How to pick a side hobby

WoW is a big game. There is a lot to do in this game, and though you should experience all of it in some respect, it's good to have one activity to fall back on when you just want to pass some time. Raiding, battlegrounds, and arenas are nice focuses for your game, but when you have a few hours before your guild's Ulduar run is scheduled to start or your full arena team isn't on yet, it's nice to have something to do on your own. That's what this post is concerned with; side hobbies. Here I will discuss various side activities and whether or not you will find them fun. I will also link the associated meta-achievement or max achievement.

Pet Collecting
Non-combat pets are those little companions that follow you around wherever you go. They are quite nice as a flavor item, and as a pet-collector myself, I can tell you that collecting them is an enjoyable pastime. In the days of pre-Wrath, when pets took up space in our inventory, pet-collecting was not a very lucrative hobby. Each pet you had took up one space in your bank or bags, thus making them rather cumbersome. With the new pets interface, that has changed for the better, and you can now have as many pets as you like without running out of bag space.

One of the nice things about collecting pets is the variety of activities involved in pet collecting. Some are gained through reputations, while others must simply be ground for. (I think that's the past tense version of grind. Edit: Confirmed) Many holiday events also give you a pet of some kind, which gives you even more motivation to participate in them. It you want a more focused activity with a more tangible reward, then you may not like pet collecting. Then again, most of these activities won't have tangible rewards. If you want to do something with valuable rewards, run some 5-mans or do some dailies. Also, pet collecting isn't something that you can really brag about, so if you want a hobby that will bring you fame and glory, look elsewhere. It's a shame that you can't display more than one pet at a time, but it is still nice to have many to choose from, especially when a pet showoff session happens in your raid. In the end, if you like varied activities with frequent rewards, pet collecting is a good choice for you. A good database for the dozens of pets available in the game is WarcraftPets.com.

Mount Collecting
Mounts are an important part of the game. They get you from point A to point B faster than hoofing it on foot will, and some even allow you to fly. Thus, collecting them can become a fun pastime. Since mounts are a good deal larger than pets, it's easier to show off your rare mounts than your rare pets. Like pets, mounts once took up space in your bags, which means you wouldn't want to have more than two; one for the ground and one for flight. The new pets interface also has a pane for mounts, which makes collecting them even easier.

Unlike pets, mounts often take more effort to get but come in groups. For example, many mounts require long reputation grinds, but once you finish those grinds, you get six or eight mounts that you can buy. Some mounts are also rare dungeon drops and take even longer to farm than rare pets. Of course, this means that getting one of those mounts can be a real status symbol. If you want something that requires more effort than pets but has more impressive rewards, mount collecting could be for you. Warcraftmounts.com is a good database for mount collectors.

Completing Old-world Quests
There is a lot of lore to be found in WoW, and most of it is found in the quests. Some give you engrossing storylines that also motivate you to go through those old-world dungeons that you missed, while others are just plain fun. Of course, some will make you pull your hair out with their low drop rates, but overall, old-world quests are worth doing. They give you reputation to help you get your crusader title, and though the money you make with them may not off-set the repair bills you build up, it's still worth seeing what you missed if you decided to grind through your levels like I did.

It can be difficult to remember which zones you cleared out in terms of quests, as well as which quests you did that were started by a zone drop. This can lead to long hours spent searching zones for quests you already did or grinding for items you already got. Still, doing old-world quests is really it's own reward. These quests were put in the game for you, so you may as well try them out. Although I don't know of any resources that allow you to see which quests you have already done, I know that wowhead is a great resource for finding quests that you may not have known about.

Exploration
Filling out your in-game map is a simple task that lets you see parts of the world you may not have seen otherwise. You will probably complete some of the exploration-related achievements by doing all of the old-world quests, but exploring for its own sake can also be rewarding. Aside from the title and tabard, you also get to see all of the effort the art team put into this game. Although, to be honest, aside from Jenkins, The Explorer is one of the most unimpressive titles in the game. Just saying...

Fishing
Although I did list the meta fishing achievement, fishing in general is a fun activity. You get to catch fish which can be turned in valuable food for raids, as well as some other interesting things. It's a relaxing activity that I myself enjoy a lot. In the olden days, fishing was less rewarding than it is now and was only a source of food. You may have been lucky enough to win the Stranglethorn Fishing Contest or fish up the 1 Ring, but aside from that, fishing was rather one-dimensional. These days, not only is fishing a source of some fantastic buff food, but you can also strike at rich with the dailies involved in fishing.

One of the nice things about fishing is that it's low key and peaceful (for the most part), and thus won't incur any repair bills. It's also possible to fish while waiting for other things. You can fish on a dock while waiting for a boat or fish next to a dungeon while waiting for your group to get there. Fishing is one of the few activities that you can do almost anywhere, making it quite a versatile hobby. If you seek something more action oriented, then fishing isn't for you. Also, though there are a variety of locations you can fish in and things you can catch, the basic motions are still the same. Still is you want something relaxing to do that you can do almost anywhere, you'll like fishing. A fantastic resource for fishing is El's Extreme Anglin', which has information on anything and everything fishing related.

Reputations
This is probably the most time-consuming hobby in the list. Many people grind reputation to some extent, but some are obsessive about it. Some get try to get exalted with as many factions in the game as they can. The rewards of reputation grinds aren't as great as they used to be, but back in the old days, you could acquire many things by being liked by the right people. There are also some reputations that don't really have great rewards, but people still grind them just so they can have another "Exalted" on their reputation tab. Those of you with no life could also go for Insane in the Membrane, if you really think it's worth it.

Although the ways you gain reputation with different factions vary quite a bit, they all have one thing in common: they take a long time. Grinding reputations as a hobby is not for those who play casually. This is an activity for those who really have nothing else to do and who just want to do something that takes a long time. Again, I don't know of any resources specifically for grinding reputations, but wowhead can probably help you. WoWWiki also has some good guides on effectively grinding various reputations.


It's worth noting that some of these hobbies bleed into one another. For example, pet collectors trying to get the Mechanical Chicken will need to do the old-world Distress Beacon quests, and as I mentioned, doing old-world quests will fill out a large portion of your map. You can also gain some of the rarest pets in the game by fishing. And, of course, many factions gives pets and mounts, so you will probably need to grind some reputations for those two hobbies.

So there you have it! Whatever your hobby may be, just remember to enjoy it. There's no point in playing WoW if you aren't having fun.