WRUP: Those damnable hats
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!
Hats! Fun, frilly hats! What a great week for colorful, whimsical, frilly hats! Not since the show Blossom went off the air have I seen so many hats in so many various shapes and sizes!
If you've been following the news this week, well then ... you know all about fun, frilly hats. You know who was wearing them and when. You have well-formed opinions on whose hat was the frilliest. And, of course, you're all too aware of what a terrible show of disrespect it is to not wear a fun, frilly hat. Hats!
What's that you say? Hats are boring and uninteresting? Well, I guess there was other news this week. Like Patch 4.1, some major content release for that World of Warcraft game. Something about trolls and a re-release of Zul'Aman and a Zul'Gurub as 5-man heroics.
In honor of the occasion, I thought it appropriate to tack on a bonus question to this week's WRUP: "What are your thoughts on the new five-mans, Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman?"
Adam Holisky (@AdamHolisky) DPS queue times are down, way down, so I'm going to take advantage of this and finish up leveling my huntard and get some sweet heroic gear relatively fast. On my druid main, healing the new heroics has been fun and honestly not too much of a challenge. There've been points where it's been a little nuts, but nothing that more general familiarity with the encounters won't solve.
Alex Ziebart (@AlexZiebart) As of writing this (Friday afternoon), we're not sure if we'll be seeing the PTR this weekend. If we do, I'll most likely be dedicating my entire weekend to exploring the new patch 4.2 content. If we don't see it, I'll probably be putting some more work into my Nitpixels side project or the bit of fiction I've been working on. Alternatively, if Mike Sacco stops being lazy, I may try to sucker him into some Portal 2 co-op, but come on. Mike Sacco? Not being lazy? Never gonna happen.
Allison Robert (@AllisonRobert) More work on the low-level TankWatch project for me. Regrettably, I have not yet seen any surge in the number of bear tanks queuing since patch 4.1 hit, but it's been less than a week and I'm still crossing my fingers. I really like the two "new" troll dungeons, but ZA feels a bit overtuned if you're doing it in blues. Then again, I've exclusively pugged the content, and we all know how that usually ends ...
Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) I'm going to be constructing ... things. And hopefully not injuring myself in the process. As far as the new dungeons go, I haven't had a chance to run either of them yet, so maybe I'll get a bit of that in this weekend as well -- I'm really looking forward to running Zul'Aman again. That dungeon was tied with Karazhan for my favorite back in The Burning Crusade!
Basil Berntsen (@OutDPS) Brian and I are going to be talking to the one and only BigRedKitty about his return to WoW this Saturday on the Hunting Party: 6:00 p.m. Eastern; be there or be square!
Dan O'Halloran Cub Scout Rocket Camp. Order & Chaos Online. Sleep. In no particular order.
Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb) Going to be running a few dungeons to help my guild hit the challenge, I imagine. Also, more Zandalari dungeons. I may even PuG tanks some normal heroics just to see what's in those Call to Arms bags. As far as the new dungeons, I'm not feeling Zul'Gurub as much as I'd like. It's long, convoluted, and a lot of the bosses feel overly gimmicky. Zul'Aman is a lot more fun. The bosses remind me of the old 10-man but are still relatively unique, it feels like a cooler fighting alongside Vol'jin and having the option to still unhex people, and the race against the clock feels sort of fun. Trash is a bit more annoying in some spots, but I can deal. Overall though, this is the first time I have liked new troll content in a long time, so that's good.
Elizabeth Wachowski (@leeatwaterlives) Working, that's all. Maybe work on my Renegade Mass Effect playthrough a little more.
Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen) Now that I have a kickass new job for a major consulting firm, weekends again have meaning for me! And just in time -- birds are singing, trees are flowering, and the weather is perfect. The world is beautiful right now. As for what I'll be playing ... well, lots of runs of the new ZA and ZG heroics. I haven't been able to try them yet -- my first attempts Tuesday were too bugged. Oh, and I'll be running them on my brand new second monitor. Thanks, new job!
Joe Perez (@Lodurzj) World of Warcraft of course this weekend, with my brand new baby gnome mage Otiluke. Maybe some more Portal 2 Co-op is in my future this weekend. Also my new Warhammer 40kbook was released, so I'll be reading that this weekend. Love ZA, not so much a fan of ZG. While I like the new tier of heroics, ZG is long, and not very PUG-friendly. That said, I love the troll content and it's a beautiful redesign, but I'll take ZA over ZG any day.
Josh Myers (@Elamqt) I will be waiting to send my WRUP in at the last possible minute just to mess with Fox. (Josh is a jerkstore. -- Fox) As for the rest of the weekend, in theory I will be writing. In practice, I will be getting distracted by the internet until 10:00 p.m. Sunday when I realize what time it is and complain about how I didn't have enough time to write anything over the weekend. As for the bonus question, haven't done them yet.
Kelly Aarons (@Cadistra) Going to finish Portal 2 (I play it in small morsels) and most likely either (a.) working on stuff or (b.) biking the Seawall. Depends on how the weather is. As for ZA/ZG -- haven't done them yet, but eager to. No way I'm going to PUG those things. Waiting until I can get a guild group. The quests leading up to ZG were awesome, though. Love those voiceovers!
Lisa Poisso (@emused) Kids are camping, husband at home monitoring a big weekend data run ... You do the math.
Mat'yu of the Brukkari (@gomatgo) This weekend I have to get ahead on the writing and spend some time gearing up the paladin for ZA and ZG runs. Very sad that I cannot jump right into them on my alt. However, the warrior is loving some troll-bashing fun. I love the new dungeons -- challenging, cool rewards, familiar yet not boring. Good times. If my friend finishes his super-awesome school paper, we're going to Portal 2 some.
Fox, we decided this a couple days ago, but as part of WRUP, you have to give us all troll names. Sacco made up Maatikas of the Canadari for Matticus and Mat'yu of the Brukkari for me.
Matt Rossi (@MatthewWRossi) Cursing Zul'Gurub with all my heart and soul because it, too, refuses to give me a hat. I'm getting extremely jaded with the loot drops in this tier. No hat from raids, no hat from ZG, where is my hat?
Matt Walsh (@Rhidach) Sneaking in bouts of Minecraft where I can in between vast stretches of spring cleaning. As for ZA/ZG, I haven't had the time to run either yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. ZA was one of the highlights of The Burning Crusade for me.
Robin Torres (@cosmiclaurel) I'll be Hopping to Hard Boiled with It came from the Blog. I'll also continue leveling my prot pally. She can die but I have to be really, really not paying attention to have it happen. And I'll be playing Words with Friends (cosmiclaurel), alternating between looking totally brilliant and completely illiterate. As far as the new 5-mans, I won't be playing them any time soon, but I love the trailer and am now a big Vol'Jin fangirl.
The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some game time. Are you an achievement junkie? Can't get enough raiding? Rolling a new alt? Considering taking the leap into roleplaying? Whatever your favorite way to play World of Warcraft, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!
