the-light-of-dawn
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Breakfast Topic: What WoW title would you choose in real life?
The other day, I tried to come up with a title for Kelly Aarons. It was one of those fleeting moments where you have the opportunity to display your wit, and in doing so, show everyone that you're actually a funny, lighthearted, and interesting human being (as opposed to a boring, soulless low-life ... sigh). In those racing seconds, I grasped desperately at all the WoW titles floating aimlessly in my head. How about Kelly the Noble? Kelly the Light of Dawn, perhaps? No, that might seem self-absorbed or creepy. Kelly the Exalted? Salty Kelly? I was about to type out Merrymaker Kelly when I realized my window of time had expired and anything after that would just make me seem like some sort of desperate try-hard. "You'll never be witty, Dawn. Give it up already." Sighing internally, I held down the delete key and kept quiet. It made me wonder, though, if I were going to give myself my own title, what would it be? In game, I've only displayed a few titles on my characters over the years (Rival, Sergeant, Chef, and the Light of Dawn), but I don't think any of those titles suit me personally. Dawn the Patient seems fitting. Maybe Dawn the Explorer? I think I might have explored outside my house at some point -- that works. What about you?
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 Urban Legends of Warcraft: Ashbringer
One of the more interesting facets of playing a game as extensive as World of Warcraft are the legends and mysteries surrounding the game, both inside and out. A lot of these legends, mysteries and unsolved puzzles have developed over time into urban legends -- stories that sound just true enough to be plausible, but usually end up being untrue, dead ends or simply unsolved mysteries that were never meant to be puzzled out. Today we'll be talking about a weapon whose origins were so mysterious and carried so many loose ends that it left players in a tizzy for years: Ashbringer. The legend of Ashbringer started when World of Warcraft was originally released. The orange legendary weapon was discovered in the game files by data miners, and the stats and proc on the weapon were truly amazing. At the time, even epic weapons were extremely rare, so seeing something with an orange tag on it was more than a little unique and awe-inspiring. However, other than the datamined weapon, there was no indication of it appearing in game -- that is, until players slowly leveled from launch to their first steps into the Plaguelands.
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).
Ask a Beta Tester: The Alchemist
Apologies to Paulo Coelho fans for borrowing his title, but we have two Alchemy-related questions to start us off today, in addition to questions on Blacksmithing, cinematics, and dailies: Horizons asks... Do the alchemy specializations in wrath still work the same way as they do now in BC? For example, will I still have a chance of getting 5 wrath potions even when I'm leveling starting at 375 such as Wrath Elixirs or Icy mana potions? And will transmute spec ever be fixed? Yup, alchemy specializations work the exact same way in Wrath. As a potions master, I've already procced a few, but don't expect to see the Runic Mana or Runic Healing potion recipes until...I want to say it's 410 Alchemy. You'll skill up on the array of new elixirs like Elixir of Mighty Thoughts and Elixir of Mighty Agility until then, but do save mats for the new Alchemy trinkets that become available at (I think) 400, like Mighty Alchemist's Stone. We'll have more information soon on materials you'll start getting in Northrend that you'll want to set aside for crafting.
The Death Knight starting experience
A couple of days ago, it was with a little good fortune and a lot of soul-selling by WoW Insider lead Elizabeth Harper that I finally got my grubby little hands on a precious Beta key. Over 2 Gigabytes worth of installer and patches later, I found myself creating a Death Knight. It is a fair certainty that every player who upgrades to the Wrath of the Lich King will create one. In fact, after playing the class for just a short time, I have to say that every single player should. The Death Knight starting experience is the single most immersive role-playing experience in the game.Don't get me wrong. I'm not too big on role-playing. I mostly skip quest flavor text and go directly to the objectives. But the Death Knight starting experience -- it's really called that -- is just game design at its finest. Blizzard mentioned that one design flaw in The Burning Crusade was not making Illidan's presence felt early on in the Outlands. In fact, aside from the raiders who managed to set foot in the 25-man raids, a large number of the player base never got to see the bad guys driving the story of The Burning Crusade. Well... when you play a Death Knight, you won't just feel the lore, it punches you in the face and knocks you off your feet the moment you log into the game for the first time.
