WoW, Casually: Casual guide to Love is in the Air

Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.

Love is very much in the air and the complete revamp of this holiday is good news for those of us with limited playtime.

Me: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Didn't we say we were going to talk about PvP this week?
I: They changed the holiday drastically. It's more timely.
Myself: Holidays are fun!

Whether you have an 80 or are just leveling, there are a lot of benefits to spending a part of your play session completing the Love is in the Air quests. Of course, if you are into achievements and titles, you are already doing this -- if you didn't get your title last year. But there are quite a few other reasons for casual players to participate in this particular event:

The Quests

There are five daily quests and a story quest for all levels, a scaling go kill and blow stuff up daily, as well as a daily go kill the boss quest for levels 78 and up. I highly recommend doing these quests, if only for the fun factor.

The Sample quest: You get this quest from the Public Relations Agent in any faction capital. He will give you a sample to force on people, such as spraying cologne in their faces or tossing chocolates at them. This is really fast and easy, even with a few people doing it; because even though you can't force samples on people with hearts over their heads, the hearts vanish pretty quickly and you can also use it on NPCs. This quest can be done once a day in one city only and has no level requirement.

The Lovely Charm Bracelet quests: Get the Lovely Charm Collector's Kit from Peddlefeet in any faction capital (you can get more if you lose your first one) and then killing mobs that give experience will give you a Lovely Charm -- which we can only imagine to be a piece of bone or other tidbit torn from your victim. Or I guess, if you're squeamish, you can think of it as a magic award for defeating a bad guy. Anyway, the "charms" stack in groups of 10 40 which can then be right-click combined into a Lovely Charm Bracelet, which doesn't stack at all. Peddlefeet gives out a daily quest in each capital to deliver one of your gruesome gifts to each faction leader. That's four dailies a day and there are no level requirements.

The Story questchain: I love this quest chain. Love. It begins with Uncommon Scents in a capital other than Stormwind or Orgrimmar and takes you through the story behind all of this sample forcing going on and explains why you need to go kill the big bad bosses in Shadowfang Keep. The story is fun, and much better than just randomly flirting with guards as in previous years, but the real awesomeness in this questline is the mechanics. In Pilfering Perfume, you change into a goblin

Myself: I wanna be a goblin now!
Me: Shh!

and get sent off on autorun to go steal a crate of perfume. And in Hot On the Trail, you participate in a fun series of scripts, even losing control of your character a few times. I squeed throughout the first time. I can't wait to see more of this in Cataclysm.

The Story daily quest: Once you've done all the legwork for the goblin detective to uncover the real story, he sends you off to be his enforcer. The location he sends to you varies according to your level, but the quest is the same: go there, kill bad guys, blow something up. It's very easy and the respawn rate is high. Unfortunately, on a PvP realm, so is the gank rate. (Captain Obvious is wearing a t-shirt that says "Duh" on it.)

The Boss quest: If you are level 78 75 or higher, you will be asked to do yet another task for the goblin detective, which will end up with you defeating the three bosses in Shadowfang Keep. This can be done daily.

Experience

If you are not max level, the dailies give a hefty chunk of experience that scales with level. If you couple that with the fact that you need to kill mobs that give experience to make Lovely Charm Bracelets, it's well worth completing them. Or you could farm on your main character and just mail the bracelets to your alts, allowing them to just bop around and hand them in to the leaders for XP boosts.

Cash

If you are max level, the dailies give a nice chunk of change. And if you're not, there is still a small amount of cash to be made from doing the dailies. The real money comes from the Lovely Charm Bracelets, however. Though prices have plummeted from the first couple days of the event, you can still sell any extra Charm Bracelets you have for at least 10 gold each on the AH.

Gear

For a time-limited level 80 player, the loot drops from the bosses are awesome. And I'm not even talking about the delightfully naughty Big Love Rocket mount, for which you need a lot of luck and/or time. The amulets that drop, and have decent drop rates, are identical to ones you can purchase with Emblems of Conquest -- but with far less effort. The fight is a bit tricky, so read up on the strats first.

Time Saving Tips
These are my play-tested tips for efficient Love is in the Air participation:

Lovely Charm Bracelets: Make sure you have the collecting kit in your bags before your daily questing. Doing the Crushing the Crown daily, and hanging around to kill a few extra bad guys, will help you collect charms (which are a medium drop rate). Also, farming meat for the Cooking Daily, as long as the mobs are green or higher, is a very efficient way to collect charms. And, if you're not a healer, signing up for a random dungeon or two, will fill your bags with charms -- so make sure to empty your bags before going.

Faction Leader turn-ins: If you are hearthed in Dalaran or Shattrath, plan your portal/hearthstone use for maximum efficiency. I highly recommend Hordies log out in Orgrimmar so that the next day they can start in Org, fly to TB, hearth, portal to Silvermoon City, then portal to UC. I find that is best for picking up and turning in the bracelets in the fastest amount of time, taking in account where you land in the city and traveling to the next capital. Alliance don't have it as easy because there is no quick portal between Darnassus and The Exodar. So, start in Ironforge, fly or tram to Stormwind, hearth to Darnassus and then either boat to the Exodar or wait for your next hearthing opportunity.

I do find that with all the traveling, the daily quests are not as alt-friendly as say Hallow's End, where you can just park your alts in the appropriate village and take turns for a few minutes every day raking in XP. But Love is in the Air is still fun and worthwhile to do on your main. Also, please join us for the Love is in the Blog event coming up this Saturday. You can meet a few of my fellow WoW.com staffers and spray your fellow readers with cologne. I hope to see you there!

WoW, Casually is a column for those of us who are playtime-challenged. We've got your guides for choosing the best class, finding a casual guild, keeping your account safe and choosing the best addons for casual play. But wait there's more! If you have questions or tips about how to get the most out of your limited playtime, please send them to robin AT wow DOT com for a possible future column.