Pig & Whistle Tales - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Revving Up Azeroth: Mount Customization and Gameplay Overhauls in WoW Patch 11.1

• Gabriel • Season 4 • Episode 79

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This podcast episode dives into the new features introduced in World of Warcraft's Patch 11.1, emphasizing the innovative Drive mechanic and its customization options, along with exciting campsite reveals. The discussion highlights how these changes may significantly impact gameplay by enhancing mobility, offering personalized experiences, and refining raid mechanics.
• Introduction to Patch 11.1 updates
• Overview of the new Drive mechanic
• Customization options for vehicles in the game
• Insights into the warband campsite reveals
• Changes in swirly mechanics for raid encounters
• Discussion on new dungeons and Mythic+ rotation
• Examination of keystone affixes and their implications

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Speaker 1:

The do. Hello and 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, so grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy. This midweek episode. We'll be going over the latest PTR patch for retail. We're going to be looking at a few different pieces, such as the drive, the warband, camps, graphics and essentially, the overall PTR update. We won't be going into any class changes though, as there are way too many to cover on here, way too many um, but these are going to be the main features of the patch 11.1 that you'll be looking out for, um, basically when you first start playing. So, without further ado, let's start by uh going and addressing the drive first impression, essentially. So drive is this new mechanic that they're bringing into WoW. It's essentially dragon riding, but for your ground mount, so you can drift, you can accelerate, you have a high top speed stuff like that. Now there are different items that you can change in this. So, firstly, you can change the color of your car. You can have neutral red, green, blue and yellow as of the moment on the ptr. These are the colors that you can use and basically have on your car. They have no impact on the actual performance of the car. They are simply whichever car you would prefer or whichever color you would prefer using um. Personally, it's got to be a blue car. For me really does um. Now you have the engine. So there are there's a lot of flavor text to these things. Um, I won't go through the freight through the flavor text, but essentially the bottom two lines are what matters. So it has a slow top speed, an average top speed or a high top speed. Okay, now for the first one is the posix standard. This has an average top speed and average acceleration. The c77 or g77c ultra has decreased top speed but increased acceleration. Okay, you see where I'm going with this. And then you have the gnz air master 9000 is a better top speed but decreased acceleration. So these are things that you can switch out on these vehicles essentially, and it allows you to increase or decrease your top speed, acceleration, drift, handling, all of that stuff. For wheels, you have a tread to be gone and this is average grip while drifting 22h slicks this is grip while drifting is increased. And GE86 advance this decreases the grip while drifting. Now, I'm very shit at this, but why would you decrease the grip when you're drifting? Is it so that you could drift like a different sort of angle, like a wider angle? That's my guess to it. I don't really see why anyone would take the decreased grip. I really don't, um, but please, if you have any ideas, let me know. I'm really not one to be sort of a car person, uh, when it comes to these sort of things. So that's what these do, that's what the do.

Speaker 1:

Your turbo basically increase the boost efficiency or boost speed. So wild, fuel mark zero, average boost speed, average boost efficiency. Turbo hand crank boost speed increased, boost efficiency decreased. And then the steam boil, where the boost speed is increased and boost efficiency is decreased. Okay, but wait, so wait. There's two that increase the boost speed but decrease the boost efficiency. Huh, okay, I would have thought that's different. I would have thought that's the other way around. I would have thought it would give a really big boost at the start. But the like boost speed is not great, you know, um, I think maybe that's a typo, but I can't really say for sure.

Speaker 1:

And now you actually have one, that I think is going to be quite fun. You have Passenger so these are not yet implemented, by the way but you have Passenger None, which is obviously just a no passenger. And you have Passenger Louie Firehands, which looks to me like a crab. You have Passenger Zaps Leadfoot, which looks to me like a goblin Jack's Jabberjaw I don't know what this one is. It has a picture of a rocket, so this could be anything and then axle sneak foot I'm guessing these are all maybe, uh, like the last three are all sort of goblins. Um, I would like if you could have your own passenger, like you can in Dragon Riding, where someone can become a whelp on your Dragon Riding mount and you can sort of chauffeur them around. I would like that to be in the drive and I think that this is what is going to happen.

Speaker 1:

Now, as for the actual like controls of it or how it feels, it feels quite good. It actually well. I haven't personally tested it. Feels quite good. It actually well. I haven't personally tested it myself, but it looks relatively smooth. Now, obviously, people can play around with the highest acceleration, more, uh, decreased speed, whatever you might want, um, better grip handling, um, less grip when you're drifting. You know, all of that stuff can be played with um, but it looks quite well done in terms of the what would you call it the infrastructure of the city. So the roads are very good for these sort of vehicles to drive.

Speaker 1:

The only problem going forward is will other cities be as effective at driving? So obviously this patch is based around this mechanic, or somewhat around this mechanic. Other cities in the future will not be. They will have to be taken into consideration. If people like this and I think a lot of people will, I think a lot of people will enjoy this that the cities or towns in the near future, and the zones for that matter, need to be accommodating to this drive um mechanic.

Speaker 1:

Essentially, now you do have to unlock these via certain methods where maybe they are renowned. We do not know yet. For example, we do not know fully. I believe that they have given everyone the baseline stuff, like during questing um, and then you earn it through renown. But you can. When you're going through this kind of like dragon riding, you can do um driving races. So you can do cruise control or time trial. Now, cruise control you finish tasks at your own pace, get bonus rewards every 10th completed task. And then time trial complete the jobs as fast as possible to earn prestige and bonus rewards very easy, right? Um, these things are probably, um, yeah, when starting these missions you can pick between okay, yeah, so essentially you get rewards for these, probably renown, some like currency and bits and bobs like that, but essentially it is dragon riding. So you have the time trials for dragon riding, you have the normal courses for dragon riding.

Speaker 1:

I think that the drive feature looks really cool. I think that it's something that is going to be slept on, kind of like dragon riding, um, but I just hope that they don't make it too complex. They make it simple but yet engaging, kind of like they did with dragon riding, and I think that they will. It looks like they have done and it looks quite good. I'm not going to lie, it looks enjoyable.

Speaker 1:

Now, moving on to the next part of 11.1, is the one that I'm actually quite looking forward to, and that is the warband campsite screen reveals. So these warband campsite reveals, essentially on your main menu. You get to choose where your party, your, your little war band is hanging out, and so far it is hanging out in the Adventurer's Rest sort of campsite is what it's called where you've got a little campfire in the middle and you've got a forest sort of behind you. There are four new ones that have been added, and these are as follows. You have Onaran Outlook and this is given to you upon logging in, so you automatically get one whenever you log in next in 11.1. You have Cultist Quarry boy. Do you a? Why, why way? What is quay? Oh no, that's a weird word, um, but essentially to get this you have to progress.

Speaker 1:

Season two delvers journey, uh, achievement, I think that's an achievement anyway. For bell, uh, fray, wold spring, you have to do the achievement, that's all, uh, all that. Kaz, and this is essentially leave no stones untoned. By completing the Kazalgar achievements below this is Kazalgar Glyph Hunter, law Hunter, allied Races, earthen Diplomat, lawmaster of Kazalgar and Kazalgar Flight Master. So these are very simple achievements but ones that people might have missed. I know I certainly have. You have Galagio Grand Gallery. Now this is obviously the new raid and you get this by doing the achievement. Racing to a Revolution. Experience the sights, sounds and smells of the Undermine by completing the achievements below this is Tre. Smells of the undermined by completing the achievements below this is treasures of the undermined. Read between the lines that can do attitude, nine tenths of the law and a venturer of undermined. So all of these are going to be locked behind an achievement of some sorts or something simpler.

Speaker 1:

I hope that you can maybe, with gold, buy something like this so that if you have a bit of gold to sort of bury, you can do so on these campsites. Maybe it's like a million gold per pop, something like that 500k, and it might reduce depending on how far through the achievements you are. I think that'll be a really cool incentive and a nice gold sink for the expansion. I don't think that they will do that, but you know it is what it is. When you hover over these campsites in the actual menu itself, it will tell you how to achieve, achieve them okay. It tells you the zone, it tells you the achievement you need and it tells you where you can buy it. So, for example, the cult's Quay, you get it from Reno Jackson after you've done the achievement. Very simple, right? I think these are really cool. There's only these four others up at the moment. They will be adding to this.

Speaker 1:

All right, with Onara and Outlook already there, I wouldn't be surprised to see Waking Shore or Thaldrassus or Azhaspan or anything like that they might do a sort of zone per expansion going back, like every patch. So next time it will be what was it? Dragonflight, what was before Dragonflight? It might be a Shadowlands sort of theme. So for the Shadowlands one, you might have an Ardenweald background, which will be a really cool campsite for an ardenweald back, uh, backdrop, um, you might have just bastion, you might have maldraxxus, any of them, and then you obviously have three sort of normal ones, um, just sort of basic ones. One can always be the raid of, like the current tier. One can always be the next sort of landmass that they add in the next patch. You know you can. You've got your basis there of one expansion, one from an expansion, one from the current patch and then one from the zone from the current patch, you know, one from the raid, one from the zone. You know you've got a very good baseline that you can constantly add on for so many years, to be honest, at this point now. But they look really good, I'm really happy with it and I think that this is something small that again will go under the radar, that a lot of people might not pick up on. Next one is something that people might not care about, but it's going to be very cool.

Speaker 1:

So there are new swirlies. What do I mean by swirlies? So swirlies on the ground. They usually have a distinct look. So when a boss does mechanic and it targets this area mechanic, there's these swirly animations. And these swirly animations don't really have a border to them so you can move out of them and think that you're out of them, but really your toes dipping in and you're going to get hit by it. They have changed this animation completely. It is now a full-on circle. Okay, it's just a circle on the floor. That's very bold, very outlined and you can clearly see it. Which amazing. So the reason that they're doing this.

Speaker 1:

Okay, before we get into very much what they look like and why, this is good, but they have said that they wanted to cut down on the lack of add-ons that are needed for raids. Essentially and this is a very good sort of direction to take the game, because in the past you're looking at a world of warcraft mythic plus, not mythic plus mythic raiders like stream, and what you're seeing is 200 weed corers saying move here, dodge this, go here, go to this point. Now blizzard want to implement mechanics that make it easier for the players to just go oh okay, I've actually got to play the game and I think they will get to a point where eventually, they want add-ons to be removed from wow maybe not like all add-ons, maybe just ones like weak horrors that help you play the game a bit more, and some people view as cheating which I kind of agree and because it kind of plays the game for you but ones that are like that maybe they want them removed, whereas other ones, like if you want to change your base UI, you still can. But I think this is the direction that they want to go in and I think it will be really good to do so, in my honest opinion. But this is the very simple mechanic that they've changed. It's a swirly on the floor, but instead now it's actually got a full border around it. You can see very clearly where it's going to impact. The swirly is actually on the outside of the border. It's not like interfering with it at all. It still has that sort of very deft sort of swirly animation on the inside of the border, but it is still there and it's just a lot more clearer. It's really good.

Speaker 1:

I think this is a good change in the right direction. This means that when people tune in for the race to world first, you're not seeing 200 weak auras pop up saying, oh my god, go here, dodge this, be here, you know, stop. Like being next to this guy, be 10 yards away and something that just says do arcane blast or arcane barrage, now arcane missiles, you know? Telling you what to do. I think that this is what blizzard want to step away from, and I think that this isn't a good thing. In my honest opinion, I get weak auras, make the game a bit more playable for some, and that's fine.

Speaker 1:

I don't think that they will completely take away the entire entirety of add-ons. I don't think they can at this point. I think that they will completely take away the entirety of add-ons? I don't think they can at this point. I think that they want to reduce them, though, and I think that this is an okay and good sort of thing to attempt to do. I genuinely do, because I go into an arena and I think, okay, do I have the weak aura for standing earthen wall totem? Do I have the weak aura for earthen wall totem? Do I have the weak aura for um, like if someone pops avatar or ret wings or inkhan or anything like that. No, okay, I need to get that.

Speaker 1:

And this gun kind of deters people from the end game content, because if you want to do mythics or pvp, it's like, okay, you need these add-ons, you need these add-ons, otherwise you can't do high-end mythics. And the thing is I don't I, I do high-end ish mythics. I do like plus 12s, like 10s, 11s, 12s, um, stuff like that. But I don't use that many add-ons for mythic plus. Uh, I'm trying to think I don't think I use any add-ons for mythic class. Actually, I think I use a different timer to like show on the right, like when we plus two or plus three, it, I think that's about it. Um, apart from that, no, nothing.

Speaker 1:

And I enjoy this game play style. I enjoy having to think um instead of it saying move out of this, dodge that and stuff um, which is fun. And obviously I died to some simple mechanics every now and again, but that's just because I zone out or something. It happens. But this is what people need to do instead of let the weak orders play the game for you. Actually, you've got to enjoy the game yourself and play it yourself as well. You can't just hear something go beep, and then you go, oh okay, got to move, you have to actually be active. And looking at the boss fight where to position what to actually be active and looking at the boss fight where to position what to do, stuff like that. So I'm quite happy that they're changing the baseline mechanics of things. And you look at the pictures and it looks really good, it looks really clean, and my first thought was it's taken them almost like 20 years to change this. I cannot believe that it took them 20 years to change this. I cannot believe that it took them 20 years. This, surely, was a very simple change, but I'm really glad that it is done now. Okay, and this patch is going to be a whole load of small changes that slowly improve the gameplay aspect. You might not notice it, but they will improve the gameplay aspect as an overall sort of deal.

Speaker 1:

Last thing, I want to touch on the war within dungeons. Um testing has begun. These are the new to the new dungeons. So operation floodgate, um, as well as the war within dungeons that we previously haven't seen in season one. So cinderbrew, meadery, dark flame, cleft priory, prairie of the sacred flame and the rookery um, these are obviously the legacy dungeons that are being implemented in as well. For the mythic plus rotation you have operation mechagon, uh, workshop the mother load and theater of pain, um, yeah. So, not gonna lie, the dungeons are a bit rough. I'm really not gonna lie. I'm not sure a lot of people enjoyed mechagon, um the mother load. I certainly didn't enjoy um when it was current content and I only did it on normal and heroic um, let alone trying to do that shit on mythic plus. But you know, goblin themed. I can understand why they're bringing it back. I can um.

Speaker 1:

Now the other ones I am very interested in playing are the actual ones that are from this expansion cinder brew, meadery. I like the sort of concept of it. Uh, dark flame cleft, what one's? Dark flame cleft, dark flame cleft, that's got to be in the um bringing deeps, it has to be right. So you have oh no, it isn't. It isn't well either way. Priory of the sacred flame, that one's going to be very enjoyable, that one's in hallowfall, and that was honestly my favorite dungeon when doing them at the start of the expansion. The the rookery is kind of meh, I'm not going to lie. Darkflame Cleft. I cannot put a location to I don't know why I just can't Now Cinderbrew, meadery. I think all of these are going to be good.

Speaker 1:

I genuinely do Operation Flaggate I cannot say because I've not seen it. Mechagon not going gonna lie wasn't enjoyable. Same with the Motherlode. I think a lot of people were sleeping on the Theatre of Pain. I think it was very good. I think that the only problem that it was, or the only problem with it, was the expansion that it was in. Shadowlands is obviously always tied to being a bad expansion. It is what it is. I'm sorry, but you know it's kind of rough. But I think theater of pain will be good fun.

Speaker 1:

I think the ones that you're wanting to dodge, sadly, are the operation mechagon and motherlode. Genuinely, I think they're going to be the toughest as well. Um, just from pug standards, I cannot give you the sort of idea of the current or the you know war within dungeons, as I've not really seen much of them apart from the baseline mechanics of normal and stuff. So I think maybe Priory of the Sacred Flame is going to be tough. Maybe Last Boss when you're running through and you have to kill the adds and stuff as well, maybe something like that. But apart from that, the dungeons are looking good. They are looking very good, um, the affixes are getting updated.

Speaker 1:

So, um, they have made a number of adjustments to the affixes um that are available for testing, so they will cycle each day on the ptr currently. So one of them, uh, unified creatures that buffed um on Zalatath bargain affixes with Zalatath's Gift, increasing damage done by 50% and reduces damage taken up to 100% for 20 seconds. This is the nullified unified creature buffs. Okay, that's fine. So this is essentially, I think, the one where you have to kill the. Uh, okay, no, I'm just double checking. So so there is a new affix called pulsar.

Speaker 1:

While in combat, zalatath summons pulsars that orbit players and must be intercepted within a time limit. This replaces Oblivion. Now, this Oblivion was a simple decurse mechanic, I believe. So I'm not too sure what happens if you don't do it within time. I'm guessing they just detonate and cause sort of party-wide damage. And how do you intercept them? Is it the player just intercepts and you do it sort of like one after the other, like I go first, then you second, third, fourth, etc. Or is it just yep, everyone intercept immediately, kind of deal? We don't know yet.

Speaker 1:

Zalatav's Guile, so redesigned, now causes keystones above level 12 to increase health and damage of enemies by 12% per level instead of 10% per level. Okay, it's not too bad. I don't know, it's a bit weird. Two percent seems like nothing, but in the grand scheme of like the health increases, it's going to be quite tough. I'm not going to lie zalatas bargain void bound. Uh, dark prayer is no longer a channel and the void emissary no longer grants damage reduction to creatures, while active dark prayer now has a 15 second cast time and grants all nearby creatures in combat zalatav's gift when it finishes casting. The potency of zalatav's gift granted by dark prayer is based on the remaining shield percentage of the void emissary. So this is the one that spawns and you have to kill the ad before, essentially, too many stacks happen. What this is changing is the sort of just cleave it down with everything. You actually have to switch to it before that cast goes off, otherwise you are in deep shit, essentially.

Speaker 1:

Um, now for keystone legend. Attaining a rating of 2850, lindormi will offer players a quest that prevents keystones level 12 and above from being reduced below 12 for the remainder of the season. This is really cool, and players can speak to lindormi to lower their keystone level still. Um, this functionality includes keystone level decay from the great vault. Very, very simple.

Speaker 1:

Um, I think these are decent changes. I think that I'm very intrigued about the orbs going around people the pulsar one. I'll be very intrigued to watch that happen. But ultimately these are very good changes and these are very small changes that are happening within 11.1. These aren't the full sort of like shebang of the patch. I'm very curious to see what they come out with and when this patch is going to get a release date potentially, or at least give us like an idea of when it's released. It'll be really helpful for just the current season in terms of people pushing pvp, pve, whatever they might want to do, and just gives us an idea of patch release cadency more so than anything. But that is where I will end it for this episode.

Speaker 1:

Thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below constant stuff happening over there as well. As check out the etsy shop constant stuff happening going. Uh, constant stuff coming on up there. Just put up up a Ashbringer 3D printed sword, which I'm really happy has come out. So please do check it out. Would really appreciate it. But thank you all very much for listening once again and go with Valor friend. Goodbye all. Thank you.