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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!
Breakfast Topic: When you were there
From time to time it occurs to me that my character, were I a better roleplayer, has actually been to a whole lot of places. He's seen a ridiculous amount of things and would have a really hard time settling down on a farm somewhere on Azeroth or whatever it is old adventurers do when they're tired of killing old gods, elemental monstrosities, Dragon Aspects, ancient liches, and Illidan Stormrage, to name just a few. It really occurred to me on a visit to Darnassus, in fact, to turn in the quest "A Cautious Return" that I should be able to do more than just hand the dude a note. I mean, I killed Illidan! I've kicked Kil'Jaeden's butt back down the Sunwell myself! I went back in time and fought Archimonde. (By the way, Tyrande, thanks for the slow fall item and all.) Lore wise, I've pretty much seen everything at this point and soon, I'll be running off to fight Arthas. You'd think I could say "hey, take it easy" to that Sentinel for the poor guy. When you think about all our characters have seen (even new characters leveled from 1 to 80 with this expansion have traveled to an alien world and then to a frozen wasteland stuffed with titan relics and undead like the worst pizza crust ever) these are some really experienced folks (hence that bar on your interface, I guess) and I find myself wondering what kind of stories they'd tell. So now I ask you, what stories would your character tell? What lore moments were the ones you think he or she would be more moved by, impressed by, or pleased to have been a part of? For that matter, which ones were the best for you as a player?
Breakfast Topic: Oh, the lengths that we go
A man walks into a bar... or in this case, a Panera Bread café, lugging his whole iMac. He orders a cup of coffee and proceeds to play World of Warcraft using the coffee shop's free Wi-Fi. It almost sounds like a joke, except that it isn't. Gizmodo reported that the Panera Bread iMac Man has made a habit of going to his favorite haunt with his entire desktop computer and playing WoW using the complimentary Internet connection. I'd probably be surprised if I wasn't guilty of having done similar things using a less conspicuous machine. By less conspicuous, I mean a Macbook Pro mounted on a laptop cooling pad and flanked by a Belkin N52te, a Razer hard mat and mouse, while wearing a headset. That wouldn't stand out too much in Starbucks, would it? I do order an iced venti 1-pump classic nonfat 8-scoop matcha green tea latte and a maple oat scone to camouflage my set-up somewhat. Let's face it. Many of us love this game so much we sometimes go to great lengths just to play it. Logging in from a friend's house, an Internet café, or even bringing around our entire computer set-up around in a van, Vork-style, just looking for a place to log on. I've got an HSPDA USB modem in my laptop bag, you know, just in case. What were the extremes you've gone through in order to play the game? When you needed to log on just at the exact time, maybe to catch that expiring auction you've been watching, or to finish those Achievements just before the holiday goes away. Because of the Gizmodo story, my imagination right now is limited to nabbing free Wi-Fi, although I'm sure some of you have more outrageous stories to tell... cutting meetings short, excusing yourself in the middle of lunch, or even *cough* calling in sick. What lengths have you gone to just to play WoW?
Breakfast Topic: What class mechanics have you had to learn to deal with?
In yesterday's breakfast topic we talked about what dungeons you've had to relearn -- how to deal with people in them and how to deal with all the pulls. Right in hand with that is the various ways people play their class. Prior to patch 3.3 WoW players could be rather insulated in their groups and techniques. For example, on my server the hunter would always misdirect to the tank. It was a standard thing, and if the hunter didn't do it, he'd be griped at right away by the entire group. Tanks on my server also generally marked the first kill target, regardless if the tank was a pally tank or a warrior (or death knight or druid or shield-wielding shaman). Enter patch 3.3 and cross-server grouping via the dungeon finder. Each person from each server now brings with them sometimes extremely divergent styles of play and ways they handle their class. I've found the number of hunters that don't have Feign Death on their toolbar to be astounding. On my server that kind of behavior would be shouted down in a big way. In cross-server groups, it almost seems acceptable. A successful group leader, especially a successful tank that's aware of everything going on, will have to strike a balance between getting members to fall in line (for lack of a better phrase), or just ignoring the problems and dealing with poor game play. It's this coping technique -- the ignoring part -- that we're here to talk about today. What are the class and game play mechanics you've learned to ignore and just deal with players not understanding?
Breakfast Topic: What dungeon have you had to relearn?
The random dungeon finder is not only great for gearing up alts and getting mains the necessary badges to fill out their gear -- it's an amazing tool which forces an increase in the WoW community's collective knowledge about instances and game mechanics. And while some of these game mechanics will be a discussion for a future time (hint: tomorrow's Breakfast Topic), today let's focus on what instances you've had to "relearn," more or less. Take Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. Prior to the random heroic dungeons, I probably ran this place a grand total of five times. My warrior tank got the bracers on his fist run through it, and I did it on a few more alts just to get the Northrend Dungeon Hero achievement. Other than that, when it was the heroic daily I'd just skip it and find something else to do. Nothing annoyed me more than the Insanity that Hearld Volazj casts, and the trash pulls got on my nerves when the DPS couldn't wait for the mobs to come to the tank, inevitably leading to a wipe. In short, it was my least favorite instance and I was able to just ignore it. From the best I can tell, before these past two weeks, the last time I set foot in it was in May 2009. But now, the random dungeon finder has forced me to relearn the place and deal with all its mechanics. I've found ways to deal with the Hearld Volazj's abilities on my paladin tank, and I've gotten rather vocal about the group staying put as I pull trash packs back to them. And just as important as knowing the mechanics is leading the run as a tank. For instance, if I see a DPS move up with me, I'll stop and ask him to go back. If he doesn't listen, I'll ask again politely. Third time around with a random DPS not listening I'll just threaten to kick, and by that point the group is pretty annoyed with him anyways. The next thing you know, he's out the door with a successful vote to kick. The next DPS that comes in always seems to behave. So what dungeons have you had to relearn dear readers? And better yet, what ones have you had to change your tactics on with the introduction of the random dungeon finder?
Breakfast Topic: How did you start WoW?
Time has passed in this game. People have histories, both personal with each other and in-game with their characters. These histories can be very telling not only about the individual, but about the progression of the game itself. For instance, my first character started out in Northshire in Elwynn Forest killing all the wolves he could get his warrior hands on. Now he's rampaging through the dungeon finder Titan's Gripping everything in existence. But perhaps more interesting, at least to me, was how I got started in WoW in the first place. I originally began in 2004 by being very excited about EverQuest II, and only picked up WoW as something to try that was a little different. At the time I wasn't very happy with the cartoon like characters of WoW compared to EQII, and I didn't think the gameplay would be as hard core as EQII would be. How wrong I was. On that day in November 2004 when I picked up both WoW and EQII I had no idea that in the next five years my interest would shift entirely, and that so much of my time would be taken up by talking about everything Warcraft. How did you get started in WoW? Are you where you thought you'd be when you first picked up the game?
Breakfast Topic: The Happy Accidents
In my monomaniac drive to improve my shaman's gear and more importantly play with some spec ideas for enhancement (I've currently started testing this one with Glyph of Fire Nova, which gets Fire Nova down from 10 seconds to 3, meaning that on heavy trash pulls I can weave a Fire Nova blast in-between pretty much every other ability I have), I've been hitting the random dungeon feature like it owes me money. As a result, I've had some good runs, some bad runs, and some unintentionally hilarious runs, like the all draenei run in Caverns of Time Stratholme which degenerated into "Don't mind us, we're totally human and do not have any hooves or tentacles at all" comments for pretty much the entire run. "Eredar? What's that? Never heard of it. Totally normal humans from this appropriate time period, that's us." I've started to recognize some names that pop up over and over again. I've had the same paladin tank for quite a few runs now. She always thanks the group, is unfailingly nice, and pulls like someone told her that there was delicious candy at the end of the instance. I asked her if I could mention her name in this post and she begged me not to, but be on the lookout for a very nice, very speedy paladin tank in the Stormstrike battlegroup. I've yet to regret a run with her. So how about you? Seen any familiar faces yet, come to know any good players, or made any other accidental discoveries that you're glad you came across?
Breakfast Topic: My cold, dead fingers
If there's one thing I hate doing in World of Warcraft, it's missing a raid or instance I said I'd be at. It doesn't happen very often, because I try and be conscientious about it: while it's true that WoW is a game, it is (for me at least) a social game and I consider my guildmates friendly acquaintances at the very least. Just as I wouldn't bail on friends when we have an appointment to go out bowling or for pizza or when I was in a weekly D&D game, I don't like it at all when I have to step out of a raid or bail on an appointed "help me get my Northrend Dungeon Hero achievement" or what have you. Sometimes it's unavoidable. Recently I had to leave a raid before it was done because I simply couldn't stay focused on what we were doing due to feeling feverish and run down. I enjoy tanking and healing with my guild but my health and real life have to come first so I bowed out once I was sure a suitable replacement was available. I've been with this guild since the launch of Wrath now, and we've seen pretty much the whole of the xpac together. Where do you stand on it? Do you see WoW as something easily skipped out on, or are you in a tight knit social guild where you feel obliged to show up?
Breakfast Topic: Make it all BoA
Gnomeaggedon happened to post something so interesting the other day that I thought it merited a bit more discussion. He actually posted it almost as an afterthought (I guess he's moving in RL -- good luck with that), but it's quite an idea just the same: "Make it all BoA," he says. Blizzard has added in some more Bind-on-Account items, and most recently made it possible for BoA items to go across factions. But Gnomeaggedon says it's time to stop messing around: mounts, emblems, tier and arena gear, currencies, vanity pets, reputation items, anything that would be useful across toons should be able to be traded freely between them. Why, he asks, should there be limits on which character you decide to play with? And actually, while the possibilities there might make some players' heads spin (imagine how many badges you could earn on your geared-out pally for your newly 80 warlock), I think that Blizzard is probably headed that direction. They may not want to open the floodgates completely, but look at where we've come -- we just heard Frank Pearce say the other day that faction changes are a direct result of Blizzard wanting to give players more choice of who to play with, so wouldn't it follow that we'd eventually get more choice about which characters we use? You have to think that we'll see more and more BoA items, so why not just skip to step ten and open it all up? What do you think?
Breakfast Topic: Fickle loot table, I stab at thee
That's right, we're a week into patch 3.3 (well, almost) and we're still running random PuG's on our alts. Well, I am, anyway, and if the emails we at WoW.com are seeing are accurate so are a lot of you. And as is often the case when dungeons are being run, we're seeing loot issues. Oddly enough, I for once don't really have much to complain about loot wise. My tauren got a swanky trinket, an upgrade to his main hand weapon, and plenty of emblems for his DPS set as well as some nice tanking gear. Since I don't get as much time to play Horde side as I used to, the new Dungeon Finder has been a positive boon for me as a DPS warrior while at the same time giving me something to do to use up some time on Alliance side as well before raids. But I've seen and heard plenty of the opposite result: people queuing up over and over and over again hoping for a drop and seeing the Orca-Hunter's Harpoon get sharded for the sixteenth run in a row. (I admit to taking one for my arms set and then sharding it after the axe dropped, but in my defense no one wanted it). So we move the question to you: have you snagged that elusive drop yet? Has the Battered Hilt dropped for you? (Blasted thing!) Have you gotten that shield, trinket, armor piece or weapon that haunts your dreams or are said dreams still haunted by nights of fitful, tortured yearning? (Sorry, watching old Taxi reruns.) How have those fickle loot gods been treating you? 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.
Around Azeroth: Been waiting a long time for this
The expansion might be called Wrath of the Lich King, but prior to the most recent patch, he mostly displayed bemusement, irritation and boredom rather than any sort of wrath-like qualities. But he's looking pretty ticked off in this screenshot, snapped with a zoom scope lens in the Halls of Reflection by frequent MVS (most valuable submitter) Valafar of <Hellfire Club> on Exodar. I can't really blame Arthas on this one. Your ex-girlfriend and her pals break into your house, kill your guards, assault your home with a freaking gunship and try to steal all your treasure? I'd be running out there with a sword in my hand and revenge in my heart too. Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val'kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here. %Gallery-76180%
Breafast Topic: Winter Veil is here!
I have a secret to share. I'm Greatfather Winter. Nah, just kidding! I don't have the beard long enough to play the part yet. The Feast of Winter Veil is here! Greatfather Winter is chillin' (get it?) out in Ironforge and is waiting to hear what you guys want this holiday. Winter Veil will last from December 15th, 2009 to January 2nd, 2010. The Winter Veil achievements can be done during this time so be sure to get those finished before it's too late. Otherwise, you'll have to wait another full year before you can finish off the year long What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement for a shiny violet protodrake. Not sure where to start? Check out Allison's OverAchiever: Guide to Winter Veil. Sadly, this year there are no Crashin' Thrashin' Racers this year (which makes me one sad panda). I'll cheer myself up by picking up massive amounts of snowballs and chucking them at various Horde players (or guildies) in Dalaran. What's the first thing you plan on doing when Winter Veil starts up?
Breakfast Topic: Your random dungeon experiences
It was a dark and stormy night. It all started with a one drink. Isn't that how it always goes? One tough raid is followed up with some drinks to calm the nerves. One drink leads to another and you start thinking about doing crazy things. Crazy things like jumping into pugs using the new random dungeon finder tool. I hadn't done it yet myself and I know the people I've spoken with said they've had nothing but good things to say about it. But I'm a skeptic. What's the worst thing that could possibly happen? Maybe I'll get stuck with a party that has never done Oculus before with a tank that's no where near defense capped. But what are the odds of that happening, right?
Breakfast Topic: Lessons from Single Player RPGs
I'm sure by now it's pretty much no secret whatsoever that half the team, myself included, spent a good part of the waning days of Patch 3.2 enamored with Dragon Age Origins. Maybe it's the innocent charm of the leading man, Alistair, the deep and involved game world, or the fact that Marilyn Manson totally warned us that this was gonna be big, but I'm in deep. Patch 3.3 is finally dragging me back to WoW with its pure awesomeness, but Dragon Age is still pretty fresh in my mind, and there's more DLC to come.
Breakfast Topic: Sylvanas, my new BFF
Okay, the best part of running random dungeons on my tauren is getting to hang out with Sylvanas. In the new five mans (Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection) Jaina Proudmoore is the Alliance NPC with a score to settle with Arthas, and she does a fine job and all, but Sylvanas... none of this conflicted, he was once my boyfriend, how can I kill the man I once loved stuff with Sylvanas. No, Sylvanas is all about one thing, and that one thing is killing Arthas: she only retreats when she's taken over five million damage! That's pretty stubborn. In general I really enjoy the lore moments in both versions of the new five man, enough that I'll keep trying to run them as many times as is possible just to get to see them. Not to mention the climactic moment of the Deathbringer Saurfang encounter (which I completely spoiled for my Alliance guild... sorry, guys!) and I'd love to see the (heavy spoilers ahead please don't watch if you don't want to be spoiled I warned you this link is spoilertastic) Horde equivalent, perhaps on 10 man sometime soon. So, how are you liking the lore of Fall of the Lich King so far? Not enough, too much, just right? How is your lore porridge, baby bear? Sorry, I haven't gotten to sleep much, too much PuGging. 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.
