FAZ 54 – “Same Road, Different Path”

This week on FAZ, Joce and Manny cover the latest Warcraft news, their spoiler-free experience in BFA so far, give tips for gearing up at max level, and take a listener theory about Evil Anduin. FAZ will always be free, but if you enjoy the content we produce then please consider supporting the show at https://patreon.com/faz

Developer Q&A

This Thursday, August 26th, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas will be on Twitch for another live developer Q&A.

• What questions do you want to ask Ian?
  • Are raids completing elite quest intentional?
  • Are there more interesting Azerite Traits coming later?
  • Could we please do a better job of distinguishing the main story from side quests? Maybe even go back to a zone progression story of Zone A to B to C?
  • Have the Twitch Q&As replaced the Dev Watercooler Articles? I loved the depth of information that is lacking in the Twitch Q&As.
• Official Blizzard Announcement

Finally Azshara

Azshara Warbringers is coming (soon ™).

• Festival of Games Announcement and Details

World First 120

Congratulations Gingi of Method!

• Took roughly 4 hours and 17 minutes
• Balance Druid
• 3 man team (other 2 dinged shortly after him)
• Beast Master Hunter, Balance Druid
• Original Twitch clips of the leveling were removed due to some offensive content.
• Icy Veins Article

More Interviews

More Interviews came out this week surrounding the BfA Launch.

• • Game World Navigator (Russian website) Interviews Ian Hazzikostas
    • Disabling LFG Addons
      • Blizzard wants to define what is a group quest and what isn’t, to prevent people from getting carried through solo content (also mention pacing concerns)
    • Revisiting Draenor and the Evil of the Light
  • Polygon Interview with Narrative Producer Steve Danuser and Lead Artist Ely Cannon
    • Evolving and defining what it means to be the Horde
    • The Alliance is going to have to realign itself.
    • Wowhead Translation // Game World Navigator Interview (in Russian)
    • Polygon Interview

Mionee says goodbye to WoW

Just ahead of BfA the player Mionee has decided to step away from the game. Icy-veins posted an interview were Mionee talked about power creep in game design and the reason why in an unending stream of content, he feels he has achieved all that he can reasonably achieve.

• • • Interesting point about catch up mechanics and how soloing bosses is less of an achievement now (killing Gul’dan when ToS was current was less about skill and more about gear/power creep)
    • The idea of complexity and therefore flexibility was interesting too. Reduction in player’s toolkits but not a reduction in power meant brute force over strategy
    • Icy-Veins Interview

Ion Hazzikostas to Open PAX West

PAX West has announced that Game Director Ion Hazzikostas will be the Storytime Speaker.

• • • Friday, Aug 31st @10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
    • Seattle Washington (Friday, Aug 31 – Monday, Sep 3rd)
    • Tickets sold out for everyday (except Monday)
    • Official Announcement

Community Resources/Add-ons

Gearing Up at max level

Following last week’s leveling guild, this week we want to give a general guide for leveling up to get everyone ready for the raiding and PvP that will open up on September 4th.

From last week: Don’t ignore chests! Some are worth 10K XP, and if you get 12 Tortollan scrolls (random drops from chests) you unlock a 295 headpiece.

World Quests

• • • Scale with your own item level between 290 – 340
    • Emissary Gear tends to be higher
    • Do the World Quests as the last part of your routine.

Dungeons

• • • Prioritize weapons as they are hard to upgrade from other content
    • Normal Dungeons
      • provide 310 gear at level 120
    • Heroic Dungeons
      • provide 325 gear
      • Requires ilvl of 305
    • Mythic 0
      • provides 340 gear
      • Must be an organized group (no ilvl requirement)
      • Weekly Lockout

Island Expeditions

• • • Normal, Heroic (requires ilvl 295), Mythic (requires ilvl 315), and PvP (requires ilvl 295)
    • Azerite!
    • Plundered Weapons

Reputation

• • • 320 cape at honored
    • 335 gear for revered
    • 350 gear for exalted
    • Becoming, Friendly, Honored, and Revered with the Champions of Azeroth give +15 ilvls to your heart of Azeroth per reputation level. (not exalted)

Crafting

• • • Starts at ilvl 300
    • Higher level gear is BoP

Tips and Tricks

• • • Azerite Gear cannot Warforge nor Titanforge
    • Weapons cannot Titanforge but can Warforge
    • The Heart of Azeroth increases 2 ilvl with each rank
    • Currently, items can Titanforge up to 355

As always, don’t forget to write in to fazpodcast@gmail.com, or let us know your thoughts over on Discord at bit.ly/fazdiscord

 

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