Episode 290, "Netflix and fish"

Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com

Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv

Mount Up Add-on: https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/mount-up

Happy 13th!

Ren

Cocktail of the Cast: Julep Zecca Italiana

About 80% through the “Home Flooring Renovation” achievement

Completed the new pre-expansion quest line on paladin - upgraded artifact from 75 to 126

Purchased a small one-handed gaming keyboard from DeLux - $30. Taking some time to get used to but may be easier to use than full sized keyboard when I’m one handed.

Only real problem is maneuvering while flying

Other issue: no English instructions came with it

Mike

I made a thing.

I thought I needed things from Midsummer - nope.

Did the artifact thing

Poop quest :P

Still need to do the mage tower

This Week in WoW

Midsummer Fire Festival continues through July 5 (Thursday)

This Week: Arena Skirmishes; next week, World Quest Bonus Event

Darkmoon Faire starts Sunday, July 1

News

Pre-expansion artifact quest in Silithus went live this week

Achievement: Crucible’s Promise - upgrades your artifact from 75 to 126

Several of the Silithus quests are NOT REQUIRED to complete this (but you can’t skip the trips to Stormwind or Orgrimmar)

Only the quests directly from Nolan Speed (Alliance) and Grol Warblade (Horde) are required to complete the quest line

First Horde quest: motivate peons; first Alliance quest, collect Mysterious Ore by killing goblins. Horde quest turns in to Grol. Alliance has turn-in for Mysterious Ore going to a dwarf, but then return to Nolan Speed to pick the line back up.

From this point on, the main line is identical, Horde or Alliance.

Pick up “The Twilight Survivor” from Nolan or Grol. Ignore “Desert Research” because it’s just a breadcrumb to an unnecessary gnome or goblin line.

Pick up “A Recent Arrival” to talk to Khadgar, and this leads to the end.

You can skip ALL the gnome quests (Alliance) and goblin quests (Horde) and the outhouse quest and it does not affect progress. These extras provide color and 18g but no rep or other rewards

Confirmed upgraded ALL owned weapon artifacts, whether they are on you or in the bank

When you have completed this quest, if you complete any other weapon quests, these fully upgrade as soon as you shift into that specialization

Underlight Angler graphics do what the regular artifacts do and it shows TRILLIONS of AP, but doesn’t actually upgrade the Angler (AP yellow bar still shows proper amount of points. Display bug)

Reportedly making the Mage Tower much easier to complete and sudden uptick in new guilds finishing Mythi and Cutting Edge Argus the Unmaker achievements.

Mage Tower is now live 24/7

Forbes Interviews with Ion Hazzikostas

Change in BFA: Prevent players from swapping gear in high difficulty Mythic+ dungeons - make it consistent with not changing talents mid-encounter. Mythic+ now requires complete speccing (talents AND gear) for the entire dungeon, which Blizzard now views as a single encounter.

New Azerite armor

Can’t be warforged or titanforged

Only source that can be run repeatedly is normal or heroic dungeons

Can be gained as a world quest emissary reward, but not from world quests themselves

Can get as a weekly PvP or conquest reward, but not at the end of a match

Mythic dungeons - not from box at the end, but only from the weekly reward box

Clear tiers of Azerite armor

Communities

Will not be cross faction (“we’re at war!”]

Yay Discord!

Confirmed the following are all going away in the prepatch:

First Aid achievements

Ahead of the Curve and Cutting Edge achievements

Violet Spellwing mount quest from killing Argus.

Guaranteed mount drops from mythic Argus and Gul’dan in The Nighthold will become rare drops

The Chosen title (killing bosses in mythic Trial of Valor without dying)

Brawler’s Guild seasonal achievements

Legion Elite PvP armor sets, achievements related to the Ashran battlefield and several other Legion specific PvP achievements

Mentioned Fisherfriends of the Isles isn’t going away but will be a lot easier to achieve now that there are huge groups doing it

Professions

Professions system is “changing dramatically”

Each expansion will have its own separate skill tier level\

Analogy: Pandaria cooking

If you have 800 skill in a profession, you’ll be at 100 skill level in each expansion’s profession tier, and will start BFA as level 1 for BFA crafting.

If you have 650, for example, you will have 100 through Pandaria, then 50 for Warlords, and no Legion

Also means is that if all you want to do is craft items for Battle of Azeroth, there’s nothing you have to do - you do not need to get your profession to 800 - there is no advantage because all 800 profession skill level means now is that you will have 100 level in all expansion tiers short of BFA. Everyone will start at level 1 for BFA crafting and gathering.

Question: how is racial profession bonus going to figure into this?

Also means if you want to change professions, it’s a great time to do it.

Ian’s advice: professions “extremely optional” to level up - “don’t worry about anything other than the Mage Tower”.

No specific events planned for prepatch that will boost levels the way the Legion invasions did

BFA kinder to alts?

Only things specifically mentioned:

artifact necklace will work for all specs - no having to develop separate necklaces for tanking, DPS and healing

No class legendaries