This week on FAZ, Joce and Manny announce their Patreon campaign, as well as cover this week’s Warcraft news and give some tips for leveling efficiently in Battle for Azeroth. They then take emails from the community about Sylvanas and her potential future.

Patreon Launch

FAZ is launching a Patreon campaign. If you like the show and would like to support us, please go to patreon.com/faz

We love WoW, and have so many ideas for content creation, but find it hard to prioritize FAZ over other paying opportunities. Patreon will help support us, help us gauge interest, and will allow us to create more of what you love!

Support levels

  • There are tiers from $1/episode to $50/episode
  • Perks include show thank yous, newsletter access, in-game time with Manny and Joce, plus sponsorship and producer opportunities

Goals

  • Goals range from a monthly newsletter to show and game streams, special episodes, and guest host appearances

3rd Wave of Blizzcon Tickets

Another wave of previously unannounced Blizzcon Tickets will go on sale this weekend!

  • Saturday, August 18 at 7 a.m. EDT
  • $199 USD plus taxes
  • BlizzCon Virtual Ticket coming soon
  • Ticket Announcement

The Interview junket continues

Blizzard has done multiple interviews leading into BfA.

  • Terran Gregory and Gary Platner had an interview with The Daily Mail
    • Soap Opera nature of an enduring storyline
    • Using 2.5D animatics vs. Prerendered CG
  • PC Gamer interviewed Ion Hazzikostas
    • Horde patchwork – different motivations
    • Player criticism of the story
    • The ability to provide episodic events
  • PC Games N with Terran Gregory
    • Embracing from the transmedia presentation of Overwatch
    • Critical information in the game-centric
  • Daily Mail Interview
  • PC Gamer Interview
  • PCGamesN Interview

The Siege of Lordaeron

This past Tuesday saw the release of the final part of the BfA pre-launch event. The Alliance marched upon the ruins of Lordaeron

  • Large-scale scenario (ala broken shore)
  • Jaina is BAD@#$
  • Sylvanas continues to follow the path of villainy
  • Variation on final cinematics
  • Blizzard clarified that you do not need to have pre-purchased BfA to play this content
  • Official Blizzard Post
  • The Cutscenes!
  • Blue Post Correction

BfA Content Timing

We have also got some more information on the timing of end game content for BfA.

  • The Stormgarde Battlefront will originally be in control of the Alliance
  • Battlefronts will not be available in the first few weeks
  • Island Expeditions are available as soon as you complete the tutorial quest
  • Mythic Dungeons will be available after the first reset (aug 14/15)
  • Normal and Heroic open week of September 4th
  • Mythic and LFR Wing 1 (Halls of Containment) open week of September 11th
  • LFR Wing 2 (Crimson Descent) opens the week of September 25th
  • LFR Wing 3 (Heart of Corruption) opens the week of October 9th
  • Warfront Schedule
  • Mythic 0 Dev Tweet

The Battle for Group Finder Continues

Back in ep 47, we talked about Blizzard making changes to the game systems that “killed” WQGF and other similar add-ons. However, the developers of those add-ons were more inventive than I gave them credit for and developed workarounds to allow those add-ons to work in some fashion. This week Blizzard hot-fixed in additional changes. These changes were not documented.

  • Searching for groups now must be done manually.
  • Entering text into the search box now must be done manually, you can’t paste in text anymore.
  • Accepting group members now must be done manually, as the Auto-Accept functionality has been disabled.
  • Group Finder Changes Wowhead Article

Community Resources/Add-ons

Leveling Tips

The Battle for Azeroth is upon us! Here are some tips on making the most of your leveling experience in the two new continents of Kul Tiras and Zandalar.

Basic preparation

  • Clear out your bags, and bank
  • Clear out your quest log 

Stocking up ahead of the release

  • Potions, Flasks, Augment Runes: Old War/Deadly Grace over Prolonged Power, Primary stat flasks, Defiled Augment Runes/Lightforged Augment Rune. Skystep potions for short burst of speed that are faster than ground mount speed.
  • Buff Food: Bear Tartare and Fighter Chow have been nerfed. Grab buff food that increases your burst dps and Crispy Bacon to instantly refresh a food buff.
  • Legion-daries: If you have it Kil’jaeden’s Burning Wish is the best for burst AoE, otherwise Sephuz’s Secret and other legendaries that allow for short boost in dps are greatly preferred than items that might be better but only in sustained damage situations. Your second legendary should be something that adds to your survivability. Ignore Prydaz and try to avoid using items that are in the slots used by Azerite Armor.
  • On use items: Fel Meteorite has been stealth nerfed and no longer works in the new zones. Goblin Gliders still work so grab a stack or two to help you quickly navigate across vast distances. Drums of Fury/ Drums of the Mountain
  • Battle Standard of Coordination to increase rep gains, experience and honor gains (10 min CD)
  • Helpful mounts: Water-strider, Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth or Grand Expedition Yak
  • Katy’s Stampwhistle, Argent Squire/Argent Gruntling with Pony Bridle upgrade, Mobile Mailbox (engineer)

Speeding through zones

  • Level as a group (make sure you’re on the same page about how fast you’re going)
  • Choose talents that give you burst dps, increased survivability and/or better AoE
  • Skip bonus quests and bounty missions
  • Ignore treasure chest and war supply drops
  • Use your CDs on cool down
  • Pull large packs AoE and then group loot once
  • Do not do dungeons while leveling
  • Complete each zone for the high level gear at the end of the quest chain
  • Set and use your hearthstone intelligently 

Tips and Tricks

  • Do not vendor gear of green or higher rarity, save for the scrap-o-matic
  • Log into your alts quickly to get rested experience rolling
  • JC’s can craft +5% experience gems in BfA