About the Bloggers: Adam Holisky

Welcome to the return of WoW Insider's About the Bloggers series. Once a week for the next few months we'll be profiling one of our bloggers. We originally ran this series over three years ago, and while some of the staff is still around (like yours truly), there's lots of fresh new faces here and people to meet.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I'm a senior editor here at the site, and that means I do a bit of everything. Writing wise, I'm part of the team that does our daily question and answer column, The Queue (I usually take the Tuesday and Thursday editions). I also take care of the production, posting, and backend work on our two podcasts: The WoW Insider Show and the Weekly News Update. There's a lot of management and editorial direction stuff that I do behind the scenes, but that's boring to most folks, so I won't go into it.

What's your main?

I have two mains, I like to think, both level 85. One is a warlock that I've played a ton of since Cataclysm's release, and the other is a druid that I started last expansion and am currently playing somewhat. I used to be a warrior tank full time on the cutting edge of raid content. But real life has called and I don't have the time to do that anymore.

When I'm not playing WoW I'm...

You can usually find me working or hanging out with the fiancée when I'm not playing a game. I live the life of a freelancer who likes to juggle multiple things, so I've got two great gigs: here, and at a startup out of LA called Tecca, which covers consumer electronics. Over there I do much the same job as I do here at WoW Insider.

I'm also a prolific reader, and am currently trying to read 40 books this year. I'm actually on book 21, so I'm a bit ahead of my goal. Next year I'll try for the 52-books-in-52-weeks thing ... we'll see if I can pull that off (probably not).

Horde or Alliance?

Three years ago I was Alliance all-the-way. Now, however, I've backtracked on that quite a bit. My warlock is Horde and my druid is Alliance. Both factions offer compelling stories, and the leveling experience (for the most part) is different enough that playing horde for a bit has really piqued my interest in the game in a new way.

What's your favorite mount?

My warrior has the original Zul'Aman bear. That's my favorite mount by far.

What's the number one thing Blizzard has done great?

I think the focus on new players has really helped the game stay alive. But at the same time... it's a double edged sword.

What's the number one thing Blizzard could do better?

The depth of endgame content is such that it can be hard to keep players around. Sure, there's always older content you can revisit and achieve, but it's not the same as working towards something that's actually going to improve your character. Cataclysm has seen a lot of departure because people finish things and then have nothing to do that they haven't already done.

I'm not sure what Blizzard can do to fix this, but it is something they could do better.

What's the best way to make gold?

I've found that controlling the gem market and inscription market is the best way to do it. I'm not currently in a gold making rush right now, but in the past I've been able to pull in about 5,000 gold per day in profits with minimal work. To me, that's a good time.

What accomplishments are you most proud of in-game?

I killed Illidan on my prot warrior back before things were nerfed (and buffed) into the ground. It was a time when there were only a hundred or so guilds in the world that did it, and I was one of the lucky few tanks to pull it off. That feeling when we finally did it (with everyone still alive, at that!) was one of the best things ever to happen to me in a game. I was rewarded that night with the Bulwark of Azzinoth. I walked out into Shattrath like a fracken' super star, only two other people on my server had it at the time, both horde. It was a great day.