Posts with tag Titles

• Destroyer's End
• Savior of Azeroth
• The Hand of Elune

The Savior of Azeroth title appears to be won by those who defeat Deathwing on heroic difficulty. The Hand of Elune title, meanwhile, is a temporary two-hour title one gets for completing the Well of Eternity dungeon and thoroughly mucking with history. Finally, Destroyer's End is the title earned for killing Deathwing on normal or heroic difficulty.

So if you collect titles, you'd better get to work, guys. Patch 4.3 has two really nifty ones waiting for you.

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Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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Mists of Pandaria was filed as a trademark by Blizzard last week, sending the WoW community into pandemonium. Love them or hate them, pandaren may be making their way to Warcraft sooner than you think. As a title, though, does Mists of Pandaria work in the same way Blizzard's past expansion titles have informed the public about their general storylines?

While I was drafting The Queue a few days ago, one particular vein of questioning stood out among the rest. Blizzard has recently filed for a peculiar trademark, Mists of Pandaria, under the classification of computer software (among other things). Many people believe that Mists of Pandaria will be the name of the next expansion, heralding in an age of World of Warcraft in which the fan-favorite pandaren finally make their emergence out of the shadows and into our hearts. Others hope that the pandas stay as the joke they originated from and WoW keeps only its other 50 bipedal, anthropomorphized races and rejects the pandaren concept. Either way, it is cause for discussion.

The title is an art form in the games industry. A title has to tell you everything you need to know right up front, on the box, to give players new and old alike an understanding of what the game is going to focus on, set the theme, set a tone, and even clue us in to the major plot points. The title Mists of Pandaria could or could not do those things. I've taken the liberty of writing up some words on the subject of this potential title. I could be right and could certainly be wrong, but here's some food for thought.

The Queue question that got this all started for me:

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Face it, we all love our titles. Some of us have a specific favorite that we just love to show off, a title that boldly displays our personality and our achievements at a glance. If you have Chef before your name, people will know you're a great cook. If you have Loremaster before your name, people will know you are passionate about lore (or quests).

And then there are the few of us who are passionate about titles themselves. Just like avid collectors try and collect as many pets as they can (and get a nice pet once they reach a certain number, a pet that tells everyone that you enjoy collecting pets) and mount collectors acquire as many mounts as they can, there are a few of us who collect titles. For us, displaying one title -- no matter how prestigious it is (Death's Demise, anyone?) -- simply isn't enough. How are we title collectors suppose to display our love of titles?

There in fact used to be a mod that would automatically cycle through whatever titles you told it to, but Blizzard killed it for some reason. I was hoping it was because they were adding the title collector titles, but alas ...

You can probably tell where I'm going with this: I think Blizzard should put in a title for having X number of titles. Maybe something like "Lord / Lady [Name]." How about adding a new tier to certain titles? The Seeker title requries completion of 3,000 quests -- but with Cataclysm, there are far more quests than that. So maybe add another tier of it, say ... 5,000 quests. Make the title "Knowledge-Seeker [Name]."

If you could create a title, what would it be, and how would one go about acquiring it?

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I've always been something of an achievement junkie, but there are a few that I am exceptionally proud of. It seems silly, but the reputation achievements are often my favorites. The Diplomat was particularly frustrating, seeing as how I was experiencing constant lag throughout the entire grind with the Timbermaw and the Kurenai. The frustration, however, simply made that achievement something I am proud to brag about to this day -- and my warlock loves showing her title off to anyone who deigns to pay attention.

Of course, she does have ways of making people pay attention ... ah, but I digress!

Whether you tirelessly slaved away, grinding reputation for an obscure faction (or several of them); collected pet after pet in the hopes of obtaining Lil' Game Hunter; or worked endlessly to down the Lich King for the coveted Bane of the Fallen King, I want to hear about it your proudest achievement moment in WoW. It can be anything, from the random or trivial to something you actually had to put a lot of effort into to obtain.

So, fellow WoW friends -- which achievement are you most proud of?

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Though just a word or phrase tacked on to your name, titles hold great weight. They announce your accomplishments to the world: You are a gladiator, slayer of kings, and master of the kitchen. They can mark you as a member of an exclusive (sometimes extremely so) club. As you wander around Dalaran, others stare in awe at your insanity, your sheer dedication to your chosen path. For some, titles represent an achieved goal -- you are a seeker, loremaster, explorer, spending days trekking across continents, slaying mighty monsters and harmless critters for assorted organs. Others are incessant partiers, traveling from lunar festivals to winter celebrations always dressed for the season, fireworks in one hand, booze in the other.

Personally, I've always stuck to short titles. There is something about "Ambassador" and "The Seeker" that have always appealed to me. These titles lend a bit of mystery to my toons; am I actually seeking something, or am I just a huge The Who fan? Why is an ambassador standing naked outside of ICC? Am I really that salty?

How do you present yourself to Azeroth? Have you achieved that one goal, earned the only title you ever need? Or are you in constant flux, a new identity every week? What's your favorite title?

There's a new patch headed to the beta servers, and MMO-Champion has datamined the following title rewards for raid achievements in Cataclysm:

• Heroic: Nefarian -- Defeat Nefarian in Blackwing Descent on heroic difficulty. Title: Blackwing's Bane
• Heroic: Sinestra -- Defeat Sinestra in the Bastion of Twilight on heroic difficulty. Title: Dragonslayer
• Heroic: Al'Akir -- Defeat Al'Akir in the Throne of the Four Winds on heroic difficulty. Title: Of the Four Winds
• Defender of a Shattered World -- Complete the raids and heroic dungeons listed below. Title: Defender of a Shattered World

Who else is pretty pumped to be a Dragonslayer?

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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.

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This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

A friend of mine and I were once playing Rock Band (don't worry, I will relate this to WoW soon), and he complained that he wasn't doing so well. Granted, he's much better than most players, but he was struggling to play a moderately difficult song on the expert difficulty (the hardest difficulty in the game). He later revealed to me that the reason he was lamenting his "lack" of skill was that he used to be much better -- so much better, in fact, that he once beat the infamous "Through the Fire and Flames" on expert in Guitar Hero III.

For those who don't know, "Through the Fire and Flames" is generally agreed to be the hardest song in any guitar-based rhythm game, demanding complex techniques that no other song in the series requires. In response to this revelation on his part, I said to him, "No matter how bad you may think you are now, beating 'Through the Fire and Flames' gives you the life-long right to retire from the game without losing any of your former glory in the process." And I believe that. No matter how much his skill may atrophy, beating "Through the Fire and Flames" on expert means he will always be worthy of respect in the Guitar Hero/Rock Band community, or at least always worthy of my respect.

This conversation made me wonder; are there any achievements in WoW that bestow similar prestige? In my own mind, anyone who got Grand Marshal/High Warlord under the old PvP system is deserving of this kind of respect. I would also like to think that What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been would carry similar meaning, but that may just be me trying to think that my Violet Proto-Drake is more impressive than it really is. As for Insane in the Membrane, though I've never met anyone who has done it, I imagine that rather than respecting him, I might just think him very worthy of the title.

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I'm a man who enjoys a good title reward. At 24 titles and counting, I have been forced to find creative ways to get the most out of them. Since I refuse to use a title rotator add-on, I've instead merged a few /settitle commands into some of my usual macros. Now when I lay down a Basic Campfire, I also become Chef Cutaia. When I'm forced to perform emergency first aid and bandage myself? Cutaia the Patient (you see what I did there). Each time I switch out my gearset, it comes with a new title, too. Crusader for ret, Loremaster for prot ... you get the idea.

Now, I've heard the argument that all titles should be difficult to get so that they can retain a sense of distinction. However, I place myself firmly on the opposite side of that debate.

Personally, I wish titles could be a bit more like the game's other collectables. Think of all the ways in which pets are obtained, for example. Some require a rare drop, while some come as achievement rewards. Some require hours of brain-melting bookshelf camping in Dalaran, and some are sold by vendors around Azeroth.

After taking a two-week detour into guides covering the Love Is In the Air and Lunar Festival holidays, we're going to return to the list of titles available from dungeon and raid achievements. You can find part one here, covering everything from Argent Defender to Grand Crusader. This week, we'll pick up where we left off.

Herald of the Titans (requires an Algalon-10 kill under special circumstances) or Starcaller (requires Observed -- 10 player)

Herald of the Titans, much like its ToGC-10 counterpart Argent Defender, requires you to kill Algalon in Ulduar-10 without padding the difficulty with gear from higher-level raids. The result is arguably the coolest Algalon-related title apart from Celestial Defender, but it won't come without a ton of planning and a lot of skill. Starcaller is the same deal, minus the gear requirement.

Titles; they are cool, they are wonderful, and in a not-inconsiderable number of cases, they are very hard to get. Almost without exception, every single title in the game is also linked to an achievement. Today we're going to examine how you can get (or, in some cases, how it was possible to get) about half of the 19 titles currently available from dungeons and raids. Next week, we'll cover the last half, going in alphabetical order.

If you're a skimmer, the two toughest achievements are actually at the tail end this week, and if you're currently in Icecrown Citadel, there's two currently-unobtainable titles that may interest you here (in addition to another set next week).

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Professions in The World of Warcraft are one of the many endeavors in which players can invest their time and efforts. Despite the fact that most players do indeed level them, and the fact that there is quite a bit of interest in them, people are often left questioning their value at the end of the day.

Profitability and cost to level are two of the most frequent complaints against their chosen professions, but today I would like you to consider another reason: boredom.

It is not that the professions themselves are inherently boring. It is more that, in a game where there are always new things to collect, new reasons to PvP or run raid content, new dailies and new factions, professions just can't compete. Most can be leveled in an hour or two at the Auction House, and once this has been achieved, the key items made, and the buffs applied to your gear, what else is there?

The other day, I was giving away a loot card code over on our Twitter account (as I tend to do -- are you following us over there yet?), and I asked people to send along suggestions for the titles they wanted to have in game. Mine is "the Noob" (for obvious reasons), but there were some really excellent ones in the mix: The Legend, The Fashionable, The Bounty Hunter, Banker (very practical, I agree), and my favorite suggestion, The Dying, for any character that dies at least 1,000 times.

We've actually asked this question in a Breakfast Topic before, but it was last year, when titles were still pretty hard to come by (nowadays, everyone's got at least one, right?). So let us hear them: if you could have any title you wanted, which would you choose?

And remember, Blizzard's listening: they've already put one fan-suggested title in the game, so who knows. Maybe the one you suggest in this thread will eventually be right above your character's head.

Apparently there were a few Blizzard blokes at E3 last week, even though we didn't see them wandering the floor at all. Mike Morhaime and Paul Sams were both there to accept their awards for world records from Guinness after making it into the 2009 Gaming edition. World of Warcraft picked up a record for the most popular MMORPG in the world (with, as you probably know, 12 million players), and Starcraft gained recognition for being the best-selling PC strategy game, with 9.5 million copies sold worldwide. Neither of these awards are really that much of a surprise -- both games have already garnered tons of other awards, and both games are already squarely in the pantheon of the best and biggest PC games ever sold. But being recognized is always nice, we're sure.

They honored a number of other extremely popular games and services as well, including two big Activision Blizzard titles: Call of Duty 4 was recognized for being the most-played online video game, and Guitar Hero was recognized for being the best-selling rhythm game series (though Red Octane, the game's original publisher, was honored, and they've only recently been acquired by the Activision overlords).

Congrats to all the award winners, as if they even needed it. Something tells us the millions and millions of dollars in revenue from all of these games was probably a nicer reward than Guinness recognition. Just a guess.

There's some fun to be had out there with everyone's new Patron and Matron titles. And by fun I clearly mean instituting a level of confusion and raised eyebrows that only a transformative romp through the wilds of Storms Peaks can give you.

First, you want to get your title from Children's Week. And with the exception of School of Hard Knocks the title shouldn't be hard to get.

Secondly, display the title and fly out to Brunnhildar Village. You want to head towards the area where you change forms into a Hyldnir Frost Vrykul. You know, the big blue women.

As you form goes "poof," so will your title. If you were a man and are now a woman, you gain the Matron title. Don't you feel special now? Of course as soon as you fly out from the area and shapeshift automagically back to your original form, your title will change back as well.

There are reports in which people have experienced similar behavior being sheeped in PvP. Apparently all sheep are male? Who knows...

Have fun with this, but not too much fun.

We've all seen some Alliance kiddie named "ikillhoarde" or a Warlock named "ifearyoudie." After all, what Horde wouldn't run for cover from a Hunter who's named after his very death? And woe is the person who actually thinks he can get away from a Warlock's fear. Phear the lock, baby.

Add titles into the mix. "Doora the Explorer" is probably my favorite of all time. Every time I see someone named that I yell out "Swiper, No Swiping!" Of course insert the obligatory NSFW Kevin Smith reference here.

Another favorite of mine that I've seen is "Highlander the Immortal."

What's the best pun name that you've encountered in the game? Ever thought about renaming your character to make yourself pun-famous?