Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Sure, we all love to play WoW with our friends, but sometimes schedules don't match up or we just don't have the time to play with a group. So what's there left to do? Solo! It may be different than group challenges, but WoW is full of quests, achievements, dailies, crafting, playing the auction house, and even lower level content you can solo for the for the fun or the challenge. Plenty of these are perfectly practical, netting you gold, experience, or reputation, we find soloing old dungeons are raids to be some of the most fun. Not because it nets you anything useful (because it usually doesn't), but because it's a challenge and an interesting way to revisit parts of the game that we leveled past ages ago.

And, obviously, because when you first played through Scarlet Monastery you probably couldn't pull the whole cathedral at once. And pulling the whole cathedral at once is just plain fun -- at least when it doesn't kill you.

So what about you, Breakfast Topicers? Do you have a favorite WoW solo activity? A dungeon or raid you like to run on your own for the heck of it?

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Lisa Poisso recently asked if player-made gear had become irrelevant. Many of the near 200 responses said yes. But The Godmother over at ALT:ernative disagrees. The 496 epic crafted gear market is alive and well on her server. She is making a healthy profit listing her creations on the Auction House.

A jewelcrafter, an alchemist and a scribe are my high level characters, so I can't make high end gear. But my pockets are overflowing from the profits I make selling green drops from questing. While I've been able to sell uncommon gear throughout leveling my pandaren monk, the armor that has dropped while in the 80s has been particularly lucrative. In general, the weapons aren't worth spending the inordinately expensive deposit to list, but most of my other green drops are selling after one or two listings. I can make some profits from my gems, potions and glyphs, but nothing compares to the uncommon gear market on my low pop server.

Now, I know people are reticent to give away their top money-making secrets. But there are enough servers with varying economies to make it relatively safe to reveal the items that make money for you. What works on your server may not work on another realm type or level of population. But I can still see where you may not want to risk it.

Yet I'm asking just the same. What is your big money maker on the Auction House? Does it vary according to what days of the week you list it? If you don't want to reveal your secret, at least tell us if you have a big money maker or if you're finding it hard to sell things you used to be able to sell.

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Today is "Friday Dailies" for my guild, all ... day ... long. We're pushing for Daily Anticipation, the guild achievement for 150,000 dailies done. Sure, your guild may already have this achievement -- but it's not so easy to snag for a guild without a deep member roster.

We're close: 140,608 as of last night. And there's no way we do 10,000 dailies in one day, so a single, mind-numbing night of grinding is out of the question. Still, wondering when we might notch the achievement gets one ticking off one's fingers and wondering ...

Assuming you haven't stopped dailying around, how many dailies do you do every day? How many do you think you could complete in a normal-length (for you) play session if you really put the pedal to the metal? Which dailies would you line up first? If you were trying to do as many dailies as possible, is there somewhere you'd head outside of Pandaria to crank them out?

[Thanks for the topic go to Gimmlette, who I suspect is merely trying to remind me to log in tonight and, er, do my dailies!]

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I am a total WoW packrat. It's a little embarrassing. My void storage has been full for ages; stuffed with transmog gear, rare and epic archaeology items, and, in particular, old quest rewards or dungeon keys. Those last two, I realize, are kind of ridiculous to keep, but I worked so hard getting that Seal of Ascention! And completing the Scepter of the Shifting Sands is one of my most prized achievements in the game, don't you dare tell me to throw it, or any of the items I got along the way, in the trash!

"But you can't even use rings or necklaces in transmog!" my friends remind me. I know, I know, but guys, that's not the point! The point is... the point is... I just can't let go, okay?!

Are you a WoW packrat? What items do you hoard, beyond all logic or good reason? With bag and bank slots becoming ever more precious commodities, how do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of?

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Headcanon is a concept you may not be familiar with if you're not an RPer or fanfic writer. Simply stated, it's a fan's personal interpretation of events or characters in whatever setting they're a fan of. Sometimes a person may use their headcanon as a way of coping with a story choice they dislike, and sometimes it may just be to fill gaps in the story line. For example, in WoW fandom, you might hear someone say, "In my headcanon, Jaina and Kalec are just good friends, because I hate them as a couple!" or, "I have this headcanon that Cairne and Magatha were actually fairly close at one point, and had a falling-out, and that's one of the reasons she hated him so much and he didn't throw her out of Thunder Bluff." The first is an example of a coping (or "corrective") headcanon, the second is an example of filling in unknown gaps.

One of the most fun things I do with my WoW friends is chat about our personal headcanons of the story and characters. What kind of relationships do these people have outside of what we see directly in official lore? Were they childhood friends, were they comrades in arms, were they lovers? Do these folks resent being forced into obligations they never wanted thanks to world events, or are they hungry to wield a power they wouldn't have otherwise achieved? How much does group X actually enjoy being allies (or enemies) with group Y? The "if only" game is endlessly fun!

Do you have any WoW headcanons? Did you, by any chance, already tell us about them back in October? Have they changed? For the most part, I only discuss my own headcanons with a handful of people, because I'm way too shy to do it in public! If you're not, though, please tell us in the comments!

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While perusing Wowhead's blue tracker the other day I stumbled across this thread on the EU forums about the LFR loot system, its frustrations, and potential alternatives. Community manager Draztal is pretty active in the thread, which is nice to see -- there is plenty of back-and-forth and, despite player accusations of just parroting Blizzard policy, Draztal has a lot of good points to make about the nature of effort and reward.

The truth is that WoW has never consistently rewarded players for running dungeons or raids. I still get a little involuntary curl to my lip anytime I think about Burning Crusade-era heroics, particularly Magister's Terrace, and how often I ran them trying to get some piece of gear, and how often my groups wiped and nothing I needed dropped anyway (and all those useless PvP gems).

I agree it's frustrating to run LFR and only get gold, though I did have to sit down and think about why, in particular. After all, I killed Saurfang in Icecrown for probably upwards of three months before I finally got the Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff. During all that time it never occurred to me that my failure to receive loot was an indication that the entire system needed an overhaul. After a couple minutes ruminating, though, I think the answer is pretty obvious: loot is the only real reason to run LFR (with the exception of just experiencing content, for those who may not have the opportunity to raid otherwise).

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Choosing talents is a fun aspect of playing WoW. Many talents are situational, or work in concert with certain glyphs to produce unique effects. Some healers and tanks use their second spec not for a solo or questing DPS build, but as another healing or tank spec specifically tuned to certain encounters. Some people have a PvE and a PvP build, or a battleground build and an arena build. The bottom line is that talents add options and choices, leaving players to determine what they like and what works best for them.

New expansions and available levels bring us new spells and abilities, and with talents, we often get even more. I'll admit, I pretty quickly fall into the "overwhelmed by options" box. For me, the first question I ask myself when picking a new talent is, "Does this tier have a passive option?" I love passive options. I don't have to figure out where to keybind another button!

This doesn't mean that I'll always take the passive option, of course. Sometimes it's just really not a good idea. For example, as a resto druid, there was no way I was ever going to pick Soul of the Forest over Incarnation. But for my feral spec, I picked Dream of Cenarius (though I am considering switching to Heart of the Wild), and both specs get Feline Swiftness. Though I can justify those choices in other ways, I won't pretend that the fact that they are passive abilities wasn't also a huge draw. My kingdom for extra spaces on my bars!

How about you? Do you, like me, groan at the thought of having to rearrange your action bars yet again to make room for some new ability you can't pass up? Do viable passive options bring you inordinate glee? How do you deal with the glut of choice in this game?

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"Help?! We don't need no stinkin' help playing WoW!" ... Well, except when we do. As streamlined as World of Warcraft is today, the gameplay isn't 100% intuitive or foolproof. Come on, surely everyone here has at least once noticed a loading screen tip that's inspired if not a revelation then a determination to remember to try something that way.

I'd venture to say that there are so many avenues of in-game help today that the very idea of in-game help is losing its training-wheels stigma. We have the dungeon journal, the What's Changed tab, the Core Abilities tab ... I use most of these at least somewhat regularly as I switch from alt to alt, to refresh my memory since the last time I dusted off that character. Which of these in-game help tools or others do you use? Is the level of detail there too light, too dense, or just right?

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How many pieces of player-made gear is your character wearing right now? What if we specified PvE characters only? I'm betting you could count your crafted pieces on one hand -- and more likely, one finger or less. While recent buffs mean that crafted PvP gear still has legs (literally and figuratively) for players in transition and building mode, there aren't a whole lot of must-have PvE crafteds in the game anymore.

Player-made gear used to be a staple for leveling players, and many pieces were coveted even into the raiding game. Crafted blues and purples made all the difference in whether you could mow through the content or simply plink away. Today's players sail through the levels and clear raid content faster than they can gather the mats while a piece is still relevant. And leveling a production profession to make your own gear? To keep your skills on par with your level, you'll need to keep a hawkish eye on your adventuring XP, devoting regular sessions to pulling your crafting skills up to the bar. You can probably find crafted gear for sale in the auction house if you play on a realm with a robust economy, but the easiest path to power these days is simply to play a couple of hours and ding up another level.

Crafting my own gear and being able to make a coveted piece for a friend or guildie used to be a highlight of the game for me, but my most recent characters have simply never given crafted gear a second thought. Has player-made gear become irrelevant in today's game? Would you prefer more of an emphasis on crafted gear, or are you just as happy to see it fade?

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Sorry, new players, but we're all breaking out the rose colored glasses jumping aboard the nostalgia train for today's Breakfast Topic. Today we're looking back on our favorite game moments: specifically the quests and events we miss from WoW long gone. We're talking about things like the epic end to the Alliance Onyxia attunement quest, ending in Onyxia fleeing from Stormwind -- which, okay, we wouldn't actually miss very much if we'd had to do it recently -- or the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj world events -- which we wouldn't miss, either, if we could still remember all the peacebloom we had to farm.

It's not so much that we want these things to return as they were -- seriously, peacebloom farming -- but it seems a shame that these historic happenings have come and gone from Azeroth, never to be seen or experienced by new players. Because even if these events were annoying -- sometimes really annoying -- they had some truly epic moments that we'd love to relive. So, fellow gamers, what's the epic moment (or moments) you'd like to see brought back to WoW?

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I have a guildmate who is thoroughly dedicated to collecting in WoW, and he is very good at it. Every week on reset, he farms the instances that drop mounts he has yet to see. And this past Tuesday, I was one of only two of us (besides him!) logged into guild chat when the Ashes of Al'ar Feat of Strength popped up for him.

Oh my Titan, people!

I was thrilled to death for my guildie, of course! He has diligently killed Kael'thas for ages looking for this mount, and it is certainly a reward well-earned. But I am also jealous as heck, because, man... I love that mount! Maybe someday, I too will have such luck! One can only hope. And keep on killing Kael. He's pretty used to it by now, I imagine. Congrats again, Zable!

What moments have there been like that for you, readers? When have you seen someone get something and thought, "Congratulations! ...I'm so jealous!" Come on, we know it's happened!

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In case you've been avoiding major cities recently, consider this your monthly reminder that the time of the Darkmoon Faire is once again upon us, bringing another month's worth of carnival games, prizes and fun. Never been? Start by heading to Goldshire or Mulgore, where a portal will take you straight there. If that's too much travel time, you should be able to find mages in all major cities willing to send you to your destination for a small fee. If you want to take advantage, act fast: it will only be here for a week. Once it closes up shop on the 13th, you'll have to wait another month.

So go on, check it out; we promise that this Breakfast Topic will still be here when you get back.

[hold music plays]

Okay, back? Great! Now we can get to talking about everyone's favorite Darkmoon activities. You do have a favorite, don't you? Perhaps it's the island's unique wild pets or a certain top hat. But maybe carnival games are more your style, like shooting yourself out of a canon or tossing rings onto a turtle? Or maybe you're just in it for the pets, mounts, and heirlooms you can buy for Darkmoon Prize Tickets. Whatever your reasons for visiting the Faire, you must have a favorite thing to do once you're there. So share!

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