Episode 148: Flight School's Out

[00:00:01] Warning, this program contains strong language, auditory violence and mental nudity.

[00:00:07] It is intended only for mature audiences, listener discretion is advised.

[00:00:13] Uncensored Home for World of Warcraft News and Events

[00:00:27] This is Unshackled Fury

[00:01:01] The sun is shining and it's time for school to let out for the summer.

[00:01:06] As we set our sights on the future and the war that is to come.

[00:01:11] So welcome back for episode 148 of your Uncensored Home for World of Warcraft News and Opinions, Unshackled Fury.

[00:01:20] I'm your host Berzerker and with me once again is our Fit Brit who don't take no shit.

[00:01:26] No, that's Mr. Jez Corden. Welcome back again, good sir.

[00:01:32] Hey man, sorry I missed the previous show. How was it? You went solo right?

[00:01:37] Went solo but we carried your spirits, we carried your banner and I think we did alright.

[00:01:44] But by the metrics people love you and when you don't show up, they don't love me as much.

[00:01:50] That is for sure.

[00:01:53] So we're happy to have you back. I know your schedule's been fucking crazy.

[00:01:59] For people that don't know, with us being separated by two continents in the ocean and whatever else, 19 time zones.

[00:02:08] It is a bit of a dart throw and a needle thread to get us in the same place at the same time.

[00:02:14] So you also know that every single one of these is a special gem that you should treasure every time we're together.

[00:02:23] This is art that we're making.

[00:02:26] Just cinema baby. Yeah, true cinema.

[00:02:31] Yeah so we're back here back together and up top just to let everybody know this will be the last episode that we do before taking a summer break.

[00:02:47] We're kind of at a spot where we're in season four, we're in that sort of weird in between time.

[00:02:55] I have repeatedly preached the value of taking breaks and avoiding burnout and doing all of that stuff.

[00:03:04] And on top of all of that, between Jez and I, there's all kinds of travel happening.

[00:03:10] Jez is always traveling anyway but on top of yours and mine,

[00:03:16] the summer's pretty busy already so we're going to take a little bit of a break and the plan right now is to come back towards late July-ish.

[00:03:26] So yeah, it's going to be a couple months but by then we'll be in the full throws of the war within

[00:03:33] and pre-patch will be certainly if not right on the doorstep.

[00:03:38] It's like on the walkway leading up from the street.

[00:03:41] We'll be right in the thick of it but I know for you, you actually are coming stateside for a little bit.

[00:03:49] Potentially. Yeah and I'm supposed to be heading out to LA for the Xbox showcase event which is the first Xbox showcase

[00:04:00] where Bethesda, which is Xenomax and Fallout and whatever and ABK so Blizzard, Activision and King

[00:04:09] and Xbox so you know your Xbox studios like 343 and the Coalition for Gids of War.

[00:04:15] It's the first Xbox showcase where everyone is under one roof in one big happy family

[00:04:20] and little birdie tells me that there will be a bit of blizzard in the show so yeah,

[00:04:26] so might be relevant for everyone to keep an eye out.

[00:04:30] Oh shit. Now is this for pleasure or is this like a window-central gig?

[00:04:36] Oh it's 100% for work.

[00:04:40] It's still awesome, you know you get to meet everyone like a BlizzCon right?

[00:04:45] You get to meet everyone in the scene, you know Xbox creators have been meeting year in, year out

[00:04:53] over the last 10 years and there was big break of COVID of course and now it's all back on.

[00:04:59] E3 died so some at Game Fest could live.

[00:05:03] So we're all calling it SGF now.

[00:05:06] Summer Game Fest by Jeff Keely, bless him.

[00:05:09] Jeff Keely boy he's cornered the market on that whole gaming conference situation.

[00:05:17] He has yeah, he's swept in there and this year's Summer Game Fest has like all the big players are involved

[00:05:23] there's Ubisoft, EA, you know Xbox does its own thing separately now but like

[00:05:29] Summer Game Fest is like becoming legit and it's kind of cool to see you know

[00:05:34] but yeah we'll see what happens and if there's anything interesting for Blizzard,

[00:05:38] peeps and Warcraft down the line.

[00:05:41] I know you'll let us know for sure.

[00:05:44] Heck yeah.

[00:05:46] You know it's sort of a tangential question here for you but Jeff Keely

[00:05:50] what's your take on Jeff? Is he good?

[00:05:55] Is he a nice dude? Is he a high strong type A like I think he might be?

[00:06:00] Is he good? Good for the industry?

[00:06:04] What should take on this guy?

[00:06:06] I've heard all the kinds of takes from all kinds of people.

[00:06:10] All the devs, some people love him, some people don't like what he's doing

[00:06:14] but one thing I do know about Jeff and I met Jeff at last year's Xbox showcase

[00:06:19] very very briefly.

[00:06:21] The dude's just laser focused on what he wants to do and he wants to grow this thing

[00:06:26] and that seems all consuming for him you know

[00:06:30] and that's what he's focusing on so I think fair play to the guy you know.

[00:06:35] I wish I could be that laser focused on something but

[00:06:40] Scout reigned me, I get sucked into

[00:06:45] I'm laser focused on my item level you know

[00:06:48] that's where I get laser focused on. It's very important item level.

[00:06:52] Super important. Super.

[00:06:55] Well uh, safe travels on that.

[00:06:59] That is a long trip and where in LA are they having it?

[00:07:04] I can't remember if I'm mad. Microsoft actually owns a building

[00:07:09] and I called the Microsoft Theater

[00:07:12] which they acquired from Nokia when they bought Nokia's phone division.

[00:07:16] That's right. Yeah it used to be the Nokia Theater

[00:07:20] but then Microsoft rebranded to the Microsoft Theater

[00:07:23] but I don't know if they're actually having the event there or not

[00:07:26] but I don't know. You said you're traveling as well, where are you going?

[00:07:31] I am doing and you can actually tell me if this is wrong edited

[00:07:37] or wrong thinking of my own but this seems to me to be a uniquely American thing

[00:07:42] I'm taking a road trip. A road trip?

[00:07:46] For two weeks I'm driving in my vehicle with my wife and child

[00:07:51] around kind of like the western states of the United States.

[00:07:58] That's... I don't know if that's a uniquely American thing but

[00:08:03] are you just triggered it? Do you do that in Europe?

[00:08:07] We have trains in Europe. That's the thing, you have trains.

[00:08:10] So people train a lot to get to places where they want to go

[00:08:15] but where I live in Germany there is like the Autobahn right?

[00:08:21] There's no speed limit. Yeah.

[00:08:23] You get a lot of motorcyclists here who are going road trips

[00:08:27] because they want to drive crazy miles per hour on the freeway right?

[00:08:32] And also there's a lot of these long winding mountainous roads through the Alps

[00:08:36] and they do that but often it is Americans who come here to do that.

[00:08:40] But you just triggered a cool memory for me.

[00:08:44] I remember as... Have you ever seen the Disney movie, a goofy movie?

[00:08:48] Yes.

[00:08:50] They go on a road trip in that right?

[00:08:52] In the goofy movie for some reason. I can't even remember why

[00:08:56] but I remember as a little kid I was like oh my god I really want to go on a road trip

[00:09:00] Why can't I be American and go on a road trip?

[00:09:04] Like a little kid watching this. I love that movie so much man.

[00:09:08] They were trying to get to a concert or something.

[00:09:10] That's the whole... Oh my gosh, they've brought that back too.

[00:09:14] It's someone listening to this I'm sure screaming.

[00:09:18] There was like a whole thing about the act in that.

[00:09:20] Like the musical act. It's had like a resurgence in recent years.

[00:09:24] Yeah man. I loved it as a kid.

[00:09:27] I thought it was the best music I'd ever hear the rest of my life.

[00:09:31] It's like power slide or something.

[00:09:33] Yeah I can't remember what it was even.

[00:09:35] I just remember being obsessed with it.

[00:09:37] And also wanting to go on a road trip so...

[00:09:39] No that's really cool.

[00:09:41] Me and my girlfriend discussed before about doing a road trip around Iceland.

[00:09:45] There's a big ring road around the whole island in Iceland.

[00:09:49] But I just keep thinking like man what if I need to go to the bathroom?

[00:09:54] I don't want to go to the public bathroom.

[00:09:56] I want a nice hotel.

[00:10:00] Yeah that is one thing that I did have to...

[00:10:05] You know when you're married or you're in a relationship right?

[00:10:08] There's always a negotiation when you're doing things like this.

[00:10:11] So I did agree to all of our stops generally being at pretty nice hotels.

[00:10:18] So you know that for my wife...

[00:10:21] For me I would have just grabbed sleeping bags.

[00:10:24] We could sleep on the side of the road or in the back of the forerunner for all I care.

[00:10:27] It's fine let's just go.

[00:10:29] See my girlfriend is like that but on the opposite.

[00:10:32] I want to have a nice hotel and the comfort.

[00:10:37] Now getting there because some of these days are like eight, nine hours of driving

[00:10:42] to get between some of our stops.

[00:10:44] So you know I don't know what the restroom situation is going to be like.

[00:10:47] It could be a bit of a gamble but that's why you do it.

[00:10:52] You know as a parent I want that test right?

[00:10:57] Can I do it?

[00:10:58] Can I do 3,000 miles in like 11 days, 10 days

[00:11:04] and make that without total disaster?

[00:11:10] Because there is also a very famous movie National Lampoon's Vacation.

[00:11:16] Have you ever seen this?

[00:11:17] I have not.

[00:11:18] Alright so you want to talk about cinema.

[00:11:21] You know classic adventure of a family taking a cross country trip from Chicago

[00:11:28] I think to LA to go to a fake like Disneyland knockoff park

[00:11:32] and all of the crazy stuff that happens to them between home

[00:11:38] and their arrival.

[00:11:40] It's a Chevy Chase vehicle back when he was funny and not a complete dirt bag

[00:11:46] and it is glorious in so many ways.

[00:11:50] So if you have a chance you should get out there and watch it

[00:11:53] and get a taste of what this is but yes I will be doing that.

[00:11:57] So between like your trip and then my trip and then there's like Father's Day

[00:12:03] and birthdays and there's like a bunch of stuff going on.

[00:12:07] That folks is generally why we're taking the break that we are but yeah.

[00:12:14] Safe travels to you and I certainly will do my best

[00:12:17] in getting new tires put on in like a week so we should be in good shape.

[00:12:23] But one of the things that you have to have when you travel right

[00:12:27] is good music and I know we're working on a playlist currently

[00:12:32] and my portion of that playlist that will be playing in my car

[00:12:37] will include at least some of the metal album of the week that we have for you this week

[00:12:42] and I am actually very curious to see jazz if you know this particular artist.

[00:12:47] This one's this one's a little a little outside of our of our normal

[00:12:52] which we think of heavy metal vein once again trying to kind of bring us something new

[00:12:56] and something different. So this week I have the nineteen ninety two album Fire and Ice

[00:13:06] by guitar virtuoso Ingve Malmsteen

[00:13:11] and if you don't know who Ingve is he's a he's a Swedish guitarist

[00:13:16] who is one of these you know wild soloist guys you know think of like you know Steve Vai

[00:13:27] or I know Steve Vai or who's the ball dude

[00:13:34] they go on tour together

[00:13:37] Rock no different

[00:13:41] he's slipping my mind at the moment but he is one of these guys that he just shreds

[00:13:46] everywhere he goes he shreds so he's not like the lead vocalist or anything

[00:13:49] but this this album is a fantastic example of his work

[00:13:54] I just put it on and listen to it his his style is often influenced by classical music

[00:14:03] which is sort of his special addition to the whole scene which I think I really appreciate

[00:14:09] why I wanted to bring him up this week because it'll just shred like crazy

[00:14:14] and then you know there'll be some Bach piece that he's now constructed into this guitar version

[00:14:21] and it's super badass and I love him so much and I think I am a Viking might be one of his other songs

[00:14:29] that I love quite a bit but he goes back away as he's sixty now so he's been around a little bit

[00:14:35] but I highly encourage checking out his entire catalog

[00:14:41] but you have you ever heard of Ingve Malmsteen Jez?

[00:14:45] I have not

[00:14:47] okay he is a unique individual and the other reason why I picked this album is because the cover

[00:14:57] is the height of nineteen ninety two machismo guitarist cheese it's so great

[00:15:05] he's like he's like in this action pose with the chest hair flowing

[00:15:10] and like it's got fire coming out and around his guitar

[00:15:14] and he's like standing on an iceberg or some shit it's hilarious and I love it so much

[00:15:20] so for this week Fire Nights by Ingve Malmsteen

[00:15:25] now have a rage portion for you this week that like last week this one this one touches on

[00:15:35] a little bit of realness and Jez I'm curious to see if you relate to this topic as well

[00:15:42] so why don't we go ahead and jump into it

[00:15:46] go

[00:15:48] let's rage

[00:15:51] so I hinted at last time I think I was here that there was there was some stuff going on in my life

[00:16:00] some big stuff a bunch of different things to happen the first five months this year have been

[00:16:05] been fucking crazy

[00:16:07] and as it turns out one of those things finally came to a head in a good way

[00:16:12] because last week I and I like to do my own horn like this but this is kind of a big one

[00:16:18] I got a big promotion at work like a big one

[00:16:21] yeah thank you

[00:16:23] it's this is like it's hard to explain when you're not where I'm at but

[00:16:28] that I basically leapfrog like 20 years of my career

[00:16:32] like it's awesome it's big

[00:16:37] and it's it's I'm lucky because I get to continue to work in the same place where I've been working for the last decade and a

[00:16:44] half it's just now I'm kind of like one of the bosses it was just sort of crazy

[00:16:49] but along with it one of the one of the strangest things I think has happened

[00:16:54] at least something I didn't really expect is I've been fighting for this and been working on it and all the stuff

[00:16:59] have been happening all these years and I've seen different people in and out of this position over the years you know

[00:17:04] and I find myself almost like the dog who caught the car

[00:17:10] and I find myself in the midst of a crazy amount of imposter syndrome

[00:17:19] where I've seen people do this job terribly

[00:17:25] I have no doubt that I will do better than most of them

[00:17:31] but yet I found myself yesterday as I moved into the office I moved out of the cubicle I was into an actual office now jazz

[00:17:39] and I'm sitting there and I'm going this this this can I do this

[00:17:45] is this I don't think I don't know I don't think I'm not sure I belong here

[00:17:50] I think I fucked this up I don't know you can do it

[00:17:53] and all all those voices right and I just want to say fuck imposter syndrome and fuck that voice

[00:18:02] and it's full of shit it is bullshit and I know I've run this spot and I know everybody out there that's had this happen to them

[00:18:09] you have earned your spots too but it's like man that voice is is a bitch and it's relentless

[00:18:16] and god damn man like I have worked my ass off and I know that I've got this locked down

[00:18:21] but there's still that party that's like they're gonna they're gonna find me out

[00:18:25] they're gonna find me out I'm gonna be at my first big meeting tomorrow morning

[00:18:28] and they are gonna find me out they're gonna go no no we fucked up

[00:18:32] I now I'm gonna imagine jazz given the living the heights that you've been to and seen

[00:18:38] you may have a tangential relationship with this as well because

[00:18:43] I've come to find out all the high functioning people tend to but does this does this ring a bell to you at all

[00:18:50] dude yes it's my every single day I think I'm from being like a minimum wage IT guy to be in

[00:19:01] you know managing editor for one of the biggest sites in the west which is kind of scary when I think about it in 10 years

[00:19:11] it's not even been 10 years yet it's been like nine years or something

[00:19:16] I don't know but so yeah every single day and also because journalists are not very welcoming

[00:19:24] they're not very competitive you know and and and very clicky and so yeah every single day

[00:19:33] but I actually had imposter syndrome in World of Warcraft not an hour ago

[00:19:38] I'd sit literally about half an hour ago before we started the show because you know and maybe we'll talk about it a bit more in a minute

[00:19:46] but I've decided to play a healer for this season

[00:19:50] oh my gosh and I am I haven't played healer since vanilla back when back in the day before before all the mythic and all that kind of stuff so

[00:20:01] we did just we just we just killed heroic Razegeth again season four and then I went and did a mythic plus eight

[00:20:09] I think it was and it was tyrannical and afflicted affixes and I did not have a nice time

[00:20:16] actually made us 15 to 20 minutes late because of how many deaths we had and I know at the end of the run I was just like I'm sorry guys

[00:20:27] I'm sorry so now I've got healer imposter syndrome and I'm just gonna I'm gonna run back to my warlock

[00:20:34] tails took between my legs on that foot for war within and just feel like I'm never healing again

[00:20:39] I've never been responsible for someone dying ever again

[00:20:45] I don't blame you I've never done it I could never do it I see people do it and it's just it stress and anxiety

[00:20:52] that I feel on behalf of a human there's no way I you know my hats off to you for trying that really yeah I have I have like

[00:21:00] I mean I healed like max 40 back in the day and and you know all those raids but like back a lot of people have this

[00:21:08] nostalgia for vanilla and they think like oh classic was so much hard and it's like no it wasn't

[00:21:14] I went I used to play like a q 40 and max 40 and just watch a TV show and not not really pay attention because the 40 man raid

[00:21:23] you could you know half the raids pull it pulling their way and the other half the raid slacking off you know

[00:21:28] but when you're doing like myth like a higher keys and stuff my god it is so stressful some when some of the affixes

[00:21:35] and and tyrannical fortified line up in a bad dungeon you know they have her yeah horrible so some healers just dead

[00:21:44] out there won't play the game if it's certain combinations of affixes and I actually come out of that dungeon with a headache

[00:21:51] I was like the cognitive load Blizzard expects healers to have sometimes is crazy yeah so so but some people love it

[00:22:02] yeah I got healers in my guild they've been healing since vanilla like they are they are crazy people so yeah my my heart's off to them as well

[00:22:09] pretty good

[00:22:12] well you know I think maybe this is just part of the you know the human the human condition there are just some things that we can't

[00:22:23] escape but you know you gotta put yourself out there you gotta try these things I even even I eventually at some point have to try healer

[00:22:31] I'm sure that day will happen and what happened today but it'll probably happen at some point but even even you know

[00:22:39] things that we find that are fun right that that imposter syndrome can sneak up where it at least expected so

[00:22:47] you know as I've kind of been running through at the last I don't know 72 hours or so I wanted to bring that up here

[00:22:54] along with and this is a mini sub rage and this does come up from time to time but I just want to say how hilarious it is to me to

[00:23:05] watch certain content creators in our community and how god damn fucking fake they are where the fake like I don't know

[00:23:15] I don't know politeness happiness phoniness like there is there are some people that I have come across this community and it and

[00:23:22] I've seen some of it more a little recently with some it just it cracks me up to no man so one of the things I want to say

[00:23:30] is one to you jazz I was appreciate how genuine you are and all the rest of you people out there that have ever dealt with

[00:23:36] me I hope you feel the same way that I'm pretty much who I am all the time because man alive it drives me crazy

[00:23:43] because I never think that people will be like that but then I see it happen and I may fake ass mother fuckers so I

[00:23:50] appreciate all the genuine all the real G's out there thank you thank you for being legit real so that was just

[00:23:59] I know that feels to I'm sure you've seen it you've seen it much worse than I have I'm sure I've got stories

[00:24:08] that weren't when my career is over and I'm like you know ready to spill the beans I've got some right stories

[00:24:16] I hope I can't wait for the Jason Strider chapter I mean I've never said anything to me but you know I

[00:24:25] I don't get you to not yet all right well we did have a patch that just launched and we had some very

[00:24:34] interesting story tidbits in that so along with everything else we've got going on why don't we go ahead

[00:24:40] and jump into our news and talk about what's going on in patch 10.2.7 dark heart so jazz I think one of

[00:24:58] the one of the things that Blizzard kind of fell asleep at the switch on was telling the player base

[00:25:05] if you did not do the void elf starting zone you're gonna be kind of behind the curve with a lot of the

[00:25:14] people in places that you're gonna meet doing the intro quest line to 10.2.7 with Alaria and running

[00:25:24] around and seeing void people chasing the harbinger so there was a lot of the stuff that we did and

[00:25:31] there was totally new to me did you ever play a void elf did you did you before we even talk about

[00:25:37] the story did you have some semblance of knowledge of this situation beforehand yeah so I have done

[00:25:45] I've unlocked the void elves so you had to do the quest in the rift and all that kind of stuff

[00:25:50] I also read up a bit on their quote unquote lore because the void elves annoyed me so much I was desperate

[00:25:58] to find some sense about their inclusion in the game like so I did dive in a little bit and try to

[00:26:08] make sense of them still not a big fan I kind of feel like being a void elf is more like being a

[00:26:15] shadow priest maybe you know like why avoid elf why not just let anyone be a void human and just be a

[00:26:23] shadow priest because that's basically what they are they're just shadow priests basically but

[00:26:28] but their aesthetic is so much cooler jazz yeah void elves they just even more emo blood elves

[00:26:37] but like it was like it's like the alliance were like can we just have high elves please a blizzards

[00:26:44] like this is the best we can do it's like why just just give them high elves for god's sake you know

[00:26:50] like if you can if you can argue there's enough void elves in the universe for there to be an

[00:26:58] entire race of a factional race surely there's enough high elves left in Theramore and Dalaran to

[00:27:06] let alliance have the proper high elves that they were asking for since vanilla but no no you get your void elves

[00:27:13] yeah little little eyeliner wearing void elves like god damn pita and like this is the this is the rage

[00:27:22] my rage section for this yeah I hate the void elves and I hate their lore and I think I think it's weak

[00:27:28] and they think it was too horned in just to give alliance the high elf model when they should have

[00:27:35] just just given them high arms but I kind of feel like sometimes blizzard thinks or simply thinks

[00:27:41] oh we can do it but we've got to do it with a twist we've got it we've got to make it a little bit weird

[00:27:46] a little bit different but people people's like can we play draconid blizzard mmm we're gonna

[00:27:51] we're gonna add the drak here instead yeah here's a very cool no yeah yeah yeah like

[00:27:57] we'll get vrykul but there'll be something else they'll be like I don't know some of this subrace of vrykul

[00:28:04] or something and yeah there's only a few times where I feel like they've gotten it right I really like

[00:28:10] the culturans because at least they exist in law you know beforehand and all that kind of stuff

[00:28:18] and they were really fully fleshed out zandalari as well great fully fleshed out even the nightborn

[00:28:24] I thought well we're a well-done version of blipping a race to the other faction but yeah

[00:28:32] the void elves not great so that's my rant on the void elves however I did feel like this quest

[00:28:39] at least helped flesh them out a little bit so did you play through the new questline in 10.7

[00:28:48] I did I did you know we hooked up with our boy cat gar who sent us out on the mission and

[00:28:56] were with alaria on the hunt now I I was expecting and I said this in the last episode

[00:29:03] I was wait I was hoping to see or hear a little more connection as to how do we get to the point where

[00:29:12] cat gar knows what the dark heart is so the harbinger right we had eridicron and he he portaled out

[00:29:24] and the harbinger and all this so like they know what the harbinger is that it exists and that

[00:29:30] there is a thing that he has in his hand that is bad but how do they know that it's called the dark heart

[00:29:37] I I must have missed something somewhere and I thought I thought they were gonna say more about it here

[00:29:43] so you you lore nerds out there that listen to this please tell me how does cat gar know that

[00:29:49] that thing has a damn name because I think that sort of came through in the dawn of the infinite dungeon

[00:29:56] towards the end I think I've watched that cinematic and they say nothing about what it is

[00:30:02] okay it's just like I don't know then it's just like here is this thing and I'm gonna get the titans with it

[00:30:08] haha and then he portals out so that's true I feel like I feel like there's a piece missing there

[00:30:14] maybe I missed it but you know fill me in folks but anyway they know this thing is bad and this

[00:30:20] harbinger where that is got it now we all right we're gonna go figure it out and go find it so

[00:30:25] we we jump through a void portal with Alaria and we go to this place that I've never been but

[00:30:33] apparently it's the starting zone for the for the void elves right this this I don't know rift what

[00:30:41] what is it called rift I can't remember the name of it it's like it begins with a T and I can't

[00:30:48] remember exactly what it even is it's like this umbrick guy and this faction of ethereals this is

[00:30:57] like the telegrist rift or something yeah yeah yeah yeah something like that so like this this

[00:31:03] particular blood elf umbrick besides he's gonna be a void researcher and he finds he finds the

[00:31:12] locus walk I can't remember his name after I've made but I think there's a name locus walker is

[00:31:18] that just his name okay well he's he's he's descended from or he is part of the ethereal is it all the

[00:31:28] ethereals I can't remember if it's all the ethereals are just him or just his little faction

[00:31:32] but his planet was destroyed by the void yeah the old gods the planet crash was destroyed by

[00:31:41] the void and yeah I think all of the ethereals were essentially this manifestation of entities that

[00:31:50] were able to survive somehow from that and he's and he's one of them yes and so the implication

[00:32:00] of Keresh and I suppose the plot twist from this whole question was that the radiant song

[00:32:08] which is being heard by people who are tuned to the light or the earth people who can

[00:32:16] can hear presumable we presume it's Azeroth the world soul itself is calling for help or

[00:32:24] or it's a warning an alarm and the locus walker implies that Keresh also had a radiant song

[00:32:32] before the void lord Demensius turned up and ate the planet yeah so it kind of it creates a

[00:32:40] sense of apocalyptic urgency going into the war within this radiant song potentially portents

[00:32:48] the apocalypse and Demensius who I'm not sure Demensius I'm not sure if Demensius is new to

[00:32:55] wow I think I think so because I don't know that I've ever heard of that and nobody and there's

[00:33:00] like no character design for it that I've seen okay I think that's new yeah no no no

[00:33:06] Demensius was in the burning crusade briefly at the end of a quest he appears in the quest

[00:33:18] in the quest on nethery wings at level 30 on on the 25 to 30 according to the level squish

[00:33:29] Demensius arrived in the exploded ruins of Maniforge Ultras in the netherstorm whereas

[00:33:34] defeated by the ethereals of the protectorate and adventurers now this is interesting

[00:33:40] because Demensius the old devouring apparently appeared in the void remnants of

[00:33:52] our outland and this random quest NPC is now the big bad so we only see him for a flash

[00:34:05] in this random ass quest which is intriguing how we've left from this to him being this planet

[00:34:14] devourer if it if it is indeed the same Demensius or Blizzard has just accidentally reused the

[00:34:22] same name he's called Demensius the old devouring in the burn crusade which you know

[00:34:28] is I cannot remember this quest at all does not ring a bell to me the name yeah the name

[00:34:36] Demensius does weirdly ring a bell to me and I have done those quests so I must have done

[00:34:44] this quest sometime in the last couple of decade I was gonna say it's probably 2007 for me

[00:34:51] so I'm not doing the math but it's been a minute yeah and he's a void walker he's got

[00:34:57] the void walker model with a bit of armor on it they call him void lord Demensius in this

[00:35:03] recent quest chain so I mean stranger things have happened so there are some there are

[00:35:12] some interesting quotes he has in this quest like time is only meaning for mortals

[00:35:18] insect Demensius is infinite you hasten the inevitable in time all will be devoured

[00:35:25] I hunger feed me the power of this forge children because yeah I remember now actually one of the

[00:35:33] one of the one of the mana forges in the nether storm in the burning crusade is full of void walkers

[00:35:42] eating the mana or the the net the raw nether that they're sucking out with those machines

[00:35:50] which are the energies being sent to Kael Thass in Tempest Keep but one of them has been overrun with void

[00:35:58] things but this is just it is a still wild leap from random burning crusade quest to big bad of

[00:36:06] the war within so presumably Demensius is coming to eat Azeroth even though he's just he was a level 30

[00:36:16] elite in the burning crusade so he's leveled up a bit since then why he must he must have took a whole

[00:36:22] stack of juice somewhere gotten gotten buffed up big time huh yeah I can't like that they've they've

[00:36:29] brought back a character for this if it is indeed the same guy but yeah they're gonna have to do

[00:36:36] a lot of heavy lifting to make me convince that it's level 30 quest then PC is actually something

[00:36:42] we should be worried about maybe it was just like a mental projection you know like I wasn't actually

[00:36:48] here and it was just like some sort of astral projection through the void yeah maybe you know

[00:36:54] some kind of thing like that but that good find that is a good find so there you go so maybe

[00:36:59] maybe not brand new maybe just upgraded significantly from the old days but yes that is that is kind

[00:37:09] of one of the big pieces of information that we get out of this quest line as we're chasing down

[00:37:15] the harbinger and then they you know through the course of events and it's look I think it's

[00:37:21] Locust Walker who tells us that that is Zalatath the much beloved knife refugee and you know she's

[00:37:33] she's got plans but the big the big sort of information right is yeah the radiant song this

[00:37:40] isn't something unique to Azeroth this sort of chain of events has happened before and

[00:37:45] you know and it weighs it seems to wave pretty heavy on Elyria that through this quest line

[00:37:52] that her weaknesses are used against her we at one point we have to like fight this

[00:37:58] this sort of version of Turalyon and you know she is doing this sort of classic thing at the

[00:38:05] end of the quest line she's like well I'm gonna try to take myself off the board which we totally

[00:38:09] know won't work I mean that's not that's not an option you know you can't just disappear

[00:38:14] you know of course we have to go back and tell Kat Garos what happens and we can talk

[00:38:18] to him a little bit Jaina who was portaling out at the beginning of the cinematic at

[00:38:24] the start of the quest line now portals back in and you know she can't find Magni

[00:38:29] Oh look the speaker nowhere to be found just when we need him most although it does seem

[00:38:34] like we will we will get to him eventually but that is that is kind of the rhythm of

[00:38:40] this early part I think is introducing us to more of this structure within the void

[00:38:47] who some of the bigger players are you know people like myself introducing us to characters

[00:38:53] that probably are gonna be important I doubt this is the last time we see Locust Walker so

[00:38:58] getting us familiarized with him and then you know I enjoyed the tour across North

[00:39:04] Wren getting to go back to Olduwar super fun that's the first time I've taken the

[00:39:09] dragon blight to Olduwar tour via dragon writing that was a blast God bless

[00:39:15] that dragon writing it is the fucking best and I'm so glad that they made that

[00:39:20] happen everywhere my time lost proto Drake drag dragon writing in in storm peaks that

[00:39:27] might be the peak that might be the peak for me the peak experience of all traveling

[00:39:33] but that is kind of where we start and end catgar all the way around and finding

[00:39:41] out that Zalatath is a harbinger and we're in for some like you said apocalyptic

[00:39:49] visions here along with this there was a short story that was released and focusing

[00:39:57] on Illyria and her search for well she knows where he is but her search for her son to

[00:40:04] go talk to her son Eritor before her son with Turalyon and try to have some words

[00:40:13] with him where she essentially tries to tell him to stay out of this fight that

[00:40:17] she's getting up because she's worried about him little does she know when she goes to

[00:40:22] Silvermoon to go see her son that's her alien is also there and they've been kind

[00:40:26] of estranged and so it's a little awkward and there's many words spent saying how

[00:40:34] much they miss and love each other but they're not having that actual word more

[00:40:40] sentences be spoken as mostly unspoken but it focuses more on her and

[00:40:46] kind of getting to know him a little bit since she doesn't really know him that well

[00:40:51] at all but the big revelation I think coming out of that story for me maybe

[00:40:56] for some other folks this is the child of light and dark combination of both now

[00:41:02] and he reveals that he has tattoos which I appreciate on one arm is a dragon

[00:41:11] that is like light colored and on the other it is a dragon that is dark colored

[00:41:16] like so he's got like the light and the dark like physically tattooed now onto his body

[00:41:20] as well and God bless Elyria for being a mom doesn't mind her son's tattoos

[00:41:29] because my mom still does not like mine so I that was that was you know she's

[00:41:34] already a better mom in my book than she may have been at one point when she

[00:41:38] abandoned her child and then you know I know she had her reasons but a lot of

[00:41:43] a lot of human cry jazz from the horde community about a to rally and apparently

[00:41:49] just traipsing around Silver Moon like it's no big deal although they did hint

[00:41:53] that he had to sneak in so he probably had to sneak out so there was some

[00:41:57] concern about that but one of the other big things in the story was that they

[00:42:01] very much were direct about talking about the rebuild of Silver Moon and

[00:42:07] how there is work being done to it so we know we're going there and we're going

[00:42:13] to spend some time it sounds like in midnight we have to protect the Sun well

[00:42:18] couple that with what we've just heard about this void Lord devouring planets

[00:42:23] and the radiant song being a signal I think this void Lord is on his fucking way

[00:42:28] and we're probably in a lot of trouble and we're gonna have Eritor probably play

[00:42:34] a significant role being in between all of that

[00:42:39] so this this definitely sets the stage for some interesting spicy you know

[00:42:46] familial dynamics as we head into this world soul saga but you know as a as a

[00:42:53] as a as a strong proponent of the horde jazz

[00:42:59] does it upset you at all that the that the region to storm wind is just walking up

[00:43:03] into your city like it's no big deal it's it's really intriguing because clearly

[00:43:08] that they're working towards something here like we also I don't know if you did

[00:43:13] the Drenne I heritage quest line as well no but I know about it yeah yeah so

[00:43:18] at the end of our own sport whole thing for people who are interested in doing

[00:43:22] it but it's not really a spoiler since it's important to know for this cover

[00:43:27] this conversation as opposed but I'm going play the Drenne questline if you

[00:43:31] haven't already and pause this podcast but the heritage quest line culminates

[00:43:37] with vellan hinting that he wants to build a new capital city for the Drenne

[00:43:42] on Azeroth and he's even got like a hologram showing the design of the capital

[00:43:46] city they want to build now it follows the theme of a lot of heres huge

[00:43:50] heritage quests hinting at future plans for Azeroth like in the end of the

[00:43:56] or quest line there's also the Thunder Lizard spirit of Durotar and I can't

[00:44:04] remember his name but he's a cute Thunder Lizard and he's all like oh this land

[00:44:09] will be healed in the future and he sort of gives you a vision of the

[00:44:12] because it's all flooded out from the cataclysm right and all the

[00:44:16] Thunder Lizards are dead rip and he implies that in the future the land

[00:44:21] is going to look different right so it does it increasingly and like we've also

[00:44:25] got Balometh which is very night elf starting zone-ish we've sort of got this

[00:44:32] coalescence of potential opportunities for Blizzard to revamp some of the

[00:44:37] world and maybe revamp some of the starting areas for different races

[00:44:41] because Exiles reach ain't it. Exiles reach ain't it man it's gotta go I told

[00:44:46] I told them before I told them that that war within event and I said to the Holly

[00:44:51] Longdale that Exiles reach is trash you go into the source oh I went to the source

[00:44:56] yeah I spoke to her I said Holly sorry in a much in a much more respectful

[00:45:01] tone Exiles reach is trash you gotta get rid of it

[00:45:05] it's harming the new player experience because when I when I was a kid I played

[00:45:09] Forsaken and I was in Tirisfal Glades and it immediately got me sucked into

[00:45:13] the whole universe of well Exile nobody's getting sucked into well because of

[00:45:17] Exiles reach or Battle for Azeroth being thrown into the middle of the storyline

[00:45:21] anyway that's a tangent so pulling it back to Silvermoon and Turalyon

[00:45:25] hanging out there I mean board players can hang around in Balometh and

[00:45:29] there's like a little debuff on you saying you're being watched internally

[00:45:32] so it still kind of hints that there's still this sort of tension there

[00:45:35] you know and I suppose like it sort of hints that maybe in the future

[00:45:41] you know Silvermoon City will be acts I mean potentially like they've already

[00:45:46] told us that Silvermoon's being revamped for midnight expansion which is after the

[00:45:50] war within though if Silvermoon and the surrounding area is actually like a

[00:45:55] leveling zone for both factions like the northern half of the eastern kingdom

[00:46:00] sounds like that is going to be where we play that expansion maybe Silvermoon

[00:46:07] is the main capital city of the expansion you know and maybe Horden Alliance

[00:46:12] end up going there as part of the you know maybe we're protecting the Sun well

[00:46:17] again from being corrupted by Dementious or something I don't know but

[00:46:22] maybe that's the you know the the heart the heart of the expansion and the

[00:46:25] Alliance have to you know make a little station there for the time being

[00:46:29] and then maybe you know the expansion after that is Northrend so who

[00:46:33] knows maybe Velen builds the capital city for the Drenn I on Northrend

[00:46:37] instead you know and and that that becomes the capital city for that

[00:46:43] expansion you know we hang out with the Drenn I the Horde hang out there as

[00:46:46] well so there's all sorts of weird stuff knocking off when they're they're

[00:46:49] gradually working through revamping some of these zones and I wouldn't be

[00:46:53] surprised if the expansion after that one maybe that takes place in

[00:46:56] Callum door and they've revamped summer Callum door and you know

[00:47:00] and then they do another expansion the revamped some more the eastern kingdoms

[00:47:04] maybe the bottom half of maybe it could be the bottom of the eastern kingdoms

[00:47:08] and the bottom of the Callum door revamped and that's the expansion and

[00:47:11] then we can you know held revamp outland maybe the Legion comes back

[00:47:15] in 10 years and we go there again and they're going to cycle through it

[00:47:20] but I suppose there's lots that could do there doesn't it doesn't annoy me as

[00:47:24] long as they you know flesh out make sense also before we move on

[00:47:28] yeah I need to I need to I need to come back to Dementious for a moment

[00:47:32] I kind of did him dirty actually when I was talking here because

[00:47:36] I thought I thought it was just some random little quest but now

[00:47:40] I actually looked up the quest properly and looked at some pictures of it

[00:47:43] I remember this quest better now Dementious is actually huge

[00:47:48] these raid boss size when you see him yeah so like

[00:47:52] I remember not doing this quest very often because it does require

[00:47:57] a group because there are elites everywhere and it's like

[00:48:01] it's inside it's a group quest it's a five man group quest and it's inside

[00:48:05] one of the Manaforges and he's raid boss size and you don't actually

[00:48:09] you don't really kill him you're just like you and an army of

[00:48:13] ethereals to sort of banish him out of the nether

[00:48:16] because the nether storm is basically halfway into the nether right

[00:48:20] yeah and he's actually a huge

[00:48:23] huge mob he's a giant void walker he's not just some tiny little

[00:48:27] void walker and also the law of him

[00:48:31] eating Koresh was previously established

[00:48:35] but I can't find out where there is

[00:48:39] a fan art of Dementious

[00:48:43] a half stone fan art for Dementious that I've just found

[00:48:47] and the title is Dementious the Old Evarering Doom of Koresh

[00:48:50] by any of the ethereals and it's Dementious

[00:48:53] half stone fan art card I'm trying to find where this is established

[00:48:57] that it was that he destroyed Dementious

[00:49:00] if you go that Dementious destroyed Koresh sorry

[00:49:04] I thought this was all new law but it's not it's old law

[00:49:08] and if you there's another void walker boss

[00:49:12] in Mana Toons another void lord

[00:49:16] called Pandemonius and his

[00:49:20] entry in the dungeon guide talks about how

[00:49:24] he worked with Dementious to devour Koresh

[00:49:28] I think it might be the Inventure Guide so

[00:49:32] this infamous void lord this is Pandemonius not Dementious

[00:49:35] this infamous void lord is also known as the Duke of Kars

[00:49:38] the eater of nations and the world slayer

[00:49:41] Pandemonius was one of the commanders serving under Dementious

[00:49:45] when the ethereal homeworld of Koresh was destroyed

[00:49:48] he was later bowed by Nexus Prince Shafar

[00:49:51] and forced to continue satan his unbending hunger

[00:49:55] in service to the ethereal so yeah

[00:49:59] this is established previous law so he's not

[00:50:03] he's not just some random I did him dirty so if there's any law

[00:50:06] nerds listening to this going hey Dementious is not just a random question

[00:50:09] but say I've I've I stand corrected

[00:50:12] yeah I was all new to me I I stand corrected as well

[00:50:16] I thought they were coming up with this on the fly but

[00:50:20] no no no this is all so we're probably going to see Pandemonius as well

[00:50:24] I mean you can kill him in the Burning Crusade

[00:50:30] because he's a boss in the Mana Toons dungeon but demons don't

[00:50:35] really die if he counts as a demon I don't know if we just call him a demon

[00:50:39] because he's a void lord but these kind of entities don't really die

[00:50:43] they just get sucked back into the Nether and they end up coming back out

[00:50:46] like we don't really know the nature of void lords really that well so

[00:50:51] yeah that there you go void void lords

[00:50:55] there it is hey listen you made you made it right

[00:50:58] you know for both of us so thank you

[00:51:01] good no problem

[00:51:04] to kind of tie up this part of it as well

[00:51:07] to give credit also where credit is due

[00:51:11] the discussion around Eritor

[00:51:15] has been going on for a long time

[00:51:19] and I want to give credit to Talius and Nevitel who put out a video years ago

[00:51:23] where they talked about this is during the Legion era

[00:51:26] where Eritor could actually be the child of light and shadow

[00:51:30] that was referenced in an Aru prophecy

[00:51:33] not Illidan so if you remember

[00:51:36] the whole I am my scars thing right when the Aru comes and like locks him up in the

[00:51:41] you know Zera locks him up in the in the in the light

[00:51:45] and tries to heal him and he's like I have my scars

[00:51:48] and you know everybody cheered and started yelling at everywhere they went

[00:51:52] well that was supposedly being done

[00:51:57] because he was believed at that moment in time

[00:52:01] to be the child of light and shadow that would fulfill this prophecy

[00:52:05] but some discussion as to whether or not

[00:52:09] that should be Eritor again child of light and shadow

[00:52:13] he's got it literally tattooed on him now

[00:52:17] that could be really interesting piece

[00:52:21] as that moves forward and what role

[00:52:25] does he play as a as a uniter of some kind

[00:52:29] as you know sort of like the blade day walker

[00:52:33] situation is he gonna have to choose when one of them goes off the rails

[00:52:38] because we've both seen how each side can go too far

[00:52:43] so I was really I was really pulling for this

[00:52:48] idea of Turalyon going mental

[00:52:52] I thought I'm the army of light being kind of fascist because like if you do the

[00:52:56] if you do the quest to is it the heritage quest line or the quest to unlock them

[00:53:01] if you do the quest to unlock Maghar orcs

[00:53:05] you actually see the army of light fascistically taking over

[00:53:10] and they are forcing the Maghar orcs to become lightbound

[00:53:16] like they were trying for Ciladen to become lightbound

[00:53:20] so that can go too far too so there's quite some

[00:53:25] there's interesting stuff at play here and also like the child of light and shadow

[00:53:29] that could be our tour but it could also be

[00:53:33] what's his name now the new the dwarf kid the child of

[00:53:37] you know I mean the nerd

[00:53:43] the nerd the nerd it could be him the nerd I forgot his name

[00:53:48] I don't know a lion's characters they're irrelevant

[00:53:52] but oh my god

[00:53:56] I'm scared of you

[00:54:00] but yeah it's interesting like the law going into this

[00:54:04] is more interesting than it has been for a while

[00:54:08] I think because there's so much so much voidy stuff

[00:54:12] that you could link back you know it's like he's Nazoth still alive

[00:54:16] why did Nazoth want Zahath to leave

[00:54:20] his knife behind her knife behind its knife behind

[00:54:24] I don't really know what Nazoth is

[00:54:28] you know and there's also like

[00:54:32] Ashara, Queen Ashara is still lurking out there

[00:54:36] where's she at?

[00:54:40] at the end of that raid

[00:54:44] I can't remember the name of the raid now

[00:54:48] I'm getting my cosmic voids mixed up

[00:54:52] I'm going to the true seat of power which you'd think

[00:54:56] is probably the void lords if she's gonna upgrade from the old gods

[00:55:00] the old gods are weapons of the void apparently

[00:55:04] there's so much

[00:55:08] actually that got their work cut out for them

[00:55:12] they tie all these threads together like Chris Metzen and the team

[00:55:16] because the warcraft's gone some weird places when you look at the books

[00:55:20] and all the extra stuff

[00:55:24] Sylvanas can have a role to play there because she's a lairier sister

[00:55:28] and what Sylvanas is deal I gotta feel in Sylvanas won't be involved

[00:55:32] because everyone's sick of her but

[00:55:36] there's so much too this that could be tied together it's intriguing

[00:55:40] yeah it's also

[00:55:44] talk about putting all the threads together

[00:55:48] that's gonna be a huge challenge I think the other sort of challenge

[00:55:52] that I see on the horizon is we start launching into this

[00:55:56] and we're talking about these really large cosmic

[00:56:00] forces is they have to strike that balance

[00:56:04] between too cosmic and just cosmic enough

[00:56:08] because if they go too big and too far

[00:56:12] that doesn't seem to land well with the player base where it eventually

[00:56:16] it's like all right we're cosmic beings of ultimate power

[00:56:20] and then hey I gotta save these five bunny rabbits

[00:56:24] that are trying to make a burrow

[00:56:28] the wild pendulum swings that can happen when you go too far out there

[00:56:32] I mean it's part of the reason why I think Shadowlands was so

[00:56:36] difficult for them to manage is that

[00:56:40] you're talking about some real way out there stuff and you got

[00:56:44] I don't know Ian or somebody was out there and saying oh yeah you know what you're seeing in the

[00:56:48] Shadowlands is just like one of the things that could manifest in that

[00:56:52] space what the fuck does that even mean like way

[00:56:56] big you know galaxy brain you know and then

[00:57:00] some it loses people

[00:57:04] surprisingly to me because I love all that shit but it's going

[00:57:08] to be a tricky balance and you know we always go back to that cosmology chart

[00:57:12] from the from the fricking chronicle and everybody's

[00:57:16] you know been holding that thing up and you know there's the light there's the void

[00:57:20] and that clash is just bound to happen and so it does

[00:57:24] feel very much like that is a huge part of this arc that we're going to be seeing

[00:57:28] over the next I don't know six years or half along it's going to take to tell

[00:57:32] the story 60 years. Six thousand years? Yeah

[00:57:36] we're gonna see it's gonna be wild but

[00:57:40] if you haven't played through the intro quest

[00:57:44] line to all of this you'll be able to tie together to see what we're talking about but

[00:57:48] I highly recommend playing through that reading the short story because it really

[00:57:52] gives you a good flavor now of that

[00:57:56] new book that we're starting it's you know no more dragon isles no more

[00:58:00] whatever's going on over there now we are fully starting to focus elsewhere

[00:58:04] different forces different threats and heading into that direction

[00:58:08] so I think we're off on a good foot we have

[00:58:12] a bit of a mystery we know that there's some danger we got some good

[00:58:16] character development happening so I'm invested

[00:58:20] I'm interested it feels good so sounds like

[00:58:24] you're on board so far. Yeah man

[00:58:28] I mean I've given the benefit of the doubt before

[00:58:32] I remember going into Shadowlands thinking the Jailer could be cool

[00:58:36] the Jailer could be cool the Jailer could be cool

[00:58:40] the Jailer could be cool as we got through

[00:58:44] more and more patches they're going somewhere with this it'll be okay

[00:58:48] in the end yep it's gonna yeah it seems stupid now but it's gonna be great

[00:58:52] you wait the end it's gonna be so yeah they've you know fool me once

[00:58:56] shame on you fool me twice shame on me

[00:59:00] so I'm cautiously optimistic you know and also

[00:59:04] Chris Metz and Story Arc 2 and

[00:59:08] I kind of want WoW to return to some of its

[00:59:12] darker grittier sort of even

[00:59:16] bloody roots you know from like back in the day

[00:59:20] Warcraft 3 and stuff like that but I don't know if that's what other people want

[00:59:24] I don't know if it's just me and I'm bloodthirsty or something but

[00:59:28] I said before on the show I loved it when the tree burned down

[00:59:32] Warcraft 3 all over you know and I suppose they were trying to

[00:59:36] recreate Arthur's you know

[00:59:40] the slaughter of Stratham right they were trying to

[00:59:44] recreate that you know End justifies the means kind of thing but they went

[00:59:48] really far with it and the Ends did not justify the means

[00:59:52] so they just well I mean you could debate that

[00:59:56] that was the whole shit show for other reasons

[01:00:00] it didn't really justify the means

[01:00:04] at all you know and in any sense

[01:00:08] but I think it was more the fact that Sylvanas didn't even question the plan

[01:00:12] and then like she didn't even know all the plan and she was just willing to

[01:00:16] commit genocide you know essentially for

[01:00:20] without really having a

[01:00:24] good enough motivation to have done so

[01:00:28] I mean as a horde player I think genocide in the night elves

[01:00:32] is reasoning off you know

[01:00:36] the rest of the electorate did not think so

[01:00:40] but you know

[01:00:45] I don't like alliance man

[01:00:49] I just don't like it

[01:00:53] that's alright I have to uphold my End and you have to uphold yours

[01:00:57] and the shadow that we're bringing

[01:01:01] to the getting yet that's right

[01:01:05] that unshackled fury is the child of light and shadow that's really what

[01:01:09] you know coming to this cover here

[01:01:13] one last thing about this is that if reading is your thing

[01:01:17] there is a new book coming the voices within which is

[01:01:21] a short story collection centering around characters

[01:01:25] that have imports in the war within one of those short stories is

[01:01:29] the one about Elyria and her family

[01:01:33] no surprise to anyone the recently laid off

[01:01:37] Christy Golden has a story about Anduin that will probably make me

[01:01:41] cry and Jess will laugh at me for it but you know what that's what we're here for

[01:01:45] and that's what we do and I am not afraid

[01:01:49] of any of this but that should be coming

[01:01:53] in November but I don't know

[01:01:57] even though she got laid off she's still gonna publish a book

[01:02:03] yeah she's got one short story

[01:02:07] and there I believe and yeah

[01:02:11] I hope she still works with Blizzard as a sort of

[01:02:15] cause like I do like the stories that she put out there

[01:02:19] the books and stuff

[01:02:23] and I don't know maybe why they decided to lay off

[01:02:27] Christy and a bunch of other people but it might have been a case of like

[01:02:31] too many chefs you know maybe they really want to

[01:02:35] give Chris Metz on a go or run it or something I don't know

[01:02:39] it sounded like she was and I talked about this on the last show

[01:02:43] is that you know I'm an

[01:02:47] unabashed Christy Golden fan she was very nice to me at BlizzCon

[01:02:51] I'm a big fan and to do her dirty

[01:02:55] does not make me happy or anyone else happy and you know she

[01:02:59] talked about many times it wasn't just Warcraft it was like all of

[01:03:03] Blizzard that she was involved in in different ways and so

[01:03:07] yeah I assume that these cuts are being made because they feel

[01:03:11] like there's too many people in the story and franchise development but Jesus

[01:03:15] Christ she's been around since the old days like

[01:03:19] books like that next to Metz and there are few that know as much about Warcraft

[01:03:23] Laura she does and she helped build it so

[01:03:27] to let her go

[01:03:31] not my favorite but the voices within will have that story

[01:03:35] and other so if you're into that go and check it out

[01:03:39] the other sort of big component of this patch

[01:03:43] which I did check it out a little bit

[01:03:47] is the Missa Pendaria time running

[01:03:51] where it's another one of these limited time events

[01:03:55] and there's you know different it's a different set of events

[01:03:59] where it's kind of

[01:04:03] canonical that this is happening it's interesting how they're doing

[01:04:07] this where the infinite dragon flight is the one

[01:04:11] are the ones making this possible so

[01:04:15] if you create a character you go in and they tell you

[01:04:19] you're like well you know we're taking another look at this from

[01:04:23] a different lens because we can so

[01:04:27] it's not totally separate like Plunderstorm was it's it's

[01:04:31] to me that actually kind of is an interesting way to

[01:04:35] blend these two the retail and time running

[01:04:39] together but

[01:04:43] how much I'm actually going to be doing this because I made my Fury Warrior

[01:04:47] and I jumped in and I was like oh yeah I don't know I don't know if I like

[01:04:51] this much as much as I remember and area was cool but

[01:04:55] Fury Warriors leveling I don't know that I like that that much but I'll have to take a look

[01:04:59] the other interesting thing about this is and also

[01:05:03] plays into our timing for real life and

[01:05:07] the show and everything else they finally let us

[01:05:11] know how long it's running officially because it was some guessing based on dates we were seeing

[01:05:15] in the alpha they tell you and

[01:05:19] by the time this episode comes out it'll be about 91 days left so

[01:05:23] that puts us right about August 19th August 20th

[01:05:27] at Tuesday so

[01:05:31] it very much seems like August 20th is either going to be

[01:05:35] like the pre patch day or it's going to be launch day

[01:05:39] or the war within and based on the alpha development

[01:05:43] I'm seeing and the pace at which they're doing it I would not be surprised if

[01:05:47] August 20th was the launch of war within so

[01:05:51] this can help take up some of that time

[01:05:55] if you're still logging in you know I've seen some things getting changed

[01:05:59] and nerfed and some people being unhappy about how much XP you actually get from the magic cloak

[01:06:03] they give you and some other things but

[01:06:07] I know you're just all about mob time running

[01:06:11] right like I know that this is the banner that you have been running

[01:06:15] around with since it was announced right this is your jam this is your

[01:06:19] new minigame no

[01:06:23] no very much not

[01:06:27] my guild really likes it but I just don't

[01:06:31] have enough time to go back and do

[01:06:35] content that I've already done I don't know it's remixed but

[01:06:39] it's weird like MOP is quite

[01:06:43] fresh in my mind like throwing a

[01:06:47] I didn't really do the first tier of the raids but I did do

[01:06:51] throw and a thunder and then I quit again and didn't do

[01:06:55] siege of agamot and I don't know I just I didn't like that expansion

[01:06:59] that much I just kept coming back and then getting burned

[01:07:03] out I hated the daily routine back then

[01:07:07] like the Vale of Eternal Blossoms where

[01:07:11] the dailies there sucked

[01:07:15] I hated doing those dailies so bad it made me quit the game

[01:07:19] you know it's one of the few times I've quit the game because I didn't

[01:07:23] like doing the dailies you know

[01:07:27] but I know it's a really popular expansion

[01:07:31] and I really liked it a really great story really great quest

[01:07:35] really great quests but I didn't like the gameplay

[01:07:39] I don't know I was kind of over it at the time are you playing at all MOP remix

[01:07:43] I logged in I created a character

[01:07:47] you've got the first little bit that you've got to do and that's kind of what I've seen so far

[01:07:51] I was

[01:07:55] I've talked about on this show before when it was originally announced that it was missapend

[01:07:59] I was like I'm gonna quit I'm not doing fucking pandas and then it turned out

[01:08:03] to be a great expansion the land is beautiful the art was amazing the music

[01:08:07] great characters are fun like it's a great expansion don't get me wrong

[01:08:11] but I am very much like you in the sense that once I've done something

[01:08:15] I don't know how much I want to do it again that's why I don't have

[01:08:19] any alts of any value because I've already run through

[01:08:23] stuff and I don't know how much of that I want to experience again

[01:08:27] unless it's something super cool like the

[01:08:31] quest in Northrend or the I think it's

[01:08:35] Kel Dalar, Kel Sarar it's the other sword where you get the battered hilt

[01:08:39] and you can run through that quest line

[01:08:43] that's Kel Sarar amazing Kel Sarar okay I love that

[01:08:47] so yeah I've done that a couple times because it was just so great in my mind

[01:08:51] so time running

[01:08:55] I think this might be a period of time where I'm gonna be catching up on other games

[01:08:59] that I haven't finished Jedi survivor probably being number

[01:09:03] one on my list and some stuff like that

[01:09:07] yeah it's so far holy shit phenomenal

[01:09:11] I've heard good things I haven't even finished the first one yet

[01:09:15] I'm addicted to Fallout 76 of the minute

[01:09:19] oh that's a big show

[01:09:23] I crashed the TV show and I played Fallout 76 when it first came out

[01:09:27] and it was it was Crash Tastic I kind of enjoyed it but

[01:09:31] it was Crash Tastic and there was no real end game and you know there wasn't

[01:09:35] a whole lot of stuff to do so I kind of bounced off it but I've gone back to it because

[01:09:39] of the TV show and it's completely new game

[01:09:43] like still crashes a lot

[01:09:47] but the stuff to actually do now is stuff to actually

[01:09:51] do it and then you can perfect your build and it's really deep like how much

[01:09:55] how in depth you can get with it so I've kind of been playing that for a while

[01:09:59] until I get bored of that and also I've been looking at the new Diablo season recently

[01:10:03] and everyone's saying I'm good at this again and a lot of praise

[01:10:07] season 4 is really good and they fixed optimization and the mob density

[01:10:11] is much higher so you know you're mostly just killing you're not looking around for things

[01:10:15] to kill as much so now I'm thinking like do I want to play Diablo again but

[01:10:19] yeah season 4 is not

[01:10:23] season 4 in general like a mop remix and you know having to do the old

[01:10:27] rides again I'm not really feeling it so

[01:10:31] once we've done ahead of the curve

[01:10:35] I'm probably going to bounce until the war with it I think. There you go

[01:10:39] yeah so if this is your jam you will have

[01:10:43] a good three months to enjoy that time there are some

[01:10:47] rewards cosmetics mounts that sort of

[01:10:51] thing so if that's your jam and you want to take that tour back in

[01:10:55] the old days have at it have fun I hope you do along

[01:10:59] those same lines that I think it's the day that this launches

[01:11:03] the day this episode goes out catecholastic catecholism

[01:11:07] classic supposed to be launching

[01:11:11] I think I've said it before and I'll say it again for the millionth time I don't think the catecholism

[01:11:15] is classic I think classic is supposed to be everything that came before otherwise

[01:11:19] what the fuck are we doing um where does it

[01:11:23] end jazz when it comes to classic where does this end

[01:11:27] are we getting mop time running to see if people

[01:11:31] are interested enough in it to get a mop classic

[01:11:35] does that then go to warlords of drannor classic are we going to have a wog

[01:11:39] classic jazz I know we talked about this before but my god it feels like we're just going to

[01:11:43] keep going maybe I think it's I still think

[01:11:47] it's weird and that kind of feel like part of me

[01:11:51] wonders right if this because a lot of what drives wow is player

[01:11:55] retention reducing player churn right so like stopping

[01:11:59] people from subscribing because if you're a well classic player then

[01:12:03] you you know keeping them subscribed

[01:12:07] means you've got to release the class expansions probably on a quicker

[01:12:11] faster cadence than they were back then right but that means eventually you're going to

[01:12:15] run out of classic expansions to do so then what do you do do you start doing

[01:12:19] season of discovery burning crusade season of discovery wrath of the lich king

[01:12:23] do you do keep doing season of discovery vanilla over and over

[01:12:27] again like how how long is season of discovery going to run you know like

[01:12:31] are they going because I don't know what the level cap is now but

[01:12:35] there's still there's still kind of stuff that could probably do in season of discovery

[01:12:39] to keep that interesting but then I was I also

[01:12:43] wonder my conspiracy theory that they gradually revamping

[01:12:47] all of Azeroth for like a proper relaunch where it's like

[01:12:51] you know okay all the all the starting zones are revamped now

[01:12:55] go forth and enjoy this new leveling experience which will take you from

[01:12:59] you know one to 100 just in Azeroth

[01:13:03] with sort of you know with with future expansions God knows where

[01:13:07] they're going to put them now they're going to start revamping like

[01:13:11] zanderlar and stuff like that um it's

[01:13:15] it's kind of wild I mean there's still places in Azeroth we haven't really explored

[01:13:19] like Undermine the goblin the goblin

[01:13:23] homeland and and you know God knows what else

[01:13:27] that could soothe into Azeroth that'll be patched 11.1

[01:13:31] under my yeah maybe I don't know um could you do a whole

[01:13:35] expansion on Undermine maybe or will it be part of war within

[01:13:39] because it's underground you know um but it's also

[01:13:43] canonically Undermine is also an island I think

[01:13:47] so it's just weird when I think about like how how how are they

[01:13:51] sort of shaping all this content like how much how much classic can they really

[01:13:55] squeeze in there yeah and then when do you have to start considering you know the fact that

[01:13:59] maybe your players are getting really old now and maybe you should start looking for new

[01:14:03] ones maybe even start thinking about World of Warcraft 2 and stuff like that you know

[01:14:07] it's weird when you think on those kind of timelines but

[01:14:11] for the immediate future I suppose we are probably going to end up with

[01:14:15] um you know what came after

[01:14:19] Cataclysm was it Walnut Adrenal no it wasn't

[01:14:23] Mr. Pandareas wasn't it? Miss, Miss, Miss and then

[01:14:27] Warlords yeah so that's weird like we're having Mr. Pandareas

[01:14:31] rematch right now which presumably is going to satisfy everyone's

[01:14:35] um nostalgia for Mr. Pandareas

[01:14:39] are they then going to do Mr. Pandareas classic on top of it that's what I'm saying maybe this

[01:14:43] is like a litmus test to see how interested people are in it

[01:14:47] that's weird man that's weird

[01:14:51] a battle for Azeroth classic

[01:14:56] Shadowlands Classic can you fucking imagine

[01:15:00] did you imagine oh my god

[01:15:04] it does beg these questions

[01:15:08] though about you know the

[01:15:12] nostalgia days of vanilla right where the idea was it was

[01:15:16] pre-cataclysm because people were upset about the world changes and now you

[01:15:20] are reintroducing them and taking that

[01:15:24] pre-cata version away again like

[01:15:28] I don't know they're

[01:15:32] polling or when they send out these

[01:15:36] surveys I guess the

[01:15:40] data must be telling them to do it because they would I you know better than I would

[01:15:44] they wouldn't spend a dime on this if they didn't believe that they were going to get

[01:15:48] some kind of return on an investment so something somewhere

[01:15:52] must be telling them that people want this which is crazy but

[01:15:56] I've been around long enough where you know maybe because we didn't

[01:16:00] we experienced it and new players haven't

[01:16:04] maybe they're interested in it and they're like oh I want to see what it was like

[01:16:08] I saw on Reddit somebody posted hey elder millennials what was the grunge era

[01:16:12] like and I'm like fuck how do you not know what that is

[01:16:16] what do you mean it was a grunge era like

[01:16:20] maybe something like that maybe cat is the grunge era and people just wanted to see what it was like

[01:16:24] I don't know but oh man I don't know if I call car the grunge era

[01:16:28] yeah it's more like the hair metal era

[01:16:32] maybe

[01:16:38] yeah like Cataclysm's leveling experience like I really enjoyed making alts in

[01:16:42] Cataclysm the end game was not the best

[01:16:46] not the best and it was weird

[01:16:50] it was a bit weird it was very just jointed you know it just

[01:16:54] kind of made up areas that just I don't know

[01:16:58] it just felt weird but I dropped off in Firelands because I just

[01:17:02] I did not enjoy that raid but I think part of it was because I was

[01:17:06] tanking at the time and I think really I didn't enjoy tanking not the raid

[01:17:10] I don't know it was harsh visually there was a very harsh place to be

[01:17:14] all the time and that was yeah Firelands was yeah it was brutal

[01:17:18] but if it's your thing Cataclysm is out here

[01:17:22] in fact to celebrate it but one thing I did enjoy

[01:17:26] World of Warcraft's YouTube page has a 4K

[01:17:30] version now of the Cataclysm

[01:17:34] opening cinematic remastered and regardless of anything

[01:17:38] I think about the gameplay itself that that cinematic

[01:17:42] is a fucking banger that thing is so great

[01:17:46] the music is awesome like you feel the power and like the whole thing of death

[01:17:50] like it is it's fantastic so if you

[01:17:54] have watched in a while you should go watch it it's great

[01:17:58] so we got that going on and then

[01:18:02] before we get to our last thing I did want to drop this one piece

[01:18:06] of Alpha news because I haven't I don't cover a lot of Alpha because there's a lot of spoilers

[01:18:10] and shit and I don't want to talk about it but there is just

[01:18:14] a major development

[01:18:18] in the Alpha

[01:18:22] that I had to make sure that I talked about on this episode

[01:18:26] and it is very relevant to something that we just talked about

[01:18:30] because apparently in the war within

[01:18:34] the dog that you had on your farm

[01:18:38] in this of Pandaria will now be able to be a full

[01:18:42] time companion for you

[01:18:46] everywhere that you go that is the kind of

[01:18:50] gameplay I came for and I don't know why it took so long

[01:18:54] that is a fantastic development

[01:19:00] so not going to cover any other Alpha news

[01:19:04] at this point so if that's your jam and you want to see all the spoilers because they've been going

[01:19:08] zone by zone for the last month

[01:19:12] you're welcome to go on to WoW head and see what the gothic sprite has been putting up over there

[01:19:16] I won't be touching it and when we come back

[01:19:20] by the time we come back we should be in the full throws of pre patch and getting ready to go

[01:19:24] so if you came here for your Alpha news I apologize

[01:19:28] but there you go I gave you a little bit of a lesson

[01:19:32] have you seen what they've done to demonology warlocks

[01:19:36] I heard that they like messed with your jam again

[01:19:40] they took away a lot of mobility because they're like warlocks shouldn't have this high DPS

[01:19:44] and they don't have to sacrifice mobility like other

[01:19:48] castors do which I think is fair enough

[01:19:52] but initially they went too far and it was like oh god now I can't do any damage unless I'm standing still

[01:19:58] but then they've done a huge revamp on the talent trees and they've given us

[01:20:02] the ability to summon two raid bosses from

[01:20:06] Antorus in a damnit rotation

[01:20:10] I'm like the two dogs so I'm like yep take the mobility

[01:20:14] I'm good don't need mobility and there's just demons flying all over

[01:20:18] the place now as a demonology warlock

[01:20:22] I actually feel bad for other classes like when you play the demonology warlock

[01:20:26] you've got this huge amount of space where huge demons are popping out all over the place

[01:20:30] and then you play another class and you're just like yeah I got this gun

[01:20:34] I have more haste

[01:20:38] I got more that's it

[01:20:42] that is the one thing I've been laughing about

[01:20:46] I guess the touch on that real quick is the fury stuff

[01:20:50] you know because I've talked about it before we have a slayer tree I think that's cool

[01:20:54] everything so far to be quite honest is super boring when it comes to warriors

[01:20:58] like I'm just like there's some stat boosts and you can make some decisions

[01:21:02] about the stat or I can use execute more I mean no offense folks

[01:21:06] but big fucking whoop like that's not exciting to me

[01:21:10] when I hear about all your stuff with all the demons now giant demons popping out

[01:21:14] and like shit going wild but that is class fantasy

[01:21:18] that is amazing that is what I expect that's why I was saying

[01:21:22] we need something where you transform into a fucking vry cool for 5 minutes

[01:21:26] and you're just like going ham on whatever

[01:21:30] that is the fantasy right ultimate warrior stuff

[01:21:34] you know yeah I actually said that to

[01:21:38] Maria Hamilton

[01:21:42] I said that to her

[01:21:46] at the event in one of my interviews I said I feel kind of bad for the classes

[01:21:50] because you've given my demonology warlock

[01:21:54] the ability to summon a laser beam firing pit lord

[01:21:58] which appears halfway out of a portal and looks amazing

[01:22:02] and then like I switch over to my hunter who's got like these tiny little

[01:22:06] shadow bullets that you can't even see

[01:22:10] and like some of the other classes

[01:22:14] which I think are really lacking in the animation and the

[01:22:18] special effects department when you compare them to what they're doing with demonology warlocks

[01:22:22] and she said yeah well maybe some people

[01:22:26] don't want their class to look that flashy and I'm just thinking

[01:22:30] I think everyone wants their class to look that cool and impressive

[01:22:34] so like yeah I do agree that some of

[01:22:38] those hero talents are so boring after you've played

[01:22:42] a diabolist or even some of the other warlock ones

[01:22:46] one of the other warlock trees adds like a demon that

[01:22:50] pops out and copies one of your attacks every now and then like a shinigami from death note

[01:22:54] it actually looks like a shinigami from death note

[01:22:58] he just pops out every now and then and throws an extra shadow ball in there

[01:23:02] and it's like oh well that's really cool like I've got a little ghost friend followed me around

[01:23:06] but like all the other classes I tried like they just weren't

[01:23:10] anywhere near as interesting or as impressive and I hope that

[01:23:14] they get some iteration but I didn't play every class of course and

[01:23:18] some classes were more developed and those blithers really love demonology right now

[01:23:22] they love demonology warlocks I can just tell

[01:23:26] yeah and I will because it was a long time that

[01:23:30] didn't give a shit about demonology warlock but I freely admit

[01:23:34] I love demonology warlocks right now I'm living for it

[01:23:38] as you should because let me tell you has a long time and forever

[01:23:42] and only ever been a fury warrior I know that warriors

[01:23:46] are like a base class and you know all that blah blah blah

[01:23:50] but I go back to Legion every you know artifacts

[01:23:54] like fucking paladins got the aspringer bro like that that's like the end all be

[01:23:58] all like you got the weapon so I'm thinking of myself warriors we gotta have

[01:24:02] shallamane like let's go you're gonna kill my boy give me the sword like what's going on

[01:24:06] oh no no no no we got some boo boo swords of the valedra that no one's ever heard of

[01:24:10] it gives a shit about and the design was like kind of weird and I'm like

[01:24:14] whatever get the fuck out of here now they did bring in the axe

[01:24:18] which was kind of neat I'll give you that but where were all the

[01:24:22] swords of lore that we could have had are the big two handed weapons and

[01:24:26] we could have been running around no none of that and

[01:24:30] I go back to that because it's like to me there have been so

[01:24:34] many times where for like what is supposed to be one of the

[01:24:38] base most recognizable kind of

[01:24:42] and I'll say this with all peace and love to my own people generic sort of class like a warrior

[01:24:46] like you have some iteration of that in almost every kind of sword

[01:24:50] sorcery fantasy setting where is all the bad assery

[01:24:54] where is all like the cool stuff that makes you feel like yes

[01:24:58] I did this thing like a lot of us just in my head because I have this sort of

[01:25:02] vision of what it's supposed to be and I don't know maybe I embody that myself

[01:25:06] but I am sorry something missing

[01:25:10] yeah I remember when they added blood thirst

[01:25:14] for fury warrior that's the spell right yeah and it was part of

[01:25:18] a revamp to make them all viable because everyone was playing arms because of

[01:25:22] more strike I think this is going back to vanilla possibly yeah

[01:25:26] and I remember thinking oh blood thirst that's badass I bet they're like they jump

[01:25:30] on and sink their teeth into the guy take a chunk out of him or something

[01:25:34] it's like no it's just I don't think he'd even had an animation it just

[01:25:38] had a little blood splatter something yep and I remember my friend

[01:25:42] when I was playing with back then was a fury a torrent fury warrior

[01:25:46] I remember being disappointed that blood thirst had basically no graphic

[01:25:50] yeah I mean this is a lot to do there

[01:25:54] Odin's fury when they added that in Legion that was like kind of like cool because it had its own animation

[01:25:58] and that looks great and I'm glad that they finally brought that back

[01:26:02] but it just to your point when you look at certain classes

[01:26:06] warlocks and some other ones

[01:26:10] there is more and

[01:26:14] I don't need to have you know I don't need like

[01:26:18] Aragorn with the ghost army like coming down and like unleashing some

[01:26:22] sort of like ghost warrior attack like I don't need that

[01:26:26] but like you could give me something that is within the

[01:26:30] class fantasy that you're like ooh this is cool I can't wait to do this thing

[01:26:34] as opposed to oh I'm trying to hit this I don't know

[01:26:38] in rage window big fucking whoop

[01:26:42] they should make fury warriors more bloody

[01:26:46] do some of the big hits like huge chunks of gore comes flying

[01:26:50] off the enemy there's gore in the game already yes I'd ramp up

[01:26:54] the blood and guts you know if you're playing a fury warrior

[01:26:58] everywhere I walk there should be like bloody treads or some shit like it just

[01:27:02] it's that kind of a thing it's like when you know I asked Ian

[01:27:06] when I got the chance is you know I want to see warriors

[01:27:10] have a headbutt as an interrupt because that would be badass like instead

[01:27:14] of like oh pummel you can't cast your spell now

[01:27:18] like as opposed to smashing your head against on the bridge of somebody's

[01:27:22] nose and like oh and they messed up their spell cast

[01:27:26] that right that feels right so as they go along

[01:27:30] in the alpha and they're doing these hero talents like I keep hoping that

[01:27:34] they'll add more but they may not so if you're out there

[01:27:38] and you're and you're enjoying your you know warlockiness

[01:27:42] fucking revel in that shit wrap it up like a blanket

[01:27:46] settle in so

[01:27:50] before we go big one big final last final

[01:27:54] topic here dragon flight sort of in review

[01:27:58] if you will we've had it now

[01:28:02] we've experienced it we've gone through its its full cadence

[01:28:06] and we're stepping out of it into something into something new

[01:28:10] so now we have a chance to look back sort of in full

[01:28:14] and take that high level overview of

[01:28:18] the expansion kind of where it sits what it's done

[01:28:22] all of those sorts of things so as we look back

[01:28:26] over the last year and a half

[01:28:30] plus that we've had dragon flight the first big question

[01:28:34] that I would ask you jazz as somebody who has incredible

[01:28:38] visibility into the gaming industry

[01:28:42] did dragon flight save

[01:28:46] world of warcraft I think it did I think it really did

[01:28:50] but it wasn't just dragon flight itself it was also like

[01:28:54] the classic the double down on classic then and the

[01:28:58] season of discovery and also leaning into the

[01:29:02] hardcore mode stuff because that was like an add on and then there were like players really

[01:29:06] like this let's pivot really hard and add this to the game as a dedicated

[01:29:10] mode I think all of that stuff and being proactive

[01:29:14] and also getting the patches out much faster but also giving us a really big

[01:29:18] roadmap and then generally speaking they hit that roadmap

[01:29:22] every time they said we're gonna deliver this in this timeframe they hit it every single time

[01:29:26] and they really ramped up that consistency so

[01:29:30] it's more than just dragon flight itself but it's the dragon flight era I think

[01:29:34] has really improved world of warcraft I think there's still work to do

[01:29:38] especially talk about like I think to get to wow to a truly healthy place

[01:29:42] they've got to revamp the new player experience it was like I've run

[01:29:46] ted earlier on exiles reach terrible

[01:29:50] but I don't know how do you feel how do you because like we play wow differently right

[01:29:54] me and you like I'm like I'm right and I'm mythic plus player mainly

[01:29:58] you know I do damage meters and that's my

[01:30:02] that's my fun he's watching the damage meter go up and down you know

[01:30:06] but how do you feel about as someone who plays the way

[01:30:10] you play you know I think

[01:30:16] back to shadowlands and how low we were

[01:30:20] and granted there was a lot of like real world

[01:30:24] external things going on that I think

[01:30:28] I was just really pulled with the game itself but

[01:30:32] people were just not happy and it was a miserable time

[01:30:36] to be part of the community I think and so

[01:30:40] to come out of that I thought the raids were really fun

[01:30:44] you know as primarily just a

[01:30:48] heroic level raider you know

[01:30:52] I thought the raids were fun I thought the land was great it was a

[01:30:56] in the sense of you know talk about kind of the grittier parts of

[01:31:00] wow and or the warcraft sort of

[01:31:04] franchise it got away from that it really did and I think it was intentional

[01:31:08] to try to bring a lightness

[01:31:12] where we were so down and so to have

[01:31:16] to have as you as you rightly touched on

[01:31:20] the cadence right that patch cadence that roadmap where

[01:31:24] every time they put one out I would say man I can

[01:31:26] comes another one are they really gonna hit

[01:31:28] yeah by God they did and so you add

[01:31:32] I think a lighter attitude with regular

[01:31:36] content with good raids

[01:31:40] I was really worried about the future of the franchise

[01:31:44] and I am no longer worried about it

[01:31:48] in the sense that I feel like it's in good

[01:31:52] hands right now they chased out a lot of the bad elements internally

[01:31:56] they brought back my personal Lord and savior Chris Metzen so of course I'm gonna be all

[01:32:00] about it but the turn around

[01:32:04] in terms of tone cadence

[01:32:08] responsiveness to the community like all the feedback that they've taken and actually

[01:32:12] done something with it feels different

[01:32:16] and again I think you are saying this right the dragonflight era

[01:32:20] so maybe not necessarily just the expansion but

[01:32:24] this point in time where they they had to know that they had bottomed out

[01:32:28] and they had to they had to do something drastic something different they had to make

[01:32:32] changes and they did and so now to come

[01:32:36] out to where we have been I do think that it has saved

[01:32:40] the game because it was on the road to maintenance

[01:32:44] in my mind where it was gonna be you know

[01:32:48] yeah they were gonna put out more stuff but the player base was gonna be

[01:32:52] you know pretty small in comparison to where it's been and

[01:32:56] you know they were gonna divert resources elsewhere because yeah there's that regular

[01:33:00] subscription thing which nobody does because nobody can actually make it

[01:33:04] work anymore um but the

[01:33:08] focus was gonna get moved away if they didn't hit the mark and I think they did

[01:33:12] so sort of the next step of

[01:33:16] that and now in the in the hierarchy

[01:33:20] of World of Warcraft and its expansions

[01:33:24] to think of okay now where does it sit where would I rank it

[01:33:28] in terms of all of the expansions that we've had and

[01:33:32] I don't know for me personally and because of

[01:33:36] the time and space and how it happened wrath for me will never be beat because

[01:33:40] it was just too special of a time was too connected to the story

[01:33:44] like that for me it just hit everything at the right it was the height of the game

[01:33:48] when we had the most subscribers like that was just that was it

[01:33:52] that was the pantheon really you know but behind that it's like well

[01:33:56] Legion and then Missed

[01:34:00] Dragonfly like to me it's now it's now for me

[01:34:04] in that top three I think it I think I think it's

[01:34:08] coming in at the top three um in terms of ranking

[01:34:12] and it's a little bit of a waffle there I admit it could be for

[01:34:16] but it's right up in there for me in terms of where the

[01:34:20] expansions rank so for you as somebody who's been there since the beginning

[01:34:24] where would you where would you stack it up I mean

[01:34:28] I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it was a softer story

[01:34:32] and I think like they probably they wanted to that that was totally intentional

[01:34:36] and they're pretty much hinted as much when I interviewed them they were like

[01:34:40] yeah after COVID and Childlands we wanted to have something of a palette

[01:34:44] cleanser something a little bit more optimistic and I think that's fine

[01:34:48] you know but for me personally it was a bit too

[01:34:52] disney fired a lot of the time and also I think like

[01:34:56] Sarkarath wasn't a strong villain and I kind of feel

[01:35:00] like Phyrrack was wasted almost as some people don't like Phyrrack

[01:35:04] that much but I almost feel like yeah

[01:35:08] I kind of feel like all the villains

[01:35:12] like I would have done it a little bit differently a

[01:35:15] Razageth, Vyrrannoth, Phyrrack and a Riddikron are four of the best antagonists

[01:35:20] they've ever put together in a game and I know Vyrrannoth's a good guy now

[01:35:24] um Incarnate were phenomenal

[01:35:28] The Incarnate were phenomenal great great well written and very different

[01:35:32] personalities all of them I think Vyrrannoth

[01:35:36] coming a good guy is probably good for the long

[01:35:40] long-term play but like and I say Phyrrack

[01:35:44] I feel like Phyrrack was a bit wasted but at the same time it's like

[01:35:48] he was the big bad of the expansion so kind of not

[01:35:52] wasted like I love Phyrrack's fight as well his fight was really cool

[01:35:56] and you know the legendary axe like I don't play

[01:36:00] classes that can use the axe but the axe look really badass

[01:36:04] I would love it. You can get it go and get it on LFR man

[01:36:08] go and start the growing my poor

[01:36:12] main tank Death Knight he had to get the

[01:36:16] bad luck protection all the way up to 100% before he got it

[01:36:20] he killed Phyrrack like dozens of

[01:36:24] times I feel really bad for him but um

[01:36:28] but yeah I ranked the expand overall

[01:36:32] I think it really high like the new profession system I think it's really

[01:36:36] a good step in the big step in the right direction

[01:36:40] in making professions more interesting and relevant I think like as an alchemist

[01:36:44] I wish I could participate more in the daily

[01:36:48] the daily um

[01:36:52] the orders because there's nothing really like alchemists

[01:36:56] can contribute to that but they're adding NPC orders in the next

[01:37:00] expansion to combat that so like I will be able to participate and make

[01:37:04] some extra gold it's crazy when I log into my priest who's an enchanter

[01:37:08] and I see something there it's like oh I get 2000 gold just for clicking a button

[01:37:12] great there's nothing like that for alchemists which is really annoying

[01:37:16] but um so like yeah the professions are great

[01:37:20] Dragonriding being a permanent addition to the game really really cool and this sort of getting

[01:37:24] away from the borrowed power mechanics I think it's really important for the health of the game as well

[01:37:28] yeah I would rank Dragonflight really highly and like but it's hard to rank

[01:37:32] Dragonflight just by itself because it's really the era and

[01:37:36] the sort of the shift the shift in thinking about how they

[01:37:40] approach World of Warcraft is really what saved World of Warcraft and

[01:37:44] I'm pretty excited and I will say one thing or another thing you know

[01:37:48] on one of your other points because you were said you're worried that they might

[01:37:52] deprioritize World of Warcraft and you know put it in maintenance mode and stuff like that

[01:37:56] World of Warcraft is one of the most profitable games in

[01:38:00] history and it remains so until this day it is

[01:38:04] economically speaking when you can guarantee

[01:38:08] that you're gonna have income month over month it makes

[01:38:12] it very very easy to prioritize where to put your investments

[01:38:16] right and I know that speaking to people at Microsoft

[01:38:20] World of Warcraft is regarded as one of their absolute highest priorities

[01:38:24] because it is one of the games that has the best profit margins

[01:38:28] you know it's relatively cheap to produce content

[01:38:32] for because you know it's got simplistic

[01:38:36] quote-unquote simplistic graphics like if you're making an expansion for Destiny

[01:38:40] which has more photorealistic graphics it's a lot more intensive

[01:38:44] to put that artwork together than it is for wow and World of Warcraft is

[01:38:48] this isn't Unreal Engine 5 no it's not you know and

[01:38:52] it's downsides too but the upside is that the cadence of producing content

[01:38:56] is very very quick and they vastly improve their tools like I can't believe

[01:39:00] it when I was doing the Zalatath questline earlier how

[01:39:04] the in-engine cutscene how good they've got it

[01:39:08] I thought I saw that on YouTube initially and I thought I assumed

[01:39:12] it was pre-rendered but it's actually in-engine with the

[01:39:16] facial motion capture and all that kind of stuff because the facial motion capture up until

[01:39:20] now has been awful in the cutscene well they just wasn't any

[01:39:24] there wasn't any lip sync or anything like that like the

[01:39:28] NPCs just have this weird face like looks like they're chewing

[01:39:32] kind of thing but they've massively improved that

[01:39:36] so yeah those bits will be more expensive but it's still much cheaper than

[01:39:40] you know in some other games and I think that's one of the reasons like

[01:39:44] most Destiny characters wear a helmet all the time right

[01:39:48] I don't know I digress you know and and

[01:39:52] Microsoft has because Microsoft recently closed a huge

[01:39:56] chunk of studios in you know and obviously

[01:40:00] Microsoft also the Blizzard had layoffs as well which

[01:40:04] from what I heard were planned

[01:40:08] even if they hadn't acquired Activision it was sort of like

[01:40:12] the all industries going on undergoing this course correction right now

[01:40:16] they over-invested during COVID or well you could say they over-invested

[01:40:20] but you could also say like the competition was fiercer during COVID

[01:40:24] because there was more people playing and to stay

[01:40:28] in competition with all like you know these service games like Fortnite

[01:40:32] and stuff which are vacuuming up all the attention

[01:40:36] they really had to invest in they had to invest heavily in remote workers

[01:40:40] and all that kind of stuff because of the various lockdowns and various laws

[01:40:44] all that kind of stuff so but now COVID's over it's kind of like well

[01:40:48] we don't need that many people we don't need so many remote people

[01:40:52] and you've seen like a lot of the remote workers have been laid off and you know it sucks

[01:40:56] it really does suck but at the same time

[01:41:00] you know I was you know the

[01:41:04] rumors and the you know the hearsay in the industry is that like

[01:41:08] one of the reasons Microsoft has shut down some of these other

[01:41:12] studios that perhaps weren't able to bring as much

[01:41:16] value to proposition so they could double down on games like World of Warcraft

[01:41:20] you know I've heard that I've heard that World of Warcraft's going to have more vacancies

[01:41:24] I've heard that Elder Scrolls Online is going to have more vacancies and Fallout 76

[01:41:28] is going to have more vacancies so all these kind of like MMO-ish kind of

[01:41:32] games these are what Microsoft really loves and really wants to invest in

[01:41:36] so that makes me optimistic too and

[01:41:40] really like I think you know like I said earlier you know there might be a little

[01:41:44] flash of World of Warcraft at the Xbox showcase

[01:41:48] coming up or a flash of Blizzard I don't think it'll be anything new

[01:41:52] I think it'll just be sort of like a reminder that the war within is coming

[01:41:56] or maybe it's the

[01:42:00] another cinematic or something like that they'll debut I don't know for sure but I think you are going to see some

[01:42:04] you know positive content for World of Warcraft that

[01:42:08] Microsoft Xbox showcase on June 9th I think it is

[01:42:12] and that sort of reaffirms that commitment to the game so I'm really

[01:42:16] excited about the future of World really are. Nice nice

[01:42:20] excellent to hear and yeah

[01:42:24] it's future is looking pretty bright

[01:42:28] and that is such a welcome change for the end of this

[01:42:32] expansion versus the last and I guess the last question

[01:42:36] that I have for you on this and for this episode is

[01:42:40] well taken as an era then as opposed to

[01:42:44] the expansion specifically is

[01:42:48] what will you remember the Dragon

[01:42:52] Flight era for the most? I don't know I think for

[01:42:58] Rack maybe. I really like for Rack and I know

[01:43:02] that's I don't love them. It was great. I love them

[01:43:06] I thought it was amazing.

[01:43:10] It kind of reminded me of

[01:43:14] almost a Saturday morning cartoon crazy villain

[01:43:18] something I might have seen in the Batman animated or something

[01:43:22] just larger than life crazy

[01:43:26] it really sort of like burning bright and fire and

[01:43:30] raging and stuff like that and burning everything I thought for Rack was a really great

[01:43:34] villain so I think for Rack will be something

[01:43:38] I remember really fondly but also like my guild

[01:43:42] I found my guild at the start of Dragon

[01:43:46] Flight or just before Dragon Flight started

[01:43:50] and I've been playing this game for 20 years and it is the best guild I've ever

[01:43:54] been in so I feel really really lucky to have found this

[01:43:58] guild so yeah I think I'll remember Dragon Flight for my guild

[01:44:02] how about you?

[01:44:06] Well I've been thinking about this

[01:44:10] I guess this is why I wanted to put this

[01:44:14] question last because I think this one I've been thinking about the most is

[01:44:20] this sort of era has been

[01:44:24] one of change and it's kind of hard

[01:44:28] to explain and this is going to sound weird when I say it

[01:44:32] but you know this show has always been

[01:44:36] this podcast has always been part game news

[01:44:40] part personal diary and

[01:44:44] I don't know what it is

[01:44:48] and the only way I can describe it is that the air tastes differently and I know how that sounds

[01:44:52] but the only way I can describe it

[01:44:56] there's something

[01:45:00] it just things feel different

[01:45:04] and there's been a change in so many respects

[01:45:08] you know for the game I think that pull out of that

[01:45:12] nose dive and the

[01:45:16] Dragon Flight era there's the feeling of it

[01:45:20] I love being in Valdrakhan and the music there it just has this

[01:45:24] immediate calming soothing it almost feels like

[01:45:28] you just went through hell and then you landed in this place

[01:45:32] and I mean it is kind of how it ended up

[01:45:36] and it's almost like the calm after the storm or whatever it is

[01:45:40] and so I really love being in Valdrakhan just for the music alone

[01:45:44] someday when I retire and this game is still on one server

[01:45:48] somewhere in the Smithsonian I'm definitely going to come back to spend more time

[01:45:52] in this expansion but you know as I've talked about

[01:45:56] I lost we lost

[01:46:00] a really special member of our raid team

[01:46:04] of our leadership team of our guild and you know it's

[01:46:08] kind of ended the team you know when he died that was

[01:46:12] we didn't raid after that and so kind of being

[01:46:16] in this space now where I'm not really sure what the future holds

[01:46:20] for me and where I'm going to be and how I'm going to do it

[01:46:24] I mean I'm going to be playing wow I'm going to be doing something I've talked recently about

[01:46:28] just kind of going back to the basics and just doing fucking questing

[01:46:32] all the stuff I skipped when I first leveled because I was just trying to get to the end

[01:46:36] and I joked about last time like did you know that there were way gates

[01:46:40] I didn't because I never finished the quest to get them

[01:46:44] so this you know unblocking all this stuff for the first time it's been kind of a revelation

[01:46:48] so you know it's

[01:46:52] it's a big change I feel and

[01:46:56] this sort of era of there was a way that you know

[01:47:00] I had a guild and we were together for a long time and I also had the same

[01:47:04] job for a long time and you know it's just things things are

[01:47:08] changing and I think some of it is good like

[01:47:12] getting this promotion that I mentioned earlier I mean shit I never thought that

[01:47:16] this would happen ever and so now to shift gears into that

[01:47:20] professionally and you know I'm I think I'm at an age now

[01:47:24] where it's just I don't know you start to feel things a little differently and so it's

[01:47:28] just put all that together in this era for me is

[01:47:32] is one of

[01:47:36] kind of a mixed hope I guess

[01:47:40] where you know we had so many great things like specifically

[01:47:44] I will remember Dragonflight for Dragon

[01:47:48] fighting because we got that and it's amazing and it's going to be with us now

[01:47:52] you know and the incarnates being super cool and

[01:47:56] Steve DeNuzer having his own team run the show and then he

[01:48:00] last very long after that I guess

[01:48:04] but there's change of foot and it will continue and

[01:48:08] it's changes the only constant in life so it's kind of funny

[01:48:12] to now sit here in a spot where we're about to go into

[01:48:16] this whole other upheaval now with the world soul saga

[01:48:20] and bring back some characters that I really love and emotionally

[01:48:24] invested in and you know I'm hopeful that we're

[01:48:28] going to be able to continue that now that ride where we've had that little pit stop

[01:48:32] and it was lighter and we you know doing

[01:48:36] little baby dragon daycare now we're going to head out

[01:48:40] and we're going to take a dive deep down into the planet while it's screaming out

[01:48:44] and we're going to be going up against these giant forces and I am

[01:48:48] hopeful that all of the shit that we've gone through as a community

[01:48:52] will have that payoff of continuing that

[01:48:56] momentum from Dragonflight and we're going to head into the world's whole saga and it's going to be

[01:49:00] something that's unique and amazing and keeps us coming back for more

[01:49:04] and so you know we've just had changes

[01:49:08] in the teams and the leadership and there's just been all of this that's happened

[01:49:12] and so I'm hoping that as we come out of that we're now

[01:49:16] kind of in the next tier, that next place, whatever that

[01:49:20] change is leading to and you know the big change, there'll be little ones

[01:49:24] but wherever that big change takes us to I hope it's good

[01:49:28] and I hope we maintain this direction wrong and then even here

[01:49:32] you and I joining forces and now this is kind of a whole different thing

[01:49:36] here and you know we're building something new and something fun and like

[01:49:40] that's a big change and so all of that happening

[01:49:44] kind of in a short period of time as we now head into this next expansion so

[01:49:48] that I think is what I'll remember

[01:49:52] a lot of this era for us is

[01:49:56] it's hope, you know it's hope that things are going to get better

[01:50:00] and that we're changing for the better

[01:50:04] and Farak was an amazing bad guy

[01:50:08] and he was totally like the Joker or something I don't know

[01:50:12] animated series Batman villain that is exactly what I thought

[01:50:16] yeah, dead on with that

[01:50:20] they'll find a way to bring him back

[01:50:24] alternate Farak, you know he'll have a mustache

[01:50:28] or something, a little foo man too, like oh it's

[01:50:32] mirror universe Farak, I don't know, he'll bring him back

[01:50:36] alright, well

[01:50:40] I think we've done enough damage for one episode, got almost two hours here

[01:50:44] so, you know hope you

[01:50:48] all enjoy Dragonflight as much as we did and hope you all

[01:50:52] have a fun and safe summer and we'll

[01:50:56] be checking in I'm sure from time to time but until then

[01:51:00] for those who don't already know where can

[01:51:04] good people find you out on the internet Jezz

[01:51:08] you can find me over on

[01:51:11] windowscentral.com forward slash gaming

[01:51:14] also you can find me on twitter or it's apparently now called

[01:51:18] x forward slash jz c o r d e n and also jezz

[01:51:22] dot c on youtube but I don't post there very often

[01:51:26] also the xbox 2 podcast are really interested in xbox stuff

[01:51:30] and you can also find me here on the awesomeness that is

[01:51:34] on Shackle Fury there it is happy to have you

[01:51:38] aboard and appreciate you continuing on this

[01:51:42] journey with me and can't wait for what's to come with the war within

[01:51:46] or worlds whole saga and folks were gonna have a good ride coming

[01:51:50] so my thanks to all of you for listening

[01:51:54] and remember you can always follow me and this show on twitter

[01:51:58] at berserker rage and unshackled underscore fury

[01:52:02] on blues guy at berserker and unshackled fury if that's still a thing

[01:52:06] as well as on twitch at unshackled fury and real berserker

[01:52:10] you can also join our discord links for which are in the profile

[01:52:14] of the show on twitter and on our bonus roll page

[01:52:18] feel free to contact the show with your questions comments or otherwise

[01:52:22] through any of those resources or on shacklefury.com

[01:52:26] or you can find this show wherever you get your podcasts

[01:52:30] so once again thank you for listening remember to keep your sores wet

[01:52:34] and your banners high and we'll see you next time

[01:52:38] farewell