There are lots of little things happening with Blizzard right now, and it gives the gang some time to recuperate from their big interview last week with Celestalon and Zarhym. So this week Koltrane and Pat Krane welcome Treckie from the #1 guild in the world, Method, and together they take a look deeper into the Warlords of Draenor alpha patch notes. There’s some important items that weren’t gotten to last week, so they fill in some of the facts that dropped through the cracks!

Also, Blizzard packs PAX East full of beta codes, Naxxramas hits Hearthstone, Alliance vs. Horde in Azeroth Choppers, new models and animations, and your big questions of the week!

Convert to Raid #138 - Celestalon and Zarhym Interview!

This week, Blizzard joins the CtR crew with Technical Game Designer Chadd Nervig (Celestalon) and Community Manager Jonathan Brown (Zarhym)! Over the course of two hours, the guys uncover more information about the Warlords of Draenor alpha.

It doesn’t matter what role you play, or your class or spec. We’ve got something for everyone in this jam packed interview! Covered inside:

• Garrisons

• Scenarios and Challenge Modes

• Raid encounters

• Warlords Alpha basics and how it will roll out

• New character models

• Draenor Perks

• Overall philosophies for tanking, healing and dps

• Raid utility

• More details on every single class!

Happy April Fool’s Day! This week, the Convert to Raid crew get the information you need about the game you love!

A new WoW Source video with Morgan Webb is coming soon, this time talking about PvP and class changes direct from the game designers. But could there be a leak at Blizzard HQ? The guys intercept some fantastical information with the upcoming changes!

If you could blacklist a couple of 5 man dungeons, would you? Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas pondered this on Twitter, which turned into an online poll! But could dungeon blacklisting be bad for the World of Warcraft?

Some new tools are being developed by names we already trust! Ask Mr. Robot will be revealing their brand of combat logs soon, and Wowhead.com just unveiled their class guides for new and boosted 90s. What do they bring to the game, and who are they trying to connect with?

All of that, plus a discussion on professions in WoD, your questions, and more on another intriguing show!

This week, Koltrane and Pat Krane welcome Derevka for a very fun and informative show on all the latest in World of Warcraft!

Siege of Orgrimmar has been out for over six months, and  this is the longest we’ve ever had to wait for new content in the history of WoW. Was this a communication breakdown between the developers and the rest of the WoW community, did something go wrong, or is this “working as intended” according to the development plan?

Blizzard has made the wait a little easier, however. This week, Blizzard announced that normal and heroic raiding were both going cross realm. Is this move so that raid teams can recruit for Mythic raiding in Warlords, or did the devs do this to try and extend the life of Siege of Orgrimmar?

The crew takes a look at the pieces and give you their insights on these issues and a lot more in another jam packed show!

This week, Blizzard released the Warlords of Draenor pre-purchase along with the boosts to level 90, but have they caused more issues for raiders in the World of Warcraft? The Convert to Raid crew takes a look into how the new 90s have made their impact on LFR and Flex, along with how much we can expect to pay for the next expansion and when we can expect it.

Could flight not come to Draenor in the next expansion? Blizzard developer Alex Afrasiabi discussed it in a recent interview, and the CtR gang finds some surprising results from their chat room.

Plus, the guys tackle questions on raid and guild leadership issues, news from other Blizzard games, and a bunch more in this week’s show!

This week CtR tackles the latest Dev Watercooler released just a couple of days prior, this one talking about health pools and healing for Warlords of Draenor. The guys break it down and try to keep it all in context for what it could mean for the next expansion. 

Plus, a new video was published on YouTube (on the Warcraft account) about the level 90 boost being available, yet it hasn’t made it’s way to the World of Warcraft site. What does this mean, and when will it be available in game?

And the guys answer a ton of viewer questions, including one about how to examine combat logs during raid. The crew gives you the 411 on some of the key information to look at as well as some great addons to try out.

This week began the “info dump” from Blizzard, and the guys at Convert to Raid have you covered with tons of information and some really bad jokes.

The latest blog article from Blizzard discusses the process behind a lot of the upcoming changes for Warlords of Draenor, including the stat squish, racial bonus changes, ability pruning, crowd control changes, and more. While the article itself is more general, a couple of developers took to Twitter to give much more detailed information, and the crew helps sort it all out.

What do these changes mean for raiders in World of Warcraft? How will your game be impacted as we head into the next expansion? These changes show a marked difference in the mindset of Blizz, but are they dumbing down WoW or making gameplay choices more interesting?

Plus, we answer several viewer questions, talk about our raid team’s expansion, the WoW Insider cutbacks and more!

This week’s Convert to Raid revealed some interesting possibilities for the future of the World of Warcraft!

Patch 5.4.7 dropped, and a few key problems forced Blizzard to have more realm maintenance later in the week. Not only were addons like OQueue broken, but mounts from the Blizzard store went missing as well. The hubbub had people on the forums threatening to unsubscribe (and more), but now players may have more mounts than they know what to do with.

Directly after the patch landed on Azeroth, the Blizzard in game store contained a character boost to level 90 for a whopping $60 US. The guys will give you their take on the price and whether or not they plan making a purchase or two, especially if their raid team needed the help.

Blizzard developers held international press events over this last week, and one of the revelations dropped was that a silver medal in Proving Grounds may be a prerequisite for Heroic Dungeons in the next expansion. The more casual players shouldn’t be affected by this change too much, as heroics should not be a necessary progression path to get to LFR. But this does bring up a few key questions:

• (How) will this change item level differences between normal 5-mans, heroic dungeons, and LFR?

• Does this mean that heroic 5-mans can be even more challenging than in the past?

• Why does Blizzard feel the need to teach us how to play our role?

• And do more difficulty levels mean that more players will be able to play in their niche and be happy, or will they just feel like Blizzard is forcing them through unnecessary hoops to get to the good stuff?

Plus, the gang talks about the new character model updates, Twitch plays WoW, PvP changes and answers a bunch of your emails on another jam packed show!

The Convert to Raid crew are back in action to give you the hottest news for raiders in World of Warcraft!

This week, Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas dropped a ton of news, including some minor nerfs to the 10 man heroic version of the Garrosh encounter. While this has been an issue for awhile, now is the time to make some adjustments to ensure that the difficulty between 10 and 25 is better aligned.

The Challenge Mode dungeon “season” is ending soon, according to Blizzard. But did anyone ever tell the general public that this was a “season” in the first place? Why did Blizzard pull the plug? How have players been reacting to the news, and how can Blizzard improve on this scaled 5 man content in Warlords?

And finally, reported just before this show recorded, patch 5.4.7 should be landing this week in the World of Warcraft! This new patch brings the start of the next PvP season, several class changes and preparation for the Level 90 Boosts and Pre-Order for Warlords of Draenor. Not everything may be available right away, but we expect to hear more news about the Pre-Order soon™.

Also, The Scroll of Resurrection Retires, garrison art is revealed by Blizzard, casters may have fewer instants in WoD, and more!

This week, they CtR crew looks into their crystal ball to see the future of World of Warcraft!

PvP Season 14 is ending soon, but why would raiders care? According to Blizzard, we could be seeing the end of this season in the next couple of weeks, with patch 5.4.7 soon to follow. Included in the patch should be pre-purchase of Warlords of Draenor, the free boost to 90 and much more. And if the next PvP season is around 20 weeks long, when will we be seeing the next expansion? And when should we be finding out more about the release of the beta? The guys will give you their predictions!

WoW subscription numbers are… up? According to Blizzards quarterly earnings call, Q4 saw an increase of 200,000 subscribed members. This is definitely a surprise to many in the community. Can it all be traced back to Blizzcon, or is there something else in the works? And will Blizzard be able to retain these numbers?

In the prepatch to Warlords, expect a raiding shakeup! Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer for Blizzard said via Twitter that patch 6.0 would introduce all of the raid group changes into Siege of Orgrimmar. So Flex becomes Normal, Normal becomes Heroic, and Heroic becomes Mythic. It’s downright confusing for the guys to keep everything straight, but they’ll try to get everything and everyone sorted out as we approach the big switch.

Also, how can you get raiding experience if no one will let you in to your group? The guys take a look at a viewer question on how to take their first steps as a raider. Also, a wrap up of the Blizzard Stream Awards, more questions from you, and lots of laughs inside this week’s show!