#31 - For Azeroth!: “The Unseen Path”

8/2/17

• Garrett • Jocelyn

Sponsors:

Intro:  Welcome to For Azeroth!

What We’re Up To

WoW Q&A

• Lots of catchup mechanics (AK, Champion ilvl, 3rd Relic Slot)
• A lot of Argus unlocks are Account Wide
• Netherlight Crucible is Reforging 2.0
• I love that they admitted to lack of communication on this tier's raid design

Links

• http://www.wowhead.com/news=269167/liveblog-of-the-q-a-with-ion-hazzikostas
• http://www.wowhead.com/news=268045/netherlight-crucible-and-relic-customization-in-patch-7-3

• Attempted Heroic ToS, was way harder than anticipated. Switched to my shadow priest because I didn’t feel I was contributing enough even though I love the pally
• Gearing up wasn’t very difficult, there’s lots of shortcuts now
• Before I left for vacation I got my 4-piece T20. Pretty sure I’m Unholy now. The bonus is nuts. Each rune you spend reduces the cooldown of Army of the Dead by 6.0 seconds.
• Also, finally got my class mount. Okay folks, yea... that was an incredibly awesome questline.
• And grats to our winners of the WoWhead premium codes:

• OppressedHS
• tigger_12376
• Bigguy6020
• pickingaSN
• taycsmith93
• ChaoticToast
• Reichsbrenner
• MeAndMyTweter
• Bdjy23
• vicbaldry

Lore

The Unseen Story - Hunter Order Hall

After receiving a message from Snowfeather, Emmarel Shadowarden’s pet, the previously lone wolf hunter has their eyes opened to the true nature of their order, and the mysteries behind the Unseen Path.

The Oath of Service

• Emmarel informs the hunter that the Unseen Path is leaderless, and she believes you are the one to lead
• The Unseen Path was founded after the War of the Ancients, to protect the people of Azeroth. For the most part, they have remained on the Broken Isles ever since, though their leaders did leave occasionally to lend aid to the high elves
• Trueshot Lodge was built in Highmountain, a location given to the order by Huln Highmountain who recognized the nobility of the elven cause. The lodge was completed and blessed by the eagle spirit Ohn’ahra, a wild god
• Most watchers have been lost over the centuries, so those that remained sought out other hunters who would heed the call
• Vereesa Windrunner pledges the help of the Silver Covenant, and Halduron Brightwing offers the aid of the Farstriders
• The newest hunter to join the order swears an oath of service in front of the statue of Ohn’ahra

• We are the watchers in the wild, we are the eagle on the wind. We walk the lonely road, for ours is the Unseen Path

• Ohn’ahra appears above those assembled to witness the oath, which include many races and notable names like Tyrathan Khort (interesting because prior to Vol’jin’s funeral, he didn’t exist in the game, he was a Shadows of the Horde book character)

• The hunter sends out champions to discover who needs help in the fight against the Legion, and discovers a village in Val’sharah that is in need of aid
• The village is being attacked by undead hounds, as well as being harrassed by Captain Tevaris and his assassins.
• The hunter traps Tevaris and defeats him, as well as the army of hounds, before being summoned back to Trueshot Lodge

Lost Kitty

• The champions have returned with news that things are much worse than originally thought, so the decision is made to pull back the scouts from the field so the order is in a better position to lend aid where it is most needed.
• Beastmaster Hilaire, a Valkyra in Stormheim, watches over her old clan from afar. She refuses to leave without her companion who has been captured by Kirin Tor mages who insist she killed one of their own
• Hilaire refuses to believe them, as Cora is a loyal pet, and never attacks without a command. Instead, she tracked the real culprit, a fel hound, but can’t take him on alone after being injured in a previous encounter with the demon
• The hunter tracks the wounded demon to a cave, finishes it off, and brings its head to Archmage Landon, who apologizes for the mistake and sets Cora free
• Hilaire is impressed with your skills as a hunter, as well as your ability to deal with outsiders, in this case the Kirin Tor, and so agrees to head back to the Lodge as long as you are in charge
• Hilaire also warns that many of her old clan have allied with God King Skovald, and that he may be a problem in the future, since he has chosen to side with the Legion

Face is the Place!

• Another hunter who will be able to aid the Unseen Path is one of the greatest hunters of all time, Rexxar
• A child of orcs and ogres, he was a one time member of the original horde that came through the Dark Portal, but all the infighting caused him to retreat into the solitude of the wilds. He later met up with Thrall and assisted him in founding Orgrimmar, giving the orcs a home for the first time in Azeroth
• Although Rexxar respected Thrall, he did not believe he belonged with Thrall’s Horde, content to wander the wilds of Azeroth instead
• Rexxar is aware of the Unseen Path, but finds the order and their charge to be dull, and so makes the new leader prove they can survive a night in the wild
• After getting wood and meat for a campfire, and cooking the meat just right, Rexxar agrees that the hunter has what it takes, and joins the Unseen Path
• When the hunter returns to the Lodge with Rexxar, a sentry runs up to inform Emmarel that the flares given to certain leaders of Azeroth have been lit, and that they need to head to the watch tower at once

Cries for Help

• Upon reaching the watch tower, Emmarel and the hunter discover Archmage Khadgar waiting for them
• He tells the hunters that he is worried the Legion is going to invade Dalaran. He has sent out spies to try to figure out where the demons are planning to attack next, but in the meantime he would like the Unseen Path to help protect the city
• Champions of the Unseen Path lend their aid to the city, discreetly, as well as attempt to end the Legion threats around the Broken Isles
• The order continues to protect the little guy by offering aid to their Highmountain allies, the Skyhorn, who are being invaded by harpies
• The hunters provide the village with supplies to make sure that they can continue fighting against the invasion
• The hunter returns to the Lodge to find out that the mages sent out to investigate the Legion have not returned
• In order to find them, we need Huntsman Blake and his dog Baron, the best trackers in the world
• They follow the hunter to Suramar, where Khadgar has found a scrap of a tabard that Baron should be able to use to find the missing mages

The Houndmaster

• Baron is able to track the mages to the cliffs about Felsoul Hold, where they are surrounded by Hakkar the Houndmaster’s minions, magic sucking fel hounds
• Khadgar and the hunter begin to attack, only to fall into a trap laid by the Houndmaster, who appears behind them
• Hakkar calls off his hounds and retreats back into a portal, not before threatening to allow his hounds to devour every mage in Dalaran

• Hakkar was one of the first agents of Sargeras to come to Azeroth when Xavius and Queen Azshara first made contact with him during the War of the Ancients
• Hakkar was responsible for guiding the Highborne elves, helping them to strengthen the portal so Sargeras could pass through
• Hakkar’s felhounds were the bane of any who tried to oppose the Highborne, as they fed on the magic the night elves were attempting to use to protect themselves
• He was slain by Malfurion who was protecting a near-death Tyrande

• Since the hounds feed on almost all types of magic, Khadgar needs the help of the Unseen Path to bring down Hakkar
• With the help of the warlock Kira Iresoul, the hunter captures a felhound fledgling to discover their weakness
• Kira warns the hunter that these have been bred to also be immune to physical attacks, making them extraordinarily difficult to kill without legendary weapons

Setting the Trap

• In order to defeat the Houndmaster, Khadgar suggests luring him to a location of our choosing
• Maleficent Manastorm once created a vessel that could hold the essence of a mage like Khadgar, which can be used as bait. The pieces of the vessel have been scattered by her enemies, so the hunter sends out their champions to find them
• Vereesa wants to fight Hakkar in the Violet Hold, where there won’t be any collateral damage
• Halduron offers the Farstrider blacksmith Kyriel, who has worked with many exotic materials in the past. Using nightmare oak and azure ore, he is able to create arrows that will penetrate the felhounds hide
• Shandris Feathermoon also pledges the aid of the night elf Sentinels, including their knowledge of enchantments, and sends the hunter to Moonclaw Veil to find Lyana Stardust who enchants the arrows
• The hunters assemble in Violet Hold, and Khadgar channels his essence into the vessel before retreating to safety in his weakened state
• Hakkar takes the bait, and sets his hounds on the hunters, but his prized companions are slain by their leader
• Enraged, the Houndmaster engages with the Hunter, only to be slain and sent back to the Twisting Nether
• Back at Trueshot Lodge, Emmarel applauds your heroic actions and your ability to uphold your oath to watch and protect
• She underlines again why the Unseen Path exists, to protect those who need it most, without reward or recognition. And then she gives you a bunch of AP and names you Huntmaster lol

Links

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh2NoXP5sZc

Emails

You can send your emails to FAZpodcast@gmail.com

Yellowflower

Hey guys, the topic of raiding from last episode hit really close to home for me. I, too, am one of those people who is just bad at raiding, but likes hanging out with people.

Most people seem to think it is an all-or-nothing system when you have a good person who isn't hitting good enough numbers for progression, but I want to share my experience because I think it's part of a larger discussion that doesn't seem to happen as much as it should in the gaming world considering how many people deal with mental health issues.

The main reason I am bad at raiding is that I have bipolar disorder. The symptoms affect my game-play ability in unexpected ways. I feel like I'm very similar to the guy who was the subject of that email. I like to joke and have a good time, and I stay pretty positive and don't tend to nerd-rage from dying or anything like that, and I try to contribute however I can. One of my persistent symptoms, though, is issues with cognitive flexibility... or mentally switching from one task to another. How this manifests in raiding is that I can either get out of the poop, or I can kill stuff, but I can't do both at the same time. So I tend to focus more on staying out of the poop. If the raid wipes, I'm frequently the last one standing, but my dps is almost always the lowest. I learned my rotations, I watched videos, I read strategies, but nothing was enough to overcome this particular symptom.

Because of this, I avoided raiding since original Kara, up until Draenor. I lucked into a guild that understood my situation, but who still enjoyed my company, so we worked out a pretty good system that involved me stepping out when they hit a difficult boss

So my suggestion would be maybe just talk to this guy before deciding as an entire raid group whether or not to kick him out. Maybe he has some extenuating circumstances, and if he's contributing in every other way, maybe some kind of compromise can be worked out. I suppose there's always the possibility that he thinks he's good and is going to be super offended by the conversation, but you're going to get that by kicking him from the raid anyway, and potentially lose another person in the process, so what's the harm in trying?

My guild kind of fell apart recently, and I've pretty much stopped playing WoW since then, because it's very, very hard to find a guild who doesn't see raiding as all or nothing. Even a lot of so-called "casual" raiding guilds don't seem to be interested in figuring out how to work with someone who can't get their numbers up. So yeah... I feel for this guy, and I hope they're able to work something out with him.

Thanks guys, love the show! Have good vacations!

Kerry

Hello friends!

First, I want to say that I say friends because I really feel connected to your podcast and I want to thank you for it. I've been playing since Wrath but just got into both the lore and raiding this expansion and your podcast is right at my level. My raid team I play a Paladin or Blood DK on is always within a week of your progress, though I'm not a member of the savage, unwashed Horde. For the Alliance!

Anyway, here's my talking point: The hallmark of a great expansion is having a great villain; someone who terrifies and threatens us for a long time. (This is one of the things that made Wrath great - the greatest bad guy of all time!) Up til the near future, all the bad guys have been characters who have been known and named in the lore for a long time - Illidan, Arthas, Deathwing, Garrosh/bits of Y'Shaarj, Archimonde, and now in Legion we've gotten Xavius, Helya, Gul'dan, Kil'Jaeden, and soon **spoilers** Argus, Aggramar, Sargeras and the Legion will all be taken care of. Finally, next expansion we will almost certainly get to add N'zoth to that list of names.

So, who is left for the expansion after next? I'm struggling to think of a named bad guy we won't have taken down yet. Yes, I know that the whole Void and the Void Lords are out there and are the greatest threat we've faced yet, but I think for them to be scary enough (again, think Lich King - Garrett I know you already were) it's good if they are introduced to the story at least an expansion in advance. Reading through Chronicles I think we've checked all the big names off the list. Maybe Wrathion will be back with some new scheme? or Bolvar will be overtaken by corruption? In any case I hope we start getting hints soon so the fear can start growing!

Interested to hear what you think, and thanks for all you do on all my favorite podcasts!

Outro

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Personal Stuff

Joce where can you be found?

Follow Jocelyn @JocePlays

The Gamers’ Inn

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NOMOONart.com for Garrett’s stream designs.

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