With a title like that, it’s obvious that this isn’t like my usual posts, at least in tone anyway.  It will probably still be long and rambling, but I’ll do my best to keep things brief.

I actually haven’t really been playing WoW since shortly after my last post; early September was about the last time I logged in regularly.  I kept my subscription active for a couple months afterward, only deactivating it in December after Winter Veil came and went.  So it’s been about six or seven months since I stopped playing.  For reference, I have been more or less a constant subscriber and player since April 2010, so that’s an over eight-year streak that’s finally been broken.

So why’d I finally quit?  What would it take to bring me back?  And why am I bothering to write this now?

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Another expansion’s come and gone, and we’re now in the Battle for Azeroth pre-patch, with all the requisite class changes that comes with it.  After a rather fun expansion in which I really couldn’t complain about the state of my favorite spec, enhance is in a bit of a weird place.  There’s not much in the way of mechanical changes that have really changed how it plays, but something feels…off, I suppose.  Maybe it’s the loss of the Doomhammer, maybe it’s some subtle changes that have added up.

In this post, I’ll go over what’s new, what’s gone, and how enhance feels in 8.0.  If you’re coming to this post later, please note that this is solely a level 110 first impressions post, and that it might feel different at max level.

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Welcome to part 2 of my reputation guide!  We’re going beyond the Dark Portal into the shattered world of Outland to gain reputation with all manner of strange creatures, from groups of Azerothians to Draenor’s natives, from spacefaring mummy-ghosts to walking, talking fungus.

Outland’s a little weird.

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Welcome to the first part of my latest guide series, where I’m going to delve into the factions of WoW.  We’ll be taking this one expansion at a time, where I’ll give a brief overview of what the faction is, how to earn reputation with it, and what the rewards are at each level.

And what better place to start than at the beginning?

Updated 7/19/18:  Added info on the reintroduction of centaur reputations with the BfA pre-patch.  Updated the Powerful Anti-Venom recipe from first aid to alchemy.  Added info about Zandalar Tribe recipes returning in BfA. Continue reading →

It’s hard to believe that WoW’s a teenager now.  Pretty soon it’ll be driving, then graduating high school, then it’s off to college for our little MMO…

Ahem.  Anyway, with another year under its belt comes another anniversary celebration, and this one’s a bit bigger than average.  It’s not quite on the scale of the 10th anniversary, but there’s some bosses to face and some new loot to acquire.

Time to put on the nostalgia goggles and take a trip back to WoW’s early days once more!

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So, Legion begins officially on August 30th, but that’s still a few weeks away.  What are you to do in the meantime?

Blizzard has you covered with a variety of pre-expansion events to keep you occupied until you can sail off to the Broken Isles, as well as some existing content you may want to run before then as well.  Here’s a rundown of what to do while you wait.

(Note:  I meant to get this article up earlier, but got delayed by various things.  Still posting it for posterity!)

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The Legion pre-patch is out, and after almost a year, we have something new to do!  However, if trade chat is any indication, very few people bother to read patch notes, or keep up with various class previews from the beta, and thus there are a lot of people confused as hell as to what exactly happened.

This is especially true for anyone who plays a spec that got a substantial rework, and while enhance didn’t get changed as much as, say, survival hunters, it still got a pretty solid changing up.  Thus, here’s the rundown of what’s different, as well as an uncustomary brief overview of what you should take care not to miss before the expansion launches on August 30th.  In a followup post, I’ll go deeper into the pre-expansion events and their rewards, as well as other things to do to keep yourself preoccupied.

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Much sooner than most of us had predicted, Blizzard has unveiled the next expansion for WoW.  Those who put money on Corgis Unleashed, sorry, you lost.  Those who put money on the Burning Legion, naga, the Emerald Dream, and a bunch of other things, congrats!  You each get partial credit in what’s looking to be the biggest amalgamation of Warcraft lore in a single expansion.

So, with the next expansion’s name revealed (although it sure isn’t going to abbreviate well; L?) and content previewed, let’s delve into the announcement presentation and see what’s in store.

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“I have nothing to do!”

I’m sure that most anyone who’s played WoW has heard this complaint from someone at some point during their time playing the game.  On the surface, it seems trivial; how could you possibly have nothing at all to do?  You could go finish quests you didn’t get to, hunt down rare mobs or treasures, run dungeons, do some PVP, go raiding, play some pet battles, or any number of other things.  With over a decade’s worth of content, how could anyone possibly have run out of things to do in WoW?

Just like “clunky” and “poor scaling” are terms that hint at an underlying cause of frustration with class design, “nothing to do” is a shorthand that is used to describe a different circumstance altogether.  When people claim that they have nothing to do, more often than not, they mean that they have nothing engaging and rewarding to do.  While I have no real objective measurement of this phenomenon, I’ve had a feeling for a while that we’ve been seeing this complaint more in Warlords than in past expansions.  It feels like people are burning through content at a much faster pace, reaching that state of boredom and listlessness much quicker than previously.

To understand why (or at least, my theory of why), we need to talk about what makes WoW fun.

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So 6.2 just hit the PTR this week, and with it comes a slew of new info of what to expect from the future.  The patch notes detail things that were pretty obvious would be in this patch (Tanaan opening, a Hellfire Citadel raid), things that weren’t entirely unexpected (the end of the legendary ring questline), and things that seem totally out of left field (Grommash isn’t a boss?  shipyards?  mythic dungeons?).  In addition to what’s there, we also have some noteworthy things that aren’t, like the existence of Farahlon and the continued lack of flight.  I haven’t downloaded the PTR to mess around with the new content yet, but at the very least we can take a look at the notes and get an idea of where we’re headed next.

I’ll admit, I honestly don’t know my overall feelings about this patch.  There are some things that look really cool, and some that are leaving me scratching my head.

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