The Coiled Isle has too many snakes

Name: The Coiled Isle has too many snakes | Open Video
Uploaded: 2026-09-12T19:28:53+00:00
Duration: 1 h 5 min 21 s

0:05
[music]
0:10
Hello everybody and welcome to the
0:12
Blizzard Watch podcast. We're all
0:14
parrots.
0:16
>> No, we're not.
0:17
>> No, only me. I'm the only parrot here.
0:19
You guys can't be parrots. That's me.
0:22
>> Is this rapidly turning into that? Was
0:24
it parro pigeons 11 or whatever that we
0:28
played? that but with parrots. We're all
0:30
pirate parrots.
0:32
>> No, me.
0:33
>> Can I be a pirate lobster?
0:34
>> I'm the parrot. You guys have to think
0:36
up something else. You've got to think
0:37
up something original and creative.
0:39
>> I could just roll dice.
0:40
>> Yeah, you could just roll dice and see
0:42
what they say.
0:42
>> I'm going to do that. I'm totally going
0:44
to do that because always I always end
0:45
up playing something weird. So,
0:47
>> I I I should I should say for anyone
0:50
who's very confused that you you missed
0:52
the pre-show where we were talking about
0:53
our upcoming upcoming tabletop game of
0:56
Pirate Borg and I'm going to be a
0:58
parrot. So, that's very exciting. And we
1:00
should we should probably talk about
1:02
Warcraft. That's kind of that's kind of
1:03
what we're here for. We should probably
1:04
introduce everybody. I've gotten in the
1:06
way with my parrot talk.
1:07
>> No, it's fine. Uh, [laughter] also in
1:10
addition to Liz, who I'm trying to
1:12
convince to play a vampire or Dracula
1:14
parrot, um, there's there's uh, Corey
1:18
who plays he's basically here so that we
1:21
will like eventually turn to him and
1:22
say, "Tell us more about, you know,
1:24
Heroes of the Storm, Corey." And and he
1:26
does, which we love.
1:27
>> I'm playing it right now. Is that Does
1:29
that count?
1:30
>> Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
1:30
>> How exciting.
1:31
>> And also Joe Joe Perez, who basically is
1:35
the reason you can hear us. and also um
1:39
told a great story this, you know, about
1:41
his dogs basically emotionally
1:42
blackmailing him with gifts so that he
1:44
will give them things they want, which
1:47
if your dog can't do that, it's just
1:49
being nice to you. Uh so yeah,
1:53
that's we're going to talk about World
1:54
of Warcraft now. Midnight season 2, it's
1:57
it started. You can do the raid. Um
2:01
uh here's the thing I wanted to ask
2:03
about this one. Uh because I haven't
2:04
been in Ullettech yet. Is it just
2:08
snakes? Like it a lot of these bosses
2:10
seem to just be snakes.
2:11
>> There's a lot of snakes. And
2:12
>> it's just danger noodles all the way
2:14
down.
2:15
>> I got to say I am
2:18
>> I I am terrified of snakes. And if
2:21
anyone out there messes with me about
2:23
this, you are getting banned. I'm just
2:25
telling you in advance. This is not a
2:27
joke. I am terrified of even seeing a
2:29
picture of a snake. I will be jumpy
2:32
>> for days just seeing a picture of a
2:34
snake. And uh
2:36
>> yeah, I'm not going to make fun of you
2:37
for that. That's different. That's
2:38
different than uh the the Jimothy.
2:40
Jimothy, that's funny. Not Not this.
2:43
>> You're not actually afraid of Jimothy.
2:45
You just don't like it.
2:47
>> I'm just I'm just tired of Jimothy.
2:48
That's all. I've just heard too much
2:49
about Jimothy and I'm tired. But snakes,
2:51
I'm literally I'm literally genuinely
2:53
paralyzingly afraid of. And now
2:57
>> and now they're everywhere. And there is
2:58
in fact in this expansion, in this
3:01
patch, there is a mount that is not just
3:04
a snake, but it's
3:05
>> four snakes,
3:06
>> a writhing coil of multiple snakes. And
3:10
I'm like, "Oh, dear God, I can't even I
3:12
can't even think about this. I've got to
3:14
stop. I've got to stop or I'm not going
3:15
to be able to talk anymore."
3:17
>> Yeah. Shout out to Shout out to our
3:19
friends at uh Girls Gone Wow. Uh because
3:22
they just talked about this on Sunday
3:24
during their podcast recording live
3:25
show. Uh, and they they're in the same
3:28
camp as you, Liz.
3:29
>> That's why I was going to say we need an
3:31
add-on that does does for snakes what we
3:33
often see for spiders.
3:34
>> So, here's the thing. Had add-ons not
3:37
been locked down, there probably would
3:38
have already been one.
3:40
>> Yeah.
3:40
>> I mean, we have an arachnophobia mode
3:42
that Blizzard itself put in, but we
3:45
don't have a a terrified of stakes mode.
3:47
>> That's a lot of different modes, too,
3:49
though. Like if
3:51
>> if you start hitting every
3:52
>> phobia thing like you can just select
3:54
the mob that you don't want to see and
3:56
replace it with Gimathy,
3:59
>> you know, you know, for all of the for
4:02
all the crap I say about Jimy, I would
4:04
be fine with that. If I could just see a
4:06
lot of gemies and no snakes, I would be
4:08
okay. I would be okay.
4:10
>> Question for you, though. Uh it what
4:12
about the mobs that are obviously snakes
4:14
oriented but have arms and legs or
4:17
something? Like is there a point where
4:18
it doesn't bother you that much?
4:21
>> Some of these really bother me and some
4:23
of them it's not a huge deal.
4:25
>> What about Naga?
4:26
>> But the but the really Naga don't bother
4:29
me. the really snaky looking ones and
4:32
the ones that have that snake movement.
4:34
Like I in Miss Pandaria, the snakes on
4:37
the coiled aisles really freaked me out
4:39
because they had a really realistic kind
4:41
of I don't know how realistic, but they
4:43
had that movement that just felt like a
4:46
real snake as opposed to like a silly
4:48
cartoon snake.
4:49
>> There's the Timeless ones, too, right?
4:50
Like the ones that's the ones I'm
4:52
talking about on the Timeless Aisle.
4:54
>> Yeah. They they were literally just It
4:56
was just like a model of an anaconda
4:57
that moved like an anaconda.
4:59
>> Yes. Yeah.
5:00
>> Um
5:01
>> as opposed to like most animals in
5:03
Azeroth which are like take a regular
5:06
animal and make it like have
5:07
>> it make it cuter, make it have Yeah,
5:10
exactly. Uh those but some of some of
5:14
the snakes here are fine. Some of them
5:15
are just Oh my god. In one of the I'm
5:18
I'm not going to give spoilers, but in
5:20
one of the first pets, first quests in
5:24
uh 12.1, you go and you have to there
5:28
are some trolls that have been attacked
5:31
by snakes that have twisted around them
5:35
and are supposedly squeezing them to
5:37
death and they have this kind of motion
5:40
going on and you have to go up and click
5:41
on them and I just I could not look at
5:43
my screen. I was just This is too much
5:46
snake. They're everywhere. This is too
5:48
much snake.
5:50
>> Yeah.
5:51
>> So, yes, I have a whole I have a whole
5:52
patch of this. I have a whole patch of
5:54
this and I'm not Maybe maybe this is
5:57
like exposure therapy and I'll get over
5:59
it. Maybe I'll just
6:01
>> I don't know. I don't know. But I don't
6:03
love it.
6:04
>> I mean, would it would it help you to
6:06
know like for me to say that I guess
6:08
Ulletch at least technically isn't a
6:10
snake, it's a hydra. Does that matter?
6:12
Yeah. Does that help?
6:14
It's the snakiest hydra I've ever seen,
6:15
though. [clears throat]
6:16
>> He's He's a snaky hydra, but it's like
6:18
he's obviously I mean, looking at his
6:20
heads. Yeah, they've got this I h I just
6:23
don't like it. I don't It's the
6:25
slithering. The slithering and the
6:27
coiling stuff I think probably really
6:28
bothers me. And you know, the snake like
6:31
head with its fangs that are going to
6:32
eat me. None of that's good. And here we
6:36
are. Here we are in this raid that's
6:38
full of snakes. I love it. I love my
6:40
life here surrounded by snakes. It's
6:42
like this is like finding out Indiana
6:43
Jones is in your raid group.
6:46
[laughter]
6:48
>> At least at least I would have someone
6:49
to commiserate with. [laughter]
6:52
>> So So what we got here is lots of snakes
6:54
and not great if you don't like snakes
6:57
or have a phobia of them.
6:59
>> It's a little It's a little unal if you
7:01
don't like snakes.
7:02
>> There's that one fight that involves
7:03
turtles.
7:05
>> Yeah, turtles are just snakes and shells
7:07
with legs. Wait a minute.
7:09
>> It doesn't have legs. So, like, you
7:11
know, I I think maybe it's about the
7:13
number of legs. You know, a snake does
7:15
not have enough legs. A spider has too
7:17
many legs. You've got to be somewhere in
7:18
the middle to be to be not terrifying.
7:22
>> Well, like me, I'm not terrified of
7:24
spiders, but man, am I deathly allergic
7:25
to them. So, like I'm terrified of their
7:27
bite. [laughter]
7:28
>> Yeah, but the sight of a sight of a
7:30
snake of of a of a spider doesn't
7:33
automatically trigger a phobia in you.
7:35
>> No, no, [clears throat] no. But like
7:37
>> that's more of a tick thing.
7:39
Oh boy, those bad bad bad ticks. Bad.
7:43
[laughter]
7:45
And see the thing is you can't like if
7:47
you're afraid of ticks, you can't. Wow,
7:50
we are off topic here. Uh [laughter]
7:53
it's it's like you usually don't notice
7:55
a tick until you're already you're
7:57
already in trouble. So
7:58
>> see, I grew up on a farm that was in the
8:00
middle of an island that had ticks every
8:02
summer. So we basically were like tick
8:06
aare. like you didn't I I've had more
8:08
ticks burned off my body than I want to
8:10
talk about.
8:10
>> I will say that the good news is that
8:12
there are no ticks in the new raid. At
8:13
least not this one. We are not in we we
8:16
are not in a weird Titan facility
8:18
fighting blood ticks. Uh so we're good
8:21
we're good there. Um
8:23
>> not good times though.
8:24
>> But we are going to see we are going to
8:25
see a whole bunch of snakes and we are
8:27
going to see a whole bunch of uh poison
8:30
rivers and lakes and things you
8:32
shouldn't touch and ground that's really
8:33
bad for you. Uh, so there's that. Um,
8:38
yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know
8:41
how I feel about this raid tier.
8:42
[laughter]
8:44
>> Well, you know, we kind of
8:48
>> know Blizzard likes Blizzard likes to
8:50
color code its raid tiers and each raid
8:52
tier has its own color theme. Right now,
8:54
we're in a green phase
8:57
and uh yeah. Yeah, we're gonna see how
8:59
this goes with everything is
9:01
delightfully venomy. That's why Hellfire
9:04
um Hellfire Citadel when we did the
9:07
second one uh the one in in
9:11
I want to say Warlords. Thank you.
9:13
>> At least it had occasionally they'd have
9:15
some kind of like void thing show up or
9:17
a big robot show up to break up the
9:19
green
9:20
>> like or a Sethic boss who did a big
9:22
whirlpool of death like all these
9:24
different things would break up the
9:26
green. All the pictures I'm looking at
9:28
here are it's a green green green green
9:31
with some blue green with some red.
9:33
>> The thing the thing that I will say at
9:35
least about like the boss fights in here
9:37
is they're not just snakes. They are
9:39
they are variations of it but it is very
9:41
very green cuz like just running through
9:44
it real quick. You've got the Intomb
9:45
Sentinels which are essentially uh if
9:48
you remember the Omnitron Defense Force
9:50
and any other like mechanical guardian
9:54
boss fight we've ever had. There you go.
9:56
You've got a twin set of those to deal
9:58
with. Um, you've got Nexali, uh, which
10:01
is a, uh, troll that, you know, is a
10:04
troll, uh, priestess, I think, uh, might
10:08
be a shaman. I don't remember the the
10:09
exact lore of it. You've got the half of
10:12
a body of uh, Cesarak, uh, which is like
10:17
kind of a snake, but kind of also like a
10:19
lurker below almost looking thing.
10:21
You've got the coiled altar, which I
10:23
won't ruin that because that has story
10:24
implications. Um, you've got the lost
10:28
explorers, which are tortolins that have
10:30
become like weird like possessed
10:34
versions of themselves. Uh, you got the
10:37
twin fangs, which are essentially if you
10:39
did the hydra boss in um,
10:44
>> thrown of thunder, thank you. It's very
10:46
similar to that. Uh, you have Vashnik,
10:48
which is looks like a Seth uh, somebody
10:51
from Seth Rollles uh, with a shorter
10:53
neck. Uh, and then you have Oolletch,
10:55
which is a weird hydronaut, uh, that
10:58
like, you know, its body is in the muck.
11:01
And I can't I I look forward and I'm
11:03
leveling my hunter specifically for this
11:06
boss fight so that I can uh use the
11:09
spear that pulls you in to see if I die
11:12
like I did on the hydra boss in uh the
11:15
the the uh Blackwing Vault area in
11:20
Dragon.
11:21
So Red described this as there's a
11:26
snake, group of snakes, big snake,
11:27
another snake, ghost snake, wing snake,
11:29
and a turtle, which I don't know. I
11:31
don't know if that's how this all goes,
11:33
but it feels right. It feels right.
11:36
Yeah,
11:36
>> I I I I understand, but looking at it, I
11:38
think it's you're going it's going to be
11:40
a little more okay than that. I think
11:44
>> I just This feels correct in my heart,
11:47
whether it's correct or not.
11:49
Well, all we can really say is if you
11:51
are a fidophobic, I we apologize.
11:54
>> Yeah.
11:54
>> Or at least we sympathize with you.
11:57
>> Sorry, Blizzard clearly hates us. That's
12:01
just very obvious from this whole patch.
12:04
>> Also, what the new RWF? I don't know
12:07
what that means.
12:08
>> Race for world.
12:09
>> Race to world first.
12:10
>> Okay, thank you.
12:11
>> I just thought boss like is there gonna
12:14
be a boss named RWF? Was that Rage Fire?
12:16
Like what?
12:18
Do you want to do you want to talk a
12:19
little about how the raid door race door
12:22
first is kicking off?
12:24
>> Uh not well apparently. Uh in a tweet
12:26
from Liquid Max right now he's compar
12:29
he's calling this very buggy uh for a
12:31
start
12:32
>> and um it's not great to hear that
12:34
they've lost a bunch of time on their
12:36
splits which is going to drag out the
12:38
worst part of the race to world first
12:40
which is just watching them clear heroic
12:42
raids over and over and over again to
12:43
get their raiders as possible. Yeah.
12:46
>> But um yeah, race to world first. Uh the
12:48
top guilds in the world competing to try
12:50
and win World of Warcraft at least for
12:53
the next season. Uh be the best raiders
12:56
they can possibly be and show everyone
12:59
else that they can uh have the it's more
13:02
mostly a fortitude thing like you can
13:04
survive 300 wipes on the end boss to get
13:07
the knowledge and the skill required to
13:09
beat it. Uh, we got Liquid, Echko, and
13:11
Method all running their usual streams
13:13
and all they're all raising money for
13:15
various charities, which is great. Um,
13:18
they they've raised a lot of money over
13:19
the course of these since Battle for
13:21
Azeroth.
13:22
>> And uh I I usually keep tabs on Liquid
13:25
Stream. They you are usually raising
13:28
money for an animal shelter. And
13:30
>> I think this time Liquid is UNICEF.
13:33
>> Oh, well that's a good that's a great
13:34
one also. Um, but they also they also
13:37
show if you donate to their charity,
13:39
they will show pictures of your pets on
13:41
stream, which is obviously
13:44
>> the defining reason to do such a thing
13:49
>> because everyone needs to see your pet
13:51
and 100%.
13:52
>> Obviously,
13:53
>> obviously
13:54
>> your pet's adorable. It needs to be
13:56
shown to the world or at least the the
13:59
world of Warcraft nerds who are watching
14:01
Race to World first.
14:04
Us and people like us.
14:06
>> Yeah. And uh you know, everyone's got
14:08
casters and all these produced streams.
14:11
Echo Liquid has definitely held up
14:12
theirs as the best most money involved
14:16
in one of the streams. I think even this
14:18
season
14:20
>> all of their so high and I think they
14:22
have all 20 plus raiders in the building
14:25
with them
14:27
>> which is a lot of people even the even
14:29
the ones from EU have been flown over to
14:31
NA to
14:32
>> to North America to play
14:34
>> I think I think last trade they had they
14:36
were split they had some people in a an
14:39
EU facility.
14:40
>> Yeah. which is I I understand it's
14:42
money, but at the same time it's not as
14:45
exciting.
14:48
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it takes a big
14:50
investment to be able to do something
14:52
like that. And you I think you really
14:53
only see uh Liquid and Echo doing these
14:56
big inerson streams.
14:59
Method used to do that, but Method is
15:01
maybe a little less of a powerhouse that
15:03
it used to be,
15:05
>> but you know, like they broke up twice.
15:08
>> They broke up once and They they
15:13
they're
15:15
I mean,
15:16
>> we could go into all of the sort of
15:18
details again of of why they broke up,
15:20
but uh they did break up and it's been a
15:23
long time and they fought their way back
15:25
to third place from like eight, which is
15:28
great. Uh, but they just have not had
15:30
they've still got the drive to put on
15:32
these big produced events, but they just
15:33
don't have the funds to make it as
15:37
>> because I mean it's not like there's
15:39
prize money for this.
15:40
>> Yes.
15:41
>> Nothing like that.
15:42
>> The real prize is the friends we made
15:44
along the way.
15:45
>> The friends we made along the way and
15:47
the sponsorship deals. So, it's like to
15:51
to really afford to do Race to World
15:53
First takes a lot of money and
15:54
financing. And that means you're getting
15:57
sponsorships, you're serving
15:58
advertisements, and just making a really
16:01
big show. It takes money to put on these
16:03
shows and uh takes money to make money.
16:05
>> And don't forget merchandising where the
16:07
real money.
16:09
>> Oh gosh. I And Liquid has really good
16:11
merch. I
16:12
>> think of merch right now.
16:15
>> I think about buying this stuff every
16:17
time. I haven't I haven't given in yet
16:19
because it's like I don't I don't need a
16:22
picture of a cartoon WoW raid boss, but
16:26
I kind of feel like I do.
16:29
But also, nah.
16:33
And it's a good time to watch. It's a
16:34
good time to watch. It's It's fun to
16:36
watch the best players in the world out
16:38
there banging their heads against a
16:40
wall. you know, you feel a little less
16:42
alone when you two cannot cannot conquer
16:45
a boss. Even though they're doing it at,
16:47
you know, they're doing it in hard mode
16:49
and you're doing like LFR, but you know,
16:52
you feel a little kinship there maybe
16:55
with your if you use your imagination,
16:58
>> you understand that you're all in this
17:00
together. You're all trying to get the
17:01
same result.
17:02
>> Exactly. We're all diving through the
17:05
same bugs
17:07
>> or snakes
17:08
>> or snakes. [laughter]
17:10
Um, I did I do want to point out that um
17:14
the method stream has a couple of new
17:16
casters in it. Um, Panda, the streamer
17:20
from Australia, uh, who is raising money
17:22
for his own charity who's like just the
17:24
nicest guy. I met him at Blizzcon 2023,
17:27
and he was so nice to just a guy that
17:29
he's never met even. And my my personal
17:32
friend, Touchpad Warrior, uh, is also
17:34
joining the Method stream as a firsttime
17:36
full-time caster, which is great for
17:38
him. uh he'll be sharing casting blocks
17:41
with Kexman. So, it's going to be the
17:43
beard power hour because they both have
17:45
just excellent beards. And uh I'm
17:48
[laughter] just glad to see that a lot
17:50
of these streams have become I'm not
17:51
going to say uh stagnant, but they are
17:55
uh you're seeing the same casters every
17:57
time because they're good at their job
17:58
and it's a it's a pretty niche job. So,
18:01
it's hard to really get a lot of new
18:04
talent there. But it's good to see that
18:06
there are new talent and new streamers
18:08
and new casters being put into these
18:09
positions and making the race fun and
18:12
vibrant and exciting even on the hund
18:15
and 107th wipe on a boss that should
18:17
have taken you 20.
18:18
>> It is it is hard sometimes to keep up
18:21
the energy. But you know just being a
18:24
player it's hard to keep up the energy.
18:25
I mean, you know, when you're on even as
18:28
a player, you're on your 50th pull,
18:30
which is way fewer pulls than than a lot
18:33
of these guys are doing on some of these
18:35
mythic bosses, it's it's kind of
18:38
exhausting and it's hard to keep your
18:40
energy up and be positive and things
18:42
like that after you've had your, you
18:45
know, dozenth wipe because one person
18:47
forgot to step to the right instead of
18:49
stepping to the left, things like that.
18:51
Um,
18:52
>> they just got to do the time warp again.
18:55
>> Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But it's it it is
18:58
hard. It is hard to do these things. And
19:00
one of the one of the heartening things
19:03
is that you see these professional
19:05
guilds and the energy is almost always,
19:08
you know, high. It's like you don't see,
19:11
at least not in modern WoW rating, you
19:14
don't see like a lot of yelling at each
19:16
other and putting each other down. It's
19:17
like all these guys are here. They want
19:19
to play this game. They enjoy this game.
19:21
They enjoy playing together.
19:24
And that's honestly that's kind of nice.
19:26
That's kind of nice to watch. It's not I
19:29
mean it's not like watching AGDQ which
19:32
is the most wholesome thing ever in
19:33
gaming, but it's it's nice. It's nice.
19:37
>> It's nice. [laughter]
19:39
>> It's nice.
19:40
>> I just feel like in a world where
19:42
raiding is nice.
19:44
[laughter] That is that is some of the
19:45
rarest stuff right there. Obviously.
19:47
>> Yeah. Yeah. because wow just just being
19:51
an online community there is toxicity in
19:53
the game and there's a lot of toxicity
19:55
around goo group content in particular
19:58
because you know if you aren't playing
20:00
the meta build if you aren't you know
20:02
the best player out there then you know
20:06
people can talk you down people can yell
20:08
at you people can group kick you all of
20:10
these things and so it is it's always
20:13
good when you're playing to try and
20:16
bring you know positive energy to the
20:18
game and because it's it's a hard world.
20:21
It's a hard world out there. You've got
20:23
a lot of angry players and
20:26
I'm about to die on the live stream,
20:28
which is very embarrassing. Um,
20:33
so it's good to see them there and see a
20:35
raid environment that is they're super
20:38
focused, but they're genu genuinely
20:40
positive and they always seem to be
20:42
there and just enjoying themselves and
20:45
and keeping keeping things positive
20:48
>> because let's not forget that at the end
20:50
of the day, this is still just a game.
20:52
It is still just a game and it's like
20:54
it's it's not worth getting
20:56
>> Why are you so mad?
20:57
>> It's not worth getting upset upset over.
20:59
You know, you're here to have fun.
21:01
They're having fun at like a much higher
21:04
level than probably the rest of us, but
21:06
still that's why we're all here and it's
21:08
nice to see them doing this and not just
21:12
being shouty and angry about it because
21:16
group content kind of has that
21:17
reputation and it's not fun.
21:19
>> Yeah. I I would say that gone are the
21:21
days of the many welps 50 DKP minus
21:25
>> mindset in a lot of these things because
21:28
I there's just not the the barriers to
21:31
entry and raiding that there were
21:32
before. You can't [clears throat] if
21:34
you're not going to put up with that
21:35
long term because guess what?
21:37
>> There's always another raid group out
21:38
there or there's LFR or there's group
21:41
finder. So you can be you can afford to
21:44
be a little choosier in your play style
21:46
as well, which is good because it means
21:47
that the jerks don't win.
21:49
>> But now we've talked about this a bit
21:51
and we should now move on to talking
21:53
about dungeon balance and quality of
21:55
life changes. Uh some of these are for
21:59
>> mythics. Yep. These are like for these
22:01
are for mythics.
22:02
>> Yeah. So Joe, you probably do mythics
22:05
more than anybody else here. Although I
22:07
think you said you hadn't got a chance
22:09
to do anything.
22:10
>> Not yet. But I mean these are stuff that
22:12
you don't have to have done these to to
22:14
kind of understand that these are very
22:16
nice quality of life changes or at least
22:19
good quality of life changes. Um, with
22:22
every new season and every new rotation
22:25
of dungeons, especially ones that are
22:27
coming back, uh, that haven't been done
22:30
in a Mythic Plus environment yet,
22:32
balancing needs to be taken into
22:34
account. Uh, and you also need to take
22:37
into account player power, uh, player
22:39
class balances and and things like that,
22:41
which adjust, uh, kind of how difficult
22:44
certain sections of certain dungeons
22:47
are.
22:48
>> [snorts]
22:48
>> So things like Den of Nalarak, um
22:52
there's a little tiny bug that's a but
22:54
for me is a huge thing. Uh if you've
22:56
ever done the dungeon when like if you
22:58
did it when the expansion first started,
23:00
the first section that you're going
23:01
through, you have to go find a bunch of
23:05
uh uh apple barrels essentially because
23:08
you have to feed the hunger to go and
23:10
it's it's this big symbolic thing. Uh if
23:13
you are shapeshifted in any way, shape,
23:15
or form, you can't interact with those.
23:17
you have to shift out into your humanoid
23:20
form in order to interact with the
23:22
barrels of apples. Uh, and then shift
23:25
back and go where you need to go. Well,
23:28
it sounds like a little tiny change, but
23:30
I know druids are probably rejoicing.
23:32
I'm rejoicing. Anybody that has a
23:34
shape-shifted form is definitely
23:35
rejoicing. Uh, you can now do that with
23:38
uh without opposable thumbs because you
23:41
don't need thumbs to carry a barrel of
23:42
stuff apparently. Um but everything else
23:45
is a lot of uh visual updates. So a lot
23:48
of the uh area of effect spells uh like
23:52
rhyme shatter soak from the sentinel of
23:54
winter in Den of Nalorak has a much more
23:57
uh visually uh separable like you can
24:00
you can see it a lot better cuz before
24:01
it was white on white on white uh which
24:04
you know we know how Blizzard loves to
24:05
do that. Um, but going through like all
24:09
basically almost every single one of
24:11
these dungeons, visibility has been
24:13
improved on certain abilities to make
24:15
them a little more uh telegraphed so
24:18
that you can actually get out of them.
24:19
Uh, certain abilities, the uh cast times
24:23
have been increased to allow for a
24:26
better kick time. This is with a lot of
24:28
classes that went through and had uh
24:30
their interrupt durations messed with or
24:33
some classes just don't even have access
24:35
to them anymore. if you're playing a a
24:37
particular flavor of of healer. Um,
24:41
they've also done stuff like adjust
24:43
certain bosses uh with like their
24:45
landing speed like in the Ruby life
24:47
pools is a really good example. There's
24:49
a lot of RPing in Ruby life pools. uh
24:52
that makes it very difficult to run it
24:55
as a timed dungeon because then you're
24:57
stuck waiting for a whole bunch of like
25:00
RP to happen and you're just watching
25:02
seconds tick away and so it punishes you
25:05
even further for any deaths that you
25:06
take during that run. So, they've
25:09
adjusted that so that there's not so
25:11
much the RP's still there or it's just
25:13
completely shortcuted so that the things
25:15
you need to interact with are there
25:16
right away or bosses land like quicker
25:19
instead of doing their big RP like
25:21
villain arc speech. Lots of really cool
25:24
stuff like that. Uh probably
25:25
>> I ask you directly a question here. Um
25:28
the Avatar of Sethis fight they
25:30
>> literally was just getting there. Yeah.
25:32
>> Okay. Because that's the one that used
25:33
to make me start crying.
25:35
>> Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say
25:36
>> I remember doing this one. Yeah,
25:38
>> this is this is the biggest probably
25:40
probably like quality of life and
25:42
biggest improvement that they made. So,
25:44
if you've never done Temple of Sethalis,
25:46
the Temple is a it was a very brutal
25:50
dungeon if you were not overeared,
25:51
prepared, if you've never run it before,
25:54
uh it could go sideways very very
25:56
quickly with all of the bridges that you
25:58
had to cross, all of the puzzles that
26:00
you had to get through. Um, and trust
26:03
me, if you hated the wind bridge uh in
26:06
in the Throne of Thunder, you would
26:07
absolutely hate the wind bridges and the
26:09
wind windmills of tornadoes in the
26:12
temple of Sethalis. Um,
26:14
>> I did.
26:15
>> Yeah, most people did. But here, the
26:17
biggest one is probably the very very
26:19
last fight uh where there was a whole
26:21
mechanic where healers actually got to
26:23
participate in the boss fight by healing
26:25
the boss. Uh, and there were mechanisms
26:28
in place to allow other players to
26:31
essentially get an item or access to an
26:34
ability that would let them also heal
26:35
the boss by channeling health into the
26:37
boss. Well, two things have happened.
26:39
One, they've decreased the amount of
26:41
healing that that channel healing does.
26:43
Uh, making it more uh on the healers,
26:47
which I think that's I actually like
26:50
that, which maybe made me weird, but I
26:52
also play a healer, so there you go. Um,
26:54
there was also a soak called corrupted
26:57
life force. Um, where players would have
26:59
to soak uh essentially like a an effect
27:03
that would, you know, instead of letting
27:04
it get to the boss. Um, but the soak uh
27:08
time has been increased. You now have 6
27:10
seconds to do it instead of it was like
27:12
4 and 1/2 seconds. And that doesn't
27:13
sound like a lot, but it's a fairly
27:15
large arena that you have to move around
27:17
a ring in. And so, uh, an extra second
27:20
and a half can make all the difference
27:21
between you getting that soak off or
27:24
not. Um, they've also done things like
27:27
adjusting the physical vulnerability
27:29
from corruption, lowering it a few
27:30
percentages, um, increasing the periodic
27:33
damage of it a little bit, making it a
27:35
little spikier so it relies more on the
27:36
healer. U, making sure that things like
27:38
tainted strike, they have their dam
27:40
periodic damage reduced. like things
27:43
like this uh are making the fight a
27:46
little more interesting, a little more
27:47
dynamic, and from what I can see, a
27:50
little more fair. So, overall, like
27:53
there's too many too many changes for
27:55
for us to really list out. Highly
27:57
recommend you go and and read up on them
27:59
if you're interested in doing it. But
28:01
overall, it's tweaks and adjustments
28:04
that make the keys feel a little more
28:07
fair. And I'm here for it. I'm here for
28:10
seeing them actually make adjustments to
28:13
stuff this early. Like literally, they
28:16
did it today, which is just fantastic,
28:19
right?
28:20
So, that's the that's the TLDDR.
28:24
>> Cool. Thank you very much, Joe. Uh, next
28:26
one is we're going to be talking about
28:28
um a way to get a flight path instead of
28:30
taking the flight path to the coil dial.
28:32
Uh, which can be can be a little long. I
28:35
think that's fair to say. It's a It's a
28:37
bit of a It's a bit of a flight
28:38
depending on where you're going from,
28:39
but even it's just going to be a while.
28:42
But there's a Prey introductory quest
28:45
like when the Prey You guys know the
28:46
Prey mechanic, you probably better than
28:48
me.
28:48
>> And if you do it, there's a portal you
28:52
can unlock and then you can just portal
28:54
directly to it. And there's also a port
28:57
there's a portal in the troll
28:58
neighborhood which is
29:00
>> Yes. Not the not the troll neighborhood,
29:03
but in neighborhoods you have the troll
29:04
endeavor.
29:06
And um right now everyone has the troll
29:10
endeavor up. That's just kind of a a
29:13
patch thing. Everyone has the same
29:15
endeavor right now. So right now there
29:17
is a portal to the coil aisles. I think
29:21
I have that right from your neighborhood
29:24
except you know the the endeavors
29:26
rotate. They spin around and around and
29:29
we still it' still be nice to have a
29:31
faster way to do to to get in to the
29:35
coil.
29:35
>> But you can get in there now in there
29:38
like
29:39
>> you can as of as of season 2 you can now
29:42
do this prey quest and there will be a
29:43
portal from Aselar Sanctum in Silver
29:46
Moon directly to the coiled isles
29:48
instead of having to take a fight flight
29:50
path. The downside is you have to do
29:52
some nightmare praise to get this. And
29:56
prey is just not my favorite system in
29:57
the game. But, you know, I also I love
29:59
portals. So, I think I I've got to do
30:01
it.
30:03
I not my favorite thing.
30:06
>> That happens.
30:08
>> Go ahead. Sorry.
30:09
>> Oh, no. I I was just saying yeah, do it
30:11
because portal.
30:12
>> Okay.
30:12
>> Portals.
30:13
>> I knew you were saying butt portals and
30:14
I was like not not sure what you were
30:16
talking about.
30:17
>> [laughter]
30:17
>> Um, but yeah, I think we'll move on to
30:21
talking about Hearthstone a little bit
30:22
here because I I can do that.
30:25
>> It's right there. It says four new class
30:27
sets coming. I don't understand. Please,
30:30
uh, somebody who plays Hearthstone,
30:32
explain this to me because I don't.
30:35
It's cards for priest, rogue, warlock,
30:38
and warrior. Is that the class sets?
30:41
>> Um, yes. Yes. I mean, that's the new
30:44
thing Hearthstone has been doing is
30:46
rolling out in uh sets of cards.
30:50
Usually, when you have a new Hearthstone
30:52
expansion or when you have a Hearstone
30:53
mini set, those are just cards. They're
30:55
random selection of card. No, not
30:57
entirely random. They're selection of
30:59
cards that for all classes and a bunch
31:01
of neutral cards. So, a new thing
31:03
Hearthstone has started doing is doing
31:05
what they call class sets, which are
31:07
small packs of cards. In this case, I
31:09
believe it's 13 for each class, each
31:13
included class. And you buy this pack of
31:16
cards, and it's just it's just cards for
31:18
that class. It's just this specific set
31:20
of cards for that class. And it's nice
31:22
to
31:24
uh to to grab these things because you
31:26
know exactly what you're getting. And
31:28
that's that's pretty good in a game
31:30
that's
31:32
heavily dominated by RNG and uh what
31:35
you're you happen to be getting out of
31:36
packs. this you know what cards you're
31:38
getting if you buy these class sets and
31:41
that's that's pretty nice. Um so yes, as
31:45
you say there is a new class set for the
31:48
um let's see priest rogue warlock and
31:52
warrior. This is the second set of class
31:55
sets Blizzard has rolled out. Uh, you
31:58
can buy the sets individually for 10
32:01
realworld dollars, as I think Corey
32:04
likes to say, or 1,200 in-game gold,
32:08
which is that's that's kind of a better
32:09
price because that's not real dollary
32:11
dues, which you could spend on other
32:13
things. Um,
32:15
but but the real thing is $10 each for
32:20
the four of them. That's a lot of money.
32:22
You can buy all of the all four class
32:24
packs for $20.
32:27
which that's why wouldn't you do that?
32:31
Yes.
32:33
If you really if you're really wanting
32:34
to flesh out your card collection,
32:36
that's kind of a no-brainer with the
32:37
price. Um or 2500
32:40
gold. So, I I think it's generally a
32:44
pretty good deal. These cards are
32:46
relatively powerful and it's it's just
32:51
nice to be able to go into Hearthstone
32:52
and know what you're getting. This is
32:53
what I like about the Hearthstone mini
32:55
sets, which are a fixed collection of
32:57
card. If you buy the mini sets and the
33:00
class sets, fixed collection of cards,
33:02
you know what you're going to get. And
33:05
uh I like it. I like it. Um
33:07
>> should we mention the golden version?
33:11
>> No, we don't talk about the golden
33:13
version. The golden version is very bad.
33:15
[laughter]
33:16
>> But it's gold.
33:18
>> Yes, it's gold. And that's
33:21
>> I feel like
33:21
>> the golden version
33:23
>> the golden version
33:24
>> the golden version is not a thing for
33:26
normal players. This is not a thing your
33:29
average actual human person would buy
33:33
because okay it's you get all of the
33:35
cards
33:37
except also they have a golden border
33:41
and they cost twice as much. It's it is
33:45
hard. That is a hard sell for me because
33:47
Hearthstone does sell. There's always an
33:49
option to buy. Do you want to buy this
33:52
bundle of cards or do you want to buy
33:54
the golden bundle of cards for only
33:56
twice as much with absolutely no added
34:00
benefit except now the cards have gold
34:02
border?
34:03
I don't love it. I don't love it. It's a
34:06
bad value. It does not add anything
34:08
except a shiny border around them. And
34:11
it's just it's kind of
34:14
>> You're leaving out the the bounty hunter
34:16
Edwin skin. Okay. No, you can get that
34:20
by Okay, [laughter]
34:24
>> just spend all your money on
34:26
>> If you buy the bundle of all four class
34:28
sets for $20 or 2500 gold, you also get
34:32
two copies of the Wanted poster neutral
34:35
epic card and the bounty hunter Edwin
34:39
Rogue skin. So, if this is just another
34:42
way they're really pushing you to buy
34:44
the whole bundle because
34:48
why wouldn't you? If you want if you
34:49
want anything, you should buy the
34:51
bundle. Um, but yes, once you start
34:54
talking about the golden set, which
34:56
includes all of the same things as the
34:59
as the all classes bundle, it's it's a
35:03
hard sell. It's a hard sell for the
35:05
price. I cannot I cannot I cannot in
35:09
good conscience recommend that anyone do
35:11
this.
35:13
Like it's like every time the Brollesium
35:15
Tavern Brawl comes up and we're like
35:19
here's a guide to help you play this,
35:21
but really you just shouldn't do it.
35:24
Don't do this to yourself. Um and so
35:27
yes, that's my advice. I the um the set
35:31
of class bundles is a good deal if you
35:33
at least sometimes play these classes.
35:36
The golden set is not a good deal, but
35:39
if having a golden border around your
35:41
cards makes you truly happy, then it is
35:44
there for you. If this is what brings
35:45
you joy, it is there. It's it's a
35:48
difficult value proposition, though.
35:51
>> Okay. Um,
35:53
I want at this point to say sorry to
35:56
everyone who may not realize that I'm a
35:58
human being. I missed a story that we
36:02
were supposed to cover for World of
36:03
Warcraft. So, we're going back. We're
36:04
taking the ship back.
36:06
>> Um, it's it's relatively important. It's
36:08
class tuning. So,
36:10
>> we we do talk a lot about World of
36:12
Warcraft. So, it's we're just sort of
36:14
cycling around. We're spinning around
36:16
the World of Warcraft. Or, you know,
36:19
Matt, you could have said that you knew
36:21
I was going to be talking a lot about
36:22
Hearthstone. You were just gonna give me
36:24
a little break. So, we had to You could
36:25
have You could have played that up. You
36:27
were just gonna give me a break before I
36:29
had to go on read site news.
36:30
>> Yeah. Here's what this I was actually
36:32
planning to do a question before you
36:34
read site news.
36:36
>> Oh. Oh, see that's
36:38
>> this works too.
36:38
>> Now we're doing something else.
36:40
>> We've just It's It's pure chaos here.
36:43
There's There's no There's no order to
36:45
There's no rhyme or reason.
36:46
>> It's pretty gentle chaos, though. We're
36:47
not we're not No, we're not aggressive
36:49
chaos.
36:50
>> Oh, yeah. We did we did start off with
36:52
the parrots. We did start off with the
36:54
parrots talk.
36:55
>> The the editor has entered the chat and
36:57
is cringing right now. Just going to
36:58
throw that out there. [laughter]
37:00
>> However, let's actually start talking
37:02
about these class changes. Um they're
37:05
basically going to be making a series of
37:07
adjustments throughout this entire
37:10
season. Uh both of like I think this is
37:12
saying we're going to have tuning
37:13
patches for like the next two weeks.
37:16
There's going to be tuning patches, then
37:18
another tuning pass at the end of
37:20
September, and they're going to try to
37:22
get the class balance situation, but
37:24
it's not settled yet. We don't know how
37:26
it's going to end up. Well, I I mean,
37:29
yeah, the the unusual thing here is that
37:34
Blizzard is telling us in advance kind
37:37
of when it's expecting to do balance
37:39
tuning because usually it's, you know, a
37:42
patch rolls out and you don't know
37:43
what's going to happen or when it's
37:44
going to happen and you just
37:49
you just don't know. You never know what
37:51
day your class is going to get nerfed
37:53
and that can be very unpredictable. This
37:55
is still unpredictable, but Blizzard has
37:57
said they just rolled out some balance
38:00
patches, a a big balance patch for the
38:04
classes this week. They're going to do
38:06
it again next week. They're going to do
38:07
it again the week after, and then
38:09
they're going to do a final balance pass
38:12
late in September. So,
38:14
>> this terrifies me.
38:16
>> Yeah.
38:17
>> So,
38:18
>> explain.
38:19
>> Yeah. the part of the reason and and
38:20
we've talked about this before like I I
38:22
I like the core idea of what they
38:26
presented which is they want to shift
38:30
power away from sets and back into core
38:34
class abilities. something I know a lot
38:37
of players, myself included, have really
38:40
been asking for because set bonuses and
38:43
your character class and your role being
38:46
balanced entirely around set bonuses
38:50
produces unhealthy toxic environments or
38:53
environments where you can potentially
38:56
be suboptimal for several weeks. Um, and
39:00
for any of you out there saying gearing
39:02
is easy, it's not easy for everybody.
39:05
There are multiple avenues to get there.
39:07
Some take longer than others. Uh and so
39:09
that can produce a power vacuum or a
39:13
power disparity between
39:15
classes in specific roles. See the uh
39:19
age-old battle between druids and
39:22
shaman. Uh we argue amongst each other
39:24
of who's the most powerful and who got
39:26
nerfed on a cyclical basis when it comes
39:29
to healing. um seeing them want to take
39:33
balances passes at this is good. The
39:36
problem being is that the time frame in
39:40
which they're doing not everybody may be
39:42
caught up to the same level. And so I'm
39:46
curious what metrics and what data
39:49
they're going to be using to parse that
39:51
because if they're parsing it off of,
39:54
you know, here's how far people with
39:56
four piece are outperforming people with
39:58
two-piece or no piece. Okay, I can see
40:00
that and they want to close that gap a
40:02
little bit. But then the question then
40:04
becomes, are they comparing that data to
40:06
other classes? Uh like again, healers is
40:10
a great example. How far apart are the
40:12
healing classes at each of these
40:14
perspectives? What is the percentage
40:16
range? Uh do we are we happy with the
40:19
difference in them? Because you if
40:21
they're not careful, you wind up in the
40:23
cataclysm trap. and Cataclysm. Anybody
40:26
who's been around for any length of time
40:28
will know that I complained incessantly
40:31
for two tiers about class balance
40:35
because they just weren't doing it. They
40:38
were relying solely on gear to make up
40:41
the difference. And then if you didn't
40:43
have the gear, you just fell behind. And
40:45
it created a massive disparity in
40:48
healers between classes where you had
40:51
two or three classes that were 20 or 30%
40:55
ahead of the next closest class. And so
40:58
it's a very tricky thing. So with them
41:01
taking these tuning passes, I just want
41:03
to know more. And I know that they can't
41:06
be 100% transparent about it, but I'd
41:09
like to know the methodology behind it.
41:10
I'd like to know the the approach and
41:13
what their sort of like what their
41:16
target focus is with it and not just the
41:18
blanket class balance. Are they looking
41:21
at specific disparities between DPS
41:23
classes uh or between specific or how
41:26
specific DPS specs for specific classes
41:30
are fairing case like
41:33
>> retribution paladins that's just a
41:35
straight up buff. So they're definitely
41:37
looking at that and it's not just a set
41:39
bump. Correct. Enhancement shaman are
41:41
getting a 5% flat damage bonus. Like
41:44
just across the board, all damage is
41:46
increased by 5%. Because nobody's
41:48
playing enhancement anymore.
41:50
>> Yeah. And
41:51
>> it's got to feel a little scary too for
41:53
race to world first people because
41:55
>> Yeah. Because you don't know what's
41:56
going to happen.
41:56
>> You [clears throat] don't know what's
41:57
going to happen. Do you got to gear five
41:59
characters across the spectrum now just
42:01
hoping that one of them will be the one
42:04
that works out for you in the end with
42:05
the best buff or the best nerf or the
42:07
least nerf.
42:07
>> [clears throat]
42:07
>> with,
42:08
>> you know, there's here the ones that get
42:10
the bonus right now that I'm seeing is
42:12
assassination rogues, rat paladins, and
42:15
enhancement uh shaman have all gotten a
42:17
straight flat number buff. For rogues,
42:20
it was 4%, for shaman it was 5%, and for
42:23
rep paladins, it's 6%. Um whereas other
42:26
classes like for instance they had to
42:29
nerf like arms warriors and buff fury
42:34
warriors um because of the set way set
42:37
bonuses are working. So that's all it's
42:40
there and it's it's it seems like at
42:44
times they're just trying to do it based
42:46
on the this the class set bonus thing
42:48
four piece in particular and sometimes
42:51
it's just a straight up nope we got to
42:52
buff these DPS classes. healing is not
42:55
getting that. I'm not seeing a lot of
42:56
just you just heal more.
42:59
>> Um
43:00
>> again, because it's it's a dangerous
43:01
thing, right? It's very very tricky
43:03
because if you just say, "Okay, uh
43:06
shaman
43:06
>> druids are
43:07
>> Yeah, they they are. But it's instead of
43:09
saying like, okay, you just get a 2%
43:11
flat bonus."
43:12
>> Uh it's very very tricky because you can
43:15
throw off balance real easy like Yeah.
43:20
>> And that's that's why you usually see
43:22
this uh in small amounts. It's not like
43:25
usually it can vary
43:28
but certainly as to what Joe was
43:30
speaking about um they're doing this so
43:34
early. I mean they've done a balance
43:36
patch now that is just affect just
43:41
responding to the first week of data
43:43
that they're seeing in game. They're
43:45
doing another balance patch next week,
43:47
which I feel is largely going to be in
43:49
response to week one raid performance,
43:52
particularly in those top tiers of
43:54
difficulty
43:56
because this is so big and so public.
43:58
And I think if they see people playing
44:01
in Race to World first at those top
44:03
tiers that some classes are super
44:06
overperforming, I think those classes
44:08
are going to get pulled back and other
44:11
classes may be buffed up if they're
44:13
underperforming. So
44:15
saying you're going to have a week one
44:17
buff, a week two buff, a week a balance
44:20
patch, and a week three balance patch is
44:24
yeah, that's got to be anxietyinducing
44:27
for RA for like the serious Race to
44:29
World first people, but also for just us
44:32
average players because we don't we have
44:34
no idea how it's going to land. We're
44:36
hoping for the best. Hoping for the
44:38
best, but you just don't know. Um yeah,
44:40
let me actually one thing I want to
44:42
point out before you move on, Liz.
44:44
>> Uh there's one of the things in the
44:45
developers notes for for a warrior I
44:48
think it's important to look at because
44:49
it kind of encapsulates the philosophy
44:52
here in that they're kind of in some
44:56
cases the set bonus is overperforming
44:59
but the class isn't.
45:01
>> And so when they nerfed the set bonus
45:04
they had to then buff the class. Mhm.
45:06
>> And I mean, I can't I haven't read all
45:08
of them because let's face it, there's
45:10
one class.
45:10
>> Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of these
45:12
changes are like this where they're
45:13
shifting power out of the set bonuses,
45:16
but kind of keeping the power like not
45:20
they're moving power around, not
45:22
necessarily just doing a huge buff or a
45:24
huge nerf.
45:25
>> They just straight up buffed Fury by 6%.
45:29
And because of this change to the four
45:31
piece um and arms arms is basically had
45:35
to been had to be nerfed because it had
45:36
a bug that was giving him double double
45:39
dipping on the slayer archetype for uh
45:41
the execution provided double value.
45:44
They've hot fixed that which brought
45:46
arms down to where they wanted it to be,
45:48
but Fury wasn't overpowered even with
45:52
that. So they again they're they're
45:54
buffing Fury to catch up with that as
45:57
well. I I thought the damage profiles in
46:00
the raid strongly favored Arms's uh
46:03
cleave profile. So that Fury was just
46:06
not was not doing well. And I don't I
46:09
don't know if this is going to help
46:10
Fury.
46:12
>> I mean, it'll help a little, but the
46:13
problem is
46:14
>> I mean, it certain it certainly it
46:15
certainly helps a little, but it's like
46:16
they're nerfing the class set, but
46:18
they're buffing Fury baseline. So Fury
46:20
is going to be performing
46:22
uh ostensibly around the same as it was.
46:25
So I I understand this. They're trying
46:27
to make baseline classes more powerful.
46:29
So maybe you're a little less reliant on
46:32
having those set powers and maybe you're
46:35
not going to feel as bad not having four
46:39
piece yet. Uh
46:42
>> well yeah just don't get it for whatever
46:44
reason. Like
46:45
>> it takes time it takes it takes time to
46:48
collect four piece set. So
46:53
yeah, and I do think that in recent
46:55
tiers,
46:56
sometimes your four piece set is so
46:59
powerful,
47:00
it's such a big impact on your on your
47:03
class and your damage and everything
47:04
that if you don't have it, you are
47:07
underperforming so badly. You're just
47:10
dragging everything down just because
47:12
you have not gotten lucky enough to get
47:14
that particular four piece bonus. So, I
47:17
see I see the I see reason here to kind
47:20
of make sure classes have a baseline
47:22
performance that's good enough even if
47:24
they don't have their set.
47:26
>> Yeah, I don't I don't disagree. Um,
47:28
unfortunately, Liz, you just talked a
47:29
bunch so you're going to hate this.
47:32
>> Does someone else have something to say
47:34
about this?
47:34
>> I I do have something to say. It's not
47:36
really
47:38
>> So, isn't it so funny that warriors have
47:39
a slayer archetype but not a mega death
47:41
archetype?
47:44
>> No.
47:45
[laughter]
47:46
Warlocks have the mega death archetype
47:48
because warlocks can inflict meth.
47:51
>> What's wrong with you?
47:52
>> I usually [laughter] it's the the death
47:54
knights that catch the heavy metal
47:55
references, but you know, I just figured
47:59
>> I mean it's also a word thing. It's not
48:02
just a band name, but regardless.
48:03
>> Whoa, whoa. I I don't think like that.
48:06
That's crazy.
48:07
>> Okay. Uh [laughter]
48:09
did that to me? Um and now
48:11
>> um
48:12
>> we've just killed the conversation.
48:14
killed the conversation.
48:16
>> You're before we move, [laughter]
48:19
>> then Liz is gonna have to talk. So,
48:22
>> Blizzard Watch, if you didn't know, if
48:24
you haven't heard me do this before,
48:26
just in case you're hearing this for the
48:27
first time, Blizzard Watch is made
48:29
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48:32
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48:36
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48:38
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48:40
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48:42
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48:46
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48:48
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48:50
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48:59
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49:03
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49:06
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49:08
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49:10
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52:45
>> Thank you Liz for reading all that. Go
52:47
ahead and get yourself a drink for a
52:48
second. We're going to get to a
52:50
question. Uh this one's from Kevin.
52:53
And I mean, hi Kevin. Uh I I I just felt
52:59
I'm just used to us, you know, having
53:01
names like Tatsmi and so forth and just
53:03
Kevin threw me. Um now, aren't you a
53:05
member of X Force? Anyway, uh another
53:08
question for the
53:10
>> Yeah, this time is a game design one. Um
53:12
I listen to a few different WoW podcasts
53:14
and there's some level of complaints
53:17
across each about one the volume of new
53:20
things to do in 12.0.5 0.5 void
53:23
assaults, ritual sites, abyssal anglers,
53:26
uh, decor duels. Two, the fact that each
53:30
has a different currency. Three, the
53:32
point of some of these systems outside
53:34
of a way to blat outside of way too
53:37
blatant way to keep people uh paying
53:40
playing to earn achievement. Kevin, you
53:43
did that. You know, you did that. I can
53:45
look that [laughter]
53:46
was your fault. Anyway, my question
53:49
slashthinking that I would enjoy your
53:51
thoughts on why not pick a currency for
53:54
each for either an expansion or major
53:56
patch cycle uh void moral and then have
54:00
all these activities reward that
54:02
currency. I know there are several sad
54:06
corporate reasons why this would never
54:08
happen, mostly around player engagement
54:10
and DAUs because we just find the easier
54:13
route to, you know, grind out the
54:15
currency. But giving players multiple
54:17
different ways to collect currency seems
54:19
like a good thing and would seemingly
54:22
ease the acceptance of those new
54:23
systems. So, what are the game design
54:25
reasons that I'm missing for there not
54:27
being a single or a couple currency?
54:30
>> I got that one. That's That's super
54:31
easy.
54:33
>> It's because they don't want a day one
54:35
power user to buy all of the new stuff
54:36
right away and be bored for the rest of
54:38
the expansion.
54:38
>> Well, not just that, they don't want
54:39
disabilizing of the economy or
54:41
disabilizing of other stuff because of
54:42
the instantaneous farming of it, right?
54:45
>> Yeah. Or to combat that, they could
54:47
incre
54:51
uh new stuff. So, like if you if a nice
54:54
weapon transmog costs 1,000 duads at the
54:57
beginning, then it'll cost 10,000
54:59
doodads in the next patch and 30,000
55:02
doodads in the patch after that. But
55:03
that means you also have to scale up the
55:06
duad acquisition rate, which means that
55:08
the best way to complete all the content
55:10
would be to just wait for the last patch
55:12
and do it all then. So that's why they
55:15
don't ever just do the one unified
55:17
currency for new contents because power
55:21
users will stockpile, buy everything new
55:23
on the first day and that can affect how
55:26
things are done or they'll have to just
55:28
make it too easy to acquire but make
55:30
everything cost 10 times more.
55:32
>> Yeah.
55:32
>> There's also a bit of a hostility to uh
55:35
returning players who weren't playing at
55:37
the beginning of the expansion because
55:38
they will be they will inherently be
55:41
behind on currency.
55:42
>> Yes. But also like a unified currency
55:44
actually benefits players that have been
55:45
away more than players that have been
55:47
playing constantly. Yes, they get more
55:49
of it, but if everything rewards the
55:51
currency, then you catch up quicker.
55:53
>> The the
55:55
we had this problem before with I want
55:59
to say it was during like Ice Crown and
56:02
like Trial of Champions,
56:03
>> right? Because
56:04
>> heroes and and valor badges.
56:06
>> Yeah. Because you could you could
56:07
literally just roll them, right? you
56:09
just you you could ban I did
56:11
>> and people did
56:12
>> I there's a lot of like
56:16
quality of life and game reasons like
56:20
Corey stating that they that they
56:21
wouldn't be unified across it. However,
56:24
I am definitely in the camp of there are
56:26
too many and I wouldn't mind if a single
56:29
content patch didn't have four different
56:31
currencies with it.
56:33
>> If each content patch had a currency,
56:35
fine, I can live with that. you know,
56:38
void marl for one, random, you know,
56:40
mcguffin tokens the next one, that's
56:43
fine. But when I have to keep track of
56:46
three, four, five different currencies
56:49
that have been added because of
56:50
different factions or content or
56:53
whatever in a patch, that's when it gets
56:55
to feel a little bit too much. And I
56:57
think there's a lot of people that feel
56:58
that way as well.
56:59
>> Um, sure. I know I'm in the minority on
57:02
this because I've heard a lot of people
57:03
complain about there's too many
57:04
currencies. But um for me it's a
57:06
non-issue because it's not a gameplay.
57:08
It's not I'm not like
57:10
>> counting my currency. It all sits on a
57:12
tab in my character sheet and then I
57:14
look at my tab and I say, "Oh, I've got
57:15
that much stuff. I'll go buy a thing."
57:17
>> Yeah. But that's So that's
57:18
>> But then you have people like me and Liz
57:20
who are or and Matt who are super into
57:23
like transmogs or
57:25
>> like have you seen my Wow House, Corey?
57:28
I'm not I'm just saying that like I I'm
57:30
going to go out. I'm going to play the
57:31
game and I'm going to do whatever I earn
57:32
to earn a currency, but like that's the
57:35
end of it. I'll earn that currency and
57:36
then it sits in my cab and that's the
57:38
extent of the game play. Whether I have
57:40
one or 17 of them, it doesn't really
57:42
affect me that much.
57:43
>> Well, let me have a
57:45
>> Okay, Liz, go ahead.
57:46
>> About about the transmog thing. You
57:48
know, it it can be really exhausting
57:50
grinding all of this out when Blizzard
57:52
is on this really severe 8w week content
57:56
cycle and every 8 weeks we're getting
57:58
something new, even though not all of
58:01
the new things are that exciting, guys.
58:04
Not every one of them is that exciting
58:06
and fun. So, sometimes I don't really
58:08
feel I need to engage in everything,
58:11
which, you know, you don't have to do
58:13
everything in game. I think that is part
58:15
of what makes the game playable because
58:17
if you go in and you try to do every
58:19
single event and try to max out
58:21
everything you possibly can, it will
58:23
make you crazy. We're crazy enough. We
58:26
don't need the games to make us crazy,
58:28
too. And so, Decor DS, I did them a few
58:31
times when they first launched, and I
58:33
was like, I'm already a little tired of
58:35
this. I'm already a little tired of
58:37
this. I'm just I don't need to collect
58:40
every reward. I told myself that I don't
58:43
need every reward. It is okay. It is
58:47
okay if I just walk away and don't get
58:50
these rewards. It's fine, Liz. This is
58:52
going to be fine. You're just going to
58:54
You aren't having a lot of fun here.
58:56
You're just going to walk away. It's
58:58
okay.
58:59
I told myself this. I told myself this
59:02
all the way up.
59:04
>> I mean, that you lied to yourself.
59:08
>> [laughter]
59:08
>> I told myself this all the way up until
59:11
the day before Decor DS was getting
59:14
removed and I was like,
59:17
"No, I need some of this stuff." And I I
59:21
I spent most of the evening just binging
59:24
through Decor DS and
59:27
Decor DS isn't bad. Wasn't bad, but it's
59:31
a little tedious. There's only one map
59:34
and it just after, you know, after doing
59:38
a dozen of them in a row, you just kind
59:41
of hate your existence because this is
59:44
this is boring.
59:46
This is only fun for a fixed amount of
59:48
time. And late in the cycle,
59:52
late in the cycle, they doubled the
59:55
amount of rewards you got. They buffed
59:56
it so it was easier to complete. And I'm
59:59
like, if I did this early on, this would
1:00:02
be even worse. I would be running so
1:00:04
much more of these. Um,
1:00:06
>> but they'd be spread out, so they'd be
1:00:07
kind of fun still. Maybe.
1:00:09
>> Yeah, maybe. So, um, but yes, I waited
1:00:12
until the night before and I finally
1:00:15
admitted to myself that I needed at
1:00:18
least some of these transmogs. I needed
1:00:20
some of these transmogs. I required them
1:00:24
to continue existing. And that that was
1:00:27
not fun. That was not fun. And then once
1:00:30
I got started, I was like, well, maybe I
1:00:32
also need this one. Well, I could pick
1:00:34
up that housing decor while I'm here
1:00:37
because that's not housing decor hardly
1:00:39
costs anything next to weapon transmogs.
1:00:41
I can pick up some Anyway, it snowballed
1:00:45
really fast.
1:00:47
I didn't get all the rewards because
1:00:51
I hit a point and I was done. I was
1:00:54
done. I was not doing any more of these
1:00:56
ever and I got most of the things and
1:00:59
I'm gonna be content with that. I'm
1:01:01
gonna be content with that. I told
1:01:02
myself I was going to be content with
1:01:04
less, but I am contenting myself with
1:01:07
what I have after getting way more
1:01:08
things than I expected to at the very
1:01:11
last possible second.
1:01:14
Uh, [sighs]
1:01:15
but yes, the the fear of missing out is
1:01:18
huge, particularly with Decor DS because
1:01:22
when Decor DS launched, Blizzard did not
1:01:24
say this was a limited time event.
1:01:28
Blizzard announced it was a limited time
1:01:29
event a couple of weeks before it was
1:01:32
going to be gone forever.
1:01:35
So that kind of exacerbates the currency
1:01:38
problem because you have to get these
1:01:40
rewards with a special currency and some
1:01:41
of the rewards were still going to be in
1:01:43
the game afterwards but not all of them
1:01:46
>> and they weren't really clear on that.
1:01:48
>> Yeah, they weren't they weren't very
1:01:50
clear on and they were going to cost
1:01:52
they would have cost a lot more void
1:01:54
light marl than they would have in the
1:01:57
special decor duel currency. So,
1:02:01
uh, but yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think in
1:02:03
the end it's it's engagement. It's the
1:02:04
it's a lot of this is about driving
1:02:06
engagement. And
1:02:10
I can kind of see the innocuous reasons
1:02:12
to do it like this because you want to
1:02:14
give players a reason to keep playing.
1:02:16
You want them to you want to push them
1:02:19
to engage new content and, you know, try
1:02:23
out these other things that they'll find
1:02:25
fun. You're trying to make everything
1:02:26
fun. and by dangling this little carrot
1:02:29
like you can only get this cool thing by
1:02:31
doing this thing and collecting this
1:02:32
currency that's going to draw people to
1:02:34
do that thing. But
1:02:37
especially lately it feels like that
1:02:40
thing is not always super fun. It's just
1:02:43
not. So it does it we have too many
1:02:47
currencies right now. There's so many
1:02:49
currencies. It's exhausting. It's
1:02:51
exhausting. But uh
1:02:53
>> I'm going to just say it. I don't know
1:02:54
why we couldn't go back to the cataclysm
1:02:56
system of having two kinds of badges and
1:02:58
then they reset every time a new content
1:03:00
patch comes out.
1:03:03
>> Uh because then people feel bad about
1:03:05
their their stockpile stuff going away.
1:03:08
Is the is the psychological reason that
1:03:10
they're they looking at
1:03:12
>> that is that is kind of what we do with
1:03:13
crests, right? I mean, every season we
1:03:16
have a new kind of crest and then you've
1:03:19
got different tiers of crests. I know
1:03:21
what you're talking about, but every
1:03:22
time you say every season we got a new
1:03:23
kind of crest, I imagine we're brushing
1:03:25
our teeth with these things.
1:03:26
>> I mean, you should you should be
1:03:29
brushing your teeth regularly. That's
1:03:30
just
1:03:30
>> not necessarily with a different tooth
1:03:33
face. I just
1:03:34
>> Okay. Yeah, but you know, you should
1:03:35
cycle toothbrushes. There are things,
1:03:37
you know, there are things you should
1:03:38
do.
1:03:40
[laughter]
1:03:41
>> And now show we'll talk about
1:03:43
toothbrushes. But I think at this point,
1:03:45
guys, we are going to call it because
1:03:47
we're we are over time. Um, thank you
1:03:50
very much to Corey for showing up and we
1:03:52
didn't even have any Heroes of the Storm
1:03:54
questions for you. I'm sorry.
1:03:55
>> Heroes of the Storm is alive and well.
1:03:57
Don't forget people who like Heroes of
1:03:59
the Storm to get your free Gearhead
1:04:01
Thraw skin just by going to the website.
1:04:03
You can you can claim it before the end
1:04:05
of September, I think, is the cutoff.
1:04:07
It's the cool cell-shaded one. The first
1:04:09
of the new skins they started doing
1:04:10
about a year ago. Free. Just do it. Get
1:04:13
a free thing.
1:04:15
>> Okay. Uh, and also loves you and you
1:04:17
love heroes.
1:04:19
>> Thank [clears throat] you to Liz for,
1:04:21
among other things, having to read that
1:04:23
enormous block of text to give you guys
1:04:25
all the information so you can do cool
1:04:27
things like follow us on social media
1:04:29
and so forth because all it all helps
1:04:31
and Liz is the reason you know how to do
1:04:33
it. So, thank you to Liz. [laughter]
1:04:35
Thank you to Joe for explaining a lot of
1:04:37
that that whole gear and changing and
1:04:40
dungeon balancing. It's very helpful
1:04:43
because I cannot I do not play a lot of
1:04:45
these classes. So, a lot of times I'm
1:04:47
like, I don't know what's going on. So,
1:04:48
thank you, Joe.
1:04:50
>> Welcome.
1:04:51
>> And thank you to all of you for being
1:04:53
here with us and listening because now
1:04:54
it's an actual podcast and not just the
1:04:56
four of us talking in Discord, which we
1:04:58
do sometimes. Um, so this way, actual
1:05:02
thing happening. That's always great.
1:05:04
This has been the Blizzard podcast.
1:05:06
Thank you so much to everyone and we'll
1:05:09
be back next week.

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