What is(are) your Expansion Release Ritual(s)?

[Dracullus]

We still have midnight launches in EU, so if launch won't be shitty (like in WoD) I will stay whole night and next day. It isn't hard, but requires some preparations. This night is easily most fun WoW experience for me.

[babyback]

It was a long time ago I took days off from work to play wow. It was at the Cataclysm launch.

Now I wake up, go to work, spend time with the wife and kids and I’ll login around 21-22 for SL the day after launch.

[Lodreh]

Ritual is make sure all drivers and addons are up to date... close any background apps that could cause issues... then go to work... I'll play when I get home.

[Selastan]

Buy a whole bunch of snacks and energy drinks, get ready to play from release until I hit the level cap, get fed up with all the crowds and lag, go to bed after an hour or two.

[WowIsDead64]

What are some launch event rituals you will partake in and why?

1. Wait for 1 year till patch x.2, where flying is released and all major xpack problems are fixed
2. Buy xpack when it's on sale
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!

[Minikin]

When each expansion launches, what is your release day ritual?


Are you like some people who take the day off from school/work/daily life obligations and hit the ground running? I can imagine -- if your computer can handle it -- in the rush with thousands of other players grinding out the new content at the same time.


Do you wait a couple of days after launch so that you may not run into any technical (log-in, server disconnections, mass DDoS attacks, etc) issues?


What are some launch event rituals you will partake in and why?

Generally I take the day off of work. I don't log in right at launch, maybe like an hour or so after to give a bit of a gap between me and the mass.

This one though will be different. Because I now have a newborn baby and we'll have to see how I can do it given that he's taken a great interest in my laptop.

[Runstarr]

Take all the days off from work, stack up on energy drinks and snacks, pull a 48 hour before the day to be tired and go to sleep that morning then wake up 1 hour before the launch and blast as much as possible, 65-70 hours usually, then sleep for 8-10 hours and repeat.

[badgersmashr]

I will do what I always do with every new expansion release, go shopping for snacks and easy to make food, then go to (take melatonin if necessary) and wake up around midnight, then buckle up for a looooong night and day of gaming. Been my tradition since my first expansion launch in Cataclysm. I will admit it has gotten to be more difficult every new expac as I get older, but I still muster up the willpower to push ahead. Being self employed is awesome.

[Arcinatoss]

snacks, water, couple of sodas if I feel like having some and a really hype playlist to use while blasting through the new content. I also try and get a good nights rest and/or a nap beforehand.

I usually get tired of my playlist a little bit into it and turn on a stream instead, it excites me even more to share in the hype with a streamer and their chat.

Also to all the fellow 24 hour launch gamers out there, make sure to stretch your little leggies every once in a while. >

[Adam Jensen]

I'm not taking the day off (if it lands on a work day) and I'm not going to race to server first anything.

My plans are fairly straight forward, log in when I can, disable or update whatever addons work/don't work. Get on my warrior, head over to wherever SL starts and get started.

[writejsk]

I don't think I did anything for Legion, but for Battle for Azeroth I took a full week off from work, and had a blast in Warmode the entire time as me and people from my server went around chasing the Alliance through zone to zone haha.

[Dellis0991]

This means you do something different.

.....oh I get it!

[Irian]

Nothing, really. I try to log in at the time of launch if I have nothing going on, otherwise I've been completely casual about it since they removed realm first achievements.

I used to do that stuff when I was younger. I just don't see it as a huge event anymore, especially considering it often just means a reset of my progression these days. It's almost like something I dread a little, even if it'd be hard to miss BfA.

[Dakara]

The nature of my job is such that I have some control over my days worked each roster (4 weeks) without taking leave... I just need to plan in advance.

As such, I always end up with a minimum 2 days off at expansion launch, but usually 4 or 5. So I race to cap and get it out of the way. The flip side is when I am working, I can find myself unable to log in for as many days as I took off. This usually means after racing to cap, the majority of the guild has caught up by my next cluster of days off and I start the dungeon gearing grind.

[WaltherLeopold]

I spent 511 hours logged on and playing for the first month of classic release, prior I spent usually something like 250 hours online first 2 weeks of expansion launches, wod, legion and bfa more specifically.

My ritual for bc is probably gonna be similar, take 3-4 weeks off work, sort out affairs and powergame.

[Drusin]

Well, I used to stock up on junk food like slimjims, cheez-its, soda, jerky, etc and get plenty of sleep the night before. I always have food on hand now though so I don't really need to get anything special. When we find out what the launch day and time is I'll adjust my sleep schedule so I wake up an hour before launch. I was up for 36 hours straight for BFA launch but I quit drinking soda and I rarely drink coffee so I'll probably brew a pot of coffee since my body won't be used to caffeine and I'll be able to push for a longer time.

I've also become a mutliboxer recently so I'll have that to deal with as well

- - - Updated - - -

it's the same ritual I have whenever I play the game, gank everyone I can and camp them when the opportunity arises

launch days are rare opportunities for this because there are so many people everywhere and they are so focused on rushing through the quests that you can kill some ally right in the middle of a bunch of other allies and they won't even lift a finger to help, it's awesome

I'll also have to figure out whether or not I'll quest with warmode on to avoid gentleman like this. I believe I read that Blizz is moving away from quest where you want factions share zones so if that's true there won't be any opposing faction around for me to worry about for a while at least. Once enemy players start coming to the other area's I'll turn off warmode.