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The most reassuring title to see on a player
Whether we like to admit it or not, we tend to give other players the once-over whenever we zone into a Raid Finder or dungeon PUG, particularly if you've had a run of bad experiences while getting valor-capped for the week. A recent thread on the Tanking forums about the best title for a tank to sport is both a sideways acknowledgment of this and a question as to which title best suits your role in the game. For healers, one could argue that Undying or Immortal means you probably had job security for the length of Wrath, but that kind of ignores everyone else's responsibility to not screw up in Naxx. Possibly Herald of the Titans/Conqueror of Ulduar would have been the equivalent for DPS players, although a raid had to fire on all cylinders for those achievements too. Before achievements were account-wide, and leaving aside obvious ringers like Light of Dawn/Bane of the Fallen King before Mists, I would have nominated Loremaster or Seeker as the most reassuring titles to see on a player regardless of gear quality. I can't say exactly what link exists between the persistence needed to get these titles and overall competence, but I have yet to see a Loremaster or Seeker player do something screw-the-pooch crazy in a PUG. These days, it's tougher to guarantee that a player sporting a title is doing so on the character that originally got it, so maybe The Undaunted is probably the single best outward indicator of competence. Having written all this, I've also had the pleasure of knowing a world-class hunter who never bothered using titles, and we have to acknowledge that a generic, funny (e.g., "Chef Boyardee"), or absent title means nothing at all. But if you had to pick one that said, "I will not get you killed in this PUG," which would it be?
Breakfast Topic: When goals are so close, yet so far
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Kingslayer. Bane of the Fallen King. The Light of Dawn. These are the titles that one gets for slaying Arthas on various difficulties -- Kingslayer for normal difficulty, Bane for 10-man heroic and The Light of Dawn for 25-man heroic. Kingslayer is cool. Bane of the Fallen King? Even cooler. The Light of Dawn? It's over 9,000 on the cool meter! I want The Light of Dawn so hard. I mean, how cool is it? So-and-so, the Light of Dawn. I'm pumped, I'm ready to go, I'm going to kill Arthas! I know the fight by heart, got my flasks and feasts, I got this! Except for one small hiccup: I don't have a guild. Well, I do -- but they've gone "on hiatus till Cataclysm," which translates to "problems filling the raid, so taking a break will totally fix it." I'm relegated to watching trade chat desperately for 10-man PUGs that sound like they'll get to Arthas. They rarely do. Or they down Sindy, and then they call it, and I'm left angry. Come on, Arthas is right there! Can't we at least try? I've relegated the Light of Dawn to the category of Very Cool Things I Will Never Have. I find it unlikely that Blizzard will leave such a prestigious title in game and let 12 level 85s get what was once solid proof that you and your guild were The Epitome of Amazingness. Something else I'm trying desperately to do is get my Hydraxian Waterlords and Wintersaber rep up -- but again, sometimes life doesn't lend itself to in-game goals. Are you in the same plight as me, left grasping desperately for a Very Cool Something, but knowing that there's a 99 percent chance that it won't happen? What are you looking for? Do you think you'll be able to get it, or have you relegated yourself to sitting in the corner and pouting (like me)? Or are you one of those people who reached their goal, and scoff at the rabble/are bored with the game?
The OverAchiever: Dungeon and raid titles
Titles; they are cool, they are wonderful, and in a not-inconsiderable number of cases, they are very hard to get. Almost without exception, every single title in the game is also linked to an achievement. Today we're going to examine how you can get (or, in some cases, how it was possible to get) about half of the 19 titles currently available from dungeons and raids. Next week, we'll cover the last half, going in alphabetical order. If you're a skimmer, the two toughest achievements are actually at the tail end this week, and if you're currently in Icecrown Citadel, there's two currently-unobtainable titles that may interest you here (in addition to another set next week).
