WoW, Casually: December 28 to January 3, New Year's, WSG, etc.
Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.
I hope everyone's holidays have been relatively drama-free and that you are enjoying some downtime before the new year.
Speaking of New Year's, along with the continuation of the Feast of Winter Veil, Blizzard is hosting New Year's festivities on December 31st and January 1st. There will be fireworks, booze and revelers to blow kisses at right along side the remains of the Winter Veil activities.
Have you picked up your presents yet? The trees in Ironforge and Orgrimmar have gifts with exclamation points over them for you to take and open. They range from meh to awesome and some are even BOU for your reselling profits if you aren't into keeping the fun stuff. I was hoping to find a Dragon Kite, but that was before I discovered that it is from the TCG and not something from Greatfather Winter. Dragons are cool.
Some of the goodies you can get:
Snowman Kit: Binds on Use and requires a snowball, this kit summons a Tiny Snowman who is immobile (though animated) and disappears if you run too far away from him.
Clockwork Rocket Bot: This non-combat pet will duel any other Clockwork Rocket Bots summoned around it. The battles are extremely quick, but fun if you're hanging around town anyway.
Mechanical Greench: A guardian pet who will protect you for 10 minutes when summoned. He's on a 10 minute cooldown.
Preserved Holly: Transforms your mount (flying or land) into a reindeer.
Some gifts you've seen previously and some are new to this year. It's free, it's quick, it's casual friendly. Clear out some bag space and go get your holiday freebies!
The Call to Arms this weekend is Warsong Gulch. For an in-depth strategy, broken out by class, please see Zach's Art of War WSG discussion. My pocket strategy remains the same: Carry the flag, protect the flag carrier or kill the other team's flag carrier. If you aren't doing one of those things, you aren't helping the team. If you are fighting in the middle AND doing one of those three things, then you are awesome. If you are fighting in the middle to "control the middle", then you are part of the problem. And if you are purposely throwing the game to "get it over quickly", then you are a team killer and deserve to be voted off the server. Of course, we're not playing Tribes, so that's not an option. Ah well, I can dream.
I have to say that, now that I've seen the details in black and blue, the "bonus honor" weekends don't thrill me as much. For Warsong Gulch, you get 41.8 bonus honor at level 70 if you complete the game (win or lose) and an additional 41.8 bonus honor if you win. But I guess extra is extra and if you need the marks, the queues are usually shorter during the holiday weekends. Otherwise, just keep doing your BG daily quests and you'll eventually get the honor and marks you need to get the purplez.
Raiding is still a bit slow this week, so if you have time enough to do 5-man instances, there should be quite a few bored raiders willing to run them with you. Take advantage of any down time you may have this week to explore parts of the game you normally can't. There may even be some raids who are desperate enough to take inexperienced casuals along. Or you could always kick it old school.
Robin Torres is easily amused and finds dueling Clockwork Rocket Bots very entertaining, but realizes she may be in the minority.
