I recently wrote a Breakfast Topic about your WoW Zone, where I asked you about your playing space. As I keep saying, I read all the comments on Breakfast Topics I write, and this time, one caught my eye in my eternal search for more Breakfast Topics.

Commenter Mix had assumed from that BT's title that it would be about what WoW zone you would craft in the game if you had a free rein to do whatever you liked. What a great question! Mix reckoned a zone that would be "an addition to the Goblin Starting Area or the Darkmoon Faire ... a rickety run down amusement park taken over by Gnolls or Troggs or Undead ..."

This sounds fantastic. I love the dark, eerie feel of the Darkmoon Faire -- in fact, I find myself far more drawn to shady, spooky zones than to happy, sunny ones like the plains of Mulgore. After massive overexposure to Firelands, I'm really not down with fiery zones, and I find forested zones a bit dull. The creeping blackness of the Sha in the Mists beta looks great, though; I like its incongruity in the lush world of Pandaria.

I also love snowy zones -- I like how your tracks remain in the snow -- so I reckon I'd want to create something like Darkshire but in a snowy area, with dark, greenish-blue tones and ghostly figures in a frozen world. It would be like Narnia might look if the Ice Queen had her wicked way!

What about you? If you could create a WoW zone from scratch, what would you make? The sky's the limit, and it definitely doesn't have to be inspired by existing zones. Go wild!

Well, come on, dear reader, you can't pretend you haven't thought it yourself. This is a kind of desert island discs-style question. You can only pick one ability from the game, so what will it be? What WoW ability would you have in reality?

I thought I knew the answer to this question pretty immediately: my Albino Drake, of course! It's miraculously summoned from nowhere; you hop on its back, and you fly away! It's magical, so it doesn't need feeding, and you don't have to pay for petrol or insurance or anything like that.

But then I started imagining what it would actually be like, and I think I changed my mind. For starters, if you didn't know, I live in the U.K. That's not an abbreviation of a little-known state, no -- I mean merrie olde England. And, if you hadn't heard, the U.K. is in a bit of a drought at the moment. I'm saying this with my tongue firmly in my cheek, as although we're officially in a drought, this has been the rainiest month since, well, for a really long time. How many flying mounts can you think of with roofs? Yeah.

And flying mounts seem not to have seatbelts of any kind. I don't know about you, but perching atop a magical dragon's shoulders while dodging 747s sounds like something I'd want more safety measures for than my ability to grip with my knees. Also, how fast exactly is 310%? Say I can run at 6 mph. This is purely hypothetical, but let's say that. 310% is 18.6 mph. That's pretty darn slow. Maybe I don't need a seatbelt after all ...

So since I apparently have a preoccupation with travel, I am going to go for a hearthstone. Think about it: You can place it anywhere there's an innkeeper to travel there in a few seconds. Sure, you might need to work your way back to where you came from, but the ability to get home from far-flung places or near to home? Amazing! Or if you have loved ones on distant-ish shores, like I do, you could put it in their local inn and be on their doorstep in moments.

What's your nomination? It could be a spell, an item, a mount, a proc -- anything at all. My only demand is that you also tell me why!

Let's face it -- some spells have it and some spells don't. With all the excitement surrounding the potential for warlocks to get some kick-ass green fire in Mists, I thought it was about time to start thinking through what were some of the most awesome-looking spell effects in the game right now, before warlocks start stealing all the thunder. I'm not even going to start talking about that glyph that makes your Dreadsteed run on water!

Anyway, glyph envy aside, let's consider the contenders. The header image is a pretty good clue here -- I love the look of a Frostfire Bolt! The blue frostbolt encased in fire is a seriously lovely effect. But I do think there are other abilities that rank very high. Penance, for example, has a really cool-looking effect. The bolt itself isn't that amazing, but the way it makes those spiralling paths toward its target is very pretty indeed. I also think priests have a damn fine Divine Aegis bubble right now. What else? Well, Chaos Bolt looks great. That little face -- I love it!

I sense melee players are feeling rather unloved. Hmmm, tricky. I do think the paladin Avenging Wrath wings are pretty sweet, especially when coupled with a Badge of Dominance's red effect. A cool effect doesn't have to be a traveling effect, of course, and I think the DK Anti-Magic Zone looks pretty great too.

I remain undecided about my favorite, although I am leaning toward the Frostfire Bolt. (There's a reason it's in the header, after all.) So persuade me! Throw your vote into the ring. Do you agree with me, or am I completely wrong? I'm often completely wrong, you know. It happens a lot. What's your choice for the best-looking spell effect in WoW?

One of the things I like best about WoW is how almost all of its spells require some kind of judgment when you use them. Oh my, did I just make an amazing paladin joke? Well, not intentionally.

Let's take Lay on Hands as an example, shall we? As the astute reader will observe from the header image, it's an instant-cast, freakin' huge heal. I don't know off-hand of any other heal in the game that will provide you with 262,444 HP at the drop of a hat. My paladin is a tank, so "an amount equal to your maximum health" is fairly substantial, and I refer to it as healing my fail. I messed up? Oh, it's OK, I can fix that. But it has a 7-minute cooldown (with the glyph) and puts Forbearance on the target. Used it when you didn't really need to (like when you had a set of priest wings on you)? Now you have to wait another seven minutes, thanks to your itchy trigger finger. Nice work, cowboy.

But I still think Lay on Hands is a contender for best spell. Particularly for a tank, it's a pretty awesome cooldown. You can reset your health instantly (debuffs considered, of course) -- or indeed, anyone else's. Not many people (apart from perhaps other tanks) are likely to have more health than you. But (and it's a big but), Lay on Hands can't be used in Arena. This is bad. Very bad. Well, actually, it's quite good, really. Imagine if it were useable ...

So my surprise entry for best spell in the game, coming from way back in the field, is Leap of Faith. It doesn't have inherent downsides like Lay on Hands, but it requires good judgment. Sure, there are simple cases when it's a good idea, like when someone's standing in bad, but use it to interrupt an arcane mage's Evocation and there'll be trouble. Grab a melee player in Arena just as they're about to take down an opponent? Bad times.

I had a bit of trouble thinking of ideas for best spell in the game. I'm sure you won't, lovely, knowledgeable people. So tell me, what's the best spell in the game? And why?

The 2012 Arena Pass Ranked Ladder Phase 1 has begun! This incredibly well-titled section of the Arena Pass realm has kicked off in the United States and Europe, signaling the start of the ranked phases. EU players need to remember that all the dates in this article should be adjusted to one day later for EU realms.

What does it all mean? Well, if you've been in the practice phase, your rating will be reset to 0, and if you add new people to your team after this point, you'll be penalized by 150 points of rating. So if you had a rating of 300 and added a player to your roster, your rating would be adjusted to 150. Sense made? Good! It's not wholly clear whether a team with a rating of 0 would be moved to a rating of -150, but I sincerely doubt it -- and to be honest, it shouldn't be too hard to gain 150 rating points.

If a player leaves your team, you won't be penalized, to the misery of PvPing trolls everywhere.

This phase will run until May 22, at which point Ranked Ladder Phase 2 will begin and team roster changes will not be permitted, so get your teams sorted out as soon as you can. Registration is open until the end of May 22, so if you want to get involved in the Arena Pass, it's not too late to sign up.

If you want your Murkimus, then now's the time to get in the 50 3v3 games required to get him on your live realm characters. Any games you played prior to the Ranked Phase won't count toward earning him, so get involved!

Also, don't forget that if you are in the top 1,000 teams at the end of the Ranked Ladder Phase 2, you'll be getting a Vanquisher title on the live realm. By signing up for this Arena Pass, you're also getting access to an exclusive Level 90 Arena Pass Realm once you've upgraded your account to Mists of Pandaria.

To the victors, the spoils -- and also to the participants in more than 50 ranked games!

So, ladies and gentlemen, the clue's in the name, as ever with Breakfast Topics. Today, just for variety, I'm asking you all to take a step out of the virtual and talk about the real for a second. Tell us all about your WoW zone! Where do you play? What do you play on? What are the vitals that you have to have nearby? I'm not looking for /flexing about processors and graphics cards; we're not trying to keep up with the Joneses here. What I want to know is more of the mundane facts.

You can see from the header image that I play on a laptop. Yes, yes, I know, but I like the portable nature of it! I can move around and play slouched on the sofa one evening or sitting up at my desk the next -- even outdoors, if the weather permits. And I can take the game with me if I'm away! You'll note that I'm a fan of the wired mouse -- I've had way too many batteries die on wireless ones -- and my new, beloved headset perched on the speakers goes right over my ears. Way more comfortable than on-ear ones!

You may also be able to make out the kettle, although my camera's not all that. Tea is a vital component of my gameplay. I take it black, no sugar, so a kettle is all I need. There's a stack of Post-it notes for key things I need to remember; the most recent one reads "Aimed Shot, you pillock." I love playing at this desk. You can't really see it, but I have a fab view of the garden and some curious dogs who don't really understand why I keep telling them I'm hexed.

So tell me about your WoW zone. Laptop? Desktop? Wired? Wireless? Desk or sofa? Or somewhere else? Headset or desktop mic? Room with a view, or distraction-free corner? Kettle or fridge? Or neither?

WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of Battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who focuses on making with the stabby and turning people into frogs.

Focus in PvP can have a few meanings. If you're tired, or a bit stressed out, it's something you can lose. Trust me on that! Your focus can also be the target you pick to burst down or of course your main objective -- and lastly and principally for this column, focus is a secondary target.

A secondary target? Didn't you just say it was the target you pick to burst down? Well, I may be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, so bear with me. We all know how to select a target, I assume, but you can also have another target set in addition to your main target. Depending on your UI setup, this will appear in various places on your screen. Some UIs and addons are more customizable than others with regard to a focus target, and for all the screenshots in this post, I use a tailor-made edit of TukUI.

So a focus target is another target? Yup. Why would you need another target? Well, we'll get to that! Patience, young padawan. One basic use for focus includes doing Battlegrounds with friends. As long as you have the map set up to allow it, your map displays your focus target with a thick ring highlighting their position. If you head into a Battleground with a buddy, you might want to set them as a focus so you can see where they are and help them out!

I thought it would be worth giving a little love to some of the new NPCs in the MoP beta. The header image is taken on a bridge, the location of which will remain mysterious so you can have fun finding it. Bellmaster Li has some fantastic dialogue regarding the Gong of Hope: "Behold the Gong of Hope! Though really we replaced the gong with a bell many centuries ago. The old gong was quite small and did not provide the proper level of hope infusion to our people."

Now, I don't know about you, but this really made me smile! I'm wondering, dear reader, what's making you smile in the beta? I've also really enjoyed the instances. Those little floating cat models in the Stormstout Brewery are adorable! And I love the Bloat debuff that makes ale shoot out of your ears -- it's fantastic and makes me laugh even when I'm healing and people are killing each other with ear-beer.

So tell me what you're enjoying! It could be dialog, it could be a certain quest or simply the beautiful cherry blossom trees. Anything at all!

So there I was, exploring the beta, just going around looking for cool things, and I found this! What is it? Well, it certainly looks to me like a racetrack in the sky, so I had to go and gather further evidence.

I went to the top of the hill where the finish line is and found a bunch of pandaren NPCs who were race spectators. This, I thought, looked promising. And then I headed to the bottom of the hill and saw a few NPCs hanging around with Serpent mounts. A few of them could be interacted with, so I spoke with Big Bao, who said, "Don't worry, kid. Riding's not as hard as it looks. You should get a few more notches on your belt before attempting this, though." Interesting, Big Bao, very interesting!

So then, dear reader, I found my best clue: Toudu Tigerclaw, who is a race officiator. He was rather rude to my little level 85 pandaren lady, though; he didn't think I was mature enough to race just yet and made it very clear to me.

So I am fairly convinced that, in a few levels time, players are going to be taking to the backs of serpents and participating in an exciting air race around the eastern edge of the Jade Forest. Will you be taking up the challenge?