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The OverAchiever: The game's 13 vanished titles
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we rue the lack of High Poobah among the game's honorifics. An interesting question in the Tanking forum about a month back spurred an article for readers here about which title they find most reassuring on a fellow player. The discussion that ensued was a reminder that you can't get some of the more popular picks anymore, and just why they meant -- and continue to mean -- something in the first place. Sad to say, these titles are no longer accessible, unless you manage to find some far-flung server at the end of the universe where no one's bothered to kill Sartharion at all.
AQ gates to be open on new realms
In a discussion of new realm transfers opening up, we get this tidbit: from now on, new realms will be created with the AQ gates already open. What that means is, there will be no races on any newly created servers in the future to be the first to gain the Scarab Lord title, for one thing. Those servers will have no Scarab Lords until one transfers there, because it will be impossible to complete the quest chain necesssary for the title. It also means that if you missed the title on your original server but were going to try and transfer to pick it up, you can forget it. Unless you can find a server that's currently active that doesn't have the gates open, I suppose.The way the statement is phrased is a little odd: By automatically opening the gates and allowing immediate access to the Ahn'Qiraj instances, we would like to promote the higher level content that is available as well as ensure a smooth overall experience for players on these new realms. I suppose they just mean the 20 and 40 man instances that are already there, but it seems odd to call level 60 raids higher level content at this point.
Breakfast Topic: Titles! Titles! Titles!
The latest Beta build had a slew of new titles for players to drool over. Of course, most of them were exactly that... titles to drool over but not obtain since most of them were rewards for being the first to Level 80 or first to skill up to 450. Technically, there can actually be more than one person who is 'first' as there's a one minute window when the Feat of Strength is accomplished. Still not very forgiving, and not exactly very casual and quite contrary to the "we want players to enjoy Northrend and not skip content" mantra Blizzard has been repeating as a justification for not having flying mounts for the first seven levels in the expansion.What do you guys think of the new titles? Frankly, I think a lot of them are pretty darn cool. But seriously, in all likelihood, these first-to-Level-80 characters will have little to no experience of Northrend. Your realm's first Archmage is likely to have no standing with the Kirin-Tor, for example. The first Paladin to Level 80, your realm's so-called Crusader, will most probably have grinded and not actually done any quests for the Argent Crusade. Perhaps Blizzard will have some retroactive titles, such as Conqueror / Justicar or even Scarab Lord, which wasn't implemented until after most AQ gates had been opened. What're your thoughts on the new titles?
Almost famous (in WoW)
My wife's fortunes started off with shirts. It was her passion in the game, making shirts as a tailor and advertising them with creative sales pitches on the Trade channel. On our original server, she made a name for herself selling shirts and proceeded to the same thing when we re-rolled. Eventually, she peddled her wares enough and with such charm that she eventually dominated the market to the point where people bought her shirts (and tuxedos, of course) even though they were priced a little higher than other shirts on the Auction House. As our server's Scarab Lord once put it while asking her to craft a shirt, "I want something branded, none of this <his original shirt's crafter's name> sh**."Although my wife hasn't made shirts in a long while since re-rolling a Jewelcrafting Warlock, she's still sometimes surprised by strangers who greet her when she comes online or talks over Trade. Total strangers would say things like, "if you don't have a <my wife's toon> shirt you fail at life" or "I would rather be naked than not wear <my wife's toon>". One even creepily asked her how our 6-month old daughter was doing (apparently he had heard it through an old guildie). It's amusing to see that my wife has carved her own little niche on our server and I realized just how we can get a little fame in the game through the little things we do.
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite title
We at WoW Insider like our titles. Mike once made a little rant about how he would've liked to see the return of the old PvP ranks. Having no Blood Elf High Warlords or Draenei Grand Marshals make me a little sad on the inside. Although Bornakk has already stated that they would like to keep titles "rare", it seems like we're getting a few more really cool titles with the juiciest patch to date. For example, even though attunement to the Black Temple and Mount Hyjal will be removed in Patch 2.4, players who have completed the quest line will be honored with the title "Hand of A'dal" just as players who completed the Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep attunement are called "Champion of the Naaru". Some titles are cool, while some are mere remnants of the old world... who among you really wears their "Grunt" or "Private" ranks with pride? Patch 2.4 also promises an awesome title for those who achieve Exalted with the Shattered Sun offensive... and have money to burn. Perhaps the rarest title of all is the "Scarab Lord" which can only be obtained at one point in a server's lifetime, and it's no mean feat. Though there've been humorous suggestions as to what other titles should be made available in the game, what's your favorite title so far? Is it one of your in-game goals? Are you one of the few who managed to reach High Warlord or Grand Marshal? Or are you happy with Champion or Knight-Lieutenant? Personally, I'm trying to grind Conqueror with my Blood Elf although I've got 1,000 gold stashed away because "... of the Shattered Sun" sounds just so gosh-darned cool. What about you?
Beyond Scarab Lords and Grand Marshals
As you may or may not know, the people who rang the gong to open the gates of Ahn'Qiraj now have the option of displaying a "Scarab Lord" title before their name. This goes nicely with their shiny black bug mounts. In the Scarab Lord thread, Nethaera says that Blizzard intends to implement new titles for Arena winners and other extraordiniary Azerothians. Phunbaba of Perenolde makes some serious suggestions for new titles, including Sir/Lady (if you've killed every PVE boss in the game), Cruel (if you've killed 5,000 critters) and Fortunate (has looted 20 world epic drops.) Later on, the suggestions get sillier, with Sushi Lord (murloc killing) and Iron Chef (cooking skill) mentioned. I have a few less-than-serious suggestions of my own:
