Breakfast Topic: Do you enjoy an unexpected agenda?
by Matthew Rossi 
Dec 21st 2011 at 8:00AM
A group of Alliance players was bringing the war to us. They even pulled Gamon into the fray. Gamon still hits pretty hard even at the end of the expansion with us all geared significantly higher than we were a year ago. Much back-and-forth mayhem ensued as each side found Gamon attacking one of theirs. We pushed them out of Org only for them to push back in, and I got to hit Bladestorm in the middle of a whole lot of people.
After a very enjoyable time watching Yivo cast Mind Flay on random folks, I got to thinking that I never actually got to run those heroics I'd been intending to, rather finding myself dragged into unexpected fracas after unexpected fracas. Resolving to do exactly those heroics I'd intended, I queued and found myself signed up to tank accidentally. Since I don't currently have a tanking spec, I explained my situation and offered to sit or go respec and come back, only to have yet another healer say, "Hey, let's see what happens" -- and that's how I found myself arms tanking Well of Eternity with four wisecracking people I'll probably never see again. Went surprisingly well, we finished and everything. ... OK, so I forgot about Azshara's mind control and we wiped that one time ...
So now that I've related my tale of randomness, I ask you: Ever had one of those days or nights where it feels like the world is playing with you? Where you sweep from unexpected to unexpected?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Falarson Dec 21st 2011 8:10AM
Not sure about that, but I'm enjoying an Unexpected Journey today, as tons of people here :D
techvoodooguy Dec 21st 2011 8:08AM
Every day. It's awesome. If you head out into the far corners of the World (of Warcraft) then all sorts of delightful things happen.
ivantz Dec 21st 2011 8:13AM
randomness gives the life to World of Warcraft, and for me is pretty necessary. I used to create Adventurer's Journal, to guide my compass depending on the buff granted. I have PvP gear and a standard arms build, i enjoy a lot tanking wit my prot spec, but since my friends are away from WoW, i have found that tanking a group of strangers is not fun anymore, furthermore i think blizzard is enhancing the poor behaviour of 15 minutes runs, and sometimes i dont know what im doing i just pull whatever i see. Because of that instead of focusing on PvE, now i leave the wind to randomness to guide me in my adventures.
Noyou Dec 21st 2011 9:33AM
1000 upvotes to you! Probably one of WoW's strong points is that you can log in and do something totally different, day in and day out. Even while running the mundane dailies. It's what makes playing a sports game so good too. PvP is best when it's random. I was waiting for a troll hunter and undead rogue for about an hour yesterday, outside Org and there were about 10 allies attacking horde, off an on. It was fun just watching the fracas. I still didn't get the troll hunter. What's up with that? I even saw the elusive troll mage!
lyk13 Dec 21st 2011 8:38AM
I like the transmog picture though.
thawedtheorc Dec 21st 2011 8:44AM
I think that is about the best screenshot I have ever seen. Seriously. The colors are awesome.
Narayana Dec 21st 2011 9:08AM
Yeah- is there some out of game filtering going on here? The textures on the swords look far better than anything I recall seeing in game- and I run with everything on Ultra.
Nina Katarina Dec 21st 2011 8:41AM
I started out a blood elf warrior because I wanted to see Hillsbrad at level, and suddenly she's in Vash'jir and I'm saying, "But I don't WANT another warrior engineer". Why I picked engineer on her I'm not sure, I think it's because the goggles and the eyebrows make her look like a little butterfly. In plate.
Chetti Dec 21st 2011 8:43AM
Some of the best things in life happen when you allow for total randomness, the same thing happens in wow. I wouldn't be in a raiding guild, happily raiding, if it weren't for a random crazy idea tossed out by a friend of mine. I was in a guild that was all but gone, I was doing nothing special cept some real-id cross-server dungeons with my friend (she'd given up the toon she had on the server I was playing on at the time). One night she said HEY! Why don't you server transfer and come play with us! So, I did that. And the night I landed on new server, sometime while I was asleep and letting Blizz do its thing getting me to my new home, the guild I was going to call home fell apart. Splintered into a new guild, that has been the best thing that could have happened. First night I was there, I was invited to my first raid ever (to the tune of Hey! Come with! ... and me saying.. I could kill us ALL! It could be TERRIBLE!). It was not terrible, I did not murder us all, and they kept me on the raid team! I've been part of a great group of people, helping level the guild and stock the bank. Its been a lot of fun being part of the core group of people that have been with a guild since its first day, and watching it grow.
Most days when I log into wow I don't have a plan. I just log on, see who is there, who is doing what, and see where I can help out. There are always something going on: heroic runs, alt runs, what have ya.
thawedtheorc Dec 21st 2011 8:50AM
I have ALWAYS hated the "Random is really, really bad" crap that started about 6 or 7 years ago.
How the heck do you start a conversation? How do you start telling a funny or interesting story?
Thanks for the random story this morning. I ran off to try out Wendy's new breakfast menu while I waited for my rez sickness to wear off. Met a really nice and not bad looking woman who was working the drive thru. Says a lot because normally everyone there is an antisocial ass.
Drahliana Dec 21st 2011 9:03AM
Now your assignment is to do 5 Random Things before breakfast.
Melvyl Dec 21st 2011 9:09AM
Speaking of Arms Warrior Tanks, I zoned into an LFG at the half-way point in Gundrak on my BE Paladin (leveled her Holy since 30). The tank was taking an odd amount of damage and died during both boss fights - blaming me both times in a constant stream of insults. I finally get time to actually inspect him and he is an Arms Warrior tanking without a shield. I actually think I did pretty well keeping the group from wiping all things considered. And I didn't wonder why the other healer left.
goldeneye Dec 21st 2011 11:50AM
I once healed a Holy Paladin tanking. He kept good aggro, but was quite squishy.
I once melee dpsed as a Holy Paladin. It wasn't awesome dps, but I still topped other ACTUAL dps.
I once tanked as an Arms Warrior. But I used a shield and Defensive Stance...
razion Dec 21st 2011 9:25AM
It's one thing if you get that sort of activity once in a blue moon. But if it happened every day, you may feel less inclined towards intrusions into your daily grind. As such a provoker and initiator of world PvP and RP, there tends to be a lot of good and bad that comes along with it. A lot of people love to just see something different, and get away from those grinds as often as they can. Other people just don't want to be bothered, and hate any and all intrusions into their special agenda.
You can't please everyone--not really. That's a given. People are jaded, and they only way to work with such people is to make it an option. Keeping combat outside of a capitol's city gates, or starting the RP in leveling areas, but never sticking around for too long can do wonders. It isn't much, but it's something.
This actually probably applies to a lot of other things, but just being mindful of others sometimes can make things more enjoyable for everyone--even yourself.
ugoticedbro Dec 21st 2011 9:33AM
This amazing story brought to you by bomb hams.
Mortenebra Dec 21st 2011 9:33AM
I used to watch World Defense religiously for alerts. I'm a PvE'er but I'm also a closet RP'er, too. I have a PvP set mostly from grinding out BGs and buying what I can till I'm done.
But when the alert comes up and I spring into action... sometimes it works well, like the time my guildmates and I came to the defense of Thrallmar and then met some other very nice people there. Others, eh, not so much... Usually when I get smeared into a paste on the ground and no one's around to back me up. lol
ravyncat Dec 21st 2011 9:35AM
I love when those fun unexpected things happen.
Generally I avoid PvP like the plague. It upsets me to attack other people.
However, one day a group of Hordies decided to attack Stormwind. I joined the defense on my alt kitty druid and had one hell of a good time repelling the invaders. I died a lot because I suck at PvP, but it was fun. It felt like a sporting event between rivals rather than a war.
If stuff like that happened more often, I would PvP more.
Caz Dec 21st 2011 12:21PM
That's pretty much how the BGs are for me. I don't do arena, but BGs are a helluva good time - like sporting events between rival teams. Way back when I used to get frustrated if a Horde killed me or if we lost, but it's all done in fun and good sport, and one of the teams has to lose after all.
Necromann Dec 21st 2011 10:10AM
Similar story, I was healing an end time run where the pally tank didn't realize he was in ret specc and gear until bronze dragon shrine. Since we were doing so well, we just told him to stay in ret for Murazond. He did and we killed the dragon an went on our merry ways.
Bossy Dec 21st 2011 10:29AM
We raided Ogrimmar yesterday.
It failed but I was impressed with the view when we stood their united on the mountains south east from the city.
The city was at our feet.
It felt powerful and far more epic than the earlier (old) raids we did with our horses.
Striking from the sky right into the heart of Ogrimmar.
Beautiful experience and only WOW delivers this epic 3D sights from above.
No fake painted cities and mountains with the REAL thing :)))