
in early, at least in the communities I was in, it was
33:24
really exciting and energizing. But it kind of felt a little
33:26
bad, like we had to have our little spaces away from other
33:29
people. And it felt bad to know that
33:30
there were people who wanted to be there with us but couldn't be
33:33
there with us. And then the people, when you
33:35
did get into the the normal launch, I obviously wasn't
33:41
there, but my vibe was that it maybe didn't feel quite as
33:44
glorious and exciting because half the people in your group
33:48
had already done this and they'd all gone through this experience
33:51
and they're already level 80s. And so they're all doing, you
33:54
know, getting achievements that spoil parts of the story that
33:57
you didn't know. I don't know if that's true.
33:58
But like that then sometimes I got an achievement.
34:00
I'm like, whoopsie, sorry to put that on in Guild.
34:04
So like emotionally right for the the community at large.
34:10
I wasn't in love with early access technologically right.
34:16
It was so much better. It was 99 million times easier.
34:21
I like there were a couple like people sometimes disconnect when
34:24
they fly. Would they like try to launch
34:26
with dragonfly? Whatever, I'm sorry sky writing,
34:31
but overwhelmingly just everyone's experience was better
34:35
and I think part of that is because server load.
34:37
Was so. Much lower.
34:40
And then they also had a chance to test issues with a lower
34:43
server load, so that when they did have a higher server load,
34:46
it was less of like everyone's crashing out every two minutes.
34:48
So. No, to your point, Ian had said
34:52
just directly that there were issues that they were able to
34:55
catch that would have been way worse if it had been a full
34:59
release. And so early access helped
35:00
smooth out a lot of that. I had basically no issues or
35:05
like no major issues during early release.
35:08
Like I had sometimes where I couldn't interact with somebody,
35:10
so I had to like walk away from them and come come back.
35:14
But like just really small issues at best.
35:17
I actually had my first major issue on launch when the
35:21
authentication servers went down and I couldn't get back in.
35:24
I was supposed to be chaining heroics.
35:26
And I'm like, I guess, I guess that's my night out of the way,
35:31
which sucked. So I think early access
35:33
definitely helped smooth out a lot of technical issues for them
35:37
there. Sean, what about you overall?
35:40
Do you think early access yay or nay?
35:43
What's your reasoning behind it? I don't want to speak for any
35:48
community other I only speak for myself and my own experience
35:54
because anything I say to like as a generalized statement of I
35:57
think it was like this for others is going to be painted by
36:01
my own bias. For me.
36:05
I enjoyed the early access. I think like Lex mentioned and
36:08
you just mentioned, it helped a lot with preventing making
36:13
taking errors that could have been major errors and making the
36:15
minor errors. And the experience of being able
36:19
to log in and having four days before any pre season work had
36:24
to start really allowed me personally to immerse myself
36:30
more in the story of the war within that I might not have
36:32
done until months down the road. And I feel like I, I got, I got
36:35
better engaged with it. Yeah.
36:38
So I'm, I'm a big fan. Do I would I like to see it be
36:42
open to more people? Yeah.
36:44
I think I would prefer I was going to buy the Epic edition no
36:48
matter what. So to me, it never felt like buy
36:52
the Epic edition, get early access.
36:53
To me, it was, oh, you bought the Epic edition.
36:56
Well, here's some early access as a bonus.
36:59
I was going to buy that Epic edition no matter what, right.
37:01
And there's lots of people I think who are in that boat that
37:03
we're going to buy the Epic edition no matter what.
37:08
But I would like to see it be available.
37:11
I think the way Final Fantasy does it is probably what I would
37:15
feel most comfortable with from a moral standpoint where anybody
37:18
who pre-orders the game gets early access and any version of
37:23
the game gets that early access. Whether there's a cut off date
37:26
prior to by this date to get earlier or whatever.
37:27
I think that that feels a little better for me.
37:30
I I don't want it to be a case of if you can't afford to play
37:35
these four days, then you don't get to play these four days.
37:37
That would be, I think would also be a lot more joyful in my
37:41
opinion, because like the the other hand, the third hand of
37:43
all of this is that this was the first launch that I didn't feel
37:47
anxious, right. Usually when an I'm a very slow
37:50
player, I love to dilly dally. As I said, I love to go around
37:54
collecting herbs. I like doing little side
37:56
stories. I like bopping around.
37:57
I'm still at item level 553, like I just passed the level
38:01
that I'm able to do heroics. I am a very, very slow player
38:05
and usually what that means is that like the second day after
38:10
launch, people are like, wait, you're not 80 yet or you're not
38:12
like Max level yet. What's going on?
38:13
Come on, raid's coming. We got to go.
38:15
We got to go. And they don't, to be fair, they
38:16
don't say it like that. To be clear, my Guild is very,
38:18
very nice, but that starts to be the energy I'm getting of like,
38:21
oh God, I'm behind. This is bad.
38:24
Everyone is so far ahead of me and I'm not going to catch up
38:26
and I'm going to be behind for the entire season if I don't
38:29
move. An early access meant that I
38:32
didn't have to do that, right? There were three days that were
38:34
just time to vibe, time to hang out.
38:37
If you want to do a delve three times in a row, do a delve three
38:39
times in a row. Like, who cares?
38:41
And. Then maybe go buy a bottle of
38:44
wine or something because you obviously need a drink.
38:50
I'm kidding. I'm sure Dell's a great.
38:53
Listen, listen, Sean, like, come on, come on.
38:58
She obviously had the drinks before because she thought of
39:00
doing Dell three times in a row. You get and then like, wait,
39:06
then you're like, it's beneficial to go look at random
39:10
places around the map because there might be a little curio or
39:13
even a chest there. Oh, it's so fun.
39:15
And then you get to pull the whole room and you get 0 I be
39:18
when everyone's dead. Oh, it's very fun.
39:22
I loved. We need a delve stream, Lex.
39:26
I just got to see the joy to like realize this is that's what
39:30
we need. I need to do another bet so you
39:32
can do another stream. That said, for me, I, I think
39:40
what I got out of it is that they need a pre season with
39:48
significant length. I remember previous expansions
39:53
where there's being like a month or more before the raid would
39:58
launch and that would allow people to like take their time
40:02
leveling up. And even if there was like, you
40:05
know, some gear that was available through like dungeons
40:09
and such, it was available on how many different resets that
40:13
you didn't feel like you had? To get it immediately and so
40:18
like with the current gear structure, maybe what they did
40:23
ahead of launch where it's like we're going to cap how far you
40:25
can get ahead. It's going to be just normal
40:28
dungeons. You can only do Dells up to this
40:32
point. Professions are capped to this
40:35
point. Maybe if they had even with the
40:37
early access, let's say they continue into early access where
40:40
they have three days, 3-4 days ahead.
40:42
If they had like a week after that where it's like now
40:46
everybody who else launches gets this initial like low period.
40:51
I like, I think it would slow it down and allow people to do what
40:56
they needed to or what they felt they wanted to without feeling
41:00
that rush. But I don't think you can have
41:02
that low period too long because then people are really just
41:08
going to get bored out of it. They're going to like the people
41:10
who are like power plays are like I need to I want to do
41:13
stuff. You can't cut out the gameplay
41:17
underneath them for too long. It has to be a Marge a a length
41:22
of time that they don't feel the stress, but they can feel like
41:26
they're they're getting ready to get into go go mode.
41:28
Because Sean, you're a person who plays at that at that mythic
41:33
level, who loves pushing yourself against difficult
41:37
content. Yes you said it was a spa day
41:40
but like there's a difference between a long spa weekend and
41:45
I've been unemployed for a month like what the hell am I supposed
41:47
to be doing? Would you agree with that?
41:50
I do 100% I think. I think the four days was the
41:52
perfect length, but I don't think you can I don't think you
41:56
can add like I don't think you can do a four day early access
41:59
and then another week of it because blizzards timelines are
42:02
just going to be too tight. They've already told us we're
42:04
getting more expansions faster. So they're they don't have the
42:07
time in the schedule to throw weeks away like that and we lose
42:13
heroic weeks. We only are getting heroic week
42:15
this season, season 2 and season three.
42:17
There is no heroic week window. It's patch launches, one week
42:22
prep raids open on all difficulties, so you're going to
42:28
be at even at a more breakneck speed then.
42:31
So I didn't hear this so. Yeah, they've said that right
42:34
from the beginning of the fact that the heroic week is only bad
42:37
for the first week because there is so much to do at the start of
42:40
the expansion and the gearing up is happening.
42:43
And that going into season 2 and season three, they do not expect
42:46
that there will be a heroic week.
42:47
Ian and Morgan Day have both given multiple interviews where
42:50
they said that. OK, I totally must have missed
42:53
that. I also love when we get into the
42:59
story and such and I'm not focused on like, oh, I've got a
43:03
blaze through this. So I can get like whatever is
43:06
that renowned 20 that we had in a marriage or cell or blaze
43:10
through this. So I get whatever power up and
43:12
then go into into the raid. So I was kind of hoping for the
43:16
heroic week. But if they say it's going to be
43:18
OK, we will see. Before we get into the next
43:25
part, we have a new patron. Sean, can I get you to read that
43:30
out? Yeah, definitely.
43:32
In the bustling markets of Stormwind, past a mat, a jovial
43:36
mage conjured enchanted noodles that spiraled through the air to
43:39
letting children and adults alike.
43:41
His magical feast not only filled their bellies but also
43:44
fortified the city's defenders, strengthening them against the
43:47
looming dark threat. The grateful citizens of
43:49
Stormwind celebrated Pastor Matt, their whimsical wizard who
43:53
nourished both their spirits and the resolve.
43:56
Pastor Matt is clearly a hero for Azeroth, for Azeroth.
44:01
We'd like to give special thanks to our new Patreon pass to Matt
44:04
and all of our patrons. FAZ will always be free, but if
44:08
you enjoy the content we produce, consider pledging to
44:10
our Patreon at patreon.com/FAZ and.
44:15
Honestly, guys, we put out two extra episodes in the last two
44:21
weeks. I'd love to keep doing that if
44:23
there is support for that. If there are people who want to
44:26
hear from that, just let us know.
44:29
You don't necessarily have to be a patron.
44:30
It just helps us a bit. Maybe get Lex a a nice little
44:34
backdrop for herself. Get Sean that that like webcam
44:39
that he wants so we can see Shadow going.
44:43
Lance is offended. She loves her backdrop.
44:46
So that was back from when you had the the women Den.
44:50
Yeah, the the we're no longer in Femden.
44:52
We have. You can actually even see my
44:55
fancy little collector, my collector's edition.
44:59
'S the, the, the, the cut off Lex?
45:02
The cut off is we can only see about this like your shoulders
45:06
and that discards OK. So if you if you want to get
45:14
something that Lex actually needs, you know, just throw some
45:17
money our way and we'll love it. Anyways, we have had a number of
45:22
things happen since launch and these have been a lot of hot
45:26
fixes, a lot of changes that they finally got the chance to
45:31
address. The biggest one I want to
45:34
address, of course, is the levelling changes.
45:39
Now, this has been a little bit controversial.
45:42
I have my own take on this, but Sean, do you want to explain
45:45
what's going on with this? Yeah, so it became very clear
45:50
early on that levelling the the scaling was a bit off.
45:53
Characters between level 70 and level 75 were like hard
45:57
carrying. Not only hard carrying dungeons,
46:00
but they were to the point that we had a level 70 Devastation of
46:04
Ochre who tanked not only the boss but also the other two
46:08
packs of mobs we had pulled with the boss.
46:12
But they were also like one shooting mobs as they were
46:14
requesting Through the War Within.
46:17
Nobody thinks that's fun. Nobody enjoys Warcraft to go in
46:20
and one shot characters as they're levelling their way up.
46:22
So Blizzard made some adjustments to balance out the
46:26
70 to 75 range, which made it instead of one shooting mobs,
46:32
now you like two or three shot them.
46:34
So it's it's a minor change, but they also fixed to the top end
46:38
because from 76 to 80 felt really bad because you didn't
46:42
you were you became much weaker over time.
46:44
So they actually balanced it out so that you feel stronger now as
46:47
you get up in levels. And then there's also some item
46:50
level scaling involved as well that adjusts the mobs health
46:54
damage based on your item level to help make it feel like an
46:59
overall more smooth and a better experience for everyone.
47:02
And the community embraced it. Oh, I'm sorry, no, I read that
47:11
wrong. The community lost their minds.
47:17
Yeah. I, I honestly think that if you
47:22
have an audience, you have a responsibility to that audience.
47:29
It is. I'm looking at you, Sean.
47:32
I'm looking at you, Lex. I feel like we were just very
47:35
fair to the audience. I I think that I think that we
47:39
were, we were fair though because we took the time to
47:41
explain it. I think that if you put a
47:44
headline out there and a lot of people just check out headlines
47:48
and they don't fully read through the article and part of
47:51
that's on them, but like maybe make your headline less
47:55
inflammatory. I had so many conversations
48:00
where there where is like Blizzard hates fun.
48:03
They're they're nerfing all the characters and everybody who was
48:10
in it was saying like I don't want to do dungeons, Like I want
48:14
to go in there and do a dungeon, but like I don't have any time.
48:16
I just have to keep racing after whoever because it didn't even
48:20
need to be the tank devastation of ochre one shot shot and
48:23
stuff. And I can't even get off a
48:26
rotation or I can't I can't even stop to loot.
48:30
Like it just feels like I am constantly doing this rush thing
48:34
and what was the point of me doing early access if I had to
48:36
rush? You guys were saying I got to
48:39
explore all the stories, I got to do these fun delves.
48:42
This is the opposite of that. This is Blizzard had to turn off
48:48
experience freezing at level 70, so trying head off the worst of
48:51
it. So we are.
48:53
So anybody who was paying attention knew something was
48:56
coming and I did a couple of a couple of normal dungeons
49:02
because I was like, oh you know, I hit 80 and then I was like you
49:04
know what, I'll come back to this character because it was
49:08
literally I could not get like 3 moves in before it was like race
49:13
and do something else. Or people would be taking every
49:18
bit of trash to the first boss. As soon as the first boss was
49:22
dead, whether there were some stragglers or not, they'd be
49:25
racing to the next one. And remember guys, stops don't
49:28
interrupt anymore. You need particular interrupts
49:31
and if and if that that doesn't happen, you've got a bunch of
49:34
casters or something like right? And the only reason that that's
49:38
not an issue is because they do zero damage to the level 70.
49:42
But guess what? I might have been 80 trying to
49:45
get a little bit of gear and so those casters can kill me.
49:50
And it was just wholly unfun, in my opinion.
49:55
And something needed to be done about it.
49:58
And I did have friends that were like, hey, yeah, I'll go grab my
50:02
paladin and I'll, I'll carry it through and you can get a bunch
50:06
of levels. Guess why my warlock got to 76?
50:10
Because I had some friends that were like, let's do this.
50:12
And I was like, OK, I'm going to do this because I want to know
50:15
how this is working. Warlocks need time to, to like
50:20
get the rotation going. Guys, it's it's not a it's, it
50:26
felt like the worst case of those paid services where it's
50:31
like, let's boost you and you just sit in the corner and I'll
50:34
get you the experience. That's what it felt like.
50:36
It I think it was either the last episode or a couple
50:40
episodes ago that I said I tried to play time running at the very
50:44
end of time running and I realized midway through that I
50:47
was just not having a good night because I was so bored.
50:50
It was the same vibe for me going going into dungeons.
50:53
The rest of the War within was crazy fun.
50:55
I had like, I've been loving it every single second of it's
50:58
incredible It yeah, I don't play World of Warcraft to jog after
51:03
somebody. And so I was also just like not
51:07
doing dungeons because I simply did not want to deal with it.
51:10
So yeah, I agree that the way it was sold didn't feel good.
51:13
I think my vibe from listening to some other people was that it
51:16
also felt particularly bad because it's happened
51:18
immediately after Early Access ended.
51:21
So the people who are already feeling kind of raw that they
51:24
didn't get to play early Access with their friends also like,
51:27
wait, are you serious? Like I also now have to do it
51:29
harder at the end of early access, which again, I think it
51:33
needed to happen. It, it was too easy, it was
51:35
boring. The the game demands some degree
51:38
of challenge. And it's not actually like it's
51:42
not. If Blizzard had never said
51:43
anything and never told anybody, and you weren't able to data
51:47
mine the number of differences, I don't think anybody would
51:49
have. I don't think anyone would have
51:50
noticed. Oh, yeah, Because it doesn't
51:52
even feel that much different. It feels pretty much the same,
51:55
except you're stronger in the back half of the leveling, which
51:58
you should be. Yeah, it's pretty much, yeah.
52:03
I don't know. I would say, like you said, it
52:08
had to happen, but it's. It was definitely not.
52:11
The sky is falling. Blizzard hates fun.
52:14
Look at them pulling the rug out from underneath these people you
52:18
had to pay to get your four days of free level and that none of
52:21
that. It's all still really easy to
52:22
level from 70 to 80 so. Yeah, and so they let us know
52:29
ahead of time. They did some further
52:33
clarifications afterwards because the narrative just went
52:36
wild on it. And they put out a Twitter post.
52:39
I've linked both of those in in the show notes.
52:41
I have been in many different discords and, and such and, and
52:46
some people who are really disliking it.
52:50
I think that the worst take I have heard and I, I want to take
52:54
the time while I have your attention guys to say this is
52:58
the people who the people who are saying this never should
53:01
have happened and why would Blizzard let let this this
53:05
through? That is a very defeatist
53:09
attitude in that I guess at this point you're hoping Blizzard
53:13
creates a time machine. I don't have that bronze dragon
53:19
flight. I don't know.
53:19
They don't have to make a machine.
53:20
For it, this is this is true. And I don't think there's any
53:24
way to make this right because unless you were going to flag
53:28
every account that is that had early accents, say you can't
53:33
play with the people that didn't have early access for these
53:37
three days while they have the power gap to make the
53:40
difference. Like I don't think there's a way
53:42
forward without just nipping this in the bud unless you want
53:46
to like give them. Like I, I just, I don't, I don't
53:49
think there's a fairway to do this.
53:51
Well, there is. They did it.
53:52
This is the fairway. Levelling feels better for
53:54
everyone. Dungeons feel better for
53:55
everyone. They saw an issue that the
53:58
player base asked them to fix and they fixed it.
54:02
And then we complained that they fixed it.
54:03
It's like someday, Wow, Twitter's gonna not cut off its
54:08
own nose to spite its face, that is not that day.
54:13
OK, I do want to say that it's clearly different segments of
54:18
the Wow Twitter space or the different, different things that
54:22
are some people like, yeah, I just needed to be fixed.
54:24
And some people are like, oh, no, this abuse that I clearly
54:28
was enjoying, it's gone. But like, yeah, it gets tiresome
54:34
sometimes. Other changes that they've made
54:37
that I thought were good adjustments, turning off tear
54:41
sets from Dragonflight, the fact that tear sets were still worth
54:44
10 to 15% of damage at level 80 and in some cases it was better
54:50
to just keep your four set despite the fact that you were
54:53
like hundreds of item levels down to be more effective was
54:58
incredibly poor and I'm glad they shut that shut that down
55:04
that seems to have gone over better.
55:06
Have you seen anybody complaining about that?
55:08
Well, that's. Usually automatic, right?
55:10
I'm kind of hearing you say this.
55:12
I, I just gave away my four piece because it's like, oh, to
55:15
yourself, go away. It's not going to work.
55:17
Clearly, we're on the new expansion.
55:22
I'm pretty sure The Sims have all been busted since War Within
55:25
started. So there's a lot of people who
55:26
were saying my SIM says this is better and those numbers are
55:29
just wrong. Yeah, there's I don't think
55:33
there's any world where 40 item levels on a piece of gear are
55:36
going to away a proc or Cdr on an item, but.
55:41
It's just it's percentage, percentage of damage that you're
55:44
you're doing. Like if you're if your proc is
55:48
every time you do this move, this move gets gets faster like
55:52
the damage versus how frequently it's happening actually does
55:57
make a difference. OK, Yeah.
56:00
They turn it off, it's good, nobody wants it.
56:02
Nobody should be still wearing Dragonflight 4 pieces at that
56:07
level. And to your question, Lex, in
56:11
many instances it becomes legacy loop because of changes that
56:14
they make to the classes. So going to Dragonflight, we got
56:18
the new the new talent system. And so a lot of the tier that
56:23
came from shadow lands was immediately made legacy and
56:28
didn't work right. But going back to the last time
56:32
we had tier, let's say Legion going into BFA, there were
56:36
particular specs, not every spec like it seems very much
56:42
overloaded this time, but something like Frost Mage had
56:45
their tier set bonus that actually was something that they
56:48
wanted to carry into old Deer. So it has had.
56:51
It has happened before. Wild.
56:54
The what was that, Sean? No, not that we're good.
56:59
I thought I banned the wrong person.
57:01
Oh, OK. The other thing is that they put
57:06
out a timeline of things coming out, so we won't get Urban
57:10
unlocked until September 3rd. I mean, there was a little bit
57:13
of complaining because we were like, oh, you said it'd be
57:14
available on launch and it's a little bit after launch.
57:18
Small, small potatoes. But we got a lot of stuff that
57:22
came in with the launch, like heroic dungeons, which are
57:27
somewhat better than normal dungeons.
57:29
I know my normal dungeon experience as I described it was
57:33
a little a little off, But in general, normal dungeons seem
57:37
quite undertuned this expansion. Heroic dungeons also feel a
57:43
little undertuned, but at least I get to see like three of the
57:46
moves before the enemy falls over.
57:48
So that's great. We got the professional sparks
57:54
and that invigorated the auction house and hey, you don't know, I
57:58
mean, looking at the auction house, that was fun and it just
58:00
it feels like this second coming of the war within now with with
58:06
the official launch, like it actually feels like a second
58:09
launch. Yeah, that feels good.
58:14
Heroics ice. So right now heroics drop a
58:18
lower item level than they will when season one starts.
58:22
I have to believe that a difficulty boost comes with them
58:25
because when you say they don't feel much difficult or much more
58:29
difficult than normals. We were running them one tank
58:33
for DPS, we weren't even using healers.
58:35
And on launch night when we were in the middle of a stone vault,
58:40
two of our players DC Ed before the third boss and we finished
58:45
the dungeon, me and two DPS. And when I say it didn't slow
58:51
down how I pull, I'm not exaggerating.
58:54
I still was pulling everything to a boss with just three of us
59:00
and no healer. So and that was the first night
59:04
of heroin. So it's not like we were like
59:06
super over gearing it. There's no way that difficult.
59:08
They're they they're supposed to be the same difficulty level of
59:11
a mythic 0 at the start of Dragonflight.
59:14
There is a zero chance that they are right now.
59:16
So in two weeks when season one opens and a blue post comes out
59:21
that says they're increasing the difficulty of heroics, please, I
59:24
beg you, don't freak out because it's going to happen because
59:29
they're gonna bump up the item level that those drop.
59:31
They have to make them more difficult.
59:33
So please, please, I'm begging community, when that happens,
59:36
when that tweet comes out, don't lose it.
59:40
I really need to start up an Etsy store for torches and
59:45
pitchforks. I could be making bank off the
59:48
Wow community but like I I agree.
59:52
I was in a in a similar situation.
59:55
We were doing literally the stone vault and part way through
59:59
disconnects happened and the team went running through.
1:00:03
That's where our stories differ, though.
1:00:04
I happen to be on the wrong side of the disconnect, so I can't
1:00:07
tell you if they slowed down pulling.
1:00:09
All I know is that my launch night was ruined for for a bit.
1:00:13
But they seem to have gone through the dungeon.
1:00:16
I got stuff in the mail that said, hey, thanks for
1:00:19
participating. Yeah.
1:00:22
And yeah, I think they got, I think they got to, they got to
1:00:26
like, push up the difficulty on that.
1:00:28
Yeah. I will.
1:00:29
Say anything? Go ahead and being a little bit
1:00:33
of a doomer here, I do sort of between how heroic dungeons are
1:00:38
being run now and also the item level shift.
1:00:41
I think that the team kind of like soft scrapped the idea that
1:00:46
heroic dungeons are meaningful and doesn't want to tell us
1:00:50
that, but I think they don't. I don't, I think the squish
1:00:53
didn't actually, I mean, I think the squish like happened.
1:00:56
I I just don't see it in any of their actions.
1:00:59
It doesn't feel like heroic is going to be meaningful long
1:01:01
term. You know, like like we were.
1:01:03
I was saying this on the last one of the other episodes, but
1:01:06
like Heroic gives the same item level as LFR.
1:01:09
That's not meaningful loot. Anyway, that's my tinfoil hat.
1:01:12
That's my rumor of the day. I I can't, Yeah, I can't, like
1:01:18
readily dispel that. Like with things as they are.
1:01:22
You could be right, Lex. OK.
1:01:25
All right. So I got to throw this question
1:01:28
to each of you. We'll start with you, Lex.
1:01:31
Do you have any goals for this expansion that looking forward
1:01:35
in the weeks to come? Do you have any goals for
1:01:37
yourself? I want to have fun leveling.
1:01:43
Oh, sorry, not leveling gearing. I think that gearing is
1:01:45
something that usually hits my brain as a like all right time
1:01:48
to make the numbers get bigger. This is going to suck.
1:01:51
And I think that's one of the reasons why mythic plus tends to
1:01:53
stress me out also because I freak out that everyone hates me
1:01:56
and I'm running everyone's tonight.
1:01:57
So I want to get rid of both of those ideas.
1:01:59
I want to focus on gearing off and getting ready and getting my
1:02:03
numbers good and high and powerful without feeling overly
1:02:07
panicked. And I also want to do dungeons
1:02:11
on a regular basis with joy and love, and not because I feel
1:02:13
like I have to, but because I get a new and then everyone died
1:02:17
here I mean. I hope having.
1:02:21
So much fun. You have found your calling, I
1:02:27
think with that Demon Hunter. I'm I'm glad for that.
1:02:30
OK, And Sean, what about you now?
1:02:34
I like. I think this question probably
1:02:36
has a different answer for you than before.
1:02:38
You found your 1 character per region calling what?
1:02:43
What other goals do you have for this expansion?
1:02:47
It's to be accepted as a storm rider and to find a Storm Rook
1:02:52
that chooses me as its partner just as much as I choose it,
1:02:56
without having to force it with bindings like the the old ways.
1:03:00
Sean. I will find you a storm rider
1:03:01
also, I'm not even kidding. Also I would like to convince my
1:03:08
two Co hosts on the For Azeroth podcast that we should set up a
1:03:12
regular for Azure authentic plus night so that Lex can do some of
1:03:16
those dungeons with people that she knows she's not ruining
1:03:18
their night because they adore her.
1:03:21
OK, we can get you to tank, right?
1:03:25
Lex, you're now at DPS. So then we just need to find
1:03:28
like a healer and some DPS and we're good to go.
1:03:33
All right then. Do you guys have any tips for
1:03:39
our viewers? Just tips for the early
1:03:42
expansion it goes. Slow down the story of the War
1:03:47
Within, in my unbiased opinion is the best that it has been for
1:03:54
main campaign and side quests which are now called local
1:03:56
stories. I embrace it.
1:03:59
It is the best that it has been since Wrath of the Lich King,
1:04:03
which was the end cap of everything from Warcraft one up
1:04:08
until, you know, that point in World of Warcraft the the quest
1:04:13
team absolutely blew everything they've done in the past out of
1:04:18
the water. So don't.
1:04:20
If you're somebody who normally would wait three months in
1:04:22
before going and getting through all the quests, don't do them
1:04:26
now. OK.
1:04:30
And Lex, do you have any tips or pointers that you would want to
1:04:34
put out to the For Azeroth community as a whole?
1:04:37
Yeah, kind of on the same vein as Sean, one thing that they've
1:04:41
done a lot in War Within is give us opportunities to customize
1:04:45
their own experience. And so play around with it and
1:04:48
figure out what you actually like.
1:04:50
I genuinely like I had been joking about how exciting I
1:04:53
excited I was about Delves. Like I didn't expect to love
1:04:56
them this much. I thought, especially after
1:04:57
doing them on the beta, I thought this is kind of not
1:05:01
actually anything that I wanted. And it's you know, I'll get
1:05:03
through it, but it's not going to be like, I am absolutely in
1:05:07
love. I have so much fun.
1:05:09
Every time I see Adele, I'm like, oh, I can pop right in and
1:05:11
I have a good time. And it's not everybody that's
1:05:13
apparently not my two Co hosts, which makes me think it's
1:05:16
probably not most of the World of Warcraft community, which is
1:05:18
OK, which is OK because you get to customize your experience.
1:05:21
And so if you're playing this and you're like, wow, I'm really
1:05:24
not having fun playing this way, there's probably another way you
1:05:27
can play and there's probably other options.
1:05:29
And the team, the Blizzard team is working really hard to give
1:05:31
us those options to play how we want.
1:05:33
So explore, have a good time. Do you have any tips, Mindy?
1:05:37
So I hope those tips do you. Have any tips?
1:05:42
Oh, honestly, I would say that explore things, take the time,
1:05:50
explore things. That's kind of a long lines what
1:05:52
you're saying, but like things that you may not have thought
1:05:56
like, oh, I'm like, I should try this.
1:05:59
Now is the time. It is a new expansion.
1:06:01
Everybody's starting fresh. If you want to try PvP, nobody's
1:06:05
got a huge gear advantage over you.
1:06:07
If you want to go and do the dungeons, there's only a handful
1:06:10
of people that have like done these things to death on the
1:06:14
beta that know the level of experience that becomes sort of
1:06:18
required later on. Right now is the now is the time
1:06:22
to try and make up that that experience gap, that knowledge
1:06:26
gap, because they've got the videos out there.
1:06:28
This is the time to do that. If you are somebody who loves
1:06:32
the story, there is no better time than to go through through
1:06:37
this. So check it out, enjoy whatever
1:06:41
you wanted to dabble in, find your find your passion, because
1:06:46
I have not seen this many guildies just logging in or I
1:06:50
run into them in front of it. I'm just like, hey, salute.
1:06:53
And then they're like, oh, hey, Manny.
1:06:56
That's sort of the thing. It's it is a great time to just
1:06:59
be in this game enjoying it with your friends.
1:07:02
But until next time guys, may all your hits be good.