My RETURN to Retail WoW After 15 Months!

[@Preachgaming]

Hi all, Chris here. I'm working away hard with the footage we got while we were at Blizzard - we should have some awesome content for you over the coming weeks and I can't wait for y'all to see it. In the meantime, Mike decided to head back into Retail after over a year now that the new talents are in, and make sure his main is prepped for Dragonflight. Also, if you weren't aware Blizzard has released their own displates for Warcraft and you should definitely consider using our discount link in the doobles if you're thinking of getting one. We're also sorting out an agreement with Blizz to make our own licensed WoW ones as well, so hopefully in the new year I'll be able to paint up some cool designs of our own.

[@jilaxwest9770]

I love you guys, this video made me so happy. thank you

[@___IG]

Thanks for your dedication to great exclusive content truly doing what no one else is love ya ❤️

[@ALeafOnTheWind42]

Hey Chris, something I figured Mike should be aware of since he mentioned Renown: once you've hit 80 Renown on one toon, there's a BoA item you can buy which will raise your Renown to 60. It's called the Broker Mark of Distinction, and can be purchased from Au'Dara, a broker vendor that sits next to the Flight Master in Oribos. While conduits would still be a thing, if Renown is actually something holding him back from playing around with other toons, that's something he should be aware of

[@MrM4DD0gg]

cannot wait to see the blizz footage

[@terraincognitagaming]

I thought preach said he was done with wow / retail in a video

[@globalist1990]

I thought one of the reasons you stopped playing wow was the worker's abuse in blizzard. You know, rape talks, bringing someone to off themselves. Horrible crunch time, exploitation of outsourced workers in poorer countries.

[@Freestyle80]

says the guy who has an iPhone made by child labour while browsing google who has a similar toxic environment. But you do you, keep thinknig you got some sort of moral high ground by not playing a bloody video game, thankfully knobheads like you are now drowned out by people who actually try to have fun in their lives

[@globalist1990]

@@Freestyle80 learn to read. His claim. Got it, functional illiterate? Also imagine putting a phone on the same level as an inane videogame that makes you grind non-stop for a better 2% chance at defeating a dumb bot that always behaves the same for further getting better "gear". Online, with others doing the same, on a subscription AND cash shop. I bow to you, fun human. Let me surface for a grasp of air.

[@Nami]

You're right, that was ONE of the reasons. I also want to clear something up. The suicide wasn't at Blizzard. She worked on the Call of Duty team at Activision. It doesn't make it okay, and every other awful thing that came out in 2021 was basically at Blizzard, but that one wasn't.

[@Trebolf]

All this talk of "third era of Warcraft" and listening to feedback. I can't help but still be very skeptical when they've said that multiple times in the past and it turned out to just be all talk. What's different this time and how can we trust this new third era?

[@monkeysk8er33]

They've never said that, actually. Hope you watch the new video he just released.

[@Mduffy-yo6rb]

You don’t trust. Asmongold said it best. If it sucks just don’t play it. But tbh shadowlands S3 & S4 was actually really good IMO.

[@seegee9]

I think skepticism is healthy here. We just have to wait and see, I personally think we're in for positive changes but I'm also interested to see where we're at 6 to 12 months from now

[@smokedoggxxl]

“Hello I’m preach and I don’t cover WoW anymore because I have a moral standard” “So here’s my 5 WoW videos since my last statement”

[@DJ_Khaalis]

Quick correction. The anniversary world bosses are daily loot lockouts. There's the weekly quest, but you can kill them every day to get more chances at loot.

[@joshuagarner1654]

With a trash drop rate, they need to stop being being so stingy

[@ShadowReaper90]

Is this live now? I thought those came with next weeks reset?

[@chrismcvay8252]

@@ShadowReaper90 yes the 4 daily anniversary bosses are live noe

[@GerardSharkey]

@@ShadowReaper90 Next reset brings the pre patch event

[@SadBirbHours]

My mans lost some pounds and gained hair in the meantime. Actually a massive W quitting WoW

[@hek7752]

The question is tho will he loose his hair again lol

[@Daecoth]

Look at Rich Campbell before and after he quit WoW. Stress kills hair lines.

[@billymays9296]

@@Daecoth If you get stressed out playing WoW, you probably also get stressed out getting dressed in the morning.

[@Daecoth]

@@billymays9296 lol Just calling out like we see it. Never got into WoW myself, and my Latino locks are thicker than ever 🙆‍♂️

[@stu.chainz]

@@Daecoth who asked dude?

[@literallypuni4091]

>Leaves WoW streaming after sex scandal >Returns 1 year later >1 week later: SEX SCANDAL LOL!

[@seree80]

I appreciate the content Preach provides and am not bothered by him playing anything really. However, I am terribly curious and am not sure if he ever addressed this at all, but in his video where he explained why he wasn't going to stream WOW, the number 1 reason was the Blizzard abuse allegations. Blizzard never really seemed remorseful about it, so I am curious how he came to terms with it to the point where he's ok with streaming it once again...? Didn't he mention something about not feeling ok with promoting the game by streaming it or something along those lines...?

[@ash-id9ss]

You're absolutely right, he said the allegations were a driving factor, and that he knew people on the inside that could verify the working conditions were awful and abusive. As far as I'm aware the end of the entire abuse issue was "Blizzard investigated Blizzard and found Blizzard did nothing wrong". What you mentioned is exactly what I was waiting (hoping?) for, I wanted his take on how and why things are better now, that the issues were addressed. I don't think we're going to get that.

[@iseeredppl]

You're smart, he did it because he assumed the game would die and had to justify the move to FF14. He pulled all his loyal fans to FF14 and now he's ditching them, money talks 😂

[@jlouise832]

This must only be a financial decision. This streaming thing Is now his full time job and I honestly think he's kinda sold himself out here. I hope I'm wrong.

[@BIGBOSSTRAVISLEE]

I agree he said he was never going to play again blah blah but I guess money talks

[@HMNNO]

@@BIGBOSSTRAVISLEE he said he wasn't to cover wow news anymore but anything he is fine with

[@hardlyaaron]

FFXIV really taught me how I could approach WoW's content on my terms and that missing some stuff is fine if I'm having fun. It also helps that Blizz has started to learn that players don't enjoy daily busy work that keeps them from being able to play alts or other games.

[@Velshin1986]

That is yoyr fault tbh not WoW tbh. Not saying WoW is perfect hell no but not being able to self control and just keep playing until you are burned out then that is totally on you.

[@bluejays6223]

If you come in saying you played ff your not gonna be welcomed kindly, besides the ff weebs that band together in one guild

[@LobsterFusion]

​Yay! Tribalism!

[@ahearneo1]

how much did they pay you for this video?

[@theatfshotmydog8224]

Recently quit and refunded my Dragonflight pre order, feels like I can breathe now and not have to constantly worry about doing all the in game chores.

[@von2320]

They let you refund it?!

[@theatfshotmydog8224]

@@von2320 yep

[@peen2804]

Y’all are straight up fucking insane. People act like they’re hostages regarding WoW and it is weird as hell. play it if you enjoy it, don’t if you don’t. it really is not more complicated than that. The amount of people doing the weird abusive relationship with a video game schtick is baffling. I’ve played since vanilla, stopped playing during shadowlands, because I didn’t like the game anymore. That’s really as far as it needs to go. No emotional turmoil required. Pretty wild huh? “ I can breathe now and not have to constantly worry”. That’s you homie, not a video game. So fucking melodramatic 😂

[@Freestyle80]

@@dafire9634 and your choice of celebrating someone not playing a game is weird af

[@rudy2978]

Money means more than integrity in own words right guys?

[@xINVISIGOTHx]

i still have to do twisting corridors 8 too. I think i'm at 7 or 8 right now. The last one i did wasnt even hard, its just draining, and fills me with dread just thinking about having to do 18(???) rooms? Maybe i'll force myself to do it today

[@ScotsmanDougal]

Isn't it funny how you managed to forget that you also pulled away from the game due to how staff were treated at Blizzard, all the sexual allegations made etc? Did viewership numbers drop off that much that it affected your finances?

[@Freestyle80]

isnt it funny how you think you not playing wow somehow makes you morally superior to everyone else because you cant do anything else in your pathetic life to contribute to society?

[@Steven-hg4cz]

When you mentioned having your friends help you gear up (skilled players with I presume good gear) I instantly knew for an average player like me coming back for prepatch it was going to be a complete waste of my time to even attempt to get decent gear before the new expansion releases. I don't have any skilled friends to play with, I don't even have one legendary, I just started zereth mortis, every time I try to spend some time I get frustrated because I know I will never catch up to the minimum to even start enjoying SL with the time I put aside to play the game. I have given up and will just wait for the new expansion at this point. I'm so frustrated and sick of wasting my time and not getting anywhere and constantly feeling behind and inadequate for any group content. I am glad to see you back to try the new expansion out, hopefully it will be fun. I'm looking forward to a possible change that you mentioned about not having mandatory content barring each character from even starting end game content.

[@Steven-hg4cz]

@@rfproject8726 Thanks for taking your time to reply, I will look into that

[@MarcoticsTV]

Whats the Loot Rolls addon that you're using preach? Would love to know.

[@MarcoticsTV]

If anyone else was wondering pretty sure I found it. It's Xloot with the group rolls module.

[@kimaclaret]

I've got zero interest in playing WoW again, but I hope it's great for my friends who still play. And I'm super excited for December's MMO focus and seeing how things go. Hoping to see some RWF coverage, as well.

[@stu.chainz]

Who asked? 😊

[@KutluMizrak]

@@stu.chainz Your sister.

[@Desu-Desu-Chan-San]

@@stu.chainz Same person who asked for your reply.

[@kimaclaret]

@@stu.chainz Engagement for the algorithm. Were you looking for a fight or something?

[@itsyaboiherman]

What comes out in December?

[@blackestmamba]

I also took a big break from wow last year and am happy how it's shaping up to be. Also, I have no words to express how happy I am for seeing you back in the game and enjoying it, just like the good ol' times

[@KLGChaos]

Sadly, it probably means the FF community will lose him like we lost a bunch of streamers who went back. Ah well. Maybe they'll return with 7.0. If Blizz let's them.

[@Keira_Blackstone]

@@KLGChaos heh. I consider there to be a non-zero chance Blizzard shits the bed again. and even if they don't and Dragonflight remains pretty solid- I expect at least Preach to pop in and check it out whenever there's a new patch.

[@AbigatorM]

@@Keira_Blackstone yea he fell in love with the story. so he will at least do that

[@fredxu99]

@@KLGChaos Yoshi-P has reiterated time and time again that FF is not intended to enslave the player's attention. Late-patch FF14 (like 6.28 right now) is generally a drought time, and people often run off to play other games before the next big patch drops (6.3 is coming soon), including myself. Preach will no doubt be back to check out the new alliance raid and story, and the new raids in 6.4.

[@azno3442]

12 month subs says this xpac still won't be able to retain players

[@ztormur6504]

happy you're back preach.

[@piposanchez]

What happened? Did you get tired of being sickened of Blizzards actions? Or did they just pay you enough to bring you back?

[@Sourman1545]

since finger prints kind of stopped doing there thing where can we go to get those models now

[@vifrit3260]

"Ultimately I have to measure it by my own moral compass and I feel like I just can't justify World of Warcraft and support it anymore." -Preach, "The End of an Era - Why We're No Longer Covering WoW"

[@l0singtransit389]

I really wish he'd address this, explain why it's ok now.

[@schnucksergio5808]

how much?

[@jibrilles]

I'm happy that you can enjoy it again. I tried logging in and just got frustrated; the love I had for it for sixteen years is just ... gone. I'm glad that those who love the game have something to enjoy again.

[@Jaigarful]

Yeah, I think I'm just over that part of my life. Locking up my week nights with raiding just kills my social life.

[@Sneedmeister]

same here. I paid 15 to give WoW another try the other day and I logged out after 30 minutes. it just doesn't feel good to play WoW anymore, feels gross.

[@Maxwelldog]

@@Sneedmeister just wait for DF to drop, beginning of x-pacs are ALWAYs fun. even BFA

[@Tamamo-no-Bae]

Turtle WoW is the only WoW thing I still touch. Retail's lore and gameplay has been butchered so much... FF14 is my main game though.

[@damonrojas83]

i also got back into WoW to try out the changes and whatnot. I was actually kinda enjoying the gameplay, and being able to customize classes for different playstyles much more varied than the previous talent system (i'm a minimalist skills kinda guy for when i'm playing solo, so being able to "avoid" a lot of active skills in the talent and make no difference in solo play feels good), but sadly i have to say the problem for me is the changes to everything from talents to UI to options to gameplay feel incomplete, and the thing that made me uninstall the game again was when after hourse of setting the UI like i want (i hate premade UIs like elvUI and such) the game once froze and log me out, and the whole WTF files where corrupted and i lost all my UI changes. Yes, i should have made a backup, but it just hurt too much.

[@rssiya2601]

i just started playing again since 8.2, trying to figure out what to do isn't very intuitive.

[@gloobs988]

Anyone got a link to the ElvUI setup? His SL one isn't importing correctly for me

[@unbidabyss2903]

End of an era, by the way. Forget about that already, did we Mike? All it took was some interviews or something, I guess. And some money, I reckon. That's all it took to get you to come crawling back. Wild. Probably why I'm not a KZbinr, I guess, but that's besides the point.

[@brianalmond]

Welcome Back!

[@rehvan8669]

Welcome back

[@warllockmasterasd9142]

fingers crossed the Devs have actually changed their ways. But I seriously doubt it.

[@Rakka5]

As someone who played WoW from the start of Vanilla up until Legion, I really hope that Preach will enjoy this, but for myself, I'm done with Blizz for a long time. The latest WoW expansions, WC3 Refunded, Diablo Immortal, OW2, the sexual abuse, the censorship etc etc was just a chain of events too long to ignore. Blizzard needs to do YEARS of work to undo their previous damage, and considering that the company still has the same people working in it, I don't see how it will change.

[@quixef]

Erm actually none of the people shown in those "Cosby room" pictures are currently working for Blizzard. So idk what you are on about.

[@Rakrak1775]

@@quixef they still wont fix the legacy servers modern wow is pay to win and full of botters and hackers.

[@quixef]

@@Rakrak1775 What legacy servers? If you mean WotlK classic people are playing it just fine, nothing needs fixing. And no modern WoW is not P2W, what do you see as winning? Only killing bosses? Having them killed for you with gold is not winning in my book.

[@fearsengar6341]

I haven't played WoW for 15 months... 4 mins later.... I've played Dragonflight Alpha...... invited to Blizz.... Preach my man..... 😞

[@japojapo3269]

He is sayin he did not play RETAIL...... makes some difference... but i get where you coming from anyways... Even the TITLE SAYS IT :DDDD My RETURN to Retail WoW After 15 Months

[@Eas_Planeswalker]

What's the nameplate addin in the footage, plater?

[@laxxboy20]

But there have been several videos in the last few weeks of Mike playing WoW?

[@TK_GX]

Dragonflight will be like MoP/Legion. Its an expansion where they are listening, removing things that are tedious and are actually adding things for the sake of it being fun.

[@kichrootra]

hahahah just had the random thought "hmm, i wonder how preach is doing" and decided to peep the channel, welcome back

[@mebrandonb]

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Guild Wars 2! I love that I can just jump in there and do stuff and not feel punished for not logging in everyday. The strikes are fun and they even have challenge modes that can be quite difficult in a different way than wow or ff14's difficult content is. If you plan to do the story, it's a lot like ff14 in that the "ARR"/personal story isn't amazing, but the living world stories have some really high highs. I've never boohoo cried at the gw2 story like I have in ff14, but it has been enjoyable.

[@UndeadAaronGames]

Everything thats Wrong with wow doesn't exist in gw2. It's such an amazing game. Not to say it's perfect, but it's close. It's end game isn't great, and people always say wow has good end game, but does it really? all shadowlands had was endless grinds and recycled dungeons and raids. I like that I don't have to make gw2 a job or feel the need to keep up, I can take a week or a few months off and come back and still be relevant . The PvP balance is really well done.

[@BlitzStudioz]

I'm ngl what stressed me out with GW2 was just how much of gold making did involve logging everyday for the daily mists and crafts

[@hardlyaaron]

I love GW2 for the way it treats it's world, it really is a character. I think you can enjoy multiple mmos for different reasons and that WoW, FF, and GW2 could all learn from each other to make their games better.

[@niklasstahl98]

GW2 is great to play, but the endgame being entirely about gold farming feels kinda bad and makes a lot of content worthless, which is a shame cause most of it is pretty fun

[@fredxu99]

​@@BlitzStudioz Yeah gold is the real problem in GW2. People are saying GW2 is very chill, but the fact of the matter is they milk the player a LOT for gold. Every new skin set costs a boatload of gold and earning gold is very slow even in the most lucrative of farms. A lot of gold comes from daily timers like fractals and crafting, or world metas that only occur once every few hours. I stopped playing because going for things in GW2 always involves a boatload of gold, even the Griffon mount costs 300+ gold which is a week of straight grinding a few hours everyday in Silverwastes/Palawadan/Auric Basin and saving up.

[@chiro6069]

Question, stopped playing shadowlands when shards of tear sets came out lol...do i have to play all till the end of shadowlands content in order to get to dragon flight? or could you just start in dragon flight when its out? Ty in advance.

[@ssjonupants]

Nah, you don't have to do anything in Shadowlands to do DF, mate. Don't worry, you're good. When the expac drops, you go straight to DF.

[@Nobleshield]

New PreachUI for Dragonflight when? 😀 I've tried so many other UIs and none of them have been as good as your layout and WeakAuras

[@paranoidsoldier]

That blizz money was good enough to forget your morals?

[@sihi5634]

I personally would love to see TDP return, I used to love the variation of different classes and dungeons each day, part of the beauty of WOW is the variety of classes.

[@_reenzane]

Three Dapper Penguins was an awesome series indeed. Especially in Legion

[@TheLoreGeek]

Holly shit preach! You look amazing! Haven't been here for a while & it's really noticeable that you've changed. As a cool guy named Ross Geller once said - Hot stuff!

[@EXOdagr8t]

So, when's the next Legacy Video? Feels like the longest time we went without one

[@silverscreemer]

For me, the recipe was not 100% drop rate as of few weeks ago. I had to so spires of assentation like, 6 or so times before it dropped.

[@kikoredog]

"throughout all this, i was having fun "--- thats the copium preach

[@Freestyle80]

@@wolfsonginteractive9124 cry more bish

[@zeveroarerules]

So, make your UI again? :)

[@everythinggamingnow]

this is a bit off topic, but what is the best way/addon to have your main abilities in a nice below-center area? (like @ 5:30 ) im trying to improve a bit how im playing and not looking at my bars would be a good start. I know my keybinds well as i have similar abilites on different classes on same keybinds, but i find myself constantly still staring at bars to see when things are off cooldown and ready

[@TheReitiNo1]

I find it interesting what the youtubers and streamers come up with so as not to leave the impression that they are just taking the hype about the new addon with them. We all understand that you earn your living with it. So stop taking us for fools.

[@creepin_wow]

I don't feel your critque of the covenant leggo for alts is accurate. The item that lets you craft it on any slot is account wide, so you only have to do it once. I havent dont the campaign on any of my alts

[@jasonb2916]

Finally preach is coming to guild wars 2... you are going to love the raids!!!!

[@elizabethmorton5322]

You should just call your whole channel 'Drama Time'. I do not have the energy or the cares to watch your return after you had such strong opinions about leaving. Diminishing returns bro.

[@sargentford]

Can you share your new UI

[@icresp4263]

Been absolutely loving the pre patch, getting back into it I missed the smoothness of wows gameplay. Going in with a more casual mindset and just doing what's fun is the key to fun in wow now, and with all the changes they've been making it's becoming easier to do that without falling behind and being useless

[@leonardceres9061]

when you don’t have a regular time to play wow anymore it makes it hard to do anything with anyone else so there gets to a point where you’re basically just playing the game in a solo fashion. I kind of makes playing in MMo’s a little difficult. So whenever I do play I basically get nothing done except a few random things. I don’t even bother to do LFR anymore. Or even hardly ever run random dungeons. I can’t be bothered to worry about figuring out strategies anymore. And some young little ass hat my cop an attitude and if I was over his house I’d smack him in the mouth put his keyboard down his throat and see how he felt, 😅 😂 No but seriously I played this game like a job 18 years ago. And I still enjoy it but I only have a couple hours to play here and there. Honestly for most of the pre-patch I have just been playing Skyrim. Lol I was having more fun before the pre-patch when I decided to level up a blood elf paladin but then pre-patch it broke my entire user interface and reworked all the talents to basically take a lot of the little utility things that I had away from me only to give them back to me as a choice in Italian tree

[@kerotomas1]

@@leonardceres9061 I play solo too now i couldn’t care less anymore about “falling behind” when every patch your gear becomes irrelevant and every expansion kills your previous grind like azerite, covenants, artifact etc. It’s just pointless to grind and do hard content. It’s more fun to me to run old content for transmogs and collect stuff etc.

[@leonardceres9061]

@@kerotomas1 Yeah I’m more or less do that myself so I can understand

[@riahka1357]

Let's wait how fun it really is after couple of months after release :P

[@hobosnake1]

@Leonard Ceres bro if you think you need strategy for lfr, I'd say you should totally do it if you want to see the raid even if it's just for fun and not to take the game seriously. I mean, half the players in lfr purposely die at the beginning and just afk. You're literally a legend if you're just pressing buttons in lfr. I appreciate that. There's a stacking buff every time you die so it gets easier too. It's meant for everybody. Not much strategy needed tbh.

[@Yamidoragon]

So how do you get back? My friends are in wow and I’m desperate to get my hype back to be able to share their joy, but it died somehow. How do people fend off a burnout once it happens?

[@dafire9634]

Burnout just requires rest, there is no other cure. You just need a few months or in preachs case 14 months away from the game, no other way to pass over burnout

[@piposanchez]

Was the boycotting over sexual abuse charges a strategy to get them to pay you more? Was it virtue signaling for view counts? Or did Bobby just offer you a big check to promote their Dragonflight launch?

[@peggle09]

I am also coming back after a long break, I will be trying out the Evoker class to see how it is, if I do not like it I will play my hunter again.

[@Bathrezz1]

I played shadowlands hardcore for about 6months before I quit. Had multiple alts, played everyday, collected my things and it got to a point where it was obvious I was wasting my time. Tmog drops that are 1% or less. Rares that are on a random rotation (korthia, etc) with each having their own unique rare tmog drops, it was an awful experience. I quit. It hurt my heart but I had to. I was wasting my time and honest, it didn't matter. Those digital rare drops dont mean shit when you arent playing WoW.

[@Hirotoro4692]

Plus you were playing every single day; is it any surprise you burned out?

[@Barbeque_Sauce_1234]

What are your thoughts on the current state of Blizzard's work environment? I've thought of going back because I do miss my guildies, but Blizzard have done such awful things to their employees that I just don't want to give the company any more money.

[@CosmicCleric]

This. Personally I'm waiting for the Microsoft takeover to be complete, before considering returning to it.

[@vidanovitch]

Why would his thoughts be relevant on the matter ? I think to each their own... What happened was bad. But was it a Blizzard specific thing ? Absolutely not. Not only it is a human issue, but also it probably concerns the vast majority of workplace in the whole world. People sometimes are bad, i will not punish myself for it.

[@ArchieBlacke]

@@vidanovitch Because if you watch "The End of an Era - Why We're No Longer Covering WoW", he said the recent (at the time) allegations about Blizzard management was "the straw that broke the camel's back". So he clearly cared enough at the time. No mention of that in this video though.

[@lostinfrance9830]

Same after giving Actiblizz more than 10yrs of sub and insane amount of hrs into retail and classic there is no way i will be going back any time soon or giving them another penny. the employees thing was the icing on the cake but the main one for me was the way ActiBlizz completely s*** all over us the community for years on end. feck em

[@vidanovitch]

@@lostinfrance9830 That sounds sad. Remind me of a friend who was very critical about the game, to the point of insulting the company. When you reach that point, i think you're the one who should change something.

[@dado5x]

Anyone knows which weak auras is he using?

[@canuckgirl2777]

Dude u quit do to the scandal

[@alewis514]

I had a similar overwhelming feeling when I came back to WoW in 8.3, after similarly long break - I quit very shortly after BFA released - and you might remember, launch patch of BFA was pretty damn shit. We lost so much stuff from Legion which was replaced with... well, was not replaced. With anything. The character felt terrible to play and I wasn't fancying another months-long round of AP grinding. I quit. And came back in 8.3. I was overwhelmed by the number of systems and chores they thrown at us. My 8.0 character was 150 item levels below even casual LFR players that were up to date on their characters, I didn't had the necklace, didn't had any up-to-date azerite armor, didn't had any essences, didn't had the legendary cloak, let alone leveled it up. I was like WTF, where do I even begin this. I got the cloak and did some 8.3 dailies, the horrific visions, whatever. My ilvl looked a bit better now. Oh, I have to backtrack to content from a previous patch to unlock the necklace essence slots. But then, my neck is level 17. I can't even allocate azerite armor powers. Do I have to grind AP for months to get to level 50 which was the basic major essence slot? I geniuinely thought that and pictured myself doing 200 island expeditions. No, there is another quest in a zone from the previous patch. The game doesn't tell you this anywhere. And would you know it, there is a zone from fucking Vanilla WoW that's now phased and has additional level 120 content that gives currency and gear? There are warfronts that give a guaranteed 460 ilvl item which is equivalent to a heroic raid drop? No, I didn't knew any of this! I had to google this from icyveins and other 3rd party sources like that. This was a god damn nightmare. Players said oh it's fast you only need to do this, this and this and it's just 2 hours. Sure, but you forgot 60 hours you put in over the course of previous patches! WoW wasn't like this before. I started playing the game in late Cataclysm, patch 4.3! I leveled to 85, did heroic dungeons, then did 4.3 heroic dungeons (there is only PAWAAAAAH!), then I did LFR and filled leftover slots with justice and valor point gear. That's it. I was ready to enter normal mode raids. It was like OK, you are max level and have reasonably endgame gear, now it's time to find a guild and raid real content. Everything was explained in the game, I didn't needed any addons for this. Let alone 3rd party web sites with strategy guides. Recent vision of WoW development has been utterly horrible. A dozen of secondary systems that enhance your character in a drastic way, even you did a comparision between SAME ILVL characters in BFA - one had just gear, the other had optimized essences, corruptions, azerite traits and whatnot. The diffrence was like twice the damage from what I remember. It was silly.

[@realisticrachel-000]

i shuttered so hard when he showed himself pushing the torghast button

[@Zantetsudex]

It's very easy to talk positive at the tail end of one expansion and the eve of a new one. First 1-3 months will be the determining factor.

[@Kadash10]

FOMO is the absolute enemy of fun. I have never understood the thrill that some people claim comes with getting a limited time anything, be it a limited time mount or armor set, any of it. Sure, it looks cool, but so do lots of things, and if someone asks you where you got that cool armor set, the moment you have to tell them "Oh, you can't get it anymore." then it immediately becomes worthless. It's not prestige, it's not bragging rights...it's just proof that you spent a lot of time on something that no longer matters, like bragging about a trophy you won in third grade. "I got this trophy in third grade. How do you get one? You can't, you're not in third grade anymore." Wow...cool I guess? Much like the prestige argument, I've not heard a single good reason for having FOMO anything in your game. All it is is telling you that you *can't* do that....which is not what fun is supposed to be. So putting in FOMO and then hiding the reward behind a dozen grinds is exactly why WoW has been dying and I'm so happy that they're not doing it for Dragonflight....or are they? They promise the world...but trusting Blizz at this point is just asking to be tricked. I hope it's true...I really want WoW to be a good game again...

[@hayatojin2886]

Bribed back to WoW by Blizzard eh?

[@alkent6978]

I don’t get it. For those who haven’t played since Legion, can we jump into Dragonflight blindly? I did not understand a thing you said about all these systems snd conduits. This game needs to make it easier for new and returning player to get into it. I swear this all sounds super complex. I remember artifacts and order halls pushed me to quit this table top browser game

[@andrewpaul8732]

No lost ark? :(

[@dougbillings]

you can do LFR and get enough soul ash to buy the bag of all the needed mats to make a legendary.

[@duhvidian2369]

I still can't look at this game or even begin thinking about playing it again and I haven't logged in since the first week of SL. I believe my time in wow may be over for good

[@Strytax]

lol nothing has changed, he's just back because he knows it'll be dumb to not profit from the new expansion, if you want to get back fine, but don't say disenginus things like everything will be different that's what happened last expansion.

[@Freestyle80]

@@wolfsonginteractive9124 i'm so glad this triggers you so much, it brings me great joy to see the twitter canceltards rage

[@iamontda]

I similarly haven't played in over a year (since BfA), so I'm massively interested in this video

[@jenat82]

Minute in. Okay I am glad you are back but you told us you left cos you didn't agree with the internals at Blizzard, you know, the problems with disrespecting women. I have been playing this since early BC. I fucking felt all that as a player. I felt the problematic men who do that and in kind the men who want to defend me from this shit cos they know me. granted that sorta saviour thing could be a little problematic in itself, but the gesture was always in kind. I did cringe when women came on the game in our raids and was so flirty. That behaviour made me look bad too. I was there to raid and be serious. think, you are on holiday with the family and the chav council house family comes to the pool. They are a problem for everyone and you can't help but feel responsible and related in a way. Well, this type of "sexism" isn't just wow or wow up. It's all gaming. Gaming attracts a certain type that isn't good with the ladies or confident and then blame women cos they feel entitled.. okok.. we just call them incel. lol It is what it is. The game is better with aa man like you in it.

[@franktaylor3692]

You're looking fit Preach! Congrats on your fitness journey.

[@feron450]

Damn preach the hair looks amazing my man. Congratulations.

[@wtff]

I can't wait to see these interviews.

[@DarkHawkeLP]

Its good to see that you are enjoying wow again and lovely to see the diversification of your channel as-well as twitch going so well. I quit wow a long time ago and admittedly have no interest in ever touching it again. But at the same time I enjoy being up to date on it as much as I enjoy staying up to date on ff14 with you. I very much hope that blizzard will go into the direction that you dont need to make wow "Your job" to stay up there with the hardest content. I would love to see people be able to play multiple mmo including wow.

[@basil8940]

Preach has access to resources. Nice. I would've liked to have done some m+, but if you're not a tank or don't know a tank, well you're shit out of luck.

[@BabyzDevil]

Totally agree with you there. Plus Warriors are generally really good at the back end of the expac, when there more substats on the gear.

[@JustRuss]

Glad you're back! Looking forward to what you have in store for us!

[@saffia757]

next to the flight master in oribos there is a vendor that gives you all the conduits for the 500 gold if i remember correctly

[@bmnbl]

Still only returning in 10.1 probably i STILL dont trust them. A lot of the new expansion looks amazing, too good to be true if i can be honest so im giving them time to put all the balancing out before diving in and choose what to play and not be disappointed (again).

[@cmerk100]

I really don't see the game in any kind of positive light, and all the positive things I hear are "the developers have been saying the right things" which they say every single expansion, every single year. Results matter, and DF is just... not that interesting as a product? Dragon riding. Talent trees that are just removing skills you already had and giving them back to you in a tree. Eh.

[@Lancun]

Honestly, Dragon Riding reminds me of that Order of the Cloud Serpent questline in Mists that got old after two weeks of dailies...and you want to make that a selling point of the entire expansion? ???

[@cmerk100]

@@Lancun Mists also had the race you could do by rolling in a ball down a track with obstacles in the way! I had forgotten about those things.

[@TheAssirra]

But this is completely false. Both BFA and SL had massive parts since alpha that the dev is completely wrong and being stubborn. I really don't get why people like you keep saying that since the last 2 expansions are famously dunked on since alpha.

[@Lancun]

@@cmerk100 The reason you forgot about them is because they were fun little side activities whenever you wanted a daily that wasn't generic, not something you based one of an expansion's main selling point on.

[@canuckgirl2777]

So u are crawling back

[@TimmyTechTV]

Title should have been "The last time I seriously played WoW I was bald"

[@valkyriesardo278]

So what I'm hearing is you quit WOW because you didn't want to grind your alts for raiding. You came back to grind your warrior for raiding. And your reason is Blizzard told you the next xpac would be different. I watched some of your Blizzard interviews. It was all too WOKE for me. SL was over saturated with WOKE and the staff is still singing that same tune.

[@candykit5382]

Basically all he did was grind dungeons and raids and torghast for gear upgrades, I'm so glad that part of my life is behind me

[@candykit5382]

@@RSBrokeYa You assume I play for gear. Did the savage tier in FF14, I don't farm the gear except for glam, I don't grind my item level, I don't grind for trinkets, I decorate, I craft, I take screenshots, I do frontline, I do whatever I want, then I go play something else if I feel like it. Did not have to grind the gear in FF14 by the way, its only the weekly clears.

[@MrHellgate82]

Yeah yeah yeah changes seems nice but what about biggest problem - no content? FFS there was only 2 big patches in 2 years of Shadowlands. All this hype and when you start playing it's gonna be another 6 months of wait for a patch.

[@Lancun]

Really makes you long for the days of consistent support like Mists and Legion, eh? Two good expansions in a decade. One during the Ion era.

[@MrHellgate82]

@@Lancun definitely 2 of the best wow expansions for sure, with MoP being my all time favourite

[@Lancun]

@@MrHellgate82 It's just sad that in the last ten years we've had two good expansions and three horrible ones. Not a great run.

[@von2320]

Preach, honest opinion; with all the new talent builds, and changes to ingame systems, would you prefer dracussy or vulussy?

[@Prawnsly]

*projectile vomit*

[@tomtee6252]

Umm if you do the main campaign you get the 265 legenedary belt for free? should only be 2-3 hours i would think?

[@andrewshandle]

It's way longer than 2-3 hours. Because it was time gated it was like 90 minutes a week for players at the time so they didn't really notice, but if you go in with a fresh character (or for the first time if you quit WoW before 9.2), it's a good 6+ hours to get it for sure...and then you need to do it for all your alts. It sucks.

[@BurntToast256]

I just levelled from 50 to 60 as a Blood DK (which I've never played a tank before - mostly healer and Windwalker) and I just spammed Timewalking Panda dungeons... didn't even step foot in Shadowlands.

[@Keira_Blackstone]

nice to know it's become more fun to play. But the reason I left- and am now in FFXIV- is because what I am looking for in an MMO is a game with an interesting story (that my character is actually a part of) characters that I like and are interesting, and a world that just feels enjoyable to spend time in. Azeroth was just a miserable place to be for me. So I will definitely wait to see what people say about the story and characters of Dragonflight before I consider stepping back in. And if I don't hear anything about them- that itself will be an answer. I'm not expecting it to ever come close to the feeling I get from FFXIV, but I don't think I'd say no to coming back to a less miserable Azeroth.

[@thumbwarriordx]

You mean dropping you into the middle of a power fantasy as "THE CHOSEN ONE" alongside half a million other chosen ones doesn't make you feel special? Shocking, who could have predicted this?

[@Keira_Blackstone]

@@thumbwarriordx not entirely sure what you're going for, but it's not about feeling 'special', it's about feeling invested. A HUGE problem with Shadowlands was that the afterlife fucking sucked and I did not particularly feel like it was worth endlessly grinding Torghast for the chance to save a bunch of incredibly shitty people.

[@thumbwarriordx]

@@Keira_Blackstone Yeah exactly. There's a reason everyone was more invested when we were all just some grunt. Your heroic status was something you achieved through deeds in game, and no matter what level you were at you felt it every time you moved up. I do a solo main story quest telling me how great and unique I am and I feel nothing. Meanwhile I'm just some jackass doing chores. It feels so bad.

[@00GhostSlayer00]

Weak, you said you were done!!!!

[@knekt02]

Finally, welcome back

[@SoFishtry]

Excited for GW2 coverage. Game's had a pretty massive impact on the MMO landscape, and I don't think most people realize just how much. The event system is very novel and still, ime, the best incarnation of the dynamic 'quest' systems.

[@Hockeyguy8541]

Preach I hope you get to cast RWF you literally make Echo's streams so much more enjoyable and watchable just having you on there. Especially with Alex. I hope you both do more crazy stuff again I'll definitely be watching.

[@dafire9634]

The race this time will be likely over christmas so he most likely wont be casting it, hes said it already

[@Freestyle80]

@@dafire9634 Raid opens on December 14, 11 fking days before he'd even need to go back for Christmas you are saying the opening raid of an expansion will last 14 days again? you high?

[@baseballfan4877]

I am still 100% waiting a couple months before considering Dragonflight. A couple specs like fury war and ww monk are fun and I think they have gotten a little creative with the trinkets in DF, but I just won't preorder again

[@MensGroomingAdvice]

My server must be super dead - I can't get any groups together for Doomwalker or the 4 bosses around the world you talk about farming :(

[@discmania5677]

not playing...somehow still knows every little thing about the expansion and pre patch...weird never would have thought that

[@camsmyth101]

So true Preach the fomo is what was destroying WoW for me. All the systems I need to work on would be on my mind while playing and I couldn’t enjoy the game or playing with friends because I had jobs to do.

[@edwardhatfield5360]

Welcome back!