Posts with tag breakfast topic

My raiding guild suffered from the Anub'Arak soft reset issue where we were unable to reach the floor where the oversized bug was. We wanted to clear him out on normal mode before we switched over to the harder difficulty. But since the floor was intact, we couldn't! (Note: This has since been fixed).

Because of this, we decided to toggle on Heroic mode for Trial of the Crusader on 25 just to get a feel for it. Some guilds believe that the Coliseum, even on heroic, is too easy. So I went in wondering what the fuss was all about. I wanted to know how easy the heroic setting would be.

But that's when I faced the reality check.

Remember, not everyone is in a top 100 guild. We burned through about 10 attempts that night just working on the first encounter alone. That experience helped to ground us and we realized what we needed to do to get through that mountain. In the end, we weren't able to even get past Gormok. We came to the conclusion that we were definitely going to need to coordinate healing and tanking cooldowns to break past the final minute of the first boss.

Nonetheless, it was fairly humbling. We'll have to go in next time much more carefully and with a more detailed game plan in mind.

It's been several days since Trial of the Grand Crusader has been accessible. Do you feel it has just the right amount of challenge for your raid group? Have you found it too easy or too difficult?

3.1 is looming ever closer and most of the players who aren't storming Ulduar are probably going to be hitting Icecrown for the Argent Tournament thanks to the promise of new mounts and, of course, the zone-specific pets!

Now I love pets, I once gave a guildmate all my gold and asked him to go all the way to Netherstorm to get me a Blue Dragonhawk Hatching. Admittedly, I don't have that many and while I normally whip out Frosty or Mini Tyrael when we're in instances, I'm usually found exploring Azeroth with a much simpler pet, my Orange Tabby Cat.

It seems like most of the WoW Insider staff - bar Alex and his roomba thingy - have pets and until two months ago, I had an ancient orange kitty called Jerry (known universally and beloved as The Ginger One). Sadly I had to put him to sleep but being followed by a virtual cat makes me wish we had more personalisation options in game.

Hunters can name and feed their pets but why can't we do the same with our non combat ones? Yes we can brush them, put them on leads and play ball but it's not really the same thing is it? At the same time because I now have a pair of cats, I'd love to be able to summon several kitty minions who would follow me into battle.

Anyway, here's a morning question for you: do you have virtual forms of your real world pets? If yes, do you have a particular one? If you don't, is there a particular non-combat pet you'd like to have? Would you like just one? How about many?

It doesn't take Mind Vision to determine that I'm really, really excited for 3.1, and of all of its features, the Ulduar raid has me enthralled the most. I love new raids, and after all this time running Naxx, I'm ready to move on to a bigger and badder place. It doesn't hurt that everything I've heard about Ulduar sounds great! 14 bosses, hard modes, optional bosses, getting launched onto the back of a giant fire-breathing robot ... I honestly can't think of any negatives about the place. I guess it's just what I needed.

Of course, I haven't played it yet. But soon, very soon, the PTR will go live and I'll be able to bask in all of its brass-and-marble glory. And you won't be able to shut me up about it if you try. If you can't beat me, though, you should consider joining me there.

I'm aware, of course, that raiding's not for everyone, and that some people don't want encounters spoiled for them before they go live. So what about you guys? Are you looking forward to checking out Ulduar for yourself on the PTR? Gonna wait until it hits live WoW to try it out? Or do you just not care about Titantown too much?

THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE ANSWERED (BY YOU) IN THIS, THE BREAKFAST TOPIC.

Man, WoW just throws so many items at us. They're greens, blues, and purples. They're vendor trash and they're enchanting mats. They all fill up our bags and our hours in the game. They drive our raid attendance and our questing time. And some, out of all of those thousands of items, mean something to us. We've all got our cherished items, ones that we can't bring ourselves to get rid of.

This breakfast topic isn't about what we don't want to get rid of, though! This is about what we can't freaking get rid of no matter how hard we try.

The General forums were graced with Blue presence in a thread asking just what the oldest item you still use is. The OP mentioned that theirs was Dabiri's Enigma, a tanking trinket they've been trying to get rid of since they day they got it back in Netherstorm. Unsuccessfully, of course.

What about you guys? What have you been trying to replace, upgrade from, or downright throw away since Light-knows-when?

One of the best (and sometimes worst) things about online gaming are the people and the connections you make with them. Everyone who logs in has at least one thing in common with everyone else, we all play World of Warcraft. A small common interest is sometimes all it takes to bridge the gap between people and become friends. So this morning I'm interested in how you view the people you play WoW with. Are they just another member of your guild who you log in with for an hour or so a day, or something more? Does your guild or online community have real life get togethers? Have your online friends ever became close real life friends, or even perhaps a significant other? I'm interested in hearing your take on managing online friends with your offline persona.

Myself? I started online gaming back in the Quake 1 Team Fortress days, moved on to Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot, and now WoW. To this day I still game and talk with a handful of my old clan members. In WoW, I've been fortunate enough to still be in the same guild I was in on day 1. I've known some of these people as long if not longer than some of my offline friends. Managing the relationships forged online versus off can sometimes be difficult, can you truely know someone without having ever met them face to face? Let's hear your stories and thoughts!

If you're anything like me, ever since the beta talents for Wrath of the Lich King were leaked, you've been going to your favorite talent planner and seeing what new spells and abilities you're going to get. A few days ago we asked what new talents got you excited, but now that you've had more time to study the new talent trees, do you see a respec in your future?

We all know that beta means any and all talents could be shuffled around, buffed / nerfed, or even removed completely, but knowing what we do at this very moment, what's your game plan? Will you fine tune your existing spec or completely change your play style and try a new tree?

Myself, I'm eager to learn exactly what "exotic pets" are going to be, but I really like the extra pet talent points, so my Beast Master Hunter looks like he's staying put. Just incase though I've mapped out an appealing Marksmanship build that might be a nice change of pace. My Mage on the other hand might be forsaking his fellow Ice Mage brethren for an Arcane build. That tree recieved a lot of love and looks really interesting and new. Finally, my Enhancement Shaman my just be shelved if Death Knight looks as fun as it seems to be. So what are you leaning towards? New build? New class? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Let's face it, World of Warcraft is a big game. Nine classes with a new one on the way, ten races, each with all unique spells and abilities, over fifty zones to explore and soon a new continent, each with more quests, baddies, and precious loot than we can count. With so many details a virtual world like WoW has, just how the heck do you keep track of everything? Everyone has certain goals in mind for their characters.

• Be a master of a certain profession
• Be exalted reputation with certain factions
• Quests you want to go back and do (I'm with you completionists!)
• A wish list of goodies to be gotten and exactly what you need to get'em.

Do you go for the casual approach and just store it in your noggin? Or maybe you've lined your monitor with so many sticky notes you can barely see your character. Perhaps you're the obsessively anal type and keep a notebook binder or excel document handy at all times? Myself, I'm guilty of using an online application called Backpack to keep my profession notes and wish lists in order. Share with us in the comments how you keep track of all your WoW information!

Lately, the forums have been full of people accusing other players of being bad at World of Warcraft. The denizens of the Raids and Dungeons forums have even gone so far as to call casual players "bads", and complain about "terribles" or "scrub guilds" getting into raids without attunements. This brings up an interesting point: what makes someone "bad at WoW"?

Personally, I don't think a lack of gear or raid progression indicates being bad at WoW. Some players, like myself, simply don't have the schedule to donate to the acquisition of epics. I would define "bad" as someone who cannot achieve their goals in-game due to their own stupidity, incompetence, or inability to follow the rules.

Here's some examples. If you can't kill Shade of Aran because your schedule prevents you from raiding enough, you're not bad. However, if you can't kill Shade of Aran because "don't move during Flame Wreath" has yet to sink into your skull after twenty tries, you're probably bad. Having trouble winning arenas because you're undergeared? Not necessarily bad. Having trouble winning arenas because your rogue is decked out entirely in strength gems? You might be bad. Getting suspended for being keylogged doesn't mean you're bad, but getting suspended for botting and then complaining that it takes too long to level on the forums does.

What do you think makes someone bad at WoW? Are you bad?

One of my guild's officers has taken up the dubious practice of "farming for Wrath of the Lich King." He has epic mounts for all his 70s, all the recipes he could ever want, and enough spare cash to pay alt support for an army of gnomes, but he's convinced there'll be some big, 20K or so gold sink in the new expansion.

The gold sinks for WoW have always been epic mounts: the epic ground mount in vanilla WoW, and the epic flyer in BC. I'm not sure what it could be for WotLK. I can't see that many people would spend a ton of money on PvP structures, which leaves a couple of options. There could be extremely expensive forms of character customization, such as tattoos, wings, or other adornments. There could be guild housing (finally.) My guildmates suggested that it will be submarines shaped like "sharks with frickin' lazer beams" and underpants "with rockets on the front", further confirming that my guild's sense of humor is stuck in 1997.

What do you think the gold sink will be when WotLK finally emerges from its cocoon?

A couple of days ago, I did something that I never, ever do in WoW. I ran past someone fighting a mob and took a ore deposit. Why did I commit this evil deed? Because the other player was a female troll hunter with a letter-salad name and a pet named "Cat" -- in other words, someone I strongly suspected of being a gold farmer.

After she said "lol" and ran away, I got to thinking about gold farmers. (Edited to add: After the lol, I asked if she was going for the ore and she said no. Armory also provided that her only prof was skinning. I'm not quite as evil as you may believe.) This led to today's two-part breakfast topic: How do you tell a gold farmer, and what do you do about them when you find them?

I have a sort of mental checklist for suspected gold farmers:

• Hunter
• Female
• Blood elf/night elf/troll
• Cat named "Cat"/Boar named "Boar"
• Beast Mastery in the Armory
• Only profession is skinning
• Inappropriate gear/Appropriate gear that is all BOEs
• Random name
• Will never go away when you attack and will never beat you in a fight

I usually don't do anything about them unless they're farming the stuff I need, in which case I'll report them. I'll also grab mines and other nodes from beneath their feet. How do you tell a gold farmer apart, and what do you do when you find one?

Michigan plays Ohio State this week in one of the most storied football rivalries of all time. This got me thinking about WoW rivalries. Sure, we only have two teams, the Horde and Alliance -- but we have tons of classes that hate each other, particularly on the forums.

Every class seems to have a rival or two. The rogues don't get along with the hunters, the paladins and priests are constantly fighting over healing, the warriors and druids argue about tanking, and none of the clothies like each other. Everyone seems to dislike a class that shares their role, whether it be DPS, healing or tanking.

But the current epic class rivalry is probably mage/warlock. The mages feel their spot as top caster DPS has been taken unfairly by the locks. The locks feel like everyone hates them and are causing their nerfs. Throw in that both classes compete for the same items and you've got quite a brouhaha.

What do you think is the best class rivalry in WoW?

If there's one thing I learned from my last breakfast topic, it's that people like to talk about their servers. We have another server- and faction-specific question today, coming from a forum thread: Who is the best known player on your server? Morrath of Daggerspine further elaborates his question: "Whether they are a hero or a villain, there are certain people that make our servers what they are ... on every server there is a player that stands out from the rest, a person who everyone on that server knows one way or another."

Magtheridon has one WoW-wide celebrity: multiboxer extraordinaire Xzin. But we also have duelists Joho and Madmaxo, forum trolls Sarkasmos and Rohnaj, drama survivors Avelin and Lexipie -- and that's only Hordeside. Occasionally, someone sets up a quiz in the forums about e-famous Mag players: "What were the two guilds that blockaded Booty Bay? Who created the catchphrase 'doesn't go to u'? Who was the first Mag player to tell a reroller to go ____ themself?" It's nice to be on a server that has culture and history.

Who's the best known player on your server, and what are they known for?

You wouldn't go to Cancun, Rome or New Zealand without packing items appropriate for the trip -- so why should you go to the Black Temple or Karazhan any less prepared? Levenah of the World of Warcraft Livejournal community asked players, "What do you carry for a raid?" She personally slings an impressive number of potions, a good amount of weapon oil and holy candles, and what appears to be one banana.

Most of the respondents seem to carry multiple stacks of every potion and food available, which makes me feel slack -- back when I was raiding, I came with about 10 healing pots, a stack of plus agi food, and then five to ten or so of my choice offensive and defensive elixirs. Oh, and 20 of each poison and Flash Powder, and usually a small amount of the Blinding Powder that no one ever asks me to use.

I know that tanking and healing classes tend to have to bring more items than DPS -- and this isn't even counting all the various sets a druid has to carry! What's on your packing list for a raid?

At least once a day, the trade chat of my home server, Magtheridon, is filled with people linking [Skullflame Shield] for some reason. For a while, I thought it was caused by some sort of sociological mass brain spasm unique to Mag, kind of like Chuck Norris jokes or being an Ohio State fan (/duck).

But Phyllixia of Proudmoore has broken my theory. It seems like every server has its own item to link in trade. Notable "server items" include:

• Warp Slicer on Gorgonnash
• Sulfuron Ingot on Sargeras
• Force Reactive Disk on Hellscream
• A random level 34 stick with a Mongoose enchant on Thunderlord
• The Black Stalk and the Crimson Shocker on Maiev
• Elementium Bar on Tichondrius
• Fight Club on Kirin Tor
• Foror's Compedium of Dragonslaying on several realms
• Simple Wood on Blackwater Raiders
• The Nicker on Maelstrom

So far, it seems that a lot of the items have a long history (Foror's), a weird presentation (Thunderlord's stick) or sexual connotations (Crimson Shocker and Simple Wood.) I have NO IDEA where this desire to repeatedly link one item comes from. What's your realm's item? Why do you think this trade chat linkage is so widespread?

A simple topic, but so difficult to figure out the answer to. If you could go back to when you first played WoW and give yourself some advice (WoW-related only, you can't tell yourself not to date that skeezy dude with the '80s hair from the Rockford), what would you tell yourself?

In retrospect, I probably would have advised myself not to make a Rogue as my first character to level. They're a nice class, but having a primary Rogue made it difficult to get into groups and raids. I would have made a Druid or Priest instead.

Additionally, I would have never tried to level in Silverpine Forest, entered Stromgarde Keep, or tried to solo all the seven billion elite quests before Outlands. I would have never tried to raid hardcore, and generally spent less time thinking about loot and more time cooking deviate fish.

What would you do differently if you started WoW again?