WoW Weekly: through a Blizzcon darkly

Did I just photobomb Chris Metzen?

The photo at left was taken in the lobby of the Anaheim Hilton during Blizzcon '11. That's me, center frame. The eyeball, nose and perfectly sculpted facial hair to my right belong to Chris Metzen, Senior Vice President at Blizzard Entertainment. My phone at the time was a 3GS, meaning it didn't have the option to "flip" the lens so that I could take a self-portrait while viewing how the final shot will look. Needless to say I was more than dismayed when I discovered that none of the shots---plural---turned out.

Anyway, I mention this because, well, Blizzcon '13 has been announced. Which means I'll add two more quests to my 2013 personal log: get to Blizzcon this November, and if successful the followup involves getting a better photo that features me and more than 60% of Metzen's face. I am resolve incarnate.

Ok. On to WoW Weekly.

Truth is I just can't bring myself to run LFRs anymore. Not after acquiring the 4-piece bonus and finishing up A Test of Valor. I don't know what it is. Perhaps it's that there are 16 bosses to navigate in MoP vs. the seven encounters we had in Dragon Soul. Sometimes I forget that LFR was introduced with the Dragon Soul raid. Nowadays, instead of LFR runs taking a quarter or a third of my available play time on a given night, it now entails an entire evening of play. And that's just on the Main. Many things can be said about this expansion, but I don't believe anyone can argue there's a lack of content. In the past, I've been able to consume most of the available content with multiple toons. Now I find myself with so many options I feel I need to be more strategic with my play time.

The weekly list shrinks considerably if I remove all five LFRs, meaning what remains revolves around pets, mounts and Hydraxian Waterlord rep. The joy I felt when I fashioned Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros quickly diminished once I realized reaching Exalted meant approximately four more months of weekly Molten Core runs. Why did I have to be such a raidless noob throughout all of Vanilla? Why?

I think I'm going to change the title of this feature from WoW Weekly to InB4 the Waterlords Loved Me. Yeah?

Also noting:

• The damned spider finally dropped her cursed clutch. That means aside from a couple of 10-man achievements I view as completely optional, I no longer have a reason to visit Naxxramas. So long and farewell, floating three-dimensional polygonal base of death.
• I learned that the Blue Drake does NOT equal the Blue Proto-Drake (I have the latter), which means I'm not finished farming Malygos like I'd thought. I also learned that I'm going to have to devise a battle plan in order to solo the former Aspect of the Blue Dragonflight.
• Skeram is the new Maexnna.
• Razorgore dropped his pet, leaving Chromaggus as the sole remaining target in Blackwing Lair.
• The Dunce now makes an appearance on the weekly list. Formerly a banker, he now functions as a sort of dumping ground for all of the items I'd normally sell, but are listed for too low a price to make a comfortable profit. He hangs onto them while the sale prices rise to a more acceptable level. I've been making sure to check him at least once per week in order to move inventory more quickly to aid in my run at the gold cap. 

If one thing's going to come out of these next two weeks, it will be figuring out how to successfully solo Malygos with the Main. Wish me luck, and if you have any tips, please leave a comment! I'll let you know how it goes...