Posts with tag world-of-warcraft-discussion

Now that the battleground blacklist feature has been around for some time, most of us have probably settled into a routine of picking out our two least favorite places. So I'm wondering, a while down the line, which battlegrounds do you blacklist? This feature has returned to the spotlight of late, with a little note from the systems design team in the recent PvP Q&A, suggesting, perhaps teasing, that Blizzard might consider cutting a battleground from the game. They mentioned that they had more information about the most and least popular BGs, and we had a good time postulating about which might be cut.

So which do I blacklist? I switch it around a lot, some days it'll be Alterac Valley and Isle of Conquest, but a few days later I'll be fine with those and it'll be Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks, usually as a result of a bad loss which wound up with the faction I was playing being camped at the graveyard. Maybe it's better to ask which battlegrounds I never blacklist, and the answer to that would be Eye of the Storm. I love that place. I can't put my finger on why exactly, perhaps it's the long sight lines, perhaps it's the mixed mechanics, meaning there's a lot of varied tasks to be done. I'm not sure if the chicken came before the egg, but it's also by far my most won random battleground. Positive reinforcement!

But what about you? Which battlegrounds do you blacklist, or, if you're a more changeable sort like me, which do you never blacklist?

It occurred to me earlier this week, as I was doing another round of dailies on the Isle of Thunder, that I really had no reason to be doing them at all. I've been exalted with the Sunreaver Onslaught for quite some time now. There's nothing I need from the vendor. But something keeps me going back to this particular set of dailies over any other, even though I don't really need them anymore. Of course there's the weekly quest that's a pretty easy 150 valor, and the Treasure Vault to plunder, and of course there's the raid itself -- I really think the Throne of Thunder is the best raid we've had this expansion so far.

But there's also just something about that mysterious island. I love the saurok dailies, stomping bugs and jumping around like a maniac. I like going on the odd binge of rare-killing. I like the atmosphere of the area, which is odd in and of itself because the island is frankly, pretty gloomy -- but every time lightning hits a tree, I kind of have to marvel at how pretty it looks. As for the dailies themselves, they're pretty easy to complete, they send me on a circuit of the island, and they don't take very long. The dailies make it easy to rack up a quick 400-450g or so in a half hour, and I'm not going to complain about that.

I do wonder, though, if anyone else has a peculiar fascination with the Isle of Thunder. Are you exalted with your respective faction? Do you still do the dailies? Do you find yourself hunting for rares every week, or diligently making sure you get the Key to the Palace of Lei Shen? Or do you just head to the island for the raid? Will you head to the Isle after patch 5.3 arrives? Is there something on the island with enough of a draw to keep you coming back? And just because I'm curious -- what did you think of the Isle of Thunder dailies? Were they better than the ones offered in patch 5.1?

It's really easy, both in life and in WoW, to rush by without taking a moment to smell the roses, to survey the beauty that's all around us. I'm as guilty of this as the next person, always hurrying in-game, always trying to get to the next spot, the next level, the next piece of gear, the next round rating number.

So I was on an alt in the Alliance base on Thunder Isle, when I had to alt-tab out to respond to an IM. I then put my laptop down and afk'd, and on my return I was looking at the library you see in the header image. What you might not be able to see is the scholars in the alcoves, reading away. I'd never noticed it before, because all I usually do there is hearthstone and then run straight out the door.

It took me ages to even notice the amazing swirling sky in parts of Pandaria, with its sha-styled tendrils. But what about you, do you look up? You really should. And what are your favorite bits of sky in the game? Your favorite treasures, indoor or out, that you'll miss if you're not glancing occasionally towards the heavens?

My esteemed colleague Sarah Pine and I were, as ever, chatting about nothing in particular in WoW Insider's chatroom, when we stumbled upon the question of ninjas. No, not quite what you're thinking, the bad kind of ninja who steals loot from under the noses of the noble, but the other kind of ninja. Yes, it's also a bad kind of ninja, I'm thinking today about the ninja that pulls.

Ninja pulls are almost always embarrassing, and you can tell from an (admittedly lengthy) reading of my past breakfast topics that I love asking you all to share your darkest WoW secrets. So let's talk about ninja pulls. I've definitely had my share, everything from the bog-standard "oops, got a little too close there" to accidentally activating auto-run, the dreaded hunter auto-shot pull, and more, but one that particularly sticks in my mind is when my guild was first taking on Stone Guard.

Our warlock had, helpfully, put a Demonic Gateway to take players from the entrance end of the room to the end of the room where Feng hangs out. Very generous indeed. Now, I'm a jumper. I leap around the place while I'm waiting like a particularly excitable kangaroo. It must drive people half mad. Anyhow that day, I was bouncing about as I always do, and accidentally leapt into the Gateway. No big deal? Well, this was before you had to click the Gateway to use it. I flew through the air, swearing like a fishwife, straight into the Jade Guardian. We wiped. I apologized, profusely, and was roundly chastised for my jumpy ways!

So tell me about your ninja pulls. Don't be afraid, we're all friends here!