Up next in 10
Join us as we look into the improvements to the Plunderstorm event that has returned to the WoW servers for a limited time, the delay of the Cataclysm Classic Phase Four rollout, and the preview of Diablo 4’s upcoming Season of Witchcraft theme.
We also speculate if the Warcraft 30th Anniversary World Tour means no BlizzCon this year (or ever!), dive into the details of the StarCraft-themed mini-set for Hearthstone, and vent our frustrations about battle passes and other monetization tactics of big gaming studios.
Go to https://www.blizzardwatch.com for the latest news on all Blizzard games and don't forget to check out our Patreon if you like what you see and want to support our efforts! https://www.patreon.com/blizzardwatch
Discord: https://discord.gg/MY9p4d7t8U
X: @BlizzardWatch
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[Music]
0:10
hey everybody and welcome to the Blizzard watch podcast I don't know why I'm talking like the DJ in a 70s overnight show uh I'm Matt I'm the host
0:17
I I'm having flashbacks to my days DJing uh with me are my Fantastical co-hosts
0:23
none of them have been exposed to cosmic rays to my knowledge but if that happens please let me know and I will I will
0:30
start mentioning your powers uh first I will introduce Joe Perez the person who handles pretty much everything that
0:36
makes us able to actually have this podcast right now um hello Joe well hey
0:41
there I didn't say say hello Joe and he couldn't say hello Joe how it is I remembered finally um also another
0:49
person who makes the show possible not so much for the technical aspect as for the we have a place to do a podcast
0:55
because she keeps it going uh Liz Harper our editor-in-chief and over Grand High FBA and I'm going to keep calling you
1:01
that Hi Li howdy and finally not always here but always welcome uh our other Liz
1:09
um we we don't want to I don't want to constantly call you antimatter Liz or Liz from Earth to so I'm just gonna say
1:14
Liz fat who is not Liz Harper and hopefully everybody will follow that so
1:20
hi Liz hello and I love those names I want everyone to call me antimatter
1:26
Liz the problem with antimatter Liz is it sounds an awful lot like the uh song
1:31
uh you know mechanical man and I I don't want to sing it right now but but it's you know by Michael Sello by the way
1:38
automatic man I'm sorry it's Michael Sello the guy that wrote uh Maniac the theme for Flash Dance he also wrote a
1:46
song about a robot that falls in love uh I do recommend you hear this song anyway
1:51
before I do an entire podcast about Michael sell let's talk about World of
1:57
Warcraft the Diablo and other blizzard games because that's what we technically do here but first Liz uh patreon stuff
2:03
uh okay I had those notes towards the bottom of the show when I would prefer to do them but oh that's fine I'm sorry
2:10
that's my bad usually we do them now but you know I totally accept that I am not fully focused we can do them later
2:16
that's fine uh this is me trying to convince myself it's fine uh okay there's the notes okay that's another
2:23
problems the notes don't go up to the top for me anymore and I don't know why that is uh yeah we'll just move straight
2:28
into plunder storm uh yeah World of Warcraft news plunder Storm's back I think it's back as of today as we're
2:33
recording which is Tuesday the 14th days the 14th uh yes yes okay somebody talked
2:39
to me about plunder storm coming back how long is it going to be uh plunder storm lasts through uh late February and
2:46
it just kicked off today after World of Warcraft had a 6-hour maintenance today which was extended to an8 hour
2:52
maintenance and then the servers came up and plunder storm was still not live due to technical difficulties so that was a
2:59
bit of a Rocky start I kind of felt like Oh They'll just push a button and it'll go live that was not the case I was I
3:05
was foolish I was foolish to think that uh but plunder storm is live it is pretty much like old plunder storm I've
3:12
read that there are supposed to be some new abilities I haven't gotten a chance to go in and check that out because it
3:18
started it actually launched like 5 minutes before we started recording so there is that uh the biggest change in
3:26
plunder Storm from our last plunder storm is that there's not a renown track you will go in and uh you know dive into
3:34
a rra on the back of a uncontrollable giant parrot and be murdered by other
3:40
players at least if you're me I just I I dive bomb in and I get killed and uh
3:45
you'll earn plunder and you will use that to purchase things in the store uh
3:51
all of your partical rewards and that is for me at least that's a that's great
3:56
because you know I wanted my pirate outfit my coat and my pirate hat and you
4:01
had to go really far down the Renown track to get it so I couldn't just play a little I had to play a lot and I was
4:08
very bad at it uh so it's back you'll be able to pick and choose what rewards you want obviously those rewards are going
4:14
to be transmog for me and uh I I think it's good it's not my favorite game mode
4:20
to play but it's there I know a lot of people really enjoy it and it's great that everyone has things that they
4:26
really enjoy that's the important part that's why we play games yeah there's actually like there's range of costs for
4:33
things I want to mention this between cosmetic appearances pets um you know
4:39
mounts other things like that you can see a difference between like something can cost between 5,000 plunder and can
4:46
cost like maybe 250 plunder so it depends entirely on what you're looking for uh how much you'd have to play as
4:53
opposed to well I want this thing which isn't that expensive but in order to get there I have to grind my renown all the
5:00
way up which means I would be playing this until I pass out every day for the next
5:05
month so yeah I that's definitely a that's an adjustment I think any mode that you do like this in the future
5:11
should have and uh so we haven't gotten a chance to play brand new and we'll see how it develops and kind of how much
5:18
plunder can you earn from a game how much plunder you can earn from week whether blizzard has adjusted that a
5:23
little whether they've adjusted a lot whether they haven't adjusted at all and certainly last time plunder storm was
5:29
here it was adjusted a lot over the course of the I mean and it was really
5:34
amped up right at the end before it was leaving so that everyone could rush in and get those last rewards so even if it
5:41
if it feels a little slow now you know wait there'll probably be some balance changes and uh we'll we'll see how it
5:47
goes I we'll see how if I can get my purple pirate outfit all right um I'm GNA talk to uh crisis on infinite Liz
5:54
for a second uh see you wanted you wanted it uh turbulent time ways you mentioned on the pre-show that you're
5:59
currently trying to level up alls through it so are you trying to get the Bumblebee Mount because the Buzby I am
6:06
it's precious and I love it so you have to play how many weeks like five weeks
6:11
straight five weeks out of seven so there's a buff that you get for each uh
6:16
time walking dungeon you run uh during the turbulent time ways event right now
6:22
we just started Warlords ofran or week we're coming out of Miss sander a week and when you run four dungeons which
6:30
gets a little confusing because the quest is to run five dungeons the buff
6:36
converts from this like 2hour uh experience buff that you've been
6:41
increasing where you get uh 5% then 10% additional XP um it converts to Master
6:49
of the time ways I believe it's called and that'll give you something like a 30% experience bonus and you participate
6:58
in five of the weeks and that Master of the time ways buff AC Cruise across or
7:04
not AC cruise but gets a a point each week up to the five points and that's
7:10
what earns you the mount as I understand it yeah I'm looking at the uh achievement right now and master of the
7:17
turbulent time ways too it does seem to be what you got to do uh gain Mastery of time ways for five weeks during a
7:23
turbulent time waste to rewards timely buz be so and I think maybe you know
7:29
better Liz I think you can do this on any character you just need to get that buff or do you need to so it's a that
7:35
does make it a really good way to level alts I plan to level my monk up and uh
7:40
you know get moving on some of those alts that I said I was definitely leveling this expansion and I then
7:46
proceeded to not level at all no go level your monk first off because having an Al uh is always fun I just finished
7:53
leveling a dark iron dwarf Rogue and I'm surprisingly having a blast playing
8:00
subtlety which I have always enjoyed Outlaw but the last time I tried
8:05
subtlety the rotation was an absolute bear and now I'm like no this is kind of
8:10
fun all right like cool brains like say something I'm like I don't have anything to say about Rogues I don't know
8:17
anything about them they're they're fine I don't know yeah as long as that's fun I actually I'm gon to say this I'm a
8:24
little disappointed that when're instead of taking pets away from from marks they didn't pets and marks but give you like
8:31
dual wielding pets in B Beast Mastery or something I'm not sure maybe you could just have a an extra thing you do then
8:37
Beast Master four of them then man I don't care but regardless uh I do think that that's cool that they have that
8:44
buff and that they allow you to get a be because it's a cute bee I just looked at it very cute um it's not an acute be
8:50
it's just a cute be um but I think I have like a similar bee I'm pretty sure
8:55
I have like the honey one there's there's a honey bee there's a cinder bee I think yeah I don't understand it and
9:01
this this is the timely Buzby yeah so it's got It's got a little kind of
9:06
bronze dragony feel to it it has like a mount let that a thing on it wearing a
9:12
like a it has an aesthetic that saddle yeah the saddle's on its face man like
9:19
it's got like it's you know how they like with a horse they have a bridal and so forth this thing has like what looks like a met a metallic mouth on its face
9:27
which bees don't really have that thing going on I'm just looking at the picture of it in real in the game it might not
9:32
look like this but the angle it was at it looked like it has some kind of big bronze thing the tips of it per bisy and
9:38
and little tendle things are are bronish so I think that's making it look metallic also we now need to talk about
9:44
wild classic um cataclysm classic phase four has not launched yet we kind of
9:49
think it's to the end of the month but no well we thought it would be here you know you know how we're always
9:56
predicting when when new phasers are going to lunch blizzard has been pretty
10:01
consistent about phase launches and they've been a little more wobbly with cataclysm classic but we really thought
10:08
that uh phase four for cataclysm would launch early this month and now we're
10:13
halfway through the month and we haven't even heard anything about the next phase of cataclysm classic and also there's
10:19
nothing after phase 4 for cataclysm classic and M of Pandaria classic isn't until this summer which does leave a
10:27
kind of a gap there for players who enjoy cataclysm you can tell I'm not one
10:34
of those players but it's it's kind of kind of going into a dead zone they're going to get phase four and then that's
10:40
that's all and meanwhile the season of Discovery and anniversary Realms are already on various phases those are
10:48
they're they're going at a crazy Pace on the anniversary Realms season of Discovery continues to do really great
10:55
things so before Miss pandari classic lunches this summer I think we're speculating it's going to be around July
11:03
uh you know uh season of Discovery is
11:08
going into phase seven which is next ramas and an carage just went live there
11:14
it'll be doing next Romas uh probably in a couple months and uh the anniversary Realms are already in phase two and over
11:22
the course of the next few months it'll be phase three which is Black Wing Lair and phase four which is Sil grub
11:29
probably all of that is going to happen before Miss pandere comes out and then we have cataclysm classic who has one
11:36
one last phase and it's that's going to fill up like the next six months I guess
11:41
I mean yeah it does feel like they've been it's surprising that they haven't announced more considering how reliable
11:47
their overall game plans have been this past two years at this point there really is so much going on in classic
11:54
now that on one hand it's hard to fault them they are doing a lot of stuff but
12:00
also it it does feel like maybe did they forget about cataclysm I don't know I
12:06
don't know okay so this Warcraft 30th Anniversary World Tour thing uh that's
12:11
that's what people are thinking might be the replacement for BlizzCon or is it just a onetime thing or what are we dealing with here we we don't know well
12:19
we know that it's gonna be in six cities right we know that much yes I mean we we know it's happening we know it is it is
12:26
a world tour at several at cities across the world the first one is London on
12:32
February 22nd and so South Korea March 8th Toronto Canada March 15th Sydney
12:38
Australia April 3rd sa Pao Brazil on April 19th and Boston on May 10th uh
12:46
coinciding with PAX East so there will be a an in-person event that's a little
12:51
vague on what they're going to be but there promised to be intimate Gatherings with live entertainment Warcraft
12:57
developers and unique activities so we don't know exactly what they are I do
13:03
have Theory I yeah go loer do you want to go first since uh no I want to hear your theory and then I'll I'll I'll
13:09
chime in so when they did the event uh I
13:14
believe it was at Gamescom someone might want to back me up uh that they had like
13:20
the the sort of virtual a roller coaster ride for escape to Dollar on and kind of all those you
13:28
know Ann I AR celebration e things I think that's going to be part of it I
13:33
think that's this is how they they're spreading it around the world so to speak uh Joe what I was going to say is
13:39
uh I have a friend who's going to the London one on February uh and they're going to report back to me what it
13:46
exactly is uh and depending I might try to go to the one in Toronto because that
13:51
is all about an hour drive away from where so Boston's only a few hours from you too though Boston's like nine hours
13:58
away Matt yeah a few hours live Alta I drive nine hours I
14:05
don't get out of the province up here man listen I've I've
14:11
told my Horror Story of driving to Boston I'm not doing that again yeah I I might check out the one
14:17
in Boston because that is actually within a pretty easy Drive of me now it it took reading about PAX East and I I
14:24
was like wait a second wait a second I could drive to Pax ceas this is no
14:30
longer you know like a plane trip which is it just took a few minutes for that to sink into my head so I I might Texas
14:37
previously living in New England yeah and Texas Texas is a little like Alberta
14:42
probably more than a little like Alberta in that you have to drive like 9 to 12 hours to get outside of the state so
14:50
it's yeah Alberta is like alberd is a giant rectangle so it's like you're just
14:56
driving north forever uh now I'm apparently trying apparently we're chasing the North Pole I don't know but
15:02
yeah no it's Boston's not that far from from any place in Connecticut so yeah that that's not too bad and for that
15:08
matter Toronto is not terribly far away from Buffalo by any means he's not kidding they're they're fairly close you
15:15
could you could easily drive there in an hour um we could both go to the meet up except that's probably like a 10hour
15:21
drive for me or a 12 hour drive it would probably be like a 10hour drive I but it's closer Buffalo yeah but anyway so
15:29
yeah we don't know what this is exactly uh it sounds like it's going to be similar to um the Gamescom thing that
15:35
that Liz P just mentioned I don't know that it has any real impact on whether or not we're gonna get a BlizzCon except
15:41
that I don't think we're getting one in 2025 We're Never Getting again yeah that seems likely but we're not gonna say
15:47
that we can't say that for absolute sure I I think we can I think if anything
15:53
Microsoft has proven to us that they're going to piggyback off of other existing things or they're going to do their own
15:59
Microsoft Event and I don't think that we're going to see a standalone BlizzCon again sorry I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer it's just the real the
16:05
reality of it like even looking at like CES 2025 just happened and Microsoft was
16:11
even there right like and they were even showing off their new stuff and showing off oh here's where Game Pass is here's
16:17
all the games you can play on Game Pass did you know these Activision titles are blizzard titles are on the game pass
16:22
please play our game pass so like they're I I don't know that they're going to justify the money cost of it
16:28
because as fun as it was and as much as I love it and I really really really really want it it's so expensive and we
16:35
even know from like talking with them in interviews in the past they lost money on it right it it earned G Goodwill and
16:41
and maybe long-term generated stuff but you go to a corporate Overlord and you say I want to do this thing and you say
16:48
well how much money does it make we lose money no like that's generally how I see
16:54
those conversations going especially with Microsoft who you know isn't above just letting people go to make up costs
17:00
yeah and we've already seen layoffs happening at Microsoft layoffs happening at Blizzard after the acquisition so I
17:07
don't know I like Joe I'd like to see another biscon but I feel like this event being the inperson event this year
17:15
is very likely and maybe the maybe we won't see any more bzc that said the the
17:20
this potential thing with the the uh 30th Anniversary depending on how it goes what the scale of it is what the
17:27
cost of it is a roaming smaller event is not necessarily a bad thing either
17:32
giving you the ability to you know go to something closer to your home uh not
17:38
having to spend as much money to rent out the uh Convention Center at Anaheim
17:43
which that is expensive it is super expensive uh that is not a cheap City uh
17:48
limiting the ticket costs like I think the tickets for these are like I think it's 100 bucks give or take I they're
17:54
free oh no that's right they're free they're free but they're The Limited free yeah free with limit yeah and and
18:01
in fact the first batch of them is already sold out it is gone they're doing a couple of more batches of ticket
18:07
sales but the first round is gone already yeah so I mean like I could see maybe smaller events like this maybe
18:13
gaining traction but the scale of Blan is just so astronomically
18:18
large well now that I'm crying wow Subs give you a flying snake
18:25
Mount go and talk about it guys yes has anyone else claimed their flying snake
18:31
this is the new month subscription reward have you flown around on the flying snake I tried for 5 seconds yeah
18:39
it's it's kind of like those Miss Pandaria dragons and that it's very whirly R get it yet question mark there
18:48
seems to be a problem with some of the claiming yeah like do you have to you have to physically claim it from the
18:54
store right no well at least for me I logged on and it was in collections you
18:59
know it's wrapped up in its little box and you click the little box sometimes you have to you log on to the battle net
19:05
launcher and you'll see the you have a gift thing up have right I did that but
19:10
like mine was just the Diablo stuff I haven't seen anything with uh with that
19:16
so it did it it did pop up today for me but I believe I believe they say it could I'm
19:24
sorry I say that and literally literally as we're talking about it Red Dot appears on my
19:32
launcher so yeah probably by the time everyone is listening to this if you have a six-month sub or a 12-month sub
19:39
you will probably have this Mount and uh in WoW classic there is a little tiny
19:45
flying snake Mount that you can not Mount sorry pet a tiny flying snake pet
19:51
that you can get and play with in classic I mean they're really cool looking it's kind of like a a wooden
19:58
snake with gold and green accents it's pretty rad I don't I don't know if I'm
20:04
ever going to ride this but it's pretty well we got to collect it must collect it yeah the collection must The
20:11
Collection must grow okay uh Diablo Diablo stuff uh
20:17
obviously Diablo I season 33 it's ending for real now uh January 19th so in a few
20:23
days as we're recording this um then in about five days after that on the
20:28
January 24th which is usually what they do they end it and then in five days and then they start the next one uh season
20:34
34 is going to start um that's going to bring back the lights calling theme from season 27 so you're gonna have those
20:39
Angelic crucibles powering up you you remember it um but well maybe you don't but that's what it's going to be uh so
20:46
yeah that's cool to know and what's interesting about that is that I didn't like the Angelic Crucible so I'm a
20:53
little sad about it but you know hey other people did like it and I'm always hoping that they also put in more
20:59
treasure goblins like just just put in more treasure goblins constantly yeah more than Diablo
21:06
4 yeah Diablo I it's in maintenance mode you could just quadruple the number of
21:13
treasure Goblin spawns all the time just for the heck of it tell you what there should be like an object that has like a
21:19
reasonable drop rate like say 50% chance and when it drops immediately treasure
21:24
goblins just hundreds of them all around you and you have to try to kill as many as possible and the more you kill the
21:29
more loot you get boom we're done uh I want to I want to come out of this with like 35 billion gold on me come on just
21:37
let's let's go but regardless I I am still excited to see with the thing is
21:42
Shelly crucibles were around last time you didn't have the Capstone system the
21:47
alter the extra level Al alter stuff that's in the game now that was like a
21:53
season theme and then they turned it into a full-time forever thing yeah the alar of Rights yeah and you have the
21:59
current changed Paragon system um which is still it's basically the same Paragon system it's been for a long time now but
22:05
regardless it wasn't there in season 27 so I am curious to see how it works with
22:10
the Angelic crucibles because there's some weird stuff in the alar of rids um but yeah that's that's season 27's theme
22:17
coming back on the season 34 I've seen people confused about this uh I was on the Diablo subreddit today and I was
22:23
reading it and people were like I don't get it this game is done right what's the deal with the season's changing and I was like okay it's it's the original
22:31
it's previous Seasons themes they just bring them back that's just the seasons just repeat now it's it again said it's
22:38
maintenance mode and some people really don't seem to understand this so I'm I'm gonna say it again it's it's basically
22:46
like playing mix and match with Seasons uh they they go in and they find a season theme they feel like doing and it
22:51
just happens that's that's it there's not going to be any new ones just ones we've already had and it's actually a a
22:57
pretty small cool because seasonal themes didn't start until what season 14
23:02
no 14 right yeah and which I think was actually season of greed oh it was I we
23:09
wrote we got a post Matt's never forgetting this yeah I'm never forgetting it there was the moment that Diablo Three Seasons went from oh is it
23:16
a season to what okay exactly can I play now can I start now where are they where
23:21
are the goblins and three of those seasonal themes between 14 and 30 became
23:27
permanent changes in the game you've got the altar of Rights you've got um Whispers The no uh the windows that open
23:36
the windows the portals that open and you run through and you you do all sorts of stuff and oh and the echoing
23:43
nightmares yes okay and the follower rework was a theme yeah that's true
23:49
there was a season it was just about the follower rework so yeah exactly there's there's only about 10 or 11 of them that
23:55
you could really do and when you're doing them pretty consist consistently every 12 to 13 weeks you know four year
24:01
you're going to rotate through that really quickly guys especially if they start doing that thing where they add
24:06
another season in at the same time uh which they've talked about so if they start doing that forget it um but yeah
24:13
that's how it works it's not you know it's not a really major concern just it's like playing the game uh you don't
24:19
have to worry too much about oh what's the next season theme it's going to be something we've seen before yeah I mean did you miss a reward from season 16 or
24:28
season 19 you can get them now because we are looping the rewards back around
24:33
in addition to looping around the seasonals themes the difference is that the rewards are looping
24:41
consecutively and the um seasonal themes are more following the Jeremy baramy
24:48
style of time from the good place yeah it's pretty much I was going to say it's it's sort of like you know okay
24:55
everybody pick a number between one and 10 ah you're wrong at 6 uh you know it
25:00
just but that's how I feel but since we're talk yeah talking about Seasons since we have been let's talk about
25:06
Diablo 4 season 7 because that's starting next week and we finally have this giant post that they did telling us
25:14
what it's gonna be although we kind of already knew it was gonna be a season of Witchcraft yeah we knewed um I'm disappointed they didn't
25:21
stick with calling it The Season of the Witch so that they could secure the song and throw out another like 15 second
25:28
Stinger that just was an absolute Banger and Confused everybody yeah well that's yeah that that is unfortunate but I'm
25:34
sure they'll find another way to confuse everybody um but we do have a lot of updates for this season I'm looking at
25:41
the handy infographic actually I'll just say say this I like the infographic thank you for an infographic guys um
25:48
apparently this time around the tree of Whispers in diao 4 has lost its heads
25:54
not all of them but some of the heads have escaped I don't know go ahead l i I was thinking you know it's a tree
26:01
covered in Undead Heads This is like Necromancer catnip why haven't
26:08
necromancers already stolen like half of these heads and run off with them well I
26:13
mean the implication is that nasty stuff happens to people who mess with the heads well but you know you're hanging
26:21
the heads are right there on the tree and this is just telling you that if I ever have a tree full of heads don't let
26:27
Liz anywhere near it no don't don't just stealing my head I had to I caught those
26:32
guys I me to deal with that dude this is necromancy 101 come on look what
26:39
happened to Elias though yeah he he he ended up on the tree maybe he got loose
26:44
maybe that oh oh that would be interesting uh we get you know we find Elias and now we have him as a jam or
26:50
something oh go but yeah there are occult gems uh from the seasons they're socketable um they look weird not sure
26:58
why they have these graphics for them go ahead Liz I'm sorry it's actually the heads are really creepy because some of
27:05
them have been stolen from the tree or escaped from the tree I'm not totally clear on that but they're like they're
27:12
like stealing bodies and like attaching themselves to various
27:18
things and it's some of these looks are are very creepy you'll be fighting the
27:24
head rotten am I am I right Liz that's what we're calling them yeah and they're they're birthed out of occasional root
27:31
pods which is even weirder and I I kind of love it it's as it is Diablo so it is
27:38
gross and creepy and weird and unsettling yeah all those things you want uh in a Diablo game I don't want
27:45
them in my life I don't want you know any stop stealing my tree heads I'm gonna be upset stay away from my tree um
27:52
but no it's there's certainly does does feel an awful lot like there would be a lot of people trying to steal heads from
27:59
this tree you know to gain their magical secrets so especially if the heads all remember them or whatever there's also
28:05
been you know this this group of witches in howar who who are I don't want to say
28:11
bonded to the tree They don't serve the tree but they work with the tree and uh
28:17
their coven is supposed to be in charge of you know the magic of hozar uh and
28:25
the trade-off is that they protect the the tree and the captive heads so they're our allies in this season and
28:33
they they have some opinions about the fact that you know their charges have gone missing so to speak that's a fair
28:40
point don't don't take to trees heads just I'm the whole things freaking me but I do actually like we learned Matt
28:46
has a tree of heads and you should all be very worried about stealing from him no I'm just thinking about getting one
28:52
because it sounds like a good you know we had we just got rid of our Christmas tree and now there's a space in the
28:57
living room room and I'm like I don't like Christmas all that much but I liked having a tree up and now there's no tree
29:03
and like what is my cat going to get into I was about to say your animals would be absolutely delighted instead of
29:08
you know breakable glass ornaments you have skulls my cats would be my cat would be thrilled he would be he the
29:14
thing is is that he's scared of his own shadow but he also likes to cause Mayhem so he would jump into that tree
29:19
immediately be afraid jump out of the tree knock the tree over heads everywhere I'm I'm positive he would do
29:24
that in his first day anyway though we should actually talk a little bit about some of the stuff going on um there's
29:30
The Whispers that detri you know Whispers gives they're going to be more powerful essentially there's better
29:36
rewards for some of them as part of this the Armory is apparently um they're
29:41
they're updating it or it's in is it not in yet I no it's not in yet it'll be in next week and this should work very
29:48
similarly to the Diablo II one with a few like you know the way the Paragon
29:54
system works is different between the two games so there's going to be a little like aesthetic difference but
29:59
functionally it behaves the same yeah there's also going to be the welcome back boosters um class Quest updates and
30:07
the greater aex update uh I'm that's all nice uh the welcome back booster they
30:13
already have so I don't know yeah if it's going to be better I feel like
30:18
blizzard is just advertising this to remind you please come back and play Diablo 4 yeah which you you guys they've
30:27
never shy about that kind of thing so uh growth in Decay which means there's a poison frog servant you can get I guess
30:34
um I don't know what that means like why do we have a poison frog but I'm not opposed to it I I can at least explain a
30:41
little bit of that which is that a lot of these powers are going to look incredibly familiar I think we talked
30:46
about this when they first announced the seasonal theme and that's uh they are very similar to uh some of the power set
30:55
of the witch doctor in Diablo II despite the fact that I think they're supposed to be different groups The Witches of
31:01
hozar and the tribe the witch doctor uh derives from is supposed to be from
31:07
nantu I think um so you know the power set is going to look a lot like that
31:14
which is one of the reasons why you'll see a legendary power on there that is the panado literal tornado of piranhas
31:22
yeah that's that's one from the witch doctor I you remember that and you know I was happy about it now I'm kind of
31:27
hoping they do this over and over again like the next season will be this season of the Crusader or something and we get
31:32
weird Crusader that would be incredible that would be so incred especially like tying in with the kind of the loose end
31:38
that was the um I can't remember the the burned uh knight from yeah I know Mr
31:45
Mister I've literally you know been defeated in one fight and fallen off the planet uh yeah he's I don't remember I
31:53
don't he is the major bad guy that doesn't even last one fight in vessel of
31:58
hatred which is fine because it's Mesto that's really interesting there um but yeah I know who you're talking abouty
32:03
guy who smokes wood I remember when Joe told me that he's just smoking a piece of wood like really like it's a cigar
32:10
I'm like no look at it it's just a it's just a coal it's a it's a hunk of wood that's on fire so odd so odd you know
32:18
most people when they've been burned um which I don't know if you've ever experienced a large burn on your body I
32:25
haven't since I was a small child it's not a great experience so more power
32:31
yeah more power to you for embracing it but you embraced it in the single creepiest way well that's I mean part of
32:37
the problem is aesthetic as a guy who got third degree burns on both of his legs when he was 15 um yeah burning is
32:45
painful and awful don't do it but also people who get burned on their face generally inhale a lot of smoke yeah and
32:51
burn their lungs and you're not then to do it more he's he's literally inhaling
32:58
burning wood it's not it's not the same yeah but I mean in his mentality he
33:03
survived the burning Hells and came back as the Lone Survivor so he can live through anything this is a deter a
33:09
symbol of how he was chosen to lead the the Church of light into the new tomorrow blah blah blah blah blah blah I
33:17
feel like I'm actually kind of warming up even more to List's idea that he should come back as a villain in some
33:23
season of the Crusader just so we can hit him again I want to hit him again he he he was a jerk he he scared a lot of
33:30
people he chopped off by arm he stabbed you in the back we we are we are literally in the world of Diablo where
33:37
the dead are raised regularly it's fine he will be
33:43
back yeah but there's also more legendaries apparently more uniques so yay for that um more get at least one of
33:50
each I don't really care about the Battle pass things on the bottom here but you know Season Journey which I usually do I just don't do the pass the
33:57
battle CL um so yeah witchcraft Powers I I'm actually really interested to see how many Witch Doctor Powers we get like
34:03
I'm sure they they've got a thing somewhere talking about it but uh actually yeah they do Alli with the coven here they are looking all coveny
34:10
hi guys um they really seriously look there's a picture of three of them standing next to each other they look
34:15
absolutely done with everybody's um Hearthstone um Starcraft minis set for the Great Dark Beyond is coming next
34:21
Tuesday January 21st uh apparently there's going to be a normal version of the mini set for 20 bucks USD that's
34:29
that's pretty normal that there's a standard version of the minis set and then there's a version that is all gold
34:36
where all the cards are golden so you can show off and be fancy and spend more
34:41
money yeah definitely can spend more money yeah but this one this is like an
34:46
ex I should clarify the Starcraft mini set for the Great Dark Beyond is a
34:53
larger mini set this has more cards than a traditional mini set so it will $20 or
34:58
2500 gold for the basic mini set or $8 or
35:03
12,000 gold for the golden mini set and that's that's a lot guys I mean it made
35:10
me think it was a lot when I saw it because it's like that's that's an that's a game that's yeah that is the
35:16
cost that is the cost of a normal expansion maybe a little less than a normal expansion with the fancy bundle
35:23
that was the middleof the road bundle um from vessel of hatred is what that was
35:29
yeah about $80 USD that's that's about right yeah yeah so wow yeah so it's
35:34
that's just a big price tag for a mini and I mean I like the mini sets because
35:40
they are just a single purchase and you can buy them with in-game currency that you just earn by playing the game that
35:47
is awesome but also are this this big price tag this is a this is a sizable
35:55
price tag you can also so the theme of the mini
36:02
set is StarCraft you have all of your Starcraft characters in Hearthstone now
36:07
and if you want to you can choose to just buy like one set if that makes sense like if you just want to play with
36:13
the Zerg you could just buy the zergs for all of the Zerg cards for $10 or
36:20
1,200 gold it's it's a better deal to do the $20 2500 gold and you just get
36:26
everything that's my thinking but and the looks are being rolled out this week right uh this launch is on January 21st
36:33
so that is going to be that's next week so it's very soon it's very soon right but by the time you listen to this uh
36:40
you can probably buy it or you can probably buy it in a couple days so I
36:45
they're cool cards but $80 is that's a that's a large number of doll dues yeah
36:51
that that is that was surprising it's kind of like I went for a second there uh especially since I have to do then do
36:57
the conversion in my head oh God it's even worse when you're in Canada it it is a very cool minis set and it fits
37:04
really well with the space themed Great Dark Beyond expansion that we're currently in so you get you get your
37:11
alien Zerg cards you get your high-tech protos cards which fit really really
37:18
well with the trai and you get your tan cards which are a lot of robots uh the
37:23
previews we've shown have shown off a lot of mechs so that's going to fit in really nicely with a lot of decks I
37:30
think all the cards look really interesting I think it's good I'm just kind of whoo about the high price of the
37:36
all golden mini set but uh next thing to move on to is um since we've pretty much
37:41
covered all the basic blizzard stuff that we had uh lizard put a thing in here about agdq which we talked about
37:47
briefly on the pre-show um that's awesome Games Done Quick uh which is essentially for charity right this year
37:53
was prevents Cancer Foundation uh yes it's for different charities every year
37:58
and uh yes it just wrapped up and it was super fun they're all super fun I mean
38:04
that's that's not surprised I am amazed that somebody decided to do ay in the blind Forest not that that's they're G
38:10
play they're gonna play everything at hdq well yeah there's the turock one and
38:16
the mighty morph from Power Rangers one that that those aren't surprises to me I don't know why ay is um I think it's
38:21
because ory is really I don't know I feels like it's kind of a game that either you know about it and love it I
38:27
love watching it I don't love playing it but there are a there are a lot of obscure games in agdq Joe did you I know
38:36
you were watching it did you have any favorites this year any favorite
38:41
streams we got like 10 I I have there there's a there's a couple that really stood out to me that I really enjoyed uh
38:47
one was bullets per minute uh BPM it's a game that I really really enjoy uh that
38:52
I was really happy to see showcase because I love Rhythm games and a rhythm FP has shooter I've talked about this
38:58
before on the podcast like I love this game absolutely just astonishing uh the
39:05
other one that I absolutely love is Dr dut uh Dr dout plays uh Souls like games
39:10
with an electronic saxophone uh and if you ever watch when of Dr dud stream they will we will also take like
39:18
different audio clips and because it's an electronic saxophone change it so that uh the saxophone will make those
39:25
sounds instead of the normal and at least for this run if you pay attention to it it's literally saying doot so
39:31
every time he he blows through the the mouthpiece and hits a button
39:37
doot absolutely phenomenal uh I love watching alternate controller runs of
39:43
games especially when there's speedruns or or things like that they they get me on like such a a weird level like I'm
39:50
just transfixed by it um and the other one that I was really excited to see
39:55
because it just came out like 6 months ago uh was Super Monkey Ball banana
40:00
Rumble and if you remember Super Monkey Ball from the uh era of like the
40:07
GameCube it's a return to that where it's very quick platforming uh very Twitchy like setups
40:15
that like you launch yourself from across the map and hope that you get it and watching the Precision with which people do that it's phenomenal and it
40:22
reminds me of when like I was in college and we were playing Super Monkey Ball in trying to do that stuff before we even
40:29
knew speedr running was a thing like it was never a thing we're just like how much of this can I skip can I launch my
40:34
monkey into space and maybe hit the goal Sweet let's do this so I was really excited to see that a lot of really
40:41
really really good games uh and phenomenal speeduns throughout the
40:46
entirety of it uh so I and all of them are available on YouTube now uh so if
40:52
you didn't get a chance to watch them live you can go ahead and do so and fun if fun thing they updated website if you
40:58
go to the games done Qui schedule uh right now if you click uh find the one
41:05
you want to watch they have the link directly underneath it for the YouTube video so you don't have to search
41:10
through the playlist at YouTube you can literally go that way if you want to so highly recommended 10 out of 10 go do
41:15
the thing the one that uh really stood out for me was new Super Mario Brothers
41:21
which was new Super Mario Brothers while playing a piano which it was not that he was
41:28
controlling his character with the piano he was just playing piano for an added
41:35
layer of difficulty on top of speed running the game so he had like a weote
41:43
on his head and he would like Bob left and right to like move and yes and he
41:48
had another one under his foot to press buttons so he's he's doing this while
41:53
playing his own soundtrack on piano the whole thing was Flawless it was
41:59
incredible sounds magical did you see the Crazy Taxi one I saw the Crazy Taxi
42:05
one where they were playing Crazy Taxi with a live backing band it was it was a
42:11
little awkward because he was speed running through the levels and it's like every time he got to the end they would
42:16
ruptly stop playing the song and then is starting a new level they would ruptly start again yeah like the uh Phil who
42:23
occasionally joins us on the podcast uh made a tweet uh or a ski or whatever
42:28
they're called now I don't know it's a tweet it's a tweet it it's it's a post on Blue Sky uh that and I I can get 100%
42:36
behind this let's do a ton Hawk Pro Skater 2 speedrun with a live backing band and my response was only if it has
42:44
a full horn section and I want this so badly I want to see a live speedrun with
42:51
a full SCA band with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 being the soundtrack let's go I
42:56
want this so badly give it to me please submit the run for next year I am so so
43:02
sad no one's mentioned squirrel with a gun yet yeah that that was part of the awful block and I think that was at like
43:08
3 or 4 in the morning yeah I've watched the videos I didn't I wasn't watching at the time yeah the entire awful block is
43:16
beautiful and it's a trainer you can't look away Superman 64 guys do you
43:22
remember Superman 64 no of course you don't because any good sane mind or even a crazy mind would have blocked it out
43:29
because it is by far the worst Superman game ever made and that's there aren't
43:34
many good ones I believe they also played it at 20% of the normal screen
43:40
size because they were doing a vote to see which scaling they would play it at and what they did was
43:46
20% so oh yeah there it is yep it's I it's I don't know it's comedic genius
43:52
maybe it's actually better at this very small because at regular size you end up with is all that green fog everywhere
44:00
because supposedly the area is covered in Kryptonite gas and instead at this size you can't tell what's going on
44:06
which is infinitely better while flying through Rings because you have to get through the Rings I remember like the
44:11
vast majority of people who played this game as a kid never made it past the first stage cuz what are you supposed to
44:17
do thanks you can't even see the Rings because of all the green stuff yeah no it's it's terrible so I am amazed at a
44:24
lot of these but I really do love that squirrel with the gun got played cuz man swirl with a gun they got to fill they
44:31
got to fill 24 hours in the day uh I also watched uh Silent Hill the Silent
44:37
Hill 2 remake which Mitch thoroughly recommended so I was watching that in
44:42
the horror block and I have never played Silent Hill 2 I do not really play horror games they aren't very horrible
44:49
in agdq because you're speeding through them but I I was not prepared for how
44:57
weird this was and then you get to the end and there's just a a dog dog wearing
45:04
headphones that you steare it they they did the dog ending that's a hardend to get is the thing they had to do really
45:11
well to get the dog ending do very specific things I watched this and I
45:16
just I did not understand anything and I feel having watched it I now know even
45:22
less about Silent Hill too like I understand less having seen it medis
45:27
effect understood yeah that's the thing about um Silent Hill is a game franchise that
45:33
if you stop to think about it too long um it starts it's almost like trying to
45:38
think about us about a tesseract as a we fourth dimensional object yeah we I mean
45:43
we don't have time to talk about the the intricacies of Silent Hill we can one day because I have thoughts I I think I
45:48
have a dissertation I can I recite about the the games Okay um at this point therefore I think Liz now you can
45:55
finally talk about that oh no we have questions we can ask you do a couple questions here uh yeah I just want to
46:00
start off talking about blizzard watch is made possible by patreon supporters and we are still trying to hold the line
46:07
at about $4,000 a month we are a little under that if anyone is able to support us financially we love you thank you so
46:15
much you make this site possible I did want to thank Nathan this week who upgraded his pledge to $5 a month that
46:23
gives you early access to these podcasts and also Al an ads free site experience
46:28
so it's pretty great if you love the podcast you can get it without ads you can get a little early you can get our
46:33
pre-show for the blizzard W podcast which is always a little random always a surprise so thank you all for uh for
46:41
listening supporting us if you can and also I want to remind you all to if you like our tabletop games to subscribe to
46:47
the tavern watch podcast feed it's on its own podcast feed now so it's very important that if you like that stuff
46:54
you go and subscribe to it it should be on all of your podcast players of choice right now so hop over and do that we
47:01
just finished our game of cintai and Sensibility thirdd episode just went out so you can go and enjoy all of that and
47:09
I believe we're going to have our starfinder game starting this week and
47:14
uh hopefully even more for you to enjoy so subscribe to that if you are interested thank you so much thank you
47:21
for your support everyone okay I'm going to do some of these questions so we actually get a chance to talk about some things um
47:27
this one as known I don't really have a a dog in the fight so I'm really excited to ask it uh this is from daiju I'm
47:34
still not on board with removing pets from mm if we're supposed to be ranged Killers how do we keep our Target at
47:41
rang when solo somebody who plays a hunter a lot please talk well so back in ye olden days we did this thing called
47:48
kiting um and it was a core mechanic that you had to do in order to get your epic bow and it was the only so in all
47:56
honestly like it's one of those things where I understand people talk about this all the time but Marksman hunters for me have always been sort of a sniper
48:03
analog and back in the original days of vanilla wow uh and I see you in in chat
48:10
uh da Kaiju and I agree with you but bear with me hang hang out with me here while I go on this ride um in the
48:17
original days while certain things did kind of they they were bad um you were
48:23
essentially in a a moment where you could if you are a night off Hunter the the One-Shot sniper kill how many times
48:29
did you stealth aim shot completely One Tap anything below plate armor at Epic
48:35
gear right and there's always this fantasy with Marksman at least in my brain uh that it's one of those things
48:42
where it it could lean further into that sort of sniper mentality hit and move
48:48
don't be seen hit and move don't be seen hit and move don't be seen I understand that a pets are sort of integral to the
48:56
the class as far as a whole believe me I've been playing Hunter for as long as since vanilla um but you there are
49:05
plenty of ways to justify not having one as Marksman not everybody is going to be
49:11
happy about it not everybody is going to enjoy it uh but I mean in current day
49:16
and even in historical snipers didn't have pets to keep people at Bay either and they still did it there's plenty of
49:23
historical documents and texts about uh you know sniping archers that did exactly this type of thing uh where you
49:30
know they would hit move hit move and and and stuff like that it's again it's
49:36
one of those things where I understand where people are coming from from it I don't like when things get taken away from classes most of the time but I
49:42
think I think it's easily justifiable in context of everything else I think if we
49:47
um and this this is you know now kind of become the older model um if they were
49:54
trying to tie it into a clear class fantasy that may have been uh embraced a
50:01
little more than it no we're taking a thing away I have I I foolishly have
50:08
hope let let's be honest and we we I think we're all guilty of this or at least all every single one of us when
50:15
they take stuff out of game we have a visceral reaction to it especially if it's been there forever and I think what this honestly is is them trying to find
50:22
a way to make the three specs feel distinctly different which to be honest
50:28
for a very long time they didn't until they made survival a melee spec survival
50:33
just felt like worse Marksman for a lot of ways um Marksman felt like Beast
50:38
Mastery with less Beast uh so like I understand that they're trying to give that unique feature this reminds me a
50:44
lot of 25% less beast in your Beast Master yeah but this reminds me a lot of when they were doing this with Mages
50:50
right because Mages and and warlocks even their specs had so much bleed over
50:56
that it was really like they weren't just a frost Mage they were a frost Mage Throwing Fire uh or they were a fire
51:02
Mage throwing Frost bolts and there's still a little bit of that but when they rebalanced everything and removed
51:08
everything around they tried to lean heavier into the individual stuff like that um I mean heck I still know that
51:14
there are people that are are still salty about uh demon Hunters getting metamorphosis and a bunch of other stuff
51:20
that uh uh was traditionally warlock uh adjacent right it was warlock core
51:26
ability so I I get what they're trying to do I just don't know that you do it and are
51:32
able to make everybody happy I think I'd like to see it like personally cuz I'm
51:37
absolutely wretched at Marksman um I actually weirdly enjoy survival but uh I
51:45
would like to see it as every time says that I get a kickback by the
51:50
way I would like to see it as a passive call kind of thing like like you don't
51:58
control the pet but you still have a pet there because I think of Hunter as a pet
52:04
class like I think of warlock as a pet class so it's it's a little disorienting
52:10
to me to take that away like I said no dog in the fight Liz do you have an
52:15
opinion no I don't really play Hunters okay we've got time for one more um what
52:23
object this is from tsami by the way hi tmii ask us a lot of questions uh what object event in slor NPC needs
52:31
to just go away and never be come on go away anous C I can't read this wow okay
52:36
need to never be I can't tell what what this line is because there's a thing there never be heard from again okay
52:41
goof the one that gives you the Grimace face whenever it comes up so does anyone get the Grimace face from anything like
52:48
that in this game citizens of Dollar on Turn Your Eyes to the Sky I was going to
52:53
point to somebody else but Joe just leftt out of there so I think found Joe I couldn't resist I'm sorry that's
52:59
immediately what I think of with that like I I could never hear that again and I'll be a happy camper okay uh Joe
53:04
doesn't want uh a dead guy to yell anymore in a dead City about a thing
53:09
that's been yeah I mean technically I think I've already got my wish so I'm good uh Liz P oh this is this is a
53:19
complicated one because my first thought was I would and I know there are a lot
53:24
of Gamers that find these hilarious I would like to never do another searching
53:29
through the poop Quest ever I was nodding my head the whole time because I knew that's what it was going to be and
53:34
I'm like yeah thank you uh but I would also do so uh similar to what Joe said I
53:43
would do away with the global announcements because yeah it's a bit
53:48
much at a at a certain point in Dragon flight I you know I was thrilled I was
53:54
thrilled for all the evokers after about the 55th time I wanted I wanted to claw
54:02
someone's eyes out I found it so annoying hey Liz doesn't like Global announcements uh and the I has melted
54:09
totally has melted the iceone has melted I'm sorry yeah uh you know matter Liz I
54:18
guess if she's antimatter matter Li uh anything comes to mind I mean on the
54:23
subject of global announcements is Blizzard ever going to get rid of that thing where when you log on it lists a
54:29
whole bunch of new titles that you just earned and it also does that the next
54:34
time you logged on and the next time you log on and the next time you log on and occasionally changes your achievement
54:40
dates yeah I assume I assume it's a bug this this theice around for a while at
54:46
this point this is the price we pay for our functional yoger on I don't has anyone on do we know yesterday it's
54:53
still working it's working as expected okay okay I'll take your word for it um
55:00
really really the one character that I could deal with never Mee again is gash and I'm I'm hopeful that we are now
55:07
never meeting him again I dearly hope we never meet him again it it just got that
55:13
got old that I mean I'm pretty I'm pretty sure his Force ghost is even dead I think we're good there yeah I hope so
55:18
but you know this is like comic book logic if they want someone to come back they can invent a way so I just I hope
55:25
they so we Chang we change gash's name to Uncle Ben and then he can never come back Uncle Ben comes back
55:32
Matt anyway um I I was just thinking about what I would say to this and I'm
55:41
not sure if this is something anybody else would care about like I I think maybe I'm the only one that cares about
55:48
this particular thing being in the game but I straight up I don't ever want to
55:55
see an escort Quest again until they' come up with a way to make escort quests
56:00
not the worst thing in the universe cuz I've I even with the modern game with like much better Ai and a much better
56:07
still you're on an escort Quest and people immediately run face first into their deaths and I'm I'm done please
56:15
don't ever put me on one of these things again and don't it you can say but they've changed the game so much even
56:21
the ones they introduced later like the cataclysm one with the two Bros and the the wagon still constantly why is he
56:29
over there why is she over there why are there monsters everywhere eating both of them I can't save both of them why did
56:35
they break why did they split up I have no idea why that happened so yeah escort quests they can just be done and and I
56:42
can never see them again and I'll be perfectly happy yeah if you get trapped if you get trapped in a place and I come in to save you you just vanish you're
56:50
like thank you for letting me out of the cage poof that's that's what that's what I want you don't want quirky anymore
56:55
come on Jo I'm just glad you brought up corki
57:02
why would you do this to me yeah I'm gonna go cry now you guys finish up the show I'm I'm just glad to never have to
57:10
escort Marshall wior around ever again oh my God never again never Marshall
57:15
Windsor really wanted to die oh my word that guy we had to bring a raid group in
57:22
one point to keep Marshall Windsor from dying because this new guy had joined the guild and he was like I can't keep
57:27
Marshall Windsor alive and next thing I know there's like eight people in there just murdering everything and Marshall
57:32
Windsor still got killed like how did he get killed what killed him there's nothing left alive in this place
57:39
sometimes NPCs pray for death other times they actively run towards it I
57:44
think at this point though we are pretty much done with the show uh Liz you already handled the site announcement
57:49
stuff right uh we we might want to say another Advantage you get is being able to ask us questions we do take questions
57:56
from everybody we are very happy if you leave us a question in the Discord q and
58:02
podcast questions Channel but if you are a patreon supporter you can also leave us a question in the patreon Q and
58:09
podcast Discord Channel and we we do give a little bit of preference to our
58:14
supporters you can also leave us questions on patreon itself you can leave a question on any of our podcast
58:20
post and we will see it and we are very happy to take your questions thank you so much for your support at this point
58:27
Joe you don't have to do your thing do you no I don't Liz already did it for me sweet so yeah this has been the blizzard
58:33
W podcast Joe gets to sit over there making me feel bad about corki for some more I cannot believe you mentioned
58:39
corki uh I'm gonna thank Liz and Liz to
58:45
um both I gotta come I gotta come up with better names Liz and Liz too thank
58:50
you both for being here uh Joe thank you for the nightmares you've given me and everyone who's here with us uh thank you
58:56
for allowing us to have a podcast at all this has Ben the blizz watch podcast and we'll be back hopefully next week
59:02
[Music]
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