Justin

Ahhh... old timey WoW. Brings back interesting memories. I first started playing in closed beta, and flight paths hadn't yet been implemented :)

Is there any wiggle-room or hints in the current in-game Lore for an expansion covering anything *other* than the Maelstrom or Emerald Dream? Maelstrom, Undermine, ED... these are all locations that are directly referenced in-game, but aren't currently accessible to players. What other such large, expansion-worthy places are referenced? A CoT expansion? An expansion adding the lost continent on the far side of Azeroth?

I just stop playing. WoW doesn't need to be something that you're either A) addicted to or B) quitting forever. It IS possible to come and go as you please. And I find this to be a vastle superior way to experience the game. WoW then works for you, instead of vice versa.

I unsubbed from Feb-April because I was too busy with the real world to play. When I came back starting with Noblegarden, it was the most fun I'd had with WoW in a single month probably since I first began playing. I did both holidays, I finished Hodir and Oracle dailies, I championed most of the argent tourny factions, I finished off GH and ZD quest achievements, I checked out all the new fishing dailies, and, to top it off, since LK raiding was much further along, I was able to pug my way through all 10 & 25 raid content besides Uld.

...once the month was up at the end of May, I stopped playing again. I'm now deciding whether I'll return for Midsummer fire fest, or for 3.2.

The reward for completing Glory to the Ulduar Raider shouldn't be the mount itself. The reward should be having the mount BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE.

The hardcore still gets their epeen-boost by riding around on a mount for several weeks/months that almost no one else on their server has, and the more casual collector can exhale, knowing that some day (even if it's when they're level 90), they'll be able to add it to their stable, too.

When you're very low level, DoTing and fearing aren't your only options. DoTing and RUNNING also works :)

I *like* that questing in the old world or rolling a new toon is essentially like traveling back in time. Far be it from being one of WoW's faults, it's one of the things I really enjoy.

It's true that phasing provides a much-needed sense of accomplishment to WoW and the MMO genre in general (nothing more disheartening to killed a named mob, loot his head/paw/whatever, only for him to respawn before you even leave the area).

But in a weird way, knowing that Elwynn Forest will FOREVER remain unchanged makes me feel (in an odd way) warm and fuzzy, too. A lack of permanence in any MMO makes me feel uneasy.

Things I have pugged, within the last two weeks:

10man naxx
10man sarth
25 sarth with under 21 members (no drakes)
10man maly
25man maly
10man vault
10man Flame Leviathan

For those keeping track, the only things I DIDN'T pug were naxx25, vault25, Uld10 past FL, and Uld25.

In Northrend it's easy to make 250-300G a day from 60-90 minutes worth of dailies. Buying gold has never been more pointless. Doubly so with the stacking Argent Tourney dailies. Nothing like ripping through all 8 in just a few minutes.

Blizz is right on the money with this change in philosophy. I play a LOT of WoW, and I've been playing for a long, long time. And you know what? I never set foot in a raid until Wrath. Besides Kara, but that hardly counts :p

I was a "hardcore casual." I put in hardcore hours, but spent those hours doing casual things - fishing, rep dailies, playing the AH, etc. Raiding was impenatrable, for me.

But now, in Wrath, I'm running with a 10man pug almost every night. Sometimes we have success (clearing a couple wings of naxx with just a handful of wipes), and sometimes we don't (not being able to down Sarth even with all three drakes down). That's the PUG life.

Point is, as a result of these 10mans, I actually worked up and set foot in a 25man for the first time EVER, the other week. Got my first Emblem of Valor, etc.

...this can only be seen as a positive, for Blizz. I didn't/couldn't raid before, and now I can. I'm involved in another facet of the game.

Look at it like this:

- "Normal" raiding is the new heroics.
- "Hard Modes" are the new hardcore raiding.

For peeps that had illidan on farm and were in Sunwell, progressing through hard modes is the equiv. of their old "endgame." For peeps like me that used to run heroics as their endgame, normal raids are now open to them.

Logged onto Alleria and hit a 1250 person Queue just now. By far the largest queue I've ever seen.

Shows a 90 minute wait.