[00:02] have a stack to talk about today because it's finally happening. Blizzard are building a real bridge to WoW's real end game. And I'd go as far as saying that across patch 1205 and 1207, they're hoping to start a new era of how we
[00:17] play. An era where you and I are much more likely to play WoW's best content, mythic. I may sound a bit scary. I think their plans are really cool. So, let's happen and all the other little bits that have accrued over the last week.
[00:34] The new era then. So, raid size and difficulty have always been controversial. Trust me, I've like literally played since uh pretty much the beginning. You see, every expansion used to change things drastically. We've
[00:46] had 40-man raids, 10-man raids, 25-man raids, and even back in say Wrath of the Lich King, 10 basically was easy mode where 25 would kind of be the harder mode. It's really been confusing. But, they started codifying things in
[00:59] Cataclysm where they did 10 and 25 with shared lockouts. That basically gave us years of only having normal and heroic. But, as time went on, things began to evolve. We had a few really cool optional hard mode boss triggers, say
[01:14] the likes of Ulduar. Then, after that, we had normal and heroic, then LFR, normal and heroic. But, everything changed whenever Flex came along. You of Orgrimmar raid that was easier than normal, but harder than LFR and scaled
[01:31] between 10 and 25 players. Its idea was simple. Let people play the game and if someone in your team doesn't show up, say in your 25-man guild, that's fine. The raid can go on. A 10-man guild could bring players who would otherwise have
[01:44] to sit on the bench. That's what my guild at the time really benefited from with those changes. And it's safe to say that Flex worked because it took normal's place entirely. Normal was then renamed heroic and heroic was renamed
[01:59] mythic. And basically, everything below mythic was made to scale with mythic being the thing that did not scale. And after a whole lot of fighting over what was the best raid size, mythic ended up being set at a fixed 20 players. That
[02:14] all kicked off in Warlords of Draenor and that setup is still around today. and that setup is still around today. Pretty much 11 years, 12 years later. But, in patch 1207, we are finally getting another change to the raid
[02:26] system. In an interview with Max of Liquid, Blizzard designers the upcoming one boss raid Sporfall is going to scale between raid Sporfall is going to scale between 15 and 25 players on mythic difficulty.
[02:39] And what that means is mythic flex is finally real. Now, obviously, this is a test. They're not committing to it for the entire future. They want to see though if raid size really is the problem. And by problem, I
[02:53] quite simply mean that there's many guilds like say mine. We tend to raid with like 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 people. If we wanted to start doing mythics, which quite a few of us do actually want to do, we would need to recruit way more
[03:06] players. But, with mythic flex, all we need to do is hit 15 players. Blizzard's big test then is that once this feature gets enabled, will more guilds like say the one that I'm in step up to mythic now that this roster can be a bit more
[03:22] flexible. Now, in the interview, lead game designer Taylor Sanders also told Max that they're aware of how hard it is to transition to mythic from heroic. And basically, they're running this one boss as an experiment where it'll be flex for
[03:36] Sporfall only. Basically, just to see if letting heroic guilds taste some mythic works out. Sadly though, it is an early thing and that actually means there's a zero chance that we'll get mythic flex for the 12.1 raid. That's unfortunate,
[03:52] but I'm not going to bust Blizzard's balls on it because 1201 is right after 1207 and there's no point in rushing the findings of their experiment. But, what I do think is it's an insanely good experiment. It basically has my whole
[04:06] guild excited. I've heard similar from way more people that I've talked about. So, if this paves the way for a more accessible mythic, by which I mean one that you can step into and access because the roster requirements are not
[04:21] as fixed, then hopefully that properly rock-hard difficulty will be open to more people. You know what? I think we may be some of those people. Heroic Lura is some of the most fun I've had in World of Warcraft probably since heroic
[04:35] Raszageth. And that's because unlike end bosses of the last, I mean, most of the last patches, Lura is actually hard. Hard in a way that your Sarkareth's and your Fyrakk's and your War Within end bosses, even
[04:50] Demansius, weren't. So, if this works out, it will be a massive boon for World And the big reason why is that their encounters are quite simply some of the best. It's time I talked about Lura. So, Lura
[05:05] is one of the best bosses of all time. Yeah, I really do think that. I mean, it might be one of the most mechanically intense fights that we faced together as a guild in quite some time. Maybe it's not the hardest, but it's definitely one
[05:18] of the most fun. One of the most fun in my memory. Definitely tops the likes of Lei Shen who has existed in my top tier of bosses for a very long time indeed. I think it was also well came director Ion Hazzikostas' favorite raid boss for at
[05:30] least quite a bit of time. But anyway, it is clear via the likes of Lura that WoW's encounter designers have massively leveled up in recent years. I mean, the personal responsibility stuff in the Lura fight is insane in a good way.
[05:44] Dodging glaves, placing runes, and managing the crystals makes the entire fight an engaging cooperative experience for almost everyone. It feels amazing. And it's a fight that every player has got to contribute to instead of just the
[05:59] raid leader figuring out a strategy and issuing orders to people. And it really intermissions dodges are super tight. Aiming the beams at the cores in phase two takes precision, not just standing on the random marker that your raid
[06:13] leader dropped for you. It is so much fun that it has single-handedly lit a fire under our whole guild. And not just Lura because Aleria and Belorond were amazing fights as well.
[06:27] Raiding in WoW is genuinely some of the best that it's ever been, at least for us, and that makes us want to progress to mythic, to rise up to that challenge. nightmare. We usually raid with a 13-to-14-person roster and even then we
[06:42] usually have a few people missing. You know, we're kind of getting old. and serious careers, which means work emergencies, late cancellations, life getting in the way. Now, without flex heroic, we would
[06:56] pretty much be screwed every season because of the roster problems we'd have if heroic was fixed 10 or 25 as it was in the past. But, we have flex heroic. It works and for us, it has basically saved raiding. And if the mythic flex
[07:11] experience works out well, it could actually fix one of the biggest problems in World of Warcraft right now, at least for mid-core guilds like ours. You see, right now, we get curved in a few weeks and then we stop raiding because we
[07:23] can't really move up the difficulty anymore. We don't want to expand our but others just dip for the rest of the season. And it's probably like that in many of your guilds as well. But, if we could progress to mythic
[07:36] without the logistics of a fixed 20-man roster, we would be sticking around playing WoW for way, way longer. Long enough to perhaps be excited by features like say the void core. And if Blizzard can get that kind of thing right, then
[07:51] raiding for the entire span of a season, even through both of its minor patches, well, that actually could be a viable thing in a way that for guilds like ours, it just has not been in years. So, I hope this experiment is a success
[08:05] because the encounter team and all the people supporting them, like with art, music, sound effects, it's just all coming together incredibly. And it's a shame that only a small percentage of players get to see its
[08:19] most grand version with mythic. Now, obviously, flex can be harder to design. You'll run into issues where certain comps just won't work. Where without 20 players being fixed, you can't guarantee enough raid buffs and
[08:33] kind of thing they'll have to design around. And honestly, that could, in a few instances, lead to a worse experience or make some designs break. And if 15 people is easier than 25 or vice versa, that could throw a spanner
[08:47] in the works for the competitive players putting together groups. But at least, for guilds like ours, none of that would really matter. As long as we're actually a try. Recent raids are too fun not to. The
[09:02] problem is, they have, on heroic difficulty, been so easy that they quite simply have not lasted. So, it's a good experiment for Blizzard. And you know what? I think it's part of a whole new strategy as well.
[09:16] Raiding's obviously not the only gameplay WoW is pushing these days. And It's adding a new upper tier of mythic plus rating. And what they're doing here is really, really cool. So, if you hit 3400 or above, you'll get Keystone myth,
[09:31] which will get you a time lost saddle. You'll then be able to trade that in for some new mount recolors or for an old Keystone master or legend mount of your choice. And it's from a pretty damn long list, too. Plus, if you're in the top 1%
[09:47] of mythic plus rating in a region, you will get the Umbral Champion title and a new exclusive mount. Basically, it's like the Gladiator mount for PvP, but for Mythic Plus. Pretty awesome. But they're actually doing some other
[10:02] good things as well. They're clearly trying. You see, currently in the game, Mythic Plus tens are easier than ever before. And they're also basically the progression. Problem is, they've ended up being so easy that decently skilled
[10:15] players were just hitting over 2,000 rating within the first week and then just finding that the season hasn't lasted. And that's where I can't help but analyze the situation. And maybe this is just a reaction to this season,
[10:27] but I do think that this change with Mythic Plus rewards, and of course Mythic Flex, I think those can't be accidents. I think Blizzard are basically trying to divorce some aspects of high-end play from just gear being
[10:40] the only motivator. That's a healthy thing in my book, where instead of gear being the reason that you play, gear is just a stepping stone on your way to those higher level achievements that basically give you some real legit
[10:52] bragging rights. And of course, with the Void Forge, this patch is letting you target the likes of say BiS items. So, I think that means we can really see their experiment taking shape. You know, it's all about carrots. And gear was always
[11:05] one of the biggest reasons to play WoW. It was the big carrot. Your power going up was the thing to chase. I think Blizzard are now experimenting noticed that getting gear is easier than
[11:17] ever right now. So, in a way, they're kind of replacing some of the motivation that gearing used to give you in PvE. The 1% title and 3,400 mounts are of different in their nature. Gear is about character progression and power, but
[11:32] rating and Mythic rating, well, those are about mastery. Maybe even just being Mr. Big Balls. They're about bragging rights. And where gearing is about your character getting stronger, those bragging rights type of achievements and
[11:46] true challenges, well, those are about you getting stronger as a player. That, I think, is something that WoW needs to target more. It's why these changes are so damn welcome. But if you're thinking about this with dungeons in mind, you
[12:00] may be thinking, "Well, this all sounds good, but there's no bloody tanks and I hate trying to find a group. It absolutely sucks." Yeah, you're right. The good news is Blizzard have um have actually got a response to that.
[12:16] Lindormi's guidance is being ported to high keys. That's Blizzard's big answer. And this really is something. Now, the new version of it is called Lindormi's Glow. And what it does is it lets tanks enable the mob percent guide for any and
[12:31] all key levels. And what that means is that if you don't want to install MDT or learn a bunch of community routes, you can just run the Lindormi route. Now, it will not be a perfect route for pushing extremely high keys, but I think it'll
[12:45] have an amazing effect for tanks just doing their weekly tens. One of the reasons people don't want to jump into Mythic Plus as a tank is, well, if you people were learning the dungeons, you're basically going to feel like your
[12:59] chances of cocking up and ruining the run for everyone else are way too high. want the social penalty. And that's where this is really good, because you can just flick this on and with it you'll get a route, which
[13:13] basically means you can let the route do the routing, you can focus on tanking, and basically, I think it's a better like learning environment. Now, in the channel before, we've talked about the power of the default effect in World of
[13:26] Warcraft. And I think Blizzard are now starting to understand how to use defaults to kind of shape the behavior they want to see. And in this case, it's genius. Tanking is a massively stressful role because you've got to lead. And
[13:39] worse than that, your DPS will flame you for not doing the fastest route. impossible without studying loads of third-party sources. But with Lindormi's Glow, newer or more casual tanks will basically have a fallback option that
[13:53] players are a lot less likely to flame about because it is basically the built-in Blizzard thing. Won't be the fastest, but it'll be safe, it'll be reliable, and I think in the context of a plus 10, that's what most people are
[14:06] looking for. So, what we see across all these stories is that Blizzard are serious about getting you to play the higher-end content in WoW. I think that's smart. And overall, what we're seeing is their whole game plan
[14:19] coming together. With housing, Blizzard made a huge play for the casual audience who just want to hang out instead of getting really sweaty. Oh, you know, maybe they want to hang out and get sweaty, but in a little
[14:31] bit of a different private way. Now, no longer in Goldshire. And hell, a whole lot of WoW's recent focus has been on what Holly calls the mid-core audience. They've been opening up the middle of the game with the likes of Prey and
[14:44] Delves, I think to great success. World content has been massively overhauled, but all the while, Mythic rating and M Plus have gotten better and better. They've iterated, but they haven't really changed fundamentally.
[14:57] I guess, until now. Until all these things we're talking about, where door. They're trying to get more people into that ecosystem. If they do it right, then those mid-core players could convert into hardcore players. Maybe
[15:11] I've played WoW with for the last decade. We're the kind of WoW subscriber who does pretty much show up every single patch. That's what Blizzard what I like most about it is how they're doing this without breaking what works
[15:26] for the dedicated players who have just always been there. I've got to say I love it. And you know, usually changes to a game like WoW are driven by fear or by anxiety, you know? A scared Blizzard worried about their engagement would say
[15:40] make rating and M Plus easier. They'd make gearing perhaps take a bit longer, right? To stretch the progression out. And that sort of thing should work. I easiest carrot to add, and it's a fairly satisfying one. I mean, just look at any
[15:54] ARPG. They've got endless progression on an endless treadmill. But now, by pushing WoW's higher end of achievements away from the early gearing little bit of a stand. The easiest way I can put it is that changes like this
[16:08] speak to a more confident Blizzard, at least from what I can see. A game team that are basically saying, "Well, we know our game is fun, so let's get the most out of it." Instead of one that's left trying to trick players into
[16:22] staying on an infinite gear treadmill. Do you know what? That's an idea that I can get behind. Even if all of this stuff goes to and fails, you know what? At least Larodar was an awesome boss, and at least I know the encounter
[16:37] design team can cook up more bangers like that. But if this stuff goes well, I think it could be humongous for the long tail of World of Warcraft. Do you know what? That's the kind of thing that actually plays to the interests of WoW's
[16:51] have, I guess, have just been here for the long haul. Sometimes can almost come off so focused on like new customer acquisition that as an existing behind. Here though, I think they know they've
[17:06] gotten a bunch of new people, but that their next job is to actually turn more of them into mid-core and hardcore players. That can only be healthy for the game. Just about everything they've talked about that we've covered in this
[17:18] is kind of a banger in my view. So, there you go. Go and try to fight Larodar if you can, especially in heroic difficulty. It's an awesome boss. Guarantee you'll have fun with it. And if you want a taste of the numbers
[17:31] driving Blizzard's decisions, I have got a video for you. It's one that even dives into what we believe are the actual concurrency numbers for World of Warcraft relative to other games. It's a very interesting thing, and it'll be the
[17:46] next video that will appear on the little box on the screen. So, thanks for little box on the screen. So, thanks for listening, and I'll see you over there.