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A few nights ago, I was casually playing my mistweaver monk when I saw a pick-up group forming for Mogushan Vaults. He wasn't really that well geared, but I figured "why not?" and jumped in. Since this was my first time joining a raid on this character, I tried to be prepared; I ate my spirit food, drank a flask, and asked the raid leader for healing assignments. His response? Well, parts of it are unprintable, but the gist is that "assignments are lame" and "nobody uses them anymore." I admit, I'm not the best at paying attention to what my healers are doing, other than thanking them when they repeatedly cover for my slow reaction times, or lighting our tree druid on fire. (Ulla, if you're reading this, it was the warlock. Really!) Thinking back, though, the last time I remember healing assignments really being a "thing" was Chimaeron, and nothing since then.
Understandably, heroic raiders still have assignments as they have to keep people from dying every second, but what about the rest of us? It seems like assignments have died out: do you think this is a bad thing or a good thing? Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, healing-assignments, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Gnome warrior tanks disturb me. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I just can't hang with a gnome in this role. Especially in PvP content, their size relative to other PC races sends any semblance of reality out the window. In raids, their small size makes them annoyingly more difficult to spot. But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this role/race combo to me is how much less confidence-inspiring these tiny tidbits of tanking are to me than, say, an orc warrior. I'll follow my orc warrior anywhere, even the proverbial cliff, because I trust him to fight off the baddies once we've rezzed at the bottom. But a gnome? Sorry, guys and gals. You're like Chicklets chewing gum. It's just not working for me. 
Azeroth is filled with players who rarely interact with their fellow citizens. Perfectly content to mind their own business and their own goals, they group infrequently and socialize rarely. Sometimes their introverted ways are dictated by personal scheduling or other playstyle constraints. Often, it's a matter of personal choice. So it stands to reason that some solo players might actually prefer to play the game in a setting removed from other players –- an offline mode, so to speak. 
We're nothing if not persistent -- the typical WoW Insider reader has played WoW longer than your average bear. A recent reader poll found that 44 percent of readers have played since classic WoW, with another 29 percent following closely behind during The Burning Crusade. But was WoW your first MMO, or did you step into Azeroth from Norrath or another MMO world? 
World of Warcraft has become episodic entertainment for many players today: Hop in for a couple of months to see the content, run up a few characters, then dip into the Raid Finder before dropping out again until the next content patch. That's all fine and good for the solo types, but what if you're an integral member of a raiding group? What happens to the raid when members start deciding they've seen enough sights this expansion, thank you very much? 
Have you been on a World Safari to catch every battle pet in the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland, Northred, and Pandaria? If so, you've recently been given the chance to finally receive your Zookeeper title with the seasonal Qiraji Guardling pet arriving in Azeroth last week. So tell us, young zookeepers, have you caught your Qiraji yet? Or has, perhaps, this lengthy achievement has tried your patience until you've given up? 
For this week's Community Blog Topic, we're going to talk about race. Which one is your favorite playable race? For me it's the Forsaken. I love how tragic their backstory is. I love the concept of a zombie race that isn't mindless. And I love their leader, The Banshee Queen, The Dark Lady, Lady Sylvanas Windrunner. 
Last week, we asked "What is your favorite class and spec?" We got many answers from altoholics who couldn't choose to enthusiastic odes. Here's what everyone had to say, listed in order of popularity. 
When pet battles were first announced, I was pretty intrigued. I enjoyed collecting rare pets and mounts, and I usually had my my Kirin Tor Familiar or my Worg Pup out when I was running around. The idea of battling with them and getting even more pets was something I could get behind. 
We've leveled a lot of characters in our day -- and I do mean a lot. So many, in fact, that leveling new ones can be such a snooze that we have to invent new challenges to make it interesting. So we create things like the Ironman Challenge, where death means you have to reroll. Perhaps to spice things up you're considering leveling your next alt purely through PvP, healing, or even daily quests. 
For those of you who aren't aware, patch 5.3, which we're in right now on live servers, brought about some huge changes to PvP gear. Basically, the key stat you used to gear for in PvP, Resilience, was taken off gear and made baseline for everyone. There's now no real need for PvP gear to get started in PvP, you can just use your PvE gear. And sure, you won't hit as hard, PvP Power means that PvP gear is still stronger, but you can definitely get started. 
While some prefer focusing on one character at a time, others thrive on the variety of alts, which can make for a nice change of pace to grinding away for experience or gear on a main character. But some players have raised the playing of an alt to something of an art: altaholics who play for both the alliance and the horde and have characters of all races across all level ranges. But even if you love them, alts are not without their problems. My biggest hurdle is my strange inability to remember which character I've logged on to, and automatically using the hotkeys for my monk when I'm playing my hunter. (I try to arrange my hotkeys so they're not foreign to me whatever I'm playing, but I always stumble nevertheless.) 
This question was recently asked on the US forums, and WoW Insider thought it was such a great discussion topic that we'd ask our wonderful readers what they thought. So, as the title puts it, what's the funniest quest in the game? 
One of the nice things about Tolkien's expansive universe -- both the one he created and the ones expanded upon by others -- is the rich, beautiful music. Whether it's a plate-tossing tune or an orcish battle chant, the world of Tolkien is rife with music. Even Game of Thrones has more than a few ditties, even if you need to be a little creative to find them. But we don't have that some musical background in WoW. 
For most of my WoW career, my main character and first love was a druid. I particularly liked the balance spec even when it wasn't fashionable to do so. I still like my druid, but she is not even close to my favorite character. I've leveled paladins and mages, priests and shamans. I've toyed with hunters and warlocks. But the class that I love the best now is most definitely the monk.