World of Warcast: A World of Warcraft Podcast

Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Mount Up Add-on: https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/mount-up

Ren:
Finished BfA Pathfinder part 1 on Horde rogue
Working on full quest completion with Horde rogue - using Quest Completionist mod to find quests I haven’t done
Close to finishing up my 4th 120 - Horde warrior is now 118
New experiment incoming based on two less structured experiments
Ran Alliance rogue up to 120 trying to complete all quests I could find in a zone before moving onto the next - finished 120 with 1 chapter left in Stormsong and no quests completed in Drustvar
Partway through running up Horde warrior, decided to stick ONLY to the mainline quests that give the zone achievements and do no side quests (not easy to figure out which those are) -- finished all three zones just after finishing 118
Will take up 2 more Horde toons, starting fresh with the idea that one will do all quests in a zone before leaving, and one will do just the mainline run, see where I end up by 120, including comparisons of rep
Neither will do the outpost campaigns until 120, just to keep those out of the mix
Benefit: mostly just to keep myself motivated through the process of leveling up yet another 2 toons
Another experiment incoming: Week-long tests of UI replacement mods - first test will be on ElvUI. May not happen til next week just because of other things going on IRL.

Mike:
Half way through exalted on some rep
Still friendly with turtles
Started my monk up again, but didn’t have nearly enough time to play yet.
Basically checked out talents. No dungeons yet.
I hate frost outdoors
So many resources!
I wanted to do timewalking this weekend and just had zero time.

This Week in WoW:
Darkmoon Faire - Oct 7th - 13th
World Quest Bonus Week starts Oct 9th - tooltip says it’s for Broken Isles WQs?
Running of the Gnomes/Great Gnomeregan Run on Scarlet Crusade, 4 PM PDT, Saturday October 13th - annual fundraiser for breast cancer research. Starts at the spawn spot of new gnomes - there is a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RunningofTheGnomes/

News:
Update: WoW Diary Kickstarter ended September 25th with 8,379 backers pledging $598,999 - biggest nonfiction book Kickstarter in history
By far the most popular tier was the $40 backers for both the electronic book and print book with 6,661 backers (80%), followed by the $150 level for the electronic book, signed copy of the print book and companion booklet with 1,117 backers (13%)
For those who missed this Kickstarter, the book will eventually be available on Amazon for about 20% more than the Kickstarter edition and without the perks
Mike Morhaime stepping down as President of Blizzard; J. Allen Brack, Wow’s Executive Director for WoW, taking over. Morhaime will remain as a “strategic advisor” to Blizzard.
https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/22456082/throw-your-own-epic-blizzcon-celebration-with-the-virtual-ticket-viewing-party-kit?linkId=100000003674039
Upcoming Azerite armor changes - Blizzard realizes there are problems with the current system
Make Azerite armor more available - looking to add Azerite Armor rewards from Emissary quests that scale up to 370, depending on current iLevel. Also mentioned “making further improvements to the ways Emissaries reward gear”.
When new Azerite Armor is introduced in “BfA Season 2” (Patch 8.1), armor that currently only has 2 possible traits will get a third.
Continuing to work on the individual traits themselves - balancing out those who want more generic traits for wider applicability, vs. those who want to fine-tune traits to specs or situations
The first problem - overall availability -- will be hotfixed in before 8.1. The third trait slot and the new abilities won’t come in until the patch.
8.1 news
Players beyond level 110 will be able to enter Legion era raids in LFR difficulty
Achievements:
Noblegarden: “Shake Your Bunny Maker” is being changed to place rabbit ears upon any character over level 18, not just female characters.
On the Frontlines: New achievement to complete all six Horde or Alliance assaults
Several new Battle Pet achievements, based on previous expansion achievements to defeat all 15 Master Tamers on Kul Tiras or Zandalar with teams of all one pet type (dragonkin, flying, beast, critter, etc)
New paladin spell visuals for Flash of Light and Beacon of Light
New information on Faction Incursions
Will only be for characters 110 or above (Ren: boo)
Completing 4 incursions will result in a random 370 weapon or Azerite Armor for quests. These items are from the same item pool from Warfronts (7th Legion/Honorbound items)
Will work a lot like Legion Invasions: after completing 4 incursion quests, you have to complete a short scenario to take down an airship
Doubleagent the Neutral Panda is now level 117

Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Mount Up Add-on: https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/mount-up

Thorn and Thyst from Lagging Balls, and Eric Van Skyhawk come by to shoot the breeze about WoW.

@thornbrow
@thyst03
@laggingballs
http://www.laggingballs.com
@hawkito

Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Mount Up Add-on: https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/mount-up

Ren:
Learning curve with island expedition - Gamino joined Cryler and me for some island expedition fun
We learned there can be way, WAY too many bears
Quote of the day: “I pulled five … okay, thirty.”
Found out it was five ISLANDS, not five expeditions
Killing Azuregos when you’re a melee DPS
Finished Revered with Honorbound and am opening outposts
Exalted rep comparisons in preparation for the first major patch
Working on Insurrection line in Suramar to open Nightborne

Mike:
King’s Rest is hard
Did no
Another 350 in my trunk
More rep
Didn’t have time for LFR
Question of the week!

This Week in WoW:
Brewfest starts today
Only change this year, Coren Direbrew’s trinkets have been updated for level 120 players (iLevel 335 - may not be updating yet)
Harvest Festival - ends Tuesday
Pet Battle Bonus Event - ends Tuesday
Cataclysm Timewalking begins Tuesday

News:
WoW Diary Kickstarter Update:
As of 8 PM EST today, had raised $394,614 with 5,452 backers (trivia: was fully funded at original $10k ten minutes after launch, August 28) - up[ $6,620 from this 9 AM
Was able to add 2 upgrades:
$300k upgrade: added a gold foil end sheet with “Original Kickstarter Backer” printed on it
$350k upgrade: Gold foil title lettering on the spine and cover
Not yet funded: $400k upgrade - spot varnishing on all the pictures
Currently second highest non-fiction book ever launched through Kickstarter - has to pass $424k to do that
Google “wow diary kickstarter” or go to http://www.thewowdiary.com - now through next Thursday, September 25
New mount and pet in Blizzard store: The Dreadwake and Cap’n Crackers
Dreadwake currently tied to purchasing 180 days’ game time in advance - not sold separately
WoW Token price fall
from end of July through today, WoW token prices have fallen by half
Buying gold for real money isn’t cost effective, but cashing in gold for Blizzard Balance is at an all-time high - was talking to Wulfrictheslayer on Discord about his play to buy his virtual ticket with in-game gold (we calculated the Virtual Ticket to be about 260-270k gold)
Wowtoken.info - current US price is about 105,000 gold = $20

Patch 8.1 announced: Tides of Vengeance
No release date but the patch will be hitting the PTR next week
News tip from Discord users and Weekly Research Assistants Kneemo and Hidebound: Incursions, similar to invasions in Legion
Quests with extra-potent rewards that will randomly pop up and replace a zone’s World Quest content for several hours
Purpose is for helping level alts, although it seems as though this content will only be available at level 98 and above
Heritage armor will become available for all races - starting with Dwarf and Blood Elf - will require some short quest lines to claim
New Allied Races: Kul’Tiran and Zandalari Troll - “not quite there yet” but are getting closer.
Vol’jin, Saurfang and Tyrande will have their stories expanded
New warfront: Darkshore
Focuses on war between night elves and undead
Updated Darkshore zone, new max level rares
Alliance will start this one with the contribution phase
Updates to island expeditions
Two new islands
New events, enemies, spawn rates, and interactions
Example: setting up an Azerite extractor in a location that will feed a constant small stream of azerite to the party, but can be taken over by the enemy
Two new raids
Siege of Zulduzar (name might change)
Alliance will fight to the top of the city from the sea, and Horde will start from the jungle
Bosses will be unique for each faction
Crucible of Storms - only 2 bosses, centered on old gods in Stormsong Valley
Modeled after the 3-boss Trial of Valor
Azerite traits - traits are getting an overhaul
Champions of Azeroth - Unlocking Champions of Azeroth rep on one character will unlock it on all characters

All about the new rep changes.

Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Mount Up Add-on: https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/mount-up

Ren:
Finished 120 on my Alliance rogue - still haven’t set foot in Drustvar
Starting to hit Revered with various factions on Horde rogue
Did warfronts on Horde rogue and paladin
First warfront (rogue) - lots of fun, very quiet, felt epic - got a 355 cloak 370 bracers
Second warfront (pally) - ended up tanking a lot of the bosses, including the last one - self-appointed “general” who would not shut up - got a 340 BP and 370 cloak
Had issue when tried to take pally in - 320 minimum iLevel but was 309
Made some purchases to shore up worst items
Tried to upgrade items through WQs but wasn’t getting much luck with availability - only azerite item still 310 was hat, and I got 3 breastplates in a row from azerite caches
Thanks to Thecowking for tipping me off to a cheap level 355 Darkmoon trinket that took me from 316 to 320

Mike:
Got a mythic +2 chest!
Oh, but it has a lesser item than what I had :P
Rep, rep, rep

This Week in WoW:
18th-25th - Harvest Festival; Pet Battle Bonus Event
18th - 19th: Pirate Day
20th - 6th: Brewfest

News:
Blizzard Virtual Ticket on sale - $49.99 (same as last year)
Most will be available until March 31, 2019 - Community Night and closing night guaranteed to be up for 1 month after event
No details on in-game loot, except for an Overwatch skin for Sombra modeled after the Diablo III demon hunter
Ian Hazzikostas will be having an AMA on /r/wow (started at 2 PM PST today) so we will go over that next week.
Classic WoW AMA 0n the /classicwow subreddit - some highlights

Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Mount Up Add-on: https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/mount-up

Ren:
“Fixed” my problem with subtlety rogue
Working rep with rogue - finishing all quests in each zone
114 worgen rogue working through Tirisgarde - “the zone that never ends”
Major rant about the differences between layouts of Dazar’alor and Boralus Harbor, including a major physics problem for the Horde
Found another way archaeology is different = Darkmoon Faire
War Campaign on Horde on hold until Revered with Honorbound

Mike:
i339
Mythics with Ali
Finished the whole Kul Tiras storyline
Oh, but you have to be revered with 7th Legion to continue with Z
Working hard on rep because ^^
Arathi was amazing.
Lag on night one
So many epics and toys
One more heroic for the achievement
Working on Pathfinder

This Week in WoW:

Darkmoon Faire until Sunday
Warfronts open (more in news)
Uldir opens
Next Tuesday: BfA Dungeon Event begins

News

Notable hotfixes of the week

Unintended gear drops - Blizzard corrections