The Queue: The miraculous day when we all feel okay

For clarification, today is not that day, but let’s hold out hope for tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. The day after that?

Anyway, I just got my Covid shot and hit the hour where I feel like falling over. It’s not that I don’t love you guys, but also I want to pass out now. Let’s Queue (and then take a nap).

I have never maxed out my Darkmoon Faire reputation, and I really ought to one day.. but I don’t think mini-games are the way to do it. They’re sluggish, I can’t get them perfect all the time, and they cost tickets. So I don’t play a lot of mini-games  — maybe once in a while on a whim, but I never try to just go in and play them.

Of course… if you want those rewards, you need those prize tickets. If you’re a mount or pet or transmog collector, that means a bunch of tickets which means playing a bunch of mini-games.

But it’s hard to come up with both the time and enthusiasm, particularly when there’s so much else competing for your time and attention.

However, it is the last day of The Darkmoon Faire today, so if you want to get in any last minute activities, get on it!

WoW’s main story quests are typically standouts, with excellent voice acting, great cinematic, and a strong storyline. The great thing about taking a break from WoW is that you can come back and just mainline the story without any  downtime. There’s no waiting for the next patch for new content, because it’s all already there. You can barrel right through it.

I would skip digging into the Forgotten Reach, not because it isn’t fun — I love the place and the Zskera Vaults, in particular — but because the primary activity there is rare hunting, which you need to do to get keys for the Vaults. There aren’t many people there hunting those rares, and so unless you’re very well-geared it’s going to be an exercise in frustration.

Now, the gear you’ll get from doing this isn’t going to be spectacular. To gear up, you’ll want to run Dreamsurges. This world event follows the pattern of … well, pretty much every other world event we’ve seen in this expansion … but it’s the newest event with the best loot and you’ll still find a lot of people there to help you kill rares and complete objectives. You can get gear up to ilevel 415 (which can then be upgraded as far as ilevel 437). With that, you’ll be able to tackle anything else you want to do in game.

Also, if you’re tired of whatever you’re playing right now, this is the best time ever to level in WoW. I am not exaggerating: the leveling game has never been faster than it is now with the Turbulent Timeways event. We have another month of time walking dungeons ahead of us, and completing these dungeons gives you a massive XP boost. Do four dungeons to max out that boost and you’ll easily wind up with four levels. The XP curve slows down after 60, but it’s great for getting new alts up to Dragonflight… so if you want to play something new, now’s a great time to start on it.

Other than that, though, my advice is the norm: do whatever you find fun. Live your best life.

I feel confident that we’re going to have a patch 10.3 and another raid tier. I just don’t feel like Fyrakk is expansion end-boss material, and even when we defeat him there are a lot of problems still unresolved — and I don’t think all of them can roll over to the next expansion. I think we’re going to have to deal with Iridikron in some way or anther, and possibly more drama with the Old Gods.

Fyrakk hasn’t been a bad villain this expansion, but he’s not a good one, either. He’s a stereotypical power-hungry bad guy who will do anything for more power. He may be a threat, but he’s not interesting, so I think we’re due for another big bad to cap off the expansion.

So, yes, my money* is on a patch 10.3 with a new raid tier coming out in the first half of 2024.

* Note that I have no money. Sorry to anyone hoping to win any bets here.

I think there’s only one important thing about a guild: it has to be full of people you enjoy spending time with. Whether you’re raiding, doing dungeons, PVPing, RPing, or anything else, you’re going to be spending a fair amount of time with your guildmates. If you don’t get along with them (or most of them), that’s gonna be a miserable time.

I strongly feel that World of Warcraft is less about the game and more about who you play the game with. When you’re playing with friends, it’s just a lot more fun. So the most important part of a guild is that it’s full of people you get along with.

Next, it should be full of people with similar game goals to you. If you want to raid Mythic, you don’t want to be in a group that doesn’t aspire to go past Heroic. If you want to PVP you don’t want to be in a guild that’s focused on running Mythic+. Mismatched gameplay values have killed plenty of guilds over the years as players split on what kind of content they want to do — so be sure you start with a guild that’s already focused on similar priorities.

If you find a guild like that, stick with it, because it’s dreadfully uncommon to find a good fit. You just have to keep looking around until you do.

And my friends that is all I have for today. I wish you a very lovely Friday — I am going off to take a nap.