Is There... Too Much Content? 12.0.7, The Patch That Nobody Asked For

[00:04] >> Hello internet, Taliesin here. Welcome to another episode of The Weekly Reset, Taliesin and Evitel's wondrous wisdom show in a week [music] where we've got so much news for you, you might even feel like it's too much news coming too

[00:21] quickly all at once. Because the week after patch 12.0.5 destroyed literally the entire game, patch 12.0.7 was announced to the world. Internet, there is discourse about this patch as

[00:37] in, you know, whether anyone really wants it yet, who it's even for, and what the current very impressive 8-week cadence of WoW patches means for the better believe we are going to be getting down and dirty with that

[00:50] discourse later on in the video. But before that, let's have Evitel tell us everything we know about the patch so far in a special 12.0.7 far in a special 12.0.7 rundown. Welcome to Evie's revelations

[01:04] rundown. Welcome to Evie's revelations rundown. Let's The new world content in 12.0.7 is the showdowns, two new mini zones that will open up on a rotating basis and will face you and any other players

[01:17] doing them off against voidy mobs and eventually mini bosses. The most common way I've seen showdowns described is to compare them to Legion's invasion points where you zap to other Legion occupied planets across the Great Dark Beyond,

[01:33] fill a bar by killing mobs, and take out a mini boss. And it's easy to see why people use these Antorus events as a point of reference, not least of all because the two zones in question, Fungal Ny'alotha and Icy Veins, were

[01:46] literally two of the planets that we visited in those invasions. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Huh, typical Blizz, reusing maps and content. Can't wait to play Legion invasion points 2.0 just like I played

[02:00] horrific visions 2.0. I wonder what recycled Shadowlands [\h__\h] I have to look forward to. But honestly, this is to do showdowns a massive disservice. For one, planets we saw in Legion, but these are not the same maps. The showdown areas

[02:16] are substantially bigger, actually explorable. In Nightfallen for instance, I spent time doing jump puzzles on huge mushrooms, discovered a crashed Legion ship on one side of the map, and best of all, as I was heading back to base, I

[02:31] stumbled upon some old draenei-looking ruins, and when I went through a crumbling old archway just to take a look, I discovered a sprawling look, I discovered a sprawling underground draenei temple thing. I mean

[02:43] this in the best possible way, but why did they put so much effort into this? This is extra to like a suspicious degree. These two zones have rotating world quests and rares and world bosses and bonus objectives to complete for the

[02:58] exact rewards you are expecting. The usual field accolades, coffer key shards, void light marl, and a smattering of warbound catch-up gear with a brand new transmog appearance set to collect. But, what's really

[03:12] interesting about these zones is that they're not instances, but open world phases, which means players come and go constantly. There's always something happening, and as you may have heard, there's a heroic and mythic world tier.

[03:28] Now, the way this has been reported, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd be forgiven for thinking that 12.0.7 was introducing a heroic world tier across the whole of the expansion zones. A concept that Legion Remix

[03:41] introduced to great excitement, and that just made all open world content a just made all open world content a blanket level harder. That's not what this is. These unlocks are just for these Showdown maps. So, functionally,

[03:55] it's just like changing the difficulty tiers of delves or ritual sites, but they're not called that. They're called heroic and mythic world tier, just like in Legion Remix, and that's cool. Seriously though, this is exciting

[04:09] because it feels like this could easily be the first experimental steps towards introducing a universal heroic and mythic world tier to all outdoor content in the future. Something that lots of players are desperate for. More new

[04:23] content for you to tackle. The Sporfall one boss raid. The most notable thing about this raid is of course that it will offer a mythic flex version, scaling for groups between 15 and 25 on mythic difficulty. Another thing that

[04:39] looks like it might be a test bed for bigger plans further down the line. It's difficulties, including raid finder, although there's no mention of any story mode version. Plus, Grudge Pit, where the raid is set, has some of the coolest

[04:54] >> [clears throat] >> Man, with this and Dream Rift, that canceled War Within Harrendar raid looks like it would have been awesome. To help you out with all this new content is the Omnium Folio. A Sit down. Take a deep

[05:08] You ready? A borrowed power system. No, wait, wait, stop, please, don't leave, I haven't finished yet. It's a time-gated borrowed power system. No, no, no, please, hang on. Look, look, look, look. I get it,

[05:23] exciting thing in the world, but in fairness, it's basically not asking anything of you either. We have a straight-up talent tree that upgrades once a week with the odd choice node

[05:35] here and there. Basically no grinding or effort on your part. You just get the cool voidy orbs zapping out from your head when you cast spells. It's just a way of nerfing the launch content, which is slightly more interesting than like,

[05:49] you know, just nerfing it. And also, it's really cool that it gives you a regular reason to visit and hang out in the Lycaeum, the big library that you rush through in the Magister's Terrace dungeon with Ramez and Umbrick. [music]

[06:02] There's loads of new housing decor, and not just on the shop. Man, the shop stuff sucks, doesn't it? I mean, it's awesome, obviously, but it sucks that it's on the store and costs Well, I even know how much it costs because of course

[06:17] don't even know what that means, and I refuse to learn what it means, so I beautiful treehouse with the windows that look weirdly like [\h__\h] and balls, the podcast if you want to hear us rip into that a little bit more. But,

[06:30] into that a little bit more. But, there's over 100 new items of decor just on the neighborhood vendors to get your hands on, including new bathtubs and basins in various styles, hay bales, gravestones, signposts, wells, work

[06:44] gravestones, signposts, wells, work tools, fences, a square dyable rug. I repeat, a square dyable rug. Guaranteed MVP of 2026 right there. And outside torches because, yes, at last, we are being allowed to put proper light

[07:00] sources out in the exteriors of our houses again. Alas, Tally's game-ruining fire garden will still not be able to be recreated since there is a limit on how close you can place light sources to each other outside, but this is a good

[07:14] start. And maybe most importantly means that windows can be placed out there, too, on your house, or trees, or in the floor, or whatever you like. So, it's Kerlanchuk, revealed on socials yesterday that in 12.0.7, exterior decor

[07:30] limits will be increasing a massive 40% to 350 at [music] house level seven. Finally, my idyllic cottage can have a back. There's more lore walking, too. Diving

[07:44] into the history of the loa with lore walker Lilely. Will there be any sneaky new quests in there to set up the loa shenanigans of 12.1? We don't know. Just like we don't know much about the quests where we help the fire loa Jan'alai.

[07:58] Although it's safe to assume it will be at least fairly reminiscent of the welp daycare chain from Dragonflight. And speaking of Dragonflight, >> dungeons from that incredibly recent feeling expansion

[08:10] will be included in the new turbulent timeways rotation, too. This time giving you a chance to bag the icy cool Veronof mount. UI updates focusing on customization to the personal resource display, which is a massive deal. Thank

[08:25] you. And more, which Taliesin is going to talk about in just a second. As to Wowhead articles in the comments below covering loads of the things we are talking about here in way more detail so you can peruse and keep

[08:40] [music] up-to-date at your leisure. Because on paper, this is a stacked patch. Which is good, right, Anakin? That's good, right, Anakin? Yeah, it is a good thing. New content, more content

[08:53] is always a good thing, objectively. And if you don't believe me, just check out the forums where the usual arguing about tuning or housing relevance was put tuning or housing relevance was put aside for a time as everyone united in

[09:06] unsullied praise [music] for Blizz and their excellent release cadence. Because nothing makes people happier than a constant new stream of No, it was a [\h__\h] [music] show, obviously. Oh my god, please slow down. Nah, this is too much.

[09:21] something good. I literally haven't started on most of 12.0.5 yet. I honestly think this is going to make me cancel my sub because I can't keep up. UI updates. Yes, it's fair to [music] say that the reaction to this patch

[09:34] announcement hasn't been the kind of unreserved positivity and gratefulness that Blizz may have envisioned. To be fair, there are plenty of comments on the various blue and social media threads showing plenty of genuine

[09:47] anticipation for Revelation, but also a noticeable uptick in people who just like don't want it, or want it later, or feel overwhelmed, or are wondering why when there are still some pretty egregious bugs left over from patch

[10:02] Now, it's not the first time we've heard people saying there is [music] too much content, but it's probably the first time there's enough people saying it for it to become a discourse. And this discourse is going to be our main course

[10:16] discourse is going to be our main course on today's show. Namely, who is 12.0.74, and why are people against it? Let's start with that second question, because [music] as I just mentioned, 12.0.5

[10:31] as I just mentioned, 12.0.5 was a very buggy patch. Was it more history of WoW? It's unfair to compare [music] it to Vanilla, or TBC, or Wrath, cuz that was 20 years ago. But the game would literally go down for days at a

[10:44] time while problems were ironed out. But compared to most recent offerings, probably a bit more, yeah. I still have to give myself plenty of time to repair or apply weapon oil before a Mythic Plus dungeon since the update, because there

[10:58] is a very real possibility that my game might freeze for a couple of minutes of PC fans going absolutely bonkers when I try to do so. The floor of my player house is still occasionally wrong when I walk into it. And of course, any bug

[11:11] that impacts player loot is always going to be a way bigger deal [music] than anything else. So, memories of those botched bonus rolls and duplicate items time to come. [music] So, quite reasonably, people are asking if perhaps

[11:25] the game would be less buggy if the patch cadence was slowed down a bit. Maybe if more time were taken on these updates, maybe more care would be taken on them, and maybe they wouldn't have so many problems. And that is a very

[11:39] logical conclusion that makes total sense. Yes, I agree. Sadly, I don't Because frankly, and I'm about to be incredibly damning now, I don't think the patches would get any more care if they took longer to arrive. Because the

[11:54] quality assurance employees who are supposed to be taking that care aren't there anymore. And it doesn't matter if a patch takes 8 weeks or 20 to launch if the QA isn't there to identify and to help fix those issues. Just ask former

[12:09] personally gutted QA at the behest of to carry water for, and then jumped on Twitter this week to observe how buggy the new WoW patch is. And like, yeah, no [\h__\h] Mike. We're all trying to find the

[12:23] guy who did this, Mike. For real, it could literally be any one of us. And you might reasonably say, "Yeah, but [music] Tally, if they spent less money on trying to push patches out every 2 months, they might have more money for

[12:36] QA." And again, yeah, that's a very logical and common sense, and I can't fault you for it. But no, Blizzard have been on a race to the bottom with QA for over a decade now. They clearly do not consider it worth investing [music]

[12:49] significantly in, and until they do, this is never going to get any better. [music] End of. And you know what? With the rise of AI and Microsoft's near sexual embracing of that technology, I don't think that's going to happen

[13:01] anytime soon. Obviously, it goes without saying I am a firm advocate of more investment in QA. Higher more QA, Blizz, 100%. The point I'm making though is that slowing these patches down isn't going to magically make Blizz care about

[13:16] QA. They are two separate issues. Also, whereas I do think 12.0.5 [music] was noticeably buggy, I don't think overall the bugginess of WoW patches has been getting significantly worse since Dragonflight up the patch cadence

[13:32] came before it. And if increased bugginess was connected to increased patch cadence, you'd surely see some kind of correlation there. But was WoD extra specially good and bug-free because there were no content updates

[13:44] for a full year during Siege of Orgrimmar? We do objectively get buggy patches more often now, but that's because we get patches more often. And out there who can prove me wrong on this. And if there are, I would love to

[13:59] hear from you, genuinely. But just going by my memory and vibes, the patches don't feel to me like they're more buggy than say WoD or Legion or BfA. The cause and effect of faster patch cadence and more bugs, it it just doesn't seem to

[14:14] to be proven wrong on that. Another thing, it's super galling to have outrageous store [\h__\h] shoved in your face while a patch is still really buggy, too. For real. And I started at the point of absolute hatred for

[14:27] anywhere to go with this, but I can confirm that yes, I still [\h__\h] hate Hearthsteed and everything it [\h__\h] represents. [\h__\h] Hearthsteed. Throw that [\h__\h] into the sea. Would slower patches mean less scummy Hearthsteed [\h__\h] No,

[14:41] of course not. It would just mean longer gaps between new housing stuff we can open to being convinced, I'm not the patch cadence would necessarily result in an increase in quality with

[14:55] [music] So what about the overwhelming amount of content that the eight-week patch cadence brings? Now this I do appreciate because I am certainly not the only one who looked at 12.0.7's list of features and couldn't help but feel

[15:11] slightly uninspired or excited by another round of events and upgrades all following the same kind of pattern as usual. Not because it doesn't look we've kind of seen it all before, you know? That sense of repetition is tiring

[15:28] to a certain extent. It is actively intimidating to new players hitting max about coming back. You might remember that towards the end of Dragonflight, we put out a video talking about the absolute cluster [\h__\h] that Valdrakken

[15:41] turned into at max level with an army of exclamation marks popping up for events like time rifts and Emerald Dream things and Suffusion Camps, as well as all the different chapters of the story that might send you underground to Zaralek or

[15:55] might send you on a merry little jaunt with Baine to unlock back totems. And there was no real direction to players doesn't look to be getting any better with all these midnight updates so far,

[16:08] does it? There's a purple question mark in the far northeast of my map, which has been there since the launch of 12.0.5. doesn't it? Makes it seem like it's a

[16:20] I should be unlocking. I've got nowhere near it, of course, cuz I know that that is a bis anglers and I don't have time for that [\h__\h] right now. And [music] so I absolutely understand people who look at the features list on 12.0.7

[16:34] and think, "Stop. Enough. Chill." I'm going to go into the reasons why it's happening and [music] how I think it could be improved in a moment, but I have to begin by saying sorry. I'm sorry because I am never

[16:48] going to be able to stand on my soapbox and say there is too much [music] content. I'm never going to be able to honestly look you in the eye and say, "I cadence." And the reason for that is because I'm old enough to remember

[17:03] Warlords of Draenor, okay? I remember the slower parts of BFA and the turgid purgatory of Shadowlands updates. And the game certainly wasn't better then for those updates taking longer, in my opinion. Honestly, I think the issue

[17:16] here is how repetitive these patches have begun to feel. And honestly, I think it's mostly fatigue that we feel think it's mostly fatigue that we feel on paper more than in practice. So, the

[17:28] 12.0.7 patch was announced the week after 12.0.5 launched because it had to be because it needs to go on the PTR to be tested. But what that means is you barely, as a player, gotten to grips with void

[17:42] incursions and ritual sites and rerolls and the crushing appointment of Decurse called Abyssal Anglers, whatever that is, when suddenly Blizz are telling you all about the next timed rotating kill all the void things event and some more

[17:56] player power upgrades and new raid. And that is kind of overwhelming cuz it's all at once. But it's probably worth remembering that content isn't launching now. 12.0.5 has got another 2 months in it yet. And I don't know about you, but

[18:10] it wouldn't surprise me if I might just be done with ritual sites and Decurse Duel by then. And I might actually be glad of a couple of new areas to go and kill mobs for my cosmetic rewards. Also, I've actually played all of the

[18:24] Revelation patch that is [music] on the PTR as we speak. And I played it all in the same week that I was playing all of 12.0.5 content for the first time in live. And I don't know if this is praise or

[18:37] criticism, but it's not an overwhelming amount of content at all. Showdowns are a natural extension of incursions and ritual sites. It's just a couple of new places [music] to do basically the same thing. And for what? All catch-up and

[18:51] cosmetics. And I know that we are all so wow-brained after years of training that we can't possibly look at those events going on every half hour and not feel like we're losing or not playing the game properly by not doing them. But

[19:03] honestly, most players, [music] especially high-end players, lose absolutely nothing by skipping them if they want. Incursions, ritual sites, and showdowns will all be farmable and their rewards

[19:18] earnable, not just the rest of Midnight, but literally forever. [music] I feel notification on my map because my brain is wired [music] to think that is something I need to do, and it makes me anxious because I'm not going to do it,

[19:31] but actually it genuinely doesn't matter. If I decide I want to get those rewards later, then Abyss Anglers will [music] still be there 5 years from now if I want. For better or for worse, that's just how WoW works now. As

[19:45] Evertale said, the Borrowed Power Omnium isn't a piece of gear like Suramar Signet that involves grinding things out and finding the right gems to empower it with. It's basically a no-effort quest that you pick up every week and it makes

[19:58] you incrementally a bit more powerful for the wind-down of the season. In there isn't actually a lot going on in this upcoming patch. Certainly not immediate slamming of the brakes because there's just too much content now. I

[20:13] would say though that the optics of all of this could be improved a lot. [music] really do themselves a favor here by changing up the shape of the content they put into these patches. Actually, what I think a patch like 12.0.7 really

[20:28] should be all [music] about is story. Give us long quest lines with plenty of cutscenes that explore the characters >> and issues raised in the main patches. Give us something to really get our

[20:40] teeth into narratively. You might be able to tell I went to Final Fantasy 14 Fest recently, but that's what patches like Revelation should be about. That's who patches like Revelation should be for, character development, world

[20:53] for, character development, world building, side stories. Do you agree? Well, those of you who do, I've got some good news because actually, quietly, that's exactly what

[21:06] is. Yeah, I'm afraid we totally buried the lead on this one because Revelation is very much a story patch. There's the lower war walking, which I'm sure will be lots of

[21:18] about. I'm talking about the five-chapter [music] story campaign that begins slightly after the launch of the patch. I'm going to guess on [music] chapters and that will lead us nicely into 12.1. The story campaign of which I

[21:33] have done the available first chapter and it's great. As in, it's exactly what I needed. Now, clearly it goes without saying, I've said it before, I think it would be better if these five chapters were all playable at once. I think there

[21:48] is a valid argument to be made that sometimes an MMO story can benefit from resets. I think [music] the leveling campaign, going into the Void Spire, going into the March of Quel'Thalas is a great example of that working really

[22:01] well, but I think in a smaller patch like Revelation, seriously, just front-load that [\h__\h] okay? Let the story enjoyers really get stuck into it want to. I promise you, Blizz, they will thank you for it. And obviously, I

[22:15] other four completely suck and are way shorter and less interesting. There's no way of knowing yet, but chapter one was really enjoyable. I'm going to put a talk about it. The Handful of Cool for Grand Gathering in a den between them,

[22:30] the blood elves, nightborne, night elves, high elves, darkspear, Amani, and Zandalari trolls, which yes, means we get to see Talanji again. My queen, but

[22:42] also Zappy Boi himself, Zekhan. I repeat, Zekhan has new voice lines in this chapter in [music] 2026. What a world we live in. At this big meeting, the Handful of dropped the bombshell that everyone in that room

[22:57] shares a common ancestor. And the cutscene where this information is imparted isn't there yet, so I'm not sure of the exact wording, but the implication from how people are talking afterwards suggests that the Haronnir

[23:10] are actually the progenitors of all the other races, [music] which uh No, I ancestor. Whatever, no one else really likes this news either, and it's

[23:22] actually really great from [music] a story perspective to see how little everyone gets along in these scenes. Lots of reminding us how there [music] are deep wounds between the races and factions that can never be healed, etc.,

[23:34] etc. The kind of talk [music] we definitely needed after the speed run truce that saw the elves united in the march on Quel'Danas. Out of everyone though, Zul'jin [music] is the most offended and storms off with

[23:47] Alleria following and offering proof of her, oh, I get it, [music] revelation. She takes him deep into the cave networks of Harundal, which I think is underutilized parts of Harundal, and

[24:01] shows him a vision of the Black Empire general Kith'ix finally being defeated doing it themselves through sheer grit and badassness like Zul'jin has been raised to believe, the truth [music] is revealed that during the battle, the

[24:14] Amani summoned a chaotic being, Ulatek, from the rift of Ahn, so kind of like a sneaky Chimaeron to battle against the Black Empire in their hour of need. After Kith'ix was defeated, the Amani decided that Ulatek was actually way too

[24:28] badass and too much of a threat to like life [music] and locked it away somewhere. Frankly, Zul'jin doesn't believe any of this until someone refers to Ulatek as a weapon. Then his eyes light up and suddenly he's all about

[24:41] course he [music] is. A massive, load has Zul'jin written all over it. The questing then follows us helping him imprisoned. A bit of dastardly manipulation from a legendary baddie and

[24:55] more, and it's really good stuff, honestly. And if the next four installments are of this quality, we are in for a treat. And actually, yes, this is exactly the kind of thing I want to be in this patch. And furthermore, I

[25:10] think purely for optics and simplicity, it might be better in the future to these patches a bit more. Leave the timed events and open world evergreen stuff and the gear catch-up for the

[25:22] point five patch. Very much center the .7 patches on a big old chunk of glorious questing. Maybe even more questing and story in the future. Oh, love that [\h__\h] But what do you think? Are you one of those who think the

[25:35] content is coming too fast? Are you overwhelmed? Do you think the quality and smoothness of these patches would be helped by slowing them down? And what do you think of what Revelation has in store? Let us know in the comments

[25:48] If you like this video, don't thank us. Thank our patrons who give us their actual real life money to make all our work happen. And patrons, as ever, seriously, thank you. Because without you, there would be a whole lot less

[26:02] Taliessin [music] and Avertel. Oh, and actually, Avertel asked me to remind you this week of our new YouTube channel memberships, which is mostly for the podcast, but also applies to everything on this channel. It's another way to

[26:14] give us your actual real life money. Yay! And you get like emotes and stuff, be very pleased if you do, is what I'm saying. If you didn't like this video, down vote the [\h__\h] out of it. Remember my name is Minty.

[26:27] No, my name is Taliessin. [music] From me and Evie, until next time. me and Evie, until next time. Cheerio.