There are countless things to do in the world of Warcraft. And when I say countless, I really mean it. I don't believe one person could ever do EVERYTHING there is to do in this game. Mostly because its an ever-evolving mass of entertainment. So us players are left with choices of what to do and when to do it.
Now, some people have more time available in their day/week then others, and it always seems that those people who have more time get more done. Makes sense, right? This is not always the case. While some things take much planning and preparation such as progressive raiding, other objectives can be obtained with the smallest amount of time each day.
My WoW time is unpredictable. Working different hours on different days has me finding myself on during some strange hours without a pattern whatsoever. I do however, use every moment of my time to something I would like to do in game, and I always see results with time and persistence. Here are a few of the many things you can do with your limited playtime.
Dailys:
Daily quests are a great way to earn quick money and work your way toward a variety of goals. Whether its achievements you're after, or a nice piece of loot, dailys always work great. Some great dailys to get started on upon reaching level 80 are right up in Northrend. Sholozar Basin has a faction of Murloc looking creatures known as the Oracles. They have a very easy rep grind with a nice mix of dailys that are not boring or difficult at all. The prime drive for most to grind rep for these little guys is the beautiful Green Proto-Drake mount!
Now before you get too excited, I want to point out that this is still a rare drop mount even after you are done with the reputation. Upon reaching revered status you can purchase a Mysterious Egg which has a 7 day hatching timer. At the end of your 7 days, the egg will hatch revealing either the drake, one of a few non-combat pets, or just yolk! Good luck!
There are many other factions you can grind rep for in every continent in Azeroth. Some take a long time and others are a breeze. But you can fit them into your time for some quick pocket change and one step closer to various prizes.
PVP:
Ahh my lovely player vs. player. I personally am in love with this aspect of the game. Its a nice change from killing the same mobs every day with all the same abilities and eventually the same boring routine. It really opens up a different perspective of WoW where your not only thinking about the abilities a target can do, but also predicting what they will do and when they will do it. Because of how PVP is set up, you can fit a lot of it into a small amount of time. This makes it a very cool thing for casual players who enjoy tearing the opposing faction apart.
Whether you like battlegrounds or the Arena, you will be able to fit a bunch of play time in no matter what your schedule. To get involved in battlegrounds, go to a main city and ask a guard where the battlemasters are. Queue up for one and get in there and start killing. Arenas take a little more time then bgs due to the fact that you'll more then likely want to make a team. You can research arena tactics and team makeups all over the internet and find a team that works for you. Keep in mind that PVP is something you have to learn with time and adapt to.
I also want to point out that Wintergrasp is another fantastic PVP event that happens every two and a half hours. It's a siege battle where one faction holds a massive keep from destruction by the other faction. The cool thing about WG is that it is server exclusive, so if there is that one alliance or horde player that always kills you while your trying to fish or quest, look for him/her in WG and let them have it! Doing Wintergrasp daily will yield you lots of Honor points and some tokens to buy various items from a vendor in the keep. I would most definitely recommend you try the battle for lake wintergrasp at least once!
Achievements:
Blizzard introduced achievements not too long ago, and while some hate them with a passion, most players enjoy these little goals that not only show your WoW experience, but can give you awesome titles and items upon achieving them! Some achievements require lots and lots of time and dedication but some are easy and definitely within the casual players reach.
The key to all this is to multi-task your WoW schedule and work on multiple things at once. For example, I recently decided to go back and grind my Mag 'har rep in Nagrand. These guys hate the ogres of Nagrand and will reward you nicely for thinning their numbers a bit. My daily schedule for these guys was to go there every day and kill enough to get about 3k reputation for them. Killing one ogre grants 10 reputation. I know what your thinking...10? The really nice thing is that most ogres you kill will drop an item called Obsidian Warbeads. Collect ten of these and hand them in at Garadar for 500 rep! What I did each day was kill ogres until I reached 40 warbeads. By that time, I usually gained at least a thousand rep from kills alone. Then with my 40 warbead turn in, I got around 3k rep per day. This whole process took me only about 20 min per day and now I have eight beautiful Talbuk mounts to show for it.
So, while gaining my rep for the mag 'har (achievement at exalted), I was also gaining access to exclusive mounts. I purchased all 8 for something else I have been working on called the 50 mounts achievement. You see how many things can come from just 20 minutes a day? You should always feel one step closer at the end of each day to something. In my case, I try to stack my goals.
Another example would be the White Polar Bear Mount. Ohhh this is a nice mount that is rare and looks very very cool (especially because were in the north pole of Azeroth at the moment!). There is no real grind for this mount, but instead a single daily quest that can be found in Storm Peaks. I would hit this quest every day between casually farming the Time-Lost drake, and doing my Sons of Hodir dailys. So in one trip to Storm Peaks I was covering 3 different goals. Im proud to say that after only ten days of doing that daily I have the mount and also got my shoulder enchant from the Sons of Hodir rep. Now if I could only get that Drake to appear I would be done flying around Storm Peaks for at least a little while....ahem...Ulduar.
So get out there and combine your efforts to many different objectives. Even if you inch and inch your way to the things you want, at least you are moving forward. The really nice thing about this technique is that sometimes you have a lot of things happen at once or in the course of a few days and its a nice pat on the back that says GOOD WORK!
