Warcraft Pre-Patch!

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Episode Description

This week, we officially launch Lore Lessons, our new short, cinematic approach to Warcraft lore—starting at the very beginning with Creation, the Light, and the Void.

We also prep you for the January 20 WoW pre-patch, spotlight hilarious community creators in Heroes Call, break down what’s hot (and not) heading into World of Warcraft: Midnight, and answer listener emails on starting WoW for the first time, returning without burnout, and finding your own fun in Azeroth.

Episode Highlights

• Mechagnome tried to upsell Jibbs a new leg before the intro finished.

• 40 wipes later, Kash still wants “Contract Killer” like it pays rent.

• Jibbs made 300k gold… then panic-built an addon so he wouldn’t vendor his gear set.

Chapters

0:00 - Intro

22:00 - Heroes Call Board 37:11 - GNN News Headlines 55:11 - S.N.A.R.K.

Listen Now

Transcript

(Auto-Generated)

Jibbs

00:00:52.380 - 00:00:58.220

And good Tuesday morning everybody. Welcome. This is Azeroth Morning Radio.

Mechagnome

00:00:58.960 - 00:01:04.320

Can I interest you in a new leg? Well, you want one?

Kash

00:01:07.120 - 00:01:09.000

Where the hell did that one come from?

Jibbs

00:01:09.000 - 00:01:11.920

It's a mechanome. I don't know, it's one of their. Greetings. I love it.

Kash

00:01:12.240 - 00:01:13.440

Yeah, that makes sense.

Jibbs

00:01:13.440 - 00:01:29.000

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Folks, it's episode 15 and we are your hosts. My name is Jibs. I'm joined by my better half.

He hails as literally the worst Jacuzzi maker on this side of Doorknob. His name is Cash.

Kash

00:01:29.160 - 00:01:37.240

No, he's the best one because I am running that auction house right now with my dwarven Jacuzzi.

Jibbs

00:01:37.320 - 00:01:38.760

I love that. It's awesome.

Kash

00:01:38.760 - 00:01:41.080

Yeah, Very excited. Hey, buddy. Happy New Year.

Jibbs

00:01:42.280 - 00:01:45.560

Yes. You caught me off guard. Yes. Sorrows mid drink. Happy New Year. Woo.

Kash

00:01:46.040 - 00:01:50.840

Happy New Year to everybody out there. Yeah, it's a new year. It's a new you.

Jibbs

00:01:51.160 - 00:01:54.670

That's right. 2995. Five easy payments.

Kash

00:01:54.830 - 00:01:57.070

You too can have a life coach.

Jibbs

00:01:59.070 - 00:02:00.990

You too can have a Goblin life coach.

Goblins

00:02:01.390 - 00:02:03.390

Yeah, you can't afford me.

Jibbs

00:02:03.950 - 00:02:05.350

Oh, how's it going, buddy?

Kash

00:02:05.350 - 00:02:10.750

It's going good, man. I have. I've had one hell of a week in World of Warcraft. Yeah, I gotta tell you.

Jibbs

00:02:10.910 - 00:02:11.550

Go on.

Kash

00:02:11.710 - 00:03:22.640

Yeah.

So I was getting ready to kind of sew some things up because pre patch is coming soon and I figured, you know, I probably should take a look at that War within Meta achievement and see the things that I. That I can finish up because I probably have maybe one or two things to finish up. Not the case, buddy. Not the case.

I had a bunch of stuff to do and I thought.

I thought I'd been playing enough World of Warcraft to be close, but man, when you look at that list of achievements for the meta achievement, it's gnarly. Yeah, tons of stuff. So I quickly figured, I started working on it and then I quickly figured I was gonna be a long haul to complete.

So I looked at some other things that I could do in particular, one of which I wanted to do because of the title you get for it and it's such a cool title. And this particular event is defeating Kyveza. And I know. You know. You know what? I know that you know that. You know that. I know what I know.

Goblins

00:03:22.880 - 00:03:28.080

Wait, you both tried to kill her? Are you nuts? She's psychotic.

Kash

00:03:28.560 - 00:03:58.200

Because we tried to do this together with a group last night. So if you don't know what this is, this is a delve achievement that you get for killing Kaiveza solo or you kill her.

You know, she's just a boss, basically, and you have to go in there and kill her. And you can do it either on a single question mark difficulty or a double question mark difficulty. And I guess you can say as a group, we learned.

We learned how difficult.

Jibbs

00:03:58.840 - 00:03:59.640

Oh, yeah.

Kash

00:03:59.640 - 00:04:13.220

It is to kill her on double question mark. Now, granted, it scales when you're in a group. So I think after, I don't know, maybe 40 wipes. Maybe 40 wipes.

Jibbs

00:04:13.300 - 00:04:15.060

Do you think it was a lot of death?

Kash

00:04:15.860 - 00:04:59.640

It was expensive, I'll tell you that much. Maybe after about 40 wipes or so, we. We kind of all were like, yeah, I don't think this is going to happen.

But we started to figure out some of the mechanics. We watched a video and very difficult to do in a group. But we kind of all went our separate ways and made significantly more progress doing it solo.

Once you kind of know the mechanics. I actually went through and finished it on the single question mark last night.

I was able to get that one and I felt significantly better moving into the double question mark but did not get to. To clear it. And the reason being that I wanted. That we wanted to do that we started talking about it was that you get the title of Contract Killer.

Jibbs

00:04:59.880 - 00:05:00.600

Yeah.

Kash

00:05:01.150 - 00:05:05.870

Which is such a great. That's one of the better titles that I've heard in Warcraft.

Jibbs

00:05:05.950 - 00:05:33.540

Yeah. Easily hands down, without a doubt. I tell you what, if there's. There's a real part of me that's kind of missing a male.

A melee class just a little bit. I'm feeling it, I'm feeling it. I know it's there. It's like bubbling under the surface. I'm missing.

I'm getting an itch to play some kind of melee, trying to fight it. Moment I saw that Contract Killer title and was like, oh, man, that is a title of titles for a rogue if I've ever seen one.

Kash

00:05:33.540 - 00:06:09.240

It is. It is the ultimate title for rogue. And it's funny that you said that because I was like, you know, I'm gonna concentrate on this until pre patch.

Oh, I think I'm gonna do it because it goes away in pre patch. But I have. I've done very difficult achievements like this before. And it's not that I'm a good player. It's just that I am a creature of repetition.

So if I focus on it and I do it over and over and over and over again, eventually I might get it. But this one's really hard. Do you remember doing in Elder Scrolls Online? Maelstrom Arena.

Jibbs

00:06:09.240 - 00:06:10.200

Never forget it.

Kash

00:06:10.840 - 00:06:34.590

So challenging. It's a solo experience and you get really good drops out of this thing, but it is incredibly difficult. Very mechanics heavy.

And it took me weeks to get it and then I was able to eventually go get it on. On veteran mode in that game, which was very difficult. But I see this a lot like that. These challenges.

Jibbs

00:06:34.590 - 00:07:30.580

Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Nice pull. Yeah. And you know what? I. Unless there's, you know, I'm. I'm totally doing this off the cuff.

So there may be stuff like this already in the game. It's stuff like that. Like that Maelstrom arena, you know, like you talk about, it's like. And for those who don't know, it's like what Cash said.

It's mechanic heavy. Think of it like quote unquote rounds, rounded rounds of combat. And each stage is a different mechanic you're having to deal with.

And you're kind of going up the ladder. Everything from like circular, like chainsaws rotating around the room. It's just like kind of like raid mechanics. But you're doing it solo.

I would love to see something like that in Warcraft. I mean, be honest with you, but I tell you. Yeah. That lady, you know, like when we. I'm not.

I'm not a huge fan of Bran at this point and mainly because too much of a good thing is a bad thing. You know what I mean? And so when we go in there and even brands, like. And he says, literally says this, hey, are you sure this is a good idea?

Kash

00:07:31.380 - 00:07:37.540

Yeah, like this is a bad idea. Yeah, it is. And you know, like he taunts you when you die.

Jibbs

00:07:37.540 - 00:07:38.020

Yeah.

Kash

00:07:38.340 - 00:07:59.460

Well, I'm okay with that in Delves because I don't die in Delves very much. But this one is like every 45 seconds he's telling you about how you need a better strategy.

And I'm like, dude, I am about to backhand a bee if you say that one more time. The other thing he was doing was.

Jibbs

00:07:59.460 - 00:08:06.780

He was all bugged out so, like we wouldn't even be in there to initiate the start of this. This fight. And he just takes off.

Kash

00:08:07.510 - 00:08:07.750

Yeah.

Jibbs

00:08:07.750 - 00:08:11.390

And beelines in there for whatever reason and does it.

Kash

00:08:11.390 - 00:08:12.990

Yeah. Who knew he was a demon hunter?

Jibbs

00:08:12.990 - 00:08:42.600

Yeah, right. Oh, gosh, that should be the name of the episode. Brain the Demon Hunter. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I tell you. But yeah, that was crazy. That was fun.

And that is, man, I saw.

It's funny you bring this up because this morning before I started my day long adventure in my Warcraft duties, there was a guy just standing right there and I'm pretty sure was a rogue contract killer. I'm just like, oh, oh, cool.

Kash

00:08:42.840 - 00:09:15.810

Yeah.

So anyway, folks, if you see that title around town, that is mad respect for the person that is rocking that title because she is not easy to kill on double question marks. And just go in there and just try it for the laugh. Even if you don't want to get the achievement.

Try it for the laugh because as soon as you aggro her, as you start learning the mechanics, you will be dead in about two seconds flat. Everything she does, if she hits you is a one shot.

Jibbs

00:09:15.810 - 00:09:35.870

It's one of those things where it's like, I almost feel like if I was 20 years younger, way more twitchy, you know, way more like fpsy than I like I used to be back in the day. I feel like I may have a good chance, a really good chance.

But I tell you what, dude, you're having to mate make split second decisions and I'm like, this is not casual friendly.

Kash

00:09:36.190 - 00:09:38.790

Like, yeah, oh, it's definitely not casual friendly.

Jibbs

00:09:38.790 - 00:09:40.750

Oh my gosh. No, it's crazy.

Kash

00:09:41.470 - 00:09:52.710

Yeah, you have to snort a line of coke and smoke some meth and then go do it. Don't do those things. Don't do those things. This is a family show and those things are bad. Okay?

Jibbs

00:09:52.710 - 00:09:54.430

AMR does not condone drug use.

Kash

00:09:55.150 - 00:09:57.110

What have you been up to, buddy?

Jibbs

00:09:57.420 - 00:10:28.000

That's been a busy week. I finished Blood Ties from Christy Golden. I finished the book last night. I couldn't put it down. I'm like, I need to. I need to finish this. Oh, man.

I'm not gonna give any spoilers, but well done, Christy. Well done. You did. You crushed it. You crushed it in my heart. It was good. It was good. And then let's see what else?

Oh, I made around 300k ish in gold this week. It was either 2 to 300k in gold. It was a lot. It was a lot of gold. The markets kind of recovered and then.

Kash

00:10:28.080 - 00:10:31.520

That's dirty, buddy. That is dirty money right there.

Jibbs

00:10:31.600 - 00:11:12.690

Yeah, it was pretty profitable. But like, as.

As everything was going well, people just gutted the market just because they keep putting things under, you know, like it spoiler, folks, you don't have to Adjust the coin literally at all. Like you literally just put it up and it'll put you at the lead and then everyone walks away with more money. You know what I mean?

Like, everyone's going to make more, but people just keep gutting it. And it became to a. It got. It's gotten to a point where it's just not recoverable at this point. And so I'm.

I'm earning every bit of 3 to 4,000 less on a single item now. But anyway, I did that.

Oh, and then today I got a burr up my butt and made a add on in World of Warcraft that's as of right now, pending on Curse Forge.

Kash

00:11:13.330 - 00:11:17.980

Oh, okay. That you might have led with that.

Jibbs

00:11:20.300 - 00:11:34.060

Let me, let me rephrase that. Me and Chat GPT spent the eight solid hours together troubleshooting, designing, and working through an add on that is.

That is pending right now, as of right now.

Kash

00:11:34.700 - 00:11:40.460

So. Okay, again, we're gonna leave it there or you're gonna. What is it?

Jibbs

00:11:41.020 - 00:14:40.380

All right, so it's funny that Cash brings up Eso because that was kind of our bread and butter for many years before many other things. And there's a feature in that game that allows you to lock an armor piece so you don't accidentally sell it, you don't actually vendor it.

You know, you don't miss click, whatever. And I've always wanted something like that. And today I was just sitting there, I'm like, you know what?

I've heard of people designing, like using CO AI for coding before. I'm like, screw it, let's go do it. Let's just go see what happened. 8:30 in the morning. Okay.

It's 8:30 in the morning and it finished till 3:45 in the afternoon. But anyway, so. So I started and it is called set lock. It's all one word.

And essentially what it does is if you have any, if you have any items set up in your equipment manager as a set. So I always run. I have a PvE set for when I'm PvEing and if I'm PvPing, I have a PvP set. So both of those things are always like one of those items.

Sets of items are just sitting in my bags. Right. And you always have to be cognizant of, oh, I don't want to delete this or that sort of thing. Right. Well, what my add on does. This is crazy.

I'm even saying that out loud is it will gray out those items that are part of an equipment set that you've made in your inventory. So you can no longer, if you are in a vendor, if you mouse over that item, it will not even let you sell it.

It holds it there and so it basically protects you from selling your items and you no longer have to worry literally ever about it. It's like a set it and forget it legitimately. Now, there are a few issues.

Like when you come out of an instance, I found your items will not be grayed out for you. So it's like you have to swap your set back and forth. So that's obviously something I have to get updated. And then there's a few other things.

I. I took off the mini map button because it was proving too difficult to get the image and the icon correct. So you literally just type slash set lock and it enables it and that's honestly all you need.

And oh, the other thing is that if it's in, if however, it locks your items in your inventory, like that's where they're locked forever. Unless you like turn the add on. So unless you turn it off, like de. Enable it or turn it up, whatever the right term is.

So slash set, lock and then turns.

It turns itself off and then you can move those great items around, but it legitimately will lock those in your inventory, so you no longer have to worry about stuff. Which is great. It takes a load off my shoulders because I'm always scared, always nervous.

Yes, it lists on the tooltip, like equipment set, you know, and then whatever you have it listed as. But I've always felt like that should be. That's something that Eso did that I would love to see Warcraft do because it makes sense in a big, big way.

And honestly have equipment bags that are just your. Your sets or within bags themselves that are not a part of your main inventory. I would love to see them add that.

But anyway, this is kind of like a band aid on that problem and.

Kash

00:14:40.380 - 00:15:01.220

It works so very interesting.

And this is, this is live and new news to me friends, because I've had a very busy few days at work and have not been able to really talk to dibs very much so. Had no idea this was happening other than just a quick mention of it and I was like, oh, cool, you're trying to figure out add ons.

Jibbs

00:15:01.220 - 00:15:01.580

Neat.

Kash

00:15:01.740 - 00:15:05.980

And then blamo. Yeah, it's there, it's on Curse Forge.

Jibbs

00:15:05.980 - 00:16:20.420

Yeah, hopefully they approve it. Yeah, I'm just kind of waiting at this point. But again, it is set lock all one word. So give it a try. Of course I'm looking for Feedback.

I'm not a coder. I'm trying to learn like this as long as I troubleshoot because I, you know, in editing code and stuff. But yeah, hopefully it helps a lot of people.

But anyway, well done, bud. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, this week on the show, folks, we have a hero's call that returns with hilarious new content creators we think you might enjoy. Introduce you to our brand spanking new AMR for 2026, which includes lore lessons that's starting up today.

We prep you for the January 20th pre patch in AMR style and we help guide you in WoW with your emails and so much more. But before we get to the commercial break, folks, we need to have a sit down because there's something you need to know about.

So we talked about Lore lessons, right?

Well, before we get rolling, we want to take a quick second to introduce something that's new that we're really excited about here, which we've already said and that is Lore lessons. And before anyone panics, no, this is not turning into a Lore show. No, it's not turning into a seven hour Lore lecture podcast at all.

Kash

00:16:20.580 - 00:17:47.140

Friends, I think the message that we were trying to deliver during our late watch show last week was that we are storytellers at heart and we really have always been there in loving to bring the story of your game to you. So whether it's news characters or strange goblin things, we absolutely love the stories of Warcraft.

But we also know that there's something that is very, very important that we've learned through trial and error over the years. A lot of people are either not interested or do not have time for deep dives or multi hour lore breakdowns. So we're not going to do that to you.

So the way that we've designed our Lore lessons is they are short, focused and tell a story in a cinematic way that hopefully brings the story to life for you. We are calling that Drive by Lore. We're giving you the good stuff without the homework.

So the way we're going to do it is we're going to start this at the very beginning of the Warcraft timeline. We're not starting at expansions, we're not starting with factions.

We are starting at Creation, the Light, the Void, and the stuff that everything in Azeroth is built upon.

Jibbs

00:17:47.220 - 00:18:08.970

Yeah. So each episode is going to be designed like Kesh said, I mean, easy to follow. Even if lore isn't your thing.

You don't need to know names, you don't need a wiki open so you can Just literally sit back and relax and enjoy yourself. But most importantly, we're making these because we genuinely love doing it.

And this is the kind of thing we want to hear your comments on, you know, like, while you're making coffee.

Kash

00:18:09.050 - 00:18:28.650

So it doesn't matter if you're a Lore nerd. It doesn't matter if you're just somebody who wants to understand why Azeroth is the way it is. Here we go.

We hope you enjoy this as much as we've enjoyed creating it. So, as every good teacher says. All right, class, let's begin.

Lore Lesson

00:18:30.600 - 00:21:23.520

Welcome, traveler. Every tale has a beginning. But ours begins before beginnings were even possible.

Before stars, before worlds, before the idea of life could take shape. There were only two forces. The light, a radiant expanse of warmth and purpose, endlessly stretching, endlessly building.

It was creation in its purest form. Order without restraint. And opposing it. The void, Cold, hungry, infinite in its own way.

A realm of shadow that whispered possibilities and devoured certainty. Where the light sought to define, the void sought to unravel. These forces did not simply clash. They danced.

Their collisions birthed the first sparks of reality. Pockets were neither light nor void, fully dominated. And in these rare forms, fragile spaces, the great dark beyond took shape.

Within this vast new expanse, storms of matter swirled. Worlds formed and shattered. Magic pooled into rivers of raw possibility. And somewhere amid the chaos, something unexpected began to stir.

World Souls unborn, Titans slumbering within the hearts of planets, absorbing the energies of creation. Each one a cosmic giant, waiting to awaken beings destined to shape existence itself. Most slept for eons, but eventually one opened his eyes.

A presence, vast and aware. A Titan rising from his cradle of stone and starlight, gazing into the endless dark and realizing he was utterly, profoundly alone.

This was Aman', Thul, the first to awaken, the one who would serve. Search the cosmos for others like him, and in doing so, give birth to the Titan pantheon. But that traveler is a story of its own.

On our next lore lesson, we leave. The sweeping canvas of creation and focus on the Titan who stood at its center, the High Father himself.

Jibbs

00:21:40.690 - 00:21:48.850

All right, welcome back, everybody. Hope you enjoyed that first lore lesson. That was fun. Did a good job on that.

Kash

00:21:49.410 - 00:21:54.210

You wait with bated breath to see if people liked it or not.

Jibbs

00:21:54.210 - 00:22:01.250

We'll find out. Four days. Oh, gosh. Well, folks, let's get started with the hero's call.

Kash

00:22:03.650 - 00:25:58.240

Heroes call. Exciting week in Azeroth, friends.

And part of the reason why is because Kash has found his very favorite New World of Warcraft parody channel on pretty much Everything that's out there. I have found this creator on pretty much everything. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X. The name of this genius of a content creator is Baron's Boys.

And if you have not found Baron's Boys, do yourself a freaking favor. He is hilarious with what he is building. So it's described. Baron Boys is described as too hard. One camera in Azeroth and a Warcraft fan comedy.

Jibs is already laughing because these are amazing, you guys. So the whole premise of this thing is a troll rogue. Not a very good troll rogue and not very.

Not much bravado in this rogue, but my gosh, you experience this troll rogue's exploits in Azeroth with his buddies. One of them is an undead warlock named Dennis. And there's an orc. It looks like an orc warrior named Frank. Absolutely hilarious.

It's fully AI created, live action. So it looks super crisp. It look, it's very, very well done.

But they're live action reels and they're like I was talking about, they're on, you know, just about every social media outlet there is, but insanely funny, very creative.

I think that what, what I notice right off the bat and what I think Warcraft players are going to notice right off the bat, instant recognition of the humor. Small little Easter eggs in there. Things that only a Warcraft player would recognize and appreciate.

The Jamaican accent on the troll Rogue is so on point and I say this because I have for almost my entire life been a massive reggae fan. So I've heard Rastafarians speak like right in front of me when I would go to shows, still go to shows with buddies.

And my gosh, it is absolutely uncanny this. The Jamaican accent and just the verbiage that is used is so troll and it's so Jamaican. It's just fantastic.

If you watch World of Warcraft content out there, I'm sure you have seen many, many memes and many channels out there that are super slapstick when it comes to Warcraft, but I'm telling you, this one is a 100% must watch some of the things that really drove me to becoming a true fan of this guy. He will answer all of his comments to his videos with Rastafarian tone and accent. You can read it in what he's writing and it is just so damn good.

Baron's Boys, I don't know if it's just one of you, I don't know if it's a team of you that is doing this, but insanely ingenious. And I absolutely Love it. You cannot appreciate it until you look this up. It's fantastic.

Please keep it going because it brings a smile to my face every time a new video comes up. You can see all their stuff and you can even throw them a tip at their website, in their.

At their link tree, at any one of these social media outlets. You can. You can see that. And I. There's also a Discord community from what I understand. So I know we're going to reach out. It's just fantastic.

I wanted to make sure that you guys knew this 100% heroes call board stuff because this is a community creation that is just so dang good.

Jibbs

00:25:58.480 - 00:26:06.160

Yeah. They have 14,000 subscribers already. Their most recent reel is 31,000 views. It's so funny.

Kash

00:26:06.160 - 00:26:19.770

He's blowing up and he knows what he's got. Like he has comedic gold. So please, if we can, if we can have our folks. I want this guy to blow up because he needs to. He's doing such great work.

Jibbs

00:26:19.850 - 00:26:21.450

I love it. That's awesome.

Kash

00:26:21.450 - 00:26:21.890

Yeah.

Jibbs

00:26:21.890 - 00:26:30.370

Yeah. I can't wait to see stuff like that. Can't wait indeed. See. See more stuff like that. So I should say, because it's hilarious, it's very good.

Kash

00:26:30.370 - 00:28:19.450

Okay, second thing for Heroes. Heroes Call Board Jibs pointed a video out to me this week and I watched it and absolutely fell in love with it because it was super, super funny.

Another. Another hilarious content creator out there.

So this one is a video on YouTube entitled the Most Popular Faction Race Class and Specs Going Into Midnight. And it's created by Steven Herro. I'm pretty sure it's Steven Hero. If it's Stefan Hero, then I apologize, but it's S T E P H E N Hero.

Now, in short, this was a ton of research done to find out what's hot and what's not in retail World of Warcraft.

So a ton of sources were used here by Stephen and those included Warcraft logs, MMO populations, WoW, Meta Raider IO and a whole bunch of other analysis from Wowhead and Reddit. He also used Raid logs, Mythic participation, achievement tracking, character creation, stat stats, etc.

Sounds like a massive project because Blizzard holds a lot of these numbers close to their chest. But there's. There's an. You people have the ability to go out and get some of this information and this gentleman did.

So it really makes it a lot of fun. So we're going to go through some stats here that I loved.

He does it in a super comedic way, which again, if you're a World of Warcraft player, And you have been for some time. You'll get a lot of his humor with this stuff. So, top factions now, where historically it has been the Horde dominating player populations.

The overall stats in competitive PvP and PvE suggest that the alliance is on the rise.

Goblins

00:28:19.450 - 00:28:20.170

Jibs.

Jibbs

00:28:20.250 - 00:28:24.890

No kidding, dude. We have percentages. Do they give U.S. percentages?

Kash

00:28:25.540 - 00:28:29.060

57% alliance, 43% horde.

Jibbs

00:28:29.060 - 00:28:43.220

What? You know why that is? I'll tell you why that is. This is. This is me being Jada for a minute. Because, yeah, it's always been Horde.

I bet you it's because Shadow Meld's racial has been grown so popular over the PvP crowd the last probably what, like two years now?

Kash

00:28:43.780 - 00:28:49.820

Yeah, it has. I'm not gonna. You can't deny it. That Shadow Meld is freaking priceless.

Jibbs

00:28:49.820 - 00:28:50.340

Amazing.

Kash

00:28:50.340 - 00:29:13.290

And yeah, it's. It's amazing. So if you don't know what Shadow Meld is. Friends.

It is a Night Elf ability that basically allows you to go into stealth even when you're in combat and drop threat. Like, it's. It's pretty. I don't want to say overpowered. It's amazing. So.

And that's probably why there's so many Night Elves that are out there as well.

Jibbs

00:29:13.290 - 00:29:14.130

Honestly, it's cool.

Kash

00:29:14.130 - 00:29:18.950

But then like, if you move, you lose it. But it's still. It's an excellent racial.

Jibbs

00:29:19.190 - 00:29:26.390

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's awesome. To be honest with you.

I love cool racials on any of the races and so, yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if that's part of the reason why.

Kash

00:29:26.790 - 00:29:33.990

Okay, more stats. What do you think the most played race in 2025 was?

Jibbs

00:29:33.990 - 00:29:34.710

Night Elf.

Kash

00:29:34.950 - 00:29:42.390

Good guess, but wrong. Believe it or not, contrary to our last stat, Blood Elves.

Jibbs

00:29:43.170 - 00:29:43.410

Really?

Kash

00:29:44.290 - 00:29:50.290

Yes. Blood Elves are the hottest player race out there. It's probably because they're so damn good looking.

Jibbs

00:29:50.850 - 00:29:58.090

That's interesting. I wonder why that is. I would never have expected Blood Elves. I mean, clearly it should have been Kul Tirans, but you know, Blood Elves, I get it.

Kash

00:29:58.090 - 00:30:02.610

You know, Kaltarians are linebackers. Blood Elves are just really, really, really, really, really good looking.

Jibbs

00:30:02.690 - 00:30:05.010

That's true. Ridiculously good looking.

Kash

00:30:05.810 - 00:30:10.620

Okay, this one might be a little easier. The least played race.

Jibbs

00:30:10.860 - 00:30:11.580

Earthen.

Goblins

00:30:11.900 - 00:30:17.740

Yeah. Well, yeah, they're a little tough to look at and talk to.

Jibbs

00:30:21.180 - 00:30:21.660

Wow.

Kash

00:30:24.219 - 00:30:38.390

That was incredibly earthest. Oh, yes. So between the Earthen and the mechanisms, those are the least played.

Jibbs

00:30:38.630 - 00:30:43.510

Are you serious? That was a joke. There really are that low. The newest race is that low.

Kash

00:30:44.230 - 00:30:49.750

Like in the. In. In the 10 in the tens of percentage points.

Jibbs

00:30:49.910 - 00:31:09.680

Holy cow. Wow. Yeah, I. I'll be honest. I was never really, like.

I thought they were cool going into it, but the more I got into the expansion, less and less, I just felt like I connected with them. Like, on a personal level, I'm just like, yeah, I think I'm good. I wonder if other people felt the same way. I did not see that coming.

Kash

00:31:10.080 - 00:31:12.240

Turns out most people feel that way.

Jibbs

00:31:12.320 - 00:31:12.800

Wow.

Kash

00:31:13.600 - 00:31:20.560

Okay, give me a ratio. I want to know how many people you think play tank versus DPS.

Jibbs

00:31:20.800 - 00:31:24.880

Oh, gosh. It is easily 75% DPS, if not more.

Goblins

00:31:25.270 - 00:31:25.510

Close.

Jibbs

00:31:26.150 - 00:31:26.550

80.

Kash

00:31:27.030 - 00:31:28.870

One tank for every 10 DPS.

Jibbs

00:31:30.390 - 00:31:34.070

That tracks. That tracks. You know that tracks 100%.

Kash

00:31:34.070 - 00:31:51.430

Yep, it totally tracks. Okay, so. So here's. Here's another one. The most popular allied race on Alliance Realms, more than some core races are Void Elves.

Most popular allied race.

Jibbs

00:31:52.030 - 00:31:54.110

Okay, I can see that. I could see that.

Kash

00:31:54.110 - 00:31:57.310

Yeah. Well, this is on Alliance Realms, so.

Jibbs

00:31:57.310 - 00:31:59.710

Yeah, I'm not shocked by that. They have great racials.

Kash

00:32:00.030 - 00:32:10.870

Okay, so meta realms. Top race for the meta realms are trolls, due to their berserking racial ability, which is also very.

Jibbs

00:32:10.870 - 00:32:11.870

Okay. Yeah.

Kash

00:32:11.870 - 00:32:13.790

Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.

Jibbs

00:32:13.870 - 00:32:14.350

Yeah.

Kash

00:32:14.510 - 00:32:27.720

Everybody love a troll brother. Okay, what do you feel is consistently the most played alliance race on US Realms?

Jibbs

00:32:28.040 - 00:32:28.440

Human.

Goblins

00:32:29.640 - 00:32:30.360

Nailed it.

Jibbs

00:32:30.440 - 00:32:32.800

Yeah. Yeah, that tracks.

Kash

00:32:32.800 - 00:32:46.830

Yep, it is human. Okay, so here. This one's easy. 15 to 20% of the population on all realms. What is the most played race? We already said it.

Jibbs

00:32:46.830 - 00:32:47.590

Blood Elves.

Goblins

00:32:47.670 - 00:32:48.470

Blood Elves.

Jibbs

00:32:48.470 - 00:32:48.870

Yeah.

Kash

00:32:48.870 - 00:33:08.750

Yep. Yep. This one made me happy. What race do you think is the most popular cla or what class is the most popular on RP Realms?

Here's the giveaway and gathering Realms. Due to its certain type of flight form.

Jibbs

00:33:08.750 - 00:33:12.230

Not gonna read that word. Yeah. Druids, baby.

Kash

00:33:12.870 - 00:33:20.880

The Druids. Yep. Druids for sure. Okay, number one race played in PvP all around.

Jibbs

00:33:21.440 - 00:33:22.240

Night elf.

Kash

00:33:22.320 - 00:33:44.170

Night elf. Yep, for sure. 22% on that one. It's pretty high. Okay.

This is where it gets into stuff that you kind of already know, but it's still quite interesting to actually see the stats. We'll go through the top five, top five most played classes according to this video. Number one, Gibs.

Jibbs

00:33:44.250 - 00:33:45.210

Paladin.

Kash

00:33:49.290 - 00:34:13.540

Of course, this surprised me, but it's still kind of up there because there's literally four specs for this class, but Druid is number two. Number three is Hunter. And we won't use the vernacular for World of Warcraft Hunters on this show. Number four is Shaman. And number five, Warrior.

Yeah, which probably Fury. I would Imagine it's probably Fury.

Jibbs

00:34:13.540 - 00:34:13.740

Yeah.

Kash

00:34:13.740 - 00:34:25.460

But okay, so as we go down here, let's talk about the most popular specs. Not surprising. Number one. And number two, number one, Retribution Paladin.

Jibbs

00:34:25.460 - 00:34:39.770

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's. Of course, it's such a flashy spec, and it's honestly such an easy spec to pick up. I'm not really shocked by that.

And I loved playing rep Paladin for years. You know, like it, it's. I get it. I really do. 100 get it.

Kash

00:34:39.850 - 00:34:47.930

Okay, so with Rhett Paladin being the number one most popular spec, I'm not even going to give you a half a guess at the second most popular spec.

Jibbs

00:34:47.930 - 00:34:53.050

It's probably Hunter related, particularly. Oh, B. It's got to be bm. I bet it's bm.

Kash

00:34:53.050 - 00:34:58.330

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Set it and forget it. Beastmaster Hunter all day long.

Jibbs

00:34:58.410 - 00:34:58.890

Yeah.

Kash

00:34:59.170 - 00:36:03.820

This one also didn't surprise me. Number three, most popular spec is Havoc Demon Hunter. And number four being the Fury Warrior, which we talked about, of course, Fury.

And then number five is Balance Druid. So anyway, guys, this video was fantastic. I. I really, I love the humor in it.

I loved the fact that he sourced everything and seemingly put a lot of work into coming up with a lot of these specs. Finish the video off with a couple of pretty funny things.

And the first one was if you want to be a basic bee, just roll a blood elf rat Paladin, and you're good. You are plenty good. Just blood alpha rat pally, you're good to go.

And then the second one, which I know we've talked about this a little bit before, and the downfall of this particular class and specific, if you want to sit in queue for hours by yourself, just roll an alliance Drac, the augmentation evoker, and you're pretty much guaranteeing yourself that you're going to be solo.

Jibbs

00:36:03.820 - 00:36:05.220

For a minute, man.

Kash

00:36:05.220 - 00:36:15.380

So it's a shame. Yeah, I know it brings a whole other conversation about player utility or class utility in there.

Jibbs

00:36:15.700 - 00:36:16.780

Support roles, baby.

Kash

00:36:16.780 - 00:37:14.700

Support roles. Yeah, which. Which I know we've talked about before, and I'm sure at some point we're going to talk about it again, but.

So Steven ends this video with the only true bad character in World of Warcraft is. Or the only true bad character choice in World of Warcraft is rolling a character that you don't enjoy and then you blame somebody else for it.

So the takeaway really is play what you want to play. All specs are valid despite tier lists. Play what you want to Play or just joking about the. About the last two.

About the Blood Elf Rat, Pali and the Augmentation Evoker. Play what you want. Play what's fun to you. There is content for you and you're fully viable.

So anyway, huge thank you to Steven Hero for putting that video together. The video again is entitled the Most Popular Faction Race Class and Specs Going into Midnight.

GNN Bumper

00:37:14.700 - 00:37:19.670

Breaking news brought to all of you by the Goblin News Network.

Jibbs

00:37:21.430 - 00:38:32.690

Bum bum bum. Feel like. What was that? What was that commercial? I feel like that was. Was it. That wasn't Apple. I don't know.

I'll figure it out when it's not important. Macintosh? No, I don't know. All right, anyway, so folks, midnight.

I'm thinking out loud apparently while we're recording this midnight pre patch and expansion overview, what's coming next for World of Warcraft? This coming to us from wowhead.com now folks, this dropped kind of like when we were in between our like a regular episode.

Then we had AMR late watch the first live show ever last week. And so this kind of came at released during that time.

So we're going to kind of COVID some of the high points here because you already know about this. Most of you probably already do. So Blizzard has fully outlined what's coming in the midnight pre patch and expansion launch.

And this is where one of the most system heavy transitions World of Warcraft has ever attempted. So here's how the timeline shakes out right now as of today, midnight pre patch is January 20th.

So that means all the core systems and gameplay changes, the stuff that you're looking at for like user interface and your Transmog that's going to see updates housing.

Kash

00:38:32.850 - 00:38:34.690

I can't believe how fast this is coming, bro.

Jibbs

00:38:34.940 - 00:38:36.220

I know, I know.

Kash

00:38:36.300 - 00:38:39.940

It's just I feel I'm looking at it right now and I have like.

Goblins

00:38:39.940 - 00:38:41.900

Two weeks to get through Kaiveza.

Jibbs

00:38:42.060 - 00:39:32.140

I know, I know. It's. It is. And I think that a lot of other players feel that way for a lot of reasons.

One being I still think a lot of folks are still trying to decide their main for no less of a reason than the way the classes are going to shake out. Because when this happens on January 20th, these updates are happening at that point like we're getting all those class updates right?

So it's just like unless you have been on the beta, I think this is the one time truthfully probably for you, I'm speaking just for you and I the one time we have been in a disadvantage to not have played that Beta to see those class changes and feel them and kind of get an understanding what we're going into just because it's such an unknown, you know, And I wonder how many other people could say the same. Like, they're still trying to decide, you know.

Kash

00:39:32.380 - 00:40:07.030

Yeah. And I, you know, I know how you and I usually do stuff.

We don't like spoilers too much, but, you know, I couldn't foresee us in the future diving into more beta content, you know, just to be responsible for delivering accurate news, good news. But then again, like, we're. I'm not sitting here speculating on how things are going to be. I'm just kind of.

I'm just going to be kind of dumb to it and just wait to see how it turns out. I don't plan on changing my main. Regardless.

Jibbs

00:40:07.270 - 00:40:09.990

That Rogue's not tickling your ivory, huh?

Kash

00:40:10.230 - 00:40:13.670

Oh, I'm. There's a hundred per. There's zero doubt.

Jibbs

00:40:13.670 - 00:40:14.550

Yeah, I know.

Kash

00:40:14.550 - 00:40:27.230

There's zero doubt that Rogue is not tickling things and that my Hunter is not making valves open and close in my body. Because it is.

Jibbs

00:40:27.230 - 00:40:27.790

I know.

Kash

00:40:28.510 - 00:40:40.510

It totally is. I personally cannot go back and forth. I would only. I would have to pick one because I can't do dailies and weeklies on three different characters.

Jibbs

00:40:40.590 - 00:40:41.070

I just.

Kash

00:40:41.070 - 00:40:42.430

I don't have the time.

Jibbs

00:40:42.750 - 00:40:43.150

Right.

Kash

00:40:43.150 - 00:41:11.560

To do it as much as I would want to. I just don't have the time to do it. So where. I don't plan to change from Resto Druid. And it's a good problem to have.

It's a good problem to have when you're looking at other classes thinking, man, that looks fun. And I look at them all in that same way. But I just have a couple that really stick out to me. And one is the Rogue. The other is my. Is my.

Of course, my BM Hunter.

Jibbs

00:41:11.640 - 00:41:12.120

Yeah.

Kash

00:41:13.340 - 00:41:19.460

So I. I don't know, maybe beta is in our future for future patches.

Jibbs

00:41:19.460 - 00:43:04.630

I think if it's major classes like that changes like that. I think that is. I think that's probably something I could see us testing truthfully.

Because, yeah, like, means something to us to be able to experience it alongside the rest of the community. You know, like, it's. It's just as in those episodes that come afterward are pretty staple episodes. Like, you'll hear it in our voice.

But yeah, I think if it's class related, definitely. Because, yeah, I mean, I'm right there with you. I am so right there with you.

And honestly, truthfully, at its core, I doubt I'd be This rattled if housing didn't completely change me in Warcraft, literally, it feels like forever and or permanently. I play the game so wildly different now, wildly different. And I have no desire to go back to kind of like how I used to play it.

And you know, part of that, I say that because my gameplay loop now is honestly very cozy, very chill. Unless we're trying some like, crazy thing like trying to go contract killer or. Honestly, I find healing arenas pretty chill.

Like it doesn't really bother me too much. Too much. Every now and then I'll have a match, but for whatever reason, I've found I'm very proficient at healing in an arena setting.

I could never do what you do. Healing in a mythic setting or even a raid would make me nervous.

But like, for whatever reason, like, I'm fine in arenas, but outside of that, like, I'm very cozy, very chill. And a lot of these classes are seeing a lot of changes, you know, and I'm just like, man, man, oh man, how chill do I want to make it, you know?

Kash

00:43:04.710 - 00:44:27.950

Yeah, and I feel you on that too. I think a lot of my gameplay, I went hard on housing right off the bat.

Got my house to my house and my collections for home decor to a place that I was comfortable to cycle back to doing my weeklies and maybe work in the auction house a bit and doing some of those things, you know, working on it, just continuing to work on achievements and finish up, rep and stuff that I need to finish up before pre patch comes.

But at the same time, this is a typical, a typical play session for me would be log in, check, check my mail to see what sold, put a couple more items up for sale, and then just kind of dilly dally around and work on some of the stuff that I want to finish up before pre patch. And then our friends get on and they're like, hey, we're doing Gambit, you know, mythic 20. You want to go.

And then I go white knuckle it for the rest of the night and feel like a substandard player for the rest of the night. That's. That's typically been my loop lately. But I love the way that you've been doing it because like, you are true to life.

Like that is exactly what's going on with you. It is. It's you. You've turned into Susie Homemaker and I think it's kind of cool.

Jibbs

00:44:27.950 - 00:45:07.240

Well, I've. It's just been so fun. Like I've really endeavored to learn as many profession, like error. I'm trying.

Well, actually, no, I'll tell you what I'm endeavoring to do. So your thing is to get contract killer. Honestly, my thing is to get every drop of decor that's available right now before pre patch.

And I'm so stinking close. So close.

The hardest ones to get are the current, current patches because it requires a group for you to go do those things, you know, and you guess it does for Dragonflight as well, but. Yeah, it's just. Yeah, I guess it's cool that you see that. To be honest, I haven't really ever thought about it, but. Yeah, man.

Kash

00:45:07.240 - 00:45:13.560

Yeah. But it is true. I mean, it totally is true. And when I joke about Mythics, like I'm nowhere near.

Jibbs

00:45:13.960 - 00:45:17.000

I really don't like them near that high.

Kash

00:45:17.640 - 00:45:33.680

And they're there. I mean, they're. I'm still consider myself more of a casual player, so it's dabbling in, you know, more challenging content is certainly stressful.

Yeah, it's there again. Warcraft is as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

Jibbs

00:45:33.680 - 00:45:33.960

Yeah.

Kash

00:45:33.960 - 00:45:35.440

And that is the perfect example.

Jibbs

00:45:35.440 - 00:46:02.550

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm glad that Pre patch is coming on January 20th, Truth Leap, because we really wanted that before the class changes, before midnight hits.

And so we're definitely going to get that. And I bet you will see a lot of people shift. A lot of people change class. Don't blame them. You know, find what you play. We always say it.

Forget meta, forget tier lists. Those are the bane of any person who wants to stay on a single tune. Play what you love, play what you love, what you connect with and what you enjoy.

Kash

00:46:02.710 - 00:46:15.340

So, yeah, and what's nice is that they're giving us a week to play with your class before the pre patch event shows up, which is called Twilight Ascension, and that's happening January 27th. So that's. That's just a good choice.

Jibbs

00:46:15.340 - 00:46:56.100

Yep, absolutely. And by the way, folks, I've plugged this so many times, but if you can read Blood Ties before this drops, read it. Because I tell you, I have a.

A really strong inkling to what's probably going to happen in Last Titan. Now, I have a theory. I don't want to say it, but I think I know what's. What's coming.

Part of that book is a major because I know when Christy wrote that she had. She had a lane she had to stay in for this. Like, there were certain story beats they wanted them to say should.

They wanted her to grow to, you know, like, go with. And I'm like the writing's on the wall. Okay.

Kash

00:46:56.420 - 00:47:07.060

I love it. I love it. I have. I can probably. I'm gonna probably audible that here within the next few weeks, because I honestly. You would have until January 27th.

Jibbs

00:47:07.140 - 00:47:07.540

Yeah.

Kash

00:47:07.540 - 00:47:16.700

When the pre patch event takes place, to get caught up on the lore in between War within and Midnight. So I think that's. That's plenty of time to devour that book.

Jibbs

00:47:16.700 - 00:48:10.710

Yeah. And you know what? I bought a physical copy too, just because I loved it so much.

And I've kind of grown to become a Warcraft book hog and collector, and it's only like less than 400 pages. It's not a big book. It's not big at all.

But so anyway, yeah, like you said, Twilight Ascension, January 27th and then midnight early access, February 22nd. I'm sorry, February 27th, followed by the midnight full launch on March 2nd.

Now, don't forget, folks, if you did pre order it one of those tiers, you get it. I forget if it's all tiers or at least the second tier, you get early access. So that's. That'll definitely be a thing as well. So. Yeah.

So February 27th, I know we'll be in for the early access section. It'll be fun. It'll be a good time to cover. And like you said, I think you hit the nail on the head for this segment here.

I can't believe it's so soon.

Kash

00:48:12.070 - 00:48:28.080

Yeah, it is. And as we're doing the show, I'm thinking in the Rolodex of my mind. Rolodex in old man's term.

I'm thinking of all the things I have going on in my life. I'm like, oh, my God.

Jibbs

00:48:28.720 - 00:48:29.440

Oh, no.

Kash

00:48:30.080 - 00:48:31.400

I have to carve out some time.

Jibbs

00:48:31.400 - 00:49:33.250

Yep, definitely. Definitely. So there is that. Next up, updated class survival guide for midnight beta changes. You need to know.

So this again comes from wowhead.com Folks, this article kind of got into nitty gritty about a guide for your class. Like, just sections broke up based on spec for your. Your class specifically.

And we thought this would be a way to really help you understand to a certain extent what to expect for your role for your spec going into midnight. And so instead of us giving you all the numbers, the, you know, the pluses, the minuses, none of that stuff, we went to our Goblin staff.

We gave them a task which was scary enough to do already, and we had them kind of summarize it, kind of focused it down a little bit, quote unquote, casualized it for all of us. And so they brought their report. So we're gonna read through this and see what they had to say. You want to take it?

Kash

00:49:33.410 - 00:50:59.510

Yeah. So Midnight isn't about making World World of Warcraft easier. It is about making it less exhausting.

So almost every class blizzard has quietly sanded down the sharp edges of each of these classes. Every class got touched some inappropriately, but everyone got touched. So some of them are.

Some of the rotations that were out there were very non forgiving and you know, you forget a buff and you'll wipe. So they changed a lot of that stuff to come a little bit more in line with the changes that have been made to add ons. So again, like tons of stuff.

So for tanks, fewer surprise deaths. Warriors, paladins, death knights, they're all being tuned.

So the survivability feels a bit more predictable instead of just like, I hope the healer is paying attention. Tanks will still be managing their cooldowns. But you don't need.

I guess it's less the need for add ons to know that, to know when you're safe, like boss timers a little bit less now the thing is like we're losing things. Like dang, what's the dungeon one? So hard to remember things when you're on the spot.

Jibbs

00:50:59.510 - 00:51:00.150

Dbm.

Kash

00:51:00.150 - 00:55:09.960

Dbm. Yeah. Thank you. DBM would like warn you when stuff's coming. You're not gonna have to watch for when those things are coming.

So it's definitely going to be some different gameplay.

So for some of the different classes like demon hunters, rogues and monk monks that are a little more like fast button pressing, you know, twitch heavy. The pattern is the less upkeep you take, the more room you're gonna have to recover if you mess up. So it's.

Oh man, again, like we've kind of fallen to the trap of saying that a lot of the classes are being dumbed down a little bit. No, they're just, they're. The flow is being worked better so the classes feel more engaging and more attractive to play.

That's what I'm seeing anyway. So for casters there were like shadow priest mages, warlocks, chamois. The rotations are being smoothed out.

So it doesn't feel like if you fall out of rhythm, you're going to completely tank your rotation.

You can kind of just oops, mess that one up and then you re enter the flow without the games basically being completely unforgiving to you and telling you that you suck at the game. So. So that's Good changes to Hunters and Druids.

So I don't know how much I feel too much about Hunter specs needing to get changed, other than maybe Marksman and Survival, because you literally can roll your head across the keyboard with Beastmaster and it's fun as hell.

Druids, I think, on the other hand, especially Boomies, that was a little bit more intensive with just a ton of things at once, like maybe too many stimuli at once understanding how the class works and when certain things proc you're using certain abilities.

So for a lot of the folks out there who are very, very well skilled in this and have been playing Boomies for a long time, you'll probably disagree with me, but I always felt like it was more of a challenge to play in that Moon Conform and under balance Druid without. It was hard to play it without some kind of jogger as to what you should be doing next.

So whether that was, you know, any of the various forms of add ons that were available or still available to help you with your rotation or the native rotation assistant in the game. So what they're doing is they're simplifying that a bit.

They're making things kind of buried in one another so that when you use a skill, another skill is triggering to make those rotations a little more simple. The Evoker. The Evocher. The Evoker, which is for a long time been considered the canary in Blizzard's design. Aug still exists.

So if you play augmentation, that's fantastic. Support is still real, which is, this is great to hear from Blizzard that support is still a thing. They haven't abandoned the class.

But Blizzard is not backing off the idea that not every spec needs to be about topping the meters. So we suspect this is intentional because this could lead to exactly what we've been talking about.

More support, support classes coming down the road, which would be freaking amazing.

So I think the big picture to see here is that Blizzard is finding out that too much of WoW's difficulty came from some of the external tools that were out there.

So by removing those external tools and tweaking the game to where they want it to be, it's going to make things more attractive, it's going to make classes more viable and fun to play with a fun gameplay flow. And I think that's a good thing.

Jibbs

00:55:10.440 - 00:55:11.320

Agreed.

S.N.A.R.K. Bumper

00:55:17.880 - 00:55:19.240

Snark online.

Jibbs

00:55:25.330 - 00:56:59.320

I don't know why I shouldn't laugh at this point. We're 15 episodes in we're Grown Men, but every time that bumper I get helped because farts are funny. It's true. All right, so it's sped out today.

For those of you who don't know, this is the segment navigator and randomizer kiosk thing that Goblins made for us and gives us our segments. And we have mailbag mayhem. Alright, so this is the segment where we open your mail and answer it on the air.

And this is fitting because we do have some emails. All right, so this first one to us from Spitfire says, Greetings amr.

With the new year upon us soon and everyone starting new journeys, your show has convinced me to give World of Warcraft a try for the very first time in my life. However, it's admittedly pretty daunting.

With the sheer amount of time the game is existed for and the amount of content that comes with that, it's easy to feel like I'm coming in too late and I've missed the boat all those years ago. That being said, I was hoping you guys could take some time to talk about how a brand new player would jump into World of Warcraft.

In this day and age, what should a newcomer expect? And what's the best way to approach the game without being totally lost? Is there such a thing as being too late to the party?

As always, eternally grateful for your passion, positivity and kindness you bring to the community. Your conversations make the game feel welcoming rather than intimidating.

And they've genuinely inspired me to finally take that first step in Azeroth. Keep doing what you do. Looking forward to every episode. Your friend, Spitfire. Well, that was really nice.

Kash

00:56:59.800 - 01:01:11.860

Really nice. And greetings, Spitfire. Nice to see you, my friend.

Yeah, I think I got a pretty decent perspective on this one just because of the fact that I have a family member that lives in this very house who has recently dove into World of Warcraft and she's not really even a big MMO player. Spit, I know, has some experience with MMOs. Quite a bit. So I would say. No, I would say it's. It's definitely not too late.

And I didn't mean to like lazily go into my. No, I certainly don't think it's too late to play World of Warcraft.

They have tailored the new player experience, which is not perfect because I don't know how you could make it perfect and catch people up to what's going on, aside from maybe some of the ideas that we talked about, you know, doing Lore Walker Joe, having the availability of Lore Walker Joe to kind of walk you through what each expansion has done, but catching up on 20 years lore is a daunting task anyway. I mean, that's, that's a ton. But it's not different than any other large IP that's out there with 20 years of lore.

And you know that one again, I'll go to Elder Scrolls. It's like, it's. There's so much lore there, it's just, it's nuts. Well, there's so much lore here that it's nuts.

So I would say to answer this, you gotta just take your time and just fall in love with the world. Some of the ways that you can do that.

If you find a community, a community can certainly help you with the mechanics part of the game and help to like, direct you live as to what you need to do. If you happen to be a solo player, then I would definitely say take advantage of the, the Newcomer Channel, which is Channel six.

And I know for a fact that both Jibs and I have both joined that. That team. We both became Newcomer Helpers, which I think is great. I've been having a really good time.

You know, you see Newcomer chat, once you, you do the thing, you become a Newcomer Helper mentor. You see the chat all the time. People definitely ask questions in there. And there are.

There's always A somebody that beats me to it, or B, an opportunity for me to make a new friend and help them out with something. So that is a really good resource to use if you're playing solo.

I mean, you could use it regardless if you're playing with it with a group or you have a guild, it's great.

But there's nothing that's going to beat being in a discord with players who have played the game for a long time and, and are willing to answer those questions for you. But man, just take your time with it. There really is no hurry.

There's so much time for you to get in there and just play the game at your speed, play through the things that you want to play through. And when the game is trying to direct you to new stuff, you can always just say no and stay where you're at.

Like my daughter, we leveled her pretty quick because we wanted it. It wasn't that we did it on purpose, but we wanted to start getting her some gear, getting her used to playing in some dungeons and in a.

In a group setting. So we happen to be doing it during the time Walking events.

Would that leveled her up so dang fast, which we've talked about on previous shows, but she still went back to battle for Azeroth because she really Liked the zone and she wanted to finish that story. So she's still there. She's level 80 and she's still there. She's just like, man, I'm kicking everything's butt now.

And it's like, oh yeah, you know, we got her some gear and now she's 80 and she's just one shot and everything over there on her warlock. But she's still taking her time and she's having a great time doing it. The game will have a tendency, Jibs, to overwhelm you.

Mechagnome

01:01:12.020 - 01:01:12.580

Mm.

Kash

01:01:12.740 - 01:01:14.020

If you allow it to.

Jibbs

01:01:14.020 - 01:02:22.600

Yeah, yeah. And honestly, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head. Be careful how much you allow yourself to take in at the beginning.

Like actively limit yourself to. If it were me, maybe to actively limit myself, I would focus on a specific zone and focus on skills and my talents.

That's it, you know, like, that's really the core of it. It's love the world, love your class and just focus on your, like how that develops. So again it.

Learning your skills, learning your talent, picking your talents. Forget top tier build. Forget what is so ingrained to so many people naturally these days. And that is what's relevant. I hear that all the time.

Well, I don't know what's relevant. What's relevant is what you like, what you enjoy. So focus on the, like Cash said, the world and I would add like this.

Learning your class, like he said to like learning. Focus on your class and the rest of it. Just let it come in time, let it come in time. Focus on your zones that you're in. Have fun. Right.

Kash

01:02:22.600 - 01:02:27.360

And if you're, if you're concerned about dungeons, here's one very poignant tip that.

Goblins

01:02:27.360 - 01:02:27.880

I will give you.

Kash

01:02:27.880 - 01:03:28.600

If you're concerned or hesitant to get into group a group dungeon setting, take advantage of the follower dungeons. They. That is the best simulation of what a real group would feel like that I. That I've ever seen in any game.

And basically what the follower dungeons are, you can queue up for them.

You'll get almost an instant queue because your groupmates will be AI, but that intelligence that they have is very much like how it will be in a regular dungeon. Aside from the fact that they're not special.

Speeding along, you can, you can cruise at whatever speed you want and they will walk you through the dungeons and you'll get to see the story and you'll get to enjoy the dungeons. So it's a really good way to learn World of Warcraft dungeons if you have any hesitation to hopping into them.

Jibbs

01:03:28.600 - 01:03:35.850

Agreed. Agreed. Well said. Yeah. Spitfire, thank you so much for the message and welcome to Azeroth. So happy to have you here. It's awesome.

Kash

01:03:36.250 - 01:03:37.970

Yep. And don't be afraid to reach out.

Jibbs

01:03:37.970 - 01:03:38.450

That's right.

Kash

01:03:38.450 - 01:03:41.530

Would be more than happy to help you and it is great to see.

Jibbs

01:03:41.610 - 01:05:43.770

Yeah. You are not a stranger. Sin asks. Hey guys, as I said the other night, great to quote, see you guys again. We're at their live show.

It sounds weird coming through the vine, but I have missed you guys. As I was writing my review for amr, I decided to just basically carbon copy my Lore Seekers review from years ago.

Which, by the way, folks, that was our ES show we ran from 2018-21. And he says because, well, basically it's all still relevant, applicable and pretty freaking cool.

It's a testament to the unnatural and pretty amazing bond you guys have that permeates the waves to the communities that you guys nurture. Great job. Doesn't do it justice, but darn fine job.

Regardless, here's a question I deal with in WOW that I would love to hear your takes on because I feel I'm not alone and I'm going to be growing in brethren. I'm jumping in. I'm sorry, I'm a jump in, jump out. Wow. Altoholic. Oh, do tell.

Played solid from Beta Wrath with my wife until my twins were born, then by myself until Kata, then jumped back in for Ms. Wad and Legion leaving for about two months into boa. Wow. They detailed it out. That was pretty impressive.

After feeling the itch to jump back in later this year, I started listening to what old school podcasts remained and found solo queue. I love Dave and he says our friend Dave pulled me in full bore.

My dilemma is, as an experienced player as I am, I still feel overwhelmed with all the systems Blizzard hits us with to keep things fresh. FOMO always gets me to reroll a tune and start over to get a feel for things and I never catch up to modern content. What?

I think this is the real question here. What pathways would you set out for a new returning player to get the best of what's around while still feeling viable?

Thanks for the years and bless you all for your efforts and talents. Sin. First off, Sin, you're incredibly kind and thank you so much for the kind words. It is good to see you again.

Kash

01:05:44.010 - 01:05:49.370

Yes, very much so. Welcome back to Azeroth. We'll say that.

Jibbs

01:05:49.780 - 01:05:50.100

Yeah.

Kash

01:05:51.940 - 01:07:41.700

I think. I think a lot of this answer will resonate in the answers that we had for Spitfire.

Although I will Say this if you want, we have certainly been down this road all the times that we've left, played some other games and then came back to Warcraft. Jibs and I will almost always roll a brand new tomb to get back into the feel of things.

And I think a lot of it is because the nostalgia really helps for the game to stick again. And so I would say, like, there's no bones about it.

That's a great way to get back into the game is to just reroll a new tune and just go through stuff.

But if you want to keep up on the latest systems and feel relevant, what I would suggest doing is play the game as a new player in the starting zones, whatever zone you decide if you, whether you start on, on newbie island or you know, the new player experience or you just want to start leveling in a zone that you pick a starter zone that you pick, play through that, pick an expansion about level maybe 10 to 15 ish. Go to that expansion, start playing through that until you stop getting xp.

There will be a point where you, your XP gain from the things that you're doing will exponentially slow down and you will notice it. You'll be like, what the heck just happened at that point. That's when you want to move to the latest expansion.

And that's how we've done it for years. You're shaking your head like I'm no.

Jibbs

01:07:41.700 - 01:07:47.700

I accidentally just deleted the entire show notes in a single setting. Thank God for undo while you were talking. I'm sorry, continue.

Kash

01:07:47.940 - 01:07:52.100

Yeah, I saw it, I saw it. I saw the whole screen go black and I was like, yeah, he'll fix that.

Jibbs

01:07:53.460 - 01:07:57.340

Yeah, just ignore. It's my first time broadcasting. I'm sorry. Podcast. Go ahead.

Kash

01:07:57.340 - 01:07:59.460

Congratulations on knowing Microsoft Word.

Jibbs

01:07:59.630 - 01:08:00.750

Thank you, thank you.

Kash

01:08:02.270 - 01:10:04.750

But that's, that's really the, that's what I would give you as, as advice. Start off and play whatever starting experience you want. Then around 10 to 15, pick an expansion, go to that expansion level there.

And then once you stop getting that experience, then you can move over to the brand new new expansion. That'll be the right time for that.

And then once you start going through, through the new expansion, like there are several systems to get you leveled up. I mean nowadays there's time walking, there's just dungeons, period. There's delves, there's PvP.

If you're into PvP, you can level up through all those different experiences and numerous other ones too. Pick your poison. Pick whichever one you like. For me, I love leveling in Delves.

If I'm going to level a new tune, I will go into Delves and just crush them to try and push that level. I love leveling up my, my Delve companion. I love getting the gear out of there.

I love doing those weeklies in Delves and I'm really, really a huge Delve fan period. So that to me is, is a really good way to do it.

And then like when my friends log on time walking, we do dungeons, you get gear, you get uber fast experience in there. And remember folks, the game doesn't begin at 80, the game begins at 1.

But once you hit level 80, your further experience, your end game experience begins when you hit 80. And that is a majority of your life in World of Warcraft is going to be 80 and beyond.

But the journey to get there is whatever you make it, however slow you want to do it, enjoy it.

Jibbs

01:10:05.150 - 01:11:06.030

Everything cash just said sin 100%. He nailed it. Do those things the way he said to do those things. I can't agree more.

Thank you so much for the email and hang out with us in Azeroth now. It's exciting and we have, we have information coming very, very soon.

If you've seen that emote the dog's nose smashed against the window very thune on our community what that looks like for World of Warcraft. So more, more info coming very soon next up here from Rack.

Now this is more of a feel good story than actual question, but this was something that we wanted to share on the air. It's another one of those real how Azeroth brings people together kind of stories. Before we close out the show, they say hello chips and cash.

I've been wanting to write in for a few weeks now and I finally carved out some time to sit down tonight and do so. I got turned onto your show on on your launch day when Swaglock from the War Band posted in his Discord a recommendation for AMR Swaglock.

Thank you so much for that. You're awesome. We love you buddy.

Kash

01:11:06.030 - 01:11:08.430

Yes, thank you sir. Appreciate it.

Jibbs

01:11:08.510 - 01:11:24.910

And I was immediately hooked. The vibe you bring, your message, your format and discussions, I found it all to be right up my alley and frankly inspiring.

Both you and the War Band have recently inspired me to chase the challenge of attempting to get into podcasting myself. Well, welcome in.

Kash

01:11:24.910 - 01:11:25.550

I love it.

Jibbs

01:11:25.870 - 01:16:21.240

A buddy of mine and I are in somewhat early stages of figuring out everything that goes into it and we're getting close to recording a pilot episode. It's been an engaging challenge that I see bringing a lot of fun growth to both of us regardless of the ultimate outcome of it.

But this really isn't why I wanted to write to you. I am writing because I have a story I was hoping to share with you both. Forgive me if this email ends up being a bit lengthy.

I can be a bit long winded when it comes to telling the story as it's my favorite story of all time time.

In the last couple of episodes though, you've discussed how couples have met in wow and even shared a story of another couple that wrote to you and has inspired me to share my own story with you guys Many years ago in 2008, Azeroth was knee deep in fighting the Burning Crusade and we were in the final fight against Kil' Jaeden at the Sunwell.

I was a guild leader of a small casual raiding guild that was nowhere near stepping foot in the city unwell, but we had fun a couple days, a couple of days each week, pushing Karazhan, the Eye Macton and etc.

As I was in my early 20s at the time and working during the day at my at a call center, I would play in the evenings typically, but on one fateful day my usual schedule was abruptly interrupted. I showed up to work one morning only to get pulled off the call floor and laid off from my job.

I had worked there for about three years and I was devastated. I was sad and frustrated and when I got home it wasn't long until I hopped into wow.

Just looking to disconnect from the stressful situation of losing my job for a moment, I set out to do my dailies on the Isle of Quel'danas.

I started off with the quest that sent me to an area just off to the right of the Zone Zone into the Sunwell raid where I needed to kill 15 or so particular blood elf mobs. If I recall, the zone was mostly empty as it was fairly early in the day.

However, there was an undead female warlock in the same area that clearly was working on the same quest that I'd set out to do. I soon found myself annoyingly in competition for kills with this warlock.

You may recall back then there was no shared credit on corporation quest kills for everyone who tagged a mob. However, whoever damaged it first got the credit for themselves and anyone they were grouped with.

Normally I'm a pretty friendly and outgoing guy and want to believe that. Well, I would just have invited the warlock to join my group to get the quest done quickly altogether.

But you see, I was having a rough day and not feeling particularly social Instead, I locked in and found myself aggressively fighting with this warlock to tag mobs first. I was playing a blood elf hunter and utilized my arcane shot to tag the mobs first. I absolutely dominated the silent competition we were in.

No words were exchanged between the warlock and I, but it wasn't long before I finished mounting up and riding off to the next quest. But as I left the warlock in the dust, it finally hit me.

Guilt all the way down to my stomach and that voice in my head kicking in saying this isn't you. You're having a rough day, but this isn't how you want to play this game. Go back and make it right.

So I sent the warlock a whisper, apologized for trying and succeeding to steal her kills, and offered to come back and help her finish the quest. She accepted, we got the quest done for her and went and then went on to do all the rest of the dailies on the island together.

It wasn't long till I let go of my stress and found myself having fun getting to know a new friend. I learned that she had just recently hit level 70 and had never raided before.

In fact, she claimed that she had only joined a group with anyone else once before for a dungeon that didn't go great and made her feel like maybe grouping with people in this game wasn't really for her.

But being the charming kid that I was back then, well, it wasn't hard to convince her to give my guild of friendly adventurers a try so she could have a better experience with grouping in the game. I had no idea at the time that this event was a spark to a flame that would grow into an absolute bonfire of life changing events for us both.

It's been nearly 18 years since that day. I still visit the Isle of Quel'danas from time to time and just sit on the bridge near the area and reflect.

Life has been a roller coaster together, but I don't believe either one of us would change a thing as we continue to love each other and the family we've built together. Anyways, thanks for letting me share. I know it's a long story, but I always enjoy an opportunity to share this with people.

I look forward to your content every week and appreciate all you're doing for the community. Sincerely, Wreck Wow.

Kash

01:16:21.960 - 01:16:42.950

Yeah, I. I don't know if it was your reading of it or the content that Rack sent us, but I'm verklempt. Oh yeah, he has a topic to discuss. The war in Bosnia. Neither civil nor a war discuss.

Jibbs

01:16:44.710 - 01:17:14.880

Oh man, I love stories. Like this. I love, love, love stories like this and that, you know, it's crazy to think that you can write something like that.

That says 18 years since that day. That's how long this game's been around.

That's how long this game is impacting people and that's how long and longer than that still that it, you know, like people have grown to love it. That's why we're here, you know, we love it. Yeah, it's just awesome that they've been. Congratulations to them.

Kash

01:17:15.300 - 01:17:20.340

Yeah, yeah, they're, they're doing good. I mean, that's the ultimate quest, right? Oh, the ultimate quest.

Jibbs

01:17:20.580 - 01:17:21.060

Yeah.

Kash

01:17:21.220 - 01:17:39.140

You know, you meet an undead warlock in, in game and all of a sudden it just sparks. It's a catalyst and true. You end up with that person. They got a family together still, just rocking it strong, you know, with, with life.

Jibbs

01:17:39.380 - 01:17:41.270

The other quest is you marry Jaina Proudmoore.

Kash

01:17:41.820 - 01:17:48.940

Yeah, buddy, that ship sailed for me. Ship sailed for me. Oh, Jaina.

Jibbs

01:17:48.940 - 01:17:50.060

Oh, Jayna.

Kash

01:17:50.380 - 01:17:53.900

Yep. I love my wife. I love my wife a lot.

Jibbs

01:17:54.060 - 01:17:59.460

I love my. Like, are you repeating I love my wife. I love my wife. I love my wife.

Kash

01:17:59.460 - 01:18:26.980

Is that reminding myself that I love my wife?

Certainly over a cartoon character in a game, but yes, friends, I freely admit it, if there is any game character that has my heart through and through, it is Jaina Proudmore and she's way above my level. So never going to happen. Okay, let's get back to rack.

Jibbs

01:18:27.380 - 01:18:52.290

Deeper Rack. Congratulations. Thank you so much for sending this, this kind of story to us, folks.

If you have a story like this as well, well, send it to us because we love seeing this kind of kind of stuff. And honestly, if it doesn't make it in the emails, it may make it in the. I had to think of the name of the segment. Forgot the name.

Heroes call board, but Hero Skullboard. Right. That's one heck of a story. I love it. I love it.

Kash

01:18:52.370 - 01:19:28.260

It is me too. And thank you for, for sharing that with us. And I wonder, I wonder if, like, I want an update. Are you guys still playing World of Warcraft together?

And I mean, hey, after 18 years, right, since that day, your kiddos are maybe old enough to start playing. I don't know.

I mean, there's got to be other people out there like me who have been playing World of Warcraft for a long, long time and their kids are now playing World of Warcraft, which is crazy. Don't blink, take a lot of pictures and kiss your damn kids because that time goes by. So so freaking fast.

Jibbs

01:19:28.420 - 01:19:28.980

Yep.

Kash

01:19:29.060 - 01:19:40.260

You know, that does. There'll be a time where I start, you know, measuring my daughter's age off of World of Warcraft expansion releases. She's.

I mean, Warcraft has been there for me the whole time.

Jibbs

01:19:40.340 - 01:19:40.780

Yeah.

Kash

01:19:40.780 - 01:19:41.460

So why not?

Jibbs

01:19:41.620 - 01:20:05.400

Yeah, yeah. You know, I know I.

We kind of said earlier, but stuff like this, that makes me look forward to connecting with these people, you know, and, and connecting with all of you listeners in a way that's.

That is people that you can relate with and people that, you know, that, that come from all, all over, like Azerothians from literally all over the world to bring everybody together. And I would love to chat with Rack. That's. That's awesome.

Kash

01:20:05.720 - 01:20:23.400

Yeah. Yeah, I certainly would. And if you're a player from.

You're a World of Warcraft player from Kazakhstan, I would love to connect with you and welcome you to. And thank you for listening to our show. So we can have one stat. One stat.

Jibbs

01:20:23.560 - 01:20:25.480

You just want that one analytic.

Kash

01:20:25.880 - 01:20:38.040

One stat from Kazakhstan. That's all I'm asking. It's not much. Even if you go to Kazakhstan to visit download our show just once.

Jibbs

01:20:38.120 - 01:20:41.880

All right, folks, we're gonna go to commercial break. We'll be right back in just a second to finish out the show.

Notice Board Bumper

01:20:46.800 - 01:21:03.920

This is the notice board preparing you for the week ahead in Azeroth. Good morning, travelers.

This is Adore Me speaking from a moment you may remember with today's posted notices and temporal advisories first on the board. Remix Legion remains in progress.

This return to the Legion era continues through January 19th of this year, offering accelerated leveling, familiar campaigns and unique rewards throughout its duration. Next, a notice from the Bronze Dragonflight. Turbulent Timeways remains active.

Completing consecutive timewalking dungeons will continue to grant knowledge of timeways, increasing experience gained. The timewalking quest currently available now awards a heroic cache of Nerubus treasures. Please collect it while the timeline holds.

The Darkmoon Faire is presently in town through January 11th. Heirlooms mounts, toys, transmogrification gear and profession activities are available.

And don't forget the carousel continues to grant experience and reputation benefits. Effective today, Outland Timewalking dungeons are open to adventurers. Level 71 and above.

Above, Burning Crusade dungeons and the Black Temple are accessible under time walking conditions with loot scaled appropriately. Finally, PvP brawl compstomp is now active. Battleground simulations against automated opponents are available. The results will be decisive.

Those are today's postings. Take your time. The week will unfold as always does. This has been Zidormi and this was the notice board.

Jibbs

01:22:41.940 - 01:23:44.910

All right everybody, this was episode 15 of AMR. Thank you so much for hanging out with us here at Azeroth Morning Radio and if you enjoyed your time here.

First off, thank you so much for hanging out. Push and play. It means really the world to us. But also folks, this is where we really rely on you to number one, spread the word about amr.

If you enjoyed your time here, share it in your discord, share it with a friend because that's how we grow honestly as word of mouth and we really, really do appreciate it.

But also please leave us a review because your review tells other gamers, other Warcraft fans if this show is for them and it really does help us out in the grand scheme of worlds where algorithms and all that stuff helps, it certainly does help us and we really do appreciate your guys support. It means the world to us. So you can always Visit our website azerothmorningradio.com Full episode transcripts are there.

You learn more about Cash and myself and you can always get in contact with us directly over email there on the contact page.

Kash

01:23:44.910 - 01:24:40.100

Cash Friends, as you know this show is a big about the community. We do not have a show without you.

So we want to hear from you, we want to keep in touch with you and as Jib said before, we are working on some ways to make that more of a reality and make this more of a personal thing between us and the folks who choose to press play for our show. Until then and even after that you can email us@azerothmorningradiomail.com you can catch us on Facebook at Azeroth Morning Radio.

You can watch our you can see our episodes on YouTube at Azeroth Morning Radio. And you can catch us on Twitch Twitch TV Azeroth MorningRadio and don't forget we're starting to see a lot more of it now and it makes me very happy.

Send us topics.

If you got something you want us to discuss, something you think we're missing, let us know because there's a pretty dang good chance it's going to make it on the show.

Jibbs

01:24:41.860 - 01:24:42.300

All right.

Kash

01:24:42.300 - 01:24:44.180

Why are you giggle face right now?

Jibbs

01:24:44.180 - 01:24:52.180

Cuz you said forgive me folks but you said our is about the community. Our community.

Kash

01:24:53.140 - 01:25:07.720

Yeah, I mean all the we do is about the community. Did I really say that? Oh my God, the dementia setting in. This is aft.

Jibbs

01:25:07.800 - 01:25:09.080

Oh great.

Kash

01:25:09.480 - 01:25:10.360

I love you all.

Jibbs

01:25:10.360 - 01:25:13.200

Have a great week in gaming. I'll see you back here at amr.

Kash

01:25:13.200 - 01:25:25.640

Oh man friends. Go watch the Barons, boys. Do yourself a favor, Yaman. Job's done.

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About the Hosts

Jibbs & Kash — two longtime WoW players and friends who bring humor, casual fun, and a love for community to Azeroth Morning Radio.