Jan 8, 2013

For the casual in WoW

So here's a base heresy in the World of Warcraft: to have fun in the game,you do not have to have to:

  • Raid. At all. Or competently, if you do.
  • Top the DPS meters. In fact, you don't even have to know what they are.
  • Use the best spec or glyph combination for your class.
  • Have the current tier of gear.
  • Have thousands of gold.
  • Join a guild. Or a group, even.
You can do any of these things if you want to. You can even do all of them, if you're willing to spend huge amounts of time, both in-game and out of it, to learn the skills and tricks necessary and practice them to the point where you are acknowledged as one of the gods of WoW.

But you don't have to, in order to have fun and have a full game experience.

The problem is, if you go looking around for information on the game, you're going to be swimming in information about the latest strats for defeating bosses in raids. You will be covered in posts detailing mathematical minutiae and the current theorycraft about haste point breaks. For all of Blizzard's intent in Mists of giving us talents and glyps where cookie-cutter specs are a thing of the past, the vast, vast majority of players will configure their toons with the "correct" spec, and loadout of glyphed abilities. But here's the thing: unless you're raiding the current tier, or trying to be competitive in the current Arena season, most of that information is practically useless.

But not all of it! Some of it is good, some of it will make your travels in Azeroth a lot easier, meaning you can stress out less, and enjoy the journey. The point to this blog is to bring you those tricks and tips in the lowest-impact style possible. I'll tell you about questing in ways that won't require you kill yourself over and over to get them done. I'll tell you about ways to spec and gear a toon (I regularly play 6 of the classes at level 85+ and have a small stable of toons I'm slowly leveling through their 20's) that will make sense for someone not willing -- or able -- to raid 4 nights a week. I'll tell you how you can make your toon look like a million gold for a lot, lot less. I'll tell you where the best places are for you to get adequate gear (not the best-in-slot, but good enough) to make your game time not so horrible. And I will always point out where, if and when you're ready, you can make the transition to something less casual. As a former hardcore raider and past BG-freak, I can tell you some things that will help you avoid the embarrassment of coming off as a clueless newb.

So stay tuned. Posts incoming.

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