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Breakfast Topic: Cross-character consistency
Most of us probably have alts at this point. On my main server, I have a character of each class (and besides the shaman and the mage, they're all at least level 40). And all of them that have leveled past Feralas have a Sprite Darter Hatchling to love and call their own. I like keeping at least something constant across all the different classes. I've met people who use consistent naming schemes, which is helpful because it makes it easier to tell which alts go with which mains. I've met people that get the same color shirt on all their alts, although it's hard to see under all that armor. Some people like to take the same leveling path every time (like me), some people like to shake it up. I even know someone who's leveled the same class to 80 several times - Warrior no less. But Rossi is widely considered to be crazy. If you have alts, is there anything you always do the same way across all of them?
Breakfast Topic: Inexplicable dislikes
Last Monday, we did a breakfast topic on things you like in WoW that other people don't understand. Today, let's talk about the opposite: things you hate that other people don't get, or that maybe don't make any sense at all. You know - that thing that just irks you for no apparent reason. As an example, I hate partially filling a talent, like going 3/5 in something. Can't stand it. I'm enough of a min/maxer that I'll still do it if I think it'll help my game appreciably, but when leveling (for instance) I'll go out of my way to avoid doing it. I don't like Blacksmithing or Engineering, for some reason. I've tried them on several characters, and always ended up dropping them for another gathering skill. And it bothers me to no end that when you log out via /camp there's no way to skip the 20-second "you're not in an inn" timer (even at level 80), but there is when you log out via /quit. So those are some of mine. What are you senselessly bothered by in WoW?
Breakfast Topic: WoW analogies
I don't know if it's because I blog about WoW, or just because I play a fair amount of it, but analogies between WoW and other parts of life constantly leap into my mind. This happens often enough in everyday conversation that it doesn't even annoy my girlfriend anymore; she's just used to it. Most recently, I was at a large family event, maybe 30 people. I was noticing how hard it was to get the entire group to do anything - waiting for people to get ready, deciding what to do, etc. I immediately thought of 25-man raiding, with its horrendous logistics. By comparison, a group of 10 people, in raids or real life, is much more manageable. What sorts of WoW analogies have occurred to you recently? Or am alone in this particular affliction?
Breakfast Topic: If you could add one new feature
A couple months ago, we asked if you could add one new game mechanic to WoW, what would it be? This morning, I'd like to ask what you'd pick if you could add one new feature. Some common requests: Player/guild housing Ability to be in multiple guilds simultaneously Ability to start a character at a higher level than 1 (like Death Knights) Mounted combat Cosmetic gear (ability to have one set of gear equipped, and another set displayed) I'm sure there are more commonly desired features that I just haven't thought of yet. Me, I'm really excited about the PvE arenas that I hope are coming in patch 3.2. Aside from that, I suppose I'd like to be able to start alts at a high level. I like leveling well enough, but 1-40 is simply tedious. Characters haven't really come into their own yet, and those zones are pretty underdeveloped. What new feature would you want to add to WoW?
Breakfast Topic: What do you think of the new bear druid skins?
I'm a little biased, but I think druids are awesome. I'm sure you know my main is a druid and it's the class which I've stuck with both from a game play and lore point of view. So when the new druid bear forms were revealed I was squeeing along with our resident druid blogger Allison. As an Alliance player, I love the Tauren designs and I never even realized they had horns. I freely admit to being less impressed with the Night Elf skins. Actually, it's more like bitter disappointed. They feel boring and just a little predictable, plus they're really, really ugly.As someone who hasn't yet dual-specced, I play Balance and seldom use my melee forms. I love the look of my (to use a LOLcat phrase) kitteh form and usually use it as a fast way to get round instances or when I need to sneak into capital cities. Because of that I'm much more curious about the upcoming cat form which has been promised this week. What do you guys think? Do you like the Night Elf/Tauren druid forms? Do you think Blizzard is just changing the skins rather than overhauling the design. Are you more excited about other druid forms (for me it's the Moonkin, of course)? Speak up, constant readers, and drop your thoughts in the box.
Breakfast Topic: Nobody understands me
In this large and varied game of ours, there are many things to love. There are enough, in fact, that some of them seem downright odd to me. One of our paladins is absolutely smitten with achievements, of any kind. Every so often he'll suggest that we do something bizarre in a 5-man or a raid and I'll start to ask him why, and then realize, oh. It's for the achievement. But that's still fairly mainstream; lots of people like achievements for whatever reason. Me, I like keeping my old weapons in the bank, lining them up in a nice row. I'd like to put them on a mantlepiece or something if they ever implement player housing. I really enjoy training new skills and recipes - the gold glimmer and "whoosh" sound are oddly satisfying. I like standing on things that can disappear (like mining nodes), making them disappear, and then sitting down or dancing on the empty air. These are all loves that have perplexed my guildies at one time or another. I also really like smelting. Then there's my love for math of all kinds in this game, but that's not particularly odd. Plenty of people like to theorycraft. Right? Right?! What are your WoW passions that nobody understands?
Breakfast Topic: The ardent Argent
Just in case you hadn't realized already, the news we got last week about patch 3.2 made it clear that the Argent Tournament is going to play a sizable role in our future Wrath of the Lich King activities, so if you, like me, have been lazy about completing all of the various tasks the tournament offers, now might be the time to change that outlook and get to work over there. By the time 3.2 rolls around, there will be even more rewards to be attained by champions of the various cities, so if having a squire of your own hasn't been temptation enough, maybe the promise of future content has helped.And speaking of help, in case you need some, we've got you covered as always, from guides to the various dailies to a review of the rewards available. The question today is: have you been convinced yet? A good number of you have probably been rolling in the AT since 3.1 dropped, and probably have a whole stack of Seals already (if not the Hippogryph mount itself). But for those of you who've been lagging behind, has the promise of new AT-related content in 3.2 lit a fire under your Stabled Quel'dorei Steed? Or are you meh on on the idea of grinding out daily quests just to get more PvE content to grind out?%Gallery-45851%
Breakfast Topic: What do you think of WoW.com's new features?
It's been a couple of days since our big makeover and things seem to have gone down quite well. We've had loads of comments (indeed Alex Z is currently recovering from being Tech Support Guy after fielding bug reports for a day straight) and the new-look has gone down quite well. Of course, this isn't the first time we've had a new look but this time it's not just a cosmetic revamp. I like to think of WoW.com as WoW Insider meets Facebook with a little of Livejournal thrown in for good measure, we're not just a site, we're a community. Cliched, okay, you got me there. Anyway now you folks have had a couple of days to get used to the changes, what do you think of our new look and, more importantly, all the cool features? Are there any you'd like implimented in the future? Have we missed something out?
Breakfast Topic: What non-combat pets do you want implemented?
If there's one thing I've learned in the time I've spent playing WoW, it's that people are serious about the cute (and useless) tagalong polygonal pals we call non-combat pets. Blizzard apparently likes them too, since we got ten new ones with the launch of 3.1, as well as achievements to give you even more of them for hitting pet-number milestones. There are enough pets for you to fill every bag slot with them, and enough people who collect 'em to warrant pet toy vendors and whole websites dedicated to 'em. But I'm not satisfied! In fact, I'll never be satisfied -- not until I get a non-combat Talbaby pet. I even did Blizzard the favor of designing it. See? Who wouldn't want that adorable ungulate following them around? NO ONE. THAT'S WHO.How about you guys? Is there a specific type of non-combat pet, brand-new model or tiny version of an in-game model alike, you'd love to see? Is there a baby version of some fearsome beast you've scarcely lived without this whole time?
Breakfast Topic: Do you treat Azeroth as a virtual extension of the real world?
It never ceases to amaze me how huge Azeroth is. As I've leveled and explored, installed expansions and patches, that wonder has never left me. But of course, one of the reasons I like WoW so much is it's not all about fighting and killing things twenty times larger than me. This week I've been fishing in the Dalaran fountain, along with half of my server. No, don't worry, this is not going to be a repeat of our earlier Breakfast Topic, even if It's a skill I've been trying to level for ages. So I'm fishing and I suddenly see my GM waving at me, dressed in her fishing gear (which also seems to include an Elegant Dress). So I invite, we get on voice chat and start talking while we fish, discussing everything from our real lives to the most recent wipe on Sapphiron. It takes me back to the days in my previous guild where I would meet a friend of mine to do some questing and then we would retire to a tavern, buy drinks, find chairs and chat over voice. Considering she lived four hours from me, it was the closest we could get to a girl's night out in the pub. It's little things like this which make me thinks WoW is not just a game, it's a virtual world. More often than not, I log on not to play but to chat with friends who are scattered across Europe. Do any of you out there treat WoW as a virtual extension of the real world? Do you meet friends for a night out or use voice chat in lieu of a telephone call or in-game mail over email? Speak up, constant readers, and drop your comments in the usual place.
Breakfast Topic: Did you get your BlizzCon tickets?
In a stunning twist, we actually didn't experience any catastrophic failures in regard to the BlizzCon ticket purchases yesterday morning. Any of you who were around for last year's fiasco know why it's so surprising! In fact, the only real issue we can think of is that there just weren't enough tickets for all of us to buy this go-'round. Not even Matt "Matthew" ""Matticus"" "Low", the Smartest Blogger, was bright enough to purchase extra tickets. Thankfully, half of eBay was, so we can still (defeated though we are) purchase them for a million dollars. Or we can wait two weeks. So, what about you guys? Do you like the new ticket queue system? Did you get your BlizzCon tickets? If not, are you determinedly planning on trying again on the 30th, sulking about and eating pints of cookie dough ice cream until then, or swearing off WoW completely and running away to live in a convent? We should know! You should tell us!
Breakfast Topic: Fishing is awesome
WoW is a many-faceted game. One of the facets that I've really been enjoying recently is fishing; after getting my Dark Herring last weekend, I only need to polish off my last few Northrend pools to ding Accomplished Angler on my rogue. I also pulled up a sea turtle last weekend, and let me tell you, that thing is fun, especially because I don't have my flying mount yet (three more levels to go on that character), so it's the fastest way I have to get around aquatic areas. I'm impressed with the way they've expanded on fishing in Wrath of the Lich King, especially with the new fishing dailies and the other changes that came to my favorite secondary profession in patch 3.1. My biggest gripe is that the Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat still evades me. The fishing gods even went so far as to taunt me with a Battered Jungle Hat last time I turned in the daily. That's just not cool, man. Not cool. Has anyone else been having a great time fishing lately?
Breakfast Topic: What if achievements had existed in classic WoW?
One of our readers, Eli, wrote in last night with a suggestion for a Breakfast Topic: if achievements had existed in classic WoW, what would they have been? It provoked some back-channel discussion here with staffers wondering how the game would have been different if beating the boss or dungeon wasn't the only thing on your plate:Me: What would a hard-mode Ragnaros have been like?Adam Holisky: Kill Ragnaros using only one tank!Eliah Hecht: Domo comes back from the dead and starts randomly sheeping raid members in revenge.Other suggestions included killing Hakkar with all of his priests still up, hearthing with Hakkar's debuffs and infecting at least 500 players with Corrupted Blood (back when this was still possible, of course), killing at least 500 Dwarves without dropping combat in the Lyceum, the Stratholme timed run, and -- as Sacco suggested -- "getting through an UBRS run without (anyone) quitting." Having recently leveled a Shaman through this content, I can tell you that's one achievement I wouldn't have managed.If you were back in classic WoW again with no chance of advancing beyond level 60 talents and gear, what would make for a worthwhile achievement?
Breakfast Topic: Are achievements putting too much pressure on players?
I'm not in a WoW place right now. I tend to move through phases of being a casual or a hardcore player. It depends on the content available (such as a new patch) and my workload. I did most of the Noblegarden achievements but now Children's Week is here I suddenly feel burnt out. Except for a quick romp through Gun'drak with my guildies last night and a pit stop to pick up my orphans, I've been strangely distant from Azeroth.The thing is, I know precisely why. It's the pressure of achievements and festivals. Let me be clear, no one is making me do these things but me. Last year I enjoyed Children's Week because it was my first time doing the Outland version, I got rep, money and the smug feeling you get from taking a cute Draenei orphan around to see her heritage. Now all my guildies and most of the other people on my sever are frantically going for the achievements and, in some ways, it feels like the holiday has been cheapened a little. Being so close to Noblegarden probably hasn't helped either.But it makes me wonder if I'm the only one? Right now I'm a casual player, but do you think the point of these holidays has been lost by the desire to get a Violet Proto-Drake?
Breakfast Topic: Did you get what you wanted out of Noblegarden?
Noblegarden has passed for another year and everyone is now running with little orphans in tow. There were lots of changes this year - the biggest being a whole seven days of egg hunting madness rather than just twenty-four hours.My Noblegarden was spent camping Azure Watch, being chased by purple bunnies and looking for eggs until I went more blind than usual. When I eventually managed to find enough eggs to get me my bunny wabbit (the tuxedo pants, shirt and dress dropped along with the bunch of flowers), I started looking for females in order to do the Shake Your Bunny-Maker achievement. Now my server isn't one of the largest and I found all the females quite easily -- even a Tauren and a Troll -- but I'll be damned if I could find a single Orc female. There are some on Daggerspine, as many of my guildies had already completed the achievement, but I eventually switched to my Horde account only to experience the mind-numbing chatter from prepubescent players. In the end, I couldn't get the title and now have to wait another year. Hopefully then it won't be as chaotic.I'm curious to hear your thoughts and experiences post-Noblegarden. Did you achieve everything you wanted?
Breakfast Topic: If you could add game mechanic to WoW what would it be
Last night I was flying down to Un'Goro to do the Hard Boiled Noblegarden achievement. Long flights get me thinking, at least they did until I installed the Bejeweled addon. World of Warcraft has changed so much since I started playing and 3.1 has brought some of the most interesting changes: dual specs, the hearthstone timer nerf.Now as I was flying, my guild whispered me asking for my aid in Naxx 10. Fortunately they could summon me but it reminded me of one of the biggest problems with flying in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, you can't get off a bird. Yes I know you can log out and then log back in to be deposited at the next flight point but it's hardly ideal if you need to get off right now. Since I first started playing, I've wondered why Blizzard don't implement a handy eject button that you could use when on long flights. You could be thrown from the back of your gryphon or wind rider and gently parachute to the ground. Alternatively they could just allow you to hearthstone while flying. But I digress. Readers, I want to know if you could add one mechanic to the game what would it be?
Breakfast Topic: Which part of Noblegarden are you most excited about?
Noblegarden is finally here and, boy, is it addictive! Knowing how everyone would be swarming all over Kharanos and Goldshire, I headed for the most isolated, least visited starter town I could think of: Azure Watch. On my low-population server, there were only about another five people after eggs and once you start spotting them hunting becomes insanely addictive. There are already people with their Spring Rabbit's Foot and the rest have just been turned into purple bunnies. I'm not sure if the latter is cute or just weird. Personally, I'm just ambling along and doing what achievements I can, there's no hope of me getting the Violet Proto-Drake this year. But, I want to know which part of Noblegarden are you folks are most looking forward to?%Poll-29523%
Breakfast Topic: Northrend pop culture references
Blizzard is famous for adding references from all kinds of films, TV shows and other media into WoW (aka Easter Eggs.) Take this lovely young flower seller in Dalaran. Remind you of anyone? As I wander through Azeroth and Outland, I'm struck by the number of references to real world pop culture. From snakes on a plane in Nagrand to Dr. Boom in Netherstorm to Florist Gump in Stormwind, not to mention a talking rat and some turtles in Dalaran sewer. The list goes on and on. I also quite like the virtual presence of beloved Blues in the form of Eyonix in the Stormspire and Drysc in the Exodar, but my favourite is that human joke about a bracelet of power.With the addition of Wrath, it seems we have even more references to uncover. So tell us, constant readers, which are you favourites and have you uncovered any new ones post Patch 3.1?%Gallery-18980%
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite mount?
Mounts are one of the best parts of World of Warcraft, especially the flying ones. Over the course of levels 30-80 we collect a bunch of them (so many that there's even an Achievement for it -- don't forget to check out our guide) and everyone has one or two tied to their action bars that they use every day. I've got two: the Big Battle Bear) and a Zhevra. But in an ideal world, we all have a list: the Ashes of Al'ar, the now removed Amani War Bear, the Spectral Tiger, the Deadly Gladiator's Frost Wrym ...Top of my list? While I love dragons (and have my eye on a Twilight Drake), the mount I really want is a unicorn. Yes gentle readers, an actual unicorn. Not a striped zebra crossbreed found wandering in the Barrens but a pure white beast of myth. Last week, while exploring the Argent Tournament in Icecrown, I finally found one. Granted it's technically a 'Quel'dorei Steed' but it's a unicorn - with an Azerothian twist. I only hope Blizzard decide to turn this vehicle into an actual mount -- and soon because I will grind anything to get it.Anyway, it got me thinking about mounts (and don't forget we have an awesome guide on the subject). I have a friend who collect everyone going (he's got ninety nine at the moment) and strives for the Ashes to complete his collection, others are still using their race-specific epic mount or gryphon/wind rider. So I ask you, readers, what mount do you want the most? It doesn't matter if it's an old mount now removed, a ridable version of your favourite Azerothian animal or just something straight out of myth, speak up.
Breakfast Topic: What do you think of 3.1
It's been a long old twenty four hours but the US servers have had Patch 3.1 running life for a little while now. I can just imagine the thousands of people swamping Ulduar, the Argent Tournament and every class trainer from Azuremyst to Thunderbluff will be stood on by thousands of toons trying to dual spec. Now over the last few weeks Breakfast Topic has been, quite understandably, a little Patch 3.1-heavy. We've asked about your most anticipated feature, whether your guild is ready and where your toon will be when the realms restart (just in case you were wondering, Serisa is waiting outside Ulduar to see if the above happens on live as well).So if you're lucky, you've had a few hours to poke around and take a look, I want to know what your impressions are of The Secrets of Ulduar now that it's gone live?
