Xanthelei the Argent Champion

Has such a nice ring to it, I must say.

How Blizz Got It Wrong By Getting It Right

It seems these days that poor Blizzard just can't win one. As the title says, they got something very wrong in getting something very right in Wrath.

Achievements. Love 'em, hate 'em, ignore 'em; whatever floats your boat. Me, I'm a completest. When I was younger, I was so into Pokemon I actually caught all of the originals on my Yellow cartridge - just to find out that you did not get Mew, or the ability to buy some super awesome item for $10, but instead you got to print out a certificate that says "I have no life!" On a Gameboy printer neither I nor anyone else I knew even had heard about.

Yeah, I started over.

But back to World of Warcraft's Achievement system. In Burning Crusade (and possibly in Vanilla) end game, there wasn't really anything to do other than PvP, raid, or level another toon. To combat this ending of the game syndrome, Blizz decided to copy Xbox and give you titles, items and mounts for doing certain things in the game. Uncovered all of the map while herbing? Have an Achievement! Reach level 80? Have another! Mastered your craft? Here you go - a fancy ding! just for you. Got the Bloodsail hat, pointlessly making all of the goblins south of Northrend hate you in the process? Erm, yeah, have a ding, a title, and seriously - go get some fresh air.

On paper it sounds like a ton of fun. And I'll admit, it's nice to see something for doing something you'd do anyway, like train a craft or hit a new level. But there's people in this world where the casual, "Oh hey I got something done" mentality just doesn't work. People like me.

I have already decided I will have the Admiral title, the Loremaster title and tabard, that little skunk minipet, and as many proto-drakes as I can stuff in my digital bags. And when they decide what to do with the points that come along with the cool stuff, I'll be able to buy everything in the store. And since my work is keeping me from raiding right now, this gives me a nice reason to keep playing my toons.

The real problem comes in deciding what I'm going to work on. In the past week, I've powered Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting to 300 on my Paladin (yes, I am crazy), leveled Leatherworking on Xanthelei from 1 to about 370, started collecting items for turn ins with Cenarian Circle, gone through a third of the quests needed in Ice Crown to inch my way to Loremaster... and a bunch of other stuff I can't even think of right now.

How am I supposed to DO it all? I can't even keep track of what I was working on two days ago, let alone filter through all my "dailies" for rep, items, and such today!

The solution? Permanent Achievement tracking. Blizzard is on the right track in making Achievements filterable, and allowing you to track a certain one per session. What they really need to do now is fine tune this. I would love to see Achievement (and quest!) tracking saved between sessions (and in fact Overachiever has already proven this can be done), as well as letting you track more than one Achievement at a time. Even if this meant you could only track up to six Achievements and/or quests at once, I would be happy with that.

So what's the bottom line, in my opinion? Love the Achievement system, but want to buy better basic tools for working with it. And I'm really hoping the rep returns in Booty Bay have increased, because 5 per kill is cramping my Steady Shot finger...

Rep: It's The Original Achievement System

I have been AFB due to the fact that 1) I need rep and 2) I need gear. First Strike is a raiding guild, first and foremost. And it's ok to be a non-raider in a raiding guild (no, really, it is); but if you want a decent shot at the raid lewts when you go in, you have to make Raider status.

So I've been grinding reps and trying to get geared for 25s. We do 10s, but it's informal. Anyone can sign up, first come first serve, and loot goes to whoever needs it most. But once we get the 25s going, things will go back to the old rules.

I'm ok with this. Heck, I signed up for this! But with working two jobs, juggling finances - I'm glaring at you, Sallie Mae - and every day life stuff, WoW has become a treat.

So I did some math on the three reps I'm actively grinding right now: The Kalu'ak, Sons of Hodir, and Frenzyheart. Two are 'for fun', but I can get away with that - I wear an Argent Crusade tabard exclusively these days.

With the Kalu'ak, I have only 8 more days of quests before I can snag that penguin minipet and epic fishing rod, and then it's on to another rep. For the Frenzyheart, it will take longer... I decided immediately I wanted the Mercenary achievement, but I went Oracle at first without realizing the Frenzyheart have no concept of Phat Lewts. So I switched... about three days ago. Time until I can go back to my minipet-and-mount-giving Bigtongues: 4 days in Honored and 12 in Revered. Ugh.

And finally, the Sons of Hodir. These guys stink, seriously. Two of the three dailies that give rep have limited spawns that are heavily camped, and the other requires a decent-ish droprate item from mobs being farmed, not just for the daily, but for Crystalized Waters. I'm only about half way through Friendly, so I figure it will take 5 days to get Honored, another 8 days to get to Revered, and finally 12-ish days until Exalted. Total time: 25 days.

Sigh. It'll be a while before I get to work on my Dungeonmaster achievement... or coin fishing... or Loremaster... Sometimes it stinks being obsessive about completion. :)