Episode 139: Resurrection

[00:00:02] Warning. This program contains strong language, auditory violence and mental nudity. It is intended only for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to your uncensored home for World of Warcraft news and opinions. With your host, Berzerker, this is Unshackled Fury.

[00:00:34] We're coming to a close on an all-time epic Warcraft chapter, as this year may have been one of the best ever. Just in time for a brand new saga to unfold. So welcome back to your uncensored home for World of Warcraft news and opinions, Unshackled Fury.

[00:01:26] I'm your host, Berzerker. This is Episode 139 and on today's show we're taking a look back at the year that was the highlights, the lowlights and everything in between. First, this will be the last official episode of World of Warcraft's favorite uncensored podcast, Unshackled Fury, for the year.

[00:01:54] This is it. This is the last episode for Unshackled Fury for this year. Time for a little winter break in my own, little vacation. Just too much going on at the end of this year, start of next year. Just much going on.

[00:02:10] So there will be a little bit of a break here, so appreciate everyone's indulgence and I'm sure you're busy too. And maybe you've taken this podcast with you on a long drive to some relative's house that you hopefully want to go to.

[00:02:25] Maybe not. I don't know how that goes. But this will be the last so I want to say thank you for hanging in there and checking it out and don't worry. We'll be back in the new year. Not going anywhere.

[00:02:40] And this being the last episode of the year, we're in a year in review so looking back kind of month to month. If you remember all these things that we talked about or things that you probably forgotten about, oh shit. Remember that thing that I didn't do?

[00:03:02] So being this is the year in review. It's a long episode typically it's a little bit longer. We'll see how I do this year but no rage segment for this year. No rage segment this year. It's been a great year for World of Warcraft, for Blizzard in general.

[00:03:19] It's been a great year so no rage to end the year. But what I do have is a metal album of the year and this probably won't come as too much of a shock. But I'm going to give it to the Mighty Metallica with 72 seasons.

[00:03:42] I know, I know. It's like dad metal now. It's like you know we're long time removed from the days of small clubs, Bay Area Thrascene and the Bay Area in the 80s. I got it.

[00:03:59] I know, I know. But this was demonstrably the most listened to album for me this year. They still sound great. They're the fucking kings of metal. They yeah they're not going as hard and fast as they used these guys from almost 60.

[00:04:19] But they're still rolling and they're still playing pretty heavy stuff and I still dig the shit out of them so. That is my album, metal album of the year. I've given you lots of other recommendations and we'll continue to do this.

[00:04:34] Surprisingly this has been a shockingly popular segment on this show so 72 seasons by Metallica. Can't get enough of it. I'm still listening to it and the boy. God damn. I think he was more than anybody.

[00:04:51] So if you haven't plugged it in years at check it out. Give it a chance. I'm sure you've got your metal album of the year or your choice album of the year but that one is mine.

[00:05:06] With that said, why don't we go ahead and jump into our news and talk about the year that was. So January 2023. I did a live show. I did a live show. I had a plan that I was going to start doing.

[00:05:44] Oh, I don't know quarterly Twitch live shows and we did one to kick off the year in January this year. I had the wonderful Alley on as a guest and overall I thought it went all right. Never did do another one.

[00:06:05] I just, I don't know. It just didn't come together quite like I thought but I'll kick it to the community here. If you would like me to do more of them, let me know. I do plan on doing another one. Maybe that'll be the traditional.

[00:06:23] Just do the one to start the year and fumble around, fuck around and figure it out and then forget all about it and then do it again.

[00:06:34] One of the big things that Alley and I talked about in that live show was we had been given a 2023 roadmap by Blizzard for what to expect this year in Dragonflight.

[00:06:46] And the closer we were to the launch point, we got a few more specifics further in like season three stuff at the time.

[00:06:57] You know, just new zone, new raid didn't have specifics but they gave us winter, spring, season two, summer, fall season three and at least sort of detailed what we could expect. And this was revolutionary.

[00:07:15] We've never seen anything like this and I think the biggest initial thought was how the hell are they going to hit that pace?

[00:07:26] The content cadence in this game has always been a point of contention and people wondering, well how in the hell are we going to see all this stuff in a timely fashion?

[00:07:36] And we know now, having gone through this year that, yeah, how damn it they hit that pace. They made it happen and they are convinced and they seemingly have built themselves in a way and built their teams in a way to be able to continue to accommodate this pace just as a course of business.

[00:07:57] Like this is just how we do things now. Not, oh we jammed a bunch of shit out of, that's over. I know there's some questions about what 2024 is going to look like, what that content cadence is going to be.

[00:08:09] Sure is a lot easier closer to the launch of an expansion than I'm sure that it is a year into it. But they seem pretty confident. Every time they talk about it's like well we got more shit for you so surprises around every corner. We're waiting.

[00:08:28] But with this map, we also knew that patch 10.0.5 was coming and right away, we did get that in January. You remember the Storm's Fury events in Thal'drasis? No you don't. Maybe you do.

[00:08:49] Remember those? One of the things that we would do for a small period of time for limited rewards and then it just went on to the next patch. Yeah I had fairly room for this one. White and gray items became transmogable.

[00:09:07] The Zaw. The biggest feature really of this patch would not be released until the following month so I'll get to that in a second. But the other big thing that Allie and I talked about at the show in January was BlizzCon speculation.

[00:09:24] We knew something. We knew we had a feeling right? We knew we've been told something's going to happen, we're going to be a regent,

[00:09:34] we're going to do whatever the fuck it is we're going to do but there's going to be something through some darts when this would happen.

[00:09:44] This is January. This is goddamn, this is nearly a year ago and I just want to say we fucking nailed it and I have the tapes to prove it. I'm going to circle. It could be somewhere late August early September but I still think November 3rd and 4th.

[00:10:05] That seems to be the date that lines up. The prequel novel's going to be out by then. Maybe we get season three starting around then or if it doesn't start right then maybe it starts,

[00:10:14] I don't know right after but I feel like this year we're going to get an expansion announcement at BlizzCon because that's what we do. You heard it here maybe not first but you heard it here through the dart and it stuck. We got it.

[00:10:31] That is as we know. Now we now know. That is when we had BlizzCon this year. So that's what we were looking at in January had a big road map. Let us know what was going on.

[00:10:48] But while we were receiving that we did unfortunately have to say goodbye like a real goodbye to a beloved member of the Warcraft extended community, Earl Bowen the actor who at least in my family was made famous playing the role of Dr. Silverman and the Terminator series.

[00:11:09] What for us is the voice of King Terenes and the voice over for when you fly in after you create your character like this guy's all over the game.

[00:11:19] Wonderful actor wonderful voice actor big contribution to the community so it was sad to see him pass but his work will most definitely live on. Moving on into February. Yes. I mentioned earlier the biggest anything that happened was the trading post trading post went live.

[00:11:45] February 1st and I think we can all confidently say this was a game changing addition to World of Warcraft. It's certainly going to be a permanent edition it seems like now initially it was not without its controversies.

[00:12:02] There were some bugs and there was kind of some concern about well am I going to miss out on stuff there's a FOMO element is a cost element. People calling it goddamn things Tendies please don't call them Tendies but not Tendies. Trader Tender come on.

[00:12:20] Don't say Tendies that's just as as the kids say it's it's I don't know maybe they don't say what I would say it's giving cringe. But they figured it out. Kind of figured they would.

[00:12:38] If they figured these things out they got these bugs out it did feel a little undercooked at first and that is what I said at the time but it has since really hit a stride.

[00:12:49] I have incorporated a bit that again seems to be more popular than I originally anticipated. People seem to love the rating systems because I have that shit quoted back to me on a fairly regular basis now.

[00:13:05] But it is giving good material now to rate and we're getting more of it. We're seeing some repeat things we're seeing some wonderful one off items originally the Ragnaros flail like that was one of the first ones. Oh shit that's awesome.

[00:13:21] It's really giving their artists an opportunity to flex their muscles and do some really cool one off stuff like it doesn't have to be part of a raid you have to make a whole set you don't have to do like all this crazy stuff you just make one cool thing or two cool things.

[00:13:38] And it's immensely popular.

[00:13:42] The Adventure Guide trying to fill that thing up getting your big reward every month if you want it has become prime piece of activity for people they did confirm at that time which was just announced again I guess the 12 month reward so if you complete the Adventure Guide you fill up that thousand points every month and do it 12 times doesn't have to be consecutive

[00:14:09] you get that warden transmog which in its own space of course had controversy about it changing colors and this and that and they're going to do different variations of it now so you know they're going to take care of it but good for you for speaking up people.

[00:14:25] That's how you get what you want. But they even told us at the time there would be this 12 month reward so hit it do it have fun.

[00:14:32] And I think we have and it has been and what a wonderful addition great to pick up all these pieces some fun little pets to and you know weapons obviously my primary concern at all times and maybe some cool warrior barbarian looking shit. I'm time to time.

[00:14:52] But I'm pretty confident it's universally appreciated at the least and loved at the most. Looking forward to every month saying oh it's on there they did class sets towards the end of the year where you're one you know update of an old said I got it.

[00:15:09] But overall a fantastic addition also in February I talked about the start of the tier quest line which we just finished and that was when we got a summons from Alex straws received our gift of tier the silver dragon scale that woke up.

[00:15:27] And we started to work more with stony Tony to discover its purpose and as we found out we're going to re resurrect tier.

[00:15:37] And remember when we started the expansion we went no hold them on try to get his memory discs and they were cast into the time ways we lost them know how we were going to get back.

[00:15:48] We knew that we needed to and discussed at the time you know is it him is it not him is a copy of him getting some like real high brain metaphysical shit. But that was when it all kicked off all the way back in February and.

[00:16:05] Only now do we know how that resolved but it was a fun beginning getting to work with the stony Tony who continued to have quite an arc here himself and get to that.

[00:16:15] A little bit later but the last thing for February I wanted to mention was that this was the 32nd year of Blizzard Entertainment's existence and various forms of fashions but 32 years of Blizzard.

[00:16:28] And at the time also mentioned this really great video of Sam wise did he a talking about how he originally got hired in this and that and that one is a little bittersweet now. Since he announced his retirement and is going to be.

[00:16:45] What do you say doing the the wandering wandering path. You know like a like a like a Ronan. We got coffee there for the working man all right and then the March March.

[00:17:07] March had the first kind of bit of trouble that we'd really seen in a while or. What was then just Activision Blizzard. We knew that. The culture had changed as it had in many places much of the working world that people. Tell a working working remotely.

[00:17:32] And in March is when we had. Sort of a big debacle where. Blizzard was essentially putting a return to office policy into place starting in July and. Records of the meeting got leaked out and people were talking about brain drain that we've seen. For and since then.

[00:17:57] We also learned about the stacked ranking system that they do where. Team leadership essentially had to rank all their people and so some people got fucked and some people got stuff and. Even good people kind of got screwed out of things and.

[00:18:12] Well I haven't been through the stack ranking stuff I have been through the return to office protocol discussions and it sucks. In the middle of something like that right now myself and.

[00:18:25] We don't really know what's going to happen with it but dealing with all sides of it has been extraordinarily shitty so. Following the launch of dragon flight and how well everything had been going up to that point this was really the first.

[00:18:41] Punch in the eye that we'd seen for them in a while and even my Kibara who for the most part has been pretty well received in more recent times. Made a comment essentially saying well if people want to leave and you know.

[00:18:55] We want people to stay when it works right for them and he wasn't really sad to see people go and that. That was not a good look that was not a good look and so.

[00:19:07] At the time we started to wonder oh no is this is this starting to backslide because. The sale to Microsoft was still. In the in the wind somewhere it hadn't happened you know the deal was ongoing but it was being.

[00:19:28] Checked apart my regulators globally and it was it was. Not in a for sure spot and so seeing all of this at that time I start to get a little nervous.

[00:19:39] Oh what's going to happen we can lose more people we like and we did certainly later on some of the more publicly facing ones. But. Had to wait and see what would happen sure didn't sound good but. Have to wait and see. Meanwhile in game. Right.

[00:20:00] Right according to this roadmap. Patch 10.0.7 launched. You'll remember this is when we went back to the forbidden reach. Went into the Zascara vaults maybe get keys going to this Zascara vaults and unlock stuff and bounce around and do all those things.

[00:20:19] And we had the onyx annulet experiment where you get those gems right and slot them in you get different abilities or different buffs and this and that. And people were not happy with that.

[00:20:33] It felt again like borrowed power of some kind and we were promised don't worry and it felt very temporary and it turned out to be at the time like.

[00:20:43] What you didn't have to go into the Zascara vault or once you got your annulet and annulet and the gems that you needed like. You think twice I didn't.

[00:20:54] I probably still have keys I got to use it was it was a cool little experiment but it was very short lived put something like that in a in a. I don't even I still have a good term for this a quarter patch.

[00:21:08] A sub patch a mini patch. It had the feeling of something that could have been bigger and maybe it was an experiment for something that will be bigger on bigger later on down the line.

[00:21:20] But all of that hullabaloo for essentially what amounted to a very short period of time when it was effective but in that little sub patch mini patch. We're also learning more about where we were going after Razageth's defeat.

[00:21:39] That was the first primalist right that we had taken down and we were learning more about what is it that they wanted. What were they doing well they were looking for Neltharion's power they wanted to reclaim Neltharion's power. That's what this was all about. Earthward very powerful.

[00:21:59] How do we get there. And we kind of got left at the end of that storyline where we'd helped the forbidden reach folks and then we kind of kind of got truncated right there.

[00:22:14] We knew it was going to end you know head into 10.1 it was just sort of that teaser but it was the interaction between Emberthol and Abyssian that I really enjoyed at that time getting to see the two of them connect and.

[00:22:26] Of course we know now Abyssian being the new aspect and looks like he's getting a bit of an upgrade soon. Pretty cool. More than all of that. Marchhead one of the greatest World of Warcraft editions ever. Ever. The human heritage armor in New York.

[00:22:55] Which I am still rocking to this day. Now I did change some of the blue and gold into the into the red when it matched some tier year that I got later on or some red gear but.

[00:23:11] I thoroughly enjoyed this shit out of that and I'm still I'm still wearing it with pride every day for me is a long time human player I've only anybody's was in the show knows I've only ever had one main human warrior jury warrior that's that's the one main I have I have some alts but.

[00:23:36] Somewhere. And so getting a chance to kind of take a trip around the old neighborhood. It's pretty fun.

[00:23:46] And I was thinking about this and sort of the issue that I have I guess with classic not that there's anything wrong with it I'm glad that people are enjoying it. Is no matter how true that experience may be in terms of the game player mechanics or whatever.

[00:24:04] The one thing that I feel like I can never get back is truly the sense of being lost and having wonder of this place that I'm in because I came in damn near blind to the whole situation and so.

[00:24:20] The first time I saw Stormwind I was just completely blown away because I've never seen anything like it in a game before just. Ostra. And to go from there to all the other places that we went again not knowing anything it just was. Mind blowing to me.

[00:24:37] And it's that lack of knowledge that I can never get back I mean maybe one day I get old enough and I lose enough marbles and oh shit World Warcraft what says. But.

[00:24:50] Other than that outside of that I should say all I can really do is just enjoy it for what it is and so getting a chance like the human heritage armor quest to go back to have a have another anixia fight and see some folks in Westfall and.

[00:25:06] Hang out in Stormwind you know. It was great the armor all time all time in the orc for what it's worth I mean it's dead on it's dead on the money for what it should be.

[00:25:19] I had one complaint at the time was that I wish that you could have doubled up the shoulders because you had the one that's the eagle and the one that's just kind of been or whatever.

[00:25:30] But when you put it together some of the weapons line art executioner for instance and like for me rocking the ponytail the the very in hair with no helmet on boom it's the effect that I wanted. I've always wanted so.

[00:25:43] That was great and closing out March of course we had jazz cordon back on the show who's always a great guest and wonderful to have around these parts and I'm sure that you will see him again. And then heading into April.

[00:25:59] Unshackled sugar took over the airways don't know how that happened. I heard there was some pretty good recipe that was given out. Don't know who that was and what happened and I can't seem to remove it but it's there.

[00:26:19] Also in April we were prepping for the launch of patch 10.1. We had the awesome for rock cinematic reason. I don't know Armageddon in it just deep impact. Pick your pick your analogy of euphemism whatever he goes all fireball boars his way down into Azeroth it's pretty sweet.

[00:26:45] Like he just that guy's a fucking maniac and I you know I'll say it now I will miss him. He was great I don't know if I don't know they get to go to the Shadowlands or how that works but man alive.

[00:26:57] That was a great character by all the primalists dead on all four of them were wonderfully well created. But for rock really was special amongst all of them so we got to we got to first look at that.

[00:27:12] Giving way into patch 10.1 which is coming up in the following month and April was also when we did the first metal album of the week. And it was 72 seasons my album of the year about that full circle.

[00:27:31] And again I'm surprised so many of you excited are asking about that's why I will keep marching on following the roadmap. Then in May of this year season two patch 10.1 embers of Neltharian goes live. We get our new zone Zerelect cavern where we meet our niffin friends.

[00:28:01] And it feels now in retrospect like Zerelect cavern really is a testing ground for how we might feel about where we're going. And what we now know is the next expansion the war within where we are going to be spending an incredible amount of time underground essentially.

[00:28:22] Now they're going to be doing some things to fake the eye make it look like we're not underground the entire time.

[00:28:28] But with Zerelect cavern it was not just an attempt to have us play underground and see what that looked like but it's also their tech now which allows us to go surface level

[00:28:42] to underneath to be able to traverse these different planes so to speak on Azeroth without a loading screen.

[00:28:50] One of the things that I love about Cyberpunk 2077 which I you know you know how folks you folks know how I feel about it is you can go anywhere and there's no loading screens you just you just go you just are right.

[00:29:05] A lot of these open world games are like that you just go places there's not a lot of loading screens I mean if you travel fast travel this and you know some stuff like that but.

[00:29:15] World of Warcraft we do have a lot of these kinds of loading screens we go from one island to another place or this and that and so to be able to do that now to traverse that distance.

[00:29:25] You know really how impactful that was at the time but it was pretty cool to get to do it and spend some time in Zerelect cavern it was a big space we can still drag and ride but.

[00:29:38] I did end up getting tired of it a little quicker than I thought. But overall it was it was a good zone it was a good attempt lots of hidden places that I frankly still have not explored but. Yeah good. New raid.

[00:29:56] Aburus the shadow crucible awesome bosses in there especially very first one. Kazara the hell forged which had a hell beam. Hell yeah that was a great one the shadow flame. That whole the whole vibe the whole look it's just so great.

[00:30:20] So there are great bosses in there it was fun to have no theory and as a guide at least up to a point of the conversations with Rathion especially super fun. Cool to see that his his sort of reckoning with his place in all of this.

[00:30:35] Tier gear was easier to earn in the raid I always appreciate that people were getting their bonuses super fast. Brock assaults. Did you do any of those.

[00:30:47] I think I did a couple researchers under fire another public event mixed mixed reaction there along with the other sort of public objectives. I don't know that these quite. I don't know these quite were.

[00:31:03] On target as as they wanted and that overall is something that I do question a little bit about where they're spending their time with all of these patches is there's always some sort of like temporary public event which.

[00:31:18] Depending on how many people you need to do it and how rewarding the rewards are those can be kind of hit and miss.

[00:31:24] But then you give us something that was pretty popular I think proved to be pretty popular cross faction kills that did come in patch 10.1 something that people have been screaming for since time of Memorial and I know our guild we.

[00:31:38] I think we had at least one person that did it and then they left. What can I say but the other big thing this con 2023 was an outstand of course as you already know I was right.

[00:31:48] I was right this con 2023 was announced November 3rd and 4th 2023 details to be determined but it was nice to know that it was coming and of course you could feel the collective anxiety of the content creator community just immediately sees up as now it's like oh shit there's going to be a big deal.

[00:31:55] I mean it's just. Two years later after all of these last few months during the first two weeks in July the first three months and then that was the first two weeks of July so. Anxiety of the content creator community just immediately sees up as

[00:32:18] Now it's like oh shit. There's gonna be a blizzcon. I gotta get my purse passes. How do we get them? Oh who gets it? I mean, it's just And then from then on you can just feel that anxiety just ride all the way through

[00:32:32] Who got in who didn't who deserved it who didn't we got access to interviews who didn't It's always just it's just like it's like a I don't know You ever seen a litter of puppies Fight over each other to get

[00:32:52] To the mama dog when it's feeding time and they're just piling over each other and just kicking other ones out of the way And they're just they're just blindly going forward and just clamoring over everything to get what they want

[00:33:06] That's kind of what it's like that's kind of what it's like at the content creator community sometimes He's like man. It's a goddamn free for all But doesn't we found out for sure the dates

[00:33:18] Location what we're doing man this year and then the other sort of big thing going on at the time was the Microsoft purchase almost died at this point the UK regulators messing around oh They they initially they did block it. They did block the merger

[00:33:38] They didn't like something about cloud gaming and some other nonce. I mean it was all nonsense And none of this was like a real problem. It was misunderstanding at its I don't know most high level and I think

[00:33:54] Sony was paying somebody as dirtiest level and somewhere in there, but That was the point at which The deal might not have been done that was that was the lowest point the closest we came but ultimately as we know Those regulators did relent and the sale was allowed

[00:34:13] move forward Then as we moved into June, I did take some time off myself It was Pride Month and there were lots of events across the community and it's great to see those grow If you see those events going on I recommend

[00:34:33] Whether or not you participate in them to give them a boost where you can Even if you know, you're a small You know got a small following somewhere or whatever it is just boost this stuff out I think it's really helpful to

[00:34:47] Get those voices get those people out there build those events up because it is important to help protect those communities and I think it's wonderful that folks are driving That train and at the same time in June we were prepping prepping for the release patch 10 0.1.5 Which carried some

[00:35:12] Surprisingly big stuff so again following the roadmap we knew summer Summer 2023 we're gonna have 10.1.5, which It's gonna have a mega dungeon Oh mega dungeon that means it's Long and hard we gonna do and We got it Dawn of the infinite dragonflight mega dungeon

[00:35:43] Who's who's fucking hard? I don't want to thank the failings of nod guild for getting through that eventually Uh, but that was that was a it was a difficult one And essentially it was us chasing down morchi and the forces of the infinite dragonflight

[00:36:00] Riddikron trying to stop all of them. I mean it was it was pretty wild go on in there And ultimately we see a Riddikron with this dragon soul like device and it's got some kind of voidy stuff in there

[00:36:12] And we're like, oh here we come he steps into a void portal and we see Some kind of shadowy creature looks like an elf back there I think we know now is out there We go, baby The void here we come

[00:36:29] And it's through that dungeon and then the subsequent epilogue That we find out that the next chapter Of world of warcraft is going to be focused on feroc Trying to burn down this new world tree and miradrisle. So those those pieces that we've been following all this time

[00:36:49] From the forbidden reach through embers of neltherian now. We know okay. All right Riddikron's taken off That leaves us with two we've got feroc. We've got viren off. All right, we get this great Cinematic we know how that goes But We know that at this point

[00:37:18] It's only gonna be Sort of like these two main storylines. We're gonna be fine one Riddikron is fighting against the titans and void power and whatever's going on. So that's off in one direction the other feroc and viren off They're mad at their

[00:37:32] Other brothers and sisters are they're kin. They're mad at them. So now off we go We know those are like the two splitting time Our storylines, but we don't quite know where they're going yet We had time rifts and tear hold reservoir and patch 10.1.5

[00:37:48] I know you all love those We did have a hall of fame addition in the welp daycare That was fantastic We had the calendar cup added which was only the beginning to all the great dragon riding

[00:38:02] Races that we've had across the old world and now we know of course that that that type of flying will be added Uh here in the near future and that's wonderful We also had one other very important item added

[00:38:15] To this game in july and patch 10.1.5 and that was If you have completed the siege of orgrimmar raid you can now skip straight to garos and at first Every time I did it it would DC me and then I'd be in the right place, but

[00:38:30] Uh that has since been fixed and so if you're looking for those shoulders And I think every warrior should Then That's the place to be Go get them I mentioned earlier we had some more goodbyes say to folks and we had two big ones folks that we know

[00:38:52] Former blizzard staff now one was swalinka brian holinka the other monti crawl who I know I got Introduced to essentially through the azeroth choppers series that they did a link is now with ghost crawler over doing their thing it Had another studio were they going to start up?

[00:39:11] A new mmo and monik rolls over at epic games now So the brain drain that we saw now no reasons are ever given who knows maybe it was just time, but I Can you read the tea leaves kind of like oh I think I know what I see

[00:39:26] But then really as we get to the end of july we are then preparing more Let's see 10.1.7 Already we're moving from one to the next already on the ptr And we're moving along but in august august dog days of summer really slows down during that time of year

[00:39:45] We had the trial of style Needs more definitely needs more We had the ukraine aid pack that was added and If you didn't buy the golden refiner, I don't know what's wrong with you It was a perfect time

[00:40:00] And it's a lot cheaper than the one I have now and it bites a hell of a lot less He'll be fine. He's a puppy But through that He did ultimately raise one and a half million dollars of aid

[00:40:12] Which is fantastic and I hope I hope that goes to a good cause We second by to a great podcast world of warcraft podcast out there dungeon fables led by Uh the aforementioned ali a friend out there also a d&d uh compatriot

[00:40:35] If you haven't had a chance to listen to that podcast go back and listen to it It's great information on all these places that we've been over the years goes into a hell of a lot more detail than anything I do here

[00:40:45] So if you haven't checked it out go back and listen you're a fan Wow, I gave us our first 11.0 leak This is when we started to see something about storm dwarf something or I don't know we're going somewhere and people started going That's oh here we go

[00:41:02] The big thing for me for blizzcon was When we were basically told medicine's gonna be introducing the shit at blizzcon and and you knew It was gonna be epic and big and amazing and my hype train just left the station forever

[00:41:19] And it never came back and it was It was proven that that was Appropriate given everything that ended up happening. So then as we head into september just a few months ago patch 10.1.7 fury incarnate went live We had the Brock versus veranoff cinematic fire and ice

[00:41:42] Brock looking for a way into the emerald dream veranoff's like no, this is not what we're here for And they end up having their big split and veranoff eventually joining alex strasza and as we know

[00:41:59] Joining them later to be empowered and and taking a whole new path with us It was pretty wild to see, you know, those those breadcrumbs had been laying that the veranoff probably was You know, not they're not evil. They just have different goals, but veranoff especially

[00:42:16] Had the ability to Come to our side I think I think you could see that pretty early and We knew that for rock was focused on a mirder sill on corrupting it ending it doing something But how and why he was looking for an entrance

[00:42:32] Didn't have it yet That patch also had a lot of customization Night elf and forsaken heritage armor Great options for both of them The dronai the minari the eredar options, you know, you could have your red dronai if you wanted to

[00:42:51] Been talking like a pirate day and was the first of several holiday themed dragon riding armors that were announced And I think it was like 50k Some of the best 50k I ever spent

[00:43:03] Secrets of azeroth kicked off which ended up being a very popular addition to the game And it seems like that's something that's going to return Mikey barra confirmed that there will be no pirates

[00:43:18] In the next expansion. I don't know people were pissed because everyone was convinced. Oh south seas south seas We're going to the south seas we're gonna be pirates this and that Look how wrong y'all were Way wrong not even close

[00:43:35] Dropping three expanses on you later. Oh, that was pretty funny though. I I enjoyed that I was pretty happy and I and I appreciated that ibarra was saying that and they can only just imagine

[00:43:47] I can only imagine how hilarious this was to them knowing what they know how far out they know things are going And we're like oh pirate south seas and not even fucking we did have a little bit of fun content creator beef Between belgular and panda

[00:44:05] Stories getting too soft. Oh you fell the shade uh And then later uh when the homie romlin I saw the two of them at the bar in uh anaheim at the blizzcon at the

[00:44:17] Hilton bar and they're walking past each other. I'm like oh get your phones out. They're gonna fight now I don't know if it was a work. This is wrestling parlance. I don't know if it was a work I don't know if they worked themselves into a shoot

[00:44:32] Not really sure what the reality is there, but they very quickly handled the beef because nobody gave a shit when they were around each other so You decide how real or not that was Then of course we had patch 10.2 guardians of the dream announced

[00:44:48] And we started to wonder what that release date was going to look like with respect to blizzcon would they release it Before give the race for world first a chance to play out and then we'd find out expansion stuff

[00:45:01] You know because we knew how it would end or would it you know, would it have to come after? What was that going to look like? We didn't quite know yet But we knew that again going back to our roadmap season three patch 10.2. It's coming

[00:45:16] We're gonna have all this stuff in it When's it gonna hit we weren't quite sure And then we made it into october Eight years of unchecked fury in october eight years Long time long time for a podcast brought on Starting zones own jason lucas fellow metal brother

[00:45:43] and had the chance to bury the hatchet with him and and You know probably more important for me. I guess than him and I appreciated him Going along with it Because as we discussed, you know, I wasn't the kindest to that show when I first started and um

[00:46:01] I don't know that I've always been the kindest even since But it was it was great to talk to him, uh, both on and off the air so to speak and talk a lot about podcasting in the warcraft community and just life in general

[00:46:18] There's a great opportunity to chat with him and I am really appreciative But not just him coming on but all the things that we sort of talked about since and of course how blizzcon went utterly dictated by his

[00:46:31] Gentle threatening of my life because it was announced as well in the eight-year anniversary show In october for unchecked fury that I was getting a press pass for blizzcon for the first time ever And that was and is still a

[00:46:48] major achievement for me and this show and everything else and I I still can't believe that I got to See and do what I got to see and do but that was that was when we made it public to the world

[00:47:04] So we started prepping for blizzcon at that point We know that it's coming october's our last sort of run up to it We'd seen a floor plan wasn't too happy that warcraft kind of got stiffed on space

[00:47:16] Having seen it in person. I really think they wasted a lot of the warcraft space, but Maybe next year it's okay Light on panels perhaps only one place where they're showing them in the arena. So we know

[00:47:30] Might be a little little more open there and then only one closing act seraphine Was announced at the time so we were wondering would there be more would they do a multi thing? Nope, they ended up not But perhaps biggest of all most impactful The sale to microsoft

[00:47:48] finally completed to finally closed october 13th for 68.7 billion dollars Finally away from the clutches of bobby kotick and the horrible activision Blizzard board I think bobby's got all about two weeks left Being involved with any of this in any capacity and I guarantees checked out so

[00:48:16] Good riddance to bad rubbish That that day will prove to be No other a real turning point I think for the future of blizzard and what blizzard is going to be doing focusing on and everything else Because then came this past november just last month and it was

[00:48:40] I said it then i'll say it now Maybe the most impactful month ever for world of warcraft possibly for blizzard and certainly for us Kicked it off with blizzcon 2023 Got to go right The world's whole saga revealed all those three expansions the war within midnight the last titan

[00:49:04] introduced to us by Chris metzen himself in in his Place in his in his space with his people in his vibe like the whole thing right? He just he was jamming on it and loving it

[00:49:18] And it was so wonderful to be a part of that to be in the room to like feel his voice like it was just Radish it And you could tell he was pumped and walking us through what these expansions are kind of gonna look like

[00:49:33] We're gonna be diving deep into the planet. We're gonna be Answering the call of whatever it is that magnus been babbling about all these years and Then we're gonna be dealing with the void and something something's gonna go bad something's gonna go wrong

[00:49:47] We're gonna be dealing with things in midnight and then the last titan we're going back to old to our oh shit Wild stuff and then they leaves us with Inarquably one of the greatest cinematics ever for world of warcraft if not the greatest

[00:50:04] Anduin cinematic. Yeah, I know thrall was there I've gone into great lengths about this already. You all know how I feel. I still can't watch it without getting emotional It's just it's so well done the music imagery Everything that it touches. It's just man. It's it's perfection

[00:50:25] And what a great lead into whatever the war within is going to be where we're going Down into the planet to meet people of course, we haven't seen in a while or never met and getting a chance to

[00:50:39] Save the save the world save the world soul save azeroth do what we do best Dispense indiscriminate justice And there were you know a couple panels for us going deeper into some of the items that we'd be seeing In the future, especially in the war within expansion

[00:50:59] But as far as press access right again, I got to see some choice seating myself. I got to be in a group interview Got to meet a lot of folks Of course, there was free lunch and I got a bathroom which I

[00:51:12] I mean my home show I could say this if I want to There was at least two occasions that I was the only person in the bathroom got to pee by myself

[00:51:19] In a in a crowd of I don't know 40,000 people. It was pretty sweet. I'm not gonna lie Ah, but really the best part, you know Getting to meet real people got to hang out with my d&d group Without well sub 1 work hard didn't make it but

[00:51:38] getting to see jinn and ali and sniper And lance all in person have dinner with them was awesome Getting to meet surprisingly listeners jeff rosin stern getting to meet, you know real humans awesome Other content creators who I've only also on only seen on tv

[00:51:56] Any meat john height holly longdale Ian who has still need to take a better photo with the second one wasn't that good either Awesome But best I guess best of all Getting to hang with the homie romp

[00:52:10] And then we ended up going to a dragon force concert two weeks later. So we got a lot of face time and that was that was fantastic Getting to do all those things Had a bonus episode with jeff cordon

[00:52:24] So he came back on we talked about microsoft talked about all the things that were announced about cyberpunk And he's gonna be a really good dude for all of us to know heading into the microsoft days Uh, you know he he

[00:52:38] I'll mention later had an interview that was really important. I think to all of us And I was really happy to make that connection With that dude not just on like a personal level but also professional level in that way So he's he's gonna be really good

[00:52:53] For us in terms of insights and kind of teasing apart what's really going on out there, of course No bigger guest What's occurred in november and the brother navox Navox returning To unshackled fury and it's always great to shoot the shit with the og himself and

[00:53:19] Hearing how well he's been doing in dragon flight and getting to catch up. It's It's fantastic. I'm sure you have not heard the last Of beyond all of this We also had a huge patch release patch 10.2 Guardians of the dream We now have the emerald dream zone

[00:53:46] After all these times of seeing bits and pieces of it now we have a whole ass zone Is it all we hoped I know people wanted a whole expansion with it He and explained that it's just doesn't have enough variety to make

[00:53:57] Worthy of an expansion which I get It was pretty cool to see This land which really reminded me of ardenweald kind of the same sort of ethereal foresty vibe super cool

[00:54:12] The mirage of sale the dreams hope raid still making our way through it but so far really enjoying it We're we're on feroc ourselves Um, but people seem to be digging the pace and digging the fights and there's good stuff Great We have a wonderful legendary

[00:54:33] Feral off the dream render Two-handed axe shadow flame axe. I I'm sure it's gonna be a minute till I see it myself personally if I ever do Uh, but I can't wait to see that more out in game. I think that's that's a fantastic

[00:54:48] And the game I mean the fucking shadow flame axe. How cool is that? Race the world first did occur and finally ended echo came out your champion And once all of that happened, of course we were able to get the

[00:55:06] Legendary but we also saw really the end of the story or at least I felt comfortable talking about at that point. We had to Battle at the tree, you know leading up to the raid itself when we saw a whole bunch of legends Edgar Jaina Rallion

[00:55:21] Chen stormstown all the all all the homies were there We got in the raid we defeated for rock This this power was released into all of the aspects and Fearnoff and so No aspected once again, so it's azeroth choosing her champions or chosen protectors

[00:55:47] You have a world tree that's now in the dragon is very contentious people are very unhappy that you know capital city is Not really capital city. It's this other place down here a lot of turmoil about this coming in the next batch Oh, but that's 20 24

[00:56:06] We did say goodbye to Ysera once again, but at least she's still like kind of accessible Uh, where about furane is I don't know So the end of the tier quest line that we started way back at the beginning of the air now

[00:56:19] Reforged we've reforged our Titan friend And he's looking for his place in the world And stony tony looks like will be his guide and what an arc for this nameless Just stalwart badass that we met In the original opening cinematic the dragonflight Just some

[00:56:43] Nameless automaton who you know real woke I was like shit. I gotta get up there and do this thing and in the most heroic way is saved and it's just I guarantee if there hadn't been any reaction for him

[00:56:57] It would have been some other characters doing this stuff But they had to keep him going they had to give him something to do so Awesome to see sort of all of that come together to reclaim those discs, you know, we went uh back to

[00:57:12] Back to the Legion area god damn it's Suramar And retrieve those It was kind of cool going back there And I did get my tabard I want to thank everybody who's giving me suggestions to help me out. I think I just had to wait

[00:57:25] I think there was like a there was like a cooling off period before you could get the mail for that, but I did get it And of course closing the month

[00:57:34] While classic season of discovery which has proven to be immensely popular and you know what good for all you folks That is fantastic and that And that put a real good bow on November which was just

[00:57:48] Incredible and I mean you could do whole episodes about just that month and I wouldn't be surprised if in the future November 2023 will be referenced by this show and others forever Because of everything that was announced everything that happened. There's so much that's gonna tie from that month

[00:58:04] and Glad we all were here to experience it So now here we are in December end of the year Winter Veil is now live If you go out there and log in Until january 2nd next year Go participate in winter veil activities

[00:58:25] The green chest some new drops a dragon riding customization a little holiday inspired And a another pepe whistle remember pepe Seems to pop up from time to time And of course after the 25th of this month great father winters gifts will be available

[00:58:44] And along with that there's other decorations and great boss attire and and dailies that you can do and transformation globes and all kinds of stuff going on And it's the close of what I call the best time of year. It's it's that October November December run

[00:59:03] The end of the year world of warcraft just it's unbeatable and I encourage all of you to Make the most out of it that you can because it it the wild thing comes back Also this month Just Gordon had a great interview with phil spencer

[00:59:18] Who you don't know who that is you better get better get in the know because he's going to be very influential to what happens The blizzard and with us Now that microsoft is uh an ownership of blizzard and it really does sound like

[00:59:34] Blizzard will get to be blizzard once again, and I know how happy All of us are about that Meanwhile Do have patch 10.2.5 on the ptr I know data mining has found a very familiar sword that i will talk about when the time is right

[00:59:52] Uh, but I could be very excited about and 11.0 I think the alpha is already up somewhere on a secret server or something The people have found so That is Where we stand right now Does that record this halfway through december of

[01:00:10] 2023 with a couple weeks to go who knows something may happen, but I think a lot of people are going on vacation So I doubt there'd be a whole lot of them before I go The day and this year

[01:00:24] Just wanted to have sort of a I don't know final comment for the I don't know personal statement about things I think about The space is I think about

[01:00:39] My life is I think about a lot of stuff particularly when I go out on walks trying to walk a lot um This year and

[01:00:49] I don't see a lot of people post this stuff online. Oh, I lost this much way. I do this thing because they're looking for likes and Comments and shit. You're not gonna see me do that, but I have been working on things and I have been

[01:01:00] Trending in a better direction. So that's been great And as I've been on these walks, I think a lot about my life and This space like I said and more craft and a lot of other things but

[01:01:14] What I find more often than not is that I'm becoming more grateful for The things that I have the opportunities that I get Especially in this space because this is nothing to do with my chosen profession my real

[01:01:29] Day-to-day activity my you know real life if you want to call that is so far removed from any of this and so Everything that happens here the podcasting blizzcon the press passes meeting folks all of this stuff. It's all It's not kind of like a second life

[01:01:46] And I've really grown to appreciate All aspects I think a lot more than I used to appear this side Real life side. I mean it's all real life. What do you know?

[01:02:01] Grateful for the experiences grateful for the people most of all talked about how coming out of covid experiences more than anything seemed to matter I think part of it too is my age

[01:02:13] I'm at the age now the specific age that my grandfather always said was the best age It was say This is the age that he was whenever they're all the you'd say it's the age that I am now and whether it's

[01:02:28] purposeful or not whether it's sort of a You know inceptioned into me or not. I am starting to believe that he might be right He might have been right and he's hasn't been with us for a few years, but

[01:02:40] At an age where you start to feel like you're figuring things out a little bit more Feel like yourself a little bit more Grateful for things you're enjoying things more. You're really trying to make the most of things more

[01:02:52] And I know that this is you know, Ragey shallow untrackled fury but Truly trying to look More at the at the good The better of things and I will say that it has been immensely gratifying to see the resurrection

[01:03:08] Of world of warcraft because on the shadowlands era is not looking good covid times not looking good but to see the resurgence of this Game of this community of everything around it. That's just it it's been so welcoming

[01:03:28] And again to meet all the people that I've met all of you if I've ever met you just know I appreciate it. I appreciate that opportunity and it's meant a lot to me not to be able to do that and You know, so moving into 2024

[01:03:43] It's gonna be an insane year folks And I don't talk a lot about politics here, but i'm just telling you politically it's gonna be insane And there's gonna be a lot going on in the world at least here in the united states. It's gonna be ugly And

[01:04:00] This place has always been a refuge for me. I think it's been a refuge for a lot of us And so I will continue to be here to try to bring a Little break in the storm little Storm of my own Just know i'm appreciative of

[01:04:15] Any anytime you've ever downloaded the show anytime you've ever listened every time you told a friend every time you Messaged me every time you jumped into our discord. That's always been a lot to me And so I just want to thank all of you

[01:04:26] For doing all of those things and Hopefully Hopefully 2024 the war within will bring us A lot of great stuff and we'll have a lot more to celebrate World of warcraft and beyond. All right I think i've done enough damage for one episode

[01:04:49] My thanks to all of you for listening and remember You can always follow me and this show on twitter at berserker rage and unshackled underscore fury On blue sky at berserker and unshackled fury as well as on twitch at unshackled fury and real berserker

[01:05:05] You can also join our discord Thanks for wishing to earn the profile of the show on twitter and on our bonus roll page Feel free to contact the show with your questions comments or otherwise through any of those resources

[01:05:15] Or unshackled fury dot com and you can find this show wherever you get your podcasts So once again, thank you for listening remember to keep your sores wet and your banners high and we'll see you next year farewell