Breakfast Topic: Listening to music while playing WoW

by Darlene Antonelli Aug 29th 2011 at 8:00AM

I love WoW's soundtrack, but sometimes it just loops too much. I need something that'll keep me awake, excited, and bouncing between pulls in a dungeon. I realized when I started looking for stuff in my playlist that the songs depended very much on what I was playing (warrior, healer, low-level alt) and what I was doing (grinding, dungeon, leveling).

Here are four ways that I incorporate music to my play:

Leveling Undead I found that listening to The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack was a hilarious addition to leveling an Undead character. The lyrics, "This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!" added magic to spotting skeletal fish in a lake.

Leveling Draenei/Night Elf The Lord of the Rings soundtrack or Pirates of the Caribbean or Beats Antique are epic songs for these races, no matter where you are in Azeroth. Epic!

Dungeon DPS/warrior Black Sabbath or any heavy metal! Keeps me awake between pulls. Also, techno music works.

Dungeon healing Pink Floyd keeps me calm, cool, and relaxed. Plus, I don't feel the irresistible urge to jump around as I do when listening to heavy metal.

There you have it! What I like to listen to when I play. What do you like to listen to?

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Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)

wollsmoth Aug 29th 2011 9:21AM

Good idea! I haven't busted out the old Disturbed albums in such a long time.

Revnah Aug 29th 2011 9:59AM

"People can no longer cover their eyes,
if this disturbs you then walk away.
You will remember the night you were struck
by the sight of ten thousand fists in the aaaaaiiiiiiiir...!"

MusedMoose Aug 29th 2011 8:14AM

I tend to keep WoW's music on, as it's appropriate for the setting and won't distract me at a crucial moment. ^_^ The only thing I listen to other than that while playing is this site's podcasts.

I will say, though, that if I'm healing a dungeon, Queen's "Keep Yourself Alive" runs on infinite loop in my head.

Ullaana Aug 29th 2011 8:15AM

Going to go in another direction here, but while playing I need to keep my blood pressure down so I go with the swing. Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Harry James, et al.

samhain Aug 29th 2011 8:21AM

Burzum - Filosofem or some old Forgotten Woods for zones like Teldrassil and Ashenvale.
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse for Darkshore just fits magically.
Gorgoroth - Pentagram for some dungeons.

But 99% of the time I listen to the OST. It's just brilliant music.

stench Aug 29th 2011 9:26AM

someone that listens to actual black metal. hoorah
also
endless dismal moan or funeral mist

Koba Aug 29th 2011 8:20AM

I like to listen to long lists of old music, while doing anything in game exept raiding. The more boring it is, the more listening to the music becomes a sing-a-long (or shout-a-long).

While raiding i listen to the raidleaders "singing" over ventrilo.

ecwfrk Aug 29th 2011 8:21AM

I listen to a blend of mostly rock/metal like Metallica, Sabbath, Daughtry, Shinedown and modern country/southern rock like Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Christian Kane and Brantley Gilbert. But there's tons of other stuff in there like Eminem, Pink, Billy Joel, Katy Perry, Leona Lewis and so on.

I'm pretty eclectic when it comes to music. As long as it isn't gansta rap, techno or off the wall things like Gregorian Chants, I probably have some of it in my play list.

jackothewacko61 Aug 29th 2011 8:26AM

While not technically music, I listen to the old ricky gervais, stephen merchant and karl pilkington shows from xfm, or their podcasts. theres days of speech-based comedy to be had. playing wow with that in the background is a potent combination.

RavenJet Aug 29th 2011 8:30AM

We have several metallheads in our guild and we have a tradition of raiding along to metal (especially folk metal). There is something very powerful about listening to Manowar's "Wariors of the World United" or Disturbed's "Conflict" while nuking bosses.

Sometimes while preparing between bosses, one of us will throw VENT open, crank up his vollume and play his song of the moment for everybody. Sometimes it's an somebody with an annoying sense of humor (read: the hunter) and he rickrolls vent...

Luis Alluren Aug 29th 2011 8:28AM

I like wow music-- some places have really really great compositions and really creates an atmosphere-- i listen to absolutely everything (my dj years thought me to look for more than just a cool melody or lyrics you identify with in a song,) since I believe it educates me-- but music outside wow simply distracts me, mostly because I tend to go for Metallica/Disturbed/IronMaiden/Moonspell/RAMP type of genre (heavy metal, if you're wondering)-- then again, Enya rates very high on my music choices

TLDR: wow music is brilliant, I've it on all the time-- besides the portals in SW it's just beautiful

Ganatola Aug 29th 2011 8:27AM

Mumford and Sons when I'm questing - it's just good background noise.

Knights of Cydonia and other various, mindless action songs when I PvP, namely AV.

Dark Side of the Moon when I'm playing my goblin bank alt. You have to love Time and Money being on the same album.

"I Love the Way You Lie" when I play arena. We don't win very often.

Crispn Aug 29th 2011 8:31AM

I listen to Machinima, WoWCrendor, Cranius, Emberisolte and once in a blue moon Nyhm

Gendou Aug 29th 2011 8:31AM

Sometimes the WOW music is amazing and fitting.
Othertimes - especially when you spend a LOT of time in a particular zone, dungeon or raid (I'm looking at you, Upper Spire music) - it can get a tad repetitive.

My WOW soundtrack runs the gamut from Enya to AC/DC, from Breaking Benjamin to Beethoven to Bear McCreary. Run DMC, Johnny Cash and GWAR all have places on my playlist.

In short: I listen to whatever puts me in the mood to do whatever it is I'm doing. Unlike the OP, I don't theme it around what I'm doing so much as how what I'm doing makes me feel.
For example, when I'm grinding or doing battlegrounds, I look for something with more of a driving, hard beat. But When I'm questing or doing archaeology, I generally go for something softer and more ethereal.

I'm sure I'm not alone in letting the activity set the mood rather than the environment.

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