Up next in 10
Our hosts Liz and Joe were joined by our writer Eric O'Dea to discuss all the wacky hijinks they got into this year, as they drag an orphan into havoc and harm. That's right, it's Childrens' Week in World of Warcraft! And of course the reason we'd willingly interact with children is the fact that there's transmog on the line. Transmog is also on the line in the new Trading Post for May. We got a new preview of decor for our Player Housing, which, when you think about it, is really just transmog for a house.
Plus, we have a new Diablo 4 season, and a new mini-set coming up for Hearthstone, and... could those also be transmog, if you think about it? Probably not, but you can't blame us for trying.
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0:00
[Music]
0:11
hello and welcome everyone to the Blizzard Watch podcast I am Liz Harper I will be your host today Unfortunately
0:18
Matthew Rossi is not with us having some problems with his internet So hopefully he will be back next week I am just
0:26
humbly attempting to fill his shoes which is of course impossible but here I am Uh joining me this week are of course
0:33
Joe Perez Hello Hello everybody And a new guest on this podcast Eric OD who
0:40
has been doing a lot of great transmog content on the site which is of course my favorite kind of content How you
0:47
doing Eric hey Liz Great to be here Uh yeah always always fun to write about all the different things you can go and
0:54
run old raids over and over again Just get that one exact right piece And I kind of feel like you and I were in the
0:59
same place at some point last week which was collecting a whole lot of noble
1:04
garden eggs So many So many eggs I I think I
1:10
did 750 I was doing the passive thing where you would just sit on a place
1:16
where four or five spawned and you could just click on them while you were doing whatever else It wasn't fast enough and I had to actually spend the time to run
1:23
all around Razer Hill over and over again with the ducks and the other bunnies and uh it's just and it still
1:30
wasn't enough I didn't get enough eggs this year No no I I got all the new stuff I It took a commitment It took a
1:38
real commitment to egg farming But of course Noble Garden is already over It
1:43
lasted a week and you could potentially need hundreds and hundreds of eggs to
1:48
get the rewards even if you were just getting the new rewards That was 500 eggs So many Uh there's only so much
1:55
time to click on eggs Yeah Yeah I I had a hot key for opening my eggs because
2:01
you can't click on 750 eggs in your inventory to open them up and get
2:06
chocolate out Uh but of course this week we have a new event in World of Warcraft because one event last week was not
2:12
enough We have children's week just kicked off and again it's only lasting for a week But we've got some new
2:19
content this year with some new orphans which seems like a weird thing to
2:24
celebrate Yay orphans But it does mean new rewards And
2:30
uh I know you're working on a post about that Eric uh can you give us an overview of what's new this year yes So in
2:38
Dornagal there is another set of orphans that you get to hang out with for uh you
2:45
know maybe an hour or so each and bring them around to all the things they want to do Um there's no earn children so
2:53
there's an earthn I think they're a caretaker in training is their official title Um but you get an Arubian uh an
3:00
array a cobalt and a goblin Um you do them one by one you don't get the reward
3:06
after each of them like you do in some of the other uh you know past iterations in other cities So you go one to the
3:13
next and each one wants to go to a different zone Uh and then you at the end you get to pick from the new rewards
3:20
There's three new pets There's a lynx which adds to the handful of baby Lynxes
3:26
that we have There's a hyena with goggles which is adorable We also have like six or seven hyenas with the
3:31
goggles that have come through uh undermine so far And then there's the helpful workshop bot which actually is
3:38
the Nurubian orphan has created it in the in the story as you go through and
3:45
uh bring all of these orphans around And it is it is my favorite one It flies
3:50
around after you It's got a little satellite dish that uh lights up and spins around Um there's also a couple
3:56
transmog weapons and shields that are they look like toys It was hard to write
4:02
the post because they are not toys They are transmog appearances but they're supposed to look like toy wooden sword
4:09
shield and axe Um and one cool thing was that you got a couple of different
4:15
appearances of the same one a couple different items with the same appearance so that the you could use the sword as
4:21
your one-hand sword or a dagger or an offhand So it wasn't as limited as you
4:27
know for for someone who only plays a rogue to say uh I'm not going to actually use this axe That's not the the
4:34
spec I play Um so so yeah the first thing I did was take that axe dagger you
4:40
know categorized as a dagger but it's clearly a hatchet and I equipped it on my mage So for the first time in 20
4:46
years my mage got to have an axe by his side Uh can you actually go in and get
4:52
all of the rewards this year because previous children's weeks it's like you had to pick one So the best part is that
5:00
they've streamlined it a little bit making it so that when you finish taking your orphan around and you get back and
5:06
you drop the orphan off and you know give it its last toy or ice cream or whatever you get the choice Each one of
5:14
the different orphans in capital cities or Shatrath or uh the ones they've added
5:19
over the years they have their own subset of the pets and some of the rewards And this year they added a new
5:26
it's not a currency it's an item Uh and it is the well-loved
5:32
figurine Uh and so you can just take one of the normal rewards that you would have got for that quest line or you can
5:39
take that item bring it to one of the event vendors and get pretty much your
5:44
choice of any of the items across any of the orphans for the entire event Um so
5:50
that's great that you don't need to have one of those crazy spreadsheets to figure out okay which which ones do I exactly still need which ones do I have
5:57
to go to okay I have to pick for this I can only get one of these two this year So you can just get that item and get
6:04
whichever one you want For some reason it might be unintentional but two of the past rewards the one that's the same
6:11
model as the Black Stalker and one of the snails they're not in the list of
6:16
pets you can get with that figurine Maybe we'll see them added in a day or two because it was unintentional Um but
6:22
by my best calculations you can do five different orphan fun times with a
6:28
character and get five of those tokens and pick five rewards But you can also do it on as many alts as you want So
6:34
it's sort of the opposite of that duck disguiser We were talking we talked talked a lot about how you can only get
6:40
one Duck Disguise per year per character This is the opposite You can do five and then you can log on to another one and
6:47
do five more So I I actually just went on and I did the one in Orrammar over and over again for the rewards that I
6:54
wanted cuz it was the one that was mostly the fastest You only have to fly around a little bit Dragon Riding made
6:59
it so much faster than it would have been in past years Um and that way you don't actually have to go all the way to
7:05
Northrren and fly around the whole continent So this one sounds uh pretty fun I mean
7:12
I am I am always a fan of collecting collecting everything because it's there
7:18
It's there You kind of you have to collect it It is a primal instinct to collect everything It is it cannot be
7:25
helped It makes up for the lack of I missed some things in Noble Garden that I really wanted this year So it's great
7:32
that I've already got everything that I need from this event and I can stop hanging out with the orphans I mean
7:38
they're they're great but they're they're really needy and and they're a lot So I did I did my part and I will
7:44
let other adventurers take over for the rest of the week And yeah it's also only until Monday So it's really it comes and
7:51
goes and if you miss it you got to wait till next year to get all that stuff Yeah it would be nice if these events
7:56
you know give us two weeks Two weeks would be great Diablo does the same thing Diablo I does these really short
8:02
oneweek events and it's like wait I'm busy this week I'm going to miss the whole thing So yeah extra time guys
8:10
There's no reason why they couldn't overlap a week Both have them both be two weeks Have some overlap Like the orphans can help us find eggs It's fine
8:16
They probably like that Of course The only thing is they've been decorating up Dornagal for every event And the orphans
8:22
have these huge banners with rainbows on them which are fabulous So I mean it's
8:28
like there's a decor fight going on But still you can make them last two weeks
8:34
It'd be okay We could we could do it So yes that is going on right now And we
8:39
actually have more transmade news because Blizzard just announced the May trading post rewards And I I was I
8:48
wasn't very into the April Trading Post rewards so I've I've saved up all of my
8:55
attendees for May And I'm I I'm going to buy as much of this as I can There is a
9:02
hedgehog mount just in case you needed to ride around on a hedgehog There's
9:08
Yeah there's a little fox costume which you can wear I don't know if this is
9:13
culturally insensitive to Vulpera but you know it's a little hood with fox
9:18
ears I maybe you could wear it as a vulper I don't know I don't know what you do Double fox fox
9:27
Whoa I mean Joe have you have you looked at any of these are there any that you're like dying to get i mean I need
9:35
the fox costume I'm going to be 100% honest There's there's a 0% chance that I'm not doing everything in my power to
9:41
get that I mean it just looks so adorable I want it in real life
9:49
Yeah Yeah I think Anna said the same thing It's like okay yeah but also when can I wear this when can I just wear it
9:56
that the I'm gonna be honest the harvest hog mount scares me a little bit Like it we were talking on the
10:03
pre-show about some of that uncanny valley stuff This is a weird looking mount cuz it does not look like a hedgehog to me at all This looks like a
10:10
teddy bear and a rat had a very illegitimate child Um and it's just staring at me with that face Yeah Um the
10:18
heroic half shell is actually also on my list too because I can now make a ninja turtle transmog Uh and there's nunchucks
10:24
like this is absolutely intentional They want Miss to be Michelangelo or uh there's a large Renaissance katana Uh
10:32
we're going to be Ninja Turtles There's going to be a Ninja Turtle transmog knight in in the uh in the guild for
10:38
1,000% sure Um and not everybody can be Raphael That's that's fair I don't want
10:44
to be Raphael I want to be Donatello Dang it Um I'm a Leonardo And then Ouiji
10:50
Uh because a little tiny like Chihuahua dog in a shark costume is a happy place
10:56
for me and I need this I need this Yeah this is a new one The the Chihuahua is
11:02
customizable which is the first real time that we're going to be able to choose a bunch of stuff about how a pet
11:10
works outside of Pepe Yeah I mean Pepe was a weird edge case Yeah Pepe Pepe was
11:16
the exception to the rule cuz like you there's a million costumes for Pepe Yes So what are what are you dying to get
11:23
this month Eric i have My problem is that I saw that there was a hedgehog mount and I just had 5 seconds of
11:29
paralysis where I thought do I have a hedgehog mount already because I I don't
11:35
need to have every mount but I really really need to have every category of mount and it's it's been a lot of years
11:44
and there's a lot of mounts in the game where I used to be able to know off the top of my head like I don't have a tiger
11:51
because I mostly play horde and so I need to get like when there was a tiger available from I want to say
12:00
zulgarub I farmed that once I could for a really long time until I got my first
12:05
tiger And now it's like I might have got a hedgehog a couple years ago and don't
12:11
see it that much And I don't think I do but I had to check But it turns out no this is as far as I could tell the first
12:17
hedgehog that's being added So I probably will get the spring harvest hog But I also saw that there was added to
12:24
the game files a summer harvest hog and an autumn harvest hog and a winter harvest hog So oh if you've got other
12:30
stuff that is just popping out at you from the May trading post there will be
12:36
other hogs coming later in the year I I I I really think that there'll be
12:42
trading post rewards If not there'll be you know in the game some other way those models eventually come out But I
12:48
think that I probably will go with the spring one No I'm I'm going to be an
12:54
ninja turtle I probably need to get all the weapons too cuz I'll probably change which turtle I want to be from day to day And the weapons are pretty
13:00
reasonably priced I mean the most expensive one is the nunchucks at 120
13:07
trader tender I think No the katana at uh 130 But still you could collect a lot
13:12
of weapons here So I think this is a good trading post This is a good trading post month I'm very excited to go and
13:19
just dump all of my all of my attendees on this And I could be I could be a gnome ninja turtle It's gonna be great
13:26
It's gonna be so good I'm just excited that uh is the reward that you get for
13:31
the month because initially it looked like it was going to be 600 tenders which is a lot for a pet but not one
13:41
that has different cute hats and you could change its fur color and things like that But now that you just get it I
13:47
I feel like that's really a good decision That was the way to go infinitely better Yes Uh so also in
13:54
customization is uh player housing We got a little news on player housing this
13:59
past week including some hints on where we will get things Blizzard has been I
14:05
won't say ky because they're making a lot of posts but I feel like we're pretty far out from player housing still
14:11
So they're keeping things general kind of philosophical Have either of y'all
14:16
dug into the what's new in player housing a little just kind of like surface level like confirming that there
14:23
will be stuff everywhere You'll be able to get stuff in old raids that will drop just like just like when they added pets
14:30
when they first got added to the game They went back and added some in the Wrath of the Lich King raids Um the
14:36
example on the blog is that a crate will drop from one of the bosses in Seed of the Triumph It's like well now I got to
14:43
go get that crate cuz it's a thing I can get in an old dungeon that won't take me that long So So yeah And I'm happy about
14:50
it I really enjoy that And of course trophies from things you've done in the past for for like achievements you might
14:57
have on your account like the Enixia head that we've all been wanting to hang on our walls I think at this point it
15:04
probably smells and is a little rotted and maybe I don't want it in my house but it will be an
15:11
option Uh what about you Joe have you dug into this is there anything you're excited about so they're doing there's
15:18
something I'm excited about and then there's something I'm not excited about Um so the thing that I'm excited about is they're doing exactly what I asked
15:24
them to do which is essentially it's what Wildstar did and it's what uh City
15:31
of Heroes did at the end for base decorations It's you get like items
15:37
decor or whatever you want to call it from everything There's options for professions there's options for
15:43
achievements there's options for raids and drops and just doing content So just playing the game rewards you with items
15:50
that you can then display in your player housing And I think that's really really important Um Wildstar did that Like just
15:59
doing random stuff gave you these rewards Uh so I think that's really really cool I really like that Uh I like
16:06
the idea of unique decor where you get something that is unique like let's say
16:11
an Nixia's head Obviously you're not going to have multiple Enixia's heads in your house You're going to have one So
16:18
being able to place one of that that makes sense to me The thing that I don't like and I'm kind of hoping they maybe
16:24
revisit this and if you're listening this is my feedback Um decorations are
16:30
only placeable if you have enough of them Which means in their example if you want to place four chairs you have to
16:38
collect four chairs So my problem with this is if I want to have a dinette set
16:44
and I want that dinette set to sit four people I have to collect four different chairs or four of the same chair
16:51
repeatedly in order to have enough to put them down and the table And normally
16:57
I wouldn't complain about that because it's like again you got to go and do stuff But then that's the thing that I
17:02
don't like doing So let's say I get that chair And again I don't know this is all speculation because they haven't really
17:08
revealed too much detail but follow me on this journey If I have to kill one specific boss in one specific dungeon
17:15
and it's a guarantee drop then I have to do that four times to get enough to get that to core If it's a possibility of a
17:24
drop and not a guarantee then I have to kill that boss however many times before
17:29
I get enough of them to do what I want Whereas Wildstar and City Heroes and
17:34
other games that let you decorate have like levels of rarity right so common
17:41
items you get a common item you just have as many as you need Um in case like
17:46
and I'll tell you all to go look at Rainer Road on YouTube uh rest in rest in peace raids but the beer sign was a
17:53
common item and you just got it and you could put as many as you wanted on your property because that was just the way
17:59
they did it And I think they might want to look into maybe a little bit of that because if it's like a regular common
18:05
everyday just like wood stool do I really need to farm it if I want to make a tavern do I have to farm it 30 times
18:13
or should it just be something that I can place you know x number of like up to a certain amount of them because I
18:19
have it unlocked and then keep the rare items gated right does that make sense
18:25
the what I'm trying to say there That's I'm hoping that there's some uh they'll
18:31
do that in some way where there'll be you know a a a vendor where you can buy a basic stool for like two silver and
18:37
that way you can buy 30 of them if you want And it makes more sense to say that you can only have a couple copy like a a
18:44
couple cop however many copies you have that you actually own for the more rare stuff They haven't said that explicitly
18:50
but I agree that that would really be a better system than saying "Okay yeah you've got this one chair but if you want three more that match then get
18:56
farming." Yeah And I And I think maybe part of it is driving player engagement
19:02
and part of it is enforcing entity limits but you can enforce entity limits without forcing people to do monotonous
19:10
tasks or like you said like having a vendor where let's say I unlock something and it's common then there's a
19:16
vendor I can just go and buy more of it from because I've already unlocked it then that's fine Um I just want to see
19:22
them maybe be a little looser in that Um because I can tell you that I'm going to
19:29
probably need a bunch of like weird random little things that I'm not going
19:34
to want to farm a bunch for because that's that's something that would make me not engage with this as much as I
19:41
would otherwise So those are my two cents on it I still think it's cool and I'm glad that we're getting it Um but
19:48
yeah I'm I'm looking forward to seeing how they refine this And there's my feedback Blizzard You're welcome
19:54
I mean it does seem like they want this to be accessible and also have rewards
20:00
for a whole variety of types of players So it's not like you have to do just one
20:05
activity It's It's also not like you have to go back and kill a specific boss It feels like
20:13
they aren't trying to do that but you're right We don't have quite enough details
20:18
We don't have the we don't have the full picture They haven't published everything And that also means it's a
20:25
good time to give them feedback while this is still being shaped and developed So if there's something any of you out
20:31
there really want or really hate now's the time to leave that comment to make that feedback Yeah I love that we like
20:38
get to go back to Ice Crown Citadel to farm to get something But you know if 25
20:44
player heroic Lich King drops the frozen throne at a 5% rate and you just got
20:51
invincible after farming it for 10 years and then in the course of farming the frozen throne you get three more
20:57
invincibles I feel like there'd be too many stories like that where that would be considered bad I I may eat myself
21:04
into wilderness at that point if that happens to me Yeah I I don't think that's what they
21:10
want to do but we're going to have to see how it plays out I mean I think it's nice that they're they're adding things
21:17
to all types of content and there will be things in low-level content highlevel content like everywhere So you're
21:25
rewarded for doing different things and even rewarded for having done things in the past like trophies from previous
21:31
achievements But we'll have to see I'm waiting for the item spam the first time we log in and it starts rewarding you
21:38
for all your your past stuff And instead of like spamming like the guild with like random achievement stuff I'm
21:45
waiting for it to like disconnect you because it's just we've been playing this game for a long time We have done a
21:52
lot of things I am 100% expecting to like have to log into my character in
21:57
increments if they do anything with the history stuff I mean even even if it crashes my game
22:04
10 times I am I'm going to be so happy 100% I am so thrilled Here's your house
22:10
You've already collected 47% of the things you could possibly put in it Yes
22:16
If if if my if my number is that low when we get there I am going to be very surprised and I'm going to question how
22:22
many thou like what I've done with all these hundreds of hours I've played into this game
22:28
Uh so let's get into something that's a little a little unfortunately less transmog related a little more game
22:35
mechanical related which is that on May 13th we will getting what we will be getting what Blizzard calls a turbo
22:42
boost in the War Within season 2 which I
22:47
I mean I I take issue with the phrasing a a turbo boost You're turbo what what i
22:56
mean this is it makes sense in context of the fact that we're drag racing through the Undermine So like it makes
23:02
sense with this season right i get it I get it I see what you're doing there
23:07
folks It's It is a very goblin way of putting it They do they do enjoy Yeah
23:14
making everything a little mechanical and very fast So yeah still But one of
23:20
the things we'll be getting in this is the puzzling cartel chips that we have all been wondering about and that
23:27
Blizzard has been I they've definitely been cy about this one about what's happening with the puzzling cartel chips
23:33
which these will let us buy any piece of raid loot to be uh this is our bad luck
23:39
protection If you've been playing for this long in the raid and have not gotten something here is your chance So
23:49
I I know I'm probably going to finally get my house cards because that seems to
23:54
be like the trinket everyone is after Uh what about you two are you looking forward to getting these puzzling cartel
24:01
chips and buying some loot i am going to get the eye of Kazison so fast the
24:08
minute it's available and I will be very very happy And then it will inevitably show up in my loot box that week after I
24:15
purchase it because that's how it always happens Uh after that I'm actually really looking forward to transmog
24:20
pieces Um like I know a lot of people are going to be doing this for upgrades but we just talked about transmog for
24:25
like 20 minutes folks You know what you got into here No it's good It's good I want the rocket backpack so badly for my
24:32
dwarf that it's not funny but it's always a better item for everybody else in our raid group So I keep passing on
24:39
it And I would absolutely love to purchase it if for nothing else to turn myself into a set of power armor and
24:45
pretend I'm in Fallout WoW because that's I already have the transmog picked out I have all the weapons picked
24:52
out I'm ready to go I just need that and my transmog is complete I need it Um but
24:58
I'm I'm excited for this I actually I really like when they do this I like the idea of currency for raid items that you
25:05
maybe not necessarily have seen Um a couple ones that we haven't seen and and and I'm curious how they're going to do
25:12
this with um the purchasing of them like um one armed bandit One arm bandit has a
25:19
ring that is pretty much good for every class depending on what stats it drops with It is a raid drop that has random
25:27
stats Are we going to have random stats when we purchase it or is it going to be
25:32
something where it just gives us every variety of permutation flavor of it and we can purchase the one we need which
25:38
again I'll be very interested to see that the ring from uh the the coliseum
25:44
of carnage very rare drop rate I'm really happy that people will be able to go and buy that uh the weapon and
25:50
shields from Mugsy and Gywix the trinket from Gywix uh all those things that are
25:55
rare drop that are the uh Galley Wix exclusives or whatever they're called Uh
26:01
we haven't seen a whole lot of them and I like the idea of somebody saying "I can just go buy this I can go buy Wonder
26:06
Wall and it'll be very very nice for me to to to have I can finally have this thing that I want." I like that I like
26:13
rewarding players and giving them more ways to get the things they want It feels good Uh so yes you'll be able to
26:20
get three of these ships in the first week and immediately buy a piece of raid loot The loot will only be available up
26:28
to the difficulty you have played to So if you're running LFR I believe that's
26:34
the kind of gear you'll be able to buy If you're running mythic that's the kind of gear you'll be able to buy You have to have What about you Eric are you real
26:41
quick you have to have beaten the boss on that difficulty level So you can't
26:46
immediately go and buy something from a boss you haven't beaten So like you can't dip your toes into mythic and kill
26:52
uh Rexy who's not a difficult fight in Mythic and there's usually a ton of bugs going and then go buy a mythic track
26:58
like whatever weapon or whatever from later on in the raid Like you can't get best in slots at mythic track You have
27:04
to have defeated the boss So that is a very important uh caveat there Sorry please continue Uh what about you Rick
27:10
is there anything you're going to rush off and buy as soon as these launch i
27:15
haven't been in a raid above LFR difficulty for I used to say a decade
27:20
but it's been it's been a lot longer than that now It just hasn't fit with my chunks of available gaming time that
27:27
also tend to it tends to be frowned upon when you need to be interrupted for like just a minute here and there Uh so I and
27:34
especially with in the war within with delves and to a lesser extent story mode
27:39
I haven't even really been keeping up with it But uh if it if it does apply to
27:45
the LFR then that will maybe bring me back in a little bit more because the
27:51
loot from LFR kind of it just you know the times that I've run a wing and gotten nothing and you know the rolls
27:58
aren't even close Like my I rolled for two things and it were both an 11 and I came in like 16th place on what I was
28:05
actually might have been an upgrade for me if I can actually just accumulate it with that bad luck protection and grab
28:13
one or two things for I mean at this point probably transmog because it's not going to be an upgrade for me that's
28:19
going to matter Um yeah it might it might make me think about whether I want to actually jump back into that to LFR
28:26
So yes that going to be exciting for raiders And one of the great things is
28:32
that right now we have so many ways to play Like you can go in and do those raids but as you were just talking about
28:38
delves are there You can do delves up to a pretty high level if you want to and
28:43
you can get lots of great gear there and unlock slots in the vault to get more great gear So there feels like we have
28:50
more ways to play and gear up than ever And this is kind of a raid ccentric
28:55
catchup mechanism but also the transmog whether you're going to use it or not
29:00
Transmog Yep Must collect it all I need to complete so many transmog sets I have
29:07
too many alts Too many too many things to collect I don't like to do the multiplication and the actual numbers anymore because I know I'll never get it
29:13
But I have to try Yeah I haven't played my monk for a few raid tiers and I'm just getting back into it and it's like
29:19
oh no now I have to go back And uh you know I played up through Battle of
29:24
Azeroth so I have up to those collected but after that nothing Uh so I have I
29:30
have a lot of old raids to go run So that it's on the to-do list with so many
29:36
other things But another thing coming with this turbo boost is you will be able to upgrade your hero and myth track
29:43
gear to a higher level if you assuming you're up there with some hero or myth track So all hero and myth track items
29:51
including the ones you might purchase with cartel chips can be upgraded two more levels going from six level
29:57
upgrades to eight levels of upgrades Though of course you will need the crests and this and that valor stones
30:05
But there's also no more cap for crests And valor stones will become warbound So
30:11
you don't have to My question about Valer becoming warbound is is the cap
30:18
being removed from Valor Stones i'm not actually sure because that that cap always always throws me I don't know
30:26
that they've mentioned Yeah I don't know that they have either So I would think we will see But it would have to be I
30:33
mean I I have 11 characters with 220 valor stones and if they get squashed
30:39
together then I'll actually lose some Seems Yeah I'm actually curious though
30:45
Hopefully Well I'm curious though if it's going to keep the individual valor
30:51
caps but as you move them around it reduces from your total So like if you
30:57
send like you have a cap that you can earn x many in a season of whatever
31:02
crests and then your valor stones cap at 2k like I'm wondering if you like you send stuff to somewhere else if it like
31:08
reduces your your maximum cap like you've only earned x number because you've given away x number So I don't
31:14
know but it'll be interesting to see what they do with so also if you don't do the raids if you don't uh if none of
31:20
that applies to you there are also more drops from delves There are going to be more crests dropping from Dell's
31:27
Delver's journey progress will be increased There will be more valor stones Everything everything is kind of
31:33
getting a boost in this turbo boost So that uh and also crafted gear has more
31:41
upgrade levels So if you want better gear this kind of improves almost every
31:47
way that you can get better gear So it's good It's good And it's it's kind of a
31:52
new thing that they're rolling out We've had the uh the puzzling cartel dinar in
31:58
the past We had various versions of that This is just the latest one but they're adding all of this other stuff which
32:04
brings you a lot of other types of upgrades I think it's pretty cool So we have a a week and a half to wait on that
32:12
one But it's coming soon Coming pretty soon So let's let's maybe get away from
32:18
Warcraft and Transmog Maybe the newest season of Hearthstone Battlegrounds
32:24
started today Uh Eric you play Hearthstone don't you i do I have not
32:30
got that much into Battlegrounds but uh yeah Battlegrounds is one of my favorite
32:36
ways to play because it is one of those game modes where you can jump in and out
32:41
and it's something that you can kind of kind of idle play if that makes sense Like you can start a game and half pay
32:48
attention to it which I mean my viewing of it like that may be why I don't hit
32:53
like the highest best ranks in the mode but it's it's always a fun time and it's
32:59
easy to play casually and it's totally free All of those things super appealing
33:05
So new season drop today Huge minion shakeup So that'll shake up the meta if
33:10
you've been playing in the past and also adds trinkets back to the game and those will those will shake up the gameplay as
33:16
well So if you are into that it's now live And if you are not into that but
33:22
are curious it's free So there's no cost to jump in and give it a try So also
33:28
just announced is the next Hearthstone mini set It's not coming until May 13th
33:34
A date that sounds really familiar doesn't it hm But it is it is on the
33:39
horizon It is themed around a fire and a mirril called embers of the world
33:46
tree So if you're not playing battlegrounds you play constructed Eric I off and on I haven't been too far too
33:54
much into it in a year or I more measured by expansions I think this is the fourth expansion that I've kind of
34:01
like dipped in but not really you know tried to climb the ladder or do anything super fun with But I always try to keep
34:07
up with a couple different things I always try to you know pick out some of my favorite cards that come out because
34:13
uh honestly I was the same with Magic the Gathering when I was a little bit more into that I didn't have a lot of people to play with growing up but I
34:20
just liked looking at the cards and the art and seeing what kind of things you could do with it So I I this this looks
34:27
like a pretty cool mini set Um there is fireak as a card Cast 20 mana of fire
34:34
spells at enemies That's so many fire spells and it's a neutral card It's not
34:42
even like a mage card Yeah that's going to be that's going to be tough for a lot of classes I mean mages definitely could
34:47
hit that Warlocks could hit that I think H but like a a death knight I don't know
34:54
that a uh but yes that's that's interesting And I love the mini sets because it is one
35:00
of the great things There is no RNG to a mini set You just buy the mini set You have the
35:08
mini set You have every card in the mini set So you don't have to hope for luck to get your favorite card If you like
35:14
this set you can just buy this set for real money of course cuz it's real money
35:21
for $15 but you can also buy it with 2,000 gold which you can earn in game
35:27
through playing the game without spending anything So I'm a fan of the mini sets Yeah I I always like we said
35:33
before I tend to if I'm not trying to win every single game and climb the ladder and get to the highest rank I can
35:40
I just try to pick out what am I going to have the most fun with in a given month or season And the the DK legendary
35:49
Vulcaras is that one seems like it's most up my alley doesn't sound like it's maybe
35:55
going to impact the meta that much but it's an eight mana and you can spend 10
36:00
20 or 30 corpses to gain that many stats So it starts as a 55 but you can just
36:08
start it summon it as a 3535 with I believe taunt and rush which
36:14
I that would make me feel great Even if I immediately lost the game on the next turn because it didn't actually uh do
36:22
what I think it's going to do that would probably be my thing that I'm going to do that I would have the most fun with
36:28
Yeah So I am tempted to to pick up the mini set and kind of jump back into Hearthstone and do a little bit of
36:35
gigantic fireworm summoning And it's a it's a really fun theme they have going right now
36:42
Sometimes the themes of the expansions are like it's okay but this one this
36:47
one's a fun one So that is coming out on the 13th which is actually pretty fast
36:52
for a mini set But uh there you go More cards to buy lots of fire spells to cast
36:57
Our next topic coming up is Diablo I Am I the only person in this room who plays
37:02
Diablo I currently yes I just uninstalled it before the
37:09
recording actually Yeah You only got so much hard drive space I mean what are you supposed to do
37:15
mhm Season 8 has just started and it's all about Balile Uh we last saw Balle I
37:24
pretty sure in Diablo II where he spent all of act two three uh messing with us
37:33
So now he's coming back to Sanctuary for Diablo I season 8 And the whole season
37:38
is about stealing the powers of various bosses and using them for yourself to
37:45
defeat more bosses That's that's it That's the whole thing Bile is also going to be on the boss ladder as a
37:52
super most powerful boss in the game but there's a chance that when you're
37:57
fighting other bosses Blay might like a miniature version of Balile might spawn
38:02
and drop loot So all these are good things but I have to admit I was more
38:08
excited about this when they first announced it than I am now because
38:14
initially when it was on the PTR the boss powers were just so powerful They
38:19
were these were going to be killer They were going to be really exciting to collect and use because they would just
38:25
they would completely overwhelm gameplay if that makes sense But the Diablo team after
38:33
the PTR did nerf most of them And I understand their reasoning They were
38:39
saying this this is dominating everything It doesn't matter what build you are It's like okay I have this boss
38:45
power setup and that's that's what I'm playing It doesn't matter if you're a rogue or a necromancer or sorcerer
38:50
because you have this power And they they didn't like that But I also think it makes the boss power sound little a
38:56
little less exciting So we'll see how that feels in gameplay The devs have
39:01
also slowed down leveling which I'm also not thrilled about But I have to admit
39:07
at the same time season 7 you were leveling so fast and there was so much
39:12
loot all the time So season 8 will the leveling will be slower and legendary
39:20
gear will be rarer but magic and rare quality gear will be stronger will have
39:26
more affixes So I'm I'm kind of iffy on this On one
39:31
hand it might make the whole hm go for it It's It's always tough to hear "We're going to make you level slower whenever
39:37
it's an ongoing thing that you're always having to level." You never want to hear
39:42
that Yeah Especially for a seasonal game like this where it's every season you're
39:48
starting at level one again So I'm not thrilled but it may it may feel better to play So I'm I'm trying to trying to
39:56
keep my mind open I'm going to give it a try see how it feels Uh boss power is the big thing but they've also
40:02
completely were reworked the battle pass with the new reoquaryy system We talked about that some last week They also
40:08
reworked the season journey to add season blessings and they kind of reworked the reward tiers there But if
40:14
you're interested jump into the game and check it out bosses to kill new powers
40:20
to collect and a new reoquaryy system to earn rewards The other thing about the
40:26
new not battle pass battle pass the reoquary is you can earn rewards on it
40:31
even if you aren't playing the season So you could take your eternal realm characters and earn rewards that are in
40:39
the reoquaries you so desire if you don't like doing the seasonal grind and starting over starting over starting
40:45
over So that is an option for everybody So let's see In other game news uh we
40:53
just learned about EA and a new round of layoff layoffs that hit uh and
41:00
cancelling the latest Titanfall game Is anyone Is anyone up on this is anyone been looking forward to this Titanfall
41:06
game they've been working on yeah Matt and I have been talking about it a lot on the podcast The the untitled Titanfall game Titanfall was a fantastic
41:15
game Titanfall 2 is an amazing game The movement system from that game is what allowed them to make their battle royale
41:23
um simply because people loved it so much And people have been eagerly awaiting Titanfall 3 or whatever the
41:31
next Titanfall game was So this is a real kick in the teeth And the
41:38
number of people being let go is right now being reported at somewhere between
41:44
3 and 400 from the main line Uh which includes 100 or so at respawn And that's
41:53
really scary as well It's Yeah I don't know I it's they they they claim they're
41:59
making targeted team adjustments and all this other stuff but there's not a whole lot of of information forthcoming I feel
42:06
really bad for the gaming industry as a whole for the people not the corporations I want to make that perfectly clear Um because like we were
42:14
just talking about how what's the last time EA did something truly fantastic and then they turn around and do this
42:21
Mhm And it's like Titanfall would have printed them money and so they're cancelling something that would have
42:27
printed them money because so many people have been waiting for it The game industry and the people that are in
42:33
charge of it don't understand the games that they are in charge of It just seems like and this is just more example of it
42:40
So I don't know Sad days Sad days And uh what EA has said about this is as part
42:46
of our continued focus on our long-term strategic priorities we've made select
42:51
changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams and allocates resources in service of
42:57
driving future growth Which that's growth of what that sounds Yeah you
43:05
neutered boware You took a whole bunch of that stuff out of there Now you're you just fired another three to 400
43:11
people You you you took a chunk out of Respawn Like Boware and Respawn were
43:17
part of your divisions that were just making money handover fist when they were given the opportunity to do so and
43:23
were giving the resources and the marketing team to actually market their content properly which you didn't do
43:29
with Dragon Age by the way Like you you could have been doing this so much
43:34
better The only people to blame are the executives and
43:39
I sorry it's a lot of people losing a job 3 to
43:46
400 is a lot I will say that EA has
43:51
placed at least some of these people in other divisions and has given uh
43:56
individuals time to apply to other jobs in the company But yeah it's still bad There's
44:03
you can't really sugarcoat this one No I just don't understand why these companies are adverse to like continuing
44:09
on with making games that people want and then cutting those games and then moving on to stuff that people don't
44:15
want because they think it's going to make them more money Like how do you not understand this make games people want
44:21
to play and people will shove money at you Like do I I I want to go on the rant about uh American McGee's Alice and the
44:29
fact that EA is still sitting on the rights to that game So we will never get the third game of the trilogy because EA
44:36
just refuses to do anything about it They won't make the game and they won't release the the hold on the IP So I
44:41
guess the heck with us I guess I don't know EA makes bad decisions And honestly
44:47
if all those people went and founded all the people working on the games went and founded their own game studios and made spiritual successors to all the games
44:53
that they worked on I wouldn't lose sleep over EA losing all those that talent I'm not even not in a heartbeat
44:58
at this point I mean maybe we can look at the silver lining that maybe these people will go on and make other games
45:04
independently but you know starting up an independent game company or joining an independent game company to work on
45:10
things is not a sure bet these days It's it's hard times in the gaming industry Yeah But it's also hard to be at one of
45:17
these major players where you hear h your project seems to be getting off the
45:22
ground and going well and there's demand for it but some other completely unrelated project uh underperformed last
45:28
quarter so your whole team is cut and your project is canled That's to have it be through entirely no fault of your own
45:36
is just extra extra kick in the teeth And I admit these last two news items we
45:41
have here Anna added to the list So I am not I'm not It was not Anna It was me Oh
45:47
it was you You're adding these things So I'm going to let you talk about them Joe Uh yeah So there's a couple couple
45:54
interesting tidbits that I saw as I was going through the greater world of stuff Uh first is 8bit do or 8bit D I never
46:01
know how to say that name uh makers of fine game peripherals like game controllers and uh retro uh game
46:08
controllers and stuff like that that you are likely familiar with uh have recently stated that and this is some
46:14
bad news folks they are no longer shipping to the US from China Uh yes
46:19
this is in part with the uh current political climate and trade stuff that is happening uh it doesn't change the
46:25
availability of stuff that is already in the US warehouse But I wanted to let the I wanted to report on this at least a
46:31
little bit or or mention it in case people missed it because if you're on the fence about grabbing one of those 8bit do controllers that you've been
46:38
eyeing or maybe thinking about now might be the time to do it because we don't know when they're going to be shipping
46:43
to the US again So just something to be aware of The next item is about an indie
46:49
game that I found absolutely fascinating I love retro clone games And I don't
46:56
mean that clone is in like they're just a copy of another game but I mean games that do stuff like mimic 16 and 8bit
47:04
game styles using modern sensibilities modern game engines modern game design so that it runs on modern hardware Uh
47:10
case in point there's a Rocky Horror 8bit uh no 16- bit sidescrolling adventure that just released like last
47:16
year Absolutely fantastic game and a chip tune version of you know the time
47:22
warp is absolutely as fantastic as the original This is something that popped up It's uh called Voyad Nuclear Warrior
47:31
Uh it's currently in on a Kickstarter It's what it can lovingly be called a
47:37
metal band video game adventure Voyod is a can French Canadian metal
47:44
band uh that apparently is getting a video game made about them in the style
47:49
of all of those old games like the Aerosmith game and all the other ones that we grew up with in like the late
47:55
80s early 90s Uh it's a sidescrolling adventure looks like it's done in 8 or
48:00
16bit Uh and you're using the power of metal and adventure to fight weird
48:05
bosses that look like they're straight from their album covers And this is the type of stuff that I really like to see
48:11
happening And I think stuff like this needs to have more attention put on it I don't know anything about Voya before
48:17
this besides the fact that they are French Canadian metal band Uh and I didn't know that this game existed but
48:23
now it has my attention because again this is really cool indie stuff This is
48:28
stuff that a major studio like EA or any of the else wouldn't have green lit
48:33
unless there was like tons of money being thrown at it by the like a third party or by a person that wanted the
48:39
game made and said we'll license this for you We want you to do it Uh so like seeing this is really really cool and it
48:45
looks like it has the chops of potentially being a sidescrolling either it's either going to be a platformer
48:51
adventure uh or it's going to be a Metroid vania adventure I didn't read what the specific genre is besides
48:58
adventure game but I'm really interested to see what they do with it And it's something that I will likely try It It
49:06
will get my 20 minute 2-hour pass Like I So I'm I'm in for it And I I want to see
49:12
more games like this and I'm hoping we do I'm hoping more indie developers get
49:19
to make fun passion project games like this And I hope we get a variety of them cuz I think they're they're really cool
49:25
and I hope they get the attention that they need because I want to see more of it So yeah I these are just Go ahead
49:32
Eric It looks really cool just looking at the you know gameplay demo or
49:37
whatever they have Uh but I have two favorite facts about the story The first one is the band formed in 1982 Yeah So
49:44
it's not 16 albums 16 albums Sorry Go ahead and I believe they have an
49:50
original member who's always been with them that's still there The other thing that's awesome is that the studio is
49:56
working closely with the band on this So it's not just like a tribute or a hey we
50:03
know these album covers exist and we're using it as inspiration Like every band member has a role They're doing like the
50:10
musical adaptation and they're doing voice acting and play testing It's
50:16
really it's it's a cool project This band is literally as old as I
50:23
am but I Yeah I think it's really neat So I mean give it a shot Like the or
50:29
give it a look Uh look it up at their VI VOD uh the nuclear warrior See if it's
50:36
something that you might like Give them a little attention Give them some uh some love for the the craft that they're
50:41
making I I love the visuals It it really does just scream of like what I thought
50:46
heavy metal games were back in like the 80s and 90s So So one of the things that
50:52
I was thinking about when you mentioned this is have you played or heard of UFO 50 yep Absolutely
50:58
Uh-huh Yeah That's another indie title and it has such a wild concept It is a
51:07
collection of 50 games It's a love letter to Action 52 It's it's a love
51:12
letter to video games because the idea is that it's based around this
51:19
fictional video game company from the8s and it is a collection of all of the
51:24
games they've made and the games progress through the eras So you get
51:30
like every genre of game every style of game They're all new games but they all
51:38
come together in this crazy story that is really a love letter to
51:44
the evolution of gaming over the decades It's a wild one And again this is the
51:50
sort of game you're only going to see from indies This weird wonderful stuff I
51:57
I would like to point out too that uh I've played the heck out of this Um I'm
52:02
not going to ruin it for folks but I will tell you because this is common I'm gonna tell you how to get there There is
52:09
a 51st game in the mix Oh and if you can find it it really ties the room
52:16
together So I also really enjoy the fact that these all have fictional years of release too So like you go through and
52:22
each game tells you like "Oh it was made in 1982." Uh or it was made in 1985 or
52:28
or whatever the case is all the way up through I think 1989 is the last year So it's literally the uh span of the '8s
52:35
And each one is made by uh either very very small studios or in some cases an
52:41
individual and some cases that same individual worked on a lot of these games So like it's it's a super fun
52:49
thing and I like when they do stuff like this I like small indie games Um I this
52:54
man I love giving them small indie games attention You listening at home is there an indie game or a small indie game that
53:00
you really enjoyed that caught you off guard or one that you've been watching let us know Leave it below in the comments or hit us up on Discord I'd
53:07
love to hear about it Is there something that you think we would like also let us know please I want more indie games Why
53:13
are there so many good games there's so many games I want to play and there's not enough time ever That is the problem
53:21
I dominated the pre-show earlier talking about Blue Prince which is another indie
53:26
game started out by a solo developer who grew from the solo developer thing but
53:32
it started out as one person's idea of what they wanted to make And what they
53:37
made was something you would never see from a big game company And that's what
53:43
makes it so exciting and so interesting So it's it's great to see how many
53:49
little indie games are out there How many of them are finding success how many of them are like making it to the
53:55
game awards and big awards like that not all of them but we are seeing some really small titles from independent
54:01
developers make it into that realm And because of that I I wonder if maybe
54:10
we'll start to see bigger developers take an interest in h maybe I should do
54:16
something other than constantly make sequels Maybe people want to play games
54:22
that are different and unusual Crazy I'm not going to hold my breath on that I'm
54:28
not going to hold my breath but it's a thought because we are seeing a lot of success here Yeah I would agree Uh but I
54:35
think that's going to do it for us Liz do you want me to do the thing since you did all the hosting um yeah You should
54:42
do the thing All right friends I've been talking so much Well I do want to thank
54:47
you for joining us here on this journey Uh I assure you Matt is safe and no harm has come to him I really promise that Uh
54:54
Blizzard is made possible due to your generous contributions at patreon.com/blizzardwatch Your continued
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55:28
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55:34
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55:51
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55:59
every single time And if you want to message us on Patreon I can make Liz go get us messages It's the one thing that
56:05
I can make Liz do Uh so you can also go ahead and send those to us there Uh and
56:10
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56:17
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think it's just Blizzard watch or Blizzard podcast Blizzard watch and YouTube We are Blizzard podcasts There
57:33
you go And uh yeah I've been trying I've been trying to come up with like a smooth way to say that whole bit in one
57:41
sentence and I haven't yet I I Well it's not jazz It's
57:48
okay But I think that's that's it I mean Eric Liz do you have anything else to add no no it's been fun Oh yeah This has
57:56
been a blast Thanks for having me Well thank you for joining us Eric And thank you at home for listening We'll see you
58:01
next week [Music]
#Massively Multiplayer Games