world-of-warcraft-hot-topics
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Breakfast Topic: Is it time for a change?
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program. Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements. I've played World of Warcraft before and absolutely loved it -- I loved it until it became a second job for me. Then when I quit cold turkey, it turned into a bad break-up. I wanted to play it again but didn't want it consuming all of my time. I wanted to level without hating myself for sitting on a chair until my butt hurt, then finding a pillow and valiantly continuing on. It's actually a deep, dark secret of mine (obviously not any more) that I never once got to the promised land that is level 80. I'll admit though, I had a lot of fun with the game. Hitting up instances and running through the well-written quests with friends was loads of fun. I wasn't a PvP god or anything, but I definitely had my good days back in my prime. I'll admit also that I still feel its callings now from time to time, and for all I know, I could be playing again tomorrow. This brings me to an important question. What is it that keeps World of Warcraft players going strong? I remember when I first broke up with World of Warcraft, I went through an awkward rebound phase where I looked for any game I could find that would replace it. The sad part of this search was that I found myself wanting other games to be like Warcraft. The truth is, it may very well be the best one out there. Even if it is the best, I want to know what gets people through the struggle of questing and grinding. As a semi-retired World of Warcraft gamer, I want to know if getting to the level cap is in fact worth the struggle. Is it the journey or the reward? What makes it all worth it to you?
Breakfast Topic: My life is a mess
While I am perfect in most every way, there is one notable area where I am lacking -- organization. My desk at work has stacks of old reports, many from months ago. There are tons of Post-it notes all around with phone numbers and addresses; to whom they belong, I have no clue. But if it wasn't important, I wouldn't have written it down. The notes stay. (Especially the ones with scribbles of dinosaurs.) My Warcraft life is no different. I was doing yet another run through of Hellfire Ramparts yesterday on my shaman alt, and I struggled to find a place to put Gargolmar's Hand in my bag. And Omor's Hoof. And ... oh god, there's a third item for this quest, too? What the heck am I going to throw out? Somehow, the fact that I still had Ice Cold Milk in my bag eluded me for the last 40 levels or so. And Umi's Mechanical Yeti? I don't hate myself enough to spend an hour flying around Kalimdor to actually finish that quest. Six slots are full of Argent Dawn memorabilia. There are probably even a couple of grays in here, but I'll be damned if I can find them when it's time to vendor. I tried solving the problem by creating a bank alt, but if you couldn't guess, the bank alt's bags quickly became a mess. Are you a hoarder too? Is there something in your bags that's hopelessly out of date, and yet you can't bring yourself to get rid of it? And good god, man, what am I going to do with these seven stacks of Peacebloom?
Breakfast Topic: Design a unique healing spell
There has been quite a bit of talk on the forums about the various spells each of the healing classes have available to them and how those might be expanded in Cataclysm. One poster asked when we'll see healing variants of some various DPS spells like Cone of Healing or Rain of Healing (which was actually announced for Shaman). This led to a fun little conversation here at WoW.com between Dawn Moore, Chase Christian, Elizabeth Harper and myself. We came up with ideas like Holyfiend, a pet that healed people. You could either target it or set it to "aggressive" and it would heal people at random. Another idea was a talent turning a paladin's Consecration into an area healing effect that ticked when stood in (standing in stuff on the floor is good?). There was also the idea of creating a healing wand similar to the healing rod from Final Fantasy VI that did healing instead of damage on the target you attacked. What would be some interesting mechanics you'd like to see turned into a healing ability? Would you turn the moonkin's little treants into mini resto druids? How about something like Pestilence that spread your heal over time spells to the rest of your party?
Breakfast Topic: World PvP
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program. Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements. I remember when my freshly made human rogue first left the friendly confines of Elwynn Forest and ventured across the river into unknown Duskwood. This being the first toon I had played, I was entering this new zone with a mixture of excitement and wonder. As I carefully began to explore the landscape, without warning, a trio of mounted level ?? horde warriors came storming over a hill crest, leapt from their steeds and tore me to pieces before I knew what hit me. Thus was my introduction into the cruel and exciting world of PvP. After playing WoW for the better part of four years, that experience still stands out as a defining game experience for me. Thinking back now, it was one of the major hooks that kept me logging back in for more. Why? It was unpredictable. It was totally unexpected. It really made me feel that the game world was alive. I had obviously interacted with other toons up to that point, but that moment just seemed to add a sense of realism to the game. For the first time I felt that I was playing in a living, breathing, dangerous world.
Breakfast Topic: Which class will change the most?
Over the next three days (and a week from Friday for paladins), Blizzard will be announcing some of the class revamp information that will be implemented in Cataclysm. This will by no means be all of the information, and if you followed us during the Wrath beta, you'll know that these things might change before the expansion comes out. While I'm sure that the class you're waiting to hear info on the most is your own class, I've got a little bit of a different question for you: Which class do you think is going to be changing the most in Cataclysm? Will it be warriors, due to the impending rage normalization? How about death knights, since blood will be the only tanking spec after the expansion hits? Will it be hunters with their mana changing to a focus system or warlocks with their complete revamp of Soul Shards? Let us know what you think. %Poll-44032%
Breakfast Topic: PC voices
I'll admit it. I rolled a female gnome warrior alt because I enjoyed the idea of a perky short gearhead chick kicking the ass of a big hulky green dude. But you know what's kept me coming back? The voice. Whenever I spam heroic strike and hear my gnome warrior insisting that she "needs more rage" I get a little bit giddy. It seriously is about the most adorable thing in game. She's just so enthusiastic about getting some rage and beating up bad guys and I want to hug her and why is everyone looking at me like that? She's just adorable, all right?
Breakfast Topic: Are boss mods cheating?
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program. Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements. We all know about popular boss mods such as Deadly Boss Mods and Bigwigs Bossmods, which are add-ons that trigger alert messages and timer bars for boss encounters. These are so popular that it is rare these days to find a raider who is not using such an add-on. Many guilds, in fact, require a Boss Mod add-on for all their raid members, since it is deemed so essential. So why would anyone not use a boss mod? Well, there are players out there who think that boss mods go too far, cross the line of fairness and are basically a form of cheating. The problem is that boss mods give the player information about something that has not happened yet in the game. They reveal information before the game itself presents that information. Often to the very second, boss mods let the player know exactly what the boss is about to do. This, some argue, gives the player an unfair advantage and is not how the game was intended to be played. Sure, the default game reveals much of the same information in the form of emotes, cast bars and other clues -- but that is how the game designers wanted to reveal these actions. They intended players to use their intellect and skill to work through these encounters, by observing these cues, and not have an add-on tell them exactly what is going to happen each second of the encounter. What's the challenge in that? Readers, what do you think? Are boss mods cheating or not? If you use them, do you ever feel guilty? If you don't use them, tell us why.
Breakfast Topic: Titles
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program. Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements. I'm a man who enjoys a good title reward. At 24 titles and counting, I have been forced to find creative ways to get the most out of them. Since I refuse to use a title rotator add-on, I've instead merged a few /settitle commands into some of my usual macros. Now when I lay down a Basic Campfire, I also become Chef Cutaia. When I'm forced to perform emergency first aid and bandage myself? Cutaia the Patient (you see what I did there). Each time I switch out my gearset, it comes with a new title, too. Crusader for ret, Loremaster for prot ... you get the idea. Now, I've heard the argument that all titles should be difficult to get so that they can retain a sense of distinction. However, I place myself firmly on the opposite side of that debate. Personally, I wish titles could be a bit more like the game's other collectables. Think of all the ways in which pets are obtained, for example. Some require a rare drop, while some come as achievement rewards. Some require hours of brain-melting bookshelf camping in Dalaran, and some are sold by vendors around Azeroth.
Breakfast Topic: The other half
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program. Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements. Have you ever found yourself wondering how the other half lives? I don't mean your rich neighbor -- I mean that other faction. I must admit to a bit of curiosity, as I'm a die-hard Alliance player. I love gnomes and although my main is a spacegoat ("Oh, you have a shaman? Come heal!"), I've never been interested in most of what I consider to be rather unsavory Horde races -- but Tauren intrigue me. I really don't understand why they'd want to be with the Horde anyway, so I guess I need to roll one to find out. What about you? Are you old-school Horde or true-blue Alliance? Are you one of the people who plays both? What led you to choose that faction or factions? Were you playing with friends or, like me, was that gnome just too cute? I'm sure there are as many reasons out there as there are players. Tell us why you rolled Horde or Alliance and if you've ever jumped ship and why. How did it go? As for me, I'm off to roll up Supercow the intrepid Tauren warrior. Wish me luck!
Breakfast Topic: I threw that away, d'oh
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program! Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements! On this past St. Patrick's Day, guild members were doing the quest chain in Hellfire that rewards you Mirren's Drinking Hat. At the time my main was doing this chain, I wasn't the connoisseur of hats that I am now. 10 and counting. Yet another reason for Blizzard to make wardrobes (urge to rant rising.) Several guild members have that hat and it provides much laughter when they pull a random brew from it. I, however, am so sorry I didn't save it. 2 gold for selling it was, at the time, a lot of money for a perpetually broke dwarf and I had a "better" hat for questing. Yes, I know. A dwarf tossing away a drinking hat! That alone is almost sacrilegious. But sold it I did. Now, when guild members pull some brew out of their hats, I regret my decision and I'd go do the quest chain again in a heartbeat just to get that hat. I'd have to toss something from my inventory (Archmage Vargoth's Staff maybe, or Monster Slayer's Kit, neither of which I use but are awesome in their own right) to carry it around in my bags, but I'd do it to get that hat. How about you? Is there any quest reward that you sold or otherwise disposed of that you'd do the quest chain to get again?
Breakfast Topic: The all nighter
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program! Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements! Today's topic is one many readers will be familiar with, as we have all done it at one point or another: the all nighter. I remember one time back in vanilla WoW, one night me and my guild mates were bored so about 10 of us decided to climb the mountain that houses Ironforge. This quickly evolved into all of us throwing random ideas out at once of other of places we could go explore that weren't (cough cough) exactly live in game yet. After hours of exploration we finally ended up climbing the Silithus wall to see what was on the other side, cracking jokes and laughing the entire night and taking photos to have a kind of "we shouldn't be here" travel log. I remember finally logging off after having what amounted to one of my most favorite times in the game sitting in front of my house and contemplating what to have for breakfast, sleep deprived but with a stupid grin on my face. So I ask all of you, what is that story for you? What adventure kept you up well past any sane hour playing the game? Was it a raid? A marathon PvP session? What kept you up all night playing WoW?
Breakfast Topic: Game over man! Game over!
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program! Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements! World of Warcraft has been out for over five years now and if you have been playing since launch it's probably hard to imagine a day where the patches stop coming. It's a scary thought that WoW would someday cease to exist. Sure Blizzard would probably launch World of Warcraft 2 and in that sense the World of Warcraft would still exist, but that doesn't give me any comfort with the idea that some day my current characters will basically be gone. All the time and effort, all the experiences, all the friends, guild mates, armor, addons, slash commands, everything that we have done, will one day end. I really don't like the idea of a world without the World of Warcraft for many reasons. Sure there will be people saying, "It's just a game!" but this kind of thinking truly shows how emotionally connected we have become to something that is "just a game." I am sure Blizzard will keep the servers up for years to come, but the content will one day stop and eventually the servers will go down. Maybe it's so far off no one will care, but right now the idea is sad and scary. Can you imagine that day? How do you feel about one day losing WoW? Could you handle it and just move to another game or do you want WoW to be around forever?
Breakfast Topic: Disenchanting BoEs in dungeon runs
When you have an enchanter in your party, getting drops in a dungeon can be sort of an autopilot thing: you hit the disenchant button and move on. Reader Akwihahlo actually sort of has a beef we this. As he points out, the Dream Shards you get from disenchanting a blue BoE on most servers only go for around 5-10 gold a piece, assuming you can sell them at all. In the meantime, the blue might go for more on the auction house to a player still looking to gear up for dungeon runs, or it might just plain vendor for more than you could get from the dream shard. With the new functionality that automatically shows sell prices in the tool tips of all items, it's even easier to tell when an item is lucrative as "vendor trash." For my part, I tend to be the type to greed lucrative-looking BoEs (or even BoPs with very high vendor values), but I don't sweat it if others do. For some people, it's not so much stretching your gold as getting the run over with so you can get to those 2 extra emblems at the end. What's your method? Do you consider the pros and cons before you hit the disenchant button, or do you prefer to just hit it and get on with the run?
Breakfast Topic: Preparing for the storm
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program! Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements! When faced with warnings of imminent change, what do you do? Do you stockpile and organize, or do you let it just happen? Cataclysm is fast approaching and preparing for it in-game can be as much a part of the process as pre-ordering a copy of the game in real life. There's several new things coming in the expansion that certainly may go smoothly if you take the time to plan for it -- two new races (worgen and goblin), new level cap, and a lot more classes opening up for the existing races. In the past, people also stockpiled things like cloth for bandages or mats for new tradeskills that were being introduced. Some players have given up doing anything in general and stopped playing WoW until Cataclysm hits. I myself tend to be more of the planning type, especially now on the horizon of my third expansion -- I am stockpiling a lot of gold in the event of some ridiculous new transportation cost. I also recently completed Loremaster on my main character as many of my favorite quests or zones in the old world might be changed or gone entirely by the time the expansion rolls around. I also might sink a little bit of money into buying a Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. Having a portable repair-bot and vendor will ease the burdens of leveling considerably. Some new character names might have also been reserved on my server in preparation for a cute little gnome priest or worgen rogue in the future. So what have you been doing to brace yourself for another (possibly your first) expansion? Is it grinding out badges for BOA gear for a new toon? Perhaps you are sitting around Dalaran doing nothing!
Breakfast Topic: Mister Jones and me
Jones and I are buds. He's a cat that likes to hang out on the landing in the stairwell of the Legerdemain Lounge in Dalaran. He's a stealthy little guy -- he doesn't even have a listing on Wowhead, but if you stop to give Jones a /pet, he'll purr contentedly. I like to hang out in the stairwell sometimes, just Jones and me -- it's a relatively quiet spot in the middle of a usually busy area, and I can sort through my bags, chat with the guild, harass trade chat engage in some lively banter in local channels, and just hang out without being pestered. I've got a few different spots I like to hang out at, and the locations change every expansion or depending on what I'm focusing on at the time, but nothing beats Jones, he's the best. I'm not sure why exactly I like finding non-crowded places to sit and chat with people -- it shouldn't really make a difference where I'm typing to people from, but I enjoy the relative solitude in what is otherwise a very busy and populated game. And every expansion it happens -- in vanilla, it was the upper buildings in the Drag in Orgrimmar. In Burning Crusade, I liked the relative quiet that could be found in the World's End Tavern in Shattrath, or the rocks up above the city. In Wrath, it's either the Underbelly, or the little landing in the Legerdemain that I share with Jones. He doesn't mind, he's a pretty well mannered kitty. Sometimes we tell each other fairy tales. So how about you guys? Do you have a favorite spot to sit and chat? Does the generally crowded nature of Dalaran bother you? Do you, like me, seek out an area of relative solitude to hang out at when you aren't off storming the castle or otherwise occupied?
Breakfast Topic: Stop and smell the flowers before they're gone!
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program! Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements! I just stepped through the Dark Portal, for the first time, a few days ago. Now, now, before the cries of "noob" get too deafening, let me share another secret with you: I started playing World of Warcraft on release day. I'll pause to admire the inquisitive looks... On New Year's Eve this year, I reopened my account after a near 5-year hiatus. 5 years ago I partnered with the developer of the WoWCensus UI addon and launched wowcensus.com (which was later sold off). Between November 2004 and April 2005, I was so wrapped up in creating an excellent service outside of WoW that I completely lost touch with the game itself. After the sale of wowcensus.com, I couldn't enjoy the game for what it was -- a game, I was constantly looking for the next "big idea."
Breakfast topic: Your favourite patch 3.3.3 change?
You psyched about the latest 3.3.3 changes? In case you need a download mirror, check out our sister site over at Big Download. I'm not looking forward to fixing my addons but I know there will be a few issues with it. For me, there are good number of updates that I'm extremely happy about: The changes with the Frozen Orbs being greed only and the new uses for it? Excellent. Auction house updates and cooldown removals? Nice. I'm a tailor myself. Free raid buffs just by being able to manufacture the specialty cloths anywhere, right? Changes to the way raid buffs function? Score! I haven't tried out the new Random Battleground system yet, but I think I'll be sold on it as well. I'm a little disappointed about: The changes to the healing priest tier 10 4 piece bonus. (Redesigned. This bonus now increases the effectiveness of the caster's Power Word: Shield by 5% and Circle of Healing by 10%.) But my favourite change of all? The ability to skip the Culling of Stratholme introduction dialog. In my dungeon runs, I'd always see players who drop group upon finding out that was the instance we were in. Truly awesome! So what's been your favourite change so far in the latest patch?
Breakfast Topic: Borrowed Death
In addition to World of Warcraft, I've been obsessively playing Dragon Age Origins' new expansion, Awakening. And one ability the warrior class in DAOA (possibly the most awkward acronym I've seen in a while that isn't accidentally vulgar) has is Massacre. What does Massacre do? Massacre is basically a giant "Hey, look, a bunch of mooks, regular ol' non elite mobs, I'm going to blow them up" move. It automatically crits against elite mobs, and stuff that's just lower or lesser blows up and dies in a circle around you. I want this ability for a WoW warrior so badly. This isn't Whirlwind, which only hits four mobs (although yes, if you are geared enough Whirlwind will effectively insta-gib four non elite mobs on a crit) but rather basically a full fledged clear the room ability. I've wiped out entire caves full of Darkspawn with this move. I understand that it would be ridiculously OP for an MMO and that in the name of game balance I shouldn't have it. I mean, imagine world PvP against a warrior who can insta-kill everything lower level than he is in the area? Crossroads and Tarren Mill/Southshore would be charnel pits of dead lowbies. But man, I still wish I had this move. So what spells, abilities, special moves, or other cool features would you like to steal from other games for your WoW enjoyment?
Breakfast Topic: Suffer mortals, as your pathetic eardrums betray you
I hate Sindragosa. It's not the fight -- sure, the stacks of Permeating Chill are annoying as a mutilate rogue, but you can cloak them away. The Ice Tombs are even kind of fun, especially if you can /dance with her before getting frozen -- see what kind of crazy contortionist positions you can get stuck in! The Blistering Cold isn't that hard to book it out of if you keep your camera facing whatever direction you have to run, just hold down both mouse buttons when she pulls you in and you're out like lightning. No, it's none of the above. It's her voice. It's that awful, rasping, screeching bellow. It's the way she draws out the word 'betray' that wasn't so bad the first time I heard it but let me tell you three wipes in and I was ready to turn off the sound effects entirely. I want to kill her every week not because there is loot to be had, but so that I do not have to listen to her anymore. On the other hand, back in the days of Blackwing Lair I begged my raid leader to let me trigger the Nefarian event, just because I really wanted to hear him talk. I forget the exact number of times we wiped on Nefarian before finally killing him for the first time, but the silky way in which he said "Let the games begin" made it a little easier to take. There are other bosses and encounter voices I love -- nobody can forget Millhouse Manastorm, he of the infamous "I'm gonna light you up, sweet cheeks!" I always loved the voice of C'thun. The first time I stepped foot into AQ40 and heard that eerie, low voice from out of nowhere, politely informing me that my friends would abandon me and that I would die, I nearly yelped aloud. But Sindragosa. Ah, Sindragosa, you have reached a level of irritation with me that rivals even Jaina Proudmoore's incessant sobbing or Kael'thas' never ending bantering in Magister's Terrace -- which now takes longer to listen to than it takes to kill him. So how about you guys -- who's tops on the voice acting in your opinion? Who do you love to hear every time you kill them? Whose voice makes you reach for the mute button?
Breakfast Topic: If you could have any ability in WoW
What would it be? I used to know this guy who did a podcast for his web series. One day while answering listener questions, he read off a really fantastic question related to World of Warcraft. "If you could have any ability in WoW, what would it be?" At the time he picked Teleport: Shattrath, rationalizing that with that spell he could teleport to Azeroth and learn the rest of his mage's spellbook. A very "wish for more wishes" kind of answer, right? Eventually his co-host foiled him though, reminding my friend that a Rune of Teleportation regeant is required to cast the spell so he'd never be able to cast it on Earth. I thought long and hard on this question myself though, and being prone to illness I was immediately drawn to a paladin's Cleanse spell. Never being sick for the rest of your life would be amazing, right? Not to mention, you could cure everyone else. I don't know how Cleanse would respond to viral infections versus bacterial infections, but I'd really love to knock out HIV. I don't know what mana cost would do to a person in real life, but I bet Gatorade is just like mage water. I wonder what level I am? Anyway, in the end, my boyfriend at the time brought my attention to an even better idea: Concentration Aura. As a creative sort, I imagine that the aura would be useful for getting mundane things done. Like starting that back burner novel, or studying for a test with your outline group. If you were performing something on stage, all your fellow performers would receive the benefits of the aura as well. Imagine working at DARPA with Concentration Aura up: we'd destroy the world in a matter of years. I mean... what? So what ability in WoW would you pick for yourself?
