Latest / For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast / #271 - For Azeroth!: “The War Within Unleashed”

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#271 - For Azeroth!: “The War Within Unleashed” · For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast

0:00
This episode we take an early look at the War Within Alpha,
0:03
which will be going live later this week.
0:07
Lex and I will talk all about delves, dungeons, and all the
0:12
dangers you will be facing on the Isle of Doran.
0:15
Let's get into it For calendar to the burning region, for
0:22
Gilnaeus, for the Lich King, for the Cindora, For the Alliance
0:34
for Azeroth. Hello and welcome to For
0:39
Azeroth. I for the first time opening the
0:43
episode. I'm Lex Lex rants who will rant
0:47
forever, and I am here with my wonderful Co host Manny.
0:51
Manny, How are you doing? I am doing amazing.
0:56
We have big things to talk about.
0:59
Had to record this episode in the dark because we're under
1:02
embargo. But before we go deep into that,
1:06
I do want to say that we're doing a bigger things.
1:11
First major announcement is that FAZ is returning to a weekly
1:17
show. So you will be getting episodes
1:19
each and every week. So I'm glad for that because
1:23
there's so much news coming out. But it's not just that.
1:27
We are also going to be doing a little thing called a book club.
1:33
Lex, do you want to talk about that?
1:36
Oh, you bet I do. So we have been talking for a
1:39
bit about being very interested in reading a little bit more of
1:42
the lore. And so we have decided to start
1:44
reading books, the reading lore novels together and then having
1:49
an opportunity to kind of chat as a for Azeroth team.
1:53
And by the for Azeroth team, I mean the, you know, the, the
1:56
listeners and and everybody all coming together.
1:58
So we're going to be starting out in May.
2:00
We don't have an exact date yet. We're going to be starting with
2:03
the book Arthus Rise of the Lich King by Christy Golden, which I
2:07
have not read yet but from all accounts is an incredible book
2:11
and we would love to have you come and hang out, read it to
2:14
chat about it and get a a bit deeper of a dive into the lore.
2:19
I've been reading some of the other books and I will say A
2:21
Golden is an unbelievable writer.
2:23
She does such a good job. And also it's really an
2:27
interesting way to really like come to a better understanding
2:30
what's going on with the characters and bring yourself
2:33
back to lore that I at least hadn't been thinking about for a
2:35
while. So we would love to have you pop
2:38
in, come say hi, we'll give you an actual date in the future,
2:41
but we wanted people to know that we will be reading the
2:43
Artist novel by Christy Golden. Yeah, yeah.
2:46
And everybody who wants to participate that with that,
2:49
that's going to be in the fast discord.
2:51
So make sure you join in. Bit dot LY slash fast discord
2:55
and we're going to dive deep into the lore every month with a
2:58
book one chapter at a time. Now with that said, oh man,
3:04
guys, maybe I buried the lead here because over the last few
3:10
days we've been seeing a lot of memes on the Internet.
3:13
A lot of, oh, we'll be back on Wednesday.
3:17
And we all knew what that was. People kid not, cannot just keep
3:22
it down low, but the embargo was lifted By the time you're
3:25
hearing this. We get to talk all about the war
3:28
within. And so I was one of the lucky
3:31
people who got to play a early press release and got to sit
3:36
down with the developers and have some of our questions
3:39
answered. And so we're going to be sharing
3:41
all of that with you today. And Lex is going to be grilling
3:44
me to get that information out as much as I can remember
3:46
because it was a lot. There is a lot coming out, guys,
3:49
and that's why we've got to start getting this out to you.
3:52
So, Lex, where do you want to begin?
3:54
Where do I want to begin? So I suppose I will begin,
3:58
Manny, with what would you say? For you stood out the most with
4:02
just all of the the slew of information that you've gotten
4:05
in the last however long. Oh man.
4:09
Like the thing that's standing out for me is 1.
4:15
How much the team two is just cooking, absolutely bringing so
4:21
much to us. Like the weekend just before
4:24
this, knowing that I was going to be diving into the alpha, I
4:27
also wanted to play the Mr. Pandaria remix and give that a a
4:32
test, right? And my goodness, there's so
4:35
much. And I wish we could talk about
4:36
that. But like, this is just the
4:37
bigger thing to talk about. But like getting into the alpha
4:43
properly, what the first thing that I needed to dive into was
4:47
like actually get my hands on hero talent.
4:50
Does does the classes that I wanted to play, do the classes
4:54
that I wanted to play actually feel like, you know, a shaman, A
5:00
warlock, a a warrior, right? Those are three that I like
5:05
immediately dived into you and I got to to like take a little
5:09
gander quickly at the at a holy priest and go through that.
5:17
But like dude, does it still feel like your your character?
5:19
Is it overwhelming sort of thing.
5:21
And for the for the three characters that I like know
5:26
relatively it didn't feel like it derailed what the class was
5:31
about. When I was playing Demonology I
5:35
tried the Diabolis and that is the like big summoning ones
5:39
where you're summoning these greater demons.
5:42
And I was basically able to do roughly 'cause I don't have any
5:46
tear tear on the alpha, it's all these pre made slubs of newly
5:54
made characters. But roughly, I was able to play
5:57
like I would on live get, feel like I was doing my rotation,
6:02
but also getting this extra really cool little thing that
6:06
like, it's like when you're first playing with a new tier
6:10
set and you're not quite sure how to maximize it.
6:12
Like there's a little bit of like of like, oh this is new,
6:17
but like I don't know how to like really bring in the the
6:20
hits, except this felt so cool and I think the team has been
6:28
doing them a disservice. Doing themselves a disservice.
6:32
Because it is one thing to sort of like read up about like how
6:36
how this is supposed to work and have your questions about it,
6:41
but it is a different thing to actually like feel it in action
6:46
and how it plays. I haven't been really a big fan
6:56
of the far seer hero talents for shamans because I was you know
7:03
like all the questions. It seems like it favors 1 build
7:06
over another. It feels like I'm being forced
7:09
to use certain abilities that like I might not have picked
7:14
otherwise and when I played it those abilities just felt good.
7:21
It just it it like it worked. And it also when I looked at
7:26
like a little bit deeper into it, I was like OK, I can see
7:30
actually how this is balanced so that it works for both.
7:33
Like because Elemental Shaman is one of those lucky specs that
7:38
has multiple ways to play it. So you can do the lightning
7:44
build or you can do the fire build and apparently neither
7:48
never will. The two meet and hearts here
7:52
initially felt like it was going to favour the fire build over
7:55
the lightning bolt but upon testing it out and like I mean I
8:04
was pulling out the combat log, I was diving deep into like oh
8:09
what spell triggers what ability, what are those
8:13
abilities to contingent on this? Does this thing scale with me?
8:17
I'm not a theory crafter like I I can't say that like I'm
8:22
somebody who can do theory crafting like the best of them.
8:25
But I do know my way enough around a class to be able to see
8:29
where scaling comes into play, where the hooks and the triggers
8:35
are. And so I think they've done a
8:39
really good job with that one, with things that I don't know as
8:44
well. It's it was more just like, does
8:49
this feel fun? And in in both occasions, yeah,
8:55
it felt fun. It felt like they were bringing
8:58
something that I could really love.
9:01
And so like the questions I have about it have completely
9:04
changed. So that's that's unfortunately
9:06
the an answer to only one of your questions and I'm sure you
9:12
have a lot more. But like is there anything else
9:14
you kind of really wanted to know about like just like first
9:17
things or is there like do those spark any other questions for
9:20
you? Oh man, Was there anything while
9:23
you were testing out the classes in particular?
9:26
Like, do you think that you have a direction you want to go for a
9:28
new Maine? Like, has this changed the way
9:31
that you're planning your future?
9:32
Or does it feel like it was similar enough that it didn't,
9:34
like, fundamentally shake up the way that you're going to be
9:37
playing World of Warcraft in War Within?
9:40
Oh, OK. So like, I have been fairly
9:43
stubbornly A shaman Maine for umpteen years.
9:50
Like back when you were playing with your family Lex and you're
9:54
just like join the RPI was still stubbornly Shaman.
10:01
I've been looking at Warlock a lot and this hasn't helped nor
10:07
has it hindered like the Warlock has always been something where
10:13
when I play Demonology I just love how it feels and the
10:17
additional flavour of the Diablis and being able to like I
10:26
I don't want to use the word occasionally because it's more
10:29
frequent than that, but it's not happening every five seconds.
10:32
It's just like there are this every so often pop big demon,
10:38
little override on your ability and be like oh I want to press
10:41
that while it's it's going. And that is a little bit of a
10:45
change from from Demonology, but not really like demonology was
10:51
sort of like a do your rotation but respond to procs sort of
10:56
thing. Anyways and this is just new
10:59
procs. So it's an so it's like doubling
11:02
down on demonology but giving it more of what it what it already
11:06
had both thematically and in terms of like mechanics.
11:12
So I'm just getting more more warlock for my warlock and with
11:20
and with Shaman. I'm getting more shaman for my
11:23
shaman. So I just I feel like did I like
11:26
it before and did they pick the right thing to to double down on
11:32
is the question And so I like it for elemental.
11:37
I like it for demonology. I definitely love it for
11:42
protection warrior like oh man, like I'm I'm I'm loving it.
11:47
I had to run on a because like sometimes it was just like can
11:53
we get the right people? And I ended up running a dungeon
11:57
with with a couple of people and deciding, OK, I'm going to heal
12:03
this because we need a healer. And for Resto Shaman, I am like
12:10
I was able to change the talents so that there wasn't as much of
12:15
the RNG and it was very much controlled and the fact that
12:19
they could do that was very was very helpful.
12:24
I think that like I was, I was worried a lot about like
12:28
particular talents while not taking the context of them And
12:32
once it felt felt more in context.
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I, like a lot of my fears, have been assuaged, I guess.
12:39
That is something that I I think a lot when I hear the the
12:43
responses that come when anything's announced for World
12:46
Warcraft is that like the the player base has been playing
12:49
this game for a really long time and so they do really know what
12:52
they're talking about in in a lot of ways.
12:54
But at the end on the other hand, this is a game and often I
12:57
think you do kind of need to get your hands in it to understand
12:59
what's actually going on, what people are actually feeling.
13:02
So it's good to know that they the when you get your hands in
13:05
it, it's very exciting and it's it's feeling the way that it
13:07
want you want it to feel and it's feeling like it's giving
13:10
something to the game. Yeah.
13:14
So I am going to immediately pivot and talk about what I want
13:17
to talk about, which is delves you.
13:19
Have you been able to play any of the delves or get your hands
13:22
in that world? I went to every single delve
13:26
that that was available for testing and I guess this is a
13:29
good point to talk about. Like what was open to us for
13:32
testing. So all of the classes were open
13:35
for testing. All of the all of the previously
13:42
announced hero talents were open for testing, as well as four
13:47
hero talents that weren't previously announced were
13:50
available, including Void Weaver.
13:54
Oh, sorry, Void Weaver for Shadow Priests, which was cool,
13:58
and everybody is going to get their hands on this because the
14:02
public alpha is going live this week.
14:08
So that's a big the bill that we had allowed us to play the first
14:14
zone and it had three delves available to it and two
14:19
dungeons. So I tested all of those
14:22
multiple times and I am liking my initial impression of delves
14:30
for for a give me variety and something to do from like
14:39
day-to-day. But delves are also very early
14:44
and there's some things that I'm worried about.
14:46
One of the things that I'm worried about is of course
14:49
difficulty. The initial, the initial run
14:55
through. You're on difficulty one, and
14:57
there's multiple difficulties. Apparently you can turn this
14:59
thing all the way up to 11. Pardon the pun, but on for your
15:05
levelling and for the the purpose of testing, we're only
15:11
allowed to test difficulty one and difficulty 2.
15:14
Difficulty one is pure accessibility.
15:19
Nothing in there is really going to threaten you if you have like
15:23
a like even the most rough idea of testing.
15:26
Now I hate when I give these impressions because what I feel
15:32
is incredibly accessible and and relatively harmless may actually
15:38
be challenging for some people. So I do want to say that it is
15:41
the accessible stuff. If you find that level 1
15:47
challenging or level 2 challenging, I don't want to
15:51
dismiss somebody else's, like where somebody else is coming
15:54
from, just like because I don't have that point of view.
15:58
But like level one and level 2 feel about accessibility, I
16:02
could see the jump in difficulty from level 1 to level 2.
16:05
My health bar actually started moving things.
16:10
Things didn't die before they could even reach me.
16:13
So I was happier about that. And with nine more difficulty
16:20
levels there, sure. But there's also a question
16:24
about scaling. And like I am really worried
16:30
that by the time we are, you know, raiding, do our doing our
16:35
keystone dungeons and all of that with like you know, Heroic
16:40
and Mythic 0 now being shifted into to higher gears, I I'm
16:46
worried how much delves will be left, left, left in the dust.
16:52
And part of that is in the way that they are set up to reward
16:58
gear at the highest difficulty, which sorry, the highest
17:02
rewards, right. Those rewards cap out around
17:06
difficulty 8, with your difficulties of 9/10/11 being
17:12
purely about bragging rights. Really.
17:15
Just like hey, I was able to push this all the way up to the
17:19
highest difficulty. Oh, fascinating.
17:22
Right. A Delve 8 rewards about the same
17:27
as a Mythic 5, which is halfway through the Mythic track, right?
17:34
It goes all the way up to Mythic 10, So there's that to be
17:37
involved, that to be like considered.
17:41
The other thing is that raids obviously scale up as well but
17:48
if you're I don't think every single thing in the game needs
17:53
to immediately ratchet up to the.
17:56
I'm going to break myself like everything's going to one shot
17:59
me difficulty and so I I think that should be OK in my opinion.
18:05
It's just I put this idea and like this if this comes comes
18:11
out and like this is something they do 100%.
18:15
I'm taking credit for it because, oh, as you.
18:17
Deserve. Yeah, I mean like they they were
18:20
having AQ and A and I was like, hey, rather than infinitely
18:23
scaling it, what if there was a difficulty like and had you had
18:27
they considered a difficulty that was closer to challenge
18:30
modes? Because like you know, we had
18:31
just been back in Mr. Pandaria for the Mr. Pandaria remix and
18:35
challenge modes debuted in in Mr. Pandaria.
18:38
So for Lex, who probably didn't play during Mr. Pandaria, and
18:42
for those of you who need the refresher, challenge modes are
18:45
the precursor to Mythic Plus. They didn't.
18:49
They didn't go up in difficulty infinitely, but what they did
18:53
was they scaled you down so that your gear level was always at a
19:01
certain point and no higher. You could be under geared and
19:04
therefore punish yourself, but even if you went back at the end
19:08
of the expansion you would get scaled down to the appropriate
19:12
gear level to make it a challenge and then they would
19:15
have can you beat it in this time for gold, silver, Bronze.
19:20
Now I'm not suggesting timers here guys.
19:22
I think that delves should abstain from timers unless that
19:27
is some house rule that people want to put in for their own
19:30
little tournament. I think elves should be
19:33
something that you progress through at your own rate.
19:36
And like K is this mob pack something that I can handle?
19:41
Is this particular encounter or puzzle something that I can
19:46
handle? And that to me should be the
19:48
challenge of it. Not a race against the clock,
19:51
but scaling that down or scaling you down so that it is always an
19:56
appropriate challenge I think would be a great mode.
19:58
So challenge delves. I I want it.
20:01
And you heard it here first. That would be very cool.
20:06
Do you think that that will having played delves a little
20:10
bit and and with the awareness that it's in very early testing,
20:14
Can you imagine yourself enjoying Delves long term like
20:19
when you've played these quite a few times or did it feel like
20:21
something that maybe would get a little bit stale?
20:24
I think that if they time it right, Delves will have a longer
20:29
shelf life than Mythic Plus and that is high praise.
20:35
Like we have a rotation of Mythic Plus where weekly the
20:39
affixes change which gives it a little bit of flavour.
20:42
Sometimes people are feel that the flavour of affixes kind of
20:45
overwhelm the dungeon and that's a conversation for a different
20:49
day. But the dungeons themselves stay
20:50
relatively static. You can only go back so many
20:54
times to like Dawn of the Infinite Higher Rise or Fall,
20:58
right so many times. This is the 12 different delves
21:09
that are three per zone. But then on top of that, there's
21:13
a 13th delve. So we're getting more of them.
21:18
And each delve has different scenarios in it.
21:22
So when you do a delve, one day you might be doing the like, oh,
21:27
we've got to like, rescue all these miners 'cause they're
21:30
trapped down there. And the Nubians, the Nubians are
21:33
closing in, and that's the scenario you're doing.
21:36
But then you might go back another time, and there's no
21:40
miners. It's instead the Arafi and
21:43
they've come to purge the place with Holy Fire and get rid of
21:46
these nerubians. So now you're doing, you're
21:49
going through the same place, but the content, the scenarios,
21:53
the way that you approach it is completely different.
21:57
And so I think that that's going to give these things a lot more
22:02
of a different shelf life. It's like when you play one of
22:07
the dungeons that came back from previous, but they've completely
22:12
rearranged all the bosses and you have to learn the bosses
22:15
again. I had run Throne of Tides many,
22:18
many times back in Cataclysm, but I had to relearn it.
22:23
And though there was like a little bit of familiarity
22:26
because like you know, you can't change the way that the layout
22:29
is, the fact that like the trash and the bosses acted completely
22:34
different, completely reinvigorated That and I think
22:37
because of that Delves could be the like a new pillar for end
22:46
game content that will be fresh long after you're tired of
22:51
killing the same old raid boss. Yeah, yeah that's I think that's
22:56
very exciting and I'm, I think they're also, I'm guessing will
23:00
be a little bit less of like a meta drive because it's not
23:03
necessarily group content, right.
23:06
Like part of the point of delve that you can play on your own,
23:10
which I think will allow them to kind of like shake things up a
23:13
little bit more and make it very exciting for people to play
23:17
solo, which is something that I feel like we're seeing more and
23:21
more them making possible. Is that solo play and is that
23:25
ability to make to to to go through content at your pace and
23:30
and with your your people or on your own, which is very exciting
23:36
to me as a as a primary or as very much other than rating a
23:40
solo player to see them kind of give the focus of spaces that.
23:46
Well, Lex, I gotta, I gotta tell you, maybe maybe now is the time
23:50
for your solo play to end 'cause like I I understand you, you you
23:55
have your your limited time, but they are making Dells more open
24:00
for people than ever. One is that of course, it's
24:05
scale. So you can go by yourself, you
24:07
can go with your friends, you can do group Finder and find
24:12
people for delves, but you can also do delves cross faction
24:17
from day one. So your friends who are on the
24:20
opposite side of that faction divide can totally jump in with
24:24
you. That is not an issue.
24:27
But maybe. Then I'd have to play with you
24:29
instead of Bran bronze beard, who, like you, really think that
24:33
I'd rather spend time with my friends instead of some like
24:37
funny pixels. I mean, that's the beauty.
24:40
Of delves. That's the beauty of delves,
24:42
Lex. You can set up so that even if
24:46
you're running with your friends, you don't have to miss
24:47
out on Bran. Bran will be there, at least for
24:50
season one. There is going to be a different
24:52
companion each each season, right?
24:55
So that season one you have Bran and you level up your brand and
24:59
that levelling up of your brand so that he gets new abilities
25:02
and and become stronger. That is account wide, which the
25:07
developers actually laughed at 'cause they're like, yeah, you
25:09
could have like your maxed out brand and you're bringing in
25:12
your like day one fresh alt and you're just like sit back and
25:16
watch Bran just demolish the dungeon for you or the delve for
25:19
you. You're saying that is something
25:21
that could happen and that that that actually made me laugh.
25:25
We Bran is going to be truly the MVP of at least the first
25:28
season, and then it'll be somebody else who we don't know
25:31
yet. They they very much did not want
25:33
to tell us who who was for season 2.
25:36
That'll be a secret for later, but that is getting ahead of
25:39
ourselves. Bran is really good because you
25:43
can change his layout. You can choose between him being
25:48
Adps and helping you do damage or a healer and keeping you
25:51
healed. His healing I I I felt was
25:56
unnecessary so I'm like just had in some damage and it's fine,
26:01
but like it depended on your strengths and weaknesses.
26:03
If you are somebody who's who's able to kite correctly or just
26:08
be a tank and take that damage, you maybe want him to like do a
26:12
lot of damage. But if you are somebody who like
26:15
you just want to like, tear through and not worry about your
26:18
survival, you can have him just set up that campfire and heal
26:22
you, put up the put on those bandages, throw you some health
26:25
potions that you run over to keep your health going so you
26:28
can just focus on bringing the heat.
26:31
And so, like, I love that that is something that you can
26:35
customize and set up for, for your play, how you like it.
26:41
Yeah, and I'm sure would also be very helpful.
26:43
If you have a group like you know.
26:44
If you do have like one or two friends, you're not able to fill
26:47
all of the ideal rules. You can adjust your brand since
26:51
apparently I still get to keep them right Manny.
26:53
Yes, you still get to keep them. Still get to keep brand.
26:56
But it is only one brand that I was able to see.
27:00
I will have to check over the footage from my playthrough with
27:05
a friend. Shout out to Woji at woji.tv Hey
27:09
editing Manny here. Checking back at the footage it
27:12
is only one brand and it seems to be following me around as the
27:16
party leader. So it may be that you need to be
27:19
the party leader to have your version of Bran active.
27:23
But like I had my brand and I had him set up one way, Wochi
27:27
probably had his brand set up another way and diving, diving
27:32
into it, I know my brand was around, but I'm I'm wondering,
27:35
and it might it's just skipping my memory right now.
27:37
If following Woji was like random dwarven explorer 'cause,
27:42
you know every time you have a named character and somebody
27:44
else has it, they get the random one and yours is the real brand.
27:47
So I had the real brand and I have no idea what Woji had, but
27:50
I will check that out. And actually I do want to put
27:53
out that footage and stuff for our listeners and for our
27:57
viewers so they can see all this stuff that we're talking about
28:00
for themselves as well. So we'll put that up, check out
28:04
the discord and I will make sure that I that I get a link for
28:07
that there as well. Yeah.
28:10
So Speaking of fun, exciting content, one thing that I caught
28:14
when they were going through everything that they're adding
28:17
is that they're going to make it so that the dungeons, now that
28:19
we have things like follower dungeons, the dungeons are more
28:23
in the storyline. So I'm super excited as well to
28:27
see what's gonna be happening with the dungeons.
28:29
Was that something you were able to test, Manny?
28:31
Oh yeah, Like I said, Oh yeah. There were two dungeons out
28:33
there and I tested them like crazy.
28:37
Now, I didn't test it on follower dungeons.
28:40
I gotta say that I was always with people.
28:43
No. I mean, you have friends.
28:46
Sorry. Kidding.
28:47
It was. It was easy enough because like,
28:49
I I wanted to go through it. I wanted to be like, oh, this
28:53
boss looks cool and let me take a picture.
28:55
And you know all the slow, slow stuff that I subjected my quote
28:59
UN quote friends to Lex. They may not be friends to meet
29:02
with me after this, but it was really fun to explore the
29:08
dungeon and learn together more so than week one of a release.
29:13
Going on these testings when nobody knows what the hell is
29:17
going on and we all have to figure it out, is the best time
29:21
to play with people 'cause nobody can be a jerk, Lex.
29:25
Everybody's learning. Nobody can be like you don't
29:27
know that yet and plus like none of the add-ons are working.
29:30
So if my DPS sucks, nobody knows.
29:33
I love that. I think this is how we should do
29:35
it forever, Manny. I think that we should just
29:37
never. Nobody's ever allowed to learn.
29:39
Every time you leave a dungeon you like get mentally.
29:41
Wiped. Brain wiped.
29:43
Yeah, that's how you enjoy an experience.
29:47
Just have it wiped from your memory.
29:49
Yeah, well, everyone else gets it wiped.
29:52
I. Remember.
29:53
OK, OK. But yeah, I I went through these
29:58
dungeons and they they're two dungeons that are available on
30:03
the initial build of the PTR is the Rookery, which is a four bus
30:08
dungeon where you are trying to take back this tower from these
30:15
corrupted earthen, which I believe were called the
30:18
Shattered. But these earthen have been
30:20
corrupted by the void and they are up to no good.
30:26
So you they're attacking the city, you fight them back, you
30:31
grab some of the the Griffins, the storm, the storm Griffins,
30:36
you fly over to their citadel to take the fight to them, and then
30:41
you are fighting, descending into the bowels of this tower.
30:46
Oh, wow. It is fun.
30:49
That is actually a fairly short dungeon, being 3 bosses long
30:58
that you pretty much tear through quickly.
31:02
But the the but like it's it is one of the dungeons that is
31:09
integral to the story. So like you do the dungeon as
31:13
part of the the levelling quest, which is why it's great that
31:17
they have stuff set up so that you could do a follow dungeon if
31:21
you don't want to deal with people or if you want to enjoy
31:24
it at your own pace. Even if you enjoy sometimes
31:27
running with with people, maybe you just want to take it, take
31:30
it slow, so it's there and it's available.
31:33
That is a fun, fun dungeon. The other dungeon is completely
31:41
abstract from the story. It is the Cinder Brew Meterie
31:48
and this is kind of like the Storm Stout brewery from Mr.
31:55
Pandaria. I keep going back to Mr.
31:56
Pandaria, maybe there's something there.
32:00
But anyways it is you're going through and there are Venture Co
32:06
guys off the clock just having some brew and you come in and
32:11
they don't want you there so they are going to fight you.
32:14
The first fight is against the barkeep and he has a ability
32:22
called happy hour and he puts out the bears.
32:27
He gets a big shield and if you do not deliver these these
32:31
drinks to the patrons that are getting a little rowdy, they
32:35
will just keep throwing their empty glasses, forks, everything
32:38
at you until you satisfy them. And the entire dungeon is just
32:43
laughs like that. There are brand consultants
32:46
running around the dungeon Lex, and they will wail you with free
32:53
samples. They will do a terrifying move
32:58
called Brand Destruction, and I just got to protect my brand.
33:02
Lex, you go deeper into the dungeon and they have the bees
33:10
work working on making the Mead. And so you have like some of
33:14
those guys with their Bee Zuka, you have a couple of the bees
33:22
that get angry and they will hit you with the final sting when
33:25
they're about to die. It's just pun after pun after
33:29
pun. In order to get to the final
33:31
boss, you have to like actually release these bees.
33:35
They all they all set up at the beginning of the dungeon once
33:40
you've cleared all the rest of the bosses, and then you take
33:44
this this little flight route which is set up as a beeline
33:49
directly to the boss. I'm just glad the the World of
33:54
Warcraft is really giving jobs to the dads because like you
33:59
know where these puns came from and I'm I'm just so happy for
34:04
for everyone, but especially that we're really focusing on
34:07
making sure that we're we're we're employing the punters,
34:10
Manny and I think that's good. I think that's beautiful.
34:14
Yeah, yeah, I I they definitely took a lighter touch with this
34:18
dungeon. But also, well, this is one of
34:21
the longer dungeons. I looked through the Dungeon
34:25
Journal and there are no dungeons in here with like 5
34:29
bosses. The most you'll ever see is 4
34:31
bosses in a in a dungeon, basically.
34:38
That's that'll be really kind of a game changer for Mythic Plus,
34:41
to only have those, like super fast pushes.
34:45
Yeah, I. I assume.
34:47
Oh, like, I think these timers are gonna be short.
34:49
It's gonna be the dungeons aren't gonna be the Super long
34:53
slogs that that they sometimes can be.
34:58
And a lot of the dungeons in in the alpha from what I see, have
35:06
three bosses, so they're going to be short romps for sure.
35:11
Meteori however, yeah. Meteori however has a lot of
35:16
trash and man like I wish it wasn't so popular because it
35:24
feels like it's going to be a bit to push through and some of
35:28
these rooms really feel like you have to full clear the rooms in
35:33
order to do the boss mechanics. They are not set up in a way
35:38
that'll allow you to skip a lot of trash.
35:41
And if they put if I'm hoping that's not a continuing trend, I
35:46
do not need like I'm OK with a good amount of trash.
35:51
I'm OK with A5 boss dungeon. I am not OK with a four boss
35:57
dungeon that requires me to clear everything in that
35:59
dungeon. So I'm I'm hoping that they they
36:02
maybe address that that thing was trash heavy.
36:05
It it, but it's another throwback to Mr. Pandaria from
36:08
what I've seen of Mr. Pandaria. It's some dungeons.
36:13
Yeah, I can understand that. I you know what?
36:15
Yeah, I'll. I'll give you that one.
36:16
Some dungeons really did push on the trash.
36:20
We're we're just going. We're we're returning to our
36:23
roots, Moonie. We're doing what we're we're
36:25
playing the game the way it used to be played.
36:28
Yeah, and that actually I'm going to segue a little bit here
36:32
because the other thing that like fit really well, like
36:35
bringing back to Mr. Pandaria is how much it is about the world.
36:42
Like the Dragon Isles were fantastic to 1st explore the
36:50
like between the dragon riding, between just how open it was.
36:57
Like for so many expansions. It really felt like it was a
37:01
theme park where it's like this attraction and then jam packed
37:05
right next to it. It's this attraction, it's like
37:08
hero, you're going to have to storm the enemy base and it's
37:10
like, where's the enemy base? Oh next door.
37:12
Just not not going to let you in right?
37:16
There's spaces in between locales there.
37:20
It feels like an expansive like this is the Isle of Dorne and it
37:26
feels bigger than like half the zones or like most of the zones
37:34
in BFA if not half the zones in Shadow Lands.
37:43
Like these are like the the zone itself was massive and when they
37:49
talk about the the other zones I can only imagine that they're
37:55
just as big if not bigger. It is amazing to fly around with
38:00
your Griffin or whatever your dragon riding on and you get to
38:06
dragon ride day one. It is not like oh go do this
38:10
quest and unlock dragon riding. It's like no, no, no.
38:13
You've already got dragon riding.
38:14
You know how this works. Get to it.
38:17
So you are flying at like top speed day one?
38:23
That's going to be amazing. I'm so happy that we're able to
38:26
just explore these zones instead of having all of these gates of
38:29
like, oh, you have to do this, this and this, and then you can
38:31
fly. Like you can just immediately go
38:33
and zoom and mew and and live your absolute dreams.
38:38
Oh yeah, I'm super happy for that.
38:41
So, Lex, what do you want to talk about next?
38:43
We've talked about the delves. We've talked about the dungeons.
38:47
Do do you want to talk a little bit about the story?
38:49
I was going to ask if you wanted to talk about the story or if we
38:53
were going to keep that one under wraps.
38:56
Oh, you got a you got a point there.
38:58
Is this is this something where we should avoid spoilers?
39:02
You know what, Lex? Why don't we do a separate talk
39:08
about the story to voice spoils because there are without going
39:12
to spoilers there are big things like let's I you know little run
39:16
through and it was just like they did that this is happening.
39:21
Why? When did that oh like?
39:24
Yeah, it was like we we played for what, like 15 minutes and
39:28
every single second was like, wait, no, hold up.
39:31
Yeah. There there's big things
39:33
happening. Just the early parts, including
39:36
a part that they are 100% keeping off.
39:40
The alpha might not even tested in the beta, might be just
39:44
something that people experience live when it goes live.
39:49
The opening scenario and just the aftermath of that is huge
39:56
for a lot of reasons. But yeah, we'll keep that.
40:00
We'll keep that as a separate thing.
40:02
Maybe we'll do a little spoiler talk and we'll keep it off the
40:04
feed and we'll just direct people to that.
40:06
So if you do want to get spoiled, you can get our
40:08
impressions of that. But if we're not going to talk
40:11
about Story, what else do you want to talk about?
40:15
Everything. Is this, is this the time that
40:19
we talk about war bands and some of these like, yeah, running?
40:24
'Cause you're much more of an alt man than I am.
40:26
What? What was your vibe as you were
40:28
going? It's true.
40:31
I mean it is true, but it's so sad that it's true.
40:34
I used to not be an alt guy, and now I've got the only class I
40:38
don't have at at least level 60, if not level 70, of which I have
40:42
like 7 level 70s. The only class I don't have at
40:47
like at least 60 is the Mage, and I'm sure I'm probably
40:51
causing some people to get all fiery under the collars or
40:56
suddenly look at me with a little bit of frosty side to
41:00
them, but the arcane arts just didn't go for me.
41:04
But yeah, I guess I am more into alts than I've ever been.
41:07
We'll see if that lasts, but War bands definitely helps that.
41:13
Lex War bands are looking to be a feature that is going to make
41:20
things super easy for the people who want to keep their army of
41:24
alts running. And it's so inlaid into it that
41:32
when I was playing I didn't even notice it at 1st.
41:36
And then as I was talking with different creators, they were
41:39
pointing out things. And it's like, Oh yeah, so Lex,
41:43
I did a couple of requests because of course I wanted to
41:46
see what these quests were about.
41:47
I did a couple of these quests and of course you get your gear
41:54
rewards, you get a bit of gold, you get, you get like maybe a
41:59
toy or some sort of cool cosmetic or something, right?
42:03
And you also get reputation. But no longer did say, oh, your
42:06
reputation is increased by blah blah blah blah blah.
42:10
Now it says your War Band's reputation has increased.
42:14
So I went back on that alt Right and I was playing through
42:20
playing through it, and immediately it's saying, hey,
42:23
you've already done this quest on your your your War band has
42:26
already completed this quest. Do you want to skip it?
42:32
Hey, the icon itself doesn't light up in Sprite because it's
42:36
like hey listen, you don't need to do this.
42:39
You've already got the rewards for this for part of it.
42:42
So this is not as dire for you as other as other quests that
42:48
maybe you haven't done with your war band and the and the items.
42:55
Like I unlocked some gear on on like 1 character and the trans
43:05
mog's immediately available for everybody, right?
43:09
I the one thing that is still an issue is that you will play like
43:16
let's say I was playing on my shaman because that's the first
43:17
one I played. I'll play on my shaman.
43:19
I'll unlock the gear and all the cosmetics.
43:21
It's like, you know, when you get a question, it's like you
43:22
can pick between all this gear, you get the cosmetics for all of
43:25
them, right? But if you're playing that on
43:30
your priest, the gear that you you get for that reward is going
43:34
to be cloth versus male and the cloth isn't unlocked for you
43:37
doing that. So you still right now on the
43:39
alpha need to play with at least four different characters.
43:44
They unlock four different gear types.
43:48
But during the Q&A they said hey that is something that we didn't
43:51
think about and we are going to look at.
43:53
So it might be that they do actually adjust that.
43:56
So if you have a character that like you skip to cap and you're
43:59
like screw it, I just want to do whatever the lace latest part of
44:04
the expansion is, you may not need to go back to do any of
44:08
those earlier quests in order to catch catch up in even trans mod
44:14
cosmetic stuff. And all of those quests are
44:18
going to be a grayed out to say, hey, you've already done this on
44:22
your main, you don't need to do this.
44:24
So they are being incredibly alt friendly with this, with this
44:30
set up, and Ian had said it himself in a presentation that
44:36
came out, we got an early sneak peek at the Wowcast.
44:39
And so like Lex, you and I both got to see that.
44:42
And Ian himself said that, yeah, they acknowledged that like at a
44:47
certain point in the expansion you would start up a character,
44:50
you would get to the to the cap, open up your map and it was just
44:56
what was the words to use this soup of icons.
45:00
And that is some bad soup, friends.
45:03
Yeah, well, and that was an interesting little quality of
45:06
life thing that they were talking about, that they're
45:07
changing the quest notifications even beyond just like graying
45:12
things out, like they're making it easier to tell what quest is
45:15
what, right. Yes, you will never mistake a
45:20
daily quest for a campaign quest or a quest that is not campaign
45:27
but is important to your character.
45:29
They've completely separated those out to be completely
45:33
different things. Side quests, daily quests, the
45:39
the mainline story quest, the like.
45:42
All of them have different icons, are vastly different, but
45:47
still show you what they what they mean.
45:49
And you can also tell at a glance if you've completed what
45:54
you need for the turn in. Like you'll be looking at a
45:57
question mark for like, oh, do I have everything ready?
46:00
And it won't just be like that. It's like, oh Gray, I don't have
46:03
that to turn in. It will have little dots on it
46:06
to be like how close you are to completion.
46:08
So it's like, oh, I've done three of the things needed and
46:11
there's still a fourth, well, there'll be 3 dots that are
46:13
filled in and a fourth one that's not filled in.
46:14
You're like, shoot, I got to do one more thing before I turn in
46:17
without having to talk to the NPC.
46:19
That's very speaking. That's super cool.
46:23
Would I? Would I be ruining your flow if
46:24
I ask a a side question to this or do you want to talk about
46:28
Corbin? This is your your shows you
46:31
lead. Go ahead, Lex.
46:32
So I was really excited when I was seeing everything they're
46:36
doing. There's so many little quality
46:38
of life things like we could fill up three shows just going
46:41
over all of their little quality of life bits that they're adding
46:45
in. I'm curious what, Manny, which
46:48
one stood out to you the most? Or what was your favorite?
46:52
Oh man, it is such a it's such a thing that the quality of life
47:00
stuff is so under the hood but seamless and so like it.
47:07
It's it's tough that when you're playing, you don't even notice
47:11
it till you jump back on the live game and you're like, oh
47:14
whoa, wait a second, what's going on here?
47:17
And I I love that. I think that it's a work in
47:24
progress, but I like the new spellbook.
47:28
It is. It just it feels more immersive.
47:33
It feels easier and less claustrophobic.
47:36
It's just like I when I want to find a spell, I can.
47:39
It's organized into subchapters where it's like, here's the
47:43
stuff for your elemental, here's the stuff that's your class,
47:46
here's a tab for your basic skills, here's, here's all of
47:49
this, which is so good, and I love that.
47:54
And it feels like an actual book, like we we haven't seen
47:57
the the the art isn't finalized. They're still working on that.
48:00
But even the unfinalized art, you know, one thing they've just
48:03
kept saying over and over is they're really focusing on like
48:06
the fantasy of this game, right? And.
48:08
And making it feel more immersive.
48:09
And I felt that so much when you just open the spell book and it
48:13
literally felt like you were opening a spell book like, which
48:16
is such a small, tiny little thing, but it made it feel less
48:19
like, oh, I'm going in to tech check this box and go drag down
48:23
this thing and close this. Stupid.
48:25
Annoying. UI and I'm fighting with the the
48:28
way to do things, yeah. Right.
48:30
Yeah, I was like, I I am a magic caster and I'm opening my big
48:33
epic tome that includes all of my spells.
48:36
So I can find the one I'm looking for like very D and DI.
48:39
Thought, yeah. And so I really like that.
48:42
I thought, I know some people are saying like, it's big
48:45
because it fills up the screen and people are like, well, I'm
48:48
on A1440 monitor and it feels like that because this thing's
48:52
so big, it's taking up the whole screen.
48:54
I feel like I'm on a 720 or 1080 monitor, which when somebody
48:58
said that I was like, oh, you're you're on a 1440 monitor, la di
49:01
da handling my handling, my inner Lex there.
49:05
And then I realized I've got a 1440 monitor.
49:07
So I'm jackets, but I think that the the adjustments that they've
49:20
made so that you can quickly find stuff, you can quickly drag
49:26
it to your bars. And I used it a lot.
49:28
I was one of the people on this alpha build that suffered from
49:32
whenever I logged out, my bars would get cleared.
49:37
So all my action bars would be cleared and I'd have to drag
49:40
every single thing back down to my action bars.
49:44
Well, so. You know the spellbook.
49:45
Well, so I've I've used the spellbook a lot of times and so
49:48
it was definitely something that was quick, easy, and like I only
49:54
I only needed one page open, folks.
49:56
I had the page open and I could pull every spell down to my bars
50:00
without having to flip through and be like where is this again?
50:03
Page one, page two, page four. Like that.
50:06
It it's it's just such a big help of ease of use and I I'm
50:10
hoping that they that even if they do make it more compact for
50:16
the people who were saying like I want a little bit more compact
50:19
that it's a toggle and not like just something that like
50:22
overrides it because this felt just so smooth to me.
50:28
Yeah, that. Yeah, it it was really pretty.
50:31
Yeah, for such a little thing too.
50:33
My favorite quality of life thing.
50:36
This maybe isn't quality of life so much, but I want to talk
50:37
about it anyway. There's because this is so
50:40
Nerubian heavy, there's a mode that you can toggle that
50:44
switches the spiders into crabs for.
50:48
It's like, it's called like arachnophobia mode.
50:50
And I will tell you I will be playing with this mode on
50:53
because it is so cute. I'm loving these stupid little
50:56
crabs. They are still scary.
50:57
Like, it's not like if you switch this on, it's, you know,
51:00
you enter a cartoon. But I was in love with these
51:04
stupid little crabs. I love a crab so much.
51:07
And I thought it was both a really excellent way for the
51:12
World of Warcraft team to be thinking about the experience
51:15
from an accessibility standpoint.
51:17
And you know, making sure that all of the players are able to
51:21
experience this game with a lot of joy and A and a lot of love
51:24
and and you know, not feeling like, Oh well I can't access
51:28
this entire system because of something that's outside of my
51:32
control. But it also it was just a fun
51:36
way to experience the game. Like it wasn't a like oh we'll
51:41
put this accessible feature in so you can you know, so that
51:45
people think that we're good people and we're so accessible.
51:48
Woo woo woo. Like they built a really a a a
51:54
parallel game mode that was as accessible and also as fun and
51:58
as exciting. Like, like I said, I fully
52:00
intend to play with this mode on just because I think it's fun
52:02
and I think that the aesthetic is really cool.
52:05
So I was super. Easy.
52:07
I was. It was so easy.
52:09
I was expecting like, press it, load back in and you're you're
52:14
good. We pressed it, applied, and
52:16
instantly crab replaced crab. Yeah, and it wasn't a good
52:21
remodel, though. Yeah, it was hard to tell
52:25
whether that was because it was new.
52:27
I mean, so it it seemed like to me the spider minions were all
52:31
turned into crabs, but the Nerubians themselves were still
52:34
Nerubians, which I think makes sense.
52:36
Like there is some degree of like if you strip everything.
52:41
I I I can imagine. First of all, I I like I said I
52:44
don't know if this is just because it's still an alpha, but
52:47
I can very much imagine that there is some degree of like if
52:50
you pull the like the entire model away, you are a making a
52:55
ton of Labor for the developers and B removing something from
52:59
the game play itself, right Like it is still the Nauruvian
53:03
expansion. But again, I don't know if
53:06
that's their mindset or if it's just that it's alpha and soon
53:10
it's going to be, you know, crab people everywhere.
53:14
Yeah, because it's a. It's a full model replacement.
53:17
So you're right. It could be that, like, certain
53:19
models just don't have replacements yet.
53:23
I'm not going to play with it all the time.
53:25
It's fun because it's literally just switching to your menu,
53:29
target it on, target it off. And I think that that makes it
53:32
so easy to do that I'm going to love it.
53:35
But I I don't want to say I have a fascination with spiders, but
53:38
I think spiders are cool. Oh yeah, Actually there was a
53:42
dev who had said the exact same thing.
53:45
I didn't want to do a chime in. Me too, before I just left it
53:47
alone. But I also think that the models
53:51
that they've been doing with the Nerubians cause, like you and I,
53:54
were taking an early sneak peek at not only the dungeons that we
53:58
were able to play on on Alpha, but all the stuff that they put
54:03
out with the press kit and going through all of that and it it's
54:08
gorgeous Nerubian stuff, the raid.
54:14
The raid is beautiful. They were.
54:16
So one thing that they were saying and one one of the devs
54:20
was saying is that they really wanted to focus in on the fact
54:23
that this is an old civilization, right?
54:25
This isn't just like a bunch of monsters in their lair.
54:29
Like, this is probably one of the oldest civilizations in the
54:34
World of Warcraft, and I think they really succeeded in that,
54:38
at least in the picture of the raid we were seeing.
54:39
Like it was epic and it was huge and it was sophisticated, but it
54:45
was also very thematically consistent and there was thought
54:48
put into everything, like you, every inch had a spider web in
54:52
some beautiful little thing. I thought the raid was just one
54:56
of the most stunning things I've ever seen.
54:58
Yeah, for sure. And Lex, you and I were just
55:01
pointing out all those details, the way that the brickwork
55:04
resembles webbing or the inlay of the windows, the towering
55:10
stuff, the way that it was hanging.
55:12
I was trying to compare it to stuff that we've seen before.
55:15
And there was like a talk of like it being kind of like the
55:19
Aracoa, where it's up high instead of being down on The
55:23
Cave. And they built this stuff on top
55:25
of old civilizations or civilization that's been going
55:27
for so long that it's it towers up and we have such intricate
55:35
statues and art pieces that are in there as well.
55:39
And when you see just the scale because we were looking at, it's
55:44
not just, it is not just our our spider people that are running
55:51
around in there. We happen to see some of the
55:55
Ethereals Void walkers running around there, one that looked
56:01
like a boss and one that looked so close to Elyria's old teacher
56:10
as well, with a locust Walker, right?
56:14
And at first we're like, is is that an ethereal?
56:17
We're not quite sure. We we were double checking and
56:23
then we looked up other ones and yeah, flat out Ethereals run
56:27
around up to no good. I think we've seen them in
56:31
adversarial positions before, but I think they are going to
56:35
take a bigger stage, which makes me wonder what's going on with
56:38
Lucas Walker. We haven't heard from him in a
56:40
bit. Alari is back in the picture.
56:44
I want to ask a dev, I gotta, I gotta send out a tweet or
56:47
something. We gotta get get some answers.
56:50
Yeah, well, we've always kind of known that he was not, you know,
56:56
a good. I feel like I I mean I Boyd elf.
56:58
I do remember that everyone was always a little bit suspicious
57:00
of the guy, so. I'm not going to lie, I'm.
57:04
Interesting type. All right, tin tinfoil hat
57:07
theory, I'm unsure Valeria is going to stay on the good side
57:12
before the end of this trilogy. I could see her flipping.
57:16
Maybe kind of Anakin Skywalker Kill and replace?
57:23
Yeah, so, so I have, I have quite a few big thoughts about
57:26
where I think this trilogy is going to go and I'm really
57:31
curious how The Void is going to play into this whole system.
57:34
I I have some potential ideas where The Void ends up being our
57:39
best friends. I think I'm, I'm on Team Void
57:43
now we're we're giving into the whispers.
57:45
OK. All right, this will be, this
57:48
will be an episode. We gotta jot all these down of
57:51
all these episodes that we have to do, but we have to talk about
57:54
where we think things are going in the World Soul Saga, because
57:58
this is the first big expansion of the World Soul Trilogy.
58:05
It is them ramping up stuff and I think that is going to be
58:10
reflected and how this expansion goes like clearly and the
58:15
initial stakes are high where Dragon Fight was a lull.
58:19
This is pedal to the metal pretty much from the go there.
58:23
There's so much like we were talking talking about happening
58:26
in just the first little little starting bit for that for the
58:31
expansion. So I I am very much excited to
58:35
see where things things will go. But we've got Naifu in the mix.
58:41
Naifu, who is said to be one of not thee, but one of this
58:46
expansion's major enemies. That makes me think that maybe
58:52
we're gonna see in 'cause we're underground.
58:57
What better time for Ridicron to show up as as a baddie if he's
59:05
like the Tier 2 boss or tier 3 boss?
59:11
Either of those ones could work. I hope he's the tier 3 boss
59:13
'cause I think getting him getting him like ended mid
59:18
expansion would be a horrible thing for him to happen after
59:21
his his brother got to like spotlight the end of the
59:24
expansion. You're a poor man, so Ridicon,
59:31
I'm hoping to see him back and maybe let let's that lets our
59:35
Naifu Zalatath run, run a little bit further into the next
59:41
expansion, Midnight and stuff like there.
59:44
There's so much going on and so it's very interesting and story
59:49
story wise we're just getting through.
59:51
But I think what I really like with what we've seen so far is
59:55
that once again like they did with Dragonfly initially, they
59:59
are doing really good at cultures.
1:00:02
The yeah the Irvin with their four different factions, 2.5 of
1:00:12
which you see in the initial part of the the PTR cause the
1:00:21
not PTR alpha because the alpha only lets you get through the
1:00:24
first three story chapters so. I'm not sure what's beyond it,
1:00:29
but I've been. We've been introduced to three
1:00:31
of the four factions within the earthen and this is the group
1:00:37
that eventually we're going to befriend so much that they are
1:00:40
going to join us as an allied race.
1:00:43
And they are doing a really good job of showing how these earthen
1:00:48
are different from the other earthen.
1:00:49
These are the ones that have been separated from the Titans
1:00:54
and so they have been in isolation.
1:00:58
The they haven't spoken to their masters in a in a while, and I
1:01:02
shouldn't say Titans, but more the Watchers were what what
1:01:06
worked with them. So the Watchers haven't been in
1:01:08
contact with them for a while. They've been isolated, Their
1:01:12
cultures have evolved. They've some of them have even
1:01:17
turned their backs on the teaching teachings and forged
1:01:21
and set off on their own to like create their own identity.
1:01:24
Some of them have been corrupted, as I was talking
1:01:27
about earlier. There's a lot going on and they
1:01:31
like they feel like a fully fledged society that has so much
1:01:36
going. The architecture is beautiful.
1:01:39
Oh my God, yeah. And it it definitely, from what
1:01:41
I was seeing of screenshots and stuff, it was very reminiscent
1:01:45
of Dwarves without just feeling like a copy paste of Iron Ford.
1:01:48
Like it was a unique culture and it clearly was very deeply
1:01:54
developed. But you could also see where it
1:01:56
would have extended onto the planet and into the dwarfs, as
1:02:00
we know that. Yeah, and they are not the only
1:02:04
ones we're going to be looking at, of course.
1:02:06
We're talking about the Arathi before the show, and they are an
1:02:13
ancient human civilization that has like made its way here and
1:02:18
set up their own. Their own place here and we
1:02:23
again we're like they are involved in a dungeon that we're
1:02:27
looking at and boy that looks so much Scarlet Monastery on roids.
1:02:36
And of course there are. There are like the oh, good
1:02:44
grief, I want to keep saying Nashatar, but it's the spider
1:02:47
people help me out here, Alex. The Nurbians.
1:02:50
Nurbians, Thank you Nurbians, you are 100% right.
1:02:53
The Nerubian empire that is like one of the great empires that
1:02:57
rivalled the elves and the trolls back in the day.
1:03:02
And so we're going to be seeing them and I have run across
1:03:07
Nerubian that weren't hostile to me.
1:03:11
And so I'm interested if we will get like a little side faction
1:03:15
that will tell us more about it. Kind of like what we did with
1:03:19
the the Nightborn where like the large Nightborn force with with
1:03:27
everybody in the night hold were against us, but we had our
1:03:32
little splinter group that we were friends with.
1:03:36
Well and OK, I was like 12 when this came out, so I could be
1:03:39
very strongly misremembering my bore.
1:03:42
But didn't we also have a group of Nauruvians that we were
1:03:44
fighting with during RAF? Give me a second, Lex.
1:03:49
I'm trying to, like, recover from my old age here.
1:03:52
You were 12. You know, I was young now.
1:03:58
I think I was still in middle school.
1:04:02
There was a small group, yes, that was the small.
1:04:09
You're wise. Manny let.
1:04:12
Me, go go dye my beard. But yes, there was a little
1:04:15
group, yeah. And they were super cool.
1:04:18
They were our buddies. I want to be, but first of all,
1:04:21
I want Nerubian playable race. But second of all, I if I can't
1:04:25
have Nerubian playable race, I at least want the nerubians from
1:04:28
my buddies. Like I said, I'm.
1:04:30
I'm giving over to the void, this expansion.
1:04:31
Manny, you'll never hear from me again.
1:04:34
There is a modern. Void in this expansion they they
1:04:37
like it's it's all over the place but it's done well.
1:04:42
Like it doesn't feel like Legion where everything was fell like
1:04:47
thus far thus far you know I'm only one zone in and like if I
1:04:50
was running around like Azuna and giving the expansion of
1:04:54
giving the impression of the entire expansion.
1:04:56
I could have said that Legion not everything feels like fell
1:04:59
but we'll see where it goes. Initial impressions here folks.
1:05:04
Hot hot take. Like I literally came out of a a
1:05:08
developer Q&A and we jumped into recording this so that we could
1:05:12
get it out for you tomorrow. But yeah, I my initial takes is
1:05:16
that it's beautiful. It is not monotone.
1:05:22
There is a wealth of different races, fauna, flora, all of that
1:05:28
in there. And the tone of the story feels
1:05:34
like a lot of people who have been through the wringer and are
1:05:38
trying to find the will to to move forward.
1:05:41
You have seen, yeah, you have seen Andowin and how he feel.
1:05:50
He looks like he is dealing with some deep trauma and some like
1:05:56
general PTSD there From this the cinematic thrall who thought he
1:06:03
was done with it, how many times and just keeps getting pulled
1:06:06
back in. He doesn't get to hide Jana who
1:06:13
has lost so much and seems to be rebuilding and we we almost had
1:06:20
heartbreak for her again. We won't go too much into it.
1:06:26
In fact, yeah, she does get heartbreak considering what
1:06:29
What? We know, Lex, But we won't go
1:06:31
into it. We won't go into it, but girly's
1:06:33
going through it. That's all I'm gonna say.
1:06:36
Yeah, so there are a lot of people going through it.
1:06:38
Not just Jana, not just Thrall, not just Anduin, and clearly not
1:06:43
just Elyria. And that may be the tone of this
1:06:50
story about finding the way to move forward.
1:06:55
But. Well, and that was another thing
1:06:57
the doves were saying is that like, this is, it's the War
1:06:59
Within because we're inside Azeroth, but also like everyone
1:07:02
in the story has this like internal battle that they're
1:07:06
dealing with. Yeah.
1:07:08
So there there was a lot to cover.
1:07:11
We are going to be putting out a ton of content, not just in the
1:07:17
shows because the show again is back weekly, but we're going to
1:07:22
be putting out a lot of supplementary contact content
1:07:25
rather in between. So make sure you are following
1:07:28
the FAZ Twitter account, you are checking out the Discord.
1:07:33
Honestly, the Discord is the hub for everything because we will
1:07:36
be putting out stuff all over the place, especially with our
1:07:39
new book club coming out as well.
1:07:42
And if you are looking for all the Wow content, make sure you
1:07:46
check us out Lex. What are you most looking
1:07:50
forward to? Because the Alpha is going to be
1:07:52
available and the floodgates are going to open this week.
1:07:57
Oh my goodness, I'm I'm, I still think the elf.
1:07:59
I think that that for me is such a game changer of ways to gear
1:08:05
and to experience the world and to play on my own without
1:08:09
feeling overly grindy and without feeling too much
1:08:12
pressure the way that, like, Torgas was.
1:08:15
So I am just over the moon at the way that they're pushing
1:08:19
that through. How about you, Manny?
1:08:20
What are you excited about? Oh man, I I, I I need those hero
1:08:24
talents. I need to dive deeper into the
1:08:26
hero talents. I spent a good amount of time
1:08:30
day one just trying to figure out how far CEO works, and I
1:08:34
want to see that with so many of these, I spent a good amount of
1:08:38
time looking at just the awesomeness of summoning Greater
1:08:42
Demons as a Diabolis Warlock. So I I really think that as much
1:08:49
as I was worried about hero talents, and as much as I've
1:08:53
seen people being worried about hero talents once they get into
1:08:56
people's hands, I want to see how it is.
1:08:58
How the community sentiment changes for it for sure.
1:09:02
Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense.
1:09:04
But because of popular demand, Lex, I promise you this week I'm
1:09:10
going to put out all three videos.
1:09:12
I recorded all three delves in the.
1:09:15
Totality. So we will be putting that out
1:09:18
this week just to just for you, we're going to make sure that
1:09:22
that is the priority. If you if you see that you get
1:09:25
300 views in the first minute, it's me just watching it again
1:09:29
and again. And if I get less than that,
1:09:31
Lexi didn't do your job. Yeah, no, then.
1:09:34
Then you can blame me. You should send me a message
1:09:35
like I it's been a minute and I haven't had 300 or did I say
1:09:39
3000? Whatever number I said, yeah, I
1:09:41
haven't had that many. So see now you can also just add
1:09:43
it in. You can just say two million
1:09:46
there, We do. OK, well that's going to do it
1:09:50
for this episode. Again, lots of content come out,
1:09:52
lots to talk about. We will be back next week and we
1:09:55
will have some stuff in between. More announcements to come too,
1:09:58
guys, so keep it locked in Until next time though.
1:10:03
Make sure you join us at bit dot LY slash fast, Discord, and Lex.
1:10:07
Where can people find you? People can find me on pretty
1:10:10
much any social media you want to at Lex under Score Rants.
1:10:15
Yep, and As for me, you can find me at true villain Manny.
1:10:18
That's true without the E on pretty much all major social
1:10:21
networks. And until next time, guys.
1:10:23
May all your hits be crits.