Up next in 10
Join us as we discuss the controversial upcoming rework of Marksmanship Hunters that removes pets, the Goblin/casino/mecha T-Rex themed preview of WoW patch 11.1 coming early next year, the new updates to this year’s Winter Veil event, and the discovery of garden gnome cosmetics for when you need to be deadly, yet whimsical.
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[Music]
0:09
hey everybody uh welcome to the Blizzard watch podcast this is our Christmas is
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in two days so we got to get a podcast done so let's just go go go uh Edition and uh with me this week are two of the
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Fantastic co-hosts we could see Corey is proving he's a recurring cast member by not being here but we still have Liz
0:30
Harper and Joe Perez hi guys hello hello hello and uh we got a fair amount to
0:37
talk about actually a lot of it World of Warcraft related um but first Liz uh you want to mention some patreon changes uh
0:44
yes well not really changes I just here to remind you that blizzard watch is made possible by listeners like you and
0:52
I know I have been harping on this recently that we are kind of hovering around $3,900 and we'd like to be at
0:59
around $4,000 on patreon and you guys may be thinking okay Liz you keep saying
1:05
you're at $3,900 a month and you keep reading out new patreon subscribers what's up with that math and well the
1:12
thing is I celebrate our new subscribers but people also unsubscribe or they
1:17
downgrade their subscription it happens you know maybe in the end of the month your credit card changes and the payment
1:24
doesn't go through or you uh you know it's the holidays maybe you don't have the spare cash I totally understand it
1:31
but uh you know every every week we get a couple of new subscribers and we kind of lose a couple of subscribers or
1:37
downgrade a couple of subscribers so we're still hovering uh when I just checked it was
1:44
$3,919 and we're still trying to get to that 4,000 is kind of our our happy
1:49
place I know that's not a lot but that's just kind of that's the Line in the Sand there that we're trying to reach I do
1:55
want to thank Carnage for subscribing this week at $8 a month and Joshua for
2:01
subscribing $5 a month both of y'all are getting uh ads free on the site which is
2:06
great as well as getting these podcasts early and with a bonus pre-show content
2:11
at the beginning though we because is the holidays we have skipped the pre-show this week we might end up doing
2:16
a post show that's longer than normal because we have a ton of games besides besides blizzard ones to talk about or
2:22
you know that could just be the show so if you can support us financially that's
2:28
great go to Blizzard w why do I always get this wrong go to
2:33
patreon.com blizzardwatch and any amount helps and if you can't I get it I get it
2:40
uh but we uh subscribing to the show helps a lot uh we appreciate your moral
2:45
support and we appreciate you listening so thank you so much for being here yep
2:51
uh okay so let's move on to the oh we should mention the new podcast feed Liz oh wow I am already messing this up I'm
2:59
I uh those of you who have been listeners for a while know that sometimes we have a podcast called
3:05
Tavern watch and that has always gone out on the blizzard watch or lore watch feeds depending on what it is and kind
3:12
of uh our back and forth decision on where it belongs that is now getting its
3:18
own feed you should be able to search in your podcast player or Tavern watch and
3:23
find us except it is not up on Apple podcast yet we're working on that yeah
3:29
apparently Apple has changed how it handles podcasts in the last decade when
3:35
we last set up a new podcast so we're we're figuring that out right now it should be up I hope it'll be up soon but
3:43
s if you want to hear more of us talking about tabletop you should search for Tavern watch in your podcast player or
3:49
on Spotify and you will get all of our new episodes I am planning to upd upload
3:55
the first episode of a new tabletop game we've been playing and uh I hope you all
4:00
enjoy it so subscribe to Tavern watch if you want to listen to that it's going to be so fun so thank you very much okay
4:09
now we'll move on to talking about various things because there's a bit Fair chunk to bit to talk about wow what
4:15
the heck was that um first up in modern wow or creil wow or whatever people call
4:20
it um new festive raid bosses in um narbar Palace uh Liz has made sure to
4:26
tell me that no none of these bosses are as fested as razag goth with the uh the hat and
4:33
the tiny tiny tiny wreath in the tiny arms uh if you don't remember last year
4:38
and and still right if you went and did razag right now if you yeah but I there's a lower volume of Raz now yeah
4:45
so regardless if you still feel it going she's still got the Hat she's still got the wreath she's still very into this
4:51
holiday that she's never heard of and has no idea what it's about doesn't care winter Veil whatever give me the hat and
4:57
that's what's happened and honestly where did they get these hats did someone does someone come through
5:03
selling hats to raid bosses what is going on I believe that there's a dark figure who steps out of a misty corner
5:09
and just simply says and then they just take them is it
5:15
zotth is zotth running around in the shadows giving people hats because she kind of seems behind everything she's
5:21
too cre she's too like I want to say like socially she's socially awkward but in a different way like she's she's very
5:27
she's almost too charismatic and people would be like wow you're charismatic I don't trust you um but I think it's very
5:34
much like like zalot the axe desecrated image of Gorel it turns out it got out
5:39
of that too and now it's possessed a body but it just you know it's just selling hats but regardless I want to
5:45
mention that we've got um in Prior of the sacred flame you've got prioress mer pre so uh um if you want to get a hat
5:53
there's a hat on that one uh speaker Shadow crown on the dawn breaker also
5:58
has a hat uh Bank Buzby in Cinder break metery hat and sran in Nar Palace but
6:07
also apparently brw brood twist brood twister uh yeah I cannot read this word
6:12
brood twister over ax has given little hats to the worm eggs like all the little worms have hats well at least
6:17
some of them do that that does kind of compete with razag gath but it's just
6:23
ragath holding that wreath in her tiny tiny arms cracks me up each time it's
6:28
the thing it's a between cute and also somewhat cute and pathetic like like the
6:34
worm eggs just wearing hats it's whatever that they're not they're not clutching that wreath as tight as they
6:39
can in their minuscule little arms and just seem really thrilled with the entire concept uh but we've got Nexus
6:46
Princess kvesa uh she's in the Queen's bedroom and she's apparently got some kind of surprise uh it looks pretty like
6:53
a she's Christmas oriented I mean winter Veil my apologies uh what else we got here oh yeah Queen on
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yep definitely got a winter Veil hat on she actually does look somewhat festive it's weird the ovx eggs are really the
7:06
topper though you really think so yeah they're eggs with Hats I do how I just
7:12
want to make sure that everyone agrees yeah yeah I think but I don't think aenx also has kind of weird tiny arms I don't
7:20
think has any yeah like are like a bunch of wreaths and handy canes it could have
7:27
been a whole thing but I do appreciate the vast number of hats that ovx has
7:33
decorated the room with and one on their own self they're also wearing a hat which the the real question is you know
7:41
ovenex has tiny arms how do you get that hat on your head I can see ovenex going around and putting them on the eggs but
7:48
the head I don't know pre mouth oh I was going to say I was actually going to suggest that they just throw the Hat up
7:54
in the air and try and catch it with their back spikes um but regardless I
8:00
also want to mention although he's listed so we already mentioned him briefly but sikon uh I don't know how
8:05
that's pronounced but syron's got his hat and he looks very very in imp he
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looks like he does not want you to take his hat I I think that's the best way to put it he likes this hat he's keeping
8:19
this hat and he will unleash horrible violence against anybody who tries to take the Hat thus proving that sikan
8:24
does not understand the season at all but regardless he he likes his it also looks slightly oversized like it's about
8:31
to fall down his face I wow needs more of this more holiday decorations on raid
8:38
bosses because it it's great this great they need to do more wreaths like like
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you could have another one that's I was just thinking about this you could do a twin amps fight where one of them has a wreath just across their chest like a
8:51
Bandelier like just seriously guys more wreaths I think wreaths would be great um before we talk about I don't want to
8:58
get sidetracked too much into talking about hats on I I know it's so easy it's so easy to get sidetracked though we
9:03
should mention this the citrine drops and so forth for patch 11.7 um you say somebody talk about the
9:11
bugged gem dropping conundrum I I don't know if I'm the right person for it but
9:16
we'll still talk about it I'm here I I think unfortunately I was hoping Phil would be here to talk about this but I
9:22
now we have to talk about it ourselves it's the hot fix has apparently gone out as of um this is of three days ago this
9:30
week yeah um so I mean the thing is you go to the siren aisle and you can get
9:36
this new ring sery ciret seriously ciret is powered up by getting gem drops
9:41
across the aisles and apparently some of the some of the events there have been
9:48
bugged and things do not always drop the gems they are supposed to it has frankly
9:54
been such a big thing I've been like I'm just washing my hands upon this and I'll try again after the holidays uh but
10:01
another thing is that the gem drops were time gated and so you had the thing that
10:06
like each week there would be a different kind of invasion on the siren Isles from a different type of mob and
10:13
blizzard was kind of like theming it which sounds really cool it's like okay this week this Mo this kind of mob is
10:19
invading so this kind of gem is going to drop and next week this kind of mob is invading so this other type of gem is
10:25
going to drop except the problem with that is that you aren't getting the gyms
10:32
you want it's like this week is just this gym this week is just that gym so the ring has been really like a little
10:40
extra underpowered this week Wowhead was saying that it is with the week one gems
10:46
it was the equivalent of a 575 ring and
10:52
not great not great and uh just to make sure people know this that's a drop of like um 60 Seven Levels like from four
11:01
from 642 down to 575 in terms of its power that means you're underperforming by like almost like 70 something item
11:08
level yeah it's it's a little sad right now so blizzard removed the time gating
11:14
from the gyms so all gems can now drop so you can get the gems that you want uh
11:20
but from my understanding it's still kind of buggy hopefully by the time everyone listens to this everything will
11:26
be great except it's also the holidays so yeah I don't I don't know I don't know yeah I mean there's always the
11:33
possibility that we won't see they've already said they've hot fixed it and they've put in the new the the new cycle
11:39
of getting gems whenever you need them I'm going to read the specific thing the gems belonging to the goblins arrai and
11:44
earthin should come from doing events on the aisle that are started at the siren Isle command map after getting these
11:51
once you'll be able to buy them and store them in your War Bank uh for your alts as usual the gems that belong to
11:57
enemy faction should now be purchased purchasable uh from Talon I think talori
12:02
talori that's the torlan vendor sitting on the large Rock behind Bargas so this
12:09
is the system that's instead of the citrines coming from just the theme of
12:15
it and it's a rotating basis and you just have to wait for the specific one now they should just be available period
12:22
um so that's a slight it's a good change it's a nice quality of life Improvement yeah we we'll see how well it actually
12:27
ends up working out for people but uh I certainly think it's better than waiting and waiting and waiting until you get
12:33
the drop you need um so yeah that's that's something uh I I really this ring
12:40
the problem with this ring is the same problem we had last expansion with the similar ring uhhuh and I feel like in
12:47
general these these things they're doing with these kind of items first off the fact that they're always Rings uh that's
12:52
just weird but also the fact that it's it's dependent on drops so in order for you to the ring up
13:00
to where it's actually good you need to get you know certain gems to drop for it
13:06
what was it for the last time it wasn't gems was it it was gems it was gems it
13:11
was gems I feel like this this reminds me of going all the way back to mechagon with the like the trinket that you had
13:17
the punch cards that you put into it yeah it's just like these kind of things I get where you're going for you're
13:22
trying to give people customization options but I'm not seeing any customization I'm seeing people get mad
13:28
because they can't get the gem that's the best for what they need uh so yeah I that's how it turns out Joe go
13:36
ahead no you Joe I like the fact that it's transmog I kind of hate everything
13:42
else about it I'm not gonna lie um and and it's just not for me like it's I
13:48
don't like this type of item I don't like this type of itemization I don't like this this type of thing in general
13:54
I hated it last TI this one at least feels a little more
13:59
so I'm not going to say I hate it I'm just going to say that I don't like it um it's wildly boring is really the best
14:08
way that I can put it to me oh I get a gem that if I'm a Healer because that's what I do oh guarant me a secondary stat
14:14
great everything else already does that cool it's a lot of your secondary stat cool thanks I appreciate that uh or
14:20
maybe the next one is your spells and abilities have a chance to bathe an ally in restorative water that jumps to two nearby allies restores X Health uh to
14:27
each of them I'm a common I already do that so this is like okay cool free extra healing maybe we'll see if it's
14:35
smart and actually goes to people that need it as opposed to overheal time will tell uh and then like what is it I think
14:40
the other one that they say is like best in slot for like Resto Shaman is uh the skipper of citrine where your spells and
14:47
abilities have a chance to cast a random singing citrine effect at 150% Effectiveness these are boring to me
14:53
these are just stat procs we already that that's all our trinkets have been doing this entire expansion are stat
14:59
procs so why do I care about a ring that's a stat proc again and the other
15:05
thing that I hate about it is variance and I'm trying to think out of phrases I'm not trying to be too negative
15:11
because again I know some people really love this and it's working out really well for some DPS classes but because
15:17
it's a proc it's never truly 100% consistent and the length of a fight and
15:23
the number of spells you cast will always vary how often that ring procs
15:29
and yes there's an average but if I have less Mana or my stuff costs more which
15:35
in a lot of cases it does than another healer and they get more cast off theirs is very likely to proc more often which
15:43
means now I fall further behind which means I feel worse about the job that I'm doing I I don't like random procs in
15:52
general I I I there's because there's no way to make them consistent it becomes
15:58
annoying to me and again I I'm not trying to take anything away I know that they've worked really hard I actually really like the island in general I
16:05
think it's really really cool I think there's a lot of really rad lore stuff that is hinted at in it uh I think
16:11
there's a lot of cool things that happen there but the ring is just it's underwhelming I would have rather
16:16
personally not had an item to farm and not had gems to farm and just waited for
16:22
the next tier of raid and gotten something from the next tier of raid but that's just me so that's my two cents I
16:28
will we shut up now and let people talk about happier stuff I apologize you don't to apologize for having an opinion
16:34
that's kind of what the show's for um that's why we're here uh Del do you have anything else do you want to say about it before we move on no I Joe really
16:41
covered it it's we're we're playing the same song over and over again right now
16:46
and it's yeah does okay then we're gonna move on to the patch notes but we're not
16:52
going to bother to try to read all the Pion notes I am gonna ask so many what who here feels like they have an
16:58
understanding of Drive d i what is this is this like the equivalent of like like
17:05
Dragon riding was last expansion it's Dragon riding for cars yeah so now you you can take cars it's kind of like
17:12
Mario Kart it's Mario Carden wow uh with faster speed because it actually go
17:18
faster than it can go faster than Dragon R yes uh I do need to point out that
17:23
drive stands for dynamic and revolutionary improvements to vehicular
17:29
experiences so I mean you can just it's a goblin thing you can just see that and
17:35
uh yes at maximum speed it will be faster than skywriting and there will also be races in undermine that you can
17:44
do and the blizzard has talked about how you know undermine is designed for
17:50
driving and apparently driving really fast like faster than skywriting that is
17:57
so fast skywriting is already so fast um it's GNA be a lot of
18:02
people yeah like me me hitting walls all the time that's you're going to see a
18:08
streamer breaking out like the the Logitech steering wheel with the pedals and figuring out how to map everything
18:14
and going ham on the races like that's what's going to happen I'm calling it now mhm and you can uh customize your
18:22
customize your car so that maybe you have better handling maybe you go faster so to hit that maximum speed you'll
18:28
probably have to optimize for going fast uh personally I would rather go slower
18:35
and be able to like steer better yeah those are words you you want to know what this is and nobody's talking about
18:42
it and it makes me really upset that nobody's talking about this this is rock and roll racing that's all this
18:48
is like literally go back and look at the customization for like 2002 rock and
18:54
roll racing because I think that's when it released might have been earlier than that um but it was on the Super Nintendo
19:00
but like that was the thing like they're talking about oh you want to accelerate faster you might have to sacrifice some top speed maybe a little bit of handling
19:06
it's not bad and I want to make sure that I'm being clear about this I don't this is not me disliking it I just think
19:12
it's funny that nobody's connected that dot yet that this is literally Rock and Roll Racing being put into wow which is
19:19
hilarious 1993 Joe I'm dust I'm
19:25
dust just you know you you pulled out the times so that was 1993 it came out
19:31
to the to Genesis in 1994 so it's possible that people playing Wow have
19:37
never even heard of this yeah but I mean seriously Rock and Roll Racing came out
19:42
so long ago that it's 10 years older than wow 11 years older than wow so yeah
19:49
now if if there's a racetrack announcer on the courses named Larry I will be
19:56
Vindicated because it'll be one to one at the Point you'll be Vindicated anyway man I'm not going to argue with you about it I'm just saying the reason that
20:02
you and I might recognize it while other people might not is because we ancient yes uh however there's also other things
20:09
to talk about um for instance many there's the liberation of undermine which is a RAID uh if you've been
20:15
wondering what's been up with gwick this whole time uh apparently started himself
20:21
a casino uh and and he hidden it uh I don't remember if the gaggio was in
20:28
undermine if you started playing a no a goblin back in you never you never went into the undermine back then yeah so I
20:36
we just stayed on top of the area top of it right yeah we were just on top and he referred to his Casino so I think
20:42
they've they've referenced it we've just never seen it now you will get to see it as you attempt to fight your way through
20:48
people with names like and I'm going to read as many of these as I can uh vexi and the gear Grinders which sounds less
20:54
like a boss and wow and more like a album someone might have released going to be a 50 super group of goblins
21:00
singing it's been a while since we've had a musical boss cauldrons of Carnage Rick Reverb sticks bun chunk bunk junker
21:09
bunk junker I like that's gota that that's got to not be bun um sprocket Monger
21:16
lock andstock the one-armed Bandit I am positive that's going to be some kind of reference to a slot machine boss mugy
21:24
head of security heads of security so it's likely got two heads and chrome
21:29
chrome King gwick I want to know what Chrome King gwick is all about so I mean
21:35
I'm guessing it has to do with racing because everything is racing themed and I mean looking at this like you know Rick Reverb sticks bunk junker sprocket
21:43
Monger lock and stock like these all sound like racing things uh then you have the casino stuff like the one armed
21:49
Bandit which I think I agree with uh the vexi and the gear grinder sounds like a show that you'd see at the Bellagio I
21:55
don't know what cauldron of Carnage is but I'm guessing it's a destruction Derby well I not go ahead Okay Cauldron
22:01
of Carnage there is a gorilla and a mechanical Tyrannosaurus fighting and
22:09
that's all I have it's I think it is literally like a a battle arena for the
22:15
amusement of patrons meagon fighting ring got it I'm just hoping at some point a a goblin girl with extremely
22:22
long red hair kills the robot uh T-Rex just just that's my thing I I want to
22:28
say that yeah I mean it's it's definitely interesting and I'm really curious to see how it goes also I'm just really
22:34
happy I get to punch gwick in the face like I yeah I I have been waiting for
22:39
that for years but I'm I'm curious and the fact that it only has one two three
22:44
four five six seven only eight bosses not a bad thing I'm actually pretty okay with that yeah I think in general it's
22:51
okay to have less bosses or even in some cases to have like like different raids
22:57
with a few bosses rather than have one big raid with like 12 bosses um I think in this case a lot of the a lot of the
23:04
the the the idea of having you know a huge raid with a lot of bosses it's
23:09
moved in instead towards they're having this raid and then having the dungeon which which has four bosses um so the
23:16
there's the operations floodgates dungeon which is basically the dark fuse and Venture company are trying to blow
23:21
up a dam and I don't know why they're doing that but they are well they want to they want to flood the ringing deeps
23:28
yeah why no because they want to make a new resort that's that's like a whole thing okay regardless you've got um four
23:35
bosses in that thing um I'm just gonna mention big mama with it's m o m ma a
23:40
was like you know so it's an acronym for something Swan face has to be a Swamp Thing analog or yeah yeah probably but
23:48
regardless so there's another bunch of bosses there too and there's the cage of Carnage is Arena PVP apparently no it
23:54
just says Arena it does not say Arena PVP no no it is uh that is a new uh PVP
24:00
Arena it's uh very small compact without much in the way of obstacles just some
24:06
platforms so that's really just get in and go kind of a PVP Arena okay so there
24:11
were also bunch of class changes um nothing here is like immediately jumping out at me that I would feel the need to
24:18
talk about it but if either of you have anything you want to talk about that's cool it's it's a lot of the constant um
24:25
class tuning we're seeing although I will say one thing that I think of note is that Warriors are currently not happy
24:32
um prop Warriors in particular uh because there is a massive uh adjustment
24:37
to how rage is generated uh so prop warriors were heralded as one of the
24:44
high like APM or action per minute like tank classes uh where you can always
24:50
cycle through your abilities you could do whatever you needed to do kind of like how it used to be in the Glory Days um but now they're looking at like
24:57
they're lowering the uh the rage generation and people are already planning on Switching uh Mains
25:03
or going to DPS now uh just because and I think it's because it was overperforming a little bit on rage
25:09
generation and I think they're overcorrecting too hard we'll see how it works out in the end but I've I've heard
25:15
a lot of people I work with a lot of nerds that play the game hi nerds um and
25:20
like I literally walked into a meeting today where three of them were complaining about this cuz they all play
25:26
prop Warrior Mains I mean we do have to remember that we have patch notes for 11.1 but it's not even on the PTR um
25:35
apparently there is a PTR buildup but it's not live wowhead's been doing some data mining but this is like this is a
25:42
first draft we could still see changes happening here so my thoughts would be if you see something you don't like
25:48
don't panic go to the forums and leave your feedback and uh blizzard has shown I think a lot more willingness to make
25:55
changes based on player feedback than they have in the past yeah one thing I was sorry one thing that I did want to
26:01
note real quick is Shaman are also very upset because ancestral guidance is being removed at least according to the notes which uh that's a major cool down
26:08
there folks what are you doing don't make me sad please don't make me sad all right you can go ahead I will say one of
26:15
uh one of the big changes going around has been uh augmentation of evokers no longer being able to buff tanks and
26:22
healers which I think has been really over advertised like I heard a lot of
26:28
Panic about this initially uh but what's really happening is that they cannot cast eban might on tanks or healers that
26:36
is a little downgrade that this uh this that's kind of that's kind of our big
26:41
buff uh that's going to going to have a little impact on tanks and healers
26:46
potentially particularly in Dungeon and Mythic plus content where usually you would hit EB and might and it just
26:52
everyone gets it now your tanks and healers won't get it in raids it should go to more more DPS players which is I
27:00
think that's probably pretty good but you'll still have other Buffs your other
27:05
Buffs can still go on tanks and healers as you desire and um it feels like
27:11
they're getting kind of a baseline power increase like they're shifting a little bit in a little bit more into the evoker
27:19
damage and performance which uh we've seen that going on with augmentation for a while where they're kind of adjusting
27:25
okay how much is the evoker doing and how much are they buffing others it feels like blizzard is still trying to
27:31
just kind of feel out where a support class sits in world Warcraft which is
27:37
understandable right we haven't really had a class like this a spec like this in particular before like this is a new
27:42
territory we're so figuring things out uh absolutely absolutely another change
27:49
that is pretty noteworthy for some of you guys out there is uh Marksmanship Hunters no longer going to have
27:55
pets yeah I think that makes sense though I think it makes sense but I also think
28:01
that from an emotional standpoint that this is people are going to have and
28:08
have had a pretty negative reaction to this like you know imagine you've been playing a hunter for 20 years I have and
28:16
you have your favorite pet yeah you got your favorite pet but now you're playing Marksmanship you don't have your
28:21
favorite pet good news you could always be good news you could always play Beast Master that is true that is true but
28:28
it does kind of focus it does make it so that if you are someone who considers
28:33
their pets a crucial part of your gameplay experience then Marksmanship is not a spec you will be able to play and
28:40
I get that you know on the one hand sure but you can still play the other two but that's not been something hunters have
28:45
gone through I I'm literally like hearing my wife's thoughts in my head right now she's beaming them to me from
28:52
the other room so for myself it's like I don't play hun but there's a there's a I
28:57
think less over between people that want to live the class fantasy and the people that want to maximize DPS uh then that I
29:04
think if people want to live the class fantasy they're more willing to just go ahead and play Beast Mastery and the
29:10
same way that the hunters that wanted to shoot things have just ignored survival for X number of expansions um right like
29:17
and and those were the same people that were complaining that you're ruining my class fantasy CU survival shouldn't be melee and then they just played other
29:24
other versions of the class like I think there's I think for a c ual player I don't think it makes that much of differ
29:30
I'm not I'm not trying to for those of you out there that are upset I I want to say that your feelings are valid and I see you but I think overall I think that
29:38
this kind of makes thematic sense for where Hunters have been going for a while and Marksman in particular has
29:44
been a spec that since they've been reworking it over the course of the last three expansions it's relied so little
29:52
on the pet and in fact rewarded you for not taking the pet uh that it sort of
29:58
has has shifted into the fantasy of you are the patient Hunter SL sniper in the
30:03
trees like waiting for your time to kill versus the action combat of what
30:09
survival is or the Beast Master trying to sit there and summon Cotto and poto and send them at somebody like
30:16
Beastmaster so I I understand that people are going to be upset but I think ultimately it just kind of Falls in line
30:22
with what they were already doing with Marksman hunters for a while now um and
30:27
I said losing pets you kind of have a pet but not in the traditional sense um
30:33
uh so you're losing access to the pets as we know them today but you will be permanently joined in battle by an eagle
30:41
and but the eagle blizzard says permanently in joined in battle but the
30:47
eagle actually shows up kind of when called he might use a certain skill and it will show up and dive bomb your
30:54
enemies or have a chance to proc on something like that so you have this
30:59
still kind of animal companion aspect but a lot less of it I it sounds really
31:08
cool ass does it really is yeah ass son's not there most of the time and
31:13
then you use a skill and suddenly he is there diving on your enemies and that
31:19
frankly that's pretty great that's weird is when you use the skills without davn
31:24
there and he still shows up because you use the magic soless knife like does DAV notice that ass son just vanishes for a
31:31
second it's like what what happened what did Rook make you do sorry this is not about wow I'm moving back but yeah
31:37
random Marksman Shimp Hunter will now have a random Eagle that will appear by their side to destroy their enemies it's
31:45
not bad I'm gonna say I don't this does not sound good to me and I don't like it but I don't play Hunters very often uh
31:51
I'm just looking at Warrior stuff real fast um I get why prop Warriors are mad guys uh once I looked at this really
31:57
serious a lot of the rage stuff it isn't even just yeah like boy okay impenetrable
32:05
wall booming voice oh wow yeah this is this is going
32:11
to if people don't quit prop Warriors to tank on other classes they're they're
32:16
either crazy like me or they just don't care if they can hold aggro properly
32:22
like I I'm straight up gonna say this these these tanks are going to either die constantly or like threat's going to
32:28
just peel off of them if they're spending their rage to keep from dying they will be generating nothing if they
32:34
spend it generating they will die so yeah I this ain't great no no no no the
32:42
ignore pain change is nice uh maybe that will help uh but yeah the the change to
32:47
colossal might's fine and everything else here is fine as far as I can tell at least the arms and fury stuff doesn't
32:53
feel like it will break them those classes there are changes but nothing that feels like those specs will be broken Pro's dead o this is just this is
33:01
Gory when this comes out in the PTR guys get on there test it because if I'm wrong I'd like to know um I I maybe I
33:09
can do that but if it is as bad as I think it is definitely tell blizzard do
33:15
not let this P like let this go live without saying something because
33:20
yikes again this is preview content we've gotten patch notes and nothing
33:26
else the PTR is set to go live sometime in the New Year it's not live yet so there is lots of time to still offer
33:32
feedback test this out see how it plays and get blizzard to tweak stuff that is not working yeah absolutely um but
33:40
regardless as you said those those are the passion hes there's a lot more but like man there's if we tried reading all
33:47
of it it would literally be the entire show no no we should not no so I didn't mention the class set bonuses they're
33:52
going to be Goblin but but you know guys that's we'll wait for them till we have
33:58
something concrete to talk to about them these are just right now they're just on they're just there I mean I we do know a
34:05
fair amount about the class set bonuses which uh are interesting because the
34:11
two-piece class set bonus will be split by roll so there isn't a two-piece for
34:17
Shaman or a two-piece for hunters there is a two-piece for melee DPS a two-piece
34:23
for range DPS a two-piece for healers a two-piece for tanks that every everyone
34:28
will have and then your four piece set bonus is based on your spec not just
34:33
your class even though they did kind of shift per spec they were all the same kind of basic format uh so this is a new
34:42
way of thinking about class sets which is frankly it is kind of interesting um
34:49
and we this is another thing it's such a different way of thinking about this we really have to see how it plays out I
34:56
don't know if it's going to feel very different but it's unusual like they have some list they
35:02
have lists here of what they're going to be but I don't think that there's I don't know so like looking at the you
35:08
know there's specific ones for specific classes like feral the two-piece set
35:13
bonus is the same that other people who are doing M DPS is kind of but then the four pieces about specifically about
35:21
Apex preditor so there's a it's it is kind of hard to wrap your mind around looking at this I'm not used to this but
35:28
but it could be good I don't know and it's it's weird because they I don't
35:34
even know how to approach this because they have Goblin themed things like let
35:40
me just read the augmentation of oin because it's in front of me set bonus you're damaging spells have a chance to hit a jackpot causing an upheaval at
35:48
100% Effectiveness that does not knock enemies up casting breath of EV eons always hits a jackpot so you know what's
35:55
a jackpot this is a kind of buff that we see across classes and jackpot rewards
36:02
different benefits based on the spec with a chance to proc then you have other keywords luck
36:08
of the draw for tanks winning streak for melee DPS and insurance for healers and
36:15
those kind of class effects are the same based on your class role and it's just h
36:22
i I'm I'm interested in seeing how it plays out yeah like a flicker warlocks have the exact same thing with jackpot
36:27
um but yeah I mean it's it is it is the same for all all class types um yeah Shadow
36:36
priests yeah so yeah it basically it's it's it's there um it's just I want I
36:42
really wanted to see people play take it for a run because you know I want to know exactly what they do before I get
36:47
too excited about this but for example Pro's funny because it's like they the lock of the draw thing and then there's
36:55
it does a different thing lock of the draw for a prop Warrior activate Shield
37:00
wall for 4 seconds so which not every class is getting not all tanks are getting that they're but they're all
37:06
getting luck of the draw they get a luck of the draw proc which affects a
37:11
specific spell yeah they're cool down just like just like range range DPS are all getting jackpot which a uh affects a
37:20
specific spell yeah so I I'm not negative about this I just want to see it I want to see it actually get used I
37:27
want to see how does this compare for this class versus that class um because
37:32
they are like they are making them somewhat unique whilst at the same time using the same language the luck of the
37:38
draw thing or what have you whichever one it is for the role you're playing like for example elemental shaman
37:43
jackpot uh Enhancement Shaman it's the same as the uh the what's it called the winning streak wining stre winning
37:50
streak for melee DPS but it it instead it increases the damage of storm strike crash lightning and lava lash which is
37:56
of course not what it does for Rogues so there's going to be it's going to divide like you know how good is the set bonus
38:04
for say like a Combat Rogue versus an Enhancement Shaman there's going to be a lot of discussion about it that that
38:11
currently I can't you know we can't really tell you how good it's going to be or not but it is interesting to see
38:17
this like it's interesting to see when you gain a stack of winning streak the cool down for Doom winds is reduced by
38:24
two seconds so Doom winds is it's a an enhancement ability but
38:29
winning streak is the thing that procs your two-piece so your four-piece bonus is based on your class and specifically
38:36
your spec but it's also based on the two-piece set bonus because your four
38:41
piece isn't active until you get your two-piece when your two-piece procs that's when your four piece starts doing
38:48
stuff I don't know if every class is doing that but it's interesting to see how that works don't that's definitely
38:53
not true for the ones I'm in front of me I do not think that's the case for everybody oh so for enhancement example
38:59
that one ties off uh but not for you well no actually Elemental restoration Shaman also do it uh when you're healing
39:06
cast Healing Rain one Ally in the rain has Insurance applied to them when insurance is consumed your next chain
39:13
heel healing surge or healing wave is increased by 10 per. so yeah it it's
39:18
there's a lot of different mechanical approaches to these I'm actually very interested to see how they end up
39:24
playing out like you mentioned your you mentioned the augmentation of um the preservation of ochre has
39:31
Insurance the same way but verdant Embrace always grants Insurance to you and your target for six seconds and its
39:37
coold down is reduced by four seconds so verdant Embrace could become a much more cast spell I don't I I'm not an evoker
39:44
so I don't know how good Verdin abrace is right now but if it gives Insurance to you and your target every time
39:51
because that's a heal over time for 15 seconds uh you could just keep using it
39:56
and effectively just keep everybody with a rolling hot so that's interesting I I
40:01
don't I don't know how it'll stack up uh we talked about drive already right yeah okay there's delves yeah there are new
40:08
delves excavation s n which is behind the opportunity Point uh in the southern portion of the ringing deeps and Sid
40:15
Street SLO wow SL is not a word I like using uh in the sewers of undermine
40:20
there will also be new variant of goblin thieve delves for the majority of the current the war within delves um do we
40:27
know the new Dell variants are going to be I so in the in the the sort of
40:33
overall arcing theme of it it's going to be Goblin theme that's what we know so far yeah okay that's what I was want I'm
40:38
asking like do we know like if it's going to be like you know what the goblin variation thing is going to be we
40:44
don't know that yet uh I don't know that it's been up on the PTR yet so I don't know that we know no uh but I mean just
40:50
to to kind of kind of go through it real quick there are a lot of changes happening there's going to be a new challenge encounter very much like the
40:57
uh craxi is mod that we had to go hunt down I can never remember his name is like zix or something and then
41:04
everything is going to be looked at for br thank you and brown is g to get uh an
41:09
additional roll now which I think this is the most important part that I want to talk about uh with the delves not just because we're going to get new two
41:15
new delves in the reshuffle he's finally getting a tank roll which is something that I think he should have had from the
41:21
beginning and I'm glad to see that they're listening to player feedback and putting this in because him is PPS he
41:28
couldn't really hold aggro and if you were a fragile class trying to do higher level delves you just kind of exploded
41:36
I'm just loving the fact that his tanking spec is he has a shield and a gun also can we talk about the fact that
41:41
Braun has a Sentry totem yeah I mean you know it's not it's not the original centry totem that wound
41:49
sorry yeah but it doesn't do the cool thing that Sentry totem used to do it just does you know more it doesn't
41:54
matter he still gets it and I don't why I get a Sentry totem well because he stole it I just want to see the sailboat
42:01
man I just want to see the sailboat but he's not a shaman right Ron's not a shaman he's not a shaman he's a hunter
42:07
where's he how is he dropping a totem I don't know he probably stole it from a tomb he stole it yeah exactly he does
42:13
what he wants does wants he stole that thing and now that's why we don't get it but it's fine it's fine but I just still
42:20
think it's cool that we gonna have a shield and a gun because if we're going to be keep going along the line of marksman's don't have like don't have
42:27
pets anymore except for this Eagle that just shows up to do spells like you know hi I'm a budget Assan um I want marksman
42:34
to get specs like talents they can take where they can tank and I want them to be able to tank with a shield and a gun
42:40
I want there to be a shield that they can put on their inventory and just wear for tanking while shooting over the rim
42:46
of it I want we call those breachers yeah I want to see that thing if we
42:52
start getting HS as breachers no I'm out but be able to get higher level Crest in
42:58
delves which you didn't mention which is cool well that's that that's just across the board and that's with all the
43:04
content you're they're going to increase the the tier of Crest that you can get because again it's that whole I don't
43:10
want to say catchup mechanic but it's moving forward with the content and the tier so that I didn't mention it because
43:16
I think it was just kind of something that people will see as you're doing it um yeah I think that's not as important
43:24
okay so then we can move on to the Garden Nome transmon then I was going to say we should probably talk about the season 2 Mythic dungeons a little bit as
43:31
well because that's kind of a big important okay start talking you've stolen my garden gome transmog for me so
43:38
go you can talk about your garden gnome transmog when we're done with this because I think this is what something a lot of players are going to want to be interested in hearing about first of all
43:44
we get our we finally get our season 2 Mythic plus dungeon rotation which is going to be operation Floodgate which is
43:50
one of the new dungeons Cinder Brer The Rookery dark flame CFT prior of the sacred flame the motherload Mecha
43:57
Workshop in the theater of pain that is one heck of a rotation and some of those
44:03
are going to be absolutely nasty I am very curious to see how the mother load's going to get reworked because way
44:10
back in the in the day when it was current uh that thing could punch you like no other dungeon at that at that
44:15
tier uh megagon was also not known for being a walk in the park so seeing those get added in as well as theater of pain
44:23
uh it's going to be a very interesting season um I also o see that there's going to be a new achievement which is
44:29
the war within uh Keystone Legend season 2 uh which is going to require you to get a rating of at least 2850 which I
44:37
believe is up from 2500 um but the most important change is that failing to
44:42
clear Mythic plus dungeon within the timer will no longer reduce the level of your Keystone below 12 for the season
44:50
and I think that's really really good I think that's finally good we people have been asking for this this is f fantastic
44:58
thank you for listening to uh the basically everybody's feedback uh because I I will tell you that one of
45:05
the worst feelings in the world is getting right to the end and then getting your key bricked because
45:11
somebody decided that they didn't want to be in the group anymore and it's happened to me three times this season
45:16
three times I have lost my plus 10 key uh because somebody was like yeah we're done we're not going to make the timer
45:21
even though we had plenty of time and just left bricky and my key so thank you blizzard I appreciate you listening he
45:27
appreciates you listening Garden gome I we we did Skip something that I think
45:36
is very interesting about the gaggio which is the galago Loyalty Rewards
45:44
program which is a renowned track for the galag we don't know how you'll earn
45:50
on this Renown track but it probably involves running the raid that's just a random guess and as you earn on this
45:58
Rewards program you will get uh stacking damage and healing Buffs so kind of like
46:04
what we have now in narar Palace where we collect silk scraps from bosses and we turn them in every other week for an
46:10
overall buff so this is going to be kind of the same thing there's a stacking
46:16
damage and healing buff at Renown 4 7 10 13 16 19 we do not know the exact
46:21
amounts uh you get you get uh a chance of getting free augment rots on the Renown trap you will unlock a raid skip
46:28
and a raid portal by progressing down the Renown track and you will get uh a dinar like currency which we last saw
46:35
those I believe in shadowlands season 4 where you get dungeon they were for the
46:41
the the the dungeon that the uh not the ethereals the uh well it was a it was a currency
46:48
that you could trade into vendors for basically any piece of gear that you hadn't had dropped that you were not
46:54
lucky to have dropped so far and uh I think that's pretty cool though it does seem like it's going to become come late
47:00
in the Renown track at uh 17 and 19 uh but it will let you kind of catch up on
47:06
those things that just never never drop for you or or transmog I know I use all mine for transmog it's the only thing
47:12
important here okay are we gonna let me finally have the joy of talking about the gome transmog I think that is a good
47:19
segue you you have to admit the gaggio Loyalty Rewards program this is this is
47:25
pretty great it's nice it's just not as important as gnome transmog or any transmog really if you told me there was
47:32
like you know like more transmog coming I would be immediately wanted um the
47:37
picture they have of this garden gnome Armor Set uh on this one gnome is perfection uh it's got mushrooms for
47:44
shoulders uh it's just it's just too good uh the fact that I don't I got I'm
47:50
gonna have to like race change somebody to a gnome uh because my gnome would not be able to get this otherwise it looks
47:56
ridiculously bad on humans I don't know why all these pictures of it are with a human like why are you doing this this
48:02
looks terrible on a human um but there's also also double bladed rooted Garden
48:08
TRS uh these are are gonna be I I wonder if these are
48:14
coming to the Trading Post like a spring theme it does feel like something that you might see on the trading post um the
48:21
yeah the the mushroom shoulders the mushrooms shoulders feel kind of Mario
48:26
Kart me yeah I guess I mean they're not really the same as blue shells or nothing but yeah I I could see that is
48:32
somebody making a whistling sound or is that me apparently I'm just over here making sounds I I didn't think I was
48:38
making a whistling sound but you never know you never yeah there's um looking at these sets uh they're basically just
48:44
different colors there's the garden attire blooming attire uh butterfly attire and Ro rooted attire and that's
48:50
basically they're just different colors I got to say I like the one with the red the red shoulders is the best one in my
48:56
opinion the green one is but if you like if you like mysterious and spooky things or eeky and Uki things the green one is
49:02
a pretty good choice because it's just it's green it's just another sign that blizzard lately is willing to go a
49:10
little weirder than I think they used to with transmog and appearances because this is a this is a little odd like a
49:17
tiny bit tiny bit I'd like to see it on like vula and goblins it looks awesome
49:22
on gnomes and I want to see how it looks on you know I think mechan Nomes it might not work as well because mechones
49:28
don't really get the full effect of their armor which is also something that might make this look bad on Undead despite the fact that you know they're
49:34
already gonna make it look bad by being somewhat humanoid and taller I I just yes not liking this on the human it's
49:41
just not working but it is super freaking cute we still don't actually know where it's coming from it does feel
49:47
like a trade in post thing we'll find out yeah I'm hoping we'll have a surprise gnome raid that would be great
49:54
if just next next patch Bo boom Gade what why only reason the only reason I
50:01
would suspect that it's not a trading post reward is that there are five color variants and usually you only see a
50:09
couple of color variations with something on the trading post not impossible but they might just odd they
50:16
might just do a couple and the other other three just don't ever show up that's that's been known to happen
50:24
you know or they could even like make some like some are trading post some are just straight up cash purchases uh maybe
50:32
there is one that's a profession or a reputation deal we don't know but nevertheless I wanted to talk about it
50:39
for so long it's so cool I am so happy uh but we got some classic wow stuff to talk about apparently phase two is in
50:46
January 9th oh yeah yeah so that's for the wow classic classic right yes wow
50:52
classic classic the anniversary Realms uh are going into phase two on January which is a lot faster than I think any
51:00
of us expected based on the based on the road map they just came out yes yes it
51:07
just came out so yeah that's pretty fast um apparently we're gonna also see dire
51:12
Maul and then a zuros and kazak are all GNA be there as well so yeah but uh
51:18
phase one launched on December well so this is this is really fast that is yeah
51:25
for for phases in WoW for Wow classic yeah that's real fast yeah I I will say
51:31
Phase 2 is a little lightweight because it's styal a zeros and kazac it's a new
51:37
updated honor System as well as alter Valley and warsong Gulch which are actually coming a week after the phase
51:46
launch uh that's uh January 16th the the Battlegrounds will be added I mean maybe
51:53
uh maybe they're going with this so close because it's like okay phase one had the raids now we're hitting phase
51:59
two which has a new dungeon and uh some PVP stuff but still that's pretty Speedy
52:06
I think we expected it to be like in February based on the road map but uh uh
52:12
yeah they're moving fast I personally wonder if this means we're going to see
52:18
like TBC classic hit the anniversary Realms before the end of the year because on the wild classic road map TBC
52:26
classic classic I guess uh was put in Winter Spring not this winter spring but
52:33
next winter spring which suggests 2026 but with this kind of pacing it seems
52:39
late 2025 to me but we'll see we'll see where they do phase three are they going
52:45
to do this crazy one month of phase two thing or we going to space it out a little more yeah that's an another
52:50
interesting point because with warong Gulch and Ultra Valley coming on the 16th of January then you're going right
52:57
into if if you wait till February for for then February is a short month so
53:03
yeah that's kind of interesting but uh we should also talk about these holidays and stuff that are also wrapping up or
53:09
still going um Diablo 4 is a Sligh ride to hell um that's ending on the 2nd of
53:15
January so you've got another week or so after Christmas you've got a week or so before you you have to stop slave riding
53:22
to hell um winter Veil and wow is still the second as well uh in I think it's
53:27
that um it says winter veil in World of Warcraft so it was Warcraft Rumble it's January 2nd winter veil in Warcraft
53:34
World of Warcraft we're going to the 5th of January um the 20th anniversary event is going through January 6th if for some
53:41
reason you haven't been participating you've got till the 6th of January we are actually running out of time on that
53:47
one that felt when it launched it felt like wow this is going to go on forever but uh no no it's almost over um Winter
53:55
Wonderland and OverWatch also till January 6th um the brutosaur is leaving on January 6th the one that's currently
54:01
up for sale uh if if you didn't buy your cash brutosaur you've got two weeks to
54:07
to pick it up for now yeah I mean it would be nice if they put it on the trading post I don't think
54:14
they will I think that I don't think they will either that would I think that would be some some serious rage there oh
54:20
yeah oh we going to have to burn it down don't you know uh anyway whilst I'm doing Minnesota accents for no reason
54:27
we've actually got some questions this time so do you want to do the um other games and then maybe try to do a
54:32
question or you want to just do the questions I I think I'd like to talk a little bit about the other games you know we skipped a pre-show this week so
54:39
I think we can shove in some other game talk right here all righty then let's start with the steam winter sale with
54:46
great deals on games old and new uh anything either one of you have looked at and thought Oh I want to get that not
54:52
I want to get that but there are like some old games that have played and I'm like wow I on one hand I'm glad I didn't
55:00
wait because I love these games but on the other hand I'm like wow uh a firewatch is $2 which you should
55:08
absolutely play that game oh please do yourself a favor it is an incredible
55:14
game prey is 299 that is so much game that is so much
55:21
super creepy game perfect for the holiday season if you want to however
55:26
play the game that goes completely and utterly destroyed by evil forces and not
55:32
allowed to be the best game of its type that has ever existed and it it is the best game of its type that's ever uh I'm
55:38
gonna say Titanfall 2 which is also 299 is definitely one you should get um y I
55:45
wrote a massive Praise of Titanfall 2 when it came out and literally it was
55:50
just me some crickets and one guy who who ended up working for Apex Legends uh
55:56
because you know he actually had coaching points and I was just going it's so good I'm crying um if you want
56:02
to love a robot more than you have ever loved a robot before yes even The Iron
56:08
Giant play Titanfall 2 agreed uh if you were one of those few
56:15
people who has not played Borderlands uh Borderlands 3 299 tals from the
56:20
Borderlands is also on sale uh yes Tales from the Borderlands really good there
56:26
were there are so many games that you can pick up for a few dollars you can add them to your terribly long gaming queue
56:33
uh balers Gate 3 is still on sale I think it's 20 or 25% off which is a good deal if you have not played it and
56:39
there's a big patch coming out in the new year that will add a bunch of new sub classes uh Elden ring is on sale for
56:47
40% off if you have not played that you were into Souls likee weird Fantasy
56:53
games it's there it's there it's there just too many great sales too yeah
56:58
there's also a lot a lot of a lot of the a lot of the newer titles are also on sale at various places as well too uh
57:03
just wanted to throw that out there it's not just old stuff they're not as deep of a discount but like the new Ninja
57:09
Turtles uh uh multiplayer Rogue like beat them up uh just came out uh and
57:16
it's like an isometric like it's like Hades and Ninja Turtles had a baby uh except you can play up to four players
57:21
at a time um that's on sale already like various fighting games are on sale those
57:26
are your things like there's a wide array of newer stuff that is also on sale so if you were on the fence about
57:33
some of them it might be your time to to take a look and not just on Steam but everybody's doing something similar so
57:40
Xbox Xbox has theirs going on epic games has theirs going on uh the PlayStation
57:45
network has theirs going on Nintendo is still Nintendo and doesn't like sales um
57:51
so like you have plenty of options now is the time of year that to see what you can scoop up
57:56
I'm gonna throw one more out you before we move on to something else um Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader yep is on
58:05
sale for 45% off this is a game that came out last year I I don't think it
58:10
got the attention it deserved I mean for one thing balers Gate 3 came out um it
58:16
was sort of like being any game any game of the um computer RPG type when Skyrim
58:22
came out I'm looking at you kingdoms of this was definitely a really good
58:27
narrative heavy uh and dark um RPG not not Grim dark although it certainly
58:34
could be called that since it's oh it skes yeah it definitely skewes closer to that but I will say that it is very
58:39
critically acclaimed and player acclaimed as well and if it was Rotten Tomatoes it has a 93% fresh rating uh so
58:47
it's it's worth your time if you're into sort of the the crpg stuff and if you and if you're a Warhammer fan but don't
58:53
necessarily like the RPGs all that much I definitely think this is the one to play agreed uh because it it totally it
59:00
deals heavy with an aspect of the Warhammer setting that you don't always get yeah that's just my my tip of the
59:07
Hat into that one and I should note it also has a companion system so if you like games with companions there you go
59:13
but speaking of that another go go ahead list another brand new game on sale uh Hades 2 which is not even out it's in
59:21
Early Access is 10% off which isn't a huge discount but for a game that doesn't sale yet yeah yes it's not on
59:29
sale but it's already on sale and it's one of those games where I've been playing since it released on Early Access and it was the one of the first
59:37
games I reinstalled when I moved over to the new computer uh so highly worth your time if you enjoyed Hades 1 it is
59:45
definitely a lot of different mechanics but super fun game if it's something you are tangentially or or even remotely
59:52
interested in 10% off I mean it's honestly not bad and you get to you get to help shape it it's another company
59:57
that listens to feedback of its players so you know options you have options yeah one one thing on sale not on Steam
1:00:04
that I've been on the fence about is Pacific Drive have either of yall tried that or looked at that no but I have a
1:00:09
friend who absolutely loves it and won't stop telling me I have it so yeah Anna Anna on the site loves it and talks
1:00:16
about it and I'm like I would either love this or it would make me crazy because it's uh yeah I I it's kind of a
1:00:25
it's like a surviv game but it's a driving Survival game in which you're like maintaining and upgrading your car
1:00:31
in a weird creepy version of the Pacific Northwest yeah I've watched I've watched playthroughs of it and I think I'm going
1:00:37
to keep it as watching playthroughs from it because it's it's a particular flavor of survival horror that I'm not too keen
1:00:44
on yeah it's interesting though uh but yeah that's on sale on uh Playstation
1:00:50
network I think is where I found that one okay I do want I want to talk really quickly about um the blizzard watch
1:00:57
games of the year yes for 2024 uh I don't know if you guys have heard of
1:01:03
this game it's a it's a little bit of an indie game not many people have heard about it um apparently some folks on our
1:01:10
our site liked Dragon Age The Veil guard I'm not gonna sit here and go on and on about it because they have tranquilizer
1:01:18
guns waiting they'll they'll get me there's just too many too many Kill Lanes I'll just be I'll be taking right
1:01:23
out but nevertheless that is that was our most loved by people game on the for
1:01:30
the year you know we we took votes on what everyone's favorite game of the year is and uh we got a lot of like one
1:01:38
vote games we got a ton of one vote games and only a couple that got more than one vote because we as a site were
1:01:45
kind of all over the map in what we like so it makes a very interesting list but it was kind of obvious what the top one
1:01:51
was going to be we've got too many RPG fans here yep um and so we're not going to not going to I will mention however
1:01:58
that balatro got up here and whilst it is not a game that I played a lot I I
1:02:04
respect Phil for putting it up here because it did it just did so odd it's
1:02:09
so odd as Anna yeah it came out of nowhere and it's it is a on developer game this was
1:02:17
a solo developer that put out this weird Solitaire poker game solitire poker
1:02:23
Trading Card Rog Lake I don't know that's a really good magic it feels like magic the Gathering met met solitire and
1:02:31
then they two of them went off to to do like Hades it it's just odd it's it's a
1:02:36
weird weird game but yeah it is it is unique in a way that like games aren't
1:02:41
often unique it's interesting that it came out and it's Unique and it's not backed by a big Studio one person had
1:02:48
this Vision to make this weird card game and it resonated with so many people out
1:02:54
there it was actually nominated for Game of the Year at the game awards it didn't win it but I was shocked that such a
1:03:01
small title got there this goes back to what I was talking about last week where you're starting to see indie games like
1:03:08
over the last several years really flourish and get attention and showing what Grassroots uh word of mouth can
1:03:14
really do cuz like balatro is a game that like yeah it's a solo developer we've seen solo developer games really blow up like stard Valley and and other
1:03:21
things like that but it really shows how much say a friend going hey I found this
1:03:27
really weird indie game that's really a lot of fun and it's insert all of these words here and then you go oh yeah okay
1:03:34
I'll try it why not and then it just kind of keeps rolling through and spreading that's exactly what happened here and it's it's a super uh it's super
1:03:43
nice to see it get that attention and be nominated for a game of the
1:03:48
year okay so we're going to head up to one question here that we've got uh zonin asked this question I don't see a
1:03:54
pronunciation guide for your name is zon so I'm going to hope I got it right um I'm a longtime listener of the podcast
1:04:00
starting back on the old site however a first time question I was listening to today's BW and talked about the recent
1:04:06
Heroes of the Storm patch I was surprised to hear that Hots is still getting uh some work however it got me
1:04:13
wondering blizzard is now a Microsoft property so what if Microsoft decided to revive Hots not just revive it but also
1:04:20
bring heroes from other game other Microsoft own IPS could we see Master Chief battling um battling slings is
1:04:27
that what that says battling slings I I don't know what the slings are that is what that say I think he's misstating
1:04:32
but battling uh alongside maybe that was supposed to be alongside yeah battling alongside Jana or Jim rer I I'm just
1:04:40
gonna say up front could we see that yes do I expect to see that no would I like
1:04:46
to see that yes um I you you don't really realize just how many people
1:04:53
could show up if they did this I mean kind do though I was say I mean you do
1:04:59
but don't think about it you know it's it's I don't think about it and then you mentioned it I'm sit going oh my God
1:05:04
Fallout every character from Fallout could pop up oh my God Elder Scrolls I I
1:05:10
so the interesting thing like this question made me think of something that I I would really love to see and I can hear Corey maybe on board with this I
1:05:17
don't know where he is with it but this is actually a point that I've been thinking about in terms of Smash likes
1:05:24
so over the last know four years three four years we've had a bunch of Smash
1:05:30
likes that have released because Smash Brothers did really well in the switch it's been a very popular game so
1:05:36
platform Fighters have have been the thing so Sony has their own hell Nintendo has their own uh I'm sorry
1:05:42
Nintendo um Nickelodeon I meant has their own where you know you can War Brothers got their own that doesn't even
1:05:49
make any sense they got it yeah and and so like these have been around and they're not bad games they're actually pretty good games but no nobody's done
1:05:56
that with an isometric uh you know basically A League of Legends DOTA like game you have
1:06:04
sometimes skins that cross over but you've never really seen people take other IPS into that format and I think
1:06:10
it would be a really cool thing especially if Microsoft said you have access to all of our IPS put them in your game as you see fit let's
1:06:17
Revitalize this genre and that's the other thing there's an opportunity here
1:06:23
where blizzard and Microsoft could if they so choose shake up the DOTA likee
1:06:30
game and really add something new that hasn't been seen in years I mean League
1:06:36
of Legends is a pretty static formula for the most part minus uh equipment changes and map changes and hero
1:06:41
balancing why not do something that does like Smash Brothers does and have all these different IPS into it and give you
1:06:49
a different experience with them yes you can have Master Chief uh pretty sure you can have Crash Bandicoot because I think
1:06:54
that's an activis title isn't it yeah choice for Bob yeah yeah you could have you could have uh Ratchet and Clank you
1:07:00
could have uh you know Spyro you could have Spyro you could have there are so many characters that you could put in
1:07:07
here that would work and I think it would be a really fun exercise so do I think we're going to get it no do I
1:07:13
think there's an opportunity here for it yes would I absolutely lose my mind if it happened yes I would probably need to
1:07:20
be ripped away from my computer uh because I would probably not go to work for like a week
1:07:26
I will also point out things that you might not guys realize is that um Gears of War is owned by Xbox game studios so
1:07:35
you know if you want to see a lot of dudes with really big chins and necks
1:07:40
and shoulders uh gears Awards got a a plethora leafield what are you doing
1:07:46
here yeah Marcus Fenix and you know his friend who died whose name I forget I'm sorry but um Marcus Phoenix and master
1:07:54
chief standing next to other alongside like there's just a lot of possibility here um man just just think
1:08:02
of all the various Elder Scrolls characters who could show up like paron ax uh the big dragon just shows up it's
1:08:08
like what is he doing here we've already got two dragons in this game more than two right there's at least two dragons
1:08:14
in in Heroes of the Storm right there's Alex there's another one and alexza yeah Deathwing yeah we got some
1:08:22
dragons there's a lot of dragons so you could just have paron ax and uh forget the evil one but I shouldn't but he
1:08:27
shows up you you can just keep throwing dragons at it just w i i can't believe I
1:08:33
never thought of this oh wow uh Liz you got anything to say before we we close up I I think at some point we're
1:08:40
definitely going to see Heroes of the Storm coming back I think they are maintaining it with a monthly balance
1:08:47
patch suggest they're thinking about it they still have some active development
1:08:52
on it you would not get this much a monthly patch is not a small thing and they're making some pretty big balance
1:08:58
changes whenever they roll one of these out so I definitely think it is coming back whether they're going to take such
1:09:04
a big step and make it a big crossover event I don't know but it would be really really fun just imagine like
1:09:11
remember those old days and they used to have the little trailers for the new Champions imagine they they start doing one and then suddenly it's freaking
1:09:17
master chief Master Chief g a fist bump to Spyro as they charge into
1:09:24
battle oh my God the Doom Marine yeah Doom Marine you could do you could have you could have the Doom Marine you could
1:09:30
also have the vampires from redfall but they're not going to all right uh Joe if you don't mind
1:09:35
sure blizzard watch is made possible due to the journ contributions of patreon.com blizzardwatch your continued
1:09:41
support means that this podcast signing Community is able to thrive and grow blizzard watch supporters enjoy exclusive benefits like early access to
1:09:47
the podcast better chance your question answered on our podcast with the q& and ads resight experience thank you very
1:09:52
much Joe uh also thanks you to everyone listening for allowing Liz Joe and
1:09:57
myself to be here on your holiday uh thank you guys so much we wanted to wanted to make sure we did a show this
1:10:03
week and so it'll be there uh because you know the holidays do kind of disrupt things but at the same time you want you
1:10:10
want to have like a a moment to forget about all the things in the world that you might not want to be thinking about
1:10:15
so thank you guys so much thank you to to Liz for making sure that we did this because uh sometimes Liz has to do a lot
1:10:22
of Roundup guys you you sometimes I think they should just actually put Chief uh Cattle Rustler on her title
1:10:28
thing because sometimes seriously it's it's like hting cats um so thank you to Liz especially
1:10:34
uh and uh thank you to Joe for all the recording and so forth he has to do to make sure we have a podcast to give you
1:10:40
and all the editing uh and well thank you to me for not dying I guess I I keep showing up I guess that's my
1:10:46
contribution that that's a good day that's a good day but uh yeah this has been the Bluer watch podcast thank you
1:10:52
guys so much uh I have no idea when the next show is uh could be not one could
1:10:57
be next week I honestly don't know I yeah I think we're going to do another one and I'm gonna try and gather up some
1:11:04
anniversary what am I saying some kind of Roundup of the year's big news to talk about all righty uh thank you Liz
1:11:11
and take it every everybody [Music]
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