WoW, Casually: Of Arathi Basin, the Faire and patch 2.3
by Robin Torres 
Nov 9th 2007 at 2:00AM
Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.
Those of us who are playtime-challenged usually have more time to play on the weekend than we do during the week, so I will tend to favor weekend activities in this column. This weekend has a lot of fun stuff for the various types of casual player.
Are you into farming mobs for drops or leveling your Blacksmithing, Leatherworking or Engineering? Then you'll be happy to know that the Darkmoon Faire is still in Terokkar Forest until Monday. Last week, we talked about what to gather to exchange at the Faire for tickets. If you want the full list, WoWWiki has all the info you need. Of course, the Darkmoon Faire isn't all about the bling bling. You can also shoot yourself out of a cannon or chase a kid around so that he can sell you pet frogs. And there's beer. But if the bling bling is really what you're after, you can also collect the Darkmoon Decks and turn them in for some serious purplez, but I haven't found that too easy as a casual player.
Those of us who are playtime-challenged usually have more time to play on the weekend than we do during the week, so I will tend to favor weekend activities in this column. This weekend has a lot of fun stuff for the various types of casual player.
Are you into farming mobs for drops or leveling your Blacksmithing, Leatherworking or Engineering? Then you'll be happy to know that the Darkmoon Faire is still in Terokkar Forest until Monday. Last week, we talked about what to gather to exchange at the Faire for tickets. If you want the full list, WoWWiki has all the info you need. Of course, the Darkmoon Faire isn't all about the bling bling. You can also shoot yourself out of a cannon or chase a kid around so that he can sell you pet frogs. And there's beer. But if the bling bling is really what you're after, you can also collect the Darkmoon Decks and turn them in for some serious purplez, but I haven't found that too easy as a casual player.
Is PVP your thing? Then you probably already know that this weekend's Call to Arms is Arathi Basin. There will be increased honor and rep from Friday (or midnight Thursday) until Patch 2.3 is delivered or Tuesday morning, which ever comes first. And because everyone likes free bonuses, there will be more players in Arathi Basin, meaning shorter queues for those who have queues.
Arathi Basin is great for those players who have alts (or mains) of 20 and higher -- though I don't recommend it before level 25 or so. There are 15 people per side and it can't go on forever like Warsong Gulch can because the points tick away as long as there are objectives owned and the game ends at 2000. Going up against premades can be pretty brutal, but 5 caps are over quickly and at least you get the mark. On the other hand, I've been in many PuG Arathi Basins that have done well, even against premades, if there is minimum defense and good communication. With a marauding offense and 2 people at each flag, you can keep enough objectives to win pretty easily as long as everyone tells the Battleground channel when they see approaching enemies.
Another benefit to the casual player is the fact that there are available quests for Arathi Basin. You do have to travel out to the Arathi Highlands in order to pick the quests up, but if you are level 25 or over, you can get experience and build up reputation in order to get AB specific loot. Head over to Hammerfall if you are Horde or Refuge Pointe if you are Alliance and chat with the quest givers outside of the battleground portal. WoWWiki has a nice breakdown of Arathi Basin and its rewards here.
With patch 2.3 coming next week, we casuals have a lot to look forward to. Leveling up will be quicker and easier with less experience required for each level and the nerfing of old world instances and their bosses. There are also more daily quests being implemented which are great for us. We'll have cooking daily quests for those of us who have maxed out our cooking. (If you haven't, try to get that done this weekend.) Also, the PVP daily quests will be available to players as soon as they are eligible to enter battlegrounds. This means that anyone who has a level 10 character will still be able to participate -- at least for the WSG daily quests.
If you are a crafter or play the AH, I recommend taking a look at John's guide to pre-patch farming. You may want to farm and hoard the items he has listed until after the patch in order to play with the new recipes or make huge profits selling to other people who want to play with the new recipes.
Personally, I'm torn about this weekend. Do I want to play at the Faire or in AB? Do I want to prepare for the patch? Or do I want to just play another game or two or three and just come back to WoW after the patch hits? What are you going to do?
Robin Torres plays World of Warcraft but is not entirely faithful to it.
Filed under: Blacksmithing, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tips, Events, PvP, Features, WoW, Casually, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
evestraw Nov 9th 2007 3:26AM
I GUES I go ab with my priest
less twinks ! on call to arms
arb Nov 9th 2007 3:56AM
@1: Less twinks, but also more people who have no clue at all what the objective is. The most frustrating battlegrounds come courtesy of those irresistible flags in the Capital cities which draw in the underequipped and unprepared who mill around never quite defending or attacking.
Still... holiday weekend = more honor for my S1 Arena gear = good.
Morrigän Nov 9th 2007 6:12AM
Since I'll need a LOT of marks for my vindicator and S1 stuff, I'll be around AB for sure.
Mike Nov 9th 2007 7:26AM
Ill be offline til 2.3 comes. Im a casual and got very happy when the great news of lowering the xp cap!! so happy. so ill wait and get ready to finally level up faster. my goal of reaching 70 before WotLK will not fade just yet.
Braz Nov 9th 2007 7:43AM
I've already farmed all of the AB marks that I will need for my S1 armor set, but I do need to build up some honor points; so, I will probably spend most of the weekend bouncing between AB, AV, and EOTS (still need several marks there).
Paw Nov 9th 2007 9:09AM
@2...I understand your concern, but everyone is a nub at some point or another. And some choose not to try until they have quested through to the level-cap. Many casuals avoid the intensity and time requirements of the BGs, arenas and raids while they are leveling, and only get the gumption to try any of those once they have run out of reasons for questing on that particular toon. Besides, that guy running in circles, borderline clueless today might just be the captain of the next top premade in a few months. And if you sign on to PuG it, then you get what you get. I recommend those with experience leading those people vice chastising them, as I have seen too many times in the past.
Hollywood Ron Nov 9th 2007 9:32AM
That's another good thing about the weekends; it clears battle grounds out for the rest of us who do it more often. Last AB weekend I had two 5-cap games in a row.
arb Nov 9th 2007 9:50AM
@6: "I recommend those with experience leading those people vice chastising them, as I have seen too many times in the past."
100% agree, and I'm one of the more vocal ones in PuGs, trying to corral said headless chickens. However, being an EU player I often find that half the players in the BG don't understand English (giving them the benefit of the doubt - it's possible they're all just stupid/rude). The other half resent being given instructions, even though I always start out civil and constructive. When I was new to the game I was keen to understand how to get better and even when playing my twink (who has 100 of each medal so nothing much to gain) I seek to win, not just farm kills. The frustration is people who don't seem to care about winning, nor want to learn how...
... and my other problem is that there don't appear to be any useful premades on my server, otherwise I'd revel in the easy kills that BG weekends represent.
Puzzlove Nov 9th 2007 1:32PM
I'm probably one of those opposite family dads, I get to play during the week, then friday, saturday, and sunday is scrictly for the kids/wife. so I get to play 8p.m. to whenever monday thru thursday, and at lunch at work monday thru friday when I can, and that's about it. What sucks is that I miss out on the weekend stuff, but I can't complain.
Vestras Nov 9th 2007 1:40PM
Hmm, I forgot about DMF...I think I gotta get my lowbie engineer out there to grab herself a tonk controler