Pig & Whistle Tales - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Exploring WoW's Latest: Season of Discovery Phase 5, Race to world first, Story raids!?

• Gabriel • Season 4 • Episode 55

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Discover the latest and greatest in World of Warcraft as we explore the buzzing atmosphere at Stormwind's Pig and Whistle Inn! We'll bring you up to speed with the weekly news, from Orta, the Broken Mountain, to the Battlegrounds bonus event. Ever wondered why picking up orbs in mythic dungeons is crucial this week? We'll explain the intricacies of the fortified and zalatav's bargain oblivion affixes and dive into the Temple of Hot Mogu brawl. Plus, I'll reveal why the story mode raid is a must-try for newcomers, thanks to its simplified mechanics and rich storyline. And don’t miss our Race to World First and AWC competition updates, where top guilds like Liquid, Echo, and Method are neck and neck!

Get ready to be amazed by the new features in World of Warcraft's Season of Discovery, Phase 5! Reworked raids like Blackwing Lair and Zul'Gurub with updated tier sets and flexible raid sizes are just the beginning. Learn about the thrilling Crystal Veil Raid with Princess Thundurant, the fresh world buffs, and epic class-specific quests. We also discuss the disappointing end to the Season of Discovery and what it means for the future. Despite the letdown, we maintain our enthusiasm and encourage you to stay connected through our social media and Etsy shop for the latest updates and exclusive content.

Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!

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Speaker 1:

Music. Thank you, hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go for a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft, so grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this episode. We'll be going over a few bits and bobs Race to World First AWC Season of Discovery, story Mode Raids you know it's a whole variety, so we will always start off with the weekly news. We have Orta, the Broken Mountain, as your world boss for this week. He is located in Ajkehet. We have Battlegrounds as your bonus event. This just gives you a simple increase in honour gain, which is very good, because you need a lot of honour currently for all of the jeweller pieces and stuff like that to complete your gearing if you are PvP or if you are doing PvP. So make sure you are competing in some battlegrounds this week for the extra honor, and don't forget your flask as well when doing so. I always forget. Temple of hot mogu is your brawl for the week. This is simply uh, everything is sped up, you have more haste, you have more movement, speed, etc. And it's a faster paced version of temple of kot mogu essentially very simple, and the mythic fixes for this this week are fortified. So the bosses have more health and do more damage. No, sorry, that's tyrannical, this is the non-boss enemies that have more health and do more damage. And then you have something called zalatav's bargain oblivion. Now these are orbs that spawn around and the ads can pick up these orbs. Or you can, depending on uh, if you want to or if you want the ads to pick them up, but primarily, you don't want the ads picking them up. They will do more and more damage if they are allowed to pick up these orbs. Uh, I don't know if they give you a damage increase. I think it. It just means that you take more damage from something. But I could be completely getting that mixed up with something from the mythic race to world first, because I've been watching a lot of that recently. So that might be what I'm getting it mixed up with. But essentially, you want to pick up these orbs and you do not want the NPCs to pick up the orbs in your stead. It's very, very simple in that regard.

Speaker 1:

So we start off. I'm going to start off with something that really did impress me, and I thought this would impress me and is something that is very good for world of warcraft as a whole, and that is the story mode raid. Okay, so I've gone over this before in a past episode. The story mode raid is essentially you get to experience the final boss whilst in a follower raid group. Okay, so you have the follower dungeons where it puts you with four npcs. What this does is it puts you with nine npcs, so you're in a 10 man raid group and you kill the final boss of the expansion.

Speaker 1:

Now, obviously, this boss is tuned down to quite a substantial amount. Um, it only has very simple mechanics dodge webs, kill webs, that sort of thing you know. Dodge lines, kill ads, etc. Etc. So very simple mechanics, big health pool. But it was an enjoyable experience.

Speaker 1:

I very much enjoyed a look at it, at the mechanics, and understand it a bit more. I think that for people looking to get into raiding and can see the sort of mechanics that will be going on in, maybe like a normal raid or a heroic raid. Obviously there's more that's added throughout the um as you go up in level throughout the raiding, but it's a very good introduction to see if you would even enjoy it to begin with. Um. So I think that it's a great success in that regard. I think that it offers that sort of maybe entry level of okay, I kind of enjoy how my damn, how my class does damage in this boss fight. I enjoy the boss fight mechanics. I enjoy, you know, multiple things like that.

Speaker 1:

But the thing that I was most impressed about it was is that it was very fluent. I got to experience the storyline and to complete a quest which gave me 5,000 rep through doing this story mode. I didn't have to do looking for raid, I didn't have to do normal difficulty, heroic difficulty, any of that. I could just sign up at this little npc and it would put me at the final boss with the followers. And I think it was amazing because I got to saw the ending cinematic. I got to saw everything. After you kill the boss, there's all the npcs that walk into the room and talk and stuff. You don't see this stuff. All I see at the end of Race to World First is very much the cinematic. I don't see all of the different NPCs walk in, talk about stuff that's happened and you know all of that. So it's really cool to see and I think that it's a massively important step that blizzard need to carry on taking because I rate it quite highly.

Speaker 1:

Not many people have taken notice of this, but I rate it very highly this follower, uh raid and dungeons. I think that it is a very good step in the right direction and it is more, it's a easy step to take if you're looking to get into PvE or PvP kind of thing. Well, for PvP there isn't much that you can do to. You know, get into that, maybe like a Battleground follower or Battlegrounds, but they're all NPCs rather than just, you know, comp stomp, maybe something like that. We'll see. But essentially this is what I think is very underrated in the expansion at the moment.

Speaker 1:

Now, going from Story Mode Raid into Race to World First and AWC, these competitions are up and running. Currently. The Race to World First is probably coming to a conclusion around the time that this episode airs. To be honest, it can either be today or tomorrow. I think that the Race to World First will end. Both Liquid Echo and method are very close to finishing the mythic uh answer rec boss, which is the final boss of the current patch, and it's really enjoyable to watch. It really is, especially in these sort of um, like final closing stages of the race to world first. So we're in like day 10 or something, I think now, since mythic has been out and no one's been able to clear it yet. So we are coming to the home stretch, to say the least.

Speaker 1:

And if you haven't seen this, this is essentially guilds that compete for the very first kill, like world first kill, of the hardest difficulty raid boss. Okay, so you obviously have normal heroic mythic. These people are competing mythic and are looking to finish the raid before anyone else. That's what race to world first is. Now, if it, I would very much recommend watching it, okay, or tuning in. You can have a look at echo stream or method stream or even liquid stream. Um, I personally go to maximus, uh, maximus's stream because he's the raid leader for uh, liquid, and I personally enjoy hearing the raid leading happening and the communications between the players and stuff like that. That's what I enjoy, uh, so that's the one that I go to. But any way that you want to engage in this sort of race to world first, please do. It is very fun to watch and it will also give you an idea of if you would even enjoy sort of pve or pv or like raiding, if you're looking to get into these sort of things, uh, in the near future.

Speaker 1:

Now, alongside race to world first is awc. Awc is the pvp side of things, as of this episode going live. There is the currently eu top eight teams, uh, fighting it out. For saturdays it will be NA top eight and then Sunday is championships, where the last four teams of each competition are battling it out. Now AWC I always enjoy because I like to see how people play. I'm very much a PvP player myself and I very much enjoy seeing how people play their classes, how people play their like compositions, because it's very nice info to get.

Speaker 1:

Engage, like where the meta is at right now. I think the meta is quite jungle heavy but from what I see, a lot of rogues are up there. Warlocks, potentially, uh, dks are still kind of lurking, but I don't think there's many about. So I think you get to see the meta currently and you get to see where pvp is in terms of its uh healthiness, because if you see everything that just has a rogue, then you know that rogues even need a nerf or something needs to change in order to knock them off of their pedestal. You can't have every single sort of game having a rogue, because it would just go stale very quickly in terms of the meta. So these are really fun games to watch. They happen for about several hours on Friday, saturday and Sunday. Now there are four cups. After the cups you go into a sort of gauntlet and you know winner takes certain cash prizes etc.

Speaker 1:

But these two events happening simultaneously I think is a big blunder on blizzard's part. I think they tried to uh get it so that the race to world first would have been done by the time AWC was out, but sadly the Race to World First has carried on into the second week, which means that the Mythic Raiders do heroic splits. So they spend their first day doing heroics to get more gear and then the Mythics to get more gear and stuff like that. So sadly it did cross over into the pvp um sort of what is it esports side of it, but it is what it is now. These two are the biggest events that warcraft can have at the moment, I think, apart from blizzcon, but blizzcon isn't happening this year. So I genuinely think you need to have a look at these if you are looking to do any sort of endgame in World of Warcraft, because they are, by all means, some of the best players in the game, competing at the highest levels, competing against each other, and it's just a good watch. To be honest, even if you have it as background noise. I think that it's very well worth the look into these events. Uh, if you haven't done so already, it can really give you a gauge of just how much or how the player base can be pushed in these sort of raids and pvp sessions, stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

Now, with all that being said, I wanted to dedicate most of my time to Season of Discovery on this episode. Now, season of Discovery Phase 5 was released yesterday. As of this episode coming out, I believe, yes, maybe, yes, I believe so. Now, there are multiple features that happen in Season of Discovery Phase 5, but what caught me off guard is that it just released now. I hadn't seen many hype around it. I hadn't seen many things about it, in all honesty, and I think that it's kind of sad that there isn't, because they are doing a lot of new things and updating classic wow to be better.

Speaker 1:

In my honest opinion, I genuinely think if wow, or I think, looking at this and what they're doing now, if they did this back when classic was released. I think this would have been a magnificent idea. Now I get why they didn't do it because people wanted the nostalgic uh, look on world of warcraft, classic and stuff, and then they had this in their back pocket to test some some bits and bobs out later on. But I genuinely think if they did this back in 2019 when Classic released, classic would have been amazing. Classic wouldn't have carried on into Cataclysm where it is now. Classic would have stayed in Classic and they would have carried on doing these bits and bobs and I think that that's what they should have done, in my honest opinion, when I look at it.

Speaker 1:

But the new things that are in Season of Discovery, phase 5 so you have reworked raids. So Blackwing Lair and Zul'Gurub have updated tier sets and gear, as well as the new, I think Zul'Gurab is now 10 man and Blackwing Lair is now a 20 man. Yeah, so Zul'Gurab is 10 to 20, blackwing Lair is 20 to 40. Okay, very simple now. One of the notable changes is that both of these raids will be using flexible raid size obviously the 20 and the, or 20 to 40 and the 10 to 20, but black ring lair will also have a scaling difficulty the same as molten core players will be able to challenge uh trials of the other four dragon flights. So each trial adding a new mechanic to deal with. If you complete the raid with any combination of these trials, you'll earn additional rewards after Nefarian has been defeated.

Speaker 1:

So for the blue trial um, people will randomly be affected with arcane bomb which deals heavy damage split among all those affected. Very simple. This stand heavy damage split. Okay, so it's a stack. Very simple. Um, bronze trial challenging the bronze dragonfly, time will randomly slow down and speed up. I love that. I absolutely love that mechanic because it just means that you're pressing stuff faster. I like it.

Speaker 1:

The green trial random, randomly affected by powerful nature magic dealing damage to enemy players and leaving a pool of poison stuff on the floor. Don't stand in it. Very simple. Red trial when injured burn for 400 fire damage every three seconds until healed above 90% of your maximum health. Direct heals remove one stack. Oh, I like that. I like that. It gives the healers a certain trial to do. I think this is very good To activate these trials.

Speaker 1:

You speak to Victor Nefiendius, a completely normal human man. They have in brackets here just inside the entrance of blackwing lair. You can add trials at any time, but once the trial has been disabled, it can no longer be re-enabled. The highest available rewards will be earned when three or more trials are active when completing the entire raid. There's also a weekly bonus For having one specific trial activated. How do you know which one? Look around near Victor Nefrendius To find out. Okay, very simple. It's very cool. I want to know what loot you get for it, but we have no idea yet Because I don't think anyone has completed it From what I have seen. So we now also have new raids.

Speaker 1:

A new raid that has been added into Season of Discovery is called the Crystal Veil Raid. It will feature a world boss version of Princess Thundurant. This is obviously the NPC that is the legendary wielder of Thunderfury, blessed Blade of the Windseeker yeah, you can quote that and essentially this is who. We don't know what you get from this raid. Not exactly. We obviously have datamined stuff, but I think it is just a one-boss raid, but I'm not too sure, not seeing much of it as well. See, this is the problem with Season of Discovery no one really follows it, and it's kind of sad because I think all of these ideas are amazing. I need to look into this a bit more and I need to have a look at my Season of Discovery character. But I don't feel like I can play Season of Discovery when I have Classic to worry about or Retail and stuff like that. Like I have two other WoWs that I'm already locked in on and I have to deal with, so having the third, I just don't have time to do that.

Speaker 1:

New and updated WoW buffs. The Zul'Gur brings a new WoW buff and the old ones can be turned in once a month, wow, okay. So wait, turned in once a month, okay. So what that means for world buffs is they were on a like three-odd-hour schedule where you could pop them and you get the rallying cry buff, but now you pop it and that's it for a month. That's crazy. I wonder if the mind control tech still works. Where you mind control the mbc, kill it, it respawns. I would imagine they patched that. Uh, updated dungeon demonfall canyon receives a new boss for a total of seven. This is in the seat phase four patch that it was released. Pvp updates reach rank 13 with buffed on a game. Very nice. There's new runes, new healer ring runes, which is very good as well. Simplified rune discovery, purchase, bind on account runes for those you already have discovered. On your main, this is very good. This is a good catch-up mechanic and this is something that should have been maybe added in, uh, phase four, but at least it's in.

Speaker 1:

Now, a new class, specific epic quest obtain an epic item designed specifically for your class. That is very intriguing. So these are um weapons are. There's a lot of them, but there's rogue ones, there's druid ones, I think I saw a warlock one, but these all have different bits and bobs that you can get essentially or or utilize on use effects. So the warlock one is like you have a chance to be able to instantly summon a demon and then you can sacrifice that demon to get a certain like damage increase or something. So you know you're constantly summoning your demon, then dismissing it, or not dismissing it, but sacrificing it to get damage boost, and then you summon it again when that buff runs out. You know that kind of thing. For the druids, you um do like some aoe's in terms of healing and damage, or For multiple other classes, you have different uses of these abilities. I hadn't gone into any of the others, unfortunately, but having class quests. I'll be very intrigued to see, because priests obviously have a class quest. So do hunters, with Rokdalar, lokdalar and Benediction and Athema. Now I'm very intrigued.

Speaker 1:

I want to look up the Season of Discovery quests, quests, and I think I'll do so after this. But this is what classic should have had added, in my honest opinion. Now I get people will be like, no, but classic needs to stay classic. I get that, but this would have kept classic booming. It really really would have. This would have kept classic booming. It really really would have. This would have been an immense change to classic and, I think, one for the better. In my genuine, honest opinion, it would have been one for the better.

Speaker 1:

That's going to be a very hot take. By the way, that's going to be a very controversial take. Just saying Okay, but that is where I will end it for this episode. I'm really sad about season of discovery I. I genuinely think it could have been amazing, but you have two other warcrafts that are going alongside it, three if you clown like classic era and you know other bits and bobs, but uh, it's so sad. I might hop on have a look at it. But yeah, thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below. There is constant stuff happening over there. Check out the Etsy shop. Constant stuff going up on there. But thank you all very much once again and go aval a friend, goodbye, thank you.