How do you balance old and new content when playing long-running games?

Midnight is officially live, but that doesn’t mean that the previous 21 years of World of Warcraft content has gone anywhere — and if you’re anything like me, you have been striking a balance between defending the Sunwell from Xal’atath’s invading forces and running decade-old dungeons and quests to farm mounts, achievement, and transmog.

Some of my old school weekly checklist items take just a few minutes or even seconds. Is Dunegorger Kraulok up for the possibility of the alpaca mount finally dropping? Have I run my weekly Mythic Siege of Orgrimmar skip for a quick chance at a Kor’kron Juggernaut? (The 14 Horde Warlord Thrones in my front yard point to yes). Have I logged into my Vulpera who is camped outside Blackrock Mountain for yet another partial Molten Core run in my quixotic quest to complete the Tier 1 set for every class?

Of course, of course, this very first week of a new expansion is the week when my Legion archaeology check finally revealed that the last quest that I needed for A Keen Eye popped. On top of that, it required a whopping 25 Highborne Archaeology solves. That’s a lot, even for the weekly Legion rare quests. And that’s how I spent the first real time in front of my computer in the Midnight era digging up junk across Azsuna.

Sure, I could have just looked up the next time that The Reliquary Calls rotates into the Dalaran Archaeology shop. But what will I be doing in mid-September? Or next March? A proper achievement hunter gets grinds done as soon as possible, in case more important things are happening the next time around. I’m sure Arator was a bit confused when I pulled out my Dalaran Hearthstone in the middle of our detective buddy adventure, but I also knew he would be waiting right where I left him once I earned those ten big achievement points.

So did you accept Lady Liadrin’s summon to the Isle of Quel’Danas and never look back? Or have you been dabbling in the Outland Cup, Dragonflight dungeons and raids, or even older content? At least I have my new Starlight Beacon to show off to Arator and Umbric. Wait, what do you mean it only works on the Broken Isles!?