POPULARITY
Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv Mount Up Add-on: https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/mount-up Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/starmike Ren Three down, one to go: Waycrest Manor with #WNN with Kara, Alla, Zignea and Level Discipline priest or resto shaman? Playing with healing mods The secret of the vulpine familiar Mike Fun with Ali Druid to 110 This Week in WoW Love Is In the Air - through Tuesday Feb 26th Burning Crusade timewalking Hatching of the Hippogryphs - Sun Feb 23 News Layoffs at Activision/Blizzard - 8% work force (800 out of 9600 employees), primarily in public relations, marketing, and esports Love Is In the Air: New this year: Peddlefeet's Lovely Hearthstone - 150 Love Tokens Must be 110 or higher to acquire the Big Love Rocket mount Crown Company Necklace rewards are ilevel 365 max for 120 players (????) Economy hint: Swift Lovebird, for 270 Love Tokens, can be bought and sold on the AH (on Whisperwind median price is about 125k Naked & Afraid Update No new finishers but several people in the 70-90 range This season will end: Wednesday, March 20th Naked & Afraid 3: All Druids All Day will start about 2 weeks after the launch of 8.1.5 WNN will try to help people finish the Pride of Kul Tiras/Nation Divided for folks who need that to open Kul Tiras (Zandalaris have no dungeon requirements; Kul Tirans have 4) Wednesday Night Normals 8.1.5 patch news Economy Ren: Still making around 20k/day but shifted focus from farming mats to crafting stirrups and hoofplates with cheap monelite
Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/starmike Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv Ren MAJOR life invasions, may be more interruptions in weeks ahead Dinged 110 in Naked and Afraid challenge - final money total about 62,000 gold, time 4 days 22 hours 1 minute BUT ... forgot to take a screenshot (took one later; time finished can be calculated from the played time minus the time played at level, which was about 14 hours at the time) Also moved the toon to Whisperwind and did a race change to undead BUT ... plans to run up a void elf warlock to fulfill promise to Silvermoon gang Odds and ends - getting things tidied up in prep for expansion Advancing neglected professions Finished paladin mount quest and working on monk Getting all the class hall followers - Maximilian of Northshire is totally worth it Mike Interviews all day, every day. Wrath timewalking was fun. 700 badges from my next mount. This Week in WoW Legion Dungeon event until next Tuesday - additional loot Lunar Festival ends 3/3 Darkmoon Faire starts 3/4 Trial of Style starts Monday 3/5 and runs to Friday 3/9 News Warcraft III Invitational happened Feb 27/28, with old school tournaments and various matches - major patch coming out to Warcraft III in late March Second Mythic Invitational, July 25-Aug 8th for auditions, dungeon invitational in early September Seething Shore battleground now available - currently available as a brawl, will be available as a regular battleground next week 10vs10 BG set in Silithus, to battle over Azerite "Dynamic control point gameplay similar to Arathi Basin" - new control points pop up as resources become depleted Solo run of Court of Stars Mythic +22 by Mionee, a demon hunter (iLevel 973) - took nearly 4 hours Battle of Azeroth Even more class changes - random notes that show trend changes DKs are getting an ability similar to Counterspell Demon hunters will get an ability to increase overall party/raid magical damage to targets with Chaos Brand Druids getting back Hibernate and Soothe (CC and anti-enrage) Hunters: Tranq Shot for hunters is coming back (anti-enrage) Mages: Fire: Phoenix Flames, Felo’melorn’s artifact ability, is being turned into a basic spell All: Return of Arcane Intellect (group buff) Priests: Return of Power Word: Fortitude (group buff) Rogue: Return of Expose Armor (vanilla spell) Shaman: Return of Tremor Totem (AOE ability to remove fear, charm and sleep effects) Warlock: Return of Shadow Bolt (vanilla spell) Only Destro locks can summon infernals now (boo) Warrior: Return of Battle Shout to increase STR and AGI of party or raid PARROT MOUNTS!!! No source yet There will be some kind of garrison or class hall or something similar, as there is a mission table with followers. Lot of forum hate for this. Followers include Technicians, Infiltrators, Combat Specialist and Faction Troops Zandalari Troll Druid Forms "Pterrakkoa" - "moonkin" form Armored bear form - looks like a cross between a spiky turtle and a bear Pterrodax flight form Ravasaur travel form Mag'har Orcs Ren: really like the hair styles on the females - might have to race flip one Skin colors range from pale grey-beige to reddish brown Heritage armor looks very much like Thrallmar stuff Upright posture, esp on the females No "unnatural" hair colors A couple of the new races flagged in such a way that they may become allied races Vulpera - fox people Kul Tirans - stocky humanoids From the Discord: left over from last episode: Should all classes be unlocked on all races? Or should class-race assignments follow established lore?
Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/starmike Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv Ren MAJOR life invasions, may be more interruptions in weeks ahead Dinged 110 in Naked and Afraid challenge - final money total about 62,000 gold, time 4 days 22 hours 1 minute BUT ... forgot to take a screenshot (took one later; time finished can be calculated from the played time minus the time played at level, which was about 14 hours at the time) Also moved the toon to Whisperwind and did a race change to undead BUT ... plans to run up a void elf warlock to fulfill promise to Silvermoon gang Odds and ends - getting things tidied up in prep for expansion Advancing neglected professions Finished paladin mount quest and working on monk Getting all the class hall followers - Maximilian of Northshire is totally worth it Mike Interviews all day, every day. Wrath timewalking was fun. 700 badges from my next mount. This Week in WoW Legion Dungeon event until next Tuesday - additional loot Lunar Festival ends 3/3 Darkmoon Faire starts 3/4 Trial of Style starts Monday 3/5 and runs to Friday 3/9 News Warcraft III Invitational happened Feb 27/28, with old school tournaments and various matches - major patch coming out to Warcraft III in late March Second Mythic Invitational, July 25-Aug 8th for auditions, dungeon invitational in early September Seething Shore battleground now available - currently available as a brawl, will be available as a regular battleground next week 10vs10 BG set in Silithus, to battle over Azerite "Dynamic control point gameplay similar to Arathi Basin" - new control points pop up as resources become depleted Solo run of Court of Stars Mythic +22 by Mionee, a demon hunter (iLevel 973) - took nearly 4 hours Battle of Azeroth Even more class changes - random notes that show trend changes DKs are getting an ability similar to Counterspell Demon hunters will get an ability to increase overall party/raid magical damage to targets with Chaos Brand Druids getting back Hibernate and Soothe (CC and anti-enrage) Hunters: Tranq Shot for hunters is coming back (anti-enrage) Mages: Fire: Phoenix Flames, Felo’melorn’s artifact ability, is being turned into a basic spell All: Return of Arcane Intellect (group buff) Priests: Return of Power Word: Fortitude (group buff) Rogue: Return of Expose Armor (vanilla spell) Shaman: Return of Tremor Totem (AOE ability to remove fear, charm and sleep effects) Warlock: Return of Shadow Bolt (vanilla spell) Only Destro locks can summon infernals now (boo) Warrior: Return of Battle Shout to increase STR and AGI of party or raid PARROT MOUNTS!!! No source yet There will be some kind of garrison or class hall or something similar, as there is a mission table with followers. Lot of forum hate for this. Followers include Technicians, Infiltrators, Combat Specialist and Faction Troops Zandalari Troll Druid Forms "Pterrakkoa" - "moonkin" form Armored bear form - looks like a cross between a spiky turtle and a bear Pterrodax flight form Ravasaur travel form Mag'har Orcs Ren: really like the hair styles on the females - might have to race flip one Skin colors range from pale grey-beige to reddish brown Heritage armor looks very much like Thrallmar stuff Upright posture, esp on the females No "unnatural" hair colors A couple of the new races flagged in such a way that they may become allied races Vulpera - fox people Kul Tirans - stocky humanoids From the Discord: left over from last episode: Should all classes be unlocked on all races? Or should class-race assignments follow established lore?
Discord: https://discord.worldofwarcast.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/starmike Our talk about WoW Classic will be on Thursday's episode. Incoming for 7.3.5 - (no release date; not even up on PTR yet) Timewalking Ulduar, new battleground Event in Silithus to herald in the start of expansion Leveling Improvements (yay!!!!!) All content previous to Warlords will SCALE TO LEVEL - within ranges Classic starting zones: 1-10 All old world vanilla zones: 10-60 Burning Crusade and Wrath zones: 60-80 Cataclysm and Pandaria zones: 80-90 What this means: You can actually complete zones without leveling out of them and feeling forced to move on and you can choose where you level up Dungeons will also scale accordingly - so will loot drops (yes, run Wailing Caverns at 60 and you’ll get level 60 mobs and level 60 gear) Incoming also - no release date Accounts with an authenticator attached will get a “small increase” to the size of their standard 16 slot backpack - may be connected to WoW’s upcoming 13th anniversary event (Nov 16-30) Expansion: Battle for Azeroth (not Tides of Vengeance) - also no release date Basics: Level to 120 (one instant boost to 110) Return to faction based play areas Bye-bye Teldrassil and Undercity (but not Silvermoon and Exodar) -- hello each faction controlling their own continent Does the zone control mean no leveling zones for the opposite faction? New island zones Zandalar and Kul Tiras with three areas for each Horde: Zandalar - obviously troll focused Alliance: Kul Tiras - naval power (which we’ve never seen because apparently they’re so good they can hide the most powerful navy in the world from everyone until now) New subraces: the four we mentioned on the last show plus two more (Horde: Highland Tauren, Nightborne and Zandalari Troll. Alliance: Void Elf, Lightforged Draenei and Dark Iron Dwarves). Will get 6 new character slots on each server You have to open these subraces via quests -- once opened it’s accountwide Subraces start at level 20. You can race-switch into them using Blizzard game services, but if you run one from 20 to 120 you get an achievement plus special heritage armor transmog 3-person Island Cooperative challenge gameplay Changing mini scenarios on islands Would like to have seen this scalable to other size groups - 3 is awkward 20-person raids called Warfronts to claim strategic locations this is a PvE system, not PvP, “inspired by classic Warcraft RTS battles” (Ren: Damn good thing or the Horde on Whisperwind is screwed) Artifact amulet (Heart of Azeroth) instead of an artifact weapon - a system with a sort of mini-talent tree used to select and empower abilities - replacements for the Artifact, Artifact Power and Netherlight Crucible systems from Legion Powered by Azerite, will automatically absorb Azerite when it’s nearby Helm, chest, and shoulders will be empowered through Heart of Azeroth Probably will need an entire episode just on this - but practical upshot is the artifact weapons are going away and this is the replacement PVP/PVE server distinction is going away - now it will be selectable Internal sharding allows PVP-flagged players to see/group with only one another, and PVE-unflagged players to see/group only with one another All servers will run under same rules of engagement Only place you can flag PVP is in capital cities - can’t flag PVP on the fly No randomly flagged people running around PvP gives added bonuses in addition to added risk Item level decrease incoming Not exactly the warlords “stat squish” where numbers were reduced across the board Numbers from the Dungeon Journal in the demo at Blizzcon - 880 items were showing up as 215, 900 as 235, 1000 as 335 Basically trying to make numbers a bit more meaningful Presumably mobs and such will be scaled as well -- functionally should not change, just how it’s displayed New model changes incoming for several character races - Orcs and Trolls were demoed to choose between a hunched or upright character). Mostly focused on original races, plus blood elf and draenei. Goblins and Worgen will get makeovers later. Beta Opt-In for Expansion https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/battle-for-azeroth - scroll to the bottom of the page if you want to get into the beta
Discord: https://discord.worldofwarcast.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/starmike Our talk about WoW Classic will be on Thursday's episode. Incoming for 7.3.5 - (no release date; not even up on PTR yet) Timewalking Ulduar, new battleground Event in Silithus to herald in the start of expansion Leveling Improvements (yay!!!!!) All content previous to Warlords will SCALE TO LEVEL - within ranges Classic starting zones: 1-10 All old world vanilla zones: 10-60 Burning Crusade and Wrath zones: 60-80 Cataclysm and Pandaria zones: 80-90 What this means: You can actually complete zones without leveling out of them and feeling forced to move on and you can choose where you level up Dungeons will also scale accordingly - so will loot drops (yes, run Wailing Caverns at 60 and you’ll get level 60 mobs and level 60 gear) Incoming also - no release date Accounts with an authenticator attached will get a “small increase” to the size of their standard 16 slot backpack - may be connected to WoW’s upcoming 13th anniversary event (Nov 16-30) Expansion: Battle for Azeroth (not Tides of Vengeance) - also no release date Basics: Level to 120 (one instant boost to 110) Return to faction based play areas Bye-bye Teldrassil and Undercity (but not Silvermoon and Exodar) -- hello each faction controlling their own continent Does the zone control mean no leveling zones for the opposite faction? New island zones Zandalar and Kul Tiras with three areas for each Horde: Zandalar - obviously troll focused Alliance: Kul Tiras - naval power (which we’ve never seen because apparently they’re so good they can hide the most powerful navy in the world from everyone until now) New subraces: the four we mentioned on the last show plus two more (Horde: Highland Tauren, Nightborne and Zandalari Troll. Alliance: Void Elf, Lightforged Draenei and Dark Iron Dwarves). Will get 6 new character slots on each server You have to open these subraces via quests -- once opened it’s accountwide Subraces start at level 20. You can race-switch into them using Blizzard game services, but if you run one from 20 to 120 you get an achievement plus special heritage armor transmog 3-person Island Cooperative challenge gameplay Changing mini scenarios on islands Would like to have seen this scalable to other size groups - 3 is awkward 20-person raids called Warfronts to claim strategic locations this is a PvE system, not PvP, “inspired by classic Warcraft RTS battles” (Ren: Damn good thing or the Horde on Whisperwind is screwed) Artifact amulet (Heart of Azeroth) instead of an artifact weapon - a system with a sort of mini-talent tree used to select and empower abilities - replacements for the Artifact, Artifact Power and Netherlight Crucible systems from Legion Powered by Azerite, will automatically absorb Azerite when it’s nearby Helm, chest, and shoulders will be empowered through Heart of Azeroth Probably will need an entire episode just on this - but practical upshot is the artifact weapons are going away and this is the replacement PVP/PVE server distinction is going away - now it will be selectable Internal sharding allows PVP-flagged players to see/group with only one another, and PVE-unflagged players to see/group only with one another All servers will run under same rules of engagement Only place you can flag PVP is in capital cities - can’t flag PVP on the fly No randomly flagged people running around PvP gives added bonuses in addition to added risk Item level decrease incoming Not exactly the warlords “stat squish” where numbers were reduced across the board Numbers from the Dungeon Journal in the demo at Blizzcon - 880 items were showing up as 215, 900 as 235, 1000 as 335 Basically trying to make numbers a bit more meaningful Presumably mobs and such will be scaled as well -- functionally should not change, just how it’s displayed New model changes incoming for several character races - Orcs and Trolls were demoed to choose between a hunched or upright character). Mostly focused on original races, plus blood elf and draenei. Goblins and Worgen will get makeovers later. Beta Opt-In for Expansion https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/battle-for-azeroth - scroll to the bottom of the page if you want to get into the beta
Todd and Rick discuss some League of Legends / Net Neutrality things. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor is still our game of choice (come play with us on the Horde faction on the Whisperwind server). Nintendo is no longer selling their stuff in Brazil. All this are more on