Mastering Azeroth: World Bosses, Mage Talent Overhaul, New War within alpha build
May 03, 2024Season 4Episode 13
Gabriel
Prepare to conquer Azeroth's latest challenges as we unveil the secrets behind the Dragonflight world bosses and the Shadow Crucible raid that have players buzzing. This episode is a treasure trove for enthusiasts eager to optimize their PvE and PvP gameplay with our in-depth analysis on the Battlegrounds bonus event and the Really Packed House Brawl – your guide to glory in the arena of battle. We'll also arm you with strategies to master Mythic affixes like Entangling, Bolstering, and Fortified, ensuring your next dungeon run is a triumphant one.
Venture into the War Within alpha with us as we explore the mesmerizing Hollowfall zone and its unique day-night cycle, alongside a sneak peek at the brand-new dungeons, Dawnbreaker and Priory of the Sacred Flame. For the collectors out there, we've got exciting updates on the quality-of-life improvement for Shadowlands class set tokens that will have you rethinking your transmog strategies. Plus, get the scoop on the latest mage talent changes that are set to revolutionize your spellcasting – whether you're looking to vanquish foes in a blaze of arcane power or control the battlefield with strategic sorcery, this episode will leave you spellbound and ready for action.
Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!
Prepare to conquer Azeroth's latest challenges as we unveil the secrets behind the Dragonflight world bosses and the Shadow Crucible raid that have players buzzing. This episode is a treasure trove for enthusiasts eager to optimize their PvE and PvP gameplay with our in-depth analysis on the Battlegrounds bonus event and the Really Packed House Brawl – your guide to glory in the arena of battle. We'll also arm you with strategies to master Mythic affixes like Entangling, Bolstering, and Fortified, ensuring your next dungeon run is a triumphant one.
Venture into the War Within alpha with us as we explore the mesmerizing Hollowfall zone and its unique day-night cycle, alongside a sneak peek at the brand-new dungeons, Dawnbreaker and Priory of the Sacred Flame. For the collectors out there, we've got exciting updates on the quality-of-life improvement for Shadowlands class set tokens that will have you rethinking your transmog strategies. Plus, get the scoop on the latest mage talent changes that are set to revolutionize your spellcasting – whether you're looking to vanquish foes in a blaze of arcane power or control the battlefield with strategic sorcery, this episode will leave you spellbound and ready for action.
Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!
The do do Welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go through a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft, variety of subjects with regards to world of warcraft. A grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this episode we'll be looking at uh, well, new week, new uh war within alpha uh update. Yeah, patch like patch, I guess. Patch update. Yeah, you know that, that sort of stuff. Um, we're going to be looking at new talents, new dungeons, what levels we can go up to now in the alpha uh, if there are anything of noteworthies to take essentially from it. Um, but before we get into that, we obviously have the weekly news back here in dragonflight and we have uh, basricron, zirconi, elders and aerrosar as your world bosses for the week. They are located in the Waking Shore, zerulak Caverns and Emerald Dream. This week I believe Zerkalie, elders and the Zerulak Caverns are the ones that are empowered. I'm hoping I'm correct in that. I think it started off as the you know, the uh first patch that was empowered. I think it's a weekly thing. I will double check that for the next episode, but I'm pretty sure this week is the zakali elders that are empowered. Um, so you can get, uh, current season item level gear off of the zakali elders, as well as Aberus the Shadow Crucible Is that what their name was? I'd be pretty impressed if I got the name right, because I don't remember names of raids, to be honest, that well. But yes, that will be your raid for the week that is empowered, so to speak.
Speaker 1:
Battlegrounds are your bonus event for this week. This means that you get more honour for completing a battleground and essentially a nice way to gear up some characters. If you're looking to get into pvp this season, now is a good time to gear them up, because everyone is starting fresh. Really packed house is your brawl for the week. This one's always good fun. 15 versus 15, very small map first to wipe out the other. Team wins. Very simple, very fun, very effective and very quick the game, so you're not stuck there for a while. If you're arranged, this is more, a lot more enjoyable.
Speaker 1:
But try and go with a build. Uh, that encompasses sort of aoe damage and stuff like that. Entangling, bolstering and fortified are your mythic fixes for the week. Entangling if you stay still, you're gonna get rooted. It's gonna slow you. It's gonna be annoying. So keep moving every now and again, bolstering.
Speaker 1:
When a mob dies, it shouts, causing mobs next to it to gain health and damage. So either kill everything very quickly within a very short window of each other, or just simply don't pull so much, if you like. Have a lot of things that are low on health. It's going to cause the mobs that you've just recently pulled to be a bit more sustainable and doing a lot more damages. It's not going to help your timing at all and fortified the mobs. The non-boss enemies have more health and damage and anything they summon, so bring a talent build that can accommodate for that.
Speaker 1:
So we have new info on the alpha for the war within, so it is updated with these following changes hollow fall is a new zone. There are no new delves, though. Um. Hollow fall is the third zone in the war within and this looks like my favorite zone. I'm not gonna lie, this is the one that has, like the scarlet um crusade looking people. You know that faction. Um, I forget the name of them, but it's very cool. The giant crystal in the ceiling of this sort of area is amazing. This is the zone that it can change at night time. So mobs change at night. Um, you might have a you know what a wolf during the day and a werewolf at night. You know that kind of thing. It all changes, uh, the mob spawns, the mob pathing, everything, um, during a day and night cycle, which is very, very cool, and there's obviously going to be some secrets that relate to that in the near future. Uh, there's also going to be some hidden mounts that relate to that, um, in the near future as well. But hallowfall is a really cool zone. I can't wait for people to test it out and actually see how it is in testing. But yeah, it's, it looks in very good, very, very good. There's a couple new dungeons. Uh, the dawnbreaker and priority priority of the sacred flame sounds intriguing. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1:
Warbands your class set tokens from legacy raids, shadowlands and earlier, are now war bound and can be transferred to characters on the account. Oh, my god, shadowlands is entering its legacy raid phases. Yes, that's so good. So for those that don't know what legacy raids are, it's any old raid that is classed as legacy raid means that it can drop more loot for you. If it isn't a legacy raid, it goes off of the current looting system where you might get one or two pieces per person but you know it's nothing too crazy Whereas legacy loot it will be five odd pieces that it drops from a boss and you know you can get quite lucky with certain things.
Speaker 1:
But with Shadowlands being added, there is a lot of transmogs that I want from shadowlands I'm not gonna lie, um which I will be trying to acquire essentially uh, they did add a little note here. So, based on community feedback and to match our overall philosophy on transmog collection, past set tokens from legacy raids, shadowlands and earlier, are now war bound allowing bound, allowing them to be transferred to alts in order to collect the transmog of your choice. So if you have a warrior token that drops but you are on a druid, you can send that to your warrior. That is amazing. That is 10 out of 10. Blizzard. Really well done on that and really well done for the transmog collectors, I guess. Congratulations For clarity.
Speaker 1:
Current expansion tier set tokens will remain unchanged from their previous state on bind, on pickup, as they represent a large amount of power for the character who collects them. This makes sense. I'm okay with that and I think a lot of people should be okay with that as well. Character level you can now make a level 75 character template and the max level that you can get up to in the alpha is level 78. We are two levels off of that max level, which is amazing to see Classes. So here's the big thing. So the following hero talents are available for playtesting in alpha 3. The following hero talents are available for playtesting in alpha 3 archon, which is the holy and shadow. Archons are highly devout and deeply connected to light and shadow. Archons can be blessed from higher beings to enter into an ascended state, becoming an ultimate version of themselves. That sounds really bloody cool.
Speaker 1:
Um rogues, fate bound this is the assassination and outlaw. Fate bound eagerly act as a hand of fate. So, in chaos, into a well-laid plans, guided by the whims and flips, flipped at fate bound coin, they deliver the ending their enemies are destined for the ending they deserve. Developers note fate bound will be accessible in the hero talent tree, but there will be a handful of talents that are not yet fully implemented. Okay, so they're still working on it, which is fine.
Speaker 1:
Uh, there's a few tweaks. So, sentinel hunters uh, their damage is reduced by 30. This is symphonic arsenal. Uh, sentinel debuff damage increased by 50 and lunar storm damage increased by 50. Mage sun fury uh. Now summon. Glorious incandescence now summons four meteors instead of eight. Uh increases meteorites. Fire blast cooldown by 100%. Increased meteorite's arcane orb cooldown by 100%. Meteorite damage increased by 100%. I don't get the point of that. They halved the number of meteorites, but increased the damage by 100, so maybe it's just less clutter on your screen Because it's doing the exact same damage essentially. Yeah, maybe it's just the clutter on the screen. The timing between meteorites dealing damage and their associated spell cooldown reduction effect has been better synchronized. Okay. Spell Slinger Controlled Instincts has been redesigned for eight seconds after being struck by an arcane orb, 30% of direct damage dealt by an arcane splinter is also dealt to nearby enemies Damage reduced beyond five targets.
Speaker 1:
Again, a lot of this stuff is aoe and it's it's good, but it's kind of rough for those who do pvp because you don't want splinters, just randomly aoeing stuff. It kind of makes for bad gameplay for pvpers. Um, let's see spell slingers now conjure two splinters when they consume. Never precision splintering orbs now conjures two arcane splinters when they strike with an arcane orb. Arcane splinter storms now have a 20 chance to grant you clear casting was a hundred percent. That is a massive nerf. That is a super big nerf considering you're looking at arcane mages in a second where they're going to get nerfed, I think. So arcane actually has a new talent uh, like new talents and a new tree and stuff, I'm pretty sure. So. New talents energized familiar during time warp or any other similar effect. Your arcane familiar fires four bolts instead of one. Damage of your arcane familiar has a small chance to grant you two percent of your maximum mana.
Speaker 1:
Dead talent for pvp. New talent eureka when a spell consumes clear casting, its damage is increased by 25. Good talent for pvp. I'm gonna say if these are good or bad, because a lot of stuff that comes from these talents is pve based and some of them, like, are really pv based, like the arcane familiar, but you'd want them to be useful in sort of a pv and pvp situation. But some are just dead completely in pvp. I speak from experience as a boomkin. Some are just completely dead. New talent wizened wit the cast timing at arcane blast is reduced by 10%. Choice node, but presence of mind completely dead. You're choosing presence of mind every time for pvp.
Speaker 1:
New talent arcane battery each time you consume clear casting gain 1-2% increased spell damage for 30 seconds. Stacks for 4 times 2 point talent. Consume clearcasting gain 1-2% increased spell damage for 30 seconds. Stacks for 4 times 2 point talent. So 8% damage increase for each clearcasting. Yeah, that's a good talent, that's a very good talent.
Speaker 1:
New talent time loop when you gain a stack of arcane battery, you have a small chance to gain another stack of arcane battery. This effect can trigger off of itself. Oh, that's really cool. So you can kind of be like an elemental shaman where you get proc after proc. It depends on the percent chance of this, but it could be good, potentially.
Speaker 1:
New talent eight ether ether ether ether achievement while at maximum stacks of arcane battery, your next arcane missile consumes it, dealing 100%, 150% increased damage to your primary target and also fire. That's really good. That's the tier set, I believe. I believe that's the current tier set, which is really really good. New talent Lay Sight, nether Precision damage bonus increased by 30%. Okay, just a straight bonus damage. Lay Drinker, new talent Every six times you consume Nether Precision, your Arcane Blast echoes, repeating its damage at 50% effectiveness to the primary target and up to two nearby enemies.
Speaker 1:
Again, it's AoE. You don't want that. It's good, but it's aoe, you don't want that the like it. It's good, but it's gonna break cc potentially. I hope that it doesn't. I hope that they have some sort of fail safe in this where if something is in cc it doesn't break it. That's what I'm hoping, but I highly doubt it.
Speaker 1:
Um, improved touch of the magi. Uh, your touch of the magi now accumulates 25 of the damage you deal. Okay, not bad, that's a pvp talent, for sure. New talent magi spark. Your touch of the magi now also conjures a spark increasing the damage your target, your target, receives from your next arcane barrage, arcane blast and arcane missiles by 20%, receiving damage from all three spells. The spark explodes, dealing arcane damage to all enemies. Choice node with improved touch of the magi oh, mate, yeah, you know what? I think that this could be good Because if that magi spark detonates and deals Arcane damage, then your touch of the Magi will accumulate that damage and detonate at the end. So this isn't bad. And Barrage Blast and Arcane Missiles are something that you use within your burst window as an Arcane Mage. So this is actually a good talent. This actually is a very competitive choice talent and I think that it is very, very useful for Arcane majors. New talent Nether Munitions when Magi's Spark or Improved Touch of the Magi detonates, it increases the damage all affected targets take from you by 8% for 12 seconds Not bad.
Speaker 1:
Arcane Missiles has been redesigned. You can now only cast when you have clear casting. The wording of talents that are associated with Arcane Missiles has been updated. You can no longer press Arcane Missiles if you don't have a clear casting proc. That's kind of rough. I'm trying to. Yeah, oh, that that's kind of rough, but at the same time I don't think arcane mages are standing there anyway, um, and not casting missiles in pvp without the part the proc. You should just spam spell stealing to get clear casting procs. You know that kind of thing. So maybe thing. So maybe it's fine, maybe it's fine. Nether Precision has been redesigned. Consuming clear casting increase the damage you need to Arcane Blast or to Arcane Barrages. Arcane Familiar has been redesigned. Illuminated Thoughts, clear casting yeah, none of these are really intriguing. You have Prismatic Barrier that is now baseline and you've had talents that have changed, moved Charge Orb to where Cluecast is in the first place. Okay, all of these have been changed and moved around, so it will be on the mages to really figure it all out.
Speaker 1:
Essentially, frost has had a new talent added as well death's chill. While icy veins is active, damaging an enemy with frost bolt increases spell damage by one percent. Okay, there's a couple things I need to know about this talent. Firstly, um, how much? Where does it go up to? Does it stack indefinitely? Secondly, um, like just why? I don't get it, because icy fangs is a 30 second cooldown already, if I'm not mistaken, and you can extend it. So that could be very devastating, but I would imagine for pvp it's not good at all because you're not going to get to stand there and just spam frost bolts, are you? It's, yeah, kind of a dead talent for pvp.
Speaker 1:
Again, retribution has a new talent as well radiant glory. This replaces your avenging wrath, slash crusade. Wake of ashes grants you avenging wrathath and Crusader for 10-12 seconds. Your other damaging abilities have a chance to grant you Avenging Wrath for 5-6 seconds. That's ridiculous. I that is going to be such a good like talent to take. It's unreal. Rats complain, they get nothing. Wake of ashes is a 45 second cooldown. You can use that and get your burst damage for 12 seconds every 45 seconds. The uptime on that is crazy. And your other damaging abilities have a chance to grant you your most like your cooldown. That's ridiculous. Imagine if I got inkhan procs for just pressing my moonfire. That's not right, is it? You press judgment, you can get your proc up. That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I don't get it. I do not get it at all.
Speaker 1:
Um, nothing really new with paladins, just a few uh changes to their damage. Um, nothing really new anywhere else. You have new talents for affliction warlock and for some reason, this one malefic rapture now deals shadow flame damage. Is that to coincide with their hero talents? I'm guessing, because it might make more sense. I don't know. Uh, new talent improve malefic rapture. Reduce the cost some of your malefic rapture by 10 20, increase the damage by 5 to 10. They really want this malefic rapture build to work. But again, you don't really want to play malefic rapture like. You don't want to utilize it a lot. If you're in pvp you don't have the globals to. That's going to be tough. Um, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:
Demonology is getting a few things added to it. So, new talent shadow caster increase the damage. Your hand a goal down by 20 and demon bolt by 10. That's not bad passive damage, but a lot of your damage comes from demons anyway, so it doesn't really matter, does it? New talent pact of error, error, error, ruin. I'm gonna go with that.
Speaker 1:
When doom is removed, you summon a doom guard that casts five doom bolts before departing. Each doom bolt deals shadow damage. Kind of cool, it's kind of some dispel, uh protection, I guess. Okay, I like it. I I think it's decent, it has potential. New talent Mark of Shattug Shattug Sounds ridiculous. Wicked Maw causes the target to take 20% additional shadow damage from your demons. That's good. That's very good. Yeah, that's going to be a must-have, I think. New talent Ferocity of Farg fog increases the attack speed of your drag stalkers by 10-20% and critical strike chance by 15-30%. This is a very good talent.
Speaker 1:
New talent rune of shadows. Increases all damage done by your pets by 4%. Reduces the cast time at your shadow bolt by 25%. Increases damage by 40%. There's a lot of fucking things happening in that one talent, but it's very good. Uh, new talent demonic brutality, critical strikes from your spells and demons uh deal. Four percent increased damage. That's just a master, really. New talent fiendish prowess. Increase the attack speed of your primary demon by 25 percent. That is the most must-have talent I think you'll ever have New talent. Improve demonic tactics, increase your primary felguard's critical strike chance equal to 30% of your critical strike chance. So if you have 30% crit chance and you take this talent, you're giving your demon nine percent crit chance. Is that how I'm reading this? Okay, I think so.
Speaker 1:
Um and doom has been redesigned. So what doom was previously is it's a 15 second debuff. You put on the target and it will do damage. Um once it ticks, essentially after the 15 seconds, um inflicts impending doom upon the target, dealing shadow damage and additional shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards after 20 seconds. Okay, consuming a demon core reduces the duration of doom by three seconds. 30 second cooldown that's kind of Bro.
Speaker 1:
You don't want to take doom because if it's to every enemy within 10 yards kind of role you don't want to take Doom because if it's to every enemy within 10 yards, then it's going to break CC. Here's the problem. Yes, you're making everything AoE based, but you're really shafting some PvPers here because it's just going to break a lot of CC. If you're like Lock Mage, you're going to break a Polymorph. Or if you're like Fearing someone, it has potential to break the fear. It has potential to break blinds. It has potential to break saps. If you're with a rogue, you know multiple different things, gouges, etc. I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:
Following talents have been removed. Demonic Knowledge, nether Portal Well, that lasted for one. Expansion. Nozul's Violation, gul'dan's Ambition, stolen Power, heavy Handed Okay, not bad.
Speaker 1:
Anything new for Warriors? No, just. Oh my god, please just remove Slam. No one cares about Slam. Slam damage increased by 130%. Arms arms slam damage bonus reduced to 50% was 75. Why just remove slam? Why, oh my god, I swear warriors just get these buffs for no reason. Blade storm damage increased by 70. Have you seen what warriors do on the Alpha? They are literal Beyblades. They do not stop bladestorming. So to increase its damage by 70% oh, that's going to look rough, I think. Nothing new, though, for Warriors. No talents or anything like that, just a few like nerfs and you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:
Look at, the end of the day, it's the alpha. The numbers are going to be tweaked a lot and talents are obviously going to be played around with a lot. I hope that they can get the numbers right, but I really wish that they have the option to toggle, like if it hits people in aoe or not with certain spells, because some of these talents sound amazing to use but they aren't for pvpers. They are actually a hindrance for pvpers, potentially, uh, as they could lose you a you know arena game or anything like that. But I just hope that they added like a toggle feature for like these sort of spells where it's like oh, you can have like the 10 yard range of the doom when it detonates, or you can just have it single target. You know it'll do like five percent more damage, single target, something like that, and it's like, oh, okay, that's, that's cool. Um, but yeah, I'll give up the you know 10 yard detonation range for sure, I doesn't bother me. I'd rather guarantee it not breaking cc than have that one game in 10. If, like, your road goes for a game winning blind and it breaks the blind and then suddenly you lose like a minute later, like there's that sort of situations that can happen and it's really, really shit. Um, yeah, I don't know, it's one of them things you just gotta accept and you've got to play around with it when the game actually comes out. I guess as a pvp there's not much you can do about it, but I do have to end it there.
Speaker 1:
My voice has been killing me for the entire week, so I'm sorry it's gonna be a bit shorter than the usual Friday episodes, but I will get back to it. I will keep checking on the what one's. Is it called Fated Raids? Yeah, which part is fated? Essentially in Dragonflight, as the raids can be as well as the road, or the raids can be as well as the world bosses, and you know the uh outdoor activities for it, I guess, is the best way to put it. I guess that's the best way to uh say or put it. But thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below. Constant stuff is happening over there. Thank you all very much once again and go with Val a friend. Bye all. Thank you.