Up next in 10
This week, we got the announcement that the alpha for World of Warcraft's next expansion Midnight is beginning in just a few weeks. Blizzard ran down some of the content we'll be seeing and roughly when, which was a hot topic for the cohosts this week. Everything seems to be coming out October 2, from the Midnight alpha to Naxxramas in the WoW Classic Anniversary realms to the next season of Critical Role. Diablo 4 gave us a reprieve by being live already, with a few weirdly cute little guys to get from the seasonal journey and battle pass -- with an obligatory round of booing for microtransactions.
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0:00
hello everybody uh welcome to the blizzard watch podcast where a bunch of us will sit here and talk
0:14
about blizzard entertainment as many games and maybe other things if there's time uh besides
0:19
myself matt the host we've got a tremendous lineup of people who are coming back for this week um two
0:26
of them appear more often than I am, and one of them is fairly often. First up, special
0:32
guest, Corey, with an exclamation point now. I don't know why he's got one, but Corey
0:38
Hi! I mean, I'm a loud guy, so that explains a lot, and I do have the reputation. You are a loud guy
0:44
that's fine, keep doing that, you're allowed. And I have the reputation on Blizzard Watch of writing
0:50
with the most exclamation points, and Anna always coming in and smashing yeah that's true uh but also um you just heard her speaking and so we're going to make sure you
0:58
know that that was liz harper our other in chief and overall grand high poobah hi liz hello and
1:05
also with us is joe he likes the alien franchise a real lot perez sorry i was too busy trying to put
1:13
my spider-man mask on well i don't see how that ties into the alien franchise at all you are you
1:18
are confusing me but that's oh no because i mean we don't have time for it one day we're going to
1:23
be talking about the marvel slash aliens crossover because it's happening you know i i already know
1:28
about the superman and batman ones that's that's something this is even better because mr i'm i'm
1:34
gonna stop but mr sinister gun that shoots facehuggers anyway now that we're thinking about
1:39
that uh news for things uh world of warcraft midnight the alpha is beginning on october the
1:48
second, which is, I think, at this point, two weeks ago? Two weeks ago
1:52
Two weeks to go. No, it's one week and two days from the time of this recording
1:57
So, yeah. About a week. About a week by the time you are listening to this
2:01
So, yeah, that's happening. It's going to have a deep dive panel and a Q&A the day before
2:07
So, on October 1st, you're going to get that. We don't really, I mean, obviously, they're having that Q&A in the future as we are recording this
2:17
So we don't really know what we're going to find out from it. But, you know, go ahead, Liz
2:22
We'll talk more about it after we find out. What I wonder about this, it's going to be Chris Metzen and Ian Hezekostas
2:29
And I'm wondering, is this what they had originally planned to do at Gamescom
2:35
I had the same thought, actually. Yeah. Because originally Metzen was going to be there and do a panel that was going to be right after opening Night Live
2:46
and then that didn't happen and they had these two other panels without Metzen
2:51
But yes, now we're getting a deep dive with Metzen and Ian. And after that, there's going to be a Q&A with Ian, Maria Hamilton, Paul Cubitt, and Randy Jordan
3:02
And they're taking, it's open questions. You can submit them on the forums right now, which is, that's kind of cool
3:09
I don't know. They don't usually do completely, or at least I don't feel like they do a lot of Q&As like this
3:15
So it'll be interesting to see what kind of questions do they answer, because Q&As can be a little bit of a mixed bag
3:22
I don't even know what I would want to ask in a Q&A right now. We have so little information that anything I could, anything juicy that I would ask would just hit that point of like, oh, we can't talk about that yet
3:33
And anything else I feel like can be assumed or inferred from what we have seen
3:38
I would just ask a hundred questions about very specific player housing things and if I can have them
3:45
that would be it. I assume they will not spend the entire Q&A doing that because that would get
3:50
probably get boring. Even I admit it. So since we've got some information, though, we've got this
3:56
really nice infographic they put up, which basically tells you everything they're going to do
4:01
on the alpha and when they're going to do it in phases. And they've never done that before
4:06
They've rolled out a whole content phase release schedule for the Midnight Alpha
4:13
and there are not dates. Yeah, no dates. No dates, yeah. But they do tell you, like, every level
4:21
like, from levels 80 to 83, 83 to 88, 83 to 88 again
4:27
because new stuff will be coming out, 88 to 90, and then level 90 content
4:32
So they've got that all. I'm not going to sit here and read you everything. Yeah
4:36
Because no one wants to hear me do that. But I will point out that we're getting
4:40
they're breaking up story and quest stuff each time. Housing comes in phase one
4:44
that's going to get tested first, which is good because they're supposed to
4:48
give it to us before the actual expansion, so it's good that they're
4:52
testing it. Bunch of new Delves, new Delve companions, so forth and so on
4:58
There's actually quite a bit to this. Go ahead, Liz. Yeah, I'm
5:02
really excited to if I can get into this, we will see. And if, you know
5:08
if none of us get into the alpha, if none of you listeners get into the alpha, there
5:12
is the beta coming after the alpha, which will have more people
5:17
The alpha is invite only. The beta is probably also going to start out as a closed beta with just a few people in
5:24
it, but it will grow and grow and grow over time. And usually by the late beta, anyone who wants in will get in
5:32
Usually how it goes. Anybody else also interested in the fact that professions are both in phase one and phase five
5:38
Yeah. That's not. Leveling and max level. Yeah. that's what i was thinking yeah i mean it's it looks like early leveling and max level but i'm
5:45
go ahead liz at the last in phase five it says professions sparks so that sounds like maybe max
5:53
level your max level crafting your stuff with embellishments and i don't know we'll see yeah i
6:00
mean i'm i'm curious because i think i think we've i don't remember if i've saw this or if we
6:05
talked about this professions are in a weird place like they're not bad but they're not good
6:10
like they're in this like back to being fairly midland unless you need something specific crafted
6:16
so it's they got rid of the two lowest qualities for max level crafts now right so it's not long
6:23
it's yes or it's down to just two qualities good and i believe so i i believe so but that's like
6:30
one of those things that happened in an interview maybe that someone there have been so many
6:36
interviews that was not something they've said on stage but yes we have heard that That may have even been from the Taliesin and Evatel interview, which was not streamed or recorded, best we know
6:46
Yeah, we've got that coming, though. We know that's happening. I really am surprised about the infogram
6:55
I'm just, how they have never done this, as Liz pointed out. Yeah, this is so much information
7:01
Usually we would, like, when it was rolling out, we would get an update that says, here's the level range, here's what's available for testing now, the servers will be up in an hour
7:13
It definitely smacks us being way more focused and intentional, which is good
7:19
I don think we seen a beta or an alpha or a desired testing pattern that has really been that broken down or focused which I think is good because from my brain and my standpoint that how you produce software for everything else
7:38
for every other industry. You, you target specific things and then work your way up to the full
7:44
like the full, everything combined. And it's nice to see them doing that
7:48
Maybe they've been doing them in the background, but, and maybe I'm just not remembering all the betas and alphas
7:52
but they always seemed to not, they seemed to lack consistency in what they were making available to you
7:59
at least in my mind. I, yeah, I would agree with you. I feel like they're being a lot more transparent about the development
8:06
process lately. And especially if you look at player housing, they've been giving us a lot of early previews and just with the caveat
8:13
okay, this is a feature in development. We're working on it. Give us feedback. Whereas in the past
8:19
it felt like they wanted to give us a really finished product before they showed anything off
8:24
And sometimes that was a problem when they gave us a really finished product that wasn't what people expected
8:30
or was different from what they were hoping for. So I think this is a good direction
8:35
But yeah, it's surprising to see this much detail on what's going on
8:39
But I like it. I also want to point out, this is a specific thing I want to mention
8:43
and I'm sure we'll talk about it again on Lorewatch at some point. uh not anytime soon but um zulamon's a zone this time around and in addition to the fact that it's
8:54
got two dungeons uh the den of nalarak and uh myasar myasaric caverns it's also got the twilight
9:02
crypts and atalaman as delves now atalaman's in vol dune uh it was in the last time you we got to
9:11
see it was in um battle for azeroth content i'm really curious about this this is kind of and it's
9:18
fun to me that this thing that they're doing where they're going back to an area that we've seen
9:23
before which is a half of this is stuff we've been to before like eversong woods and so forth
9:29
but to see them tie together places that they've they've that are geographically distant in this
9:36
way is interesting to me to see in a in a test like what are they testing in a talaman are they
9:42
testing it just as a delve are they testing it in terms of will this stay up i'm i'm just really
9:47
it's to see the zones laid out like this with all the stuff that's going to be coming out at the same
9:52
time the fact that there's you know there's a lot to this it also it also lets you appreciate the
9:58
scope of the the expansion too i think yeah it does yeah and you the fact that you get up to level
10:04
90 here the fact that you know void storm is so far along in the leveling content and therefore
10:12
you know it's going to be the stuff you know and i don't even know do we know what apex talents are
10:17
because if we are we do i don't know what they are uh you are getting 10 new talent points to
10:23
distribute as you will but there will be a new apex talent at the very top of your talent tree
10:28
your class uh your spec talent tree okay and yeah i know it's it's a single talent that you can
10:36
invest up to four points in and it'll be like the first one gives you a big something that's cool
10:42
the second one improves it the third one improves it and the fourth one like evolves it into something
10:47
bigger and cooler and but you can choose to be like no i don't like that i just want to spend
10:53
these four talent points and something else. So it's going to be interesting to have new talent points to spread around in the talent trees
11:02
Yay, talents. I'm talking and I'm putting the wrong button. It's just interesting to see this laid out like this
11:08
Like, I don't recall. Like, I remember there were times where literally we didn't know until the day of
11:15
Oh, yeah, we're opening the Storm Peaks now. You have to get off the servers for half an hour
11:20
But then the Storm Peaks will be on. So, yeah, this is something. Again, we don't know when
11:26
There's no dates for any of this. We just know that it's coming in phases. And the fact that they're doing it in phases like this is interesting as well
11:32
Go ahead, Liz. But also, we can make some guesses here. Basically, because of, we know after the alpha, there's going to be a beta, obviously
11:44
And we did this past week kind of look and do some guesses about when the beta is
11:50
And usually the alpha runs, you know, 40, 50 days kind of in there
11:57
So you can look at that and sort of extrapolate out. We can expect about a month and a half of alpha leading into the beta
12:08
So right now we're guessing the beta is going to launch mid-November. So if they spread these phases out, you get a little over a week per phase
12:17
It's not going to be like six months of beta. Likely not
12:21
I mean, this is a guess based on past alphas and betas
12:29
So we will see. But they can change their mind at any point, and they often have
12:34
Also true. Very true. And this isn't going to be carryover stuff, right
12:39
Like when it goes from alpha to beta, they're not going to carry people over? Are they going to restart
12:43
Or are they going to carry over? Do we know? We do not know
12:47
I'm not sure if they've been consistent about how they've done this in the past I don't even think that they would
12:53
carry over just because it's Elf Elf stuff generally doesn't it's really rare that it does
13:01
the thing is sometimes they reset several times during the alpha as well
13:05
that's happened quite a lot and usually you can character boost you can do these things in the alpha to make it
13:11
easier to test late game content sometimes they'll just have pre-made characters at the level
13:17
and so forth. Yeah, usually they will. So you can test that late game content
13:21
without spending the time to level to 90 over and over again
13:25
because it's not fast. It's not instant. Well, there's a point here on this
13:30
that Liz put in that I think really needs to get emphasized. So I'm going to try and emphasize it now
13:36
When you are on either the alpha, if you get an invite or the beta
13:40
however you get on that, this isn't early access. This isn't like going to play a video game
13:46
You get early access. and then when the game finally comes out, your early access might be preserved
13:51
No, this is a beta test and an alpha test. It's for bugs and servers and, you know, server performance
14:01
It's not just for people to play in. That's not to say you shouldn't have fun with it
14:06
but if you go into this and you never give them any feedback
14:10
you are obviating the reason that this thing exists. It doesn't exist, so you get a cool preview
14:16
it exists so that when the game comes out it will run properly yeah i think at least that's the hope
14:22
i think when we had the beta for uh the war within when i finally got in i think i submitted like
14:28
i don't know 40 50 bugs worth of data like every time i saw something wrong yep here you go fire
14:33
it off here's the button here's the hotkey let's go yeah and they've actually got stuff in there to
14:39
make it easier the ui has elements where it will be like you know hey did did you have a bug just
14:44
then champ please you know please report it uh wasn't quite to level of skippy but
14:49
a few things a few things so lamar i heard you trying to talk cory so i was shining up so you could talk oh i was just gonna say too part of the the You do say that and yes you should be submitting bug reports but another part of it is that they want to make sure that the servers can handle the stress of people
15:06
all doing these things at the same time, too. So being on there is helpful, too
15:12
Yeah, it is. Just be aware when you are playing it that you're not..
15:17
It's not just a fun game time. It does serve multiple purposes
15:21
Yeah, I was going to say, I go as far as pulling combat logs and checking to make sure spells are doing what they say they're supposed to be doing
15:27
I am weird about this. One of the things I do a lot is deliberately do things that I know people will do online
15:36
I will pull like a hundred things. Knowing it'll kill me, but it doesn't matter if it kills me
15:43
Will the game render this? If people are pulling everything and everyone's casting spells on an area, what happens
15:51
How many spell effects can go off before things die? And not by, I don't mean the monsters you're fighting, I mean the server
15:59
I still remember, I think this goes back all the way to the Burning Crusade one
16:03
There was a specific spell that when they used it, Shaman could just destroy a server
16:10
It was not Shaman, and it was Vanilla WoW, and it was never tested because it was rogues
16:17
And it was Sinister Strike. And if you put Sinister Strike into a macro with every emote available in the game as one command and you Sinister Strike somebody, it would inject the code into the character model of your opponent, forcing them to essentially try to complete all of the emotes and crashing the world server because the game didn't know what to do with the fact that a third party tried to tell another third party what to do with a long string of code
16:42
It was an injection-like crash. I remember it because it was what inspired me to learn Lua in the first place
16:48
classic literally well now that you know i'm sad that i never did that on my rogue um
16:56
we should talk about the collector's edition i guess because it's they we don't all we know
17:01
is that it's going to be on a shelf but it was on a shelf behind eon when they were announcing
17:05
the alpha so yay for putting it on the set i guess very purple i'm told it is it is really
17:13
extremely so purple. Super purple. It is the purplest purple. I just want it to be a purple Necker-Namacon
17:23
I just think it's worth pointing out that yes, there will be a
17:27
collector's edition, even though we would kind of assume that it is not
17:31
currently available or available for pre-order, and it's always kind of screwy buying the collector's
17:37
edition, and maybe also you want to pre-order the expansion to get all
17:41
of those perks because the box comes with a code for that
17:45
It's always a bit of a mess. So be aware there is a pre-order and
17:50
it is the purplest purple box I have ever seen. I reacted to
17:55
seeing this news with water is wet, right? Because like, of course
17:59
they're going to sell a Collector's Edition. Why would they not? Yeah, I can't argue
18:03
Has there been a World of Warcraft version or expansion that did not have
18:07
a Collector's Edition? It's not that I can remember. I don't think so
18:12
Let me ask you guys a question then. So for you, how important is like a collector's edition? Like, I don't know, like, did you do the pre-orders already? Did you pre-purchase? Did you sign in or anything like that for what level did you sign up for if you did
18:27
I haven't bought a physical collector's edition in a minute. I've never bought the physical collector's edition for any of the World of Warcrafts
18:35
but I have gotten the digital collectors, like the ones with extra fancy stuff in it
18:40
It's not super important to me. I don't find the extra swag in the collector's edition usually worth it
18:51
I find that it's just not well made, usually. It's kind of fun
18:56
if it comes down the line I find a sealed one like 10 or 15 years from now
19:01
for like 20 bucks yeah sure I'll buy it I'm literally looking
19:05
at my Warcraft 3 collector's edition that I did just find for $20 at a
19:11
at a toy store and I was like it was up for
19:15
$50 and I told the guy give him $20 and he's like ooh and I'm like hey you don't have to carry it around with you
19:19
anymore and he's like ooh and then now I have that so
19:23
that was fun What about you Liz? On a scale of 1 to 10
19:29
I would rate the importance of collector's editions about a 2 I do
19:35
own a couple of them I own the Wrath of the Lich King collector's
19:39
edition which sits on a shelf over the desk I own the Dragonflight
19:43
collector's edition and these are expansions that I was really hyped about
19:48
If I was in a place to do so I probably would have bought the Burning Crusade one
19:53
was there a Burning Crusade one? There must have been. There must have been, right
19:57
Yeah, because there was one for the original, too. Yeah. So if I'm really hyped
20:03
it's nice to have it. It's nice to have, you know, the fancy game box, but I do feel like the
20:07
offerings have gotten a little more mixed these days. It's like you would get the collector's edition to come
20:13
with a cool art book, and now they're more likely to come with the stuff
20:17
that I maybe don't need, because I'm a little more selective about the stuff I collect
20:23
these days because there's only so much shelf space. You don't need all
20:27
that stuff to dust. I like them. I do not always or even
20:33
usually go out and make the investment to buy them. I never bought any of them
20:39
the collector's editions, but I have everything up until Shadowlands. That's because
20:46
I've lived up here in Edmonton for a long time. One of the people who
20:51
reads our site was like oh i live in edmonton do you want all my collector's editions and i'm like
20:57
well i don't really have any money he's like no i'll just give them to you so we'll just meet up
21:01
and i'll give them to you and i'm like okay and so i went to the west edmonton mall and this very
21:06
nice man came up to me and said hi i always liked your stuff on the site and i was like thank you i too have liked my stuff on the site um i feel really awkward about what we're doing
21:16
right now he goes oh that's great and he just hands me these men he didn't just hand me all
21:20
the collector's editions of WoW, up until, again, Shadowlands. He gave me Warcraft 3 collector's
21:26
edition, Diablo 3 collector's edition, with the Reaper of Souls expansion collector's
21:34
edition as well. And he gave me the entire Starcraft 2 collector's
21:42
editions. He just handed me all this in these giant green baskets
21:48
and they were very hard to get home because I was walking uh so he's like oh no no oh you're walking back to your place no i'll drive you there
21:57
so he drove me to my apartment with all this stuff and i had to like go inside and my wife saw me
22:03
carrying them in was like what did you do and i'm like i didn't spend any money i i didn't i didn't
22:07
spend any money because i realized what it looks like but no he just he just gave him to me and he
22:13
never redeemed his panda code oh nice so my wife now has the panda that pet you got for for the
22:22
original world of warcraft game uh she now has that because he didn redeem it so yeah so i never spent money on these things but I have a bunch of them And I love the one thing I love in each one is the
22:37
is the mouse mat. They all come with cool mouse mats. I've used a ton of them
22:42
I just constantly switch between mouse mats. So yeah, that's the importance of it to me in terms of spending money
22:49
Nil, the importance to me in terms of having an art book in it
22:54
massive. that it has an art book i'm super happy that that's the one reason i want collector's editions
23:00
i don't care about anything else that comes in it i like physical art books it's a huge thing for me
23:07
um and like i i haven't gotten the last three collector's editions that were available
23:13
they did they have one of them didn't pretty sure they all did but regardless uh i'm missing
23:20
everything like art books from the last several ones because even like even the war within has a
23:25
huge uh huge art book i wish i could just buy them individually i and i'm not paying ebay prices for
23:32
uh for them so but it's it's i miss having art books art books are one of my like it's like
23:39
comic books for me i love watching the process of how things develop and how sketches go from like
23:45
concepts to finished products so that's it for me all right i'm i'm good oh yeah um i feel like
23:54
we've probably talked about that a bit so we should probably move on now to talking about
23:58
legion remix um which is launching on october 7th so like oh like a little bit less than a week
24:05
after they start doing the midnight's alpha sorry liz i heard you saw peaking so yeah we got a
24:11
couple weeks but yeah this is coming pretty fast and all really close together this is this is a
24:18
lot of things happening right around the same time um i i don't know if this is true uh i saw a video
24:24
just today on youtube saying that they've added 12 new mounts to legion remix in addition to like
24:31
the ones they already had that would not surprise me there are new mounts and new transmogs
24:37
to collect that are alternate colors and things of that nature that did not make it into the game itself
24:45
So there's no new artifact appearances and you can't get the mage tower appearances is what I'm hearing
24:51
That is correct. You cannot, and that is a shame. Yeah, but Blizzard, there was a lot of confusion about the artifact appearances because there will not be artifacts
25:03
Like, we aren't grabbing a physical... I'm not saying this right. The artifact, the whole artifact process isn't there
25:10
There's a unique talent tree you'll fill out as you go, but the whole artifact, artifact power thing is not in the game
25:17
But you can collect artifact appearances by doing your artifact-y stuff, and if you meet the requirements for the appearance
25:25
you can unlock that appearance. Which, there had been a lot of confusion about this
25:30
But Blizzard did make a clear statement saying that, yes, you can collect these appearances in Remix, which that's a good deal
25:40
There are some classes I did not play at the time that maybe and now I can I mean, you can do this on live, too, and you do it very quickly, more quickly
25:49
But it's like now I can just I can play it over here and get what I need and not bother with it
25:54
Yeah, I've done some artifact appearances going back to Legion to get them
25:59
And one of the weird things about outpowering content is sometimes it actually makes it harder
26:04
Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's actually harder to do things if you outpower it because
26:08
it's like, you have to not kill everything to do this. It's like, no, that's
26:12
that's the one thing I'm good at right now. So yeah. Apparently 1.2.5
26:17
11.2.5 isn't going to be doing much else. There's just been updates to the cooldown manager and the turbo boost
26:24
So yeah. So Legion remix is part of 11. 2.5. And it's like 98% of 11.25
26:33
So if you're not interested in doing Legion Remix, then don't worry about it
26:39
You know, not much coming in 11.2.5. You don't got to stress it
26:44
We are getting those updates to the cooldown manager, which I think do sound great and will make it a lot more customizable
26:51
But that's not a huge thing, but it's a nice thing. and Turbo Boost will be coming back for Season 3
26:58
which there will be new puzzling cartel chips. There will be an increased two more upgrade ranks for your gear
27:07
So you'll be able to kind of power everything up and maybe push through the last bit of Manaforge Omega
27:13
or any other goals you had for Season 3 that you were having trouble with
27:16
because you can gear up a little bit more. That is cool. But now let's talk about WoW Classic, I guess
27:23
because we've also got some other stuff coming there. For example, I think we talked about this last week
27:28
but Mr. Pandaria Classic now has phase two going, the landfall patch
27:33
That's already happened. It's going right now. And on October 2nd, because again, October 2nd
27:40
apparently we're just going to have a lot of stuff happening in October. The blizzard is kind of weird about putting everything out at the same time
27:49
It's just, this sounds like a good date. Let's just do everything
27:52
everything's October the first or second week Wild Classic is going to get the anniversary realms
27:59
phase 6 launching October 2nd that's Naxxramas for you guys who just got to get more
28:06
Naxxramas in your life because some of us are like no never never again
28:10
and some of us are like yes let's go back to Naxxramas yet again I am definitely not in the second
28:15
so I am asking you as your friend but yeah that is happening
28:21
So if you are playing classic and, you know, the classic anniversary servers, uh, realms, I'm sorry, I should be, uh, you've got phase six and it's going to be launching next week
28:30
Uh, so you, I guess don't, I hope I feel really bad for somebody who got the alpha invite and then this, and is wanting to play a remix
28:40
It's like, ah, you know, I was really wanting to play Miss Pandaria classic, but it's like, uh, and I, I leveled a panda up pretty high
28:50
I made a panda monk and I leveled it pretty high, but I didn't get to Pandaria levels
28:55
And it's like then the War Within Season 3 started and it's like, OK, I really have to conscious rate on this
29:01
And I got to do my weekly quests and I've got to grind Koreshra up and I got to go to raid twice a week
29:06
And it's like all of these things. And it's like my time to play Mists has really dropped to nothing
29:14
So, yeah, it's really difficult keeping up with this if you're playing multiple games
29:18
i'm just sad because i'm not going to get to do the landfall patch again because i love that patch
29:22
one of my favorite things they did well uh but yeah and i i did not or i was not playing at the
29:29
time that this content originally rolled out so it's like uh it'd be great but where where do i
29:35
find the extra hours i don't know what's really going to be weird is when they do the patch that's
29:41
just before siege of orgrimmar where you can start getting the transmog looks for the dungeon
29:46
two set again that's going to be bizarre for people uh i have no idea how that's going to roll
29:51
out but yeah so that's happening and we've got the phase six stuff happening on october 2nd with
29:56
next drama so yeah fair amount going on with wow classic the same time um and now i guess we should be disappointed in diablo uh no that's that's not
30:07
fair that that's a that depends that depends on your on your feelings about microtransactions and
30:13
also other things we should first off say that season uh 10 is out in diablo um i i i'm not
30:23
liking it and i don't know why exactly i just didn't i've not i've not taken up with it as much
30:30
as i have previous seasons uh i'm trying but possibly it's the fact that i'm trying to play
30:35
like you know six games at once uh and that can be a problem that's tough but uh it's it's we
30:42
talked about it last week it's the chaos season it's the you know now new chaos chaos stuff
30:47
the season the season of infernal chaos yep uh because so if you're that's your thing um
30:54
it's a cool name uh i don't have a problem with the name i mean there's a bear in their key art
31:00
yeah there you go there yeah there's a bear right there um i will just a quick a quick feature over
31:06
you is that we are getting um chaos perks which are your seasonal powers and they are kind of cool
31:15
I mean, we've been doing this grind with new seasonal powers, borrowed power every season, something new
31:21
And these are in that same vein. But also there are some class-specific powers in the mix
31:28
Each class has, I believe, four class-specific powers, which we have not done before
31:33
In the past, they've all been generic general powers. So this is interesting
31:37
There's going to be different kinds of power-ups that you can earn and unlock and, you know, sort of change up where you play
31:44
There are, I believe, 880 different combinations of powers you could tie together
31:50
Oh, at the same time, you know, someone's going to find this is the absolutely powerful one
31:55
And you should definitely do this one only. Someone has already written that, you know
31:59
Oh, yeah, I'm sure. That Excel document with all of the powers, of course, Ross referenced
32:04
And yeah, and within a week, we are, you know, because keep in mind, as of recording this, they just went live
32:10
Yeah. It didn't go live last week. It just went live. So yeah, I expect by tomorrow they will have the, you know, oh no, what you want as a barbarian player is this specific barbarian ability and these non-specific abilities that will all make it stronger
32:25
And that's the only one you should take. And if you don't, you should feel bad. Yeah, you don't
32:31
That's just what happens. You don't listen to the people who say you're bad and should feel bad
32:35
But there are a lot of options. I enjoy having options. That's what makes it fun
32:42
And I think the thing that makes seasons fun when you are having fun playing another season is that it feels different than the previous season
32:52
I think a lot of seasons lately have felt very samey. It's like, oh, this is the season we played last year, except this has a vampire theme
33:00
Oh, this has a witch theme. Oh, you know. And this does have some of that also
33:07
They kind of found a template for seasons and they're sort of sticking with it
33:12
But this season also adds chaos armor, which is rare drop armor that will have a unique power on it
33:20
It'll be a max roll unique, but it will be in a different slot than the unique usually is in
33:27
So that'll unlock, you know, you can do different builds with different combinations of legendaries that maybe you couldn't previously equip together
33:34
Or merely this ability is only for necklaces, but for this particular piece of armor, it's actually your belt or your shoes or your hat
33:43
So yeah, that is kind of interesting. It definitely has a little bit of that, you know, changing the meta up thing going for it
33:50
I will give it that. The only thing about it is that it is, this is the season of chaos
33:56
So these can drop from anything, anywhere, anytime. Though it sounds like they will be more likely to drop at higher difficulties
34:04
and the new boss Bartok, who you can summon in Infernal Hordes
34:10
will have a very high chance to drop him. So you could go and kill
34:14
Bartok a lot, but also, Bartok isn't guaranteed to drop the one you want
34:20
you're just going to have to go kill him and see. I think you have to do him in
34:24
Torment Tiers to do this 3 and 4 for guaranteed and 1 and 2 for
34:30
chances. Yeah yeah um and infernal hordes themselves have received a bit of
34:36
a glow up to just make them more rewarding and you know feel better to play they could
34:42
be a little I don't know uh they could feel a little uninspired I've never
34:48
been thrilled by the the fel council thing so it'll be cool to go in there and have
34:52
a different boss you could choose to still summon the fel council
34:56
I believe but why would you do that when you've got Bartok right over there
35:00
who could give you some cool chaos armor. We've got Bartok at home, kids
35:05
Oh no, it's the K-Rat! It's the Fel Council again! But no, I agree that the Fel Council
35:12
was never really my thing. But we haven't even talked about what is listed as the most important thing
35:18
So I'm going to turn to you, Liz. Tell us, what's the most important thing
35:22
Well, okay. The most important thing in the season, according to me, Liz
35:28
is the pets you can collect. I'm sure everyone playing Diablo would agree with me
35:33
last week we talked about the fox pet Pandora that you can get by completing the season's
35:40
journey you have to complete the champion tier which I believe is the second to last
35:44
it's a pretty big commitment but it's doable but on the battle pass
35:50
which is on the reliquaries there is a really adorable golden retriever who is
35:56
I think Corey brought this guy up last week he is suspiciously
36:00
yeah he is suspiciously normal looking like this is a suspiciously normal
36:07
golden retriever I you see something just normal and adorable in Diablo and you're like okay what's
36:13
what's your deal little guy what's going on it's going to turn out he can like do like
36:19
the cat in the Captain Marvel movie just unhinge himself and just slurp things inside him it's like
36:25
he doesn't have any bone armor He doesn't have glowing red eyes
36:29
I don't know. Does he just have a bandana? He just has a red bandana
36:33
It does have like a glowing glyph on the bandana, but it's just art on a bandana
36:38
You know, that's totally normal and fine. This can't be a problem. But there is also another adorable pet you can collect
36:48
a black dog named Anguirus the Brave who is wearing red and gold armor with
36:56
little red wings. That feels like a reference or something. Yeah. The Anguirus Council it reminds us of
37:04
It could be. So the armor does match the seasonal armor set that
37:10
you can also get by finishing all the reliquaries. So it's a look
37:15
It's a look. He may be into the red and gold thing. I don't know. But I just think he's adorable and he's wearing armor and he has little wings. It's pretty great, except he is also
37:24
only available with the deluxe battle pass bundle which is which you know I used to feel like this is just this is just way too much
37:35
You can get the Premium Battle Pass for just $10, and that'll get you all of the different reliquaries so you can unlock all of the other rewards
37:43
But Anguirus, and there's a pair of wings that you can only get by buying the more expensive Deluxe Battle Pass
37:52
And that's $10 for premium, $28 for deluxe. That's a pretty big upsell
37:58
But it's a pretty big upsell. And then I look at it and I'm like, I could get this adorable dog wearing armor that I'm sure is a perfectly normal, adorable, like a black lab
38:09
You know? At least it's not like a gotcha game to get in
38:13
Yes, and that's the thing. We've talked several times lately about Hearthstone's gotcha game in which it has this gambling mechanic where you insert coin, maybe get pet, and each coin you buy to do a spit of the dice is more expensive until you've spent $160 trying to get this pet because it is so rare that you're probably only going to get it once you've gotten everything else
38:42
So going from that and being upset by that to looking at Diablo and it's like, I can give you a fixed amount of money, even though it feels like a little too high amount of money
38:53
I can give you a fixed amount of money and I am guaranteed to get this thing
38:59
And the nice thing about the deluxe bonuses is you give them money and you get them
39:05
You just get them. Whereas with the premium pass, it unlocks the different reliquaries, which you then have to play a bunch to earn the things in the reliquaries
39:18
So I am seeing, this has become more appealing as other games have become more expensive and with terrible microtransactions
39:29
I don't know. What do the rest of you think? does this sound like an okay price to pay or does this sound ridiculous the last two seasons have
39:39
had these accelerated reliquary passes and they've been like here's the wings and here's the fancier
39:44
pet and that's it like everything else you can get for just getting the normal one and for three
39:49
times the cost it's yeah or basically three times like a thousand to twenty eight hundred
39:54
of their fake currency. It's too much for too little. And as much as I love
40:00
a cool armored dog with cool armor, and as much as I love
40:04
shiny wings, I'm good. Thanks. I have no opinion. Like, I have legitimately given up
40:12
on Diablo at this point until the next expansion comes out. And supposedly the next expansion is coming out next year
40:18
but we haven't heard anything about it yet. And of course, the general manager for the Diablo
40:22
franchise just left and we don't know what's going on uh but a high profile departure it does not
40:30
always mean good things it could mean good things but it could also mean that there's kind of a
40:37
power vacuum and uncertainty about the direction to take the game we don't know uh what is coming
40:43
next in terms of the the battle passes thing when they did the reliquary system i was a tremendous
40:50
fan of battle passes in general, but the reliquary system makes me
40:54
want to just walk out into a cloudy, rainy day and stare up at the sky and go
41:01
why did you do this to me? It's just too much. It's too much
41:07
It's not that it's too much for me to understand. It's too much for me to want to understand it
41:12
It's just a more complicated line. And I don't know why they needed
41:16
to complicate their line or why they thought that people would be buying them
41:20
piecemeal or just getting the mountain pet one i i don't know maybe they are maybe they've got the
41:24
doc the internal document to prove that that's the case but yeah maybe but i i really like it pains
41:31
me to see diablo in sort of that state it's i really wish that they would take a step back
41:37
and you know like they did with diablo 3 even though we kind of forced our hand when with diablo
41:44
3 but like take a step back and you know are are we
41:48
doing the game serve like the best justice we can are we giving it the best option or
41:54
the best ability to you know thrive that we can because I'm really
41:58
curious to see what current play numbers are for Diablo 4 like I'm really interested and I'm
42:04
really interested to see how their monetization numbers look because I can't
42:11
I have a hard time thinking that it's good diablo 4 today as of this very moment has 23.4 000 viewers on twitch um this isn't by no means
42:23
a great metric it's the only one that i think i can find which puts it 4 000 people ahead of
42:29
overwatch 2 that's 10 000 people ahead of world of warcraft which could include all of world of
42:35
warcraft i believe that the the wow channel is just uh all warcrafts classic and retail and
42:41
every other variation in between but pretty far behind uh it's a third of the number one game on
42:48
twitch which is grand theft auto and it's less than a little less than half of what league of
42:55
legends is getting i think probably probably diablo 4 is like most other live service games
43:04
in that when there's new content there's a burst of excitement and people get back in and check
43:10
out whatever's new and exciting and then it probably tapers off and the level and speed to
43:15
which it tapers off probably depends on how fun and exciting it is and when there's an expansion
43:20
there's going to be a big burst of excitement for that but they haven't had an expansion for a while
43:25
which on one hand is like they planned on annual expansions and they back down from that annual
43:31
expansions is a huge development offs you know yeah it's a big undertaking yeah it's a massive
43:38
undertaking and on the other hand you're running a live service game and your prom you were going
43:44
to put out these really big expansion packs every year and you've backed off on that honestly i
43:50
wonder if it would be better served by instead of oh we're gonna roll out a big huge expansion pack
43:57
because it is a live service game just say okay every two months we're gonna roll out like a
44:05
a fairly beefy quest chain here's like chapter one here's chapter two and just every couple months
44:12
roll out a chunk of story instead of which is kind of what it sounded like they were originally
44:18
planning to do for seasons and they didn't the seasons are very story light and even saying
44:25
they're story light may be giving them a little too much credit for the amount of story they have
44:29
and they're so play it in that season and then it goes away and it never gets brought up again too
44:34
So like, yeah. Yeah. It's like to the point where they decided they wanted the seasons to be more like limited to that season only
44:45
And as a result of that, they didn't want to put any content into them because then that content would go away at the end of the season
44:52
So when they did the first one with the vampire quest line not the vampire no that was the second one The first ones with like the corrupted hearts deal All those quests are essentially gone now which means that the 25 minutes worth of questing they put in
45:07
which is not a very big amount of questing is now just gone
45:12
So since they don't bring those quests back, they don't let you keep playing them after the season ends
45:19
You're essentially you're incentivized as a developer to not develop them. You're not going to give them more quests if the quests are just going to be gone
45:28
So, yeah, I don't know. I feel like I like a lot about Diablo 4
45:33
I really do think it's a good game. But I find some of the decisions they've made absolutely baffling
45:39
And it is like it feels an awful lot like they make really good decisions, like what they did with the gear resequencing they did
45:48
Frankly, the game is in a much better state than it was at launch
45:52
There's a lot. The gearing has improved. there's a ton to do at endgame
45:57
which was pretty sparse early on, and the difficulty curve has smoothed out a little bit
46:03
And there's more variety. Yeah, there's more variety in gameplay. Everything that has happened
46:10
almost everything that has happened, has been an improvement, except for, you know
46:14
we still have a lot of really expensive microtransactions, and they took a battle pass I didn't like
46:18
and turned it into a very complicated reliquary system that I like even less
46:23
it's like this monster we have this monster is dangerous it might destroy the town have we tried
46:28
grafting more heads onto it i'm not sure how that will help well give it a try well he's now he's
46:35
got six heads i feel like they're trying diablo 4 has always had the problem where it's trying to
46:41
be a lot of different things at once it's trying to be a strong single player rpg it had just the
46:47
most amazing single player campaign that any Diablo game has ever had. It was really really
46:52
good and but it's also trying to be a competitive ARPG which has different types of players who have
47:01
different types of needs and wants and it's also trying to be open and it's accessible to casual
47:07
players who just want to jump in and kill some demons but it's also trying to have as much enough depth to cater to really hardcore arpg players which and i think the end result is it's
47:17
falls somewhere in the middle and neither group is entirely happy and wearing too many pants it's
47:24
trying to be a live service game that has a new battle pass every three months but it's also
47:28
trying to be a traditional game that has a boxed expansion with a price tag every year or two and
47:36
all of these things feel kind of in conflict with each other
47:40
This is a crazy balance to hit, and I don't know if it's even possible to hit it
47:47
And certainly don't feel like it's being hit here. That's something I feel like needs to be said
47:51
Maybe they need to rethink how they're delivering content, because we are living in a world
47:58
where games are much more likely to be free to play. and having these big box expansions having such a long development time for them i don't know if it
48:09
makes a lot of sense especially with how much the battle pass is yeah put forward like you're already
48:15
if you're playing diablo you're paying maybe maybe you are paying for the battle pass it is
48:21
cosmetic only but it's you know ten dollars every three months which is not a huge that's not a huge
48:27
out late cash you know that is a completely doable thing ten dollars in three months sure fine but
48:34
and then you know when the big new content hits you're also paying probably fifty dollars and
48:39
it's like okay yeah but maybe instead of doing this they could be like okay every couple months
48:45
here's part of an expansion instead of trying to spend two years developing a huge big splashy
48:51
expansion that feels like it'd fit better with this live service nature where it's
48:56
An ongoing game with ongoing development. And you're constantly trying to keep players around
49:01
Because these seasons, I think this is looking like a good season
49:06
I think this has more variety than we've seen in previous seasons. Just, I think the gearing is going to be really interesting this season
49:14
But I don't know that this repetitive season thing is enough to keep bringing people back
49:20
And if you rolled out more story content, maybe it would. You know, let's say, like, okay, look at Diablo Immortal
49:29
I know we all have our issues with Diablo Immortal because Diablo Immortal does have pay for power
49:35
At least in Diablo 4, you're paying for cosmetics. And, but Diablo 4 rolls out regular patches every couple of months
49:44
Each one has a chunk of content. Usually there's some new story quests
49:48
And they rolled out a new class every year. The game is three years old
49:53
It's rolled out three new classes. And it just, it feels like Diablo Immortals
49:59
actually doing a really good job of being a live service game that continuously rolls out engaging new content
50:07
And it just doesn't feel like Diablo 4 is really doing it
50:13
And I do think Diablo 4 is in the best state, gameplay-wise, that it has ever been
50:19
I think the new season seems, I've only had a little time to play it
50:22
But I think the new season looks like it could be really fun and maybe the best season they've had in a while because it has more to do than just a selection of new powers to collect and level up
50:33
But at the same time, it's hard to keep up enthusiasm for a Diablo 4 season because it does require a lot of work and it gets grindier the more time you put into it
50:46
So when you first go in, it's like, wow, this is super rewarding. I'm leveling up all the time
50:50
And I'm finding new gears and gear upgrade. Wow, this is so much fun
50:54
And then it slows down. And then it slows down some more until you kind of get into where it's just a crawl of power progression
51:02
So I think it's a hard sell to keep people engaged for a three-month season where all of their progress is going to be thrown in the trash at the end
51:11
That's a tough sell. Yeah, it is really one of the things that's hardest for me to deal with
51:16
even Diablo 3 realized that you had to let people hold on to characters. Like, the whole deal
51:22
where they let you rebirth a character and do the next season, but you still had
51:26
the same character. Man, I have... We're into season 10, and I have just a long
51:34
list of necromancers that I have rolled every season, and it's like..
51:39
Why can't I just put the same guy through this again? Yeah, well, it's just
51:44
a little bit of a hassle. I mean, it's not like it's a big deal to roll a new character
51:50
I can give it the same name. I can make it look exactly the same if I want to
51:55
But, you know, we're 10 seasons in. And I just have a really long list of max level necromancers
52:02
And it's like, and what am I even going to do with them
52:06
I can't play them on seasonal realms. I can't play new content with them. What is even the point in collecting so many necromancers
52:14
I mean, if they're cute, I guess. I think I want to jump in here really fast because we need to get you to do the site news, Liz
52:23
And I been talking so much I already been talking I did a whole monologue there Okay Site news Hello I want to thank all of you listening at home for listening You guys are what makes the site possible And
52:39
particularly a big thank you to our supporters on Patreon. You guys are what makes the site
52:45
keep going and growing. You know, we try. Times are tough. We're doing our best here
52:52
but you all make it possible by tuning in and listening and by supporting us if you are able
52:59
to support us financially tossing us a little cash on patreon that's patreon.com forward slash
53:05
blizzard watch really helps at any amount because it's a lot of people giving a little that makes
53:11
all this crazy crazy world possible and i want to thank supporter the core 404 i like that name
53:19
You've got a rhyme there when you say it out loud. Who upgraded their pledge to $3 this week
53:27
And $3 gives you early access to these podcasts, ad-free, and a priority to getting your questions answered on the podcast or on the queue
53:38
So if you enjoy our podcasts, $3. Early, no ads. and if you support us at five dollars that gives you ads free access to the website so you can read
53:50
all of our stuff none of the ads all for you so if you can support us financially i really appreciate
53:58
it if you can't i understand it's i i've said this several times it's a crazy world out there
54:04
so uh you do help us a lot by tuning in and listening you help us by liking sharing and
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enjoy it also. You can follow us on social media. We are BlizzardWatch on Instagram
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54:34
that I pull out of these podcasts. You never know. You never know what little out-of-context
54:40
thing I'm going to pick out and highlight. So that's fun, maybe, if you wanted to follow us on YouTube
54:46
So thank you so much for listening, and thank you for your support. And if you're able, patreon.com
54:52
forward slash blizzardwatch. Thank you so much. Thank you, Liz. We got some
54:58
non-lizard news we could probably throw in really fast. First one I'm going to mention, just because it feels
55:04
like a triumph of DLC decisions being made that were good. Vampire of the Masquerade Bloodline
55:10
two had a decision they made about their dlc for two whole clans that you could only play if you
55:16
bought these two day one dlc uh one for the the uh tremere not to tremere the toreador and one for
55:23
the lasombra and they've rolled that back they're not doing that you just get those clans along with
55:29
the other clans when you buy the game which i think is a pretty good decision uh quite frankly
55:34
making people pay extra money on day one to access stuff they want to play in a game not only that
55:41
but two core clans of the yeah yeah it was it's if you remember anything about you know vampire
55:48
the masquerade you realize that not letting people play toreador it's like my god that's like the the
55:54
i don't i don't know how to explain to you how how off the line that is toreador are like a major
56:01
part of this whole aesthetic they're the ones who care about the aesthetic it's just weird yeah and
56:05
like the lasomber are one of the core units of the sabbat like like yeah you can't have you can't
56:10
have them without like you can't have the sabbat without having the lasomber they're like the
56:14
in this case the lasomber aren't actually in the sabbat anymore oh oh they're part of the
56:20
they joined they quit and joined the camerella oh my goodness we're going to be talking about
56:24
that on lore watch at some point goodness yeah yeah but regardless it was a good decision on
56:29
their part, the fan uproar was pretty big and they looked at it and said
56:33
you know what? We're going to, we're going to suffer horribly. So we are, we're just going to not do this
56:39
They've added in a different, the new DLC that they've added in basically lets you play characters
56:44
You weren't going to get to play before. There are specific NPCs
56:48
You will now get a small sub campaign where you go through the events of the game as those characters, which is weird, but cool
56:56
So yeah, next up, we can talk about the fact that critical role season four trailer came out
57:01
this week. I believe that first season four starts this week as we're recording
57:05
Correct. Liz, am I correct? Isn't it, isn't it October the second
57:10
I believe it's next week. Oh God. It's October the second again. Maybe I was just trying to get away from everything
57:15
Everything. Yeah. Everything happens at once. That's somehow that keeps happening. But yeah
57:22
it's the trailer gives it a, definitely a very criminal, you know
57:26
crime rebellion backstage feel. It kind of feel it gives it a blades in the dark
57:31
He feel, which is not the way the campaign is actually going to be. They have a very long value
57:38
Well, they've got a long video about what they're doing with the campaign. It's going to be way bigger
57:43
Lots of people. So yeah, but that's up. That's coming out. I'm pretty excited about that
57:50
Finally, I think only I care about this, but Dragon Age of Veil Guards are now out on Xbox
57:54
Game Pass. So if you have Game Pass, you can just play it and you can see for yourself
57:58
whether or not you like it and you don't have to listen to any of the incredibly weird and bad
58:02
reviews that the game got. I still to this day don't get these reviews. I don't understand
58:08
So yeah, you can play it for nothing. I think it's been out... I don't know because I don't have a PS5
58:14
but I've been told it's been out on PS Plus for months. Since
58:19
early this year. Now if you've got an Xbox instead of a
58:24
PlayStation. You can now play Veilguard. In fact, Game Pass now has
58:28
all the Dragon Ages. If you've never played Dragon Age for some reason
58:32
you can now play all four of them. I don't recommend trying to do that at once
58:37
but you can try. It's a time commitment to get through all of them, even if you aren't a completionist
58:43
Yeah, I know. Just getting through this story of Origins by itself would be a lot
58:47
But it is a lot harder if you are a completionist, because there's a lot going on in them. Oh yeah. Yes, I have
58:53
done a completionist run of Inquisition where it's like you're collecting all of like
58:58
there are the Astra the Constellation things you're collecting, there are like
59:04
beer mugs scattered around the world there are just a lot of
59:09
things to wander around and collect that are all off the beaten path
59:12
My favorite part of those games is like the world is ending
59:17
but you decide to go off and become a fisherman for a little bit
59:21
and you hang out. You're going to go collect your beer mugs. That would look really great on my mantle
59:26
Or you're going to go find a bunch of skulls in the woods and have gems
59:31
stuck through them. Okay. But regardless, you can now do that, and I
59:37
wanted you guys to know. So, there you go. It is a really fun game. Is it a
59:43
perfect game? No. Is it the best game ever? No, but it's a fun game
59:47
and, you know, take it for that. But I guess that's it for us because we're now at that point where we're a little bit over
59:56
So thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you to Corey for being here again
1:00:00
this week. Thank you, Corey. We appreciate you. You're welcome. Thank you to Liz and Joe, who
1:00:05
are just here every week, and they should definitely get points for that
1:00:11
Man, you guys, you deserve all the hugs for managing to do this each and every week
1:00:18
And thank you to the audience for possibly giving them those hugs, at least
1:00:22
virtually. Don't just show up at their houses and hug them. They would be confused and
1:00:26
possibly alarmed. But if you were to hug them virtually, that's great
1:00:30
uh and yeah thank you all for being here with us uh this has been the blizzard watch podcast
1:00:34
and we'll be back next week
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