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This week we started off discussing the announcement of an announcement which has now been actually announced by the time the podcast was produced and published, as a part of Blizzard's 35th anniversary. We still have some announcements coming up for Overwatch, Diablo, and Hearthstone, which we speculated on a bit. But, in terms of the stuff we know is happening in WoW, the team is "whelmed" by the Midnight prepatch event, which just started.
Something we're slightly more whelmed on are the Neighborhood Endeavors, now that Blizzard has boosted some of the rewards and XP gains, making the whole enterprise slightly less daunting.
Also, Player Housing on Zillow? It's more likely than you think.
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0:08
[music] Hello everyone and welcome to the Blizzard Watch podcast. I am Joe Perez,
0:14
one of your humble hosts and I've got with me as always the magnificent Liz Harper. How you doing today Liz?
0:21
Hello. I'm surviving by staying inside where it's warm. That is true. and me for many of us. Uh,
0:29
speaking of things that are cold or live in the survive in the frozen uh, tundras of our our wonderful earth, we're also
0:36
joined by Corey today. How you doing today, Corey? I'm great. It was only - 6 Celsius out today, so it was a beautiful winter day.
0:43
You know, ours was up to 16 Fahrenheit, which was pretty nice all things considered. You know, I we were
0:49
comparing temperatures yesterday, Corey, and it was actually colder here in my far southern latitude than it was where
0:56
you were. And I I feel like that's backwards. [laughter] We're doing so good with the winter
1:02
thing. Honestly, it's been one of the warmer winters on record. Yeah, we're just in the middle of our cold snap, which is we
1:08
every in the Northeast and particularly if you live off the Great Lakes, you get about two weeks every season that are
1:15
just absolutely bitterly cold and then you go back to normal. Um, we're in the
1:20
middle of that, so we'll be good in a couple weeks, just in time for my birthday. Yay. But we're not here.
1:27
Thank you. Uh, we're not here to talk about my birthday or the weather. Instead, we are here to talk about
1:32
Blizzard Entertainment and their various games, as well as anything else we see fit. And man, there's a bunch of stuff
1:40
to talk about. Uh we're going to start with Blizzard 35 cuz it's right there.
1:45
Uh there was a short video being uh that was released by Blizzard uh discussing the Blizzard showcase. A series of
1:51
videos and streams uh that will be used to discuss the future of Blizzard's
1:56
current core IPs which is WoW, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Diablo. Uh
2:03
there's a various amounts of these. The WoW one uh will be coming up at the time of this recording. We have a couple days
2:09
till it will be out. By the time you're listening to this, it should be available. So, we'll all be talking about it in the following podcast, I am
2:16
sure. Uh, this is January 29th at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time, noon Eastern. Uh,
2:24
Overwatch will have theirs on February 4th at 10:00 a.m. PST. Hearthstone will
2:29
have theirs on February 9th at 9:30 a.m., which is just a weird time as far
2:34
as I'm concerned. Uh, it's like it's like they were trying to stagger the times, but they're already
2:40
all on different days. Yeah, that that's what I thought. But it's like are these going to be like half hour videos that are just like off
2:45
from each other a little bit and instead of being in one day they spread them out because because then the next one is at a Diablo 30th anniversary is on February
2:52
11th at 2 p.m. It's like what are you doing? I don't understand the timing. Godless.
2:58
Anyway, anyway, they're there and um we have kind of been wondering when
3:04
will the um when will the road map show up? when will we have a wild road map? Because we did have one by this time
3:09
last year and I felt like they were, you know, waiting for the big kind of early
3:15
content push to go out to give before giving us a WoW road map. And now we know it's going to be here on the 29th.
3:22
Um, so yes, we've got an announcement of an announcement. I I love those so much. Normally I I'm
3:30
right there with you, Liz, but the video was so such a nice nostalgia hit that I'm I'm willing to forgive it because it
3:35
was a really nice video. I I I will say too that I know that uh
3:41
several of the content creators were invited to an early showing of it uh for the January 29th WoW uh State of
3:49
Azeroth and uh the timeline. So they already know what's going on. I'm looking at you guys out there. You
3:55
didn't invite us. Why didn't you invite us? Um, well, we aren't we aren't we are what we
4:01
are. That's how it is. That's how life is. [laughter] Uh, life.
4:06
Uh, I I don't know. Is there anything that you guys are predicting besides the obviously the timeline uh, and the road
4:12
map for these, which I think is a a fair assessment and something we've wanted. U, do you think there's going to be any
4:18
surprises or swerves or uh, and don't just say Heroes of the Storm because I I
4:24
know where your head's at, Corey. Well, well, okay. Well, Heroes of the Storm doesn't
4:29
have a showcase listed. I hate to tell you. I know. I know. But it does have a logo on their
4:35
fancy ending. See, I knew this was going to happen. This is why I tried to cut it off in the past. Okay. [laughter] The the other thing
4:42
that has a logo is Starcraft, which is another game that does not have a showcase, but is a very large IP that
4:50
has been prominently used in Microsoft's art when they are talking about Blizzard. So, uh, I don't know. I don't
4:57
know. Um, I I think that we're going to get some kind of surprise, but in my mind, the
5:02
surprise is going to be something like the announcement of another Plundtorm season or another
5:09
Overwatch 3. Are we They said Overwatch. They said this was a showcase about Overwatch, not Overwatch 2. So, does
5:15
this Are we getting an Overwatch 3, which is actually going to be what we were promised for Overwatch 2? Hm.
5:21
No, I think we're they're going to announce the official name change to Talon if I'm if I've looked at their uh
5:26
marketing correctly. Yes, they have been they they have been making a thing about how it's not Overwatch, it's Talon now, which okay, I
5:34
I I assume this is some sort of prelude to a new hero or a new event or something. And it's okay, guys.
5:41
It just smacks of hey, we're still relevant. Please look at us. Please. It's so exciting. Um
5:49
because Tal Talent Talent is a terrorist organization in the universe that is slowly taking over. So
5:55
they're the bad guys. They are the bad guys. They are they are the bad guys, but they're also, you know, like a
6:01
significant portion of the characters you play in Overwatch are in fact Talon members. So you're you're a Talon
6:06
member, you're an Overwatch member, or you're an unaffiliated third party who's just here for fun. Um
6:14
they're just so happy to be there. You know, I saw this is totally totally definitely not happening probably. I saw
6:21
someone on Discord mention World of Starcraft and I'm like, you know, I would play some World of Starcraft. I I
6:28
would be all over World of Starcraft. I am I was not a day one adoptee of World
6:34
of Warcraft because I was way more into the science fiction than I was to
6:39
fantasy. Like the Warcraft games, fine, that's fine. That's okay. It's fantasy
6:44
and but I loved Starcraft. I loved Starcraft. I loved the world. I loved all the sci-fi vibes. I loved you have
6:51
your different factions and all of them are different. And um you love the big
6:56
Blizzard Head launch you the big Pope 1950s kind of
7:02
storytelling. I guess that's not the right thing I'm going for, but you like the big oporatic space battles, you
7:07
know. Yeah. And I I liked being a protos and you could summon like a carrier that
7:14
would just go towards your in slowly approach your enemy base with swarms of
7:19
little fighter ships around it and just decimate them. I I really enjoyed that. That was like that was my favorite
7:25
thing. But we got a World of Warcraft and not a World of Starcraft. So if Blizzard did decide to go in now and
7:32
launch a World of Starcraft, I would be very interested in that. I I don't think I don't think it's going to happen. I
7:38
just I I don't think we're gonna get that lucky. I tend to agree. I don't think we're gonna get that lucky. Um
7:46
I think one of because announcing a new MMO in the year 2026 would be Yeah, that too. That too.
7:52
Well, it's a it's a mad world. I that said, going back to the the whole are we going to get an Overwatch 3
7:58
thing, you I don't think it's going to be Overwatch 3, but you might not be too far off, maybe. And the reason I say
8:05
that is because we there's been a lot of demand for singleplayer FPS games for a
8:13
little while and Overwatch Overwatch is ripe for it and they could even maybe slip in
8:20
something with Starcraft in that as something new because I mean they have the Overwatch engine, right? They have
8:26
the thing that they built on it. Um, the other thing that I think might actually be likely is they may have brokered a
8:33
new deal for either a comic or a TV show
8:38
or something along that line for Overwatch cuz there were original plans for it. The comic got scrapped. We all
8:45
know that there was supposed to be a a Diablo TV show at some point. But
8:50
Overwatch is a world where it the world that was created for it is actually interesting. It would be potentially
8:58
ripe for them to say, "Hey, Arcane's done. They did really well. Why don't we
9:04
throw our head into the ring and and partner with an animation studio and maybe tell a story of Overwatch? Go back
9:10
and tell the founding of Overwatch. Go back and tell the Omnic War, anything like that. People have been begging to
9:16
see that stuff in long form content with their favorite characters. Why not?"
9:22
Absolutely. Right. Like and and I say this not it not not with any venom. Microsoft loves
9:29
money. Things like this make money because the merchandising sells itself. So there will be shelves and shelves and
9:36
shelves of Overwatch media tie-in stuff at Hot Topics that will sell super well.
9:42
[laughter] That's and that's the silliest thing, right? It's always it's always been the way that the Blizzard products would all
9:50
would all sell super well if they just vertical integration. Yep.
9:55
How I mean Warcraft Remble came out and everyone was like, "How can we buy these things? I want these toys."
10:00
Yeah. Yeah. But I think I think there's a possib there's a possibility of that with I don't really know what they could
10:06
possibly do for the Hearthstone one. Diablo I I feel like we we I don't want
10:12
to say we know what we're going to get, but it's going to be probably more expansion. H I feel like the only thing
10:17
with Diablo is that we know a lot about the expansion already. So, are they going to announce a new class early?
10:24
Yeah, I think it's going to be the new class. I I mean, yeah, we're going to get the road map definitely. But, uh as as to what else,
10:32
I don't know. And one thing I do think is actually pretty likely for Overwatch to get to get to something grounded. I
10:38
think we may get an Overwatch classic. I think that could indeed be on the road map because there has been demand for
10:44
it. They rolled out an endame classic arcade mode that I feel was popular. And
10:50
so maybe we're just going all out. We're getting Overwatch and Overwatch Classic,
10:57
which would fit into the theme of the event named being an Overwatch showcase
11:04
and not an Overwatch 2 showcase. But I I really am nitpicking the language right
11:09
there. Yeah. There's also the rumor of a new Starcraft Ghost third either first
11:15
person or third person. There has been. Yeah, but there's been rumors about that for Starcraft showcase. There's also been rumors about that for
11:21
the last Hold on. I'm going to check my I'm going to check my watch. 10 years. Yeah, you're going to have to get a
11:26
calendar. [laughter] Um, but there are some new new rumors
11:32
about a Starcraftbased FPS, which I have heard is to be announced at
11:37
BlizzCon. I am not saying this is happening, but there is a little quiet buzz in the community that has been
11:43
going around that one of the big things coming is going to be a Starcraft game of some kind,
11:49
which I I don't think that's outside the realm of possibility, but we don't know. That's the thing. This is the this is
11:55
the negative space out there into which we are filling with our hopes and dreams. Yeah, I I I know the buzz is
12:03
there and I don't want to get my hope up for it because Ghost was one of the most anticipated things that never
12:09
materialized like showing showing up with screenshots in magazines and like Yeah. Go ahead,
12:15
Corey. Young baby Corey was so excited for Starcraft Ghost that I was prepared to
12:21
buy whatever console it was announced for as an exclusive. if it was announced as an exclusive. I was saving all of my
12:26
allowances ready for that. 100% in on Starcraft Ghost and then
12:32
nothing. I I and I I think that there's a likelihood that the next Blizzard IP, even if it's or game, even if it's not
12:39
Ghost, right? I think it's going to be a firsterson shooter. Uh maybe a first
12:45
person RPG shooter. I think it's impossible to look at the uh success
12:51
that rose from the smoldering ashes that was Cyberpunk 2077 and not want to do
12:57
something like that and fill the space in between, right? Because we got a long time before the next Cyberpunk game comes out. It was wildly successful.
13:04
People are getting their hooks back into sci-fi now over fantasy and a lot of things. We're seeing sci-fi books. Uh, I this
13:13
may be a weird take and this may just be my section of the internet, but I'm seeing more people read and talk about
13:19
like science fiction books lately than I have been fantasy. Not saying that that's gone away, but the interest for a
13:25
new sci-fi like many years ago I referred to it as a pendulum. And I talked about this on like lore watch and
13:32
and we talked about how like there's these swings in interest in popular
13:38
culture and it's not necessarily just like a pure thing of okay this is
13:44
popular then this thing's popular then this thing's popular and it's all over the place but it veers towards genres
13:50
right uh so you have your fantasy stuff which includes like your romances your
13:57
high fantasies your uh low fantasies see uh that type of stuff like you know
14:02
everything ranging from Lord of the Rings to uh you know technically the Dresden Files falls under that category.
14:10
Uh and then you have urban fantasy this what's that urban fantasy would that would be the Dresden Files. Yeah, but it's still in
14:16
the fantasy genre, right? It's not science fiction, right? Um, and then you have, you know,
14:22
swinging the other way where sci-fi starts taking over and this is, you
14:27
know, science uh smut or science fiction or even science fantasy. Like these
14:35
things are starting to, in my opinion, become a little more popular in what I'm seeing. So, like I I don't know. I think
14:42
that they're they would be fools not to strike if they could. And they already
14:49
have an engine built [clears throat] for a first-person shooter. And we know that they were working on an RPG system for
14:55
Overwatch 2 at some point. They got that code somewhere. You don't delete buckets of code. You archive it. So, they have
15:02
groundworks to work with. They just have to pull it all together. And they they could. So, you might not be too far off.
15:09
Who knows? We'll see. We'll see. I am I'm interested to find out what comes next even if it's just the normal stuff to
15:16
see okay what's kind of the plan what's the patch schedule looking like because
15:22
you know there's the big picture stuff always but there's also you know the
15:28
little things like oh we're going to do uh this is when we're going to update
15:33
this little thing oh we're going to add new heritage armor in this one though I think we may actually be out of new
15:39
heritage armor to add Maybe. But you know, there's a there's little things in those road maps, too, and those can be
15:45
really interesting. Is everyone being very quiet all of a sudden, or did I get disconnected? No, I pulled a I pulled a mat and uh
15:52
muted myself. So, there we go. Uh so, we got if unless anybody's got
15:57
anything else to add to that, we're going to move on to our next topic, uh which is the midnight pre- patch event has begun as of January 27th. Who wants
16:05
to take the opening swing at that one? Let's go. Let's go. It is. It is the most pre- patch event
16:11
of all time. It's It's pretty It's pretty lightweight, which is It's fine.
16:16
It's It's fine. Um It's a pre- patch event.
16:22
It's a pre- patch event. We're We're out there fighting the Twilight Cult again. We We haven't done that enough already.
16:31
Uh but but now we get stuff out of it, including the definitely not a cultist
16:37
title, which I am going to start wearing just so I can prove to my fellow not cultists that I also am not a cultist. I
16:44
would never I I would never join a cult. Totally a pure homegrown Lizbbas based
16:50
ideas coming out of out of here. [laughter] Those old gods have no good ideas,
16:55
right? Like nothing. Well, you know, it's all derivative. Sometimes sometimes N'oth did make a lot of sense, but uh
17:03
one of the one of the highlighting features of our World of Warcraft characters is that they are very
17:09
gullible. We make a lot of bad decisions in this video game. And uh that's just
17:16
that's just how it works. Cory, sometimes you just have to hold the idiot ball to move the plot forward. And
17:21
that's fine. I mean, at least once an expansion. At least once an expansion. And look,
17:26
N'oth gave me a gift. It would be rude of me not to wear it. Well, let's let's talk about some of the
17:33
things that folks can earn while doing this event because there are some some stuff basically for everybody, right?
17:40
There's a little bit of transmog. There's a little bit of decor. So, uh, Liz, you want to talk about the
17:46
transmog options that are available because I know you love transmog. I do love transmog. I am not I'm not
17:53
bowled over by the transmogs looks here, but it's transmog. Of course, I'm going
17:58
to collect it because I would hate to find out in a year from now that I have this perfect transmog look and it's it's
18:06
just missing like the the perfect Twilight cultist robe appearance to to
18:13
go with it. I that's the whole reason you collect transmog for that future day in which you will definitely need this
18:19
one piece that doesn't match anything right now and you have no desire to wear but in several years it may be perfect
18:25
or you may just be collecting things for nothing. Um I will say one thing that I
18:32
mean this is another thing you can get um all of your ketchup gear for alts and
18:38
um and so on and so forth. One thing that Blizzard has mentioned, there is not a ranged weapon option [laughter]
18:44
from this which uh they they are fixing, but as hopefully by the time you will
18:51
listen to this, it will already be fixed and there will be a crossbow available for leveling characters and max level
18:58
characters. Um but if if you're looking at these rewards and you're like, "Where's the I'm a hunter. Where do I
19:04
find anything to use in this event?" The Blizzard is working on it. It should be there soon. Yeah,
19:09
also importantly, there's a fun achievement called 2 Minutes to Midnight, which is of course playing off of any number of classic references. But
19:17
if you complete it by killing all of the rare enemies in the new zone, you get a mount, and we love mounts. It's another
19:23
one of those cool mech suit things with a very much Army of Light vibe to it.
19:29
And uh you can be the envy of all your friends who did not play in the pre- patch when you ride it around.
19:34
So, not only can you earn a mount and some transmog, there's also ketchup gear
19:40
available as well, which I think is it's that time of of, you know, year. We're in between expansions and uh you
19:48
want to catch up your alts. They've been doing a lot of it throughout the course of the expansion and of course we got to
19:53
get that pre-expansion catch up in. Uh so, armor uh Kenovan, I think is what it
20:00
is. I cannot pronounce this name. I'm sorry. Uh, we'll we'll find out.
20:05
But they sell ketchup gear for some of the insignas that you can get. I think it's 40 a piece for each slot if I
20:11
remember the article correctly. Um, it gives you everything except for trinkets. I think that so that's the
20:18
only thing you'll be missing, which that's kind of a big deal, but also really not if we're moving into the uh
20:24
into the next expansion. It is a tiny bit awkward for those new devourer demon hunters.
20:30
Mhm. Because one of the problems you have if you've switched, if you're a demon hunter and you've decided, oh, I'm
20:36
switching specs to devourer, you probably don't have any trinkets. Devourer is an intellect spec and needs
20:42
intellect trinkets. Um, so it would be it would be nice if there were some trinkets here. Even if they were subpar,
20:49
it would help you get those devourers up and running a little faster.
20:54
I've also heard that there's a problem with leveling a devourer specifically as a devourer where it's really hard to
21:00
find intellect warlaves. Yeah, because they were not originally built to be intellect weapons. So, so
21:08
yes, they don't swap back and forth the way the way you would expect them to. Old tech meets new tech. 20 years of
21:15
spaghetti code. 20 years of spaghetti code. Well, they did do a big code rewrite. We were talking about that last night in gold,
21:21
but like regardless, uh, but speaking of alterations to code, I think moving away
21:26
from the event, which obviously participate into it, get lots of cool stuff. It'll be here for a while. Um, so
21:33
go and earn your your your your title of definitely not a cultist. Get your transwalk pieces and various pieces of
21:38
decor. Go to the site. We have a full guide on on what like what's available and what you have to do to start earning
21:44
them. Uh but they also in this recent uh or are currently I can't remember they
21:51
did they've been doing a bunch of maintenances. Um the endeavors have been rebalanced which you know I think a lot
21:58
of us were begging for. [laughter] Uh, the Endeavor House XP cap has raised
22:04
from uh, 1,000 XP to 2250 XP plus the
22:10
250 XP from about finishing the endeavor bringing you about 2500 XP per endeavor.
22:17
That's a lot. That's a significant boost. It's a lot better. Um, and uh, one of the things they did confirm is that endeavors are going to
22:24
be monthly events and not uh, like this first one works out to be about 40 days,
22:31
but uh, in general they're going to be a month long, which I think is a good length of time
22:37
for something like that because there's a lot of there's a lot of like slow chip away at stuff, which I think I I want to
22:43
like commend them on choosing that pacing because a lot of times in game a lot of the stuff they add feels like you
22:49
have to do it right the heck now. Um, but giving you time, giving you
22:55
an extended period of time to, you know, not necessarily grind, but earn your Endeavor XP and like work towards
23:01
the endeavor stuff, do stuff collectively with the people in your community, which is the whole point of it, I think is really good. It slows
23:09
down the pace of consumption a little bit and lets you kind of enjoy it, which I think is neat. And a month is a is a long time, too.
23:16
Like especially when you look at World of Warcraft cuz even at the its heyday of this insert new event new zone shows
23:25
up like Mechagon to earn flying in Mechagon that took about a month if you played every day. So that's a reasonable
23:32
amount of time I think for a bunch of people to work together to get some cool stuff for their new houses. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Uh but the
23:38
the other thing Go ahead. I also they are like your initial of of this initial
23:44
endeavor they're reducing the amount of experience it takes to progress in it which has been a big point of contention
23:51
because people have been looking and seeing how slowly they progress. They're just changing this first one though
23:58
because endeavors are supposed to scale to the
24:04
size and activity level of your neighborhood. But this is the first endeavor we've ever had. So the scaling
24:11
code doesn't have anything to scale off of. So in the long term, they should all
24:17
be more balanced to kind of the just how how many people do you usually have doing things in your neighborhood? Do
24:23
you have a 50 player neighborhood and they're all really active? Do you have a 10 player neighborhood and only a couple
24:28
of people are participating? And it should scale to that. So the other thing that they adjusted uh which I think is
24:34
actually really good is uh they adjusted the diminishing returns. So endeavors
24:40
with the activities you complete if you complete the same one repeatedly there were diminishing returns that were gave
24:46
you essentially less percentages towards your um your your resulting like end the
24:54
goal essentially. Um it was uh reduced down to 20% of whatever the value was
24:59
and repeated stuff. They've now raised that to 50%. Which is still a diminishing return. However, it feels
25:08
pretty okay. Like that feels better than what it was. I don't know how you guys feel about that at all. If you have any
25:13
opinion, I mean, diminishing returns, I understand why they do it, but at the same time, it
25:18
never feels good. Yeah. At least it's I I think it's definitely an improvement. This is
25:23
nowhere near as diminished as it was before. Um, so you have the option to
25:29
grind a little and do those repeated activities and you are punished for it but not punished to where it's like, oh,
25:35
we aren't getting anything out of this. Which that's the part that really sucks. It's like I'm putting in all this work
25:40
and I'm not getting anything at all. Yeah. And speaking of uh feeling bad and
25:47
being improved, [laughter] uh what a segue. The initial endeavor that we received uh
25:54
felt pretty monumental as far as how much experience it would take to
25:59
complete it. Uh the amount of endeavor XP to complete this initial one has now
26:05
been tweaked. It has been reduced from a,000 XP to 400 XP.
26:10
The key point here is that endeavors are difficulty are supposed to scale with your neighborhood activity. Meaning the
26:17
more people active, the more plots you have sold, the easier it's supposed to be for you. Uh with so it would take
26:22
less time uh for you to complete if you have more people working on it. That would also mean that it would scale so
26:29
that smaller communities or smaller neighborhoods uh would then have a a
26:35
adjustment that would essentially allow them to complete it in a comparable amount of time to a full neighborhood.
26:41
Uh that is the the shortest version I can explain of that. Uh this first endeavor system wasn't calibrated. Um it
26:50
is the first one. it doesn't really have any data to feed off of. And it seems like this is an automatic adjusting uh
26:57
threshold, which is neat in and of itself from a technology standpoint. Uh but neighborhoods are new. They're
27:03
buggy. Players are coming and going. Players are returning to the game after long periods of absences and starting to
27:09
maybe play around with player housing. And some players will choose not to engage with it. So having it dynamically
27:15
adjust to maybe you know the returning player that's been gone for 6 months now all of a sudden wants to come and build the house moves into the guild community
27:22
you know reduces it by a certain percent or makes it easier by a certain percent uh which I think is nice. Uh this change
27:29
though for the reduction is only going to affect this endeavor uh and future ones should be set at that same level so
27:36
that you can you know it will hopefully have data enough to adjust itself appropriately. Fingers crossed. The only thing I wonder
27:43
about this is so these first couple months of midnight, you're going to have
27:48
high activity. Everyone's everyone's excited. There's big new content and so
27:55
presumably the endeavors are going to adjust for that. You've got a lot of people who are really active and really pushing the endeavor forward. What
28:02
happens in three or four or five months when we're we're playing patch 12.07? 07
28:11
and it's it's a little patch. It's not an exciting patch and people are not as active. Is is it going to I mean it
28:18
sounds like it's supposed to adjust to that, but I think WoW always has its ups and downs. When you get a big patch,
28:23
there's a lot of excitement, more people are more active, but those in between times there's always a downturn that it
28:30
feels like that will be something that's hard to anticipate for any kind of automated system. But we'll see. We'll
28:35
see. Yeah. And then one other adjustment that I think is a good one and one that I
28:41
think will a lot of players will be happy about. Endeavors have a lot of generic things that you can do, go
28:47
around, do XYZ thing or, you know, go complete a world quest or whatever. And
28:53
they were only awarding 10 XP at the time. And we were joking about it when we were doing a uh a world tour of the
29:00
old mythics uh last night. Uh and we were like, "Oh, I got 10 XP. That house
29:06
is going up in no or that endeavor is going up in no time. Uh they've adjusted it from 10 to 50 now, which feels a
29:14
little better. So very very good. I A+.
29:19
Thank you for listening. Keep it that way. [laughter] Don't don't revert it back. Uh and then the last thing was a a
29:27
little reminder that was put in here that I think is actually important. Uh, you get a 20% reward by completing
29:33
activities in a group with at least two people from your neighborhood. So, don't
29:38
just go at these solo. If you're in a guild neighborhood or a public neighborhood, find some friends to go
29:44
party with, uh, it not only will make the the tasks easier, uh, you'll get a
29:49
little bit of a bonus as well. And that 20% can be significant, especially when they've increased the XP you're getting
29:55
from certain things. Take advantage of that. It's just compounded interest at that point. [laughter]
30:01
It's um and you know if you're doing things with friends, you're making friends indeed.
30:06
Oh, that's a good one. The real endeavor of the friends we made along the way is what you're saying.
30:12
I think it is. Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Uh and then one other thing of note here, small feature that I'm sure
30:18
Liz has no opinions on whatsoever. Transmog got a price cut and then everybody gets one free
30:25
transmog. Uh, the price is available in game right now, but the transmog is not
30:30
available until the patch, which Liz, how do you feel about this? I mean, I feel great about transmog
30:37
costing less because on on the beta, transmog costs exploded.
30:43
I mean, obviously, we have a new transmog system. Your uh appearances are now tied to item slots instead of the
30:50
items themselves. So, you can set a transmog and just keep that transmog even if you switch gears. Uh, but if you
30:57
wanted to change your transmog to something else, it was significantly more expensive. Significantly in the
31:04
like it was something like 70% more expensive to change your look from one
31:10
look to a completely new look if you change the look of every item you were wearing. It was nuts. They reduced that
31:17
on the beta, but when it made live, it was still pretty expensive. not insanely
31:24
expensive, but it was still pretty expensive. Um, so yes, Blizzard has said, "Okay, all of your transmog costs.
31:30
We're cutting them in half." Now, I've got to clarify that does not include the item slots, the outfit slots that you
31:36
can now buy to lock in certain outfits and uh set them to certain conditions.
31:43
So, you can automatically switch between different looks uh at no cost once you've unlocked the outfit and set an
31:50
appearance to it. that does those those are the same those are the same those are still extremely expensive but
31:56
they're the same um but it does apply to just if you are changing one look to a
32:01
different look if you're changing you're saying oh I don't like how this tabard looks I want it to be a different tabard
32:08
uh you can go in and change that but
32:13
so yes those costs are h haveved and the reason we're getting one one free
32:19
transfog one whole free transmog is that when the new system launched, you got
32:25
all of your new outfit slots. And but you're when the new transmog system
32:32
launched, everyone's transmog was cleared. No one was wearing any kind of transmog at all. And as you were
32:40
listening to me say this, you should imagine me waving my arms wildly because I am. So you had to everyone had two
32:48
outfit slots by default and then you unlock however however many more outfit slots you want at a significant price
32:55
but you had to pay to set the transmog for any of your outfit slots and it was this higher than normal price and it
33:03
felt bad. It felt bad to log onto the game and your transmog is gone and you have to pay to put it back. possibly pay
33:10
a lot because you may have had a lot of different sets and outfits set up and now you have to pay to buy a slot for
33:17
them and save them in any of these. So that is but that's why we're getting one
33:24
free transmog to uh to replace that the fact that you you were wearing a
33:30
transmog when you logged out before the midnight pre- patch and when you logged in in the midnight pre- patch you were
33:37
not wearing a transmog. were just wearing whatever you were wearing. And it was terrible. It was probably very
33:43
terrible. So, but you get one freebie. You get one freebie because of that. It It It's
33:51
These are all good things. These are great things. It does seem like the get one for free is a problem they could
33:58
have anticipated. Like, it just it just feels bad. You know, you log in and your character screen is a mess of no
34:04
transmog and then you have to pay to set the transmog of all of your characters. My character screen is still a wreck.
34:11
It's terrible. But and Blizzard has made the right move. It just seems like, okay, you could have this is a this is
34:19
definitely a problem. You could have anticipated. It would have been better if they had anticipated the problem, but here we are. And they're they're doing
34:25
the right thing. And they're giving us a free transmog to replace the transmog we had to reapply because all transmogs
34:30
were deleted. And they cut the cost of everything all the time except for outfit slots. Those still the same.
34:37
Still expensive. Yeah. Tell us how you really feel. [snorts] [laughter] I I feel like I love transmog and it
34:44
should be free, but I am happy to get one one free transmog. I am content with this.
34:50
I it really at this point I feel like it should just be free, too. I understand wanting the friction of oh you got to
34:55
pay for it to unlock it to use it to its full potential but at the same time who cares just give us free transmog the
35:01
people want it and it will make people happy. Yeah I at this point I I understand that
35:08
like they were looking for gold sinks at some point uh to like reduce player like
35:16
gold stores and and help manage the economy. But at this point, I don't think transmog is it. Like with the new
35:23
system and the new outfits and everything else, it's greatly improved in functionality form, but at this
35:30
point, just get rid of the cost of it. I I I know that some players do it a lot, but the players that are doing it
35:36
constantly, and I'm looking directly at Liz as I say this, aren't going to crash the WoW economy. You're not going to
35:43
crash the WoW economy. like if if you don't have if you don't wind up spending millions
35:48
of gold on transmog, you're not going to go and like tank the market. I don't think it's holding anything back. Um so
35:55
like at this point I don't understand why it still costs and we know that it can be free. During the trial of style
36:01
it costs zero copper. Like why not? So if I hope somebody asked that question
36:08
at a Blizzcon and I would or in an interview, I'd love to see an answer in design philosophy on why transmog still
36:15
costs gold because it's always costed gold so therefore it must always continue to cost gold.
36:20
I that's my best guess is that they just don't want to go away from the system that has existed. But they they know we we know that they
36:26
can turn it off them. Yeah. Well, I mean that brings us to Legion Remix and uh Miss Pandaria Remix,
36:34
which in both cases, Transmog was free during these activities. Um,
36:40
but the reason it was free is because gear in Remix has a value of zero and
36:46
the cost of transmoging has always been attached to the gold value of the gear
36:53
you are wearing. Mhm. So, it's like they they made it free.
37:00
Being free is just a side effect of making the gear have zero value. So, you couldn't use mists to grind gold
37:06
essentially by buying and selling a just collecting gear and selling it for gold.
37:11
So, uh, it feels it feels like this is something hardwired down there, which clearly they can
37:19
modify it, but it does seem like when they've made it free, it's been made free by making a substantial change to
37:26
something else. Yeah. Accidentally even. Well, not accidentally, on purpose, but it feels
37:32
kind of like, well, this is free now. Surprise. Yeah. Like that wasn't that wasn't the point of any of the remixes. Just it was
37:39
a side effect. That's fair. Uh I think we can unless you have anything else to add about that. We have a little bit
37:45
more to cover before uh we get to the end of the show because well we we can talk about Transwog for an entire hour.
37:51
Um uh there was a new short story uh featuring some uh blood elf focus uh
37:58
with Umbrich and Romance uh Romath. Uh I did not read it yet. I haven't had a chance to. Uh it's called the void
38:06
between I believe. Uh, did either of you get a chance to read it yet or any interest in it?
38:11
I I I'm afraid I have not read it. I I'm going to ask you when are you talking about it in lore watch so I can listen
38:17
then I don't have to read it. I mean, Sunday Sunday is going to be the answer. The very next lore watch.
38:24
[laughter] I could probably I could probably read it faster than I could wait for you to to to do a lore watch on it, but I I
38:31
have not read it. Um, but I mean we're going we're going to Silver Moon City and we all know this in
38:38
Midnight. We're going to Silver Moon. Everyone is going to Silver Moon. So,
38:43
it's no surprise that we have a short story focused on two
38:51
high elves. If you want to go back to that terminology, you've got the synindor eye and the rendor eye,
38:58
you know, trying to to work out how they can what they can do to deal with this
39:04
threat because obviously you've got the void elves. They have a stake in this because we've got Zalot coming in and
39:12
the blood elves have a pretty big stake in this cuz they're attacking Silver Moon City again because that's that's
39:19
that's what we do. We attack the Sunwell. That's just that's just how
39:24
this game works. Bad guy attacks Sunwell. It's Yes, we've just hit that. The clock
39:30
has come around to midnight. It's time to attack the Sunwell. Um I mean it
39:36
makes sense that we're hearing stories about blood elves or high elves if you would prefer or void elves if you could
39:43
would prefer. I mean they all they they kind of all they mingle. Fair enough. Elves.
39:49
Elves. Yes. Elves. the musical coming soon to WoW. [laughter] Elves that share the same in-game model.
39:55
Uh there's another new feature uh coming out soon, or at least uh kind of uh
40:02
Azeroth Interiors, a new feature where Blizzard is picking a few teams of housing influencers. Uh and then the
40:08
teams are going to be put together a vision board. Uh like maybe, we don't
40:14
know. Uh and then they're going to like make the the whatever they design in game. I need to be on this team. I need
40:21
to be invited. I mean, that's one of the things this announcement about this event does not say is how do you become part of it? How
40:28
do you become a housing influencer to to to go and design create housing
40:34
inspiration boards to turn into houses? Where do I sign up? There does not
40:39
appear to be a sign up. Blizzard, listen, I don't ask for a lot. I mean, I do. Um, [laughter]
40:46
you ask your friends are Joe. Clearly, that's a lot. I have been screaming about housing forever. I have spent the bulk of my
40:54
time in this game since housing has been released in my house or getting stuff
40:59
for my house. I have I have tried to influence people multiple times on this and get them excited about it. Invite
41:06
me. Invite me. Please let me take my architect roots and show everybody how
41:12
cool my house is. Please. Anyway, uh I feel strongly about this. Uh we're gonna
41:20
we're gonna learn more about it as things go along. There's a lot of stuff up in the air about it. Uh it does seem
41:26
a lot like a a dream slashpimpmy crib slasht type thing that they're trying to
41:32
do which also apparently the winning house will be put up on Zillow.
41:39
I am very confused by that but also really intrigued. I'm I'm also confused, but apparently it's a thing that is
41:45
happening. I wonder be the weirdest cross promotion we've seen from a video game, but I'm
41:51
sure it will confuse a lot of No, I understand what they're doing now. Okay, I read it. Okay, this makes sense. It took my brain a minute to wrap around
41:57
it. They're going to do a virtual listing for it on Zillow so that everybody, whether or not you have the
42:03
game, can do a walkthrough of the house. That does make sense. Okay, that makes way more sense. Okay,
42:10
they're not going and building this house in real life because that could be challenging.
42:16
You never know when the goblin when Undermine released and and they
42:21
were doing it. Hey, that's true. They they had a custom Goblin dragster made that is actually at the office like
42:30
and it's a working functioning vehicle that was made by a couple YouTubers that I actually watch. Uh, like they
42:37
literally constructed a real goblin vehicle. That's true. That's true. So, like you never know what they're
42:42
going to say. They could have said, "Yeah, here's this abandoned house that we bought for a dollar. Go wild." Like, you never know. [laughter]
42:49
Well, anyway, uh we'll see more about that and and what people come up with. I'm excited to see what other people uh
42:55
create uh and whether it's going to be rooted in realism or they're going to lean into the absurd because there's
43:01
been a lot of absurd, especially in our neighborhoods. looking at you, flying house with wings. Uh, and then
43:07
[laughter] last, but certainly not least in WoW news, we have the Winds of Mysterious Fortune, which are back now through
43:13
February 22nd for anybody who needs to catch up on leveling an alt. Thank I'm
43:19
thankful for this every time they do it because it lets me uh get my stragglers that I will never play in any serious
43:25
capacity up to max level so I can feel good about myself. How about you guys? Hey, faster leveling is always a good
43:30
thing. Well, that's true. That's true. Are so here's a question. Are either of you gonna be using wins of mysterious
43:36
fortune to level anything in the next few weeks? I kind of feel like didn't Legion remix
43:41
just happened and was super easy a bunch of characters. That is true. That is true.
43:46
Except for me who couldn't stand doing Legion remix and didn't level anything cuz every time I tried, I gave up
43:53
immediately because I think I burned myself out on Legion the first time around and leveled I think I I I did the
43:59
math. It was 12 characters the max level through Legion when Legion was uh like current. So I know all this content like
44:06
the back of my hand and I couldn't do it again. [laughter] That's fair. I I felt like it had been
44:12
an amount of time since the content had happened. It had been long enough that I felt,
44:19
you know, okay, I can I'm interested in this again. I've forgotten some of this stuff. I have classes that I did not
44:25
play to max level and do the class campaigns for. I can do this again. And I leveled I I I was if id had more time,
44:31
I would have leveled mode characters. Uh but I think I leveled four classes to level 80 that I had never played through
44:38
Legion before. So I have I have a lot more alts and I have more opinions on
44:43
the disappointing class hall campaigns. So this is this is outdated knowledge,
44:49
but now I've got up on it all of these years later. You take that back. The priest class hall was something. You see the priest
44:56
class hall. The priest class hall was certainly one of them. Uh the I still have not done the priest class hall. And that's because I did the
45:02
paladin class hall. So I don't have to do the priest class hall. I've got the important story beats already. That's
45:08
that's a that's a reference that some of you who have done the priest class hall and perhaps the paladin class hall or
45:13
both of them will understand. Well, speaking of not understanding
45:18
things, I want to move into the Hearthstone stuff. And Liz, explain to me why is it a big patch day? what's
45:23
going on? Well, I wouldn't I wouldn't say it's the hugest patch day out there. Um, but yes,
45:28
Hearthstone did has a a pretty big patch that rolled out there. Um, the most
45:35
notable thing is that we have a new uh a new pet. There's a new pet. And those of
45:43
you listening, those of you at home, you've never heard me say the word pet with more disappointment than I do when
45:50
I am talking about Hearthstone. Because Hearthstone has these cosmetic pets that they just hang out on your board while
45:56
you're playing and you can uh dress them up. You can interact with them with
46:01
emotes and they are so hecking adorable. They are so they're the cutest things.
46:07
They are the cutest things ever. Um, but the only way to play them is by playing a gotacha style sort of roulette
46:14
game where it spins through various rewards you can get. And the pet, the
46:21
really cool pet is one reward out of 10 and it has something like a 0.1% chance of getting it. Um, you can get each
46:29
reward only once. So, as you keep spinning, you get a higher chance of getting it
46:34
until uh but there are 10 rewards on by the ninth reward, you have a 6% chance
46:41
of getting this. Um, which is not not a lot. And your first spin is free, but
46:47
after that, each spin has an increase in cost. If you have to go through all the
46:52
spends to get the pet, that is $158 American to get this pet, which is an amount of
47:01
money, an amount of money I'm never going to spend on a pet, even though they are painfully adorable and I love
47:07
them. Uh, the latest the latest pet is a baby Yera. She is so adorable. She is
47:13
the most adorable thing I've ever seen. And that is even more adorable than the previous Hearthstone pets that I said
47:18
were the most adorable thing I have ever seen. So I I look at this and this the most adorable thing I've ever seen. But
47:25
I I cannot condone it. I cannot condone these pets because they are wildly
47:32
expensive. And it's not just, you know, I would feel better about these if Blizzard rolled these out and just said
47:37
this cost $158. That's just what it cost. At least it wouldn't feel so disingenuous and scammy
47:46
because this is a mechanic designed to make you spend money. It's designed to make you spend more money than you
47:52
intended to. It specifically has a predatory gambling style mechanic that
47:58
makes you spend more money than you intended to. It It is willpower of steel
48:05
not to click. Okay, just one more spin. One more spin. I'm going to get this super adorable pet and know it's one
48:11
more spin and you're going to get like a fraction of a percentage point more
48:16
chance to get this pet and you're going to wind up spending $158 that you didn't mean to spend or maybe you didn't have.
48:22
I have a lot of things I could spend $158 on and this just doesn't make the list and I just find it deeply
48:28
disappointing. But at the same time, if it wasn't making money, Blizzard wouldn't keep making these super
48:34
painfully adorable pets that we all want. But if you can afford, I did go on
48:39
and do my free spin. I did not get an adorable baby Yera. I did not hit that
48:45
0.1% chance of getting the jackpot on the first spin. And that's it. I I must
48:51
stop myself from doing anymore. Otherwise, I will fall prey to this. I will do each spin and be like, I have a
48:57
better chance this time. I just can't do it. I can't do even one. What's $2 for the second spin, Liz? Come
49:03
on. It's a slippery sp and they know it. It's a very slippery slope. And that's
49:09
the whole problem because yeah, the second spin, first one's free, then it's $2. Well, $2 in that match. $2 for this
49:16
super adorable pet. And then you're going to do you're going to do the $2 and I forget what the next one is. Like
49:21
five or 10. It like goes up. It starts going up pretty exponentially at that point. Um
49:26
until yes, the last by the last spin you will have spent $158. And yes, in total. So
49:33
I am definitely I am definitely team I would rather just have not gambling
49:39
just let me pay money for stuff like and this is coming from somebody who in real life opens up packs of Magic cards
49:47
and loves doing so even this is too far for me Blizzard come on well because each individual Magikard
49:54
pack is not anywhere close to $158 and by after the fifth Magikard pack you're
49:59
not paying $50 per pack. So, [clears throat] well, sometimes that's a very
50:06
complicated uh complicated thing there, Corey. Well, I was under the impression there would be no math. [laughter]
50:13
We'll talk about that later. There there are some more changes in the
50:19
patch, but it's kind of a standard. Uh there's b some balance changes going out. There's some balance changes in
50:25
battlegrounds that went out that are they're trying to dial back death rattle comps. Um, so just kind of a there's a
50:33
grab bag of changes in Hearthstone, but kind of the the most obvious is this
50:38
super adorable super adorable baby Yura pet, which I will never have.
50:45
Well, maybe I'll just print you one and send it to you in real life. [laughter] Oh, that would be good. Hey, this would
50:52
be an amazing 3D printed mini. It would be all of the design. I I have
50:59
I have maybe this is why Blizzard doesn't invite me to things. Uh definitely printed a lot of files from
51:05
their game that was not meant to be 3D files because I needed to own like Vulpera totems in real life, stuff like
51:11
that. You know, the usual. But I think I think that does it for that. And I want to unleash Corey here for a couple
51:17
minutes cuz we're slowly running out of time. Just real quick back on that on the on the pet thing in Hearthstone. It's weird
51:23
to me that they haven't given everybody a really basic pet just to show you how
51:28
fun having a pet could be. Like, it could be the most basic, boring. I don't know. Like, you
51:35
put a puppy in front of people, they're going to be happy about it. But I don't know what how you get more basic than a puppy or a kitten when you're dealing
51:41
with Yera or Talion as your possible companion. So, but like if they It seems
51:48
like a very good gateway drug to just give everyone their own pet for free. I know. Or
51:55
[laughter] It's just it's odd to me that they haven't made a more accessible version of this for people to collect
52:01
for freeish. Yeah. Well, anyway, but look, if I give them the idea, maybe they'll give everybody a puppy. And can
52:08
we really be mad at giving everybody a free puppy? I really can't. I mean, I want to I could be really mean
52:14
with my segue here, but I'm not going to. Uh, so I'm going to let you [laughter] I'm going to let you live in hope, Corey. uh as I would like you to
52:22
talk briefly about the patch that just released for Heroes of the Storm because for a game in maintenance it's still
52:28
getting a lot of patches folks. What is dead may never die. Heroes of the Storm continues to live and struggle
52:35
onwards as a game that people are like hey wait a second is the Heroes of the Storm still a thing and you're like yes
52:40
it's never not been a thing. It's just not getting lots of it's just not getting active development except now
52:46
it's kind of getting a little bit of active development. just a just a little bit just to remind you what it was like when you could expect a patch every
52:53
couple months with some changes and balancing and updates to maps and so on
52:58
and so forth. Are we right around the corner from a fullyfledged Lilith being added to Heroes of the Storm? Probably
53:05
not. At this point, it might be Zealat because we've already got Meto in the game and Zalat is a little bit more
53:11
notable as a Blizzard spokes character, but it I I just don't see it happening
53:18
unless at Blizzcon they they come out and say, "Yeah, here we go. Here's a Storm back in full action 3.0.
53:25
Play it on your Xbox right now with your Xbox controller on the couch." Not impossible. Could be could happen.
53:31
Master Chief is looking real lonely over there in Halo Land, but uh Heroes of
53:36
Storm has a patch coming out. It's on the PTR right now. They're continuing to tweak the new uh quests they added in
53:43
the last patch where you the the quests are really long, but by the end of it, you get a really strong power. They've
53:49
changed the name. I'm quoting here. I'm reading directly from the patch notes. Pinnacle rewards are now named mythic
53:54
rewards to give a more Blizzardy feel. so mythicy which is very on brand for them and
54:00
they've got their humor going which is great. We love to see that. That's honestly part of the biggest reason I
54:06
loved Heroes of the Storm was because they could have fun with the game. They could have fun and people weren't taking it super seriously the way that
54:13
we would see with Starcraft. And I I know that everyone had to click on this unit a bunch of times and they'll get
54:18
annoyed at you and say funny things, but at the same time, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft, and Diablo
54:25
especially, could be very serious games. And so, Heroes of the Storm let them kind of have fun with it and make a toy
54:32
version of Meisto or a plush version of the Butcher, which was added in the last patch, etc., etc. Um the the patch
54:40
itself, a couple heroes got some pretty big reworks. As Madan and Deathwing have
54:45
both been uh massaged into maybe more powerful versions of themselves, unless
54:51
you look at Reddit, in which case it's the worst thing to happen to anyone, which in itself is very interesting
54:57
because now Reddit is no longer quite so on board with every change that they the
55:02
way they used to be. And that's a good sign, I would say, for the cadence of the patches because no longer are we
55:09
looking at such an infrequent amount of content that every content has to be good, but people can be critical of
55:15
things again, which it's a roundabout way of saying the game's in a good spot, but at the same time, it makes sense in
55:21
my head that you're no longer so hurting for a the morsel of attention that one
55:28
person updating things in the background could be giving you that now you're looking at and being like, "Yeah, maybe Not giving Asmodan a talent that lets
55:34
him throw his basketball across the entire map with no range limitations is
55:40
a good [laughter] thing. I mean, even even League even League of Legends reigned rain reigned in Ziggs's
55:46
range on that one. Just just throwing that out there. In theory, he Asodan could solo a
55:52
building from far away by doing that. That's the problem several times. I think that he can't win the game
55:59
solely just by throwing basketballs from your core to their core because the core's shields will regenerate faster
56:05
than basketballs will land and damage it in theory. There there may be a point where it does one outpaces the other,
56:12
but we'll figure that out when it comes to it. And I mean, not only that, but it was also like the whole sniping thing that you could do with like Asadan in
56:19
particular. You could see a fight going on and engage not being anywhere near it
56:24
and just snipe a whole bunch of kills. So yeah, give and take. Give and take.
56:29
Yeah. [laughter] So, uh, Admin gets a rework. Deathwing gets a rework. Um, Murky gets a little
56:37
bit of a rework. Uh, and everyone can earn the big tuna kahuna talent now by
56:42
playing Murky really, really well, which is of course the talent that made Murky bigger and stronger and more of a
56:50
threat. But it was always a level 20 talent. So by the end of the game, if Murky was allowed to get to that point,
56:55
Big Tuna Kahuna could really uh mess up your day. Yeah. Could be game
57:01
altering. It could be game altering. Uh now it comes from just hitting people with his puffer fish explosion a lot,
57:07
which I think actually I like that a little bit better as far as I'm concerned. It's a skill thing,
57:13
but at the same time, they've also added a thing for his murloc march where it no
57:18
at level 20, you can take the talent for never ending murlocs where he just sits there and summons lots of little baby
57:23
murlocs and it no longer deals reduced damage to structures, which means that a murky left alone doing that will destroy
57:30
buildings. Yeah, I mean it feels like that's more in line with heroes or champions in other games that do similar
57:37
uh fill similar roles where there's a a skill-based component that allows them to potentially snowball really large if
57:44
they're left to their own devices. So, I'm here for that. I think that's pretty neat. Is there anything else that is
57:51
really big note? I I can't really there's nothing that's a super big note like Tonda gets a little bit of love and
57:57
there's some bug fixing going on and Jana has got a little tweak to her talents. So it's these are big ch like
58:03
this is multiple heroes getting new traits and reworks and stuff like that to tie in with the new mythic talent
58:09
system. So clearly this is a big swing on Heroes of the Storm. Uh more wheels
58:16
are being pushed into motion. The patch itself is not out yet. Uh likely it will come out at the beginning of February I
58:22
think is the cadence for this one. Uh the PTR itself, the public test realm went up on January 14th. So we're about
58:30
uh two weeks out of that. So by the by the next podcast, the podcast after that, we could see it go live. If there
58:36
is any kind of hidden surprise like the like the new skins they've been adding,
58:41
uh it's likely not we're not going to see it until it hits the live realms. So looking forward to more surprises. Maybe
58:49
we'll get some cool new skins uh for somebody. But with that, this is where I will turn
58:55
to Liz and ask if she will do the site portion of our podcast as we are rapidly
59:02
up against time here. Uh yeah, you know, time time flies when
59:08
we are doing these things. Oh my gosh. Uh, I want to send a special shout out
59:14
to all of our supporters wherever you are, whether you are listening to this podcast, whether you are reading the
59:21
site, thank you so much for being here. You guys keep us going. We It'd be a
59:26
really weird podcast if we were just sitting here talking to ourselves. I guess you just call it a conversation.
59:32
Anyway, we are here because you are here and I appreciate every last one of you who tunes in to listen to us. But I do
59:39
want to give it give out a little extra special shout out to our supporters on
59:45
Patreon. Thank you guys so much because even a few dollars of support really
59:50
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59:56
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1:00:01
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1:00:07
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1:00:14
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1:00:49
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1:00:57
thank you again to everyone. Now, uh, do, uh, like and subscribe and share our
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1:01:10
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subscribe, follow our stuff cuz that that stuff really helps. So thank you so
1:01:50
much everyone for being here. Special thank you to our Patreon supporters. And
1:01:55
um if you have questions for this podcast, we are always looking for podcast questions and you can send them
1:02:01
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1:02:06
Blizzardwatch, that's us talking about the latest news. Lorewatch talking about video game lore most of the time. And uh
1:02:13
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1:02:18
And uh let us know if there's any special pronunciation for your name cuz we'll try to get it right. We do our best. Uh so uh you can also contact us
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questions channel which we look to first as a way of saying thank you. So thanks everybody for your support and uh yeah
1:02:42
that's you guys are right we're here. Thanks so much. Thank you very much Liz and thank you to all of our wonderful listeners at home.
1:02:48
Uh, I think that's where we're going to end it today. We've had quite the journey. Uh, be sure to check us out
1:02:54
next week when we talk about everything that we get to learn from our our wonderful preview that will be happening
1:03:00
in a couple days. Uh, and I'm sure we will have plenty of opinions. And please listen to our other podcast. Uh, we I
1:03:07
work really hard on them. Thank you. [laughter] But with that, friends, that's true. He does.
1:03:12
With that, friends, we'll see you next week.