Is your playtime limited? Are you a parent whose gaming time is precious? Or are you super busy at work and/or raiding and only have snatches of time to play other parts of the game?
My blogging colleague Gameldar used to write a blog called Wow in an Hour, in which he wrote about playing different aspects of the game when play time is limited. I, like Gameldar, have found recently that I've really had to think carefully about how I want to use the snatches of time I have available to play.
At the moment when I sit down to play for a short time, I have a number of small projects that I work on depending on what takes my fancy. There are plenty of things out there to fill up a little time!
Loremasters
The idea of Loremaster sounded so daunting back during Wrath, so I never ended up with one. These days it's a lot easier with addons like QuestHubber that help you to find quests you haven't done. Because I am a sucker for punishment, I decided that I should have both an Alliance and a Horde Loremaster, since the quests are different for many zones. I started a few weeks ago from the top down with Aoifen, starting with the Cataclysm zones since they are likely to take the longest. I finally finished up Vashj'ir yesterday - my goodness that place is beautiful, but it just goes on forever!
It may sound a bit ambitious but if I just do a few quests each time I log on, I'll get there eventually. Off to Northrend I go!
Altitis
Navimie of The Daily Frostwolf wrote the other day about being the trials of levelling alts. The whole idea behind alts is to have a go at a different class to experience a different aspect of the game. There's no rush to maximum level - take your time, do a bit at a time. You'll never really forget how to play your main, it's like riding a bike, you just slip back into the groove!
I have a small stable of alts that I play when they take my fancy. My Horde Shadow Priest, Angelya, is just starting out in Northrend but since I'm planning making her my Horde Loremaster, it's taking a while to do zone achievements as I go. Leveling all the way to 85 then going back seems like cheating somehow, but it took me from level 65 to 70 to do Nagrand and I still don't have all the quests done for it. I really need to take off those heirlooms.
I have been trying to level baby paladins on various servers for a while now, but I'm determined to make headway into learning to tank again after hearing about a new site - Maps For Tanks. Not knowing where to go in some mid-range dungeons (Mauraudon, for example) was a major turn-off for tanking for me. The Maps For Tanks site looks so well-written I think I might just get somewhere with Eléanor.
My third alt on the current list was created for the Ironman challenge - the brainchild of Psynister and Vrykerion back in July. The idea behind the challenge is quite simple: challenge yourself by making the levelling process more difficult, since it's way too easy these days. No guild, no instances, no talents, no professions apart from first aid, no heirlooms or green or blue gear, only grey or white. I'll make a separate post about how I'm going with my Warlock, Emylia, but for now she's level 20 and starting to run into some trickier areas.
Festivals
Hallow's End starts today - my favourite festival of the year! It's a great time to get your alts out and about trick-or-treating for some candy and a nice bit of experience. My candy bucket tour posts from last year (Horde/Alliance) won't be quite right any more, as some locations have changed hands or ceased to exist thanks to a certain ugly dragon, but I'll see if I can update them soon.
Edit: Now that high-level chars are able to fly between locations in the old world, it's pretty easy to get around to all the candy buckets. I recommend Wowhead's comprehensive guide to help you find them all. For low-level alts, my guides will still work, give or take a few locations in Kalimdor that have moved due to the Cataclysm. Happy bucket hunting!
Of course there are so many other things that can be done in a small portion of time - levelling professions, exploration, achievement hunting. Each of these projects can be done in pieces, whenever I find myself with some time to spare. I'm not expecting any of them to be completed very quickly but I'm enjoying each one of them in different ways.
Have you got a small project that you work on when time is limited?
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