Blizzard Announces Mandatory Faction, Race and Class Changes Coming

Warning: This post is meant to be taken tongue in cheek, while trying to prove a point.

In a recent announcement blizzard has said that they intended to expand on the success and exceptionally good reception that the cross realms zones have received while trying to balance the game and are taking it to the next step in balancing the game to be better for everyone, "If they like it or not", Daxxarri, a community manager on the US forums, is quoted as saying.

The following is an excerpt from the announcement on the main page:

We are proud to announce our continued efforts in balancing the game by addressing the faction imbalance, race imbalance, sex imbalance and class imbalance in the coming months.  Over the next year we hope to make the game more balanced than it has ever been in our efforts to push forward our vision of how you, the player, really wants the game.

The following is a schedule for when you can expect the changes:

December 18th, 2012, 5.1 Released and mandatory faction balancing being enforced.
March 12th, 2013, 5.2 Released and mandatory race and sex balancing being enforced.
July 23rd, 2013, 5.3 Released and mandatory class change balancing being enforced.

Please use this thread for any discussion on the matter and I will attempt to answer any reasonable questions.

Personally I am a bit worried about this change.  I paid to sex change characters, I paid to race change characters, I paid to faction transfer characters and I paid to server transfer characters.  They have already dismissed my concerns about paying to be on a smaller server by placing me on a larger cross realm zone against my will.  This will just further enforce things on me I might not want.

What if on my main server, being it is leaning slightly alliance they want to turn some of my characters horde.  I do not want them horde.  What if they change my only blacksmith or only engineer horde, I like having at least one of each profession on that server.  Can I change back?  The word mandatory seems to make it seem like I can't.  If they change my warrior, which is my engineer to horde and I pay to change it back can they force it to turn horde again and once more I would be put in the position that I paid to be for something they will not let me have like I paid to be on a small server and they said screw you, we are putting you on a large server?

After reading the announcement I have so many questions but if you have ever read here before I do not post on the battle net forums because it is a cesspool there and I do not want to deal with the garbage community that they do not moderate or the rude community managers that herd us all together like cattle and all but call anyone that disagrees with them an idiot.  So I decided that others would ask my questions and I would pick and choose some of those questions and answers to share here, at least the ones that I personally find important to me.

Now to the questions and answers that impact me, and maybe you.

Q: "I paid to be on a small server and was forced on to the cross realm zone does this mean that if I paid to be horde I could be forced to be alliance?"

A: "No one is forcing you to do anything, you can choose to not play, you can pay to faction change or you can embrace the changes and understand we know what you want better than you know what you want.  Your opinion really doesn't matter.  That is why we do not care if you paid to be on a small server and put you in a cross realm zone and that is why if your server is heavy horde we might change you to alliance to help balance the game.  It will be better for everyone, trust me.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Being you mentioned class changes for 5.3 does that mean we will also be getting a paid class change service?"

A: "Yes.  It has been asked for by the community for a long time and we felt that it was about time we added it to the game.  As you know we attempt to give the people what they want but there will be some restrictions.  If you are moving from a high played class to a low played class the price will be cheaper than moving from a middle played class to a low played class.  This is in an effort to try and help balance the classes.  If you play a low played class you will not be allowed to change your class as it would create a further imbalance and we are trying our best to correct that.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "If you are going to "enforce", your own words, class changes, why would I pay to change my class when you are going to do it for me for free like it or not?"

A: "If you want to pay to change your class and it makes an imbalance we will just change someone else to compensate.  For example, if you go from a warrior to a priest we will change one priest on your server to a warrior.  Your money means you have a choice and your choice means something when it comes with payment.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "If our money means something then how come me paying to be on a small server did not matter?"

A: "Why ask stupid questions?  I am not going to dignify that with an answer but wanted to tell all the people that keep bringing that up how great the cross realm zones have been for the game if you would just take your head out of your ass long enough to stop complaining about a few dollars wasted you would notice it. If anything, you people paying to be on small servers are the reason we had to do this.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "So what you are basically saying is that if I change my class I am screwing someone else out of theirs?"

A: "No, not at all.  They will, in turn, have the ability to pay to change their class too.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "If people keep paying is it possible it can come back to me and make me change even if I paid to change at one point before?"

A: "Possible?  Yes.  Likely? No.  Our data shows that not everyone is willing to pay for services like that so sooner or later the break point will come where everyone gets to play the class they like and we create a balance that is better for the game all at the same time.  Impressive right?
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "You were always against class changes, what changed?"

A: "The proving grounds are being added in 5.3 along with class changes.  When someone pays for a class change or is upgraded to a class change they will have to clear a series of class specific providing grounds that should make sure they have the acceptable skills to play their new class.  They will stay in that phased proving ground until they are capable of completing it.  So if they are bad, they are not going to be playing that class, simple as that.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Upgraded to a class change?  If I want to play a death knight I would not consider being forced to be a warrior an upgrade."

A: "And you are always right?  We have the data, we know better than you.  If you are chosen to be a warrior it is with good reason.  Whether you like it or not does not matter.  Leave it to be someone that rolls a death knight to complain about being a warrior.  I'll make sure your name is on the list for one of the first accounts we upgrade when this is implemented.  Female gnome warrior has a nice ring to it if you ask me.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "What if I do not want to play a horde character?"

A: "I have three words for you, Paid Faction Transfer.  Seriously, you could not figure that out on your own?
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Is it really needed to go this far?  50/50 male/female, 50/50 horde/alliance, all classes equally represented, etc?"

A: "For the betterment of the game, yes.  And in case you are wondering, I have all the data that proves that.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Why would there need to be sex balance?"

A: "How do the dwarves have little baby dwarves if there are no females?  The game needs to have some balance in everything and we think it is important that there is a balance of the sexes just as much as we believe that there should be a balance in PvP.  The only difference is that it will be a lot easier to balance the sexes as that is an exact number.  It will not effect your game play and will be better for the game.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "What if I do not want to be a male/female?"

A: "Do you really think you, as one person, is more important than the entire balance of the game?  Don't be so selfish.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "If I pay to play this game shouldn't I have some say in how, where and as what I play it?"

A: "Of course you shouldn't. Remember one thing.  This is my game, you just pay for it.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Why don't you just force us to play the specs you want us to play too being we will no longer have the right to choose what server we play on, what sex our character is, what faction, what class or what race?  Where does it stop?"

A: "We can't spoil everything for you but I will say this, in 6.0: Return of the Legion, we will be adding a mandatory spec alignment to the game which should all but remove any wait time from any random content ever again.  It is a long term goal of ours to bring the best game we can to the players and by making sure everyone is playing the roles that are needed to create that balance is just a small part of it.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "What if someone doesn't know how to heal?  Will they still have an option to DPS and if not how can they do quests?"

A: "Excellent question, thanks for not being a whiny little bitch like everyone else has been here and asking about game design.  If someone does not want to heal they can just leave their character in the proving grounds and roll another character, that will be allowed by the game, as only characters that are needed, race, sex, faction, spec and class will be capable of being created now.  From the list of what is open, they can decide.  As for your second question, no, they will not have a DPS spec, they will need to learn how to quest as a healer but fear not.  All healers will have an NPC that can be used to tank for them while they are questing just as all tanks will have a healer NPC that will keep them healed.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "You finally mentioned something I love, NPCs that will allow me to quest as a healer or tank.  Thanks for adding that."

A:  "You're welcome.  That was all my idea, so feel free to praise me because I am so perfect and awesome and I am turning this game into the greatest game ever as long as everyone steps in line and does things exactly how I tell them to do them.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Don't you think is it a little obnoxious to ask people to just step in line and do everything you say?"

A: "Can't you tell a joke when you hear one.  I did not mean it as you are taking it.  You seem to think you have a choice and you don't.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "So basically what you are saying with all these changes coming in the next year is that I have to play the class you want me to play, the race you want me to play, the sex you want me to be, the faction you want me on, and fill the role you want me too, no matter what I want to do?"

A: "You forgot one important thing, you have to play on the server we want you to play on.  It all started by us taking money from people that wanted to transfer to another server for whatever reason and then completely ignoring their desire to be on said server and putting them on the one we wanted them on.  But yes, all you said, and the server thing.  That is what I am saying.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Is there any way to stop you from doing this?  The community is in an uproar, just look at all the forums here and on fan sites all around the net, no one wants this."

A: "You had your chance to stop this but you didn't.  When we made cross realm zones and people complained and then let it go while they got distracted by mists which was not cross realm you basically lost your voice.  You said to us, its okay, as long as we have new material to play.  So we will be releasing content faster, as the schedule shows just like you wished, and we will be changing your character as we wish, and you will like it, just like you now like cross realm zone.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Three months of being a warlock and you will get used to it.  Don't worry about it.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "So all of these ideas came from the cross realm zone?"

A:  "Absolutely. You paid to be on a small server, we screwed you over and put you on a massive merged server against your will, you complained for a while and then you fell in line like the sheep that you are.  You will all continue to fall in line and play whatever class, race, role, we want you too because you are all sheep.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "But I want to be a paladin."

A: Suck it up buttercup.  I am sick and tired of I want, I want, I want.  Just do what we tell you to do and stop being so selfish, I have all the data and I know what is best for the game.  All of you people are just whiny little selfish jerks that would not know what is best for the game and I am sick of it.  I am done answering questions for the day.  GC out"

 Warning: This post is meant to be taken tongue in cheek, while trying to prove a point.

Monday Random Thoughts

- Still no heat in the real world for me, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this week.

- I was told that the part they need would be in today.

- I decided to start gearing up my healer this weekend.

- Instead of finishing leveling my shaman I went with my already 90 priest.

- As it stands I do not like questing on my priest but I don't mind on my shaman so with all that gear locked behind reputations using my priest as my main healer for the moment will make gearing up a small bit harder.

- My priest has one mists reputation, the tillers.

- I might do the others when 5.1 comes out but I am starting to fear that by then I might not need valor loot at all.

- See, this is the problem with locking valor gear behind reputation.

- It is made too hard to get during the one point you might actually need it.

- Even if I started hard core on reputation in the three weeks it would take me to open all the valor gear I will most likely out gear the valor gear.

- Yeap, locking gear behind reputation has just suddenly became a bad idea as it keeps the gear from the people that need it the most.

- I went into the weekend with a 452 item level, mostly crafted 450 PvP gear, the crated 476 chest and gloves made by a guild mate and a 476 cloth BoE head I had drop early on.

- After one days worth of work I got myself to 470.

- So from 452 to 470 in one day, and not even a full day, just a few hours.

- It took me over 30 minutes in queue, as a healer, I think that wasted more time than anything.

- It was like bizarro world.

- My item level might get higher if I decide to do the LFR HoF tonight and get lucky with drops.

- If I had been on a better server, I could squeeze into a pug for 489 and 496 gear.

- Even on my server, I am getting close to the point I can completely ignore reputation gear.

- Sure, it would be nice for a few pieces, but seeing my performance and seeing my item level rise, reputation is not all that important any more.

- Now we need something for me to spend all this valor I'll be making on.

- If you heal on a priest and are not using cascade, you are doing it wrong.

- I was pulling upwards of 40K-70K HPS on each fight with cascade as my #3 heal.

- Not to shabby for my first time walking into a raid setting as a healer this expansion in what I would call questionable gear at best being a few pieces had hit on them and were really meant for shadow.

- Those better than expected numbers were all thanks for cascade.

- All I can say is wow that is powerful.

- Imagine when I start to practice and get better what I could do.

- Expect a huge nerf to it coming soon because it is really that powerful.

- Powerful for doing damage as well.

- I pulled over 50K DPS on a few pulls in dungeons thanks to that.

- Yes, it is that powerful.

- The female panda dance is incredibly annoying.

- I know what it was made after but my question is why?

- Did they have a meeting and think what is the most annoying dance we can make and this is what they came up with?

- I think I found a new dance to rank bottom of my list.

- And here I was thinking nothing could be worse than the human female dance.

- Proven wrong again.

- Closing in on my 400 pet battle achievements.

- I have noticed that a lot of the achievements are bugged.

- Like one says I have 29/30 level 10 pets.

- I have at least 60 pets over level 10, maybe more.

- Or one of each type at 25, I need three types it says, but only really need two.

- Not sure why it is not counting one, but it isn't.

- Seems the pet battle achievements don't always work.

- If that happens to you, log out and back in, it will fix it, for most.

- Won't fix the two I just mentioned however, they still seem to be bugged.

- One of the 25s I need is an undead and the reason I do not have one is because I can't find one I like enough to level.

- If you are looking to gather different pets it is worth mentioning that worgen, goblin and panda races get their own pets that only they can buy.

- So if you want one of those three you need to have a worgen, goblin or panda out of the starting area and over to the beginning pet battle trainer to buy it.

- Lucky for me I have at least one of every race out in the world.

- For you pet collectors that want everything and don't, get leveling them alts to buy pets only they can get.

- I like that pets are tied to all accounts.

- Now if only they would do that with a few other things so we did not have to waste so much space.

- I would like a toy page.

- All our toys would go on that page instead of taking bag space up.

- Do I really need the turnip punching bag on every character if I wanted to keep it?

- Put it on a toy page and let all my characters have access to it.

- No bag space wasted.

- For alts that complete the quest that you already have the toy for, give them 5 extra gold instead.

- It would be a great way to thin out space and remove the redundancy of having to have the same toy wasting space on many characters.

- All those archaeology toys can, and should, go there as well.

- Hence the reason I said archaeology should be a profession that spans all characters.

- It offers so many toys and other things that you do not need 2 or 3 or 11 of, so make it a "per player" thing and not a "per character" thing.

- What is the use of having a second toy that turns you to amber, or a second BoE shield, or a second mount you can not even sell or use and are stuck throwing away?

- Toy page, now blizzard, it is needed.

- And it is only needed because you were the weirdos that decided that giving us toys, and food items with no sell price, from quests was a better idea than giving us things we might need, like gear or extra gold or extra experience or extra reputation.

- In the long list of stupid things they have done this one is really bottom of the list however.

- Most characters I throw those things away as I complete the quest.

- One question however, how come I can not sell the food I get from a quest when I want to but I can sell the BoA gear I find when I wouldn't want to sell that?

- How about putting a sell price on junk we don't want and leave a sell price off of things we might accidentally sell but we really do want.

- Again, have to wonder who the hell runs blizzard sometimes.

- Even the little things make no sense.

- Like why are there not as many poop quest this expansion.

- I don't think we met our quota.

- Oh wait, this is a good thing.

- Now I am confused.

- Have a great day.

What a Horrible Random... or Was It?

There are some things that newer hunters just do not understand or perhaps there are some things older hunters just take for granted and have not grown to learn better.  This is a story about that.  New hunter and old hunter.

I am the old hunter.  Mind you I am not old school by any means but compared to someone that started in cataclysm I could be called an old timer with ease.  Not to mention the fact that one of the reasons I fell in love with the hunter class was the old school feel to them.  Kiting, jump shots, etc.  I would spend hours on end, just for fun mind you, practicing the jump shot and kiting elite mobs around un'goro.  But enough of that, on to the story at hand.

A returning player from the guild had just hit 90 and I said I would queue up with him for a dungeon figuring that having my little boost to DPS will help with him being a fresh 90.  I figured if he is doing less it would not hurt having a guild mate with him to do a little more and pick up the slack so he does not hinder the group any being a returning player and a new 90.  As it turns out, it was not needed, he did fantastic, but that is not what this story is about.  It is about us being in the dungeon and the people on vent.

I was explaining the fights to him as it was his first time doing all of them and we were talking about the run on vent with some other people on as well.  One of the other people was a hunter who started a few months into cataclysm.  He is an amazing hunter, I've taught him most everything I know and I would have to say when it comes to DPS the student has surpassed the teacher.  I can beat him sometimes but it is no easy task, he really does everything perfect and makes me have to try to be better all the time just to keep up.  But after listening to him on vent I would have to say I guess I did not teach him everything about being a hunter.

So me and the fresh 90 druid pop into the dungeon and the tank pulls as soon as we zone in.  One problem, the healer had not zoned in yet and the tank is not one of those super geared DKs.  I see this and blow everything I have knowing the only chance we have is to down these mobs before the tank dies.  I tell the druid to blow everything as I noticed we were currently healerless.

All but one of the mobs go down and being he was close to death and coming after me I go kite mode and we kill him a few seconds later.  I say it was a close call on vent and the guild mate hunter says it sounds like I am in a fun one, being sarcastic of course.  I laugh and say it looks like it.

Seems the healer DCed while coming into the instance, we wait another minute or two and then kick them.  Sad part is we see him zone in nearly the exact second the kick goes through.  I felt so bad, but at least he is a healer and will not have to wait that long.  Being DCed was not his fault.  Either way, we get a new healer and go on our way.

Next pack of mobs the tank loses one and it goes straight for the healer.  I trap it.  We kill everything and me and the druid turn to the mob I trapped to kill that one now but the tank moves ahead.  Just like he had not noticed one got away from him he did not notice I had trapped it.  At least the 3rd DPS remembered, I believe it was a warrior but I don't exactly recall.  We down the one mob quickly as I turn growl on my pet and MD to it.  It only takes a second, the healer moved up a little so they could heal the tank and us and by this little event I can tell that the healer had noticed what I had noticed, this tank doesn't seem to have any situational awareness and this will be an interesting run.

I say this to the druid on vent and the other hunter is listening and he starts complaining for me I guess.  The dungeon goes on and we have pull after pull with mobs all over the place, bosses that have aggro issues, the healer getting torn apart by any caster we run into.

I am trapping freely, silencing shot goes off for anything that I can interrupt, I don't think I have used scatter shot so much in a dungeon that I wasn't soloing.  I even used intimidation a few times and I am nearly sure I have never even once used it in a random since I switched back to BM this expansion.  I am picking and choosing mobs to taunt with my pet and healing it as best I could while kiting another because I am out of ways to control all the mobs running around while the tank is doing... I have no clue.

One pull, the boss in Mogu'shan Palace with the adds, the tank figures it is his job to tank the boss and pulls that and completely ignores adds.  I trap one, set to burn another, and have to play keep the mob off the healer as best I can.  It becomes a delicate balance of being the only one doing good damage so should I burn things as fast as I can or work control to try and get things in order.

When my MD is off cooldown I decided not to waste it on the tank any more being he doesn't seem to think holding the adds is all that important.  I had dismissed my pet and called another one I knew I had in tenacity spec and MDed to it, one mob at a time.  I made sure the druid was on the same target as me and he and I burnt down the adds one at a time as the other DPS and the tank focused the boss.  I was trapping the one eating the healer but apparently traps have diminishing returns against these mobs so I had to use scatter a few times as well.

I am calling out moves for the druid, picking targets to go after one at a time to burn them based on which ones are making the healers life hell and which ones I have trapped already being it seems they can not be trapped twice.  We could have tried to just burn the boss but with mobs beating on the healer and the DPS in there that would have been a wipe no doubt.

When we are down to one add and I have everything on cooldown I tell the druid to go to the boss and do a little kiting on the add after I make sure I have its attention. Then with a jump and turn and disengage I land directly on the tank and the boss and feign death and somehow, to my amazement it works, the tank takes the aggro and we finish that one and the boss off.

All this time the hunter on vent is complaining about how horrible this run sounds and how he would have dropped group already.  I never said a word in reference to his comments, we just kept moving on.

Going up to the last boss the tank runs away from the healer again and it is a blow everything moment once more.  A little fancy dancing with some serious BM burst on the AoE with that random buff and it tends to be no real problem and requires no additional tricks on my part.

Last boss the tank finds a way to die from basically standing in everything he can find to stand in and the other DPS, being melee, follows him step for step through every bit of bad he can find and that leaves just me, the druid and the healer up to fight the last bits of the fight.  I turn my pets growl on and call stampede and that ends up being just enough to get us through the fight and finish it off in a adrenaline pumping few seconds to end the run.

This whole time the hunter is saying how he wouldn't do this, wouldn't do that, couldn't do this, couldn't do that. I listened to him the entire run and was left thinking there is something I did not teach him when I taught him how to be a hunter.  I did not teach him how to be an actual hunter.  I taught him how to do hunter DPS.  I did not go far enough.  I failed him really.

I said to him it was not a bad run at all.  No wipes and it was fun and exciting and I got to do what a hunter is supposed to do.  I controlled the battle, protected the healer and still managed to pull numbers most classes could never even imagine while doing all the little things I had to do.  It was a great run, an exciting run and I had a lot of fun.

I said to him, it was a fantastic run, one of the best I have had in ages, it reminded me what it really means to be a hunter.  It had been so long it seems.

I left it at me telling him that I would teach him all these little tricks and how to bind those lesser used things in simple to get to places so if and when something like this happens to him instead of it being a wipe or dropping group he can do all those little things and stand tall at the end of a fight and proudly proclaim, I am a hunter.  No problem.

I used at least 35 completely different abilities that dungeon run and every single one of them was needed.  I used Hunters Mark, Serpent Sting, Cobra Shot, Arcane Shot, Bestial Wrath, Kill Command, Glaive Toss, Lynx Rush, Dire Beast, Rapid Fire, Readiness, Kill Shot, Ice Trap, Frost Trap, Explosive Trap, Snake Trap, Concussive Shot, Distracting Shot, Tranquilizing Shot. Silencing Shot, Scatter Shot, Intimidation, Mend Pet, Dismiss Pet, Call Pet, Stampede, Deterrence, Disengage, Feign Death, Misdirection, Aspect of the Hawk, Aspect of the Fox, Growl, Spirit Mend, Shield Shell and maybe more all at one moment or another.

What other class can say they can do all that and more?  It might have not been the best run ever and if I were on any other class I probably would have called it a horrible run but I was not on any other class I was on a hunter and the run was just fine.

Somewhere along the line I failed as a teacher if the hunter I taught on vent was calling it a horrible run based on hearing what I was saying and all I was doing.

On any other class it would have been a horrible run.  On a hunter, it was an exciting run.  Like it or not, that run needed a hunter to be in it because handling chaos is what hunters do best and that run was awesome.  It made me feel like a real hunter again.  I had a tim allen moment where I felt like grunting when it was all said and done.

Now the question is, how to I teach that hunter that?  How do I explain to someone that never needed to do any of those things that those things are really what being a hunter is all about?  Well, those things and awesome DPS at the same time. ;)

DPS Cures Everything: Be Nice to Your Healers

I always go on and on about damage dealers and DPS and expecting more from them.  This time an experience in the LFR made me think about it again.  A poor healer got harassed and eventually kicked when I do not feel they deserved it.  There were a slew of damage dealers not doing their job of putting up big numbers while following mechanics and avoiding junk.  DPS cures everything.  Don't always blame the healer.

I've spent a great deal of white space on this blog posting how important I believe DPS is.  Everyone loves to toot the horn or tanking or healing as being important and they are, but are they that important, do they make the fight shorter, when all things are considered?

Don't get me wrong, I've basically been tanking all expansion, have not even stepped into one single raid as DPS yet so I am not saying other roles are not needed.  I am sure some people will read into what I am saying as I am meaning tanking and healing are not important and they would be wrong.  I am saying that DPS just makes everything easier.  Even tanking and healing.

As a tank, when you first attempt a new boss and you are rotating your cooldowns and learning how best to time them it becomes an iffy issue.  One wrongly timed cooldown when you could have used it for more effectiveness 6 seconds later could mean the difference between a kill and a wipe.  But as you get more attempts in and the DPS keeps going up as the damage dealers get more used to the fight and refine their output while doing the mechanics and avoid the junk you gain the luxury as a tank of not having to save those cooldowns for later, just in case, because later will never come.  The faster the boss goes down the less work it is for me as a tank to keep myself alive via cooldowns and less work it is for the healers to keep me up because they have to worry less about conserving mana the shorter the fight becomes.

When first learning a fight I always say all the pressure is on the healers.  Always has been and always will be.  When something is new they have less regeneration, smaller healers, and longer cast times.  Also, just like damage dealers get better with practice so do healers.  But unlike damage dealers when something is new and they are just learning you can often pin the wipe on not enough healing.  Unless you hit the enrage timer you will usually never say it was a DPS issue.  Unless you are me of course.  Enrage timer means nothing except you need more DPS for sure. It doesn't mean if you don't hit it you don't need more DPS.  You always need more DPS.

I say everything is a DPS issue.  Perhaps that is because I hold damage dealers to a much higher standard.  I expect more from them.  Some might say I value DPS way to much and they might be right but the way I see it is that DPS cures everything.

When doing the daily grind that first day of mists after reaching 90 they seemingly took forever.  Now with gear and pulling triple, or more, the DPS I was when I first hit 90 the dailies are just laughable.  I can run in and grab the 12 mogu I need to kill all at once and 30 seconds later go to turn in the quest whereas it used to take me what seemed like 30 minutes just to kill 12 of them.  DPS cured the dailies taking forever.

When doing old content it is really apparent as well, just like it is with the dailies.  Do you remember doing rag your first time and it took a while to down those fire elementals during transition?  You needed to assign people to areas, weaken some and move to others.  You would need to have them set up who goes where based on where the hammer fell and even when you executed perfectly, or it seemed so, one could still get through.  Go do it now, I implore you.  Even a tank can one shot the fire elementals.  The hardest fight of all of the last expansion is made trivial by DPS.  I can not speak for others but for my guild it was that transition phase that took us forever to get down.  Now it seems like nothing because they are all one shot mobs.  DPS cures everything..

I like to solo and I can tell you for sure that most solo fights are all about DPS.  Yes there are many that are about timing and using your abilities at the right time and your skill playing your character but many are about DPS.  Or at least in part about DPS.  I remember the first time I did many bosses solo.  Being a hunter with no real way to heal it became a race of who will kill who first.  AoE fights are not very hunter friendly.  Unless of course you can pump out the DPS.  If you can kill the boss before the boss can kill you then you are golden.  See, DPS even cures some soloing issues.

No matter what aspect of the game you are talking about DPS means everything.  DPS makes everything easier.

Now to the point.

A recent LFR run when the group was getting on the lowest healer (and I do admit they were pretty bad compared to the others but they were gemmed, enchanted, reforged and trying, you could tell) because their numbers were not great after two wipes made me think, why isn't anyone looking at the real issue.  There were 3 people, yes, just three people doing over 50K DPS.  If the rest of the raid were doing more DPS the fact this one healer was doing 8K less than the other five wouldn't mean a damn thing.  The boss would have been dead.

This is one of the reasons people do not like playing tanks or healers sometimes.  They get all the pressure put on them when the damage dealers get away scott free most of the time.  I hate that.  I say put more pressure on those that deserve it.  DPS cures everything and more pressure should be put on the damage dealers to do their job better.  Instead of blasting some poor druid healer that is barely the item level to be in there for being 8K HPS under the others try busting the balls of the damage dealer that has a 480 item level and can't break 30K. 

Put the pressure where it should be, on the DPS.  DPS makes everything easier.  Bad damage dealers makes everything harder, and remember, it is not just about damage, it is about avoidance as well.  Doing top DPS is never an excuse for standing in the bad.  So never try and say, I am making the fight easier on the healers by doing top DPS to make the fight faster so I am allowed to stand in the bad.  Nope, being a good damage dealer is about doing as much damage as possible while taking as little damage as possible.

DPS cures everything.  Give LFR healers a break sometimes, they might deserve it if they are not really that far behind.  Start bitching at the damage dealers that are not doing their job.  Easy or hard, the DPS decides.  Next time you wipe in the LFR don't look at the healer or the tank instinctively, look at the damage dealers.  Sure, it could be the fault of the tank or the healer but it usually isn't.  I'll bet you 4 out of 5 times if the damage dealers were better that wipe would have not happened.

Just look at the facts.

More DPS means a shorter fights.  Shorter fights means more cooldown up time for tanks.  Shorter fights means less mana issues for healers.  Short fights means less chances for someone to screw up a mechanic.  Shorter fight means healers covering for the idiot damage dealer that stands in junk becomes possible.  Shorter fights means easier fights.  Shorter fights are all thanks to DPS.

DPS cures everything.  Leave the poor healers alone unless they really deserve it.

Can You Judge By a Glance?

I am not saying to be judgmental and vocal about it in party or raid, but just for your own personal comparisons.  Can you judge the people you are grouped with by a glance?

Say you are doing the looking for raid and you are a hunter.  You want to see how you are doing, you know on that fight the BM hunter is middle of the pack so that is where you expect to be.  You see other hunters so you pick them out to compare yourself to and check their relative item level to help you judge how you are doing compare to others that play the same class as you as well as the entire raid as a whole.

When the fight is over, at a glance you look at the recount, and make some judgements.  Yes, I know recount is not an ideal way to judge anything but for random content it can give you a feel for how you are doing when compared to others.  Hence the question, judge by a glance.

You compare yourself to the mages and affliction locks that are supposed to be ruling the charts.  You beat them, they have somewhat equal gear, would be be acceptable to consider them bad?  Or would that mean you are just that good and they are doing fine but you are just playing above and beyond so to speak?  Looking at the other hunters you see you were above them even if one had better gear that you.  Does that mean they are bad or you are just better? 

Then there is the little twist.  They could be better than they seem but they were not trying because they did not feel they needed to.  I understand that.  I do not use prepots, flasks or food in the LFR, why waste it when it is not needed.  Could they be trying to do badly on purpose?  They might think LFR still works on the old rule that the worst players win gear and could be dogging it for that reason.

So every single one of us no matter what class we have played have looked at some number and judged someone when we did not know anything about them.  We did not even know if they were trying.  We did not know if this was an actual representative example of what they are capable of.

Once again, I am completely and totally against anyone calling someone out in party or raid unless there is real reason.  A resto druid in agility gear, call them out sure.  A resto druid with poor gear doing poorly, maybe they are just learning and gearing up, chill out and let them learn if it is not hurting the group.  If they are hurting the group there is no need to say they suck, but you can say you need someone better to get by.  You can't just see the bad numbers and judge by a glance in some cases if you think of it that way can you?

But back to the question, can you judge someone by a glance?

Is this an acceptable way to judge how you are doing yourself in a random setting being you never know the skill levels of the people you are playing with or if they are really even trying to do well.  Like myself, if I prepotted, used a flask and food my numbers would be considerable better.  Or when I run as DPS on my druid with some of my gear reforged for dodge and my stamina darkmoon trinket on, you really can't judge effectively when comparing yourself to me can you?

How should you handle that data when assessing your personal performance?

I say take it with a grain of salt.  For every one person that actually tries in the LFR there are probably 5 like me that actually try but do not go the extra mile and another 5 that are just there for the free ride leaving 7 other DPS that could fit anywhere in between.

Last night when I ran the LFR, which tuesdays always have the better players doing it, I placed #1 or #2 on every single fight over them all.  The person that I kept changing place with was another hunter from my guild. We are always #1 and #2 with the extremely rare mage that comes in and destroys us both.  I look at it as, good, a mage is supposed to destroy us.  But that begs the question, where are all the other classes and players that are supposed to destroy us?

Are we really playing that well or is everyone else playing that badly?  Can I judge by a glance that I am doing great?

My fellow hunter keeps thinking that he is doing well and I tell him that he is doing great, the fact he is 3 item levels under me and can beat me on some fights shows he is doing well when compared to me at least because I know I am trying to do well but I stress he can not take how he is doing against others to mean he is doing "that' well. 

I look over the logs quickly to pick out some things and I point out to him that he could have picked up roughly 5K DPS if he did not lose his serpent sting.  It must have fell off and he did not apply it again.  So while we finished #1 and #2 by a fair amount, #3 was 14K behind us, we both could have done better.  I am ashamed to say I focus capped more than a few times which is a DPS loss and he dropped his serpent sting which is a loss.

If I were to judge us just by looking at those around us we would have appeared leaps and bounds better than everyone in the group and while that might appear true we would be remiss to think we were doing fine based on that alone.  We could have both done much better if we made some adjustments, me capping and him losing his sting.

I noticed that from looking at the logs.  I did not notice that from looking at how others did or looking at the dps or damage done numbers on recount.  Logs will always be better for judging how you did.  There is no way anyone can argue that.

What can we learn from who we are teamed with, that is the question.  Not looking at logs or anything, can we learn anything from them?

I did sha yesterday on my hunter and beat another hunter on our server by 19K.  He is usually considered one of the best hunters on our server, how he got that title I do not know but if you were to ask in open his name would come up quite often.  So am I doing that much better than the 3rd best geared hunter on the server or was he dogging it?  There is no way to really tell.

I think it might be nice to compare your numbers in random content and even pug content but I don't believe you can ever really judge a person by a glance.  There are too many variables.  Are they trying?  Are they testing out new keybinds?  Are they just learning how to use keybinds?  Did their wireless mouse go bonkers and mess them up?  Do they have a broken arm and are playing one handed?  Are they just having one of those off days?  Are they trying a new spec?  Is this an alt?  Did they see someone was doing better than them at the start and just suddenly stop trying?

I can't just say I am better than "one of the best hunters on my server" even if this is the third pug group I have been in with him in a little over a week and I beat him.  I do not know him so I do not know if he is really even trying.  Looking at the number might make me feel good but it doesn't mean I am doing good.

I don't think we can ever really judge anyone we see in a random because you never know if they are really trying.  That is why I like to run with guild mates.  I know they will try because that is the way I teach them to be.  Always do your best even if your best is not required.  It trains you to be better for when it really counts. We might not be great players but that does not mean we can not aspire to be great, or at least the best we can be, when we play.

Some people go into the LFR trying to be #1.  I go into the LFR hoping there are 16 other DPS all better than me so I will have the pressure put on me forcing me to be better and step up my game.  Sadly it seems to work the other way around in there, it seems to be that everyone accepts mediocrity and doing the least possible. 

How can anyone get better if they can not see what other people are doing?

If all the hunters you see in the LFR are doing 40K and you do 40K you might think you are doing just fine and many people judge themselves that way.  Well, I am doing what the other hunters are doing so I must not be doing badly, is the way they think.  I don't believe that is the right way to be.  Just because you are doing what others seem to be doing doesn't mean that is what your class should be doing.

One hunter in my guild ran a heroic the other day and asked in guild what does OP mean.  I replied over powered and asked why.  He said someone in the run he was in called him OP and he thought they were insulting him.  I said no, it was a compliment.  It meant that his DPS was fantastic.  I also added, they probably do not see that many hunters doing well so they call you OP.  His response?  I am still not really doing my rotation all that well, not used to all these new buttons, I am not OP, I am learning.  I laughed in guild chat and said, that is one of my hunters talking there.  Keep up the good work.  OP is good.

Why don't more people press others to be the best they can be?

Because they are judging people by a glance.  You can not judge people by a glance.  Just because I could be top DPS in the LFR with 50K doesn't mean I should only do 50K.  If I can do 70K I should do 70K.  I can't just see 50K and say, at a glance, I am doing fine because I am number 1.  Nope.

So to answer my own question, no, you can not judge by a glance.

Enjoy those numbers, top healer, top DPS, it is all fine and dandy and fun to look at, but don't let that ever fool you, you can do better.  You can not judge how you are doing based on random people around you because if you care about how you do you will usually be better than those people because most people do not care, at least it appears that way.

The Problem With Reputation

One of the hottest topics, that concerns me as well, that is going around lately are the requirements for reputation to buy patterns, spend valor and get what people consider essentials.  People feel locked behind the reputation wall and feel as if they are required to do dailies to get the reputation required.  See, that is the problem.

Once people feel it is required to do something the issue arises.  People like to do things because they enjoy doing them.  Once you put the required tag on something it becomes work and we play the game to play the game, not to work.

By putting patterns for my alts to learn, to help my main like the agility bracer enchants, behind a long wall of dailies that I would have to do on a character that has never done dailies in their entire history because they are basically a profession alt you have turned it into work for me.  Sure I can buy the enchants off the market, I could have a guild mate make them for him, or I could post to trade to find someone that has it, but it does not change the fact the reason I have profession alts is so I can take care of every thing myself.  To me, that is required.  The way I play is that I should make every effort to be self sufficient. 

So while some people can say it is not required of me to get the enchant patterns for my alt I will say, just because you do not consider it required does not mean I don't.  If I choose to be the best I can be and do every thing for myself and you choose not to doesn't make either of us right or wrong.  So you can say it is not required for you, because that might be how you play, but to anyone that tries to play the game as many do, it is required.

This is the wall a large portion of players are now standing in front of with their alts.  The dailies wall.

I am a grinder.  Anyone that knows me and has read my blog knows that.  I love to grind.  If they told me I needed to kill seventy two million mobs in the dread wastes to get exalted with the klaxxi guess what I would be doing?  I would be in the dread wastes killing everything in sight with every free moment I had in the game because I dig that type of stuff.  I am not some pansy gimme gimme gimme new generation of gamer that wants everything for nothing.  I believe that you should have to earn things.  If anything I would prefer that type of grind.  Just doing some quests and getting exalted seems to easy if you ask me.

This is part of the reason I love the change to tabards when you reach exalted and not tabards to get to exalted.  I think it is a fantastic return to real gaming the way it should be.  Reward players with something because they did the grind.  Don't give them something so they can skip the grind completely.

But it is when we turn to the alts that the problem comes into light.  Like I just explained, I am a grinder, I love to grind and I would gladly go through what could be an amazingly hard and long grind, but I will not do it another time on another character just to get some sort of profession item.  It moves from the category of fun, which is doing it on my main, to work, which is doing it on an alt.

I play for fun, not for work.  That is the problem with reputation.  It becomes work once you have to do it a second time.

I have many characters of many levels and I only have one that caps all reputation.  My main.  Of all my characters I only have three that ever finished all the argent stuff, and only two that ever finished all the molten front stuff.  I just do not find doing the grind over and over again fun even if I love doing it that first time.  Most of my characters are not even exalted with their home cities.  I even have three characters that only have one exalted reputation, their guild.  Reputations are a side game, it is part of the fun of what someone wants to do.  Again, once it becomes work, it becomes annoying.

In wrath and cataclysm the concept of locking things behind reputation was forgotten being you could just throw on a tabard and do dungeons you were going to do anyway.  So my characters that I raided with got their shoulder enchants because they never really needed to work for it.  They were doing dungeons anyway and the head enchants were BoA so my main could get them for everyone.

Now this is were I believe the game needs to take a page from the last expansion and keep the awesome changes made this expansion.  Leave the tabard out of it, but make all the patterns BoA.  That would be my solution.

This would solve a large majority of problems people have with locking profession patterns behind reputation.  My hunter has been exalted with everyone for weeks now.  My panda monk was riding a shado-pan mount the second she learned riding.  If she can ride a mount from a faction she will not even meet for another 65 or more levels, why can't my enchanters learn a pattern to enchant my bracers?

The blues seem to be of the idea that these things are not required.  That in and of itself is another argument that I will save for another post.  I will just leave it at this. 

If someone does not want to grind the reputation on their main I consider them a lazy player which usually translates into a bad player.  Plain and simple.  It is required.   If someone does not want to grind it a second or third or forth time on alts, I can understand that.  You should not have to do something you already did unless you want to.  Doing it a second time, it becomes work and we go back to what I said at the beginning.  I play to have fun, not to work.

I have a few solutions that could help the whole locked behind reputation system for many.  None would be perfect, but all would be possible solutions.

1) Increased reputation on alts:

They are adding this.  Will it be enough?  I don't think so.  If I need something from the shado-pan I still need to do the golden lotus first even if I need nothing from them.  So 100% increase does not really feel ample when I am still stuck doing something I do not want to do. 300% might make up for it.

2) Daily dungeon quests:

They do not want to do tabards so how about dungeon dailies.  Maybe a daily quest for a dungeon, a different one each day, and the reward is a token you can use to get reputation with one faction of your choice.  Lets say 1000 reputation, not as fast as doing dailies for sure, but still a nice additional way for alts to slowly build up reputation by doing the daily dungeon of the day.  Perhaps even make it an additional bonus for the second dungeon of the day instead.  So first dungeon gets you 80 valor, second gets you 40 valor and a 1000 reputation token of your choice and third on are just 40 valor.  Either way, something like that could work.

3) Tabards:

Some people want to have their cake and eat it too.  I said I am completely against tabards for grinding reputation but some people just want the best of both worlds.  I say give it to them, but conditionally.  They need to get one character to exalted first.  Once exalted they can buy a BoA tabard that they can send to alts where they will gain reputation while doing dungeons.  1 reputation per kill.  What?  Not enough?  Too bad, you are now getting something for doing nothing which is still more than you deserve.  Trust me, some people would love this.  More so anyone that ever ended the day 36 points from revered and said, shit, I have to wait until tomorrow.  Now they can put on the tabard and run one dungeon and get their 36.

4) Shared reputations:

As I mentioned my level 20 monk can ride the shado-pan exalted mount so why can't she be considered exalted with them as well.  I mean you can't have the mount unless you are, so being you have it you are, but you aren't?  Make up your mind blizzard.  If you are going to let me ride mounts that require reputation and let me use pets that require reputation then let my enchanter buy the bracer enchants that require reputation.  Can't have it both ways.  Take the shado-pan mount away from my level 20 or give my level 90 the ability to buy the bracer enchants I need without needing to get exalted on their own.  Pick a side blizzard, no more mixed messages when it comes to reputation being shared.

5) Gold sink it:

How about making the reputation vendors a gold sink for the lazy people.  Heck, I do not consider myself lazy but I really do not like the idea that a character I perter to heal on I have to grind reputation on to open up gear and patterns, I would take the easy route for them.  Make it that once you reach exalted with a faction you can pay 5000 gold to open up their quartermaster to all your characters.  It would be worth paying that 5000 gold just so I did not need to do all those dailies on my priest whom I prefer to heal on.

6) Make patterns BoA:

This might be the easiest for them to do.  Gear would still be a reputation wall, but at least make the patterns bind to battle.net account.  So my hunter is exalted which would mean he could buy the bracer enchants for my priest to learn.  This would make me happy as it would solve all my personal issues with the reputation system.  I can live with the gear blocking even if it is annoying, I will out gear the valor gear fast anyway if I decided to start raiding on that particular character and will soon be able to use my valor to upgrade my raid gear.  The fact that if I want to make my own enchants I need to grind reputation on an alt is what burns the hell out of me.  Just make them BoA and that would be my solution.

In the end we have to give Blizzard credit where credit is due.  They noticed the colossal mistake that reputation tabards were and they removed them.  A very commendable effort if you ask me and they are not backing down to the lazy masses that keep asking for them back.  Stay strong blizzard, do not give in to them.

They also did a bang up job on the dailies.  As recently as the last week I came across two dailies I had never done yet.  And we are talking a person that is exalted with everyone and there are still dailies I never experienced.  Well done blizzard.

The gating of shado-pan and august celestials behind golden lotus at revered was also a stroke a genius even if I disliked it.  It extended the content a small amount and kept me and many others like me from burning out trying to do even more quest hubs right at the start when we were just starting to gear up and dailies took a lot of time.  The golden lotus used to take over an hour all by themselves, now I can do all 12 million of their dailies if I wanted to in less than 30 minutes.  Much less if there are not a lot of people on and I have to wait for spawns.

Blizzards daily plan, offering valor from dailies, and the lesser tokens to trade in for extra rolls, and locking items behind reputation was amazing, it is the perfect design if you ask me.  It is one of the reasons that you can tell MoP had more thought put into it than cataclysm did.  The only issue I have with it is the second character issue.  The design is splendid, near perfect even, if you only have one character.  If you have more, this design losses a great deal of its appeal.

This is where blizzard needs to continue learning.  They learned tabrds were a mistake, now they need to learn that their design, while great, is not very alt friendly and they need to address that.

The problem with reputations is not actually a problem with reputations, it is a problem with alts.  If people have a problem with reputations on only one character, they are lazy.  No ifs, ands or buts.  Just do it, in less than 3 weeks you have everyone at revered.

Lets see if blizzard can follow up a fantastically designed questing and reputation system with making it alt friendly.  And lets hope they do it soon because that 100% reputation increase in 5.1 is not going to be enough and not going to be soon enough either.  They should have addressed this weeks ago.

Monday Random Thoughts

- Two weeks since the super storm and things are still not back to normal yet.  But hopefully we get heat back this week.

- I hate doing underwater quests on a worgen, I can't get the idea of wet dog smell out of my head.

- I refuse to use human form either, if I wanted to roll a human I would have rolled a human.

- Kind of the same argument I have with cross realm zones.

- If I wanted to be on a packed server I would have rolled on a packed server.

- I still put in a ticket about the cross realm zone errors every time I am in one of those zones.

- It is just not as bad as it used to be because I am not in the zones all that much any more.

- Except when I am leveling my new panda monk.

- Decided to play my baby panda monk for a little this weekend.

- Just to use up my rested.

- Flew to redridge at level 15, my silver dragon went off as I was landing, so I went to kill a rare.

- I was 58% into level 15 before I killed it.  22% into 16 after I killed it.

- Holy crap, almost an entire level just for killing one rare 2 levels above me.

- I sneezed and I was level 22, and out of rested, so I called it a day.

- I only did about 6 quests to go from 15-22, does anyone else see something wrong with the speed of this leveling?

- Okay, I did kill three rares in that time.

- But still.

- Got another class to level 90 this weekend.

- My mage has joined my crew of 90s and I must say holy crap they kick butt out of the box.

- I had a few craftables, 450 PvP gear mostly, the engineer trinket, and the BoA neck and sword you can find in the world along with the archaeology offhand.

- 28K-30K on heavy movement fights, 45K-48K on standard fights, even 68K on one of the bosses in a random.

- My hunter was not that good out of the box.

- Mages are insane.

- Then I tanked three runs, pulled a mage in each run, none of them did over 22K on any boss.

- How?

- I do not even play a mage much and was blowing things up.

- Could it be the few crafted items I got?

- I think it might have something to do with it.

- Those 450s are leaps and bounds better than 437 and 440 quest items, and it adds up.

- Spend 1K gold people, buy some 450 PvP items instead of embarrassing yourself doing 20K at level 90.

- Not saying dungeons can not be done with people doing that, but I am saying people should not be doing that low.  Ever.  Not at 90.

- I enjoy mages a lot more this expansion over last.  Seems like they added some flesh to it, so it is not one button spamming as arcane.

- That adds some fun to it.

- Still an easy rotation, but not so easy that someone that does not know how to play can fake it.

- As those 20K mages in randoms prove.

- Can't wait to see what numbers I can pull if I gear it up.

- Tanked Sha this weekend, first time.

- No, not on my mage.

- Don't be silly.

- Had done adds before but the other tanks were afraid of tanking sha so I did it.

- Have to love vengeance.

- I pulled 64K, 4th in DPS, while tanking all thanks to vengeance.

- Peaked at 785K health, at least that I noticed, I could be an old school raid boss.

- I bet I have more health than original rag by the end of the expansion at the rate I am going.

- I felt like the hulk, each swipe or maul or mangle was a me smash moment.

- The harder the sha hit me the harder I hit everything around me.

- How can people say tanking doesn't have its fun moments?

- Sometimes it can be real fun to have your own me smash moment.

- That is one of those tanking moments that is just flat out fun.

- I did not win anything but with me would you think any different?

- So when are they going to nerf Garalon in the LFR?

- Not those BS nerfs they gave it, real nerfs that actually help randoms.

- I spent hours there this weekend and never downed him.

- The best attempt I had got him to around 15% and then everyone left the group.

- I wanted to scream Nooooooooooo!

- If the group just stayed together we could have had it next time.

- This is why there should not be any mechanics that can wipe people in LFR.

- How many times do I have to say it before blizzard listens.

- LFR is NOT for raiders.

- Which means you can not add mechanics, progression, or wipes to it.

- If the people could handle mechanics, progression and wipes there would have been more real raiders.

- They need to understand that if only 2% of the total player base raids that means only 2% of the player base are people willing to deal with what comes with actual raids, good or not.

- So do not make content like raids for the LFR.

- I was even with a guild mate, we did the pheromones, so that was zero problem, yet people still found new and interesting ways to wipe us.

- Crush needs to be removed, completely.

- Pheromones need to not drop puddles, at all.

- Now it is... maybe... looking for raid ready.

- I had some really good groups there, for looking for raid that is, many attempts under 30%, but it just got to be too much for healers.

- Too many crushes, DPS being way too low and taking forever to the point that I was running out of space to drop the pheromone puddles.

- That is even with stacking them basically on top of each other for minimum room coverage.

- There should never be any mechanic in any LFR where one person can grief the group with it.

- This has two, crush and pheromone puddles.

- One group had this paladin that kept running after me trying to take the pheromones and bring them to the melee pack.

- I kept having to fight to get them back, but he won, he wiped us.

- Had one attempt where one person just stood in crush and wiped us and then blamed the healers for not being better because this is just LFR and crush does nothing here.

- Had many people come in and see it was a group that had wiped and just said, screw you baddies and dropped.

- For those I am glad.

- Remember grumpys book of wow rules # 3, If someones first words are calling others bad, they are probably the bad player.

- Like I've been saying for ages, LFR is too hard for the masses as is, this one is way too hard for the masses.

- I gave up, so I never finished it in looking for raid.

- At this rate I will finish it on normal before I do LFR and I have not even stepped into normal yet.

- Speaking of not stepping into it on normal yet, I have not stepped into any raid at all on my hunter yet.

- Looks like I am going to be tanking, so I guess I have to start dailies on another character now that I am done with them all on my hunter.

- Oh joy.

- Can't you tell how excited I am about having to grind rep on yet another character.

- But then again, I do not have to, so to speak.

- My bear is up to 475 item level and I don't have any reps, so I don't really need them do I?

- At this rate my bear is going to pass my hunter in gear, if anything ever drops in the raids.

- So you can gear up without having to do reputations, if you are willing to put in the effort to do so.

- Just might as well do the reputation anyway.

- Just started the golden lotus.

- Wish my druid could be a human, I would race change just for that 10% bonus.

- It might not sound like much, but 10% bonus means done 10% faster.

- You know things are bad when I start thinking of race changing all my characters that I can to human just for that bonus.

- If worgens are human and they can be druids why can't humans be druids?

- Thinking of race changing my shaman to a panda.

- No reason, just because.

- Shaman should be next to 90, next weekend if I play it, but being I am starting a new reputation drive from the beginning I am not sure if I will have the time.

- Not like my guild needs any more shaman healers, we already have 5, 3 of which are in the top 10 geared on the server.

- I just like playing one and it is nice to be doing enhancement again.

- I leveled as enhancement in cataclysm but did not play it all expansion except on a couple of fights for fun when we were stomping through DS normal after the nerfs to get easy achievements for peoples alts and allowing us to play in roles we were not used to.

- Otherwise, I have not played enhancement since wrath.

- Have to love how you do things differently on each character, I notice it on my shaman after leveling my priest, mage and rogue recently through an area.

- All three of them took their time with mobs, my shaman went in and pulled 5 or 6 mobs at a time, no problem.

- I guess each class has their strengths and weaknesses.

- Enhancement really should be a tank spec.

- It has tank cooldowns.

- I can pull like a tank on it, somewhat.

- Maybe one day they will let it tank.

- I won't hold my breath.

- The game can use a mail tank.

- And a cloth tank.

- Warlocks should be the cloth tanks, where they take full control of their pet and their pets tank.

- So should hunters while we are on that topic.

- I found how why I could not figure out how to heal my pet on my warlock.

- Because I am affliction and affliction does not have health funnel any more.

- I did not lose my mind, it is really not there.

- I need to soul link and drain life to heal my pet.

- Sometimes I feel so stupid taking me forever to figure these things out.

- Why did they just not leave us health funnel?

- Hey, at least I kept asking around to figure it out instead of doing what most of the player base seems to do and just ignoring it.

- Still won't change the fact I hate warlocks.

- Perhaps a change from affliction will make it more fun for me.

- I've been affliction as long as I remember.

- It is the only spec I know how to play.

- Had one dance with demo and one with destro and went right back to affliction.

- Perhaps it is time for a second dance with them, for leveling.

- Just to try it out.

- Leveling is the best place to try new things out, less stress and you can really get to learn your full array of abilities.

- I wonder how so many people get to max level and still know nothing about their characters.

- Leveling might be easy and all but it doesn't mean you can not play around with things.

- Like on my shadow priest the other day, and shadow is still new to me, I do it in healing gear.

- I saw a magic effect on the enemy I could strip off so I looked at my bars.

- Where the F did I bind that thing and what was it called.

- This shadow set up is all still new to me even after leveling with it.

- Between fights, I looked for it and noticed, oh yeah, I do have it on my bars, it is not bound to anything, but oh well, at least I know where it is now and I can click it next time if I need it.

- See, this is a level 90 questing and I am still learning things.

- Am I the only one that attempts to interrupt everything, dispel magics, CC, kite, and basically uses all my abilities while questing?

- Sure, I could blow things away, but what the hell does that teach you.

- I could take the extra damage on my priest and just heal myself afterwards.

- I could, but I don't, why take the extra damage when I can remove the magic effect or interrupt something.

- I think people just forgot that questing is meant to teach them.

- Sad thing is blizzard can't make it any harder, some people still have problems as is.

- Kind of like when I was in the summit on my rogue, at 87 of course, and everyone around me is 89.

- 89?  You are supposed to be in the wastes by now.

- They just can't handle it, so they stay where it is easier.

- I don't get it, use your class to its fullest and quest in an 89 area when you are 89, not an 87 area.

- Perhaps if you spent as much time learning how to play as you will waste killing lesser mobs and doing lesser quests, you would be a better player.

- Maybe I just like the challenge and then blowing through it because I learned how to and others just want to take it easy or experience entire zones.

- That I can understand, but nearly everyone?

- I would bet most are just taking the easy route.

- But don't reach 90 and enter heroics if you can not even do an 89 quest when you are 89.

- You are not prepared, to steal a phrase.

- See, that is why you see so many lesser skilled players in randoms, they are the people that could not even finish an 89 quest at 89.

- They have no business being in a heroic, which is considerably more difficult than a quest wouldn't you say?

- If I can't do an 89 quest on an 89 I do not turn and think the quest is too hard, I turn and think, what am I doing wrong or what can I do better.

- I don't say screw it and go back to doing level 87 quests.

- I wonder if they could ever make it that you only get experience for doing quests of appropriately level.

- As in, if you want to make it from 89-90 you need to do all the quests in the wastes.

- It will never happen, but I bet you that if it did there would be half the amount of 90s in the game right now.

- People should be using those quests to learn how to get better, not avoiding them so they can skip them and go right to heroics.

- Maybe I just think too old school for my own good.

- I need to adapt to the modern way of game play one of these days.

- Nah, I'll just stay grumpy about it.

- Have a great day.