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!

This week, Pat Krane and Dairies welcome special guest Sloot from top ranked guild Midwinter, and they discuss difficulty levels for all kinds of encounters for Warlords of Draenor!

Lead Encounter Designer Ion “Watcher" Hazzikostas talked with several community members from the EU, touching on the resurrection of heroic 5 man content and what kind of difficulty we might expect for the upcoming expansion.  

Along with that, Watcher mentioned that there may be alternate ways to gear up to similar ilevels to Looking For Raid, possibly through challenge modes. With all of the new opportunities Blizzard is giving players for loot in WoD, does that spell the demise of LFR or will it make playing the game more flexible and fun for everyone?

Mythic mechanics are getting freshened up too, according to Hazzikostas. The crew discusses how Blizzard could accomplish it, giving examples of what makes a good (and bad) raid encounter.

And finally, Sloot and the guys take an in depth look into what raid leaders should consider before taking their normal team into Mythic content in Warlords. If you’re thinking about taking your team to the next level, you won’t want to miss this discussion!

This week, Blizzard banned a TON of accounts (unofficial numbers in the hundreds of thousands) for botting programs that enhance gameplay, and some WoW players were caught in the crossfire. The CtR crew explains how these third party programs work, and what other programs may have been suspect. But was Blizzard biting the hand that feeds them, or is their tolerance for cheaters really that low?

Ion Hazzikostas announced that Blizzard is pretty happy with the bonus roll system for loot that was developed in Mists of Pandaria, but are you? Are there improvements to be made, or do the limitations feel appropriate?

The human female artwork revamp was released this week, and Koltrane explains why Blizzard should think about clothing their models, and why his coworkers are avoiding him at the water cooler.

More raiding stats were released this week from MMO-Champion about class popularity in heroic Siege of Orgrimmar, and the CtR crew weeds through the data to get to the important stuff.  Plus, the Warcraft movie finishes its first week of filming, the CtR Guild anniversary celebration wraps up, the guys answer your questions and more in this exciting episode!

This week, former Blizzard lead developer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street revealed his new gig at Riot Games. While the CtR gang were sure that was the most likely scenario, there was someone we have to thank for cracking the case -- Mr. Magoops, Cat Detective. And we’ll even play his story!

Big news broke on the World of Warcraft website: digital copies of Warlords of Draenor will be available SOON™ for pre-order. And when you purchase, you’ll receive the pet, the mount, and even your free boost to 90. Blizzard also hinted that the closed beta will be coming in the next several weeks as well.  While everyone is excited about this, there are some words that bring up concerns of when WoD will actually drop.

Siege of Orgrimmar is getting some nerfs this week, and Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas took to the forums to reassure raiders that these will only be targeted nerfs on several of the last encounters of the raid. Most nerfs are to smooth out progression further or help 10 man teams getting stuck on specific mechanics, and the guys give their take on why this is great news.

The Convert to Raid Guild on Aerie Peak - US celebrates its first anniversary this week, and the guys give you a little more detail on some of the inner workings of the guild and how we’re able to keep it running with the help of some very special people.

Of course there’s a ton more inside, so sit back, relax, and laugh along with Convert to Raid!

This week the guys have plenty to talk about as everyone from Blizzard seems to have finally come back from the winter break!

More raiding stats are unleashed on the internet as MMO-Champion takes a look at heroic progression. Only 0.23% of active raiders have downed heroic Garrosh, but what does that mean in the scheme of things?

Blizzard’s Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas joined Twitter this week and had plenty to say about some of the upcoming plans (or lack thereof) for the future of raiding. But is short form social media a good thing for players looking to glean some insight, or is it all too much noise for the average consumer?

Hazzikostas did state via Twitter that there were no plans for a raid-wide nerf in Siege of Orgrimmar. The players discuss whether (and when) they think it’s going to come, and how big of an influence Flex Raids are in the equation.

Also, with the flexible raiding system and the proposed Group Finder tool for Warlords, where does LFR fit in the next expansion? The guys tell you their reasons why Blizzard needs to nerf this feature even further in the future.

And… Convert to Raid is covering PvP news? Sure! Afterall, the announcement of a new PvP season could point to when the next expansion may drop. The crew updates their calendars and make new predictions based off the latest information.

And Pat, Koltrane and Dairies wrap up last week’s segment on how to be a better raid leader for 2014 with some more advice on communication and taking a look at different loot systems around the World of Warcraft.

Happy New Year from Convert to Raid! The guys kick off 2014 with an extremely informative show, so get ready!

WoWProgress.com released a series of statistics comparing Siege of Orgrimmar to Throne of Thunder, both with the number of players and guilds downing bosses and the number of players still considered “active.” Pat, Dairies and Koltrane make sure to compare apples to apples as they sort out the numbers to figure out whether or not WoW is losing raiders.

A bomb was dropped from Chadd “Celestalon” Nervig on Twitter -- there will be no primary stats on gems for the next expansion! What does that mean for players, and more importantly, what does it mean for Jewelcrafters?  What should we expect in Warlords, and should the Blizzard developers be rethinking the way professions work?

If you made a new year’s resolution to be a better raider (or raid leader), the CtR crew has got you covered!  You’ll get an in depth discussion of how raiders and raid leaders can improve their preparation, performance, attitude and communication to make sure that your raid team is firing on all cylinders!

All that and much more in a very fun, extremely informative Convert to Raid!

This week, the crew has their yearly Winter Veil special, talking about all of the latest WoW news, playing some of their best bits from the year, and more!

There is no more “magic number” in flex raiding as the developers have released their plan for Warlords of Draenor a little early. Now flexible raiding is even more flexible, minimizing perceived encounter breakpoints with a system that better scales to each group size.  While some mechanics in Siege of Orgrimmar won’t scale as easily as others, there shouldn’t be a strong need to keep flex teams to a certain number of members.

The Warcraft movie announced two more actors joining the fray, with Daniel Wu and Clancy Brown.  Both are veteran actors well known for action, so the players are getting amped up to think about the possibilities for this epic film.

The guys then turn the show over to you, as they take calls and answer your questions! Not only will the cast reveal fun information about themselves, but also talk about gear in SoO, discuss raiding in previous expansions, tackle the PvP vs. PvE debate, look back on the CtR Guild, as well as give great advice for those just stepping into heroics now.

Plus, grab some Noggenfogger and listen in on a few of our favorite comedy skits from 2013, celebrate, and look forward to a spectacular new year!