world-of-warcraft-topics
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Breakfast Topic: What have you gotten out of WoW Insider?
What a long strange trip it has been, dear readers. WoW Insider opened way back in 2005, and is now nearing to the end of its time with you. We've had some great memories over the years, though, and we look forward to still seeing you all around the game world (and, perhaps, the real world too at whatever future BlizzCons might be in store). But let's not be sad about what's over: let's remember the good times we've had, together. The crazy April Fool's pranks we've run. The times an article made you smile, laugh, or think. Tell us, readers: what have you gotten out of WoW Insider over the years? And, of course: thanks for reading and commenting. We'll miss you all here around the virtual watercooler.
Breakfast Topic: Do you take a lot of screenshots?
Once upon a time in vanilla on my very first character, I made the mistake of wandering too close to a door guarded by a very angry dragon. Said angry dragon made quick work of my character, and in running back to my corpse, I inadvertently discovered I could run right through that door and resurrect on the other side. The other side of that door was one of the single weirdest places I have ever seen in World of Warcraft -- it was later shaped and molded into the Caverns of Time for the Burning Crusade expansion. But in that moment, I had no idea what it was -- just that the world had suddenly gotten very strange, and very, very screenshot-worthy, which is when I took the screenshot above. I have a lot of screenshots, guys. Each expansion, I snap screenshots of every cool location, cool armor set, neat people, fun events -- you name it, I'm probably sitting there happily snapping away. And I keep them all. Why? In vanilla, I just liked taking pictures of things -- pretty things, weird things, strange armor I'd purchased and immediately regretted. In Burning Crusade, it was because Outland was so new, and different, and unlike anything on Azeroth. Somewhere in Wrath, after getting my job here, it grew from a hobby into something I did for cataloging purposes. If I needed a screenshot of a particular quest or a particular NPC saying a particular line, then I was going to make sure I had it handy before I even knew I needed it. Betas are great for testing, but they're also great for getting tons of advance screenshots that I will more than likely use later. And beyond that ... well, it's kind of interesting to have a record of all the places I've gone and all the people I've met over the years. It's like flipping through a scrapbook. A really, really nerdy scrapbook. Do you guys take a lot of screenshots? Do you save the alt-z for important stuff like boss kills and achievements, or do you snap away whenever you see a pretty piece of scenery? Do you save your screenshots from expansion to expansion, or just get rid of them as time goes on? What's the earliest screenshot you've still got?
Breakfast Topic: The places you love, the places you hate
World of Warcraft is full of amazing environments where we quest, level, and raid -- but we probably don't hold every in-game locale equal in our hearts. There are dungeons I've only run once or twice, and there are dungeons I've run a hundred times. There are zones I go out of my way to quest through when I'm leveling an alt and there are zones I avoid like the plague (and, no, I'm not just talking about the plaguelands). I'm pretty sure I'm not alone here: we all have our favorite game zones that we return to again and again. Karazhan still tops my personal favorite places list, with a great story, great setting, great music (see above), and some unusual boss encounters that remain memorable even though it's been years since the dungeon was current content. But tell us, readers: what are your favorite (or least favorite) in-game locations? What are the zones you keep gong back to -- and which zones do you escape as soon as possible?
Breakfast Topic: My first character
That's my first character ever, Marketh the warrior from Azjol-Nerub. That's him in his hideous mismatched DPS gear (I was tanking back then, in the Naxx 10/25 days) He's been through several race changes, faction switches, and realm transfers, but he's still around, and I still log on and go on rampages through older content for transmog gear, or a dungeon run or two. And that seems very important today. Are you still playing your first character? Is she or he a main or an alt? And how long have you been playing her or him?
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite (WoW) things
Though we may all be playing World of Warcraft together, we're not all necessarily playing for the same reasons. Some of us are into PvP, others are only interested in raids, some might love the game's lore, some might only want to collect everything the game offers, and some are just here for the in-game community. Whatever your reasons for playing, whether you're brand new or you've been here since the beginning, they're probably different from your nearest WoW neighbor. Today, let's talk about the reasons we all play. What's your favorite WoW thing, the part of the game that keeps you logging on day after day (and year after year)?
Breakfast Topic: What do you do when you need a WoW break?
World of Warcraft has been running for over ten years now, which is a long time for any game. When we're talking time-spans like that, sometimes you're just going to find you need a break. This doesn't necessarily mean you're leaving for good, but sometimes you just need to shake up your gaming routine and take a break from the daily grind of WoW to avoid burning out entirely. For my part, I took a fairly long WoW-break when Cataclysm came out, but I also took a few weeks off when Dragon Age Inquisition came out -- and I'm likely to skip WoW for as long as it takes me to play through Grim Fandango, too. So today let's talk about our WoW respites. Do you take occasional WoW breaks? Just what do you do with your gaming time away from WoW?
Breakfast Topic: How much farming is too much farming?
There's no MMO -- or game in general, really -- that doesn't have some grinding built in. After all, you need some reason to keep logging in after you've run out of quest rewards and dungeons to clear. But sometimes the grind you go through for achievements and collectables is just too much. So when do you decide that it's time to throw in the towel on your own grinds? Right now, I'm working on safari achievements, and I'm down to one pet left to catch in Eastern Kingdoms and one more in Kalimdor. Two more pets when I've already managed to pick up 360 unique pets shouldn't be that hard, right? Wrong. Right now I have alts camped to watch for rare spawns, and I log in now and then to sit and stare at my mini-map as if that will make them spawn faster. But this isn't exactly compelling gameplay -- in fact, this kind of tedium is the dead opposite of compelling. But I've gotten so close... I shouldn't give up with only a couple of pets to go, should I? So today let's talk grinds. How long have you ever spent farming or grinding for a particular bauble or achievement in-game? And just when do you decide that enough is enough?
Breakfast Topic: Do you stack traits on missions?
I have a method for follower missions, one that seems to have worked out mostly in my favor -- during the day, I'll complete as many of the shorter missions as I can, logging in to cycle through them once or twice. Before I turn in for the night, I'll queue up all the longer missions, because I know they'll be waiting for me at whatever point I log on the next day. Sometimes, though, I get impatient or I want the rewards offered by a mission right away -- which is when I start stacking traits. I have a lot of followers with the Epic Mount trait. I also have a lot of followers with the Scavenger trait. Used to their full potential, I can easily nab over 1k garrison resources in a single mission -- or I can whittle a mission down to 15 minutes or less. In 6.1, the Scavenger trait is getting a nerf from a 200% bonus down to 100%, and frankly I can see why -- with a 10k character garrison resource limit and the potential of capping that limit in 10 missions or less, it's a little overpowered. Thankfully, the Epic Mount trait is being left untouched, which means I can still speed along missions as I see fit when the new patch is released. I'm sure I'm not the only person that does this, but I'm curious just for curiosity's sake -- do you guys stack your follower traits on missions? Is it something you go out of your way to try and accomplish, or is it something you tend to ignore? What do you think of the Scavenger change in patch 6.1 -- was it needed, or unnecessary in your mind? What traits do you like the most?
Breakfast Topic: Have you caught 'em all?
I've been on a recent pet-hunting binge in World of Warcraft. Though I've always been a fan of collecting games, I'd avoided getting into this one because it seemed like once I got started started, I would feel compelled to catch everything... and that seemed like a tall order. Now that I'm actively working on WoW's safari achievements, I can tell I was right. In between rare spawn pets, pets that only spawn during certain weather conditions or certain times of day, and my horrible habit of accidentally killing pets I mean to catch (my Terrible Turnip isn't very high level yet), I'm pretty sure this is going to take approximately forever to finish. So I ask you, readers: are you, too, compelled to try to catch 'em all? And if so, how is your personal safari quest going? A note to anyone who hasn't started this crazy quest to catch every pet: don't start! Your sanity will thank you.
Breakfast Topic: Why not heirloom followers?
We have epic followers, we have a legendary follower, so why not heirloom followers? Well, as is often the case when I have one of these ideas at three am, there are potentially a lot of reasons why to not have heirloom followers. For one thing, we level our followers and get them better gear and so on - a follower you could somehow send to your alts would mess up this whole process. Would they scale to your level? What level would they top out at? Could you gear them up? Could you make them epic? All good questions. But man, it's daunting to have to try and get all the same followers over and over again, especially ones that are on rare vendors. Sometimes I wish I could mail my little minions to my alts, just so I wouldn't have to deal with flying out to the Spires of Arak yet again.
Breakfast Topic: When do you play?
World of Warcraft has some pretty standard "prime time" hours. After people are out of work or school -- or after the kids are put to bed -- they return home and pile into the game. This makes these "prime" hours a great time to run LFR or find a group doing the Apexis daily, but crowds and make it a lousy time to go out trapping for savage blood or to farm rare (and camped) materials. So with that in mind -- and following up on yesterday's topic -- just when do you jump into the game to play? I have a tendency to jump online in the middle of the day for some quiet time farming or doing other daily tasks when I'm not likely to be interrupted -- though, of course, if I'm getting in on any particular group activities I have to shoot for those prime time hours. But what about you, readers? Do you keep to late nights or do you prefer to play during the day? Just when is your prime playtime schedule?
Breakfast Topic: What to do at 3 a.m.
I tend to like to do stuff at night, when there's practically no one else on. Partially this is because of my rather aggressive insomnia, a problem I've had for years now. But there's also something peaceful about it - stripped of the vast majority of players, suddenly I can wander about in the world, queue for dungeons or LFR, do the daily quest without worrying about other people doing the same, farm for rares if I'm of a mind to. The world feels broader, more expansive. Perhaps this is simply a legacy of my being a rather curmudgeonly sort, but as I type this it's the waning hours of the morning. So I now ask you, what would you do in the quiet moments of the night?
Breakfast Topic: I want to unleash my followers upon my enemies
Seriously, I have like twenty of these people, why can't I loose them as an unstoppable force of destruction? I know we have raid missions, but I'd love to be able to go to, say, Ashran and do a 20 vs 20 PvP Follower match, or perhaps a special raid, just me and my followers. Some actual in the world gameplay for them beyond just sending them on missions or sticking some poor unfortunate in the mine (Sorry, Lantressor) or what have you. I mean, imagine a weekly mission where you have to coordinate your followers on an assault on an Iron Horde base? Yes, I'm basically arguing that we should be able to play Warcraft III while we play WoW. I just feel like we should get to do something more with our followers, something that helps increase the feeling that we're the commander of this elite fighting force. Do you have any ideas for ways we could more directly utilize our follower base?
Breakfast Topic: What will Patch 6.2 be?
We're talking a lot about Patch 6.1, of course, because it's the new hotness on the horizon. But because we assume there'll be at least two more patches after it (and who knows, maybe that's a false assumption) I have to ask what you guys think the next patch is going to be. I'm kind of hoping it'll be either Farahlon or Tanaan, although I suspect Tanaan will be in the last patch of the expansion, whatever that is, along with the final raid. For 6.2, I don't even know if we'll get a raid, but I have to believe we're at least going to see some new five mans. Now it's your turn. What's 6.2 going to have in store for us?
Breakfast Topic: Have you caught your own mounts?
I decided to retire my War Mill over the weekend, largely because I'd gotten just about everything I could want from the building, and I had little need for the free seal. I'll probably construct it again later just because I like the look of the building, but for now, there are bigger and better things to do. Like catching my own mounts via the stables. It wasn't really a priority when I began leveling -- the War Mill, with its promise of quest upgrades, free seals, follower upgrades and transmog gear seemed like a much more appealing option. Now that that's all taken care of, it's time for the fun stuff. So yesterday I went out and caught myself a clefthoof and a talbuk, with the promise of more creatures to capture and tame as the days go on. I think I'm going to like the stables. It's more quests to do, and it's eight mounts that are essentially free as long as I put in the time to complete all the associated quests and earn the appropriate achievements along the way. Who could really pass that up? And that's got me wondering -- have you guys completed the stables quests and caught your own mounts yet? Are you planning to do so? If you've completed the quests, did you keep the building afterward? Is the 20% boost to mount speed in Draenor enough of a reason to keep the level 3 stables around? Or did you replace the stables with another building once you were all done catching your mounts? If the stables added more mounts in the future, what would you like to see?
Breakfast Topic: What kind of transmog items would you like to see?
As a self-proclaimed transmog addict, there are three major things I'd like to see from Warlords of Draenor's transmog offerings -- first, more draenei-themed items. We have a lot of orc clan stuff available, but the only real transmog set for draenei is locked behind one particular garrison building and a rep grind. The draenei have great fashion sense, why not have more of that style of gear available? Second, I really love the standard gear the Frostwolves run around in -- the designs are pretty, evocative, and unique. If the Frostwolves are Horde allies, why can't we dress like them? Lastly, though, is something I thought we were going to see with this expansion, but seems to have been pulled -- back banners. I love blademaster orcs, and the idea of being able to run around with one of those signature banners on my back all the time was really cool. But although we've got a follower who dutifully carts one around on her back, we don't really have any of our own. Wouldn't it be cool to have, especially given the theme of this expansion? What do you guys think? Are there particular items you'd like to see made available for transmog? Are there certain NPCs that made you take a step back and ask yourself where you could get their clothes? Is there a particular armor set you'd love to see added to the War Mill for transmog purposes? Or is how your character dresses the furthest thing from your mind while you play?
Breakfast Topic: 6.1 and content
There's a lot of stuff coming in patch 6.1 - like, for example, the continuation of the Legendary Quest Chain, complete with legendary follower. But so far, one of the things I'm not seeing is content, exactly. A ton of model fixes, new stuff for the Darkmoon Faire, Harrison Jones as a follower, but no new dungeons, no new raids, and as far as I know zones like Tanaan and Farahlon aren't coming. Since I have no idea how many patches we'll actually see for Warlords, I have no idea how significant this is. I want there to be more dungeons and raids, that's my favorite content, so I'm sort of hoping we'll hear more soon. What about you? Would you like to hear about some dungeons, a raid or maybe the zones that weren't released on launch? Or do you think 6.1 is full enough?
Breakfast Topic: The Fate of Inventory
We've seen a lot of improvements to the inventory system over the years. We've seen bags get bigger, sorting and searching included, items like mounts, pets, toys and soon heirloom items all removed from our bags (along with quest items) to help make space. We've seen void storage, so that we can take items we want to keep but not necessarily need access to and put them somewhere, and many consumable items and various reagents have been improved to stack to higher amounts, freeing up more bag space. This has me wondering, though, are we forever in a bag arms race between all the things we may want, and the amount of space we have? Will we eventually see consumables get their own tab, or reagents go from the various kinds of profession and reagent bags in the bank to a tab of their own? What changes do you foresee for our always filling bags?
Breakfast Topic: Looking for...
When I first started playing World of Warcraft some ten years ago, if you'd told me one day I could simply queue for dungeons, raids, even open world content, I'd have looked confused because I barely understood how to run dungeons with a group of friends at that point, much less all this talk of 'queueing' for anything. Thinking about this the other day I started wondering if we were at maximum inclusion, if there was any kind of content that could exist that would use the queue system. You can queue for PvP and PvE, you can queue for random BG's, dungeons and raids, world bosses and I'm wondering what could possibly be left. I'd say scenarios, but we had those in Mists. Have we achieved peak Group Finder? Or am I missing something? For that matter, could an entirely new form of content be introduced? Flex dungeons? One of the reasons I love this job is that I know you'll come up with something that completely eludes me.
Breakfast Topic: Your Dream Legendary
Once upon a time, the only legendary items were weapons, or means to create weapons. (I'm ignoring the Talisman of Binding Shard, okay?) But with the introduction of the Legendary Cloak in Mists of Pandaria, and now the Ring and Follower in Warlords of Draenor, we're experiencing an entirely new phenomenon, whole new kinds of legendary items, even an outright legendary person. This has gotten me wondering - what new kinds of legendaries would you like to see in World of Warcraft? A legendary shield? Legendary offhand items? A legendary mount or pet? A legendary toybox item? Or could we get even weirder? The legendary cloak made it possible to fight a world boss, perhaps we could actually summon a legendary version of a boss with entirely different loot? The sky's the limit. What should be legendary?
