Why People Are Not Quitting WoW

Many WoW players have been very vocal with opinions that "LFR has killed WoW," "Cross Realm Zones have killed WoW," and even "People are quitting because servers are dead." LFR has given the majority of players – people who would not otherwise raid – the opportunity to see content that Blizzard has worked hard to bring us. I doubt that makes it responsible for WoW's demise. Cross realm zones were created to alleviate the problem of quieter servers. In an MMO you're supposed to have people around, and now you do more often as a result of CRZ. I just can't imagine quitting a game because of CRZ.

The #3 Reason People Are Quitting WoW – It's People!

Sure, every now and then you might get upset when someone from another zone steals your kill. But that has been a problem since vanilla. On the other hand, the attitudes of many players leave something to be desired. This isn't something Blizzard can easily fix; it's simply the nature of the demographic that subscribes to WoW. Not everyone who participates in a random dungeon group has the social skills necessary to succeed in life. Yet if I had to name the number one thing that turns me off from WoW, it would definitely be the fun-suckers that ruin it for everyone else. Whether it's in PVP, LFD, LFR, or even trade chat, the best thing to do is simply ignore these people.

The #2 Reason People Are Quitting WoW – Completing MoP Content

Every expansion, people gradually unsubscribe, and then later re-activate their account when the next expansion comes out. This is nothing new. MoP has brought us many raids at a much faster speed than previous expansions. It's no surprise that many players have burned out of content this early in the expansion. That does not, however, mean they have necessarily quit for good. Historically speaking, I've always taken a small break of a month or two between expansion sets. This is perfectly natural.

The #1 Reason People Are Quitting WoW – Sheer Boredom

World of Warcraft has been around for almost 10 years now. Leveling alts, killing raid bosses, and even working the AH can become repetitive. When I was a kid, the average video game I'd purchase would only hold my attention for a few weeks at most. It's rather remarkable how long WoW has captivated its subscribers. While the subscriber count may have decreased, there's still several million left – a sign that WoW is not going anywhere for awhile.

Corpse Mining

This won't make you a ton of gold immediately, but it's wise to mine elemental corpses while you're out hunting. Usually you'll just get junk, but sometimes you will find some goodies. It all adds up, so it's smart to make corpse mining a regular habit!

Copper Ore & Bars

If you're just starting out, or don't have much gold, buy up cheap copper ore and/or bars and flip them on the AH. These are usually both high in supply and demand as they are used in great quantity for leveling both blacksmithing and engineering.

Lower Level Niches

Often there is demand for lower level ore that is necessary for long stretches of blacksmith leveling that is unavailable on the AH. Adamantite and Saronite are two good examples, since spending as little time as possible in Outland and Northrend is a popular leveling goal.

Ore vs. Bars

Always check the price of both ore and bars on the AH. Sometimes you can make gold just by buying the ore, smelting it, and selling it as bars. Sometimes the ore goes for more than the bars, so be careful!

Titansteel Bars

Titansteel is used for making choppers/mechano-hogs and level 80 epic gear. It no longer has a daily cooldown and is a wonderful niche market. Keep an eye on both eternal and crystallized fire, earth, and water, as well as titanium bars and ore whenever you're at the AH. You will need 450 mining to smelt Titansteel. (Tip: You can smelt 8 Saronite bars into a Titanium bar with an alchemist; using a transmute master will yield bonus bars occasionally.)

Tip #1: Guild Reputation Perks

Having the second rank of the Mr. Popularity guild perk at guild level 12 will provide a 10% bonus to all reputation you gain. This will speed up your reputation grind a fair amount, and with most guilds already being at the level cap, chances are you're already benefiting from this buff.

Tip #2: Grand Commendations

Upon reaching revered status with any MoP faction, you can purchase a grand commendation that will double all of the reputation any of your characters earn for that faction. This is an account-wide buff! It's inexpensive to purchase, and will significantly speed up the grind from revered to exalted. This bonus stacks with the guild perk.

Tip #3: Daily Quest Hubs

Completing daily quests is an easy way to increase your reputation with almost every new MoP faction. For many of these factions, more daily quests will open up as your reputation increases. As soon as you reach level 90, you can begin doing any number of daily quests – there is no longer a daily limit of 25!

Tip #4: Championing a Faction

In the reputation panel (press "U" in-game) you can click the star to the left side of a faction in order to champion that faction. This will provide bonus reputation for the first level 90 heroic dungeon and scenario you complete each day.

Tip #5: Literally Farming Reputation

At your farm on Sunsong Ranch, you can earn reputation every day by completing work orders for several factions. Max out the size of your farm by completing Tillers daily quests every day. With sixteen plots on your farm, you can complete two work orders per day.

Tip #6: Reputation Tokens

You can earn consumable reputation tokens by defeating Zandalari Scouts and Warbringers. This requires a group to do, but can build your reputation very quickly if you are able to kill several of these in one session. If you're able to find a group to farm these, it's a great way to obtain lots of reputation and loot.

Tip #7: The Hozen Peace Pipe

Scritch, a rare hozen mob in Kun-Lai Summit at the Dooker Dome, drops a consumable Hozen Peace Pipe that increases your reputation with many MoP factions at once. You can purchase it on the auction house (most likely for an obscene price) or get one by killing this mob about 10% of the time. Watch out for his banana attacks, and don't get stomped on!

Tip #1: Automate Your AH Sales

Before you get started, download the TradeSkillMaster add-on from Curse. This is a very powerful add-on that will save you tons of time selling on the auction house. If you have never used TSM before, it will take you a couple of hours to get the feel for it. But once you have it set up, it will dramatically decrease the amount of time you spend listing auctions and crafting enchant scrolls.

Tip #2: Converting of Enchanting Materials

Previous to MoP, the only enchanting material conversions that could be done were the shattering of crystals into shards or dust/essence. In MoP, you can convert dust into essence, essence into shards, and even shards into crystals (with a daily cooldown). They can be converted both ways. Depending on market prices, it's beneficial to check the prices of all the different mats even if they aren't the exact ones you are looking for, to see if it's worth converting them.

Converting Up:
5 Spirit Dust -> 1 Mysterious Essence
5 Mysterious Essence -> 1 Ethereal Shard
5 Ethereal Shard -> 1 Sha Crystal (daily cooldown)

Converting Down:
1 Sha Crystal -> 2 Ethereal Shards
1 Ethereal Shard -> 3 Mysterious Essence
1 Mysterious Essence -> 3 Spirit Dust

Tip #3: Always Buy Cheap Materials

Check the auction house regularly for cheap materials. It's best to set a fixed price in your head and always buy mats below that price when they're available. Make sure your buy price of materials is proportionate to being converted. For instance, if your maximum price is 3 gold for Spirit Dust, also look for Mysterious Essence that are under 15 gold if you need them. I usually purchase Spirit Dust under 4 gold, Mysterious Essence under 20 gold, and Ethereal Shards under 50 gold (up to 60 if I need more) but prices on your server may vary.

Tip #4: Don't Disenchant Everything

MoP green items for level 84-85 characters will be a lot more lucrative to sell than to disenchant, providing the stats are attractive. Since your average item level must be 358 to queue up for MoP dungeons, buying greens on the AH is a quick method for gearing up to use the dungeon finder. Greens with good stats can sell for hundreds of gold, potentially. (Hint: If you're gearing up your own toons, find an Adventuring Supplies vendor in the Jade Forest and buy item level 372 greens. You can't disenchant them, but they'll be cheaper than shopping on the AH.)

Tip #5: Grow Your Own Materials

At Sunsong Ranch, you can use Magebulb seeds to farm enchanting materials. With a fully expanded farm with sixteen plots, a few minutes a day can provide you with an incredibly inexpensive source of spirit dust and mysterious essence. The more level 90 characters you have, the more enchanting materials you can farm every day for next to nothing. What makes this so great is that you can start making gold selling enchanting scrolls on the auction house without having to buy any materials from the auction house!

Tip #6: List Your Scrolls Often

You'll probably encounter a lot of competition on the auction house. That doesn't mean you can't make a profit. While many of your scrolls will be undercut within minutes, you'll also be making a lot of sales, too. Keeping an inventory of several of each enchant will allow you to post one of each with TSM several times per day, without having to worry about cancelling items that have been undercut. During the busiest hours, you can even stand at the AH and immediately re-post items after they've been bought to maximize profit. On the other hand, you can also log on once or twice a day and still see a very good profit for the time invested.

Tip #7: Buy Out Your Competition

Leveling up Enchanting in Mists of Pandaria is a lot more flexible than it was in previous expansions. Instead of being pigeon-holed into making 5-10 copies of the same enchant, you can select from a much wider variety. This means that there rarely is a glut of a single enchant on the AH (think Enchant Cloak – Intellect from Cataclysm!) When you see a competitor list a scroll below the crafting price, it's far less dangerous to buy them out as it was in the past. Never list a scroll below its crafting price, and always buy out competing scrolls that are under-priced. Sometimes it's smart to let someone else do the crafting for you!

Raid Finder Makes An Excellent Scapegoat

Raid Finder, also known as "Looking For Raid" or simply LFR is a wonderful scapegoat for raiding guilds who can't fill their rosters. Truth be told, even before LFR guilds had trouble filling their raid roster. Having been in several guilds who struggled to put together a raid team way before Cataclysm, it appears to me that the addition of LFR did nothing worse than add an easy target for raid leaders to blame. As a former raid leader, I welcomed LFR as a way for guildies to learn the boss fights in a method akin to "Bumper Bowling." LFR is a wonderful tool for raiding guilds, as it lets raiders familiarize themselves with the basic raid mechanics before entering regular raids.

Raid Finder Isn't The Same As Raiding

I don't raid anymore. Not because of MoP, and not because of raid finder. I stopped raiding long before raid finder was released. I lost interest in spending hours in a raid, and did not wish to dedicate that much time to WoW. To most people, WoW is just a game, and it is not feasible to commit several hours per week to a raid team. Instead of sitting in a raid waiting for latecomers to arrive, LFR now allows those with busier schedules (and a more casual gameplay approach) to stick to casual raiding instead of making the rest of the team suffer. Raiding guilds are still in existence, and those looking for a challenge and able to make a weekly commitment can join a raid team. Those who want to keep WoW as a less stressful casual activity can queue up for LFR. Raiding and LFR are two completely different animals. Apples and oranges, if you will.

Guilds (And Players) Come And Go

I've been playing since the end of Vanilla. I've seen countless guilds come and go. It's not because of an expansion pack, it's not because of raid finder, and it's not because of cross realm zones either. It's called attrition. I've had many friends stop playing, and the common denominator is usually boredom. They've been playing WoW for so long and have lost interest. Does that mean WoW is failing? Absolutely not! When I was a kid, I'd buy a video game cartridge and spend perhaps 50-100 hours on a single game tops. When you play WoW for years and quit, it's not a waste. You've derived plenty of entertainment value, and are ready to move onto a different hobby. There is nothing crazy about this concept!

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I have been playing World of Warcraft since Vanilla in 2006. It’s a really great game that holds thousands of features and new things for everyone to discover. Yes, despite years of playing, the game still surprises a lot of players with loads of new discoveries. Some veterans may find these a little too obvious, but to newbies, some of these tips may be good finds. Take for example the map of Denmark, which appears on the globe in the Mists of Pandaria logo. Yes, Denmark quietly sneaked its own way inside the World of Warcraft. I bet you didn’t know that!

1. Texas Hold'em in WoW

If you’re fond of playing poker, then it’s possible to do so in World of Warcraft. Just download the WoW Texas Hold’em poker add-on from www.curse.com and you’ll get your gambling needs satisfied as you play World of Warcraft. Getting those high hands like a Full House, Straight, or even a Four of a Kind is a satisfying enough experience when played in game. Plus, doing bluffs is exciting as always. If you still can’t get enough poker after enjoying the add-on in game, there are websites like da.partypoker.com to fix your gambling needs. Now there’s no need to go to Casino Aalborg to play poker. You can have all the time you need in Legoland now. Sweet!

2. The Karazhan Crypts

The Karazhan Crypts is a very mysterious and creepy place. Many visitors already experienced some of Denmark’s eerie crypts before, but World of Warcraft’s scary places are just too much even if it’s just a game. It’s really grim. Featuring countless images of deaths and creepy things such as the upside-down sinners, piles of corpses, meat, and skeletons mound in the most grotesque ways you can ever think of. It’s still an unreleased content, so Blizzard may be up to something completely scary that can make you jump out of your seats. Sadly, you can’t force your way in the crypts anymore. The developers decided to put an invisible wall to block people from coming in.

3. Celebrity WoW Players

A lot of popular people play World of Warcraft if you didn’t know yet. Mila Kunis, Cannibal Corpse’s Corpsegrinder, Korn’s Jonathan Davis, and some other big names out there. Heck, even the kids from South Park play if you’ve watched the “Make Love, Not Warcraft” episode where they obtain the Sword of a Thousand Truths to defeat a griefer named Jenkins. Fun episode, I tell you. And talk about fun, there have been stand up comedians such as Danish Simon Talbot who will bring World of Warcraft jokes and make you roll on the floor laughing. Hit some comedy bars like the Comedy Zoo and Bremen in Copenhagen and you might get the chance to see him on stage.

Eastern Kingdoms
Dun Morogh 1-10 (Gnome & Dwarf starting zone)
Elwynn Forest 1-10 (Human starting zone)
Eversong Woods 1-10 (Blood Elf starting zone)
Tirisfal Glades 1-10 (Undead starting zone)
Gilneas 1-12 (Worgen starting zone)
Westfall 10-15 (Alliance)
Ghostlands 10-20 (Horde)
Loch Modan 10-20 (Alliance)
Silverpine Forest 10-20 (Horde)
Redridge Mountains 15-20 (Alliance)
Duskwood 20-25 (Alliance)
Hillsbrad Foothills 20-25 (Horde)
Wetlands 20-25 (Alliance)
Arathi Highlands 25-30
Northern Stranglethorn 25-30
Alterac Mountains 30-40
The Hinterlands 30-35
Cape of Stranglethorn 30-35
Western Plaguelands 35-40
Eastern Plaguelands 40-45
Badlands 45-48
Searing Gorge 48-50
Burning Steppes 50-52
Swamp of Sorrows 52-54
The Blasted Lands 54-58
The Scarlet Enclave 55-58 (Death Knight starting zone)
Isle of Quel'Danas 70+ (Daily quest hub)
Vashj'ir 80-82 (Located underwater off the coast of Stormwind)
Twilight Highlands 84-85
Tol Barad 85+ (Daily quest hub)

Kalimdor
Azuremyst Isle 1-10 (Draenei starting zone)
Durotar 1-10 (Orc & Troll starting zone)
Mulgore 1-10 (Tauren starting zone)
Teldrassil 1-10 (Night Elf starting zone)
Bloodmyst Isle 10-20 (Alliance)
Darkshore 10-20 (Alliance)
Azshara 10-20 (Horde)
Northern Barrens 10-20 (Horde)
Ashenvale 20-25
Stonetalon Mountains 25-30
Desolace 30-35
Southern Barrens 30-35
Dustwallow Marsh 35-40
Feralas 35-40
Thousand Needles 40-45
Tanaris 45-50
Felwood 45-50
Un'goro Crater 50-55
Winterspring 50-55
Silithus 55-60
Mount Hyjal 80-82
Uldum 83-84
Molten Front 85+ (Daily quest hub in Mount Hyjal)

Outland
Hellfire Peninsula 58-63
Zangarmarsh 60-64
Terokkar Forest 62-65
Nagrand 64-67
Blade's Edge Mountains 65-68
Netherstorm 67-70
Shadowmoon Valley 67-70

Northrend
Borean Tundra 68-72
Howling Fjord 68-72
Dragonblight 71-74
Grizzly Hills 73-75
Zul'Drak 74-77
Sholazar Basin 76-78
Storm Peaks 76-80
Icecrown 77-80

The Maelstrom
Kezan & The Lost Isles 1-12 (Goblin starting area)
Deepholm 82+ (Accessible via quest and earth shrine portal)

Pandaria
Jade Forest 85-86
Krasarang Wilds 86-87
Valley of the Four Winds 86-87
Kun-Lai Summit 87-88
Townlong Steppes 88-89
Dread Wastes 89-90
Vale of Eternal Blossoms 90+ (Daily quest hub)

Expand Your Farming Space

You start out with a two by two plot at Sunsong Ranch. As your Tillers reputation grows, quests will become available that will unlock additional plots. Once your farm is fully expanded, it will have a total of sixteen planting spaces. In addition to growing extra crops, this will also help you earn more Tillers reputation. Every time you harvest a crop you gain rep with the Tillers.

Farming Daily Quest

Farmer Yoon will always have a daily quest to plant a specific crop. This is a quick and easy way to gain Tillers reputation and earn some gold in the process. Since you don't have to leave Halfhill to complete this quest, doing it everyday is a no-brainer.

Get Your Alts Farming

You can unlock the first four plots on your farm as soon as level 85. By making the trek to Halfhill, you can park your alts and use them to farm additional crops. Once you level your alts to 90 and unlock their entire farms, you'll have an easy way to make reliable gold day after day.

The Drunk Man Knows Best

Jogu the Drunk is a NPC that will give you the inside scoop on which crop will yield a bonus harvest – the "crop of the day." The higher your reputation with Jogu, the less expensive this tip will be. Upon reaching best friend status, Jogu can join you on your farm and provide the crop of the day at no cost. The crop of the day is the same for everyone on your server, so if you're just starting out you can always ask someone else for this information instead of paying Jogu 25 gold.

Know The Market

Since you have a choice of what seeds to plant – vegetables or crafting items – it's worth familiarizing yourself with your server's economy to judge what the most profitable items to farm will be. For example, if enchanting materials are skyrocketing in price, plant Magebulb seeds.

Idea #1: PvP Battleground… In The Air!

So far, every PvP battleground has taken place on land. Why not take to the skies? This would take vehicle based PvP to the next level!

Idea #2: Multi-Passenger Mounts

Why limit flying and ground passenger mounts to just one passenger? How about a way for your 10-man raid team to travel to the raid in style? This would also function as a really big gold sink. Which brings me to the next idea…

Idea #3: Raise the Gold Cap

Once upon a time the gold cap was a little over 200,000 gold due to computing restrictions. It was later raised to 999,999. With many players reaching this cap, it seems like a no-brainer to raise the cap to at least ten million. There isn't a gold cap in Diablo!

Idea #4: Upgradable or Replaceable Backpack

WoW has been out for eight years, yet we're still running around with dinky little 16 slot backpacks. Blizzard ought to make this bag upgradable, or replaceable with any other bag. We're long overdue!

Idea #5: Improved Auction House Interface

Using the World of Warcraft AH without any add-ons is lackluster. Many of the features included in auction add-ons would be sensible to include in the main interface: unit cost sorting, shopping lists, bulk listing tools, and more armor search features (perhaps similar to Diablo.) Having an option to enable better AH functionality would perhaps encourage more players to participate in their server's in-game economy.

Idea #6. Increase The Quest Log

Finally, the daily quest cap has been removed in MoP! Sadly, we can still only hold 25 quests in the log. This isn't a major inconvenience under most circumstances, but it would be handy to have larger quest capacity in the quest log. Perhaps 50?

Idea #7: Make It Stack

Make more items stackable, and allow bigger stacks. Guild vault and personal bank space come at a premium, and improved stacking would allow you to get more use out of existing bank space. Instead of having to devote an entire tab to cloth, leather, herbs, and ore, stacking them to 100 or 200 (instead of 20) could free up half of that space or more.

Idea #8: Personal Bank Tabs

Again, Blizzard hit the nail on the head with Diablo. Having a shared bank space between all of your toons on the same server would remove the need for incessantly having to mail items and log onto many different toons.

Idea #9: Daily Quests For More Professions

All the secondary professions have daily quests in some shape or form. Jewelcrafting has more than one daily quest. Why not have a daily crafting quest for Enchanting, Blacksmithing, Engineering, Tailoring, Leatherworking, Inscription, and Alchemy? In Burning Crusade, there was a Shattered Sun Offensive gathering daily quest. Giving each profession its own daily quest, or even a shared gathering daily, would add a little more flavor to professions in World of Warcraft.

Idea #10: Improved Dungeon Finder Functionality

While the Dungeon Finder has improved WoW in so many ways, there are a few oddities about it. For instance, you can't queue up for Wrath heroics at level 81. Cataclysm heroics can be queued for up at 85-87, and Burning Crusade heroics from 70-75, so this is strange. Allowing players to queue for additional levels isn't a terrible thing. Also, a way to queue for classic raids with LFD would be a blast! Imagine being able to queue for Molten Core from level 60 to 69, and Karazhan from 70 to 79…