Filed under: Breakfast Topics

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Despite the fact that most of the WoW-playing population is eagerly looking forward to and enjoying the content that Cataclysm has to offer, there are still many things that one could look back upon from the previous expansion and feel sad about. Whether it was a missed opportunity or perhaps an achievement that didn't quite get accomplished, I think all of us have something that we feel sucks amid all the hubbub over Cataclysm.

I myself have quite a few things I miss, now that they are no longer obtainable. While it wasn't from lack of trying, the fact that both the Swift Razzashi Raptor and the Swift Zulian Tiger are not part of my massive mount collection is saddening. Both my friend and I went to try for them on every reset, even sometimes on multiple characters, but to no avail. Hopefully, Blizzard will bring them back in some form, but like the Amani War Bear, it feels a little unrealistic.

Second, and while not as tangible as missing a chance at something rare, the fact that I spent the last day before the Shattering doing a long, painful rep grind instead of getting out and enjoying the last vestiges of the old world will forever go down in my gaming career as my biggest Cataclysm regret. As a proud explorer and mystery hunter, I should have been out in the world those last couple of hours before the server reset, grabbing screenshots and visiting familiar faces before they were erased permanently from the landscape I've been enjoying for the past six years.

Instead of looking forward, I ask you this: What do you look back upon from your time in Wrath and wish you could have done over? Done differently? What do you most regret now?

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Gear is a fixture in the World of Warcraft. Your gear plays a huge role in determining your character's combat abilities -- arguably even more than your level -- and high-level gear is often seen as a mark of skill, or at least experience. But there's a lot more than top-tier gear in Blizzard's data banks. Aside from older armor sets, the game is filled with wedding dresses, bloody aprons, monocles, tiaras, rolling pins, fairy wands, and chainmail bikinis. And who could forget the hodgepodge of Outland greens?

The first piece of gear I ever saved in WoW was the Everglow Lantern. I kept it in my bank long after my baby druid outgrew its +3 spirit, just because I liked the way it looked. Then I started keeping odd pieces of neat-looking gear I came across, eventually dressing up my bank alt in the classic Tuxedo set and Diamond-Tipped Cane. Recently, I've graduated to collecting tier 1 while I work on my Hydraxian Waterlords reputation. It's not good for my bank space, but it sure is fun to complete an eight-piece set.

Do you collect old gear or dress-up gear for your characters? Do you ever wear the gear you collect, for roleplaying or screenshots or just around town? What's your favorite distinctive gear item in World of Warcraft?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Astride my tauren paladin's newly obtained Sunwalker Kodo, I headed toward the Mor'Shan Rampart and into one of my least favorite zones, Ashenvale. It was supposed to be a contested zone in the old world, where Horde and Alliance vied for control of the zone. Instead, all I remembered was running from Splintertree Post to the Zoram'gar Outpost and avoiding Astranaar, the only possible point of PvP (since I'm on a PvE server). This was all prior to mounts being available at 20.

Needless to say, even with the shattering of the world, I expected more of the same. Needless to say, I was wrong.

At the Rampart, where before you would walk right through the main entrance (or slip through the hole in the gate if you were Alliance), there is intense combat between Horde and Alliance. The first few quests of new Ashenvale throw you directly into the fray. I thought, "Wow, this is the way this zone should have been all along." Questing throughout the zone only serves to enhance this feeling, and I must give props to Blizzard because its ability to tell a story, no matter how short or long, has improved since the beginning of Wrath, let alone the life of WoW. Ashenvale has been transformed from one of my least favorite zones to one of my favorites.

Fellow citizens of Azeroth, what zones for you have been shattered for the better?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

During the BlizzCon 2010 opening ceremonies, Chris Metzen spoke about the power of words, particularly focusing on one: "geek." He then followed up with a montage of what the word meant to him. Chris's dialogue was about what brings us together as geeks, celebrating common factors we all share as a community.

This of course got me thinking, what does "geek" mean to me? More pointedly, what does it mean to me in the World of Warcraft? What great accomplishments have brought me closer to my community? Raid achievements come to mind, such as obtaining the Hand of A'dal title as a guild an expansion ago (or two). But there are some things I consider elite -- and therefore geekier -- that set my fellow community members on top of what I consider the geek pedestal:

• The Loremaster title -- definitely my chart-topper for geekdom. Kudos to you!
• Anyone who has completed the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest chain.
• The Black Qiraji Battle Tank mount and Scarab Lord title. This was a whole server-wide event that brought the players together as a community toward one common goal: opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. I think this epitomizes the celebratory meaning of geek.
• Obtaining a legendary item -- this also involves a group working toward a common goal, strengthening our sense of community.

What does "geek" mean to you? Is it that elusive title? A rare pet or mount? Perhaps something that isn't even obtainable anymore, or something that was added in Cataclysm. What do you think brings us closer as a community or find celebratory of geekdom in WoW?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Blizzard has been selling us in-game items for a while now; however, it has kept this to noncombat pets and mounts -- things that, outside of counting for totals for achievements, have little to no real effect on gameplay. Some of the items Blizzard does for self-profit, and sometimes it sells in-game pets for charity. People who buy the items get different reactions from the community; the sparkle pony especially got a lot of hate.

Personally, I have not bought any of the real-money pets, partially because I am not a collector and partially because I felt that paying for downloadable content should add something major to the game experience. However, I am considering buying the Ragnaros pet for one main reason: because Rags is my major epic memory of vanilla WoW, I always felt he was an awesome model and so imposing, and many of us went around saying "too soon" on Vent.

Have you bought any of the vanity pets? Do you buy them all as a completionist/collector? Do you pick and choose the ones you think look cool? Do you only buy the charity pets? Or do you avoid real money transactions in games altogether?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

If you have played WoW for more than five minutes, you have done a quest. It is nearly impossible to avoid doing them altogether. Since the option has been implemented to have instant quest text and the options tracked on the map by Blizzard's default UI now, most players see the exclamation mark, click on the NPC, accept the quest, and go get the items -- whether it be someone's head, 10 rocks, or going to kill a certain number of creatures -- without paying attention to the why. We want the gold, experience, achievement, or perhaps a quest reward, but we cannot be bothered with why we need to commit genocide on a population of wild animals. We would rather crit the mobs required for the quest than be crit by a wall of text.

I am as guilty of this as the next person: Oh, bring you murloc eyes ... Sure, why not? Kill a bunch of boars? Whatever. However, when I recently went back and finished off Loremaster, I found myself actually paying attention to some of the quests, and I realized there can be some great stories there. The Burning Crusade, Wrath, and soon Cataclysm have come a long way in terms of making the quests feel like they are leading somewhere, as opposed to killing these random mobs for no apparent reason. While working on Loremaster, I was like, "Wow, that was a neat little storyline in that quest chain!" It made me both impressed and a little sad, wondering about all the possible nuggets of story I had simply ignored just so I could level a couple of minutes sooner.

Do you actually read the quest text? Do you ever want to know why we have to kill the creatures we kill and why the NPCs want these seemingly inane items? Or do you just do it for the XP and money and could not care less?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

With Cataclysm looming, I find myself tearfully saying goodbye to the game as I've always known it. I have leveled (well, at least partially leveled) a character of every race on the Horde side (except an orc), and I've leveled a night elf out of the starting zone on the Alliance side. Now, everything has changed. The starting zones that I grew to love or hate are already different, and I'm not sure what to think about that.

I loved the tauren starting experience, and I hope that it only gets better with the new expansion. However, I quickly tired of the orc/troll starting zone. Likewise, I did not have the urge to go through the blood elf starting experience with multiple characters. But once I gave it a chance, I enjoyed the undead experience quite a bit. I think what I enjoyed about the tauren and undead experiences was that I felt like I was involved in the lore. Additionally, I found that the scenery of Mulgore and Tirisfal Glades made the leveling experience more enjoyable.

Which pre-Shattering starting zones do you think were the best, and which ones were the worst? With the world having undergone such a drastic change this week and more still to come, which new leveling experiences are you looking forward to the most?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

With the massive number of players logging in every day to WoW, there's an equally expansive amount of art and media coming from that player base. Very few games have ever brought out such a community of creative minds showing the rest of us their vision of a fantasy world. From machinima to custom WoW dolls (I mean action figures -- right, guys?), to Horde/Alliance-themed cakes, there are a ton of different venues for artists of all varieties to express their passion for the game.

I've just recently begun to start watching WoW-based machinima and have discovered there are quite a few masterpieces out there from people who seem talented enough to write or direct feature films. After the Cataclysm launch, I'm going to start an ongoing fan fiction story about a rogue and what his life is like after Deathwing ravages Azeroth. It should be plum full of adventures and high jinks! Although I'd love to include custom artwork with that story, my drawing skill ends at stick figures, so I'll have to use to screen shots.

Out of all the different art, videos, and other "warcrafts," are there any you'd like to participate in? Or maybe you already check out great fan art, make custom troll outfits for cosplay, or bake cupcakes shaped like murlocs. What are your favorites?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Home. It's where the heart is. It's where you can relax and be yourself. Sometimes, it is where you have been all your life. Other times, you have to move around several times to find the best place for you. The feeling of home in World of Warcraft is no different.

Because of a lack of guild activity, I've thought about moving my main to a new realm for several weeks now, but I have been hesitant to just do it. Part of it is the anxiety that comes with going to an unfamiliar realm. I've done research on several different realms and even rolled low-level characters on them to see what the environment is like, but the one thing I've learned is that you can't get a sense of what the raiding scene is like unless you are in it. The other part of my anxiety is getting to know everyone all over again. Sometimes, the hardest part of moving to a new town is introducing yourself to the neighbors. I thought about rerolling but have too much invested in my main to retire him.

So, fellow citizens of Azeroth, how did you find your WoW home? Is it the first realm you rolled on? Did you transfer somewhere else or reroll altogether?

About this time every year, we Americans go into food coma lockdown mode, hop on board planes, trains and automobiles and head to family and friend gatherings. Thanksgiving is happening in the United States, and much food will be eaten, relatives will be awkward and some delicious pie will be baked. We also usually spill our guts about what we are thankful for.

On the nerdy side of things, we lost a lot in World of Warcraft in the past few days. The Shattering took a lot of our old-world nostalgia and focus and replaced it with the beginnings of Cataclysm and a whole new experience. I'm pretty damn thankful to Blizzard for creating essentially World of Warcraft 2 without making us all switch over to some new world and splitting the playerbase.

On the less nerdy side of things, here in the real world, I'm very thankful for the very fact that I get to type these words into this text editor and hit "post." I'm incredibly thankful that I have the opportunity to work with WoW Insider and talk to so many fans and WoW enthusiasts. Above all, I'm thankful for your comments and discussions and how incredibly wonderful you all make me feel with supportive emails and feedback. I'm thankful that you enjoy my writing and my ramblings on the WoW Insider Show. So thank you all.

What are you guys thankful for this year? You don't have to be from the United States to get in on this sap train.

Those of you on the U.S. servers have no doubt spent the last evening getting reacquainted with Azeroth. Stormwind and Orgrimmar have been severely damaged. There's a volcano in Ashenvale. Real estate listings in Gadgetzan are now boasting ocean views. And as for Azshara -- well, let's just say it's different.

Personally, I found myself transfixed to the wreckage in Menethil. It felt like the disaster was actively happening around me, even though the world inside the game is probably a couple of months removed from the actual act of the shattering. There are an awful lot of sand bags around, but they don't seem to be helping much. All I can say is that Varian Wrynn is going to have a heck of a time winning the Wetlands' electoral votes in 2012.

Have you had time to survey the carnage yourself? Which zone's treatment have you enjoyed the most? What do you think of the new world you find yourself in?

Today is the big day -- The Shattering, also known as Patch 4.0.3a. The day that everything you've ever known and loved for the past six years will be destroyed by the original bad dragon, Deathwing. The denizens of Azeroth will not take this lying down, oh, no -- for cultures have changed, and races have embraced different ways to fight back. The humans and Forsaken have now taken up the path of the hunter. Dwarves have embraced shamanism, and the tauren have realized that the sun offers a different power than their moonlighting druid kin.

With all the new race/class combos, which new path are you going to walk down? When 4.0.3a hits, you'll be able to choose your new race/class combo, despite what other news has been floating around today. You'll be able to choose from:

• blood elf warrior
• troll druid
• dwarf shaman
• tauren paladin
• tauren priest
• gnome priest
• night elf mage
• orc mage
• human hunter
• undead hunter
• dwarf mage

Despite my earlier rantings, I'm really gunning for a tauren paladin. The Sunwalker lore ended up fitting really nicely, although I'm curious to see what the motivation behind the gnome priests are. What are you going to roll/pay to change?

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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.

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Sound the alarms! The fire is spreading through the Drag! Quickly, you... yes you there -- rally all able-bodied soldiers to the barricades! We are under elemental siege! Wait, what? Where are our heroes in this desperate time of war and destruction?

...

Pilgrim's Bounty ... the elementals have already won ...

Personally, I am a fan of Pilgrim's Bounty. Whether I am a fan of the holiday while the world roils in upheaval and churns in turmoil is another story entirely. Mostly, I enjoy cooking, and Pilgrim's Bounty is a cook's dream holiday, especially if you have a Chef's Hat. All this food got me thinking about food, however. Personally, every time those damned candied potatoes show up I get seriously hungry for some good potatoes. At my Pilgrim's Bounty feast, there will be so many potatoes.

How about you? Which Pilgrim's Bounty foodstuffs will grace your table this holiday? Which of the holiday recipes are your favorites to cook and why? Also, bonus question: How many of you got Chef de Cuisine after learning the Pilgrim's Bounty recipes?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

When I first started playing WoW, I was working at a sandwich shop with a couple of Horde players. It did not take long for WoW-speak to enter our vocabulary at work, especially on the rare occasion when a customer walked in wearing some sort of World of Warcraft T-shirt. I remember one of my fellow workers/players telling a customer, "It's a good thing you're not wearing an Alliance shirt, because this is a Horde-friendly restaurant." He then proceeded to talk about the then-new blood elf paladins until the customer got his sandwich and left.

On another occasion, during a slow bit at work, I turned around to see my coworker trying to cast some sort of shadow priest magic my direction. I immediately War Stomped and began to "auto fire" back, pointing out that Arcane Shot did not have a cast time.

Not only did WoW-speak help make the time go faster (especially at the tail end of night shifts), but I also noticed that I began to miss elements of the game while in real life. There is no general or trade chat to watch during the lunch rush, and at the end of the night, we were all disappointed that we had to mount up instead of using our hearthstones.

Who else has had experiences like mine? Has WoW helped you get through the day, or is it only a distraction in real life?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

All of us have a life outside of Azeroth. People always say how much more important real life is than the game. However, if we say we are going to be somewhere in the game, shouldn't we take that commitment as seriously as one in the real world? If we tell our guild or friends we will be there for a raid or to PvP, shouldn't we do our best to not let them down? Isn't telling your WoW friends that you will be somewhere and simply not showing up without any notice just as bad as if it were your real-life friends?

Since I am a tank for my guild, I pretty much have to be at almost every raid. In order to make raids when not at home, I have raided on laptops and at other people's houses, just so I don't let people down. By not always playing on my home PC, I have learned to be a minimalist with mods as well as learning what the minimum settings I can still effectively tank with. This has allowed me to maintain most of my real-life and in-game commitments.

Have you ever had to play WoW outside of your own home to fulfill your social obligations? Do you have a gaming laptop for this purpose? Have you played at a friend or relative's house on their PC? Do you have different UIs or mod setups for your PC and laptop?