It's the end of the year as we know it and I feel fine.

2014 was a year with a lot of big changes for World of Warcraft - Warlords debuted in November of this year, after all - but also, it's the year which saw Siege of Orgrimmar last a very long time, and Mists of Pandaria outstay its welcome for a lot of players. But again, it's also the year that WoW got over ten million subs again, with one of the most successful expansion launches in the game's history. So a lot of ups and downs for World of Warcraft this 10th anniversary.

Since this is the last day of 2014, how better to celebrate than to look forward to 2015? What are your goals, your expectations, your predictions for this year in WoW? Go nuts, the comments await you.

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Filed under: Breakfast Topics

I was watching this video from Bellular Gaming and it got me thinking - is that really the most efficient way to make gold in Warlords of Draenor? What they're doing is fairly simple. They're going into Cataclysm raids Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent and Firelands on 25 heroic. Then they vendor everything. It seems like the exact kind of thing that we were doing back before they nerfed raid boss gold for soloing, but it works with the current rules for dungeons in that you basically have to collect every single thing that drops and vendor it. Still, it will net you 4000 gold in around an hour or two, and for every level 100 you have that's another 4000 gold you can farm up. That's not bad at all, really.

I'm not sure it'll remain so lucrative. It does work with the new gold normalization system, which was implemented because you could collect all the trash and vendor it, and it's a series of raids from two expansion ago, so being able to solo them isn't unexpected. For now, if you're gold strapped, keep it in mind.

[Via Kotaku]

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Economy, Warlords of Draenor

So we know we have Highmaul fully unlocked and Blackrock Foundry will be unlocking some time in February (if I'm understanding 8 weeks after Highmaul correctly) and that leaves me wondering - how long will these two raids be expected to last? I doubt patch 6.1 will have a new raid, which might means 6.2 will - but what will it be? Will we be raiding the Iron Horde seat of power that quickly?

If not, what will we be raiding? Where will it be? Will it be in the Spires of Arak, some forgotten bastion of antiquity in Gorgrond? Perhaps we'll find ourselves back on Azeroth raiding a troll raid (it's happened before) before returning our focus to the Iron Horde. What do you think the next raid or raids will be?

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Filed under: Breakfast Topics

This year, being the tenth anniversary of World of Warcraft, we actually saw quite a bit - we got the 40 man LFR version of Molten Core and the Tarren Mill/Southshore PvP deathmatch BG, both of which are going away soon. What this leads me to wonder is, what will we get for the 11th anniversary? Are they even going to try and top this year? Or will it be more like previous years, with a tabard and a note at most? I'd personally be disappointed if we backslid in that way, but then again, what else could we really reasonably expect - 40 man LFR Naxxramas? Crossroads as a deathmatch BG? What's left?

Or maybe a better question is, what would you want to see? What would be the best way to go forward with anniversary celebrations? Should we save big celebrations for numbers like five, ten, maybe fifteen?

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Filed under: Breakfast Topics

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today.

Today's first question is about Boxing Day. I didn't see that coming when I wrote today's Breakfast Topic.

JeffLaBowski asks:
Canadians: What is boxing day like? Do people have nice meals and exchange gifts? Are stores closed? Do you go to church? Any fun traditions?
Non-Canadians: Do you have any day after X-mas traditions? I usually like to head out to a store or two (in the afternoon), if I got a gift card I wanted to use. Might go see the new Hobbit movie.

I already talked about this in today's Breakfast Topic, but basically, around here at least (here being Edmonton) Boxing Day isn't very dissimilar from Black Friday - there are a lot of big sales and special deals and stores open early to accommodate people coming in to make exchanges or spend Christmas money. It differs from Black Friday mainly in that there's a lot fewer stories of people trampling each other on Boxing Day.

I happen to be non-Canadian, despite living in Canada, and so I could theoretically answer the second part of the question. But frankly, I don't have any fun traditions.

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Filed under: The Queue

If y'all don't know what Boxing Day is (I didn't until I moved up here) it's basically pretty awesome. It started out as a day where the people who ended up having to work on Christmas (people like servants of nobles or tradesfolk) would still get something from the people they worked for. It goes at least as far back as the 1600s, and might actually date back further. Nowadays, it's mostly an excuse for sales as companies try and shift their unsold stock and people bring presents they didn't want in to be exchanged.

What with folks trying so hard to get that specific present under the tree yesterday (and it not always working out for them) I think it would be cool if there was a Boxing Day which allowed us to go exchange stuff we didn't want for stuff we did. But I guess that depends -- did it work out as you intended? Do you wish you could make a switch? Or did you get what you were looking for?

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Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today.

I am, however, incredibly vain and egocentric.

WalterAnderson asks:
Did you get what you wanted for Christmas? If not were you happily surprised with what you did get?

Honestly, I didn't want anything. I tend not to want things aside from books, and I usually buy those for myself, so I'm an incredible pain to shop for. Get me an Amazon gift certificate or hand me fifty bucks and drive me to a bookstore, and I'm good. I'm writing this Queue Christmas Eve, so I don't know what I got yet, but I'm sure it was good.

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Filed under: The Queue

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Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Sometimes you just have to embrace the holiday spirit. That's what Blizzard is doing, by announcing that it's time for all the good girls and boys of Azeroth and Draenor to get their letters to Greatfather Winter. What do you want for this year's Winter Veil? Well, whatever it is, asking can't hurt, so go ahead and comment on the official post, or here on the forums. There's even a thread here on the RP forums, if you're so inclined.

I personally think transmog was the gift that keeps on giving for me, but if there's something you want, get on board.

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Filed under: Events, Blizzard, Warlords of Draenor