world-of-warcraft-hot-topics
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Breakfast Topic: What are you doing to protect your account?
While it is certainly nothing new, it seems that you can't spit without hitting someone who has, or has had, a compromised account. These WoW account predators are getting more clever by the day, with using everything from keyloggers, sham contests, betas and security checks, to even grabbing an account and immediately attaching an authenticator to it. Now, any moderately-savvy internet user would just scoff, and say that they take all necessary precautions -- what's there to worry about? Fair enough, but what about those who, well, don't? Blizzard has said time and time again about safe-guarding your account information, yet people still jump onto those fake Cataclysm betas and fancy new mount prizes. Make something idiot-proof, and they'll build a better idiot, eh? That being said, what are you doing to protect your prized polygons? Do you have a good anti-virus installed? A malware scanner? If you don't have an authenticator, how come? It's only about the price of a grande Starbucks drink, and will provide a longer-lasting effect of happiness and joy to your life. Discuss amongst yourselves!
Breakfast Topic: Should Cataclysm bring back the world boss?
Robin's post about fun with kiting yesterday immediately reminded me about the old days of 40 man raiding. Don't worry, this isn't a nostalgia trip per se... in many ways raiding is better now than it's ever been... but one of the things I enjoyed back in classic WoW were the world bosses. Bosses like Azuregos, the Emerald Dragons and Kazzak (as well as summoned bosses like Maws and Eranikus) added a feeling of competition that simply couldn't be had by being the first to clear a raid. If Blizzard wants to bring the antagonism between Alliance and Horde back to the forefront, well, even on a PvE server back in the day one could watch Horde and Alliance guilds jostle over Azuregos. Heck, we were griefed pretty hard doing the green dragons, especially Emeriss, as Horde players would come running up to die under our tank and become mushrooms. Burning Crusade had a couple of world raid bosses (a recycled Kazzak and Doomwalker) but for the most part they weren't terribly compelling: the gear they dropped was comparable with Karazhan (eventually it was made BoE to try and drive raiders towards it to harvest them for sales, which happened to some degree but is hardly what you'd call a sign of an exciting time, scavenging bosses for BoE's) and it seems like the practice has fallen out of favor since those days. While there are wandering big elites in Howling Fjord and Zul'Drak, they're either just there with no real rhyme or reason, or they're involved in quests. So I ask you: would you like to see big world bosses return in Cataclysm? Or do you think they're an artifact of an older time, and we're better off without them?
Breakfast Topic: Fun with kiting
The Spousal Unit came home from work the other day to find Overlord Mok'Morokk hanging out in Orgrimmar. He joined the fray for a couple minutes and then started the night's raiding schedule. Hours later, he found the ogre from Dustwallow Marsh still there. Though the battle had been kept up the entire time, the Overlord just couldn't be brought down. All of the bank alts in the AH were subjected to periodic AOE stuns and the constant sounds of battle while trying to conduct business. Of course, this isn't the first time someone has been kited into a major city for the sake of mayhem. Players have been doing this since the beginning of MMO time. It can be annoying but also breaks up the monotony of the atmosphere. Some, however, view it only as griefing. What is the most unusual NPC or creature that you've seen kited to a major city? Do you think this kind of activity is fun or annoying? Have you ever had the patience to kite something this far yourself? Edited to add: Link to a reunion of Jaina and Thrall.
Breakfast Topic: The all-DPS Group
Oh, you know what I mean. There's five folks in your Dungeon Finder random group. One is signed up as a tank, one is signed up as a healer. Only, the 'tank' is in full DPS plate with nary a shield nor a ghoul in sight (nope, that there's a ret pally/arms warrior, sure enough) or the 'healer' is in full PvP gear and has Flametongue on his healing weapon. You all stand around, waiting for someone to equip gear that would allow them to tank the instance (preferably the tank) but he seems as content to wait it out as everyone else. Often in these situations I'm unfortunate enough to have decided to DPS on a character that can tank, but luckily (or unluckily as the case may be) yesterday I was on my shaman and so could simply sit back and wait. It was mentioned to the 'tank' that, as the person who had signed up to tank the instance it might behoove him (or possibly her, hard to tell who's behind the keyboard) to slap on a shield and some tanking gear, but only the grim silence of the truly disinterested was our reply. Was he even at the keys? Hard to say. The wait extended to the point where we could safely kick him, and kick him we did. but that's ten minutes or so of my life I'll never get back. (And no, my shaman couldn't tank HHoR, I didn't even try).
Breakfast Topic: Culture permeates
One of my favorite things about World of Warcraft is how much culture seeps into the game. I don't mean the influences of Asian architecture in Moonglade, or the Native American aesthetic of the Tauren race. I mean the references to internet memes, pop culture, and literature. These little things always make me smile, and they're one of the many things I missed during the 17 days I played Aion last year. Eastern games might have been where I found my first love, but it's Blizzard's flair and style that turned me on to American game development. In fact, those little jokes are a lot like a warm blanket that keeps me toasty warm on those chilly nights... But do you know what's better than an ordinary blanket? Friends at Blizzard, please hear me out. Do you see the image above? I want one. I want one like I want a Slap Chop or a Bedazzler. I want to get on my Snuggie in the World of Warcraft. I want one for the whole guild. It would be perfect for those drafty raid instances! My ordinary tabard just doesn't keep me warm from head to toe... Okay, my absurdity level is getting out of hand.
Breakfast Topic: Who do you want to kill?
Let's just cut to the chase: we've had old gods, dragons, fallen semi-demonic elves, troll heroes, and soon the former prince of Lordaeron. Then comes the Cataclysm and we'll be looking to burn down the cthonian Deathwing himself, master of the deep places of the earth. A host of other luminaries will undoubtedly get in our way. Who would you like to see there? Who do you want to kill? For myself, I'm looking forward to breaking off a piece of Ragnaros on the slopes of Mount Hyjal, but who I really want to kill more than just about anyone is Gul'dan. Yeah, I know he's dead: so what? Do a Caverns of Time: Sargeras' Tomb and show us that Gul'dan actually almost made it out of the tomb, bloodied but unbroken and with the Eye of Sargeras in his possession, and it's up to us future Horde or Alliance players to cut the guy down before he figures out how to use it to become godlike. Because as bad as the Lich King might be, can you imagine Gul'dan with godlike power? The guy stuck his apprentices' souls into jeweled truncheons and created the first DK's just as a means to an end! Gul'dan's conscience is so non existent it makes that whole "I pulled out my own heart so I would have no weaknesses" deal sound like a cringing emo move. Gul'dan never had a heart in the first place to pull out! This was a guy who deliberately sold his entire people into demonic bloodlust because it would make them less likely to ask him questions. So yeah, I want to kill Gul'dan. Make it happen, Chromie. Send me back. I have all sorts of pointy things I'd like to introduce him to. How about you? Who do you want to kill?
Breakfast Topic: Effective Communication
One of the good things about running more PuG's than ever before is that it's forced me to learn how to communicate what I intend on a pull to a group of people I don't really know. This, in turn, has made me better at communicating with my guildies and friends when we raid, in part because now I'm finally thinking about how to express what I intend to do in a more organized way. One example is the pulls directly after Krick and Ick in Pit of Saron: even in raiding gear, these pulls can be fairly difficult if steps aren't taken to ensure that the caster mobs are controlled properly from the start and the diseases aren't allowed to run rampant. The Flamebearers in particular with their Tactical Blink and Hellfire abilities can wreak havoc. It's not that these pulls are super difficult, especially not if you make use of abilities like Hex or Polymorph (on the Deathbringers), Shackle, Repentance and so on to ensure that a couple of the mobs are taken out of the equation for a few seconds. I've had these pulls go extremely poorly in groups that were extremely chatty, mind, if what they're chatting about isn't really exchanging any meaningful information. In our new age of grouping with complete strangers, do you find yourself just hoping your group knows what it is doing? Do you take a leadership role, or have one foisted upon you, and if so how do you go about making sure everyone knows what they should?
Breakfast Topic: Healers are the drummers of WoW
The healer is the most important member of a five man group in World of Warcraft, hands down. The healer is the backbone of the group. The healer is the motive force that allows things to proceed. If the tank is mediocre, the DPS good, and the healer good, you might progress or might not. If the tank is good, the DPS is good, and the healer is mediocre, you'll have a much harder time adjusting to any sudden surprises, If the tank and healer are both good, as long as the DPS can put out ANY DPS and there's no enrage timer, things will die. This isn't meant to denigrate DPS or tanks. Heck, I'm a tank or DPS more than I'm a healer nowadays. But I believe strongly that healing is the silent motive force for a successful run, that a great deal of the pressure is placed on a healer's shoulders without the showy nature of the tanking role or the meter busting fun of the DPS roles. Healers are like the drummer, often ignored, but absolutely vital. So here's your chance to agree or disagree, as well as to go even further. Are DPS the guitar? Is the tank the bass player? Have I gone completely insane? Do we even need that last question?
Breakfast Topic: Which Plagueworks boss have you enjoyed so far?
Good news everyone! The second wing in Icecrown Citadel is open. Inside the Plagueworks, we'll be taking on the next generation of abominations that Arthas and his lackeys have been working on. Festergut, Rotface and Professor Putricide will be available for your raid. Have you fought them yet? Which one is your favourite? Festergut will be a bit chaotic the first time you go in there. Be careful of the gas in the room. Rotface looks to be a technical fight that demands some precision in movement from players. Watch out for the oozes! Now Professor Putricide? We've been fighting abominations in Icecrown and other places. This time we get to fight as one. All you have to do is drink a potion and voila! If you haven't heard his audio yet, you'll be in for a treat. He's got some amazingly catchy sayings. Perhaps in the future, we'll do a roundup post of the best lines and quotes that Wrath of the Lich King had to offer. If you haven't done the wing yet, which boss are you looking forward to? If you have, which is your favourite? Note: You only get 10 attempts on Professor Putricide before he despawns for the week. Use them wisely! Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Breakfast Topic: Missed Dungeon Opportunities
So we've talked about the WoW that wasn't in terms of what was planned for Wrath that never got implemented, but that brings to mind another question: What about the WoW that could have been? Namely, where could the game have used another instance or raid, even if Blizzard didn't make any plans for one? Reader Elstor, who sent us this question the other day, had some ideas himself, such as Oshu'Gun, the giant diamond mountain in the middle of Nagrand. It's honestly a good idea. Unfortunately, the Horde is the only faction who gets quests to head into the middle of the mountain and find out its true secret, as well as gain a valuable insight into the nature of the Naaru. Fleshing out Oshu'Gun as an instance would have provided some great lore insight into the Naaru (and maybe even the Horde) that the Alliance is sadly missing, and would even be an opportunity to further develop the split between the Kurenai and the Mag'har.
Breakfast Topic: The hangover
Weekend's done, it's back to work. How was everybody's New Year's celebration? I hope everyone's sober and up and running to start your Monday. It's the start of the week, after all, hopefully you're all not still hungover from the very long weekend. Then again, it's not always a bad thing to be a little out of sorts, especially when playing World of Warcraft. Some of my most memorable raids have actually happened when one or (regrettably) more raid members have been, how do we say, ah, rambunctious with the help of a little liquid courage. We didn't necessarily have smooth runs, but they sure were a riot, especially over vent. Did you guys use the long break to play the game? Or did you use it to actually catch up on real life? If you guys played, did you do it with a little more eggnog than necessary? Or maybe you loaded up on sweets like candy canes and played with a little sugar rush? Did you go through the break wearing real life Beer Goggles? With the long vacation over and the new year ushering us all back to work, school, or anything that isn't inactivity, let's use this sobering breakfast topic to talk about what we did over the long holidays. Heck, regale us with tales of inebriated raiding or playing. Since I'm something of a teetotaler myself, reading those stories should be a vicarious treat.
Breakfast Topic: When is it too much WoW?
If you're at all like me, and since you're reading this site you probably are, there comes a point where you play so much WoW that you end up playing too much WoW. It's that point where you've farmed 70 badges in a day and just stop all the sudden and think to yourself, "What the heck did I just do with the year the day?" And it's at that point where you put the game down and stop playing for a bit. In my case it's usually a couple of days, or in some more busy periods of my life it's a couple of weeks (oddly, with my job here I find that I can't play much during patch days, right around the time I want to jump in and run the new instances and what have you). I'm curious to know how long of a break you all take when you've played too much WoW, and when those breaks tend to come about. So answer away, and after a few days I'll compile all the comments into some graphs, representing at least the portion of WoW.com visitors who responded to today's breakfast topic. It should be interesting, even if it's only a segment of the overall community. Have at it! When is it too much WoW?
Breakfast Topic: Happy New Year! What are your 2010 resolutions?
Happy New Year everyone! 2009 is behind us and we now have 2010 to look forward to. This year, we'll be anticipating Cataclysm to come out (but after we take down Arthas). Speaking of goals, were you able to fulfill the personal achievements you set out in 2009? Maybe it was to go after the Violet Proto-Drake. Or it could've been to join a raiding guild and see end game content. Perhaps it was to kill Arthas (which none of us have done yet, to be fair). For myself, I set out a goal to exceed 7000 achievement points. I managed to score about 7400. Oh, another important resolution? I'm still playing the game and having fun on my priest! I didn't think I had it in me to go another year but I did! I still have that Inner Fire burning within me, I suppose. Here's my list of resolutions for 2010: Take down Arthas (on Heroic difficulty) Get the Loremaster achievement Earn (and hold onto) more than 10000 gold Finish getting my druid to 80 Start a pure DPS class and at least get it to 40 (Mage? Warlock?) What about you? What do you resolve to do in 2010?
Breakfast Topic: We're doing what now?
Some instances and raids, you understand why you're there. Icecrown, for instance, makes a lot of sense to me. I get why we're running the five mans (trying to sneak into the Citadel while the Scourge is focused on the front door) and the raid (that didn't work out so hot so brute force it is!) I always enjoyed Scarlet Monastery and had no difficulty with why I was running the place either as Alliance or Horde. Alliance, you were cleaning out a nasty pack of gibbering mouth-breather sociopathic xenophobes who were totally freaking insane, and Horde... same deal, plus they were killing people you actually knew.
Breakfast Topic: Not This Again
As much as I love the dungeon finder, it's not perfect. One of the ways it's most imperfect (or least perfect if you prefer) is in the way I keep getting the same instance, five, six, or even more times in a day. It's possible that if I'm capable of running seven heroics a day I'm running too many heroics in the first place, of course. Still, as a guy with two tanks, I often feel compelled to answer the call of a DPS guildmate looking for a few runs. But man oh man, am I tired of Halls of Stone. Ridiculously, completely, utterly sick of the place. When I see the HoS loading screen pop up (and by now I'm as familiar with that screen as I am with my own apartment) I actually feel my whole body shudder with faint disgust and slight loathing. Ah man, not this place again! And always, someone's going to insist we do every single boss instead of skipping Maiden and Krystallus so I'll be in here even longer. Since I try to only drop groups when I find it absolutely necessary as part of the whole 'I'm tanking so I'm responsible' ideal I have, I find being stuck in HoS over and over again to be my own personal purgatory. So how about you? Have an instance you dread seeing yet again? Or have you been mercifully spared Violet Hold threepeating in one day? (Seriously, VH, followed by VH, followed by Nexus, followed by VH? That was just cruel, dungeon finder.) Is this just the price I pay for getting nearly instant runs? I suppose it's not so bad in that case. (Oh, who am I kidding, go away Halls of Stone, I don't want to talk to you no more.)
Breakfast Topic: Warcraft the Animated Series
No, I haven't actually heard of one happening. That doesn't mean I don't think one could be very cool, especially after seeing this video of all the voices Chris Metzen has done for the various Blizzard franchises over the years. The idea that one man is the voice behind Thrall, Varian, Ragnaros, and other luminaries got me to thinking that maybe a film isn't the right way to go with the franchise. Now, of course I know about as much about making movies and managing beloved franchises as I do about installing thermonuclear reactors in submarines, but I'm not going to let that stop me from speculating about how awesome a Warcraft animated movie or series could be. (I also admit I've been watching a lot of DC Animated Movies lately, and the tenuous Blizzard - Wildstorm - DC connection has me all aflutter.) If done right, a Warcraft cartoon has a lot of potential. I think quite a few fans of animation could point at various styles that would work for the franchise... I would personally stay away from the overtly computer animation of a Clone Wars (unless we could somehow get Pixar to do it. I mean, while I'm dreaming) and would try to go with something more like the actual game, with deliberately exaggerated and unrealistic lines. But I'll leave it up to you: who should star? Who would you choose to do their voices? What art style, what kind of direction would you take it? The sky's the limit for the Warcraft animated series, because as far as we know it's not going to happen.
Breakfast Topic: Celebrated Mechanics
While thinking about the lack of tanking fist weapons, I got into a discussion with my wife about her favorite ability (or perhaps my favorite ability of hers), Misdirection. The discussion came out of the fact that I basically threw her into the deep water by having her misdirect the adds on a TotC 25 Anub kill last night (which she did spectacularly, of course) and from there we started talking about one of the seventy billion Halls of Lightning runs we did yesterday. (Seriously, Halls of Lightning? You can stop now. No, really, I'm fairly certain I've killed Loken enough times.) The rogue in this group was simply phenomenal. Solid DPS, didn't stun mobs when I tried to pull them back, didn't constantly say 'go go go', and used Tricks of the Trade whenever he was going to open up on a big trash pull. Seriously, if you could adopt gnome rogues from another realm and just keep them in your backpack to pop into the open DPS slot in your pugs I'd have done so. I salute you, sir or madam.
Breakfast Topic: Lamented Mechanics
This isn't a breakfast topic where I protest. I'm not signing petitions or grumping, I'm simply looking back and saying "Gee, I wish X". For instance, I wish there were tanking fist weapons. I love, love, love fist weapons. I'd settle for a fist that had hit and expertise on it, even. But while I'm willing to switch to a slow main hander when I have a full rage bar to dump as Devastate threat (or for huge Cleaves when tanking lots of trash) it's just not really suitable for a good 80 to 90% of my time tanking. And yet, how I love fist weapons. I have an enhancement shaman, of course, and yet fists almost never drop for him (he's using axes at the moment) while they rain from the heavens and are almost constantly sharded when I'm tanking. I've taken to just picking them up and using them for fun. I understand there will most likely never be a dedicated tanking fist, as the only class that could use it would be a warrior (Paladins and DKs can't use fist weapons, Druids can but would almost never use one over a staff since they can't use shields). Similarly, whenever I go elemental I always end up drooling over caster swords, and there have been a few times I've heard paladin healers sigh at a dagger drop. So what I turn to ask you is, what do you wish you could use? What drop can you either not equip or just can't effectively use?
Breakfast Topic: Which Warcraft moment would make a great cutscene?
Earlier this month, an interview was conducted with Jeff Kaplan by Phil Kollar of Game Informer where they talked shop about World of Warcraft. One of the items that piqued my interest was that a new cutscene was being included in patch 3.3. I'm sure we can guess that it has something to do with Icecrown Citadel (and Arthas). I know the Wrathgate cinematic itself was a big hit. Blizzard is certainly no stranger to creating movies. There's the Ulduar trailer, the Call of the Crusade trailer, and the Fall of the Lich king trailer. Remember the Sunwell Plateau? That one is my favorite out of them all. I'm sure there will be new cinematics to come. But if you could pick a moment in the game, what would you like to see in cinematic form?
Breakfast Topic: Happy holidays from WoW.com
Every Christmas I make it a point to log in and catch a few friends and wish them well; some of my guildies and online friends I've made over the past several years are now folks I talk with every day and laugh about all our goings on. I find that Christmas is a good time to take a moment and wish those you've come to know happiness and well wishes. One thing I like to do every Christmas morning is to take a moment and send someone something in game -- someone who'll actually use it and be pleasantly surprised when they get it. I make an alt, name it something so they won't connect it to me -- and then email them a gift. I'll wrap up the BoE item with some Red Ribboned Wrapping Paper and toss in a Candy Cane or two just for kicks, even though no one is really into RP too much. But it adds to the overall ambiance so it's all good. This year I think someone is getting a pet from the Argent Tournament. Hopefully someone will send me a bike (I can dream, right?). If you're going to send a secret gift to someone, what are you going to send? Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone!
