The Timeways are Turbulent and BlizzCon is closing in

Name: The Timeways are Turbulent and BlizzCon is closing in | Open Video
Uploaded: 2026-07-15T22:23:41+00:00
Duration: 1 h 2 min 30 s

0:08
[music]
0:09
>> Hello everybody and welcome to the
0:11
Blizzard Watch podcast. It's that
0:14
podcast you remember where we talk about
0:15
Blizzard Entertainment and it's many
0:17
games and sometimes some other games if
0:18
there's it's a late week or we just
0:20
really want to talk about something. Um
0:22
>> Sometimes there's things to talk about.
0:24
>> Sometimes. Uh I'm Matt. I'm hosting this
0:27
week. Uh with me this week are my
0:28
fantabulous co-hosts. We don't have a
0:30
special guest that I'm aware of. Uh
0:33
don't see one. If they are coming, you
0:34
know, by all means show up.
0:36
>> A- and then maybe it's an invisible
0:38
special guest.
0:39
>> Yes, he's very special. He's so special
0:41
that you can only see him in your
0:42
imagination.
0:43
>> I I was actually talking to Corey
0:46
tonight to see if he could come because
0:47
there was a Heroes of the Storm PTR that
0:51
went up this week. But
0:53
he was going to a baseball game. He
0:55
cannot be here. We're going to talk
0:57
about that in the future when Corey can
1:00
be here.
1:01
>> How dare you, Corey? How dare you?
1:03
>> Yeah, yeah. I know. Having plans while
1:05
we're recording the podcast. You're
1:07
having
1:07
>> I could just trigger the emergency
1:09
Corey, you know, break glass release
1:10
emergency Corey. [laughter] It's just me
1:12
going, "Oh, wow, Heroes of the Storm is
1:14
back for sure." And then we just move
1:16
on. But regardless, there are things to
1:18
talk about. First one is something that
1:20
I know Joe likes or at least Joe has
1:21
been bringing up a few times.
1:23
Uh Turbulent Timeways in World of
1:25
Warcraft, the time walking like it's I
1:28
want to say extravaganza cuz it's like
1:29
five weeks.
1:31
>> It's super time walking.
1:32
>> Yeah. It's time walking time walking
1:34
time walking until you finally have time
1:36
walked as much as you can. Yet more
1:37
walking through time. Uh that's this
1:40
week. Uh didn't they add Have they added
1:42
anything to time walking this season?
1:43
>> So, uh this week is Dragonflight time
1:46
walking. This is Dragonflight is brand
1:48
new to the time walking and um
1:52
Yeah, yeah. So, Dragonflight time
1:54
walking is week one and then I just
1:58
we've got five weeks of time walking
1:59
ahead starting and ending with
2:01
Dragonflight. And if you do
2:04
four weeks, is that correct?
2:06
>> Four weeks.
2:06
>> I believe it's four weeks, yeah.
2:08
>> Four weeks.
2:10
I Am I getting all of these numbers
2:12
wrong?
2:13
>> No.
2:14
>> This is mathematical. Um
2:18
So, if you get the tur the buff for
2:20
doing dungeons four weeks, not
2:22
necessarily consecutive weeks, just four
2:24
weeks,
2:25
uh then you get a mount, a Borean Tundra
2:28
looking mount.
2:30
And I I was wrong. This is six weeks of
2:33
time walking you need to do.
2:35
Yes.
2:36
Uh you need to do four
2:38
of it.
2:40
>> Theoretically, you could theoretically
2:41
do two and then skip two and then do the
2:43
last two to get it, or you could do one,
2:45
skip one, do two. Yeah, as long as you
2:47
get four total. And the order in which
2:49
And the order in which it is is we're
2:51
starting with uh week one is in
2:52
Dragonflight. Week two is Battle for
2:55
Azeroth, which your um
2:58
uh week three is Shadowlands. Week four
3:00
is Classic.
3:02
>> Good. But look at that. You've got in in
3:04
Battle for Azeroth, you've got King's
3:05
Rest, you've got Temple of Sethraliss,
3:07
which are two dungeons that are going to
3:08
be in the Midnight season two rotation.
3:10
So, you know, you could get a little You
3:12
could get used to those.
3:13
>> Nope, because it's not It's not even
3:15
remotely close to the same thing. Um
3:19
I'm not getting used to this.
3:20
>> The time walking dungeon in the Mythic
3:21
plus
3:22
>> I understand, but the the time walking
3:23
dungeon in the Mythic plus dungeon are
3:25
going to be two completely different
3:26
animals. Um but yeah, you can you can
3:29
remember what they look like.
3:30
Um but then you have Shadowlands after
3:32
Battle for Azeroth, you have uh Classic
3:34
after Shadowlands, then Burning Crusade,
3:37
and then we finish week six with
3:38
Dragonflight again.
3:41
Um so, you're I mean, I love Turbulent
3:44
Timeways. It's one of the greatest ways
3:45
to level alts.
3:47
>> Oh,
3:48
>> And it's also just a lot of fun. Good.
3:51
>> I will say there is problem leveling
3:53
alts this way, and that is that
3:57
you've got to do all of them on the same
3:58
character.
3:59
>> Oh, sorry. It's uh 5 weeks during
4:01
Turbulent Timeways 5. 5 weeks.
4:03
>> Oh. Well, that that kind of sucks
4:06
because you've got to do all but one.
4:08
>> We reported 4 weeks, but I'm looking at
4:10
the tooltip. The tooltip, unless it's
4:11
wrong, says uh 5 weeks.
4:14
>> Um
4:15
I but you do have to do all of it on the
4:18
same character, and the problem is if
4:19
you're using it to level an alt, you're
4:21
you're going to hit max level before
4:23
this is over. So,
4:26
to be fair, that's only to get the pet.
4:29
Uh yeah, that's to get Yeah, I mean, you
4:31
can still timewalk for fun, uh but you
4:34
are going to hit level you're going to
4:36
hit max level in all of this. It's It's
4:38
going to be like all of my alts
4:41
>> There's also new new mount rewards, too,
4:42
we should also talk about, like the
4:44
Timely Buzz B and the Liquid Hot Magma
4:45
Slug.
4:47
>> Uh the Buzz B is not The Buzz B is a
4:50
previous mount for timewalking, so it
4:53
was It was one of the ones for one of
4:54
the last
4:55
>> It's a mount.
4:56
>> timewalking
4:56
>> it's a it's a it's a vendor thing now.
4:58
In the vendor A vendor in the Bronze
4:59
Enclave, you can actually buy the Liquid
5:01
Hot Magma mount as well as a bunch of
5:03
the mounts that were previously
5:04
available through Turbulent Timeways
5:06
only, like the Buzz B. Like I know you
5:09
can you can do that. So, like it's not
5:11
part of the event that you can earn them
5:13
like from drops, but you can go buy
5:15
them, which I think is cool if you
5:16
missed out.
5:18
>> You get You're getting the timewalking
5:20
tribute the timewalking currency, which
5:22
I always forget what it's called, but
5:23
you're getting that through this, and
5:24
you can spend it on that, is what you're
5:25
saying.
5:26
>> Yeah, and this is on a new vendor that's
5:27
in the Bronze Enclave.
5:28
>> All right. Well, that's cool. Uh I
5:31
I don't know that I'll do it just
5:33
because I don't know that I'm going to
5:34
be able to remember to run it every
5:35
week.
5:36
>> Yeah, that's that's the thing. And you
5:38
have to do it most weeks. Uh but yeah, I
5:42
this timewalking in general is just a
5:44
It's a killer way to level alts if you
5:45
have any alts you want to level. Yeah,
5:47
but most of my alts are in the in the
5:49
80s or close to 80, so
5:53
they're going to they're going to be
5:54
they're going to be max level in the
5:56
time I can blink.
5:57
>> Yeah.
5:58
But, you know, it's for people who are
6:00
like me,
6:01
they have a lot of alts that haven't
6:02
gotten past 70,
6:04
it's a good it's a good ride.
6:06
>> Yeah.
6:07
>> But you can't you can't cheese it by
6:08
doing, "Oh, I'll do this character till
6:10
they hit 80 then switch." if you want to
6:12
get the mount.
6:13
>> Yeah.
6:13
>> trying to get that mount, you need to
6:15
just do it.
6:16
>> You want to get the mount. It's a cool
6:18
mount.
6:19
>> I just don't know that I'd want to ride
6:20
around on Vieranoff. To be quite
6:21
frankly, she's touchy.
6:23
Um
6:24
you know, and and
6:26
>> But even if you don't, it's you've got
6:29
to collect everything. That's just how
6:31
this works.
6:32
>> It's a beautiful mount.
6:34
>> It's something to collect.
6:36
And that's that's kind of that's kind of
6:38
all. Yeah.
6:39
>> See, I'm I'm kind of stuck trying to do
6:42
that in other games, too, so it's one of
6:43
those things where you're like, "I don't
6:45
need to do this to myself." But
6:47
regardless, speaking of things you have
6:48
to collect just because, um next as of
6:52
this recording while you're hearing it,
6:54
it'll be July, and there's a new trading
6:56
post. And yeah, transmog. So, God God
7:00
help us all. Um
7:01
>> Oh, yeah.
7:02
>> It's a lot of repeats, but there's some
7:03
really cool there's a couple new things
7:04
that are really neat. Um the thing is I
7:07
don't mind that it's a lot of repeats
7:09
because I didn't get any of the Forsaken
7:10
stuff before. Fair, totally fair. You
7:12
know, so for me, that's like great. Um
7:15
this one I think is mostly Forsaken
7:17
stuff with some Goblin stuff, and then a
7:19
few
7:19
>> There's
7:20
and there's a lot of Gobliny things
7:22
things, or you might say Gnomes themed
7:24
things with like um
7:27
it's kind of engineering themed. There
7:29
are a couple of robot pets. There is a
7:31
rocket mount for finishing the trading
7:34
post for the month.
7:35
And that that sort of thing.
7:37
>> I am actually really looking forward to
7:39
the tabards.
7:40
Um because they're the Bot Wranglers uh
7:43
aprons, the crimson and violet variety,
7:45
and they are literally blacksmithing
7:47
aprons that you can wear as a tabard.
7:49
Which I think is really, really cool. Or
7:51
at least they look really cool to me.
7:53
And I'm like, "Hmm, I have an outfit
7:55
that uh for our character that this
7:56
would work perfect for." Most excellent.
8:00
Um, and then you got to like the belt
8:01
that has like the uh the uh thrashing,
8:05
crashing robot controller on it, which I
8:07
thought was a really cool little touch.
8:09
Uh stuff like that, which is really,
8:10
really
8:11
uh so I'm I'm excited for that. And and
8:14
uh we got another top hat.
8:16
And a cowboy hat. And I'm super here for
8:19
both of these. You got a it's a it's a
8:21
snowy this the stylish snowy top hat,
8:23
which is literally a white top hat,
8:25
which is perfect. I have the exact
8:27
outfit for that to go with. Uh and then
8:29
the uh the one literally looks like uh
8:32
Cassidy's hat from Overwatch. And I'm
8:34
like, "Hmm, okay. This is also good. I
8:36
will take this."
8:37
>> I could I could make an outfit with
8:39
this. Yeah, yeah.
8:40
>> Hats.
8:41
>> So,
8:41
it's it's a it's a good trading post
8:43
because it is a trading post and there
8:45
is new transmog to collect. You know,
8:47
even the months I'm not like super hyped
8:49
for the trading post, it's like it it's
8:51
new trading post. How can I not be
8:52
excited?
8:53
>> I mean, I think in general, it's unless
8:55
you've already got everything in the
8:57
game, which isn't I don't think you do.
9:00
Most of us don't.
9:01
Yeah, um
9:03
there's always at least it's at least
9:04
worth work worth looking to see, "Oh, do
9:06
do I have these looks? Do I have the
9:08
original version of these looks?" If
9:09
there's an original version. Uh like the
9:12
Wailing Banshee's longbow
9:14
is actually one of my favorite bow
9:16
longbow models. Uh it's it's a different
9:18
color, but it's a great model. And if I
9:21
have 125 tenders and feel like playing
9:23
my hunter again, I might use might get
9:25
it. Uh I probably won't though because I
9:28
I mean, I have so many other characters
9:29
who use two-handed weapons
9:31
uh and and smash things. But regardless,
9:33
that's it's a cool-looking bow. It's a
9:35
nice purple version of the original
9:37
model, which is always nice. It's nice
9:40
to get new color variations of stuff we
9:43
may already have.
9:45
Because then you can, you know,
9:47
one of the most annoying things is to
9:49
have
9:50
uh something that would fit really well
9:51
in a in a mog you're looking for, but
9:53
you don't have anything that matches the
9:55
color of your mog.
9:56
>> Mhm, yeah.
9:57
>> You know, we can't dye things. Um
10:01
so there's there's a certain
10:03
you know, it's nice to me to see, oh
10:05
hey, this bow is it's the same bow bow,
10:08
but this one's got that purple look to
10:10
it and you know, also it's got
10:11
Sylvanas's face on it, which you know,
10:13
if you're looking for that, you know,
10:14
hey.
10:15
Uh I quite frankly I think it's a nice
10:16
model. So, you know, and there's there's
10:18
a lot of stuff. Like there's a lot of
10:20
stuff here. There's like the various
10:23
um rocket maces and rocket staves.
10:25
There's just a lot of cool things. I I
10:27
think this is one of those examples of
10:29
just
10:30
cool things that also fit a theme. Like
10:32
Liz mentioned, it could be gnome or it
10:33
could be goblin. Um the the fact that
10:37
you can buy two different There's two
10:38
different um rocket mounts essentially.
10:41
There's like one you can buy and then
10:43
there's one that you can get at the end
10:46
for doing the trader's post for the
10:47
whole thing.
10:48
You you can get a another one that's
10:51
basically the same model, I think, but
10:52
it's a different color.
10:54
Uh not sure, but regardless, they're
10:56
both really nice. And they're rockets. I
10:59
mean, people love rockets. Come on, you
11:00
know you love rockets. I don't know why
11:02
we're even having this discussion. You
11:03
know you love rockets. So, yeah. I mean,
11:05
just it's cool, but let's We got to If
11:08
anyone else has anything else to say
11:09
about this, say it now cuz we do
11:10
actually have to move on before we
11:12
>> I I It's cool. I think that's all I'm
11:14
I'm just going to keep repeating myself
11:16
at this point.
11:16
>> Joe, you good?
11:17
>> I'm good. I've I've talked about my
11:19
favorites. I like hats.
11:20
>> Yes, hats are always good. Um I This
11:23
next one was the Darkshore Dash, but by
11:26
the time we're talking about it, it
11:27
happened. Um so, you know, did anyone do
11:31
this cuz I didn't actually do
11:32
>> See, I I wanted to talk about it because
11:35
it was so cool. Um
11:38
Did Did either of you get a chance to do
11:40
it though?
11:40
>> I did not because work exists.
11:44
>> Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing. It's a new
11:46
micro holiday that was added in 12.0.7
11:50
and um it's it goes along it it's got
11:54
the theme of the running of the trolls
11:56
the pride event that rain running for.
11:59
>> That's what I thought of when I heard of
12:00
it like that was like the same
12:01
>> It's not the same but it is an official
12:04
micro holiday that Blizzard has made
12:08
that kind of goes alongside the running
12:09
of the um and
12:12
man, there's so many rainbows. It's
12:15
great.
12:16
It's great. So, you just go to the Echo
12:19
Isles and there's kind of a starting
12:21
line there with a big rainbow banner and
12:24
you you run through you you're running
12:26
to Silvermoon
12:29
except there's a teleport portal outside
12:31
Orgrimmar to send you to the Plaguelands
12:34
so you can actually run. Um and you're
12:37
you're just as you go along you go you
12:39
go go under the rainbow banners and
12:42
while you were while you were dashing
12:44
along you can jump and when you jump you
12:46
do this big twirling jump with rainbows
12:49
all around you
12:50
and it's it's just good fun and after
12:54
you go through a banner you have a
12:55
rainbow trailing behind you like a
12:57
little Nyan Cat rainbow.
12:59
>> It's It's a tiny little event and it is
13:02
I had so much fun doing this tiny stupid
13:05
event. And uh for doing it you got a
13:08
tabard which is just a kind of
13:10
unfortunately not a delightful rainbow
13:12
tabard. It was just kind of a troll
13:14
themed tabard but you know just like we
13:16
were saying with transmog
13:18
great great to have transmog options.
13:21
And I'm also there's a toy. There's a
13:23
new rainbow toy that uh it's it's only
13:27
available it's during Darkmoon Dash it
13:31
has a lower cool down but outside
13:34
Darkmoon Dash it has a a longer
13:37
unfortunately longer cool down but it it
13:39
lets you do this like huge jump with
13:42
rainbows and it's great it's great I
13:45
love it
13:46
but it's a it's a tiny event
13:48
really fun a couple of small rewards and
13:51
it's it's just fun to run around with
13:53
the rainbows and leap around with
13:56
rainbows and it's just it's cool little
13:59
thing and I like it I approve I approve
14:01
what I don't approve of is that it only
14:03
lasted two days and if you were busy
14:05
this past weekend you didn't get to do
14:07
it
14:08
and that is a shame for an event that is
14:10
so neat because it had so much kind of
14:13
themed decor that was just all over the
14:16
world it was it was pretty great it was
14:18
too short
14:20
everyone should have had a chance to do
14:21
it but
14:22
it was very short tiny little event
14:25
>> nice um quite frankly I know from
14:27
experience that there's already one
14:29
rainbow trinket that people use
14:31
>> yes
14:32
>> and I know we will have more rainbow
14:34
things which I don't see as a problem
14:35
quite frankly yes more rainbow things
14:37
for raids quite
14:39
half of my good memories of raids are
14:41
people doing ridiculous things during
14:43
this so yay um
14:45
apparently we should talk about the wild
14:47
secrets discord cuz they're finding new
14:49
pets again those guys finding things um
14:53
I'm looking at the list of things you
14:54
need to do to get these these this pet
14:56
and one of them is like you have to get
14:58
the freshies wraps from the last
14:59
expansion
15:00
um
15:02
>> and you know what it's not hard to you
15:03
if you if you weren't playing in the
15:04
last expansion you can do that one in
15:06
like five minutes
15:08
>> yeah but it still bothers me sometimes
15:10
that you have to
15:11
but thing is a secret so you know it's
15:14
it's supposed to be hard to get people
15:16
are supposed to put some effort into
15:17
finding it um so yeah it's a cute little
15:21
void mouse cat thing Like I I would you
15:24
call that a cat?
15:24
>> It's a It's It I would call it a cat. It
15:27
has cat ears. But it's uh it's really
15:29
it's This is an ethereal themed thing.
15:32
And I mean, I think the thing about the
15:34
Resheph wraps, etc. etc. That's because
15:38
This is definitely ethereal themed. This
15:41
uh
15:42
this all belongs in Koresh. It's a
15:44
little It's a little ethereal cat that's
15:47
kind of kind of robotic.
15:48
>> Yeah, so it kind of resembles both of
15:49
the ethereal's, yeah.
15:53
>> Yeah.
15:54
>> So, um I mean, I'm looking at it. It is
15:56
It is terrifyingly cute. Um
15:59
>> Yeah, that's the problem.
16:01
>> It's got that that little eye. It's like
16:03
It's like it's Geff head cats. You
16:04
remember the Geff? If they Geff had
16:06
cats, it would look like this guy. Like
16:08
he is seriously very much like a Geff
16:11
cat. Like somebody's cat got affected by
16:13
the same thing as everything else in
16:15
Koresh, and they put that cat soul
16:18
directly into a suit of armor like as
16:20
fast as they could. They probably let
16:22
some other poor person
16:24
uh get their soul destroyed just so they
16:25
could get the cat in the armor, which I
16:27
I understand I respect that. If any of
16:29
my pets looked like they were going to
16:30
become disembodied, I definitely want to
16:32
stick their souls in something as quick
16:33
as possible. So, yeah.
16:35
But it's
16:36
ridiculously cute, and you now can You
16:39
can go to the uh
16:41
Secrets Discord, and you can figure out
16:43
how to get it. I mean
16:44
>> As As usual, they're about a thousand.
16:46
That's just
16:46
>> Yes. It is It is a lot. Um Ha, it is it
16:50
is a lot.
16:53
Meanwhile, on the last week of the the
16:55
Midsummer Fires Festival is currently
16:57
going, and it will go until July Um so,
16:59
if you're listening to this after July
17:00
5th, it's done.
17:02
Uh but if before July 5th, you've got
17:04
some time. Um
17:05
Specifically five days. I I
17:08
I don't know.
17:10
There's a lot more stuff, but the the
17:11
the rewards on this one You called them
17:13
insanely expensive, and I feel like
17:15
that's insulting to insanity.
17:17
>> Oh, I'm sorry. Um
17:19
>> Cuz cuz this this like it this this is
17:22
like Labors of Hercules level of these
17:23
things you need to get before you can
17:25
buy anything.
17:26
>> It takes about to get all the new stuff,
17:27
it's about 2,000
17:30
burning blossoms. Um that's a lot of
17:33
burning blossoms.
17:35
So, the new quests, the new aerial
17:37
quests, give you
17:39
quite quite a few for the first time you
17:41
do them. That's that's a good chunk of
17:43
blossoms. And uh but otherwise, you're
17:46
doing the extinguish fires on a million
17:49
alts, and
17:52
those give you five for doing same
17:54
faction fires and 10 for doing alternate
17:57
faction fires. Uh so, that's just that's
18:01
that's a lot of fires you're going to
18:03
have to visit or a lot of daily quests
18:05
you're going to have to do or both. One
18:08
thing one thing that kind of lightly
18:11
mitigates this is that you also get
18:13
cosmetics for doing a hoon. You will get
18:15
whatever you do, you'll get one cosmetic
18:18
what's-it.
18:19
And so, that does kind of help. If you
18:22
do a hoon every day, you're going to get
18:23
some of this.
18:25
Yeah, but they're still just there is so
18:27
much. So much.
18:29
>> Yeah, and I mean, you know, it's at
18:30
least they they have updated the rewards
18:32
to a degree. You can get more stuff. Um
18:35
so, that's nice. It is nice to see the
18:37
holidays get more work, but it's still
18:40
kind of like oh oh oh wow, I'm going to
18:42
be midsummering quite a bit.
18:43
>> And it's like I it's a new cosmetic, so
18:46
obviously
18:48
I need to have it. And uh yeah, that's
18:51
what I got to get so many more burning
18:53
blossoms.
18:54
Just so many.
18:56
>> Yep. Uh but I think that pretty much
18:58
covers wow right about now. I mean, we
19:00
got the the patch last week, right? I'm
19:03
not insane. It was last week.
19:04
>> I think so. How does time work? How do
19:08
we keep moving forward so rapidly? Um
19:10
yeah, yeah, we just got I think.
19:12
>> Um, yeah, so yeah, yeah, we just got
19:14
12.07 and last week patch 12.1 was
19:18
announced and that's up on the PTR for
19:20
anyone who wants to explore that. There
19:23
were some new patch notes today
19:24
actually, but it's like it's kind of
19:26
little class tweaking stuff. So, you can
19:29
go to the Blizzard forums, check out the
19:31
latest patch notes if you want to do
19:33
know all of the details about how
19:36
testing is going, how it's evolving.
19:38
It's probably going to be on the PTR for
19:40
the next couple months. So, you can go
19:42
and check out all the things. But, yeah,
19:46
nothing no big new changes on 12.1 this
19:49
>> All right, well, we're going to move on
19:51
then and talk a little bit about Diablo.
19:53
We have only one thing written down for
19:54
Diablo, but I'm actually going to
19:55
mention a couple other things
19:57
>> And I have a Diablo question for you
19:59
when we get there, Matt.
20:01
>> I'm good.
20:01
>> Okay, well, then do you mind you can ask
20:03
it now.
20:04
>> I am I am starting a seasonal character
20:07
because the new season just started. Um,
20:11
and I am curious what the best leveling
20:14
barbarian build is in your estimation.
20:16
>> Oh.
20:17
>> Okay, um
20:18
for leveling
20:20
you're you're pretty much it's really
20:22
hard to go wrong on a barbarian
20:24
leveling. They they there's nothing in
20:26
there I'd say is garbage.
20:28
Uh, if you are in a situation where
20:30
you're leveling like say
20:31
solo self found or in seasons or in a
20:34
season since it's a new season where you
20:36
don't have no one is feeding you
20:38
anything and you're only going to get
20:39
points as you do stuff. Um I'm going to
20:42
say
20:43
frenzy is the easiest way to make sure
20:45
you're getting rage and that you're you
20:47
know, you you're get stronger as you hit
20:50
that. Like you won't just hit things and
20:52
be like, oh, please let something
20:54
happen. The frenzy will be like building
20:56
and it will allow you to gain fury which
20:58
you can then use on any ability you
21:01
want. For the first 30 levels, I'm going
21:03
to say you're going to want to go
21:05
frenzy,
21:06
uh
21:07
a a core of your liking, but for me
21:11
upheaval and whirlwind are almost always
21:13
going to be the winners.
21:14
>> Mhm.
21:15
>> Uh because um hammer requires you to
21:18
basically have a lot of stuff to make it
21:20
all work.
21:21
>> And hammer also, like I learned very
21:22
quickly, is
21:23
>> [clears throat]
21:24
>> uh at low levels you are probably going
21:25
to die if you're not geared.
21:26
>> Yeah. Um rend is just kind of it's it's
21:30
better as a thing that your ring does
21:32
than it is as something you actually
21:33
take points in. Um double swing is kind
21:37
of it's there.
21:40
Uh I would definitely say of the ones
21:41
you get, upheaval or whirlwind are the
21:44
two best, and whirlwind is seems to be
21:46
the best in terms of once you get enough
21:49
points
21:50
along the thing not just the point like
21:52
the main 15 points, but the things that
21:54
buff it up.
21:56
Uh until you're getting legendaries,
21:58
whirlwind is the easier one to make
22:00
stronger with with leveling points.
22:03
Um
22:04
After that, I love iron skin.
22:07
I absolutely love iron skin because it
22:10
you can be used for one thing it can be
22:12
used to give you unstoppable, which is a
22:15
condition that triggers so many
22:17
different things
22:19
and is very hard to get otherwise.
22:21
>> And it's also a really that's your huge
22:23
defensive. That's a huge defensive
22:25
ability.
22:26
>> It's it's a it's one of the better
22:27
defensives. It It isn't one of the
22:30
shouts, which is unfortunate because the
22:31
shouts have all sorts of cool things
22:32
about them, but for leveling until you
22:34
hit level 30, I'm going to say go frenzy
22:38
to pick a core between upheaval or
22:40
whirlwind, to go to iron skin, and then
22:44
just see where you get
22:46
by level 30. After that, um there's lots
22:50
of different builds, but it'll be
22:51
depending on what gear you're getting
22:52
and what items you have.
22:54
Um also be sure while you're doing this,
22:57
make sure you've picked out which of
23:00
your weapons works with which of your
23:02
abilities, cuz you want weapon switching
23:04
to be happening without you thinking
23:06
about it. You do not want to have to
23:08
stop and think about, "Oh, I I want to
23:10
do some weapon switching here, but I
23:12
have my hammer set to two different
23:14
abilities, and I could have one of them
23:16
be something else." You want your
23:17
slashing weapon on one ability, you want
23:19
your hammer on another ability, and you
23:22
want your your dual wielding to be on a
23:24
third ability, probably a basic ability.
23:27
Because that way you're always switching
23:29
away from them when you do something
23:31
else, and then you're always going back
23:32
to them when you're done. That's that's
23:34
a big thing, especially as you start
23:36
getting levels. Uh
23:38
because you're going to start getting
23:40
gear that does stuff like, you know,
23:42
after weapon switching X amount of
23:44
times, you get, you know, um
23:47
you get overpower, and you want
23:49
overpower. Every build for a barbarian
23:51
is pretty much dependent on overpower.
23:53
Uh so, yeah, that that'd be where I'd
23:56
put myself as I'm leveling. Between 30
23:59
and say 60, you kind of have to look
24:02
really carefully at what gear you're
24:03
getting, uh because you just, you know,
24:05
there's a certain amount of the you
24:07
can't plan for this when you're leveling
24:08
up. You just have to look at what you
24:10
get.
24:11
Um
24:12
once you're going from 60 to 70,
24:15
that's where you start really looking
24:17
at, "Okay, what can I do
24:19
to get my the gear I want to get?" And
24:22
when you start building Paragon, you're
24:24
running the you're going to be running
24:25
the pit a lot to to get your, you know,
24:27
the the things leveled up for your
24:30
various Paragon things. You want to get
24:33
the Dauntless one as quickly as you can,
24:36
because it increases your Fortify
24:38
damage, your Fortify increases your
24:40
Overpower damage,
24:42
which increases everything else. You
24:44
really want this, because your Fortify
24:45
will be keeping you alive more, your
24:48
Overpower will be boosting your damage.
24:50
It's an overall damage, and you get more
24:53
damage while Overpower stacks are on you
24:55
that isn't related to the overpower and
24:59
that creates a feedback loop. You're
25:01
getting buffed by overpower and then
25:04
also buffed by overpower in a completely
25:05
different way that is not It is
25:08
multiplicative. It's not additive. So,
25:10
that's all I've got for you cuz I need
25:13
need to take more time really going to
25:14
do this and I'm sure nobody wants to
25:16
hear me go on about that much longer,
25:17
but that's the basics that I would go
25:19
to. Also, check to see
25:22
um there's some stuff that I don't know
25:24
yet because I don't know if they've
25:25
fixed all the bugs on it. If you got the
25:28
burning part of Selig and you won't
25:30
obviously, but eventually it will it
25:31
will happen. If you have that thing,
25:34
check to see
25:35
how much maximum life you have on your
25:38
various talents as you've taken paragon
25:40
points because that thing works better
25:43
the less maximum health you have uh
25:45
because you have more maximum health,
25:47
the percentage of damage it reduces is
25:49
much lower and I don't know why and I
25:52
don't know if they fixed the uh but
25:53
that's how it works currently. It worked
25:55
as of you know, 2 days ago. As of right
25:57
now, I don't know. So, that's the only
25:59
uh that's the only variant I can't
26:01
really Otherwise, yeah, just go frenzy
26:04
uh unless you really like lunging at
26:06
things. The lunging lunging strike is
26:08
only good if you really just have to get
26:09
an extra lunge in and I feel like
26:12
barbarians have enough stuff to get
26:13
around. You don't really need that. But
26:16
otherwise, frenzy core skills
26:18
uh iron iron skin
26:21
uh either leap or charge and then
26:24
anything in weapon mastery.
26:26
If you have the right weapon enchant, um
26:29
weapon throw is the best weapon mastery
26:31
ability. If you do not,
26:34
then it isn't. You only want
26:36
uh
26:37
you only want uh weapon throw if you've
26:40
got the enchant that allows your
26:42
ultimate abilities to reset cool downs
26:45
because you can turn weapon throw into
26:48
an ultimate ability that lasts It has a
26:50
6-second cool down. So, you can
26:52
essentially spam
26:54
weapon throw as an ultimate. It will
26:56
then bring other stuff down you know,
26:58
they will take like 20 seconds off of
27:00
other things and then you can use them
27:02
more often. It It's a nice synergy. So,
27:04
yeah, that would be That's it. That's
27:05
>> Thank you.
27:06
>> You're welcome.
27:07
Now to talk about a bit about Diablo as
27:09
an actual game and I guess I was just
27:11
then, but uh in addition to D4 season 4,
27:14
which season 4 is now out.
27:16
>> Well, for Oh, sorry. I typoed that.
27:18
That's 14. This is season 4. Um
27:20
>> And just with that though, um I do want
27:21
to gracefully talk about Diablo 3 season
27:24
uh 39, which went out last week.
27:26
>> Yeah.
27:27
>> If you have for some reason you like
27:30
playing Diablo 3, but you've not been
27:32
playing this new season, go play this
27:34
new season because the shadow clones
27:38
that it talks about pop off every time
27:40
you hit any kind of shrine or or, you
27:43
know, those things that you click on and
27:45
good things happen. Those those guys,
27:48
when you are level 1 to 30, those guys
27:51
will murder everything around you making
27:54
Nephalem rifts, straight up Nephalem
27:56
rifts, not greater rifts, the best way
27:59
to level. They're absolutely the best
28:02
way to level right now. Uh I think I'm
28:04
at like less than like level 50 and I've
28:05
only been playing like sporadically.
28:07
It's just crazy. Like you will you will
28:10
click on that that that shrine. There
28:12
will be this boom sound. You will get
28:15
whatever you normally get from the
28:16
shrine and you will get the shadow clone
28:19
and the shadow clone will kill
28:20
everything. Just you don't even have to
28:24
do anything. You just follow it around.
28:26
Uh if you ever pull a a big elite pack
28:29
and you know there's a conduit nearby,
28:31
don't try and fight them. Get to that
28:33
conduit and then watch them
28:35
disintegrate. So, yeah, if you are
28:37
playing Diablo 3 season uh 39, you
28:40
already know this. If you're not, please
28:42
do. It is amazing. It is the best thing.
28:45
Now we can talk about season 14 Diablo
28:47
4.
28:48
Uh
28:49
I've gotten to play it. I don't know if
28:50
you guys have yet.
28:51
>> I I haven't yet. I just haven't had time
28:53
to do more than log in and to sort out
28:56
my stash from last season.
28:57
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. I did that this morning.
28:59
>> That is Okay, that is a weird amount of
29:02
a job [laughter] at the end of every
29:04
season. Just going into your stash
29:06
because your the stash you had on your
29:07
seasonal characters is now consolidated
29:09
with the stash you have on your other
29:11
realm characters. And it's
29:13
Man, why did I keep this much junk? Do I
29:15
need this much junk? And then you just
29:17
get tired and throw it all in your stash
29:19
and stop caring. That's at least
29:22
at least that's how I do it. I I try to
29:24
sort through things until I get tired.
29:27
>> I basically had to have several
29:28
characters with empty bags take stuff
29:31
into their bag just so I could get stuff
29:33
out of the big store [laughter] thing.
29:35
Then I could go through and delete stuff
29:37
to make room. And And I didn't I That's
29:39
one of the reasons I didn't play very
29:40
much on season 14 today. I did play
29:43
enough to know that
29:46
on the one hand, the story stuff is
29:47
interesting. On the other hand, there is
29:49
not a ton of it as far as I can tell.
29:52
>> I mean, that's that's kind of how Diablo
29:54
4 has always done seasons, but it has
29:56
enough Like, I was hoping
29:59
uh Lord of Hatred came out here with
30:00
such a strong and interesting story. I I
30:04
keep hoping we're going to get a little
30:05
more out of seasons, but
30:07
>> Yeah.
30:08
>> I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't have
30:10
my hopes up.
30:11
>> Yeah, I will also say that I did notice
30:13
another weird thing. We don't have an
30:15
end date for season 14 yet. I mean, it
30:17
just came out. They usually don't have
30:19
an end date that immediately.
30:20
>> Yeah, if you look at the reliquaries,
30:23
the the reliquaries
30:25
>> Not just the reliquaries, the
30:26
reliquaries and the stash cuz it tells
30:28
you exactly when your stuff will get
30:31
thrown out. So, you have this season and
30:34
they give you a day, like this many
30:36
days. So, you know exactly. And it's
30:38
going to be a short one again. It's not
30:40
going to be that long.
30:41
Like, 80-something days.
30:43
That's like 2 months. That's not
30:45
tremendously long consider compared to
30:47
other Diablo 4 seasons. It's not
30:49
ridiculously short, but it's not super
30:51
long either. And that's That's to me I'm
30:53
like, why do they keep doing that?
30:55
>> Well, I mean, that's that's close to 3
30:57
months. That's close to 3 months. Um and
31:00
and theoretically they're aiming for 3
31:03
months. You know, when they first
31:04
started doing seasons, it was going to
31:05
be a season a quarter, which turns out
31:07
to be a season every 3 months. So, they
31:09
were That's kind of the goal. This
31:11
season was really short. This past
31:14
season, season 13, was only about 2
31:16
months. But, this is closer to 3 months
31:19
than that one was.
31:21
>> Yeah, that's fair. I just I think it's
31:23
interesting. Um we have We should
31:24
probably mention there are also some
31:26
stuff where you'll get You get a lot of
31:28
story stuff through things you find
31:29
while you're doing these things.
31:32
Uh as of yet, I've only found a little
31:33
of it. So,
31:35
I'm not surprised based on what I do
31:37
know about it that I'm not going to talk
31:38
about because whilst it has been
31:39
announced by Blizzard into the ground,
31:42
uh I still don't feel like for anybody
31:43
who manages to somehow avoid that uh
31:45
that I need to spoil it for you.
31:47
But, I will say
31:49
um
31:50
I do feel like they could have put more
31:54
They could have just actually had some
31:56
some just in the world questing for this
31:58
that they that they do not seem to have
31:59
at this aside from go to
32:02
uh go to places that are far away from
32:04
other places and, you know, do stuff in
32:06
those areas.
32:07
>> Honestly, it just feels typical that
32:10
just lightweight. And even this season
32:13
feels a little lightweight. Um
32:16
>> It feels an awful lot like the season
32:18
before
32:19
uh Lord of Hatred
32:20
>> Season 12, the Season of Slaughter.
32:22
>> Yeah, in that it's there's a setup, you
32:24
go do the setup, and then now you're
32:27
doing the thing over and over again, and
32:29
then you will eventually get a quest
32:30
that kind of sum sums up the
32:32
the setup. And now it's That's That was
32:35
the story.
32:36
>> In season 12, it was like become the
32:38
butcher, we and in this season it's
32:42
they're pandemonium riffs that you are
32:44
trying to close and you close a bunch of
32:46
riffs and get rewards because that's
32:49
that's what we do. We do things, we get
32:50
rewards. That's the only reason we do
32:52
anything in any video game to get loot.
32:54
I mean so yeah, yeah, it's it seems like
32:57
a simple game play loop. Sometimes a
32:59
rift walker will spawn if you close if
33:02
you're there closing all the riffs and
33:04
the rift walker gets more rewards and
33:06
lets you go to the death toll chamber in
33:09
pandemonium where you kill things and
33:12
get even more and get even more rewards.
33:15
Uh
33:16
there's also the corrupted reaper boss
33:18
that you can kill. That's the end of the
33:20
seasonal boss. And but that's it that's
33:23
it that's the season. There's no power
33:25
system which it did feel like Diablo. It
33:28
did feel like Diablo 4 was getting
33:30
pretty samey with the power systems like
33:32
oh every season is has a new borrowed
33:35
power system to level through and this
33:37
one doesn't.
33:39
But it kind of feels because there's
33:41
nothing more than let's go close a bunch
33:43
of riffs in the open world.
33:45
It just this feels a little lightweight.
33:47
It doesn't feel like there's a lot to
33:49
do. You're just playing the game and now
33:51
there are riffs. So I'm not I'm I'm not
33:54
super excited about this season but I I
33:57
mean I'm going to give it a try cuz
33:58
obviously Diablo 4 is it's feeling
34:02
really good. It's in a good place game
34:04
play wise. So I'm going to play it. I
34:06
don't know if I'm going to play it for
34:08
forever.
34:09
>> No, I I don't think that the season is
34:11
intended to be like as you know as
34:14
dominating as the actual expansion was.
34:16
Like with the expansion itself was the
34:18
draw of season 13.
34:20
>> Yeah, because season 13 really didn't
34:23
have a theme. It was just hey, come play
34:25
come play. There's a new expansion. And
34:27
here we do have a thing but it's not not
34:30
a very big thing. Like one of the one of
34:32
the fun things about seasons, both in
34:34
Diablo 4 and Diablo 3, is that they come
34:37
and you get new kinds of powers that
34:39
change how you play the game. This one
34:41
really won't change how you play the
34:43
game. Except for, you know, kind of
34:45
structural changes coming in at the same
34:46
time, which they're big changes to
34:48
uniques, which I think are all
34:50
improvements, but uh
34:52
>> Yeah, that's not You can't really sell
34:53
that as part like this is why you should
34:56
play cuz the unique system is different.
34:57
It's like, well, I was going to It's
34:58
going to be different
35:00
if I play or, you know, if I don't play
35:02
the season, if I stay on my regular
35:04
character, I'm still going to have the
35:05
new uniques. It's not This isn't
35:08
changing that.
35:10
Uh but I I don't think it's bad. I'm not
35:13
saying it's it's bad. I'm saying that I
35:15
don't have a lot to report as of this
35:17
time of having only played it for like 6
35:19
hours, two of which was get my bag
35:22
straightened out. Um
35:23
quite frankly, I feel like eternal
35:25
realms should have the ability to buy at
35:27
least one more thing than we currently
35:30
have.
35:31
>> Yeah, it does feel like we need more
35:33
stash slots.
35:35
>> Yeah, or that emergency stash slot that
35:37
you get where all your stuff is just
35:39
hanging out and until you figure out how
35:40
to get it out, that that's just It's a
35:43
It's a band-aid. We need like at least a
35:45
little bit more space, guys. Just so
35:47
like
35:48
But aside from that, I do want to talk
35:50
about the Overwatch skins really briefly
35:52
because we're also getting like the
35:54
Diablo / Overwatch thing
35:57
and the Overwatch reliquary has an
35:59
in-game one where you just do stuff in
36:01
game and you get access to stuff in that
36:04
reliquary. And it's got the one where
36:06
you go to their store and spend lots of
36:08
money to buy lots of fake money to then
36:11
buy stuff.
36:13
>> Um the skins are Oh, man, I I love the
36:15
Brigitta skin.
36:17
>> It's a really good skin.
36:19
>> Oh, there's a Brigitta paladin skin.
36:22
It's so good, you guys. It's so good. I
36:26
kind of want it, but I
36:28
I must stay strong and resist.
36:30
>> I mean, I was looking at them
36:31
>> These are ridiculously expensive.
36:33
>> I was really surprised at how good the
36:35
Roadhog one. There's a Roadhog skin for
36:37
Druids and it's really good.
36:39
>> Yeah, I saw that and I I I'm in the same
36:42
camp as Liz. Like I want it, but also
36:45
that's expensive.
36:45
>> You can't no. I mean, I will also say
36:48
that the Roadhog skin has the benefit of
36:49
having really cool tattoos as well. It
36:51
also has
36:52
>> Mhm.
36:53
>> your character will also get tattoos on
36:54
them. Whereas the barbarian set it's
36:57
it's Reinhardt. I don't feel like that's
36:58
a shock. I mean, it's there's ads.
37:00
>> Yeah, Reinhardt's a good look. You can't
37:02
go wrong with it.
37:03
>> Nothing wrong with it. Like pretty much
37:05
all of it. There's of course big hammer
37:07
with rockets on the end of it. I don't
37:08
see how you go wrong with that. But it
37:11
doesn't have any kind of tattoos on it,
37:14
which makes sense because Reinhardt
37:16
doesn't wander around much with his
37:18
armor off. So they obviously they just
37:21
felt like it no one's going to care. But
37:23
I one of the things I like about sets is
37:25
that they give my barbarian new tattoo
37:26
skins. I I I've always liked that. So I
37:29
was a little bummed about that. The
37:32
otherwise I mean the the rogues get um
37:35
Genji. There's a Genji skin for rogues.
37:37
So if you're a rogue, Genji. Um I
37:40
forget. I think it's necromancers get
37:42
Reaper.
37:43
>> Reaper, yeah.
37:44
>> Yeah. And
37:45
>> I
37:45
>> the wand that looks just like a gun,
37:47
which is hilarious to me. [laughter]
37:49
>> I'm I'm not super thrilled by the by
37:52
most of them because it's just the
37:55
Overwatch theme doesn't feel like it
37:57
translates super well to Diablo. Like
38:00
you got Doom the Dark Ages and that just
38:02
felt like such a good fit with the
38:04
Diablo aesthetic. And over Overwatch
38:08
doesn't feel like such a good fit with
38:09
the Diablo aesthetic, but I I do love
38:11
Brigitta. I love it so much.
38:14
Uh so yeah, that's that's a tough one.
38:16
>> Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm frankly a little
38:18
disappointed that instead of the pet
38:19
they gave you I mean, they
38:21
pet they gave you is fine, it's a little
38:23
it's a little thing. I don't even know
38:24
what that thing is. Um but
38:27
>> Is that a Pachimari?
38:28
>> Yes, it's a Pachimari. Thank you.
38:30
Uh but it's not jetpack cat.
38:32
>> Uh well, jetpack cat is a hero though,
38:35
not a pet. Really, you can't give a pet
38:37
a jetpack cat skin.
38:38
>> No, you can't do that cuz there's no You
38:40
could have a jetpack cat mount, and
38:43
quite frankly, I feel like that might
38:44
have been a good move. But then again, I
38:46
mean
38:46
>> just you're just riding around on a
38:48
hero. That's that's getting real weird.
38:50
That's getting weird at that point.
38:52
>> That's fair, but I still feel like
38:54
unless they're going to actually let us
38:56
like have a cat suit that we wear with a
38:58
jetpack on it, which is just not going
39:00
to happen.
39:01
Unfortunately,
39:03
uh yeah, but
39:04
I don't know. I I
39:06
I like the season fine. Uh when I was
39:08
playing it, I was having a good time. I
39:10
was running around a hellfire um not
39:13
hellfire, what do you call them? The
39:15
hell the invasions? Like the helltides?
39:17
Helltides.
39:17
>> Helltides.
39:18
>> I was running around helltides, uh
39:20
finding rifts and and doing my best. But
39:23
I mean, I was level two uh because
39:25
that's you know, I I started at the end
39:28
of the expansion after everything's been
39:30
done, and now it's just do this. And so,
39:33
I'm running around at level two doing
39:35
helltides. And of course, then you're
39:36
level three and level four relatively
39:38
quickly. You you get to level I'd say I
39:41
think I was level 15. You get to level
39:42
15 in like an hour. Uh
39:44
and that's actually cuz I wasn't trying
39:46
very hard to set the difficulty higher.
39:48
>> Uh
39:49
>> but you know, because I was I started
39:51
level one. Um it's it's fine. It's a
39:53
good loop. Uh the stuff is fun to do,
39:56
but it does feel
39:58
at some point, I feel like they're going
40:00
to have to start thinking
40:02
more about how to make there be more
40:04
story
40:05
without there being a new expansion.
40:07
>> Mhm.
40:07
>> You know, that is the big limiter of
40:09
season play in Diablo IV right now is
40:12
that it does not provide you with a new
40:14
It provides you with a new new loop,
40:15
doesn't provide you with a new reason to
40:17
do it.
40:18
>> I mean, my real question is how long is
40:20
this
40:21
the new gameplay loop going to be
40:22
engaging? Because it's just go to a
40:24
place,
40:26
see a rift, attack it, attack all the
40:29
stuff coming out of the rift, close it,
40:30
and then you may or may not spawn a
40:32
boss.
40:33
>> Yeah, or you may or may not get to go to
40:35
another place to to fight a boss, yeah.
40:37
>> So, it's it's
40:40
I don't know, it just doesn't feel like
40:41
much. It feels pretty small.
40:43
And yeah.
40:45
>> But before we move on uh to talk about
40:47
anything else, I am going to ask Liz to
40:48
do the site news because we've got a
40:50
time here where we can do that and then
40:52
we can catch up on other things.
40:53
>> [laughter]
40:54
>> Uh yes, I just want to tell you all that
40:57
Blizzard Watch is made possible by all
41:00
of our listeners and readers just like
41:02
you. So, I want to say thank you so much
41:05
for tuning in today. But I do want to
41:07
toss out an extra special thank you to
41:09
our supporters on Patreon because it's
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41:14
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41:17
If you are able to support us
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41:20
patreon.com/blizzardwatch
41:23
and toss us a few bucks. It really
41:26
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41:28
it's this is like $3. But that that
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people tossing in just a little bit to
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keep all of this running. And uh at $3 a
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And this week when we recorded Tavern
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Watch, we also did a pre-show for it
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41:58
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So, again, if you can,
42:10
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42:13
But if you can't, I understand
42:15
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42:41
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42:57
uh clips from all of our podcasts in
42:59
which I take everyone completely out of
43:01
context to create funny moments. And
43:04
>> it's not it's not that easy to do was in
43:06
context. Let's just be up front. I don't
43:09
know if it's not a context for
43:10
everything we say.
43:12
>> And we do we do a lot of Sometimes there
43:15
are tangents. Last week's Lore Watch
43:18
clip Sometimes. Last week's Lore Watch
43:20
clip, I wasn't there for this
43:22
conversation, but it's it somehow it's
43:26
You went from Azshara to Wayne Gretzky
43:28
to Godzilla in like two sentences and
43:31
it's like
43:32
>> Our true fans understand that that is
43:34
just a Tuesday. [clears throat]
43:36
>> [laughter]
43:36
>> That's like
43:37
>> That's like
43:38
>> No, all points to Eric there for getting
43:40
us into Gretzky. Quite frankly, I didn't
43:42
I didn't bring that up. I did not bring
43:44
the Gretzky. I brought the Godzilla.
43:46
>> you did bring it back home to Godzilla
43:47
though. So
43:50
>> We're just living up to our
43:51
expectations. It's fine.
43:53
>> Uh
43:53
if you if you enjoy our little podcast
43:55
clips, follow us on YouTube, Instagram,
43:57
TikTok, or Blue Sky. So
44:00
and and just following us really helps.
44:02
It helps if you rate us or leave us a
44:04
review, particularly on the podcast.
44:07
That really helps us out. So, again, you
44:09
can't support us financially, please
44:11
just keep listening. That does so much
44:13
for us. Thank you all for being here.
44:15
And if you have questions for this or
44:18
any of our podcast, be sure to send them
44:20
in to [email protected].
44:23
Specify the show in the subject line and
44:25
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44:28
You can also contact us on Discord and
44:31
if you are Patreon subscriber, you can
44:32
do that through the patron queue and
44:35
podcast question channel. It's a little
44:36
extra way of saying thanks, even though
44:39
we don't always get to questions, but we
44:42
we do our best. We do our best. Thank
44:44
you very much for being
44:45
>> And thank you to Liz for, you know,
44:47
being able to do the site news so that,
44:49
you know, everybody else can take a
44:51
breather and go, "Oh god, have we shoved
44:52
some more stuff onto Liz to do?" Ah,
44:55
thank god.
44:56
>> [laughter]
44:56
>> And
44:57
but moving on, uh quickly, we've got
44:59
BlizzCon news. Um
45:01
I I the note was taken down, but I I
45:03
read it and I remembered it. And so,
45:05
where the question was asked is who who
45:07
here forgot that BlizzCon 2026 existed
45:10
and was going to happen this year in 2
45:12
months, essentially, in September. I had
45:15
forgotten that. So, yeah.
45:17
>> I
45:18
I had not forgotten that, but uh yeah,
45:20
that is just a couple months away, isn't
45:23
>> Yeah, 2 months. 2 months, July, August,
45:25
September.
45:26
>> time to start panicking. Time to start
45:29
panicking.
45:30
>> Imagine some of those minion things
45:31
running around on fire.
45:33
>> [laughter]
45:33
>> But the the news for BlizzCon we have
45:35
here is that uh Le Sserafim, I don't
45:38
know if I pronounce the extra S. I don't
45:39
know how to pronounce the extra S, but
45:41
Le Sserafim, uh they're a
45:43
a K-pop group. They looked like a K-pop
45:45
group.
45:46
>> Um they they did some stuff back in 2023
45:49
tying in with Overwatch and now they're
45:52
coming back for 2026's BlizzCon and
45:55
they're going to do a North American
45:56
tour anyway, so I guess they felt like,
45:57
"Hey, while we're at it, let's go do
45:59
BlizzCon again." So, that's cool. Um
46:02
>> This is [clears throat] their second
46:03
BlizzCon. So.
46:05
>> Number two. They've now officially done
46:07
200% more BlizzCons than I have.
46:09
Cuz I've only done the one and I'm I
46:11
don't think it's ever going to happen
46:12
again. Um but yeah, I think it's just
46:15
cool to remember that BlizzCon is
46:17
existing cuz you know, it's been a
46:18
while. [laughter]
46:19
It has been a while. Um
46:21
>> Another thing that Blizzard recently
46:23
announced about BlizzCon is that Darin
46:24
De Paul is back hosting Community Night
46:27
and I just
46:28
>> Get free
46:30
>> Darin De Paul is always a good thing.
46:31
Always a good thing. So.
46:33
>> Darin De Paul is one of the best hosts
46:35
they've ever had for anything. The
46:36
second I heard you say that, I had to
46:38
like mute my mic so that I
46:40
>> [laughter]
46:41
>> my fist pumping grunt noise would not be
46:43
distracting for people. If if any human
46:46
being who is not a professional wrestler
46:48
should have theme music that plays him
46:51
out, it's Darin De Paul. Like this is
46:53
guy is he's just brilliant. Um not not
46:56
just for the stuff
46:57
Go ahead.
46:58
>> He's so genuinely enthusiastic. I mean,
47:01
that's the thing. Sometimes they've had
47:02
hosts at BlizzCon who have not really
47:04
been gamers or plugged into the gaming
47:06
community [laughter] and it could feel
47:08
>> I can think of at least one right off
47:10
the top of my head where we're not going
47:11
to mention that.
47:11
>> Yeah, it
47:12
it could feel weird when you have
47:15
someone on that stage who is not just a
47:18
big gamer nerd. But Darin De Paul is
47:20
always so enthusiastic. He is so
47:22
enthusiastic about the cosplayers who
47:24
are going there and bring all of this
47:26
passion. He is also passionate and you
47:28
know, you respond when you're watching,
47:30
you feel that and it just makes the show
47:33
100 times better. I'm so happy he's
47:35
coming back this year.
47:36
>> To me, it's not just the enthusiasm
47:38
though. It's also the class. Like he's
47:41
enthusiastic he's enthusiastic without
47:42
ever once putting anything down or
47:45
making anybody feel bad for anything
47:47
they've chosen to do at BlizzCon. He's
47:49
just really good at being welcoming.
47:52
Uh so, yeah. Absolutely a great thing.
47:53
That's that's wonderful. I
47:56
I'm currently now trying to figure out
47:58
like how can I
47:59
>> Also, there was that there was that one
48:00
BlizzCon where he was wearing a purple
48:03
velvet jacket if I'm remembering that
48:05
right. He just He ups the style game a
48:07
lot. He sets a high bar.
48:09
>> So, that's cool. Um we should probably
48:11
also really quickly
48:13
uh get in talk about this one because
48:16
uh
48:17
Steam Summer Game Sale, the summer sale
48:19
is is is happening and it's going to be
48:22
>> Where?
48:23
>> July 9th and one of the questions here
48:25
was is that you know, there always a
48:27
ridiculous number of deals, but are we
48:29
burned out? Yes.
48:31
I am burned out on these game sales
48:34
because I just I I don't have enough
48:36
time for all the games I have.
48:38
[laughter]
48:38
And now
48:40
>> Well, there's a lot of really great
48:41
games out there that I want to support,
48:43
but I I just Sometimes I feel like, you
48:45
know, $5, $1 game things, I don't know.
48:48
Go ahead and
48:48
>> I I look at this more as an opportunity
48:50
for us to highlight some of our favorite
48:52
games that are on sale that maybe people
48:54
have not had a chance to play yet.
48:56
Because some people don't buy games
48:58
right away like we do or, you know, or
49:00
as fervently as we do. Like one that
49:03
comes to mind that is on sale, it's not
49:05
a big sale, but it is on sale is like
49:06
Dispatch. Matt and I have been singing
49:08
the praises of that game since before it
49:10
was released.
49:11
>> Yeah.
49:11
>> Um
49:11
>> If you don't have Dispa- Dispatch for
49:13
whatever reason, I I don't know. Maybe
49:16
there were people holding you hostage
49:17
somewhere. Maybe you just, you know,
49:19
>> [laughter]
49:19
>> Whatever is going on in your life, if
49:21
you can get Dispatch, do it.
49:23
>> But then there are other games like
49:24
Cyberpunk 2077 is on a very deep sale
49:26
and it goes on sale fairly often, but
49:28
still if you haven't picked it up, it's
49:30
worth picking it it's worth a purchase
49:33
uh in my opinion as far as uh like those
49:36
types of games go. Uh games like Jedi
49:38
Survivor are on deep deep sale. It's
49:41
like 80% off and I really enjoyed that
49:44
game or No Man's Sky if you've been on
49:46
the fence about it. It's also on sale
49:48
for like 60% off. So, I try to use it as
49:52
an opportunity to to, you know, maybe
49:55
remind people what's out there and what
49:58
some fun games that maybe they they
50:00
consider playing but didn't actually
50:01
play or just never got around to
50:03
because, you know, life is hard. There's
50:05
not a lot of time and sometimes there's
50:07
not a lot of money.
50:08
So, it's worth I think that while I
50:11
agree with you, I'm burned out on just
50:13
the the fact that there's just sales
50:14
everywhere, I just want to kind of, you
50:17
know, remind people or that some of our
50:19
favorite games are are currently
50:21
available for sometimes pennies.
50:25
>> Yeah, and there's there's there's a good
50:27
value to these sales, especially like
50:29
Steam cuz they have a library that you,
50:31
you know, there's going to be something
50:33
on there you would like and you will
50:35
probably find something on there that
50:36
you would like for less money.
50:38
Uh,
50:39
I just sometimes I'm like, "Oh god, and
50:41
now I feel guilty I'm not playing a
50:42
video game. I don't want to feel guilty
50:44
about that."
50:45
>> The thing is that it used to kind of be
50:47
the Steam the summer sale was like the
50:49
big thing. But now there's like summer
50:52
sale, fall sale, winter sale, spring
50:55
sale, like there's these happen so
50:57
quickly that it's hard to get as excited
51:00
about any of them because they're all
51:02
great deals. They're all great deals,
51:04
but it feels like, "Yeah, okay, we just
51:06
finished this Steam sale, now there's a
51:08
new Steam sale." So, it feels
51:10
a little less special, but it's also the
51:12
still great time to pick up some great
51:14
games, particularly indie games. I mean,
51:17
that's really
51:18
>> Oh, yeah.
51:18
>> That is a a strong draw.
51:21
Um I one that is a
51:23
>> Let's talk about this, Liz. You've got
51:24
one, I'm sure. Joe, you've got one that
51:26
you would want to talk about?
51:27
>> I'll let Liz go cuz I talked for a
51:28
little bit.
51:28
>> Okay, go ahead, Liz.
51:29
>> Oh,
51:30
now you're forcing me to talk. This is
51:32
so hard. Um
51:34
da da da da
51:36
One of my favorites, of course, is Blue
51:37
Prince, which is on sale for 40% off
51:40
right now. That
51:42
is an insane puzzle game that I never
51:45
{quote} {unquote} finished because it it
51:49
like you finish the game, but there is
51:52
so much more to uncover and learn.
51:56
There's kind of like a second ending if
51:58
you finish the game and then just keep
52:00
playing.
52:02
There's so much lore packed into this
52:05
weird house puzzle game and it's it's
52:08
really interesting, really fun.
52:11
Uh but it's $16 right now, which it you
52:14
can
52:15
you can sink so many hours into this.
52:18
Uh that is uh
52:20
man, I don't know how many hours I
52:22
played Blueprints, but it's it's enough
52:24
to get this into the pennies per hour
52:26
kind of cost. So, yes, go and look for
52:29
all of your favorite games. Pick this
52:31
one up
52:32
if you're if you're crazy. And I'm
52:35
probably not selling this very well. I
52:36
love it, but it's also it's
52:39
it's madness. It's madness, guys.
52:41
>> Uh I mean, that's the kind of madness
52:43
we're going to recommend to you. Go
52:44
ahead, you
52:45
>> But I was going to throw out there that
52:48
like there's just tons of really good
52:49
games out there that I are
52:51
absolutely, positively dirt cheap. Um
52:54
you're not going to hear, you know, I I
52:56
could go for several hours, but I will
52:58
point out that uh in particular, there's
53:01
a bunch of
53:02
um how do I how do I phrase um
53:05
they're not just indie games, but like
53:06
some of the larger games like Split
53:08
Fiction was a super fun play-through.
53:10
Spider-Man 2's on sale for PC and if you
53:13
have 40 bucks kicking around that you
53:14
want a game that's going to give you,
53:15
you know, a good, you know, at least a
53:18
dollar per hour of of gameplay that you
53:21
will likely enjoy. Um there's that. Um
53:25
those are those are just off the top of
53:26
my head, but like uh Tunic is a game
53:29
that I don't think gets enough
53:31
attention. Um it's got dismissed very
53:35
quickly as a Zelda-like game.
53:38
Um and it is, but it's so much more than
53:41
that including like emerging language.
53:43
Go ahead.
53:44
>> Tunic has much more of a It It's It does
53:47
elements. I can see why you'd say it's
53:49
like Zelda, but it's it's really got a
53:52
whole different game going on. It
53:53
>> Yeah.
53:54
>> It is more about exploring and working
53:56
things out. And there's no real
54:00
It's a slow burn game. I I will say that
54:02
for it. It takes a while to get into
54:03
what it's trying to do, but it is It is
54:06
very rewarding once you get to a certain
54:07
point there.
54:08
>> And one that I think is a sleeper that
54:10
was a larger title, and that I really,
54:12
really enjoyed and I actually picked it
54:13
up when it had first come out,
54:15
and it is on sale for all of like $9 is
54:18
the Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy.
54:20
It is a super fun time. It is well worth
54:24
the the money for $10 US.
54:28
I enjoyed the heck out of it and like
54:31
like that's that's generally what I look
54:32
for in these types of of sales
54:35
is hey, what what big games or games
54:38
that people maybe avoided because they
54:40
wasn't It wasn't 70 or $60 worth, but at
54:43
$10 it's definitely worth $10 or a
54:46
little bit more than that. Um there's a
54:48
ton of them, but those are those are my
54:50
my quick picks. Matt?
54:51
>> Um yeah, I One thing I was going to
54:53
actually point out is these aren't This
54:55
is not an indie by any stretch of
54:56
imagination, but it's a game that I feel
54:58
like kind of got ignored and
55:01
to some degree I'm one of the people
55:02
that ignored it unfairly. I I when I
55:04
first talked about it, I was not
55:06
positive about it. And both Joe and Liz
55:09
pointed out that I was being harsh on
55:10
it.
55:11
Not even necessarily saying I was wrong,
55:13
just saying I was being overly harsh on
55:15
something. And I went back and tried it
55:16
again later, and I feel like it's one of
55:19
those games that once it got its major
55:21
updates,
55:22
it really became a game that was much
55:25
better than my initial impression of it.
55:27
And that's
55:28
Avowed, which is an Obsidian game. So,
55:31
simultaneously not an indie, but at the
55:33
same time Obsidian's not a big studio,
55:36
Uh it's owned by a big studio, so you
55:38
know, you know you guys know how it
55:39
goes. But Avowed is The thing I love
55:41
about Avowed is A, it's a very classic
55:45
first-person action RPG-type game. Like
55:49
it it it's got lore, it's very much a
55:51
lore and and role-playing-type game
55:52
where you make your character and so
55:54
forth. But it's it's got that, you know,
55:56
first/third-person perspective, the
55:58
Skyrim the Skyrim effect to a degree
56:01
because Obsidian has been working in
56:03
similar types of games for a long time.
56:05
But it's also it's it's complete.
56:08
There's
56:09
This is the story of this game. There
56:11
isn't uh an expansion pack coming as far
56:14
as we know, there will be no expansions
56:15
to this. This is it. And that to me, the
56:18
fact that it's like it's got like a 40%
56:21
discount right now
56:23
on Steam, which means you can get it for
56:24
like 20 bucks for the basic version. And
56:26
for $20, this thing will keep you going
56:28
for months. If you're looking for a game
56:30
that you can just explore world and
56:32
check out all the places and make like
56:36
very big decisions on what happens with
56:38
your character. Uh when I played it, I
56:40
accidentally got the ending that's
56:42
supposed to be the hardest to get. Um
56:45
and let's just say it's a surprise at
56:48
the end when you find out, oh, this
56:50
might have been the hardest to get, but
56:51
it wasn't because it was good for your
56:53
character. Uh this is actually really
56:55
bad for your character.
56:57
Uh and that's something. I've not It's
57:00
been a long time since I have not been
57:03
hyper aware of the tropes
57:05
of a fantasy role-playing game on on you
57:08
know, video game. Because there's a
57:10
certain amount of limitation just
57:11
because it's not going to have a DM who
57:14
can adjust to the weird things you do.
57:15
But this game managed to come up with
57:18
things that surprised me quite heavily
57:22
based on my own actions. So, Avowed, I
57:24
think people should give it a shot if
57:26
they haven't. Uh I think it's Um the
57:28
other one I was going to mention, and
57:31
it's a weird one. It's also not even
57:33
remotely indie, but I I'm mentioning
57:34
this one because I think EA sent this
57:36
thing out to die. It's Immortals of
57:39
Aveum. Uh I don't know who was looking
57:41
for a first-person shooter fantasy magic
57:44
game. Um it's kind of like it it's it's
57:47
a little bit like um I don't know. I
57:50
don't know how to explain it. It's it's
57:52
almost like
57:53
uh like a like a Diablo game but in
57:56
first person with you know, ranged magic
57:59
only. I I just yeah, if it it it plays
58:02
like a like a shooter but it's also got
58:06
a weird magic story, which is actually
58:07
quite interesting. It's not a terrible
58:09
story.
58:10
Um I won't say it's the best thing I
58:12
ever saw, but it came out in 2023 and it
58:15
just it it was like literally sent out
58:17
to die. Like there was no press for it.
58:20
I don't know anybody who'd heard of it
58:22
and that's like it was coming out as a
58:24
major release from EA and nobody knows
58:26
this game exists. So yeah.
58:28
>> If you If you want to If you want to
58:29
talk about games that EA sent out to
58:30
die, Dragon Age The Veil Guard is also
58:32
on sale for $18.
58:38
And uh
58:38
>> I don't think they sent that game out to
58:40
die. I think they shot the game in the
58:41
back. No, I think they shot the game in
58:44
the back as it was [laughter] stepping
58:45
outside. They're like, "BY THE WAY,
58:47
BANG!"
58:48
YOU KNOW.
58:48
>> YEAH, because they released it and then
58:50
they laid everyone off. They already
58:52
that was pre-decided. But it is pretty
58:55
good game. It's not necessarily the best
58:57
game ever, but it's pretty good game.
58:59
Inquisition, which is my personal
59:00
favorite, is $3.99.
59:03
That is It's an old game, but it's still
59:06
such good game.
59:08
And it's $4.
59:09
>> Yeah, if you haven't played that and you
59:11
you wanted to catch up on your, you
59:13
know, your Dragon Age games, $4 is kind
59:16
of hard to argue with. Problem of course
59:18
is now if you do spend those $4,
59:20
congratulations, you're on the hook for
59:22
160 hours of gameplay. Good luck. Um
59:25
>> You can finish the main story faster
59:27
than that, but you know, you you
59:28
probably want to do more. So,
59:31
>> Regardless though,
59:32
the server game is
59:34
you know, it's it's a good sale. It's
59:35
just that you know, sometimes you feel
59:36
like, "Oh god, I feel guilty. I'm not
59:38
playing a game I bought." Like I bought
59:39
Deltarune last year.
59:41
I I I
59:41
>> [laughter]
59:42
>> I have Deltarune and I have still not
59:43
played Deltarune. And every time I see
59:45
Deltarune on my desktop, I'm like,
59:47
"Yeah, I I know I have to play I do, but
59:49
I I still haven't."
59:50
>> I do want to mention one last game to
59:53
close this out because we've been
59:55
talking, talking, and talking, which is
59:57
Steam Next Fest was actually a couple
59:59
weeks ago, and a lot of demos roll out
1:00:02
during Next Fest. I played one called
1:00:04
Desktop Explorer, which is It's like
1:00:08
you've gotten a a computer that you've
1:00:10
gotten from your uncle who has passed
1:00:12
away, and you're going through it I That
1:00:14
sounds kind of sad and creepy, and it is
1:00:16
sad and creepy, but in the best way
1:00:18
possible because you're going through
1:00:20
the things on the computer, and there's
1:00:23
a some kind of terrifying mystery, and
1:00:26
there's a Clippy analog who is talking
1:00:29
to you through this, who is also weird
1:00:32
and creepy. I mean, weirder and creepier
1:00:34
than Clippy itself.
1:00:35
>> I'm going to have to see that before I
1:00:36
believe that.
1:00:38
>> Um [laughter]
1:00:39
so, there is a free demo right now
1:00:41
available still even though Next Fest is
1:00:43
over. It's It's a I would call it a
1:00:46
puzzle game. It's a puzzle game set in a
1:00:48
Windows 3.1 style environment and
1:00:51
interface in which you are going through
1:00:53
files left on this computer.
1:00:56
It's It's
1:00:58
indescribably strange. This is going to
1:01:01
be a day-one purchase for me. When this
1:01:03
is released, I want to play more of this
1:01:04
game so bad.
1:01:06
>> I mean, you know, I'm right now I'm
1:01:07
sitting here thinking it sounds an awful
1:01:08
lot like a
1:01:09
like not a Bethesda game exactly, but
1:01:12
like the part of a Bethesda game where
1:01:14
you keep looking at people's computers
1:01:16
for and finding stuff out.
1:01:17
>> I That's true. That's true. Except
1:01:18
that's the whole game. And the computer
1:01:20
has all Yeah, there's there's strange
1:01:23
stuff on this computer.
1:01:25
>> Um
1:01:26
I I'm saying this thing to myself,
1:01:28
reminder to wipe my internet history in
1:01:31
case I ever die.
1:01:32
>> [laughter]
1:01:33
>> Um but yeah, that's been I think at this
1:01:34
point we're going to we're going to be
1:01:35
done.
1:01:36
Uh thank you to everybody for being here
1:01:39
with us. There's still more stuff coming
1:01:42
in the future. I know that, but right
1:01:43
now we're done.
1:01:45
Uh this has been the Blizzard Watch
1:01:46
podcast. Thank you to Liz and Joe for as
1:01:48
always making this show possible. Thank
1:01:50
you to everybody in the audience for
1:01:52
making this show have a point. And thank
1:01:55
you to people who actually go and do the
1:01:57
algorithm type stuff and and rate our
1:01:59
games and leave comments. Even if you
1:02:01
leave a lot of angry comments, we don't
1:02:03
like those emotionally, but it's still
1:02:05
engagement. The algorithm will still go,
1:02:06
"Ooh, someone's interested in this." So,
1:02:08
you know, if you have to
1:02:09
>> It's true.
1:02:10
>> If you have to yell at this, at least go
1:02:11
yell at us in a way that will get us
1:02:13
more people. Uh this has been the
1:02:14
Blizzard Watch podcast. Thank you guys
1:02:16
so much for being here, and we'll be
1:02:17
back next week.
1:02:21
>> [music]

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