world-of-warcraft-topics
Latest
Breakfast Topic: What did you do during the patch 3.3 extended downtime?
Few were surprised yesterday when there was extended maintenance due to patch 3.3 being implemented on the live servers. Though I was briefly able to log on and grab a Corehound Pup Pet, otherwise I was at the mercy of the downtime along with everyone else. Here's what I did: Caught up in Cafe World -- unfortunately, my food had spoiled. Watched the Fall of the Lich King trailer -- more than once. Colored with The Spawn -- some of those new Crayola 64 color names are weird. Read up on the new Dungeon Finder Guide -- good stuff. And, of course, I tried to log on over and over and over and over. What did you do during the 3.3 extended downtime?
Breakfast Topic: What will be the first thing you do in patch 3.3?
Patch 3.3 is here! Rejoice! Be merry! There's new stuff to do! If you're not quite sure where to start, I strongly suggest checking out our patch 3.3 guide. There's many new activities to look forward to. This is the patch where we make Arthas pay for his crimes. The Argent Crusade, with the aid of the Alliance and Horde will be making their final push into Icecrown Citadel and they need your help. So there's a few things you can start off with: Check out the new dungeon finder (and farm those Emblems)! Head into the new Icecrown 5-player dungeons Try and get the Quel'Delar Buy a new bag Start planning for the fishing tournament in Northrend Assault Icecrown Citadel itself Run a nerfed version of Oculus Send your Heirlooms to your toons of the opposite faction (on the same account). For me personally, I'm locked and ready to break into Icecrown Citadel. What about you guys?
Breakfast Topic: Are legendaries good for the game?
Sunsmoon on WoW_ladies makes an uncomfortably accurate observation concerning legendaries -- people tend to get a little nuts around them. Anyone doing Tier 6 back in the day doubtless remembers the fistfights over who was going to get a Warglaive, WoW players worldwide were in shock at a rogue getting Thor'idal over two hunters, and the annals of classic WoW are rife with nightmare stories of /gquits over Bindings of the Windseeker and arguments over Sulfuras going to a druid. Nowadays (as someone on my realm remarked in a moment's pique), of the six Val'anyrs that have been assembled on our server, only one remains in its original guild. A reasonable person might be forgiven for thinking that the little orange text accompanying what's usually a decent weapon with a great proc is a lot more trouble than it's worth. A good point is brought up by Amiyuy in the thread -- the process of creating a legendary, or having to keep farming for an extremely uncommon drop, tends to wear people out. A healer on track to build a Val'anyr can't reasonably expect to take any time off for fear of missing one of the inconsistent shards, and my guildmates and I continued to farm Black Temple well past the point that anyone was getting even offspec gear upgrades because we just couldn't get a main-hand Glaive. With another legendary coming out in Icecrown Citadel, guild leaders are facing the headache of figuring out who'll get it, and we've already fielded questions on our tip line on which class gets the most from Shadowmourne and whether Blizzard could have nixed the stamina on it to discourage death knight tanks from picking it up (!). So readers, I ask you -- are legendaries good for the game? If your guild was on a position to get one, did they ultimately help or hurt you more? And is the painful process of getting a Legendary the real source of the trouble, and not the item itself?
Breakfast Topic: The high cost of playing
I support World of Warcraft's paid services. I think they're good for the game. I think a lot of the options that the services provide extend our interest in the game, allowing us to play when we might have otherwise lost interest. What I do worry about is how expensive everything is when you start to add them all up. I suspect I'm like the average player who has more than a few max level characters at this point, which means wanting to avail of paid services on all of them could get a little pricey. Let's take character transfers, for instance. If I wanted to transfer all my characters to a server where my friends play (why would I want to move just one?) it would cost me a hefty sum. Add to that the fact that my wife plays wherever I play so we multiply that hefty sum by two. Imagine if I wanted to change my characters' races to those combinations that were previously unavailable come Cataclysm... how much would that add up to? It doesn't take an accountant to see that it could cost a small fortune.
Breakfast Topic: A Little Help From Our Friends
I don't care even remotely about achievements. Haven't since they came into the game, to be honest. When I heard that a player in Taiwan has actually done them all, I think I blinked a few times and was confused as to why anyone would. That being said, I actually have quite a few. I don't get them because I want them, I get them because other people want them and they ask me to come help them get them. And that I enjoy doing quite a lot, actually. I like helping my guildies out, and I like doing things that I wouldn't do for my own sake for others sake, as it costs me little and feels like it balances the karmic scales ever so slightly. It's not just achievements: I'll tank a heroic that I have no interest in (I don't really need badges or loot from any of them at this point) or even a raid. In the past few weeks I've found myself tanking Naxx and Ulduar 10 to help people out with achievements, or to gear alts or grind badges for a specific reason. Doesn't really matter what it is, so much as there's someone getting something they need out of it. The best time was getting a friend the Malygos quest finished after months of having it rot in her logs. Part of the reason I do this is because I know they'd do it for me, and have: when I needed block rating drops from Uld 10 and 25 people deliberately skipped achievements they needed to make sure we got things done faster for my sake. So how about you? Asked your friends for help lately, or given it back?
Breakfast Topic: Where do you get your meat?
I'm still working on my Chef's Hat, and there was always one cooking daily which took more time than the others: Mustard Dogs. The wild mustard is easy enough to find in the grassy areas of Dalaran, but the Rhino Meat always used to give me fits. I would fly out to Sholazar Basin and kill rhinos until I was bored which was usually right at the 4 meat mark. After whining about it in Twitter one day, multiple people replied to me with their suggestions for rhino hunting grounds, with the consensus being Borean Tundra. The section of Borean Tundra in between Amber Ledge and Warsong Hold is home to roaming Rhino families. If you AoE just some of the members of a family, the rest of the family will aggro. So, if you are of sufficient level and have a good Area of Effect or cone attack, you can take down multiple families of rhinos in a very short time -- even if there is someone else there farming rhinos, too. The hard part then becomes making sure you've looted each corpse in a pile of enormous dead mammals. Now, if I'm out of Rhino Dogs, I just take a few minutes to go stock up and then take a dragon back to Dalaran, just because I can. Where do you get the meat you need to make the recipes you use regularly? Perhaps you know of where large families of Shoveltusks graze? Do you have any other tips for budding chefs looking to speed up their meat farming?
Breakfast Topic: Running progression raids blind
BoK brings up something I've thought a little bit about lately: their guild will occasionally run an encounter "blind," which means they'll go in without researching or learning any boss strategy ahead of time. This is generally something that only the highest-level guilds often do, and even then only on the PTR -- by the time bosses hit the live realms, their abilities are usually posted online somewhere. But some guilds enjoy a challenge, and doing a raid without knowing what's coming definitely keeps you on your toes. A lot of raiders think that's actually the "right" way to do it -- Blizzard's game doesn't come with strategies installed, so if the designers created the fight correctly, it should be clear, just from watching buffs and boss animations, what to do during a fight. So today's query is: have you ever run something blind, or would you like to? I haven't run any raids blind -- my guild raids so little already that when we do, it's best to be fully prepared. But I did run the new 5-mans blind on the PTR, and it was an interesting experience. You really have to stay alert and try to analyze the fight as you're doing it, look for buffs and balances and try to position yourself as best you can, all while running your usual casts and abilities. It's a fun challenge, though as the fight gets tougher, it's probably less fun -- we were running with premades on five-mans, and I doubt a high-level raid would be as easy on us. Still, some of you must do it regularly, or at least be interested in going blind. What say you?
Breakfast Topic: Abuse of the "Report player AFK" feature
I make liberal use of the "Report player AFK" feature when I'm in Battlegrounds, particularly Alterac Valley. I can't stand AFKers who leech XP and honor off of the rest of us actually trying to win a game. But while I also abhor when one of my fellow Hordies caps Snowfall Graveyard (don't get me started on that), I would never consider reporting him AFK in retaliation. Sure, I don't want to play with him anymore, but I wouldn't abuse the report AFK feature to try to force the issue either. Others, it seems, are not above AFK reporting abuse. There have been a couple of times that I've died and run off for a biobreak only to come back to being in town and a deserter debuff. That's kinda understandable: I was actually AFK. But just how quick are people reporting? It's like being at a stoplight in New York City, where people start beeping their horns to hurry you up before the light even turns green. And then the other night, I was trying to get through a bottleneck near Stormpike Graveyard -- which admittedly wasn't the smart way to get around -- and next thing I know I'm at a loading screen. Obviously, I got reported for being in the group of people fighting on the road; but since I was just trying to get through, I didn't get rid of the debuff. Here's how reporting people AFK works:
Breakfast Topic: Did you meet your Pilgrims Bounty goals?
Thanks to an obliging (and naked) dwarf rogue in Dalaran, I was able to obtain my Pilgrim title without much trouble. Well, trying to get the Turkinator on the first day was definitely "much trouble", but waiting a few days for Tirisfal Glades to empty out proved to be the less frustrating course. For my alts, I was happy just leveling my cooking on the cheap... and getting a level here and there. Pilgrim's Bounty was a great opportunity for easily working on what I consider a necessary secondary profession. This first instance of Blizzard's version of the U.S.'s Thanksgiving Day holiday didn't have any bosses with fun loot, and wasn't included as part of the meta, but it was casual fun without much time expended. And I am very fond of my suicidal turkey, though disappointed he didn't try to hook up with the Lonely Turkey. Were you able to do all you wanted to in this holiday? Did you enjoy it or is there something you wish they would change for next year?
Breakfast Topic: Your Holiday WoW
Since we're now bearing down on the holidays with the fury and majesty of an 18 Wheeler, now comes a time to discuss how those special days affect your WoW play. On the one hand, a lot of people have extended time off this time of year, giving them more time to play, while others find their time taken up with family and friends celebrating and thus have less time to play. I live roughly 2000 miles away from anyone I'd celebrate with, but my wife and I live close to my mother in law, meaning that we'll spend the holidays close to home and save for the specific days themselves will have the same or more time to play, but much of my raiding guild will be traveling and as a result raiding will most likely be suspended from mid December on. This wasn't as much of an issue for us last year due to Wrath of the Lich King launching in November... the holiday season was taken up by folks leveling... but this year it looks like five mans will be our major WoW excursions until the new year. So what about you? Will you be raiding as usual, taking some time off, running heroics, or even levling alts? How will the holidays change how you play WoW?
Breakfast Topic: When will you quit playing WoW?
With all this five year anniversary stuff going on, and the new push by Blizzard for subscribers via the TV commercials and special offers, I've been thinking about what it would take for me to leave WoW. What would my point be where I quit the game, unsubscribe, and not return to playing it? I think likely it would be a slow death. I'd log in less and less, until I found that I wouldn't log in for months at a time. At that point I'd probably be sensible and cancel my account -- although it took an inordinate amount of time for me to cancel my EQII account where I did more or less the same thing. I'd like to think this is how it'd go at least, I wouldn't want to quit in a huff over some silly bug or class change. Of course, this is WoW, and I find myself uniquely invested in it. I've got characters with hundreds of days worth of /played on them, and I don't know yet if I could ever stop myself from being able to have immediate access to them. They are a hobby, and investment, just like a detailed model airplane or schooner. Then there's also what I do here, which gives me a little unique reason not to ever unsubscribe. But alas, it might happen one day. And that's the topic of today's breakfast nook discussion. When will you quit playing WoW? How will you go out? With a bang or a whimper?
Breakfast Topic: What do you do when your server is down?
The players on the Emberstorm and Whirlwind battlegroups have had a rough week. A massive power outage, huge network issues and other problems have forced them away from their virtual homes to find refuge elsewhere. Some have joined the It came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh, where we have had two impromptu server outage parties. The picture above is from Tuesday night's shindig. Others have commented in the outage posts that they have formed level 1 raids on other servers. And of course there are other games to play. Personally, if both Zangarmarsh and my main server are down, I figure it's time to start watching what's on the DVR and knitting. What do you do when your server is down?
Breakfast Topic: Catching the perfect Warcraft wave
If you've been around the World of Warcraft community for any length of time you've probably found and participated in some of the myriad of different game related communities. If you go to the blog search page and search for Warcraft you'll see over 8 million related entries. There are also tons of additional podcasts on iTunes other such services. And then there are the forums. Besides the official forums, you have other sites that have created forums. There are forums like MMO Champion, WoW Raid, Elitist Jerks to just name a few. We haven't even touched the Facebook fan sites or Twitter #wow or #warcraft discussions. But yet, now we have another way to talk about our favorite game. Google has a new collaboration tool out for use (by invitation only at the moment), Google Wave. Right now it's still in Alpha and is full of bugs and performance issues, but it's a tool that seems to have a lot of possibilities. For example, if you search for waves by using "with:public Warcraft" you get a number of public waves ranging from general WoW discussions to server or class specific debates. Personally, I've seen it used for Instant Messaging about patch 3.3, collaborating on documents, and even being used by people to play a role playing game. Basically, it seems like a tool that has a ton of potential. (Please understand that none of us here at WoW.com have any wave invitations to hand out.) So here's what I'm wondering. What communities do you participate in? Do you participate in the WoW related Twitter, Facebook, blog or podcast community? Which ones? How about Wave? Are you using Google Wave to talk about Warcraft? We'd love to know what communities you're using and think people need to use also. So grab a cup a coffee and let's talk about it.
Breakfast Topic: Five years
Today is November 23rd, and that means it's the fifth anniversary of the release of World of Warcraft. That's a long time! Especially in the high-risk world of MMOs, where a bad launch can mean your whole game is doomed, or a sudden change in gameplay can make your whole audience rear up on its hind legs at you. Thankfully, Blizzard has made WoW a living, breathing document, a world that constantly changes and evolves to match its players, which is what makes it so accessible. Throughout dozens of patches, tiers upon tiers of raid bosses, waves of dailies, faction grinds and honor grinds, legendaries and greens, WoW has managed to keep growing and growing along with its subscriber count. And of course, you've been there, too. Maybe not for the whole five years like some of us, but everyone's experienced the game in their own way. So what about you? How long have you been with the game? What's your favorite memory of "growing up" in WoW? Will you keep playing for another five years? Happy anniversary, everybody. Here's to five more!
Breakfast Topic: How many of you play on a Mac?
This was a reader suggestion, and a good one: Zvonimir wants to know how many of us WoW players use a Mac to play the game. Blizzard has steadfastly put out Mac and Windows versions of all their games ever since the original Warcraft, but this is not at all the norm in the industry. There are only a few other major MMOs I can think of that even have official Mac versions (EVE, Warhammer, City of Heroes, um...anything else?). Sure, we can always run some sort of virtualization (like Crossover Games, which supports WoW on Linux) or Boot Camp, but that's just less awesome than running something in your regular OS. Anyway, here's the question for today: what platform do you usually use to play WoW? %Poll-37057% Please no flaming in the comments. This is not a "which is better, Mac or Windows" poll. Inappropriate comments will be gladly deleted.
Breakfast Topic: Anticipation Syndrome
Okay, I admit it: waiting for Icecrown has started to drive me a little nuts. Possibly it's as bad as it is because this time I'm much more aware of the incoming patch than I have been for previous ones. I've run the new five mans on the PTR and kept up with the Quel'Delar questline and watched the raid testing on streams. Meanwhile, one of my oldest WoW friends will not shut up about Blood Elf Warriors in Cataclysm. Seriously, he will not be quiet. I've tried ordering him to be quiet but then he just starts nattering on about the violence inherent in the system. To a degree, all of this waiting for future patches and expansions is kind of getting in the way of enjoying what we have now. I'm starting to feel like I've lost track of all the current raiding and instance content and am just standing around trying to raid a dungeon that's not even in the game yet. (And it doesn't help with the song of Skinny the Belf Fury Warrior constantly ringing in my ears, either.) So now I turn once again to you, the viewers at home, and ask if you're feeling anticipation syndrome or not.
Breakfast Topic: This is getting a little silly...
Night Elf Mohawks and Mohawk Grenades? I should know by now that Blizzard can throw a curve ball better than anyone, but the announcement of Mr. T hacking into the World of Warcraft and handing out completely whimsical, nonsensical items still caught me by surprise. Any Blizzard fan knows that humor plays a big part in their games, and WoW has been no exception -- Azeroth is rife with in-game jokes, pop culture references, puns, easter eggs, and silly items like, well, Mohawk Grenades. It sometimes gets silly to the point where it just doesn't make any sense. There isn't even any deep lore to it (which is probably what got our resident lore nerd Alex's knickers in a bunch)... there's just this strange-looking Night Elf handing out grenades in starting areas. Coupled with the television commercial where Mr. T brags about hacking into the World of Warcraft, it all seems very meta. I like the way the game doesn't take itself seriously, but this latest gimmick comes so far from left field I don't quite know what to think. What's your take on World of Warcraft's whimsy? A lot of items, particularly from loot cards, are silly, like the D.I.S.C.O. or Ogre Piñata. Others are pretty badass like the Spectral Tiger. Not everything is necessarily tied in to lore, and that's alright. But where do you think Blizzard should draw the line? When does a joke ruin the game world or immersive experience? Or is everything fair game?
Breakfast Topic: Achievements and you
Ah, achievements, that funny little meta-game where everything's made up and the points don't matter. Why, oh why, do we flock to World of Warcraft's achievement system so? Of course, we all look forward to achievements with particularly lucrative rewards (or at least interesting titles), but many of the game's achievements, the only reward to look forward to is achievement points. And while you can certainly take some joy from watching those numbers build up, the points, essentially, don't matter. So what is it that keeps us hungering to complete even the silliest of achievements? Is it a passion for completism that prevents you from leaving these lists undone? Is it a need to prove yourself better or more dedicated than your fellow player? Is it the faint hope that some day Blizzard will reward your tedious labors with appropriately awesome swag? Is it the sense of accomplishment whenever an "achievement complete" alert pops up? Tell us -- what keeps you achieving?
Breakfast Topic: An ode to the WoW TCG
I'll be up front and admit that I don't play Upper Deck's World of Warcraft TCG. If I had oodles disposable income and the time, though, I totally would. It's just that between the MMOG and, uh, real life it seems pretty difficult to find time to collect cards, build decks, and find people to play with or compete against. That said, I think Upper Deck's card game looks awesome and I had fun in the short time that I played it back when it was launched. If I wasn't playing WoW, I think I'd be playing the card game. More than any other licensed WoW product, I think, the WoW TCG feels extremely tied in to the game world. The art, along with a lot of game references such as NPCs, locations, and spells, make it feel like an extension of Azeroth. In many ways, some of the things that are featured in the card game are canon. I thoroughly enjoy the artwork in particular. They blow me away and I use every opportunity (such as this one) to include WoW TCG card art into my posts. I can't praise Upper Deck's graphic design team enough -- everything from the cards to the website to associated merchandise feels 100% World of Warcraft. When the WoW.com office in the clouds heard the rumor that the WoW TCG was about to die a sad and miserable death, I was kind of dismayed. I mean, we knew it to be false, but it was a sad thought anyway. Aside from being a fun game (and all-consuming habit!), the TCG is also famous for its loot cards. So on this nice morning, I'd like to make a toast to the not-dead-nor-dying card game. Do you play the WoW TCG? Would you have wanted to? What're your favorite cards? Any favorite loot cards? Is there anything in particular about the TCG that you like or dislike?
Breakfast Topic: A trip to the stylist, part two
Yesterday's Breakfast Topic was revealing. Revealing in that I revealed that I watch Project Runway. You guys said some stuff, too, I think? I'll have to go back and look. Ah, yep. Okay. You guys hate the Goku haircut as much as I do. It's probably the worst one in the game. But hey, we're not here today to decry current hairstyles. Our trip to the stylist today is all about what we'd like to see added instead of removed. I commented yesterday on the sheer number of awesome hipster haircuts that female goblins are getting, and that's what I want. I want more modern haircuts for all of the races, especially the girls. I think I count three bobs for blood elf females alone! Give 'em an awesome Rock Band-style pixie cut. Give troll females a few haircuts that don't make them look like Bugs Bunny antagonists. Let my night elf male be Morrissey. Let human males have a haircut that doesn't make them look like a member of the Village People (or Fabio). Give tauren females ... I don't even know what. Something. What do you guys want to see added to the game in terms of hairstyles? Any cuts you can't live without?
