Making the most of long arena queue times
by Amanda Dean 
Feb 13th 2008 at 1:00PM
Fighting in the arena is hands down my favorite thing to do in WoW these days. I do get very bored while I'm waiting for queues to pop. Since I usually do 2v2 and 3v3 battles I'm usually looking at wait times between five and ten minutes. Drysc stated that this occurs due to a limited number of instances that can be hosted at any given time, the problem will not likely be solved in the near future.
Instead of complaining about it, I try to find something productive to do with inevitable delay. There are several in-game activities that to do with these unexciting minutes. I love to window shop the next piece of battleground or arena gear that I'm working for. It is also an excellent time to work on crafting and auctioning items. Skinners who queue up in Blade's Edge, find themselves in a perfect position for killing Bladespre Raptors for Knothide Leather.
Many players take the opportunity to hone their PvP skills by dueling outside of the major cities. It would be nice to be able to run battlegrounds while waiting, but there are good reasons for why this is disallowed. Woe would be the Warsong Gulch group that's leftover after a 5v5 team split in favor of an arena.
Outside of WoW, there are plenty of opportunities to be productive as well. The wait time is perfect for household chores or catching up on news. I find it a good time to do my reading for school. Many times I turn the volume up on my computer so that I can walk away and hear the queue pop. Sitting and staring blankly at the screen while waiting for my shot at honor and glory is relatively low on my list of things to do. I'm all about multitasking.
The queue time is a drag, but you might as well make the most of it. What do you do when you're waiting for the queue?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Instances, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Callandra Feb 13th 2008 1:04PM
Motes of water in the pool outside of Shattrah!
Too bad I'm leveling my warlock instead!
Naix Feb 13th 2008 1:28PM
Warlocks make good grinders.
I was checking blizzards website (Blizzard.com) and noticed something. The image of the Blizzard invotational was of a NE hunter, what looked like a starcraft character, and *drum solo* Diablio's head. Could we get starcraft 2 and another Diablio? Perhaps MMO's of each? That would be insane.
Frostwolf Feb 13th 2008 3:40PM
Or like the name states It's a blizzard invitational, as in the company that makes the games. There will be starcraft tourneys as well as WC3 matches.
anyways not to burst your dreams but i think blizz has their hands full at the moment with WoW patches/WOTLK and SC2
mcclary Feb 13th 2008 1:14PM
Level your fishing in the Orgrimmar pool. If you're a real multitasker, you can still read websites/books/watch TV while fishing. And if you're lucky you'll catch [Old Crafty], the most crafty fish of all.
terra Feb 13th 2008 1:24PM
That's what I do!
Other times I'll fly over to Skettis and do the bombing quest. After that's done sometimes I just go herbing.
Dave Feb 13th 2008 1:15PM
I'd fly over the hills to the Burning Blade Ruins in Nagrand and kill ogres for rep grind with the Kurenai and gather up their warbeads to turn into both the Consortium (until I got up to Revered) and then the Kurenai to finish the run up to Exalted (Talbuk mount ftw!).
Nyght Feb 13th 2008 1:22PM
I fly over to Mana Tombs and stealth in. I usually have enough time to crack the first chest before the queue comes back up. I also get the first 2 Ancient Lichen spawns.
Dracula Jones Feb 13th 2008 1:24PM
I ran into my first long queue times ever on Monday night. My 2v2 typically fights on Wednesdays or Thursdays and there's almost no wait. Everyone's trying to get their 10 in at the last minute on Mondays.
Ryan Feb 13th 2008 1:29PM
Herbing and mining in the barrier hills. Also get into some good pvp matches up there since I'm usually flagged in between pvp matches.
Tiforix Feb 13th 2008 1:58PM
90-minute AV queues were the norm 2 years ago. That's when I did the bulk of my herb farming.
William Feb 13th 2008 1:54PM
A friend and I tried this. We call it BQRacing. (Battleground Queue Racing). We group and hit up the BG guy in Org, then we mount up and race to see who can get the farthest away from Org before the Queue ticks. We generally race towards the Barrens and then south towards Thousand Needles. Happy Racing!!
Hadji Feb 13th 2008 1:59PM
Well on my sever 3v3 is less then 1 min,
so its great.
2v2 is more around the wait time of 10 mins.
With the 10min wait we go and slay the Aldor trying not to get that Debuff they give you :)
Trippy Feb 13th 2008 2:09PM
Fishing, lots of fishing LOL!
;-)
Good_Idea Feb 13th 2008 2:26PM
I do house chores. Married! The arena queues are very predictable and so it's good for this.
Either that or talk strats with my brother on vent.
Jasperwind Feb 13th 2008 2:28PM
I am pretty new to arenas and have been playing 2v2 lately. Our problem is that the guy I play with can only play on Monday nights. That means our queue times are between 11 and 15 minutes. When you need 10 matches that night, it makes for a very long wait. We usually just run and jump around in circles the whole time, but you all have given me some more productive ideas on what to do while waiting. Thanks. =)
Cosu Feb 13th 2008 2:34PM
I read wowinsider :p
Ste Feb 13th 2008 2:41PM
I either just put a game into the 360 or, if I need gold, do something to earn it (daily quests, skinning, whatever)