Ok, this is a shaman post.  More precisely a resto shaman post and probably most non-resto-shamans will be totally disinterested. I will give cookies to those resto shamans who manage to wade through my somewhat lacking evaluation herein of the relative merits of Lesser Healing Wave versus Chain Heal.

Since the patch I’ve been doing a lot of reading (in threads like this one at EJ)- shaman healing, depending on who you speak to, has not changed at all or has changed dramatically.  A lot of people, wishing to hang on to what they know and love, have insisted that all of the new talents are worthless at best, a nuisance at worst as they do not affect chain heal.  Others, though, have suggested that we might or could change our healing style - relying more heavily on lesser healing wave and on single target healing or at least having this as a viable option.

Personally, I’m quite new to healing so I’m quite eager to learn new playstyles in the hope that it’ll improve how I heal overall.

Much of this really is pie-in-the-sky thinking as, in reality, how we are specced at the moment does not reflect entirely how we will be at 80 and the encounters at the moment are somewhat dominated by priests and druids spamming AoE heals whilst their mana pool barely suffers - that, we are told, will change.

However, the point remains that we have a lot of AoE healing and less of the old-fashioned heavy tank healing going on - in our guild at the moment we only have two regular paladin healers and a tonne of druids and priests with myself the sole representative of shaman healing most nights.

Here’s how I’m finding my role, at the moment:  I’m AoE healing with chain heal if people are taking large hits predictably (i.e. Naj’entus style) or are too spread out to be effectively healed by CoH / Wild Growth.  The rest of the time I’m using lesser healing wave.

When I seen the posts concerning LHW (especially glyphed)I decided I’d go try some quick and dirty tests.  Unfortunately the two raiders who usually do our WWS’s hadn’t been able to attend many raids recently so I was stuck for a while with what I can test on my own (yes, I fail, I always forget to start my combat log).  The one thing I could test at least, I figured, was just how fast I ran out of mana when chain-casting each spell.

Results:

• 1 minute 18 seconds Chain Heal
• 1minute 28 seconds Lesser Healing Wave

This is with a mana spring, no mana tide, no potions, no replenishment and straight chain-casting - refreshing Water Shield when it was used up.  The reason for the longevity of the LHW spam is undoubtedly the procs on Improved Water Shield adding just enough to keep be going those few seconds longer - even though I need to refresh it more often and let my mp5 lurch for a second whilst it’s down.  Of course this is under a non ’stressful’ situation with no movement and no worrying about the tank dying if I stop healing to refresh water shield.  Of course, this was pre-T6 2pc so the numbers would likely now be more in the favour of chain heal (realms are down, so  I can’t test it) but even so, LHW is not entirely the useless mana drain it used to be.

When looking at the effectiveness of one heal over the other or how to use them in a given situations we have to look at both:

• mana pool / longevity
• effective healing

The new and exciting boost to  healing for LHW is very much affected by the super-glyph which caused all of this speculation in the first place - [Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave].  This very much ups the healing throughput of LHW and makes it more comparable to Flash of Light.  This makes it a rather nice tank-heal (as they are most often the person wearing my ES in ‘progress content’).

‘Testing’ Further

I know, calling it testing is a travesty.  I have no control numbers, have respecced, have played differently and was pretty damn ill tonight when I tried (running to the bathroom a few times between tries, erp Xx) but I did find some interesting changes nonetheless.

The first few bosses in Sunwell are a pretty good test of variability in healing, in  my mind, as they requires heavy AoE healing and also some strong tank healing.  Brutallus, in particular, was a fight we’d had trouble with last time we tried (successfully downing him but having a really hard time keeping the tanks alive).

This was where I particularly wanted to test how well my mana regen could cut it with the new ’style’. This week’s fight was a lot smoother, which I attribute to having an extra Paladin as well as people being a bit more ‘aware’ of the fight but I did feel that I ‘made a difference’.

Spec

I made a bit of a mistake when I respecced a little too quickly back from elemental after a weekend of pew-pew.  I forgot Riptide - realising where that extra talent point had come from when one of the other shamans mentioned it.  D’oh.  However, I had been feeling like I had been abusing it - using it as a crutch heal and not really thinking about when and where it would do best just “omg damage, instant heal!”. Whilst this is cool in a 5-man there’s really little need for it in a raid - especially when you can have a 1.4s (or lower) healing wave hit a target before they die at a much lower mana cost.

I also, perhaps controversially or perhaps just idiotically, didn’t spec for [Improved Healing Wave].  Why? Well, for one, I know I’ll be respeccing to elemental in a week for levelling so I can really play with my specs for now and secondly because… I never use Healing Wave.  Since I was going for what I’m calling my ‘tank haelz spec’ - that is focusing on improving LHW, mana regen and crit alongside a strong Earth Shield, I missed out Healing Way.  I’ve never liked that talent, if I’m honest, and the lack of downranking makes keeping it up tedious.  I do not like to be ‘locked in’ to maintaining a stack of healing like that, either, especially when I’ve got some newly discovered versatility in my healing!  I’m not saying I won’t go back to it when I have more points but, at the moment, talent points are thin on the ground and I wanted to play with something different.

So, I picked up [Totemic Focus] instead (which I’d previously not bothered with) because despite, yes, 5 minute totems, high mobility fights in large areas require you to reposition your totems and some fights require different totems to be placed at different times.  I was going for uber-mana-efficiency, remember.

I also picked up one point in [Imp. Reincarnation] which I was torn about.  On the one hand, if everything goes well, then it’s a total waste of points.  On the other I’ve helped finish two first kills by rezzing with nearly half mana and health. I really, truly, from the bottom of my heart wish they’d make this baseline.

2 points in [Imp. Water Shield].  I had read some ideas on putting only one or two points here to negate the problem of constantly having to refresh water shield constantly - it goes off, but  not often enough to make it a major nuisance.

[Cleanse Spirit].  We have the option to pick up another tool which means we become valuable secondary or even primary decursers.  This was a nice backup for Kalecgos, though I have a feeling that, dependent on how the raids are in Wrath, I might rather have that point elsewhere.

[Blessing of the Eternals] for the crit - the bonus to Earthliving is not something to sniff at but not really incredible.  Still, not bad for 2 points.

[Ancestral Awakening]… well, it’s based around all of those crit heals I’m going to be doing so why not? In  practice, though, less than 1% of my healing comes from AA if I’m only raid healing.  Still a bit undecided about it but I might switch these points to focused mind or something - again, though, FM is very situational.

[Tidal Waves] is nice and will be nicer with 3.0.3 (which goes live on EU realms today).  A chain heal when there’s heavy raid damage going on and then a nice, fast heal for a tank or a low dps.  This was really nice for Mount Hyjal and literally a lifesaver in SWP a few times (especially with no bloody Riptide!).

[Ancestral Knowledge] + two points in [Improved Shields] rounds out my current build.  Although that second point in shields should have been in Riptide I don’t begrudge it now.

Oh, and no [Healing Grace].

Tier 6

With the ‘easymode’ tier 6 instances now in effect I’ve come into some shiny T6 tokens pretty rapidly - shoulders and head are mine, gloves I already had (one for each spec because no-one else wanted them).  I have a very good healing helm but the tier 6 would be a bit of an upgrade and would work me towards that 4-set bonus.  However, with all of the above mentioned I began to wonder.  If I have elemental gloves and an elemental headpiece, whilst also giving some desirable stats (more crit etc.) would give me a two piece t6 elemental set bonus to play with.  You know, the insane one which gives:

Whenever you have an air totem, an earth totem, a fire totem, and a water totem active at the same time, you gain 15 mana per 5 sec, 35 spell critical strike rating, and 45 spell power.

That’s some nice set-bonus! I decided to buy the elemental headgear and use this setup (2pc T6 elemental) when I was primarily using LHW so as to gain the extra crit and mana regen.

Results

The figures for both Brut kills looked something like this:

The first is the fight on which I was using chain heal primarily and with gear with a little less crit rating.

The second fight I’m using t6 2pc elemental and crit gear and using lesser healing wave primarily.

Although my heals per second were reduced using mostly lesser healing wave (but as you can see, still using chain heal when appropriate) I did output more overall healing though the difference was negligible.   My overheal was up a little (as expected when tank healing) but I almost doubled my healing on our Paladin tank (from 185,820 to 272,003) whilst gaining a small increase on our warrior tank (178,518 to 195, 660).  Although these also reflect a slightly longer fight (the second kill was 18 seconds longer) I do think that the increase in healing is too big a difference to be brought by time alone.

The side effects of using lesser healing wave, too, were interesting.  As a lot of the new abilities happen on-crit for LHW, HW and now Riptide they played a much bigger part in the ‘lesser healing wave’ trial.

Ancestral Awakening with chain-heal spam made up less than 1% of my healing.  With LHW as my primary heal it made up 4% of my healing - not quite making up for the loss of ’splash healing’ from chain heal but certainly not something I consider a terrible side effect.

The death in the first try was deliberate, sort of.   I got the flame debuff and ran out of mana whilst healing from the flame spot.  I told the flame healers to let me die as I had reincarnation up and could get mana back by rezzing myself.

Despite the above, I ended the second try with more mana and it’s clear to see, looking at the WWS, why. From the first attempt, water shield was my fourth highest source of mana - providing 2,564 mana over the course of the fight.  On the second kill, with 2/3 Imp. Water Shield and 2/5 Imp. shields I regained 4,917 mana from water shield - over half of what replenishment also gave me.

I didn’t feel refreshing water shield was a big issue - using it every time I had a spare moment as I’ve always done out of habit (I reflexively tap that key when on all characters now…).

So…

Chain heal spam gives you a little more splash healing, it is the king of your raid healing arsenal and will be a very effective tool.  Even when full specced to take advantage of the new abilities via lesser healing wave I used chain heal 27% of the time and up to 60-80% on splash damage fights (like Felmyst).  Chain heal also spreads Earthliving Weapon more (and I only just now notice that I likely forgot to imbue it on the second Brut kill… something about it being an imbue means I forget it where I would never have forgotten mana oil, bah).

Lesser healing wave is now a viable and strong heal which can be utilised to effectively tank heal.  Whilst giving up on a little AoE healing and efficiency you gain more mana back and still have a little AoE healing going via Ancestral Awakening.

Why Bother?

Why even look into all of this now, it’s a bit useless, right?  In my mind, not really.  Yes, numbers and fights will change between now and 80 but by then all shamans will be able to pick up all of the new talents if they wish and will have to learn to use them.  I’d like to be ready to start the new ‘raiding season’ running.

TL;DR

Lesser Healing Wave spam seems like it could be viable and even preferable on some fights. Learning how and when to use it over chain-heal is a skill which any shamans not from pre-TBC should learn and they should understand how it will affect how they use the new talents and skills they’ve been given.

In 10-man healing this variability is going to be the bee’s knees - you got a druid or priest with you?  Let them handle any low level splash damage with their AoE’s and small top-off heals whilst you tank heal.  Have a paladin?  Throw out those beefy chain heals and Earthliving procs.

And, yes, I know I’m a terrible theorycrafter but I did enjoy being able to look at something other than chain heal and I’ll probably do some stricter and more controlled testing when I hit 80!

It seems worse than ah first thought.  It’s no just some madness, some remnant come back tae get us.. it’s an organised bloody invasion!  Ah’m doin’ mah but but it just seems that sometimes ye cut one doon only tae huv three come back at ye…

The Good

Change

For a ’static world’, wow manages to be pretty dynamic and this event is a great example of this.  People are really feeling the ‘pain’ of the event - it’s not just a simple event which happens ‘outside’ of the normal stream of things, but is actively getting in the way of doing the usual day-to-day things people do in WoW.  The fact it’s changing day-to-day quite rapidly, too, is pretty nice.  You’re not waiting an interminable time for the ‘next step’.

Memories

This is a personal one but this event brings a lot back for me.  I first started WoW around the time Naxxramas was released and when I hit around level 15-20 I was outside the towns killing scourge invadors!  I thought this must be normal for wow, at the time, and was a really nice introduction to the lore and feel of the game.

Level Range

As I mentioned above, I took part in a previous incarnation at a very low level and this event allows for everyone to participate - low level invasions near cities, new bosses in instances from Scarlet Monastery to Stratholme and scourge events for the level-capped.

Paladin Madness

“For the Light!“  “You will die, undead scum!” and “By the Light be cleansed!“. The paladin madness has taken over many on my server - it’s limited solely to Paladins and involves running around with a big sword, waving it about, making shiny lights around people and shouting various things like the examples above.  Still, I file it under ‘good’ as it’s not doing anybody harm except zombies and, well, they want to eat my brains…

Tabard

I was always a little sad that I managed to miss The Burning Crusade starting event - especially the cool tabard.  I had always just liked how the AD tabard looked and wanted to snag one, though I had given up hope of it but now I’ve taken the opportunity to get one on most of my characters!

Reputation

I had, oddly enough, just started to grind Argent Dawn rep when the event began.  Now I’m halfway through revered without trying too hard.  I’ve grabbed some shiny new faction recipes and once exalted I’ll be halfway through [The Argent Champion].  Remember to equip your [Argent Dawn Commission] whilst fighting the scourge invasions as most will drop [Invaders Scourge Stones].  The Shadow’s of Doom even drop [Corruptor's Scourgestones].

Trinket

The [Argent War Horn] just deserves a spot all to itself for how awesome it is.  For those not yet in the know, this trinket summons an Argent Dawn paladin to help you.  When the trinket effect runs out the paladin does not fade but… bubblehearths! The laughter on teamspeak when we found this out was somewhat earshattering.

The Bad

Recycling is Bad?

Recycled content - the scourge invasion event is a repeat from both the Naxx opening event.  I’m not sure if this is a terribly bad thing, especially as the ‘details’ and rewards have been updated as well as the surrounding flavour quests but some people have been complaining, on my server, that it’s ‘all just that stuff again’.  Can’t please everyone, I guess.

Dead NPC’s

Doing ‘the usual’ isn’t always possible.  Flight masters, auctioneers, bankers - all can fall prey to the scourge and hat’s certainly pissing people off at the moment.  Having to wait for a respawn to be able to access the bank can be irritating, especially since just about everyone who gets zombified runs in to try and give it to the bankers and those standing nearby - knowing they’ll likely not notice whilst sorting things in the bank.

Dead Players

People are being ganked by zombies.  With the plague lasting only 50 seconds near the end before transformation it was very hard to get to  a healer before you succumbed.  Most found the whole “camp the portal spawns in Stormwind” funny for a few hours but those same people are complaining now when it happens to them.  Personally I’ve managed to avoid being munched on more than a few times but others are not so lucky.

Durability

One of the main reason people are being irked at the above is that it causes durability damage to die as a ghoul. They really should remove it - it’s pvp in a basic sense and should not cause gear damage - especially when you can even be ganked in Shattrath, which is supposed to be a sanctuary.  Personally, if I portal, I switch out my gear for my [Brewfest Regalia] if  I have the bag space - meaning that the only inconvenience I have is a walk back from the graveyard if I get zombified.

The Ugly

Scourge Invasion Spawn Points

Limited mobs + limited time event + spawned rares = ? Yeah, chaos and ninja-tagging etc.  I’m quite sickened by the number of players who’ve been standing in the centre of the spawn points, AoEing and trying to take the Shadow’s of Doom - without using their own scourge stones.   I’ve even had people kite a mob away which I had ‘paid for’ and pulled it so far that it reset… and then they tagged it.  That really irked me as I could do nothing against it (resto shaman cannot out aggro a t6 hunter…) and wasted some of my shards so that someone else could reap the reward.

I’ve been running with some guildies, though, (on my druid) and we managed to grab two to three per spawn point most times (using our own stones) and blasted them down despite whole groups of paladins, warlocks and mages trying to AoE tag them.

Complaints

The never-ending stream of wailing which is happening slightly irritates me, to be honest. Particularly the ones who claim that Blizzard is ripping off all of its customers? (I for one do not wish said people speaking in my name, tyvm)  I can understand being a bit upset at being ganked whilst levelling or being irked at the fact you can’t get to the raid on time because the flight master is looking a bit thin and gristley but going on and on for hours that you hate Blizz and how dare they make a world event?

Sorry, not listening, out having fun at said event!

It was only for a few days and, in my opinion it’s too much fun to worry about overly much.  A world event which will only happen once? Count me in!

Nagaluiz in this thread on the mmo-champion forums put it nicely:

It’s a wonderful transition to the events of the opening of the next expansion, and should be enjoyed. It seems that the only people who are whining are those who are still taking the next two weeks seriously and don’t realize the futility of most of what they do at the present time. Have fun with it, and think of the bigger picture. Would you rather a huge, once in your WoW career experience leading up to the invasion of the major cities by Arthas’ minions, or just one day randomly being able to enter Northrend?

I think most would agree that this, like the previous world event for TBC (which wasn’t nearly as thought out/good), adds quite some flavor to the wait for Wrath. The zombies are supposed to be annoying. They’re supposed to decimate the cities. They are supposed to serve as a juxtaposition to what you would actually be feeling if you were a resident of Azeroth, the frustration of the endless battle against the undead Scourge who just keep coming back up after you kill them, not unlike that of Arthas during the time of his descent… As Lionne said, it’s probably the best event they’ve ever done, because they’re forcing people to get involved, to want to kill the undead.

I know there are a lot of you who do not agree with this post who aren’t just whinging, for instance, BigBearButt has written an interesting tirade against the zombie event that I couldn’t help but link (though I still, respectfully, disagree) as has Lume but I do rather wish that more people would be open to the fact that one could like this event and not be a ganking asshat.

I personally spent my time as a zombie for one evening killing any player who came nearby and since then have neither looked for infection nor avoided it.  Oddly, though, I was only infected once and corpse exploded myself so as not to take durability damage (I was on my way to a raid or I mght have gone to eat some tasty Shattered Sun elfses.  I spent most of my gametime these last few days out purging the scourge and didn’t really have any issues with people griefing me.  If I was worried I might get killed at an Auction House or Bank I’d just go to a quieter city (Exodar or Darnassus).

5 days of madness, with, as Cynra points out, an insane amount of emotional involvement.  Love of loathe it, anyone who was around will not forget this event.

This was meant to be a short roundup of my thoughts. Bugger!

Ah love takin’ pictures and posin’ fer some too but y’see it takes a wee bit o’ pokin’ aboot tae get the results ye want.

What we have here is a rare creature on this blog:  a post about blogging itself.  Not going too far, of course, it’s about something in particular I like to use on my blog (as do many others), namely images.

Images, pictures, portraits, doodles, sketches or representations - whichever type or flavour you pick it will generally enhance your posts.  I have always been a very image-centric person - I like art, animation and video as well as creating websites and ‘graphics’.  It was only natural for me, then, to add a lot of art and imagery to my blog when I began it, though it took a little while to get the kind of pictures I wanted.

Why use images?

Although bolding some of your sentences, adding headings, italics and using various ·lists as well as plenty of  s p a c e s can give structure to your posts I find that it is images which can make me stop and really look at a post.  I could insert a cheesy line about a picture saying a thousand words but, to be honest, I believe that the way I (and perhaps blogs in general) use them is more in line with adding pepper to soup - it enhances the ‘flavour’ of the surrounding text and makes it tastier to eat.  Read.  Devour?

Images can also be used as visual clues - when I write a post about my shaman I usually include a picture of him - same for my druid, rogue and hunter.  A lot of people use this method if they have multiple authors so it’s no big leap to utilise it if you’re a frequent, chronic sufferer of the dreaded altitis.  Using Aurik as a model I hope I can illustrate reasonably simply how I make shiny images for my blog assuming basic knowledge of image editing.

Before I begin I will note that this isnae a ‘how to make shiny images of awesome dhoom’, a guide on how to upload / capture pictures and it also definitely isnae the only way to do things.  It’s  simple few tips / short guide about how to make some half-decent, quick images for your blog - in my opinion, unless your blog is centred around the images you use then making them should not take longer than writing the post. *grin*

There are two types of images I will cover: Screenshots and WoWModelViewer based images.  I don’t really like non-game images in my WoW blog so I’m afraid that’s all yer getting from me.

Read more

This post details the druid epic flight form quest.  If you do not wish to be spoiled for it then please look away now!

I can’t seem to get my blog to cut in feed-readers so I’m going to add a nice, big, shiny picture so that you can hopefully remain unspoiled if that is your wish.

Read more

Through the hard times and the good.

I have to celebrate you baby…

- Fatboy Slim, Praise You

Wow, just wow.  Wow.  Did I say WOW yet?

WOW.

Welcome to your 100th post edition of /hug!

I can’t believe I’m at 100 posts and I can only offer immense thanks to those who drop by, read and comment once in a while!

I started this blog back on the 5th of February.  I had no real goals regarding writing about a particular aspect of wow but simply said: “This is a blog about me, WoW and what I like about it.” I wanted to share, I wanted to become a better writer and I wanted to play with making pretty pictures.  It took me a little while to get into my stride, to be able to write posts shorter than a small novella and to figure out how to make those shiny images sit correctly on the page, though.

Blogging about wow has increased my love of the game - I investigate things more now, I get linked to things concerning aspects of the game I never realised.  I’ve made some new friends via blogging and learned an awful lot.  I can’t thank the Blog Azeroth community enough - not only for bringing me to all of those bloggers, but also for giving me awesome post fodder.

So, what are you getting for this special (to me, anyway) post? This is a post about growth, about goals and personal achievements and the biggest ‘growth’ factor in WoW is our characters.  Whether we have one or five we have all made that journey from level one up.  Thus, I went searching through my archives and dug up some old-school screenshots of my characters when they started their journeys.

I hope a few others will do this too -  find the earliest possible screenshots of your now super-cool 70’s! Kind of like your mother embarassing you in front of your friends with your baby photos, mwuhahaha!  So, 100th post and Sunday Screenies all in one.  /score

Oh and I forgot in my last post (I pre-write them) to say a big HELLO to Leafy! He’s taken refuge from G-Drama to come visit Softi and I on Bloodhoof.  /hugs  I think Softi and I both scared our guildies with all the squeeing…

Whit dae ye mean ah’m shifty lookin’? Did ah ever dae somethin’ to you?! Hmph.  Seems everybody these days thinks a rogue is some sort of bad guy or somethin’ *grumble

I am concerned.  There seems to be a prevalent belief amongst players that rogues are mean / idiots / kids / ninjas (not the cool bandana-wearing type).  I really don’t like that fact that people will assume, when I join a group, that I am one of the above.  I’ve never ninja’d something, I am not a child and I don’t think I act like one (with strangers, anyway) and I most definitely try not to be mean.  I am a happy person, an optimistic one.

Why is it, then, that rogues have such a bad rep?  I mean, I’ve personally had more issues with mages being arses to me but it doesn’t mean I’ll assume that any mage I group with is an arse.  What I think of people is usually based on their performance or manner.  They get kudos even if they do mess up, if they realise and apologise for their mistakes as it at least means they are aware of them (and is a courtesy I hope will be extended to me when I mess up).

So, why do people hate rogues?  The class makes up around 12% of the player base according to Warcraft Realms - not the highest but equal to warriors and just below hunters in popularity.  Hunters have had a bad rep in general for a long time but it’s only recently I’ve noticed such a high rogue hostility outside of pvp so whats the deal?

Stunlocking- Nothing can be more frustrating than not having control over your own character.  A lot of frustration about rogues seems to stem from the fact that a lollermaces rogue can keep someone stunned whilst smashing their health into the ground.  Calmly explaining that I hate pvp and couldn’t stunlock or burst damage my way out of a paper bag makes no difference.  All rogues are stunlocking buggers with…

‘No skill’ - It takes no skill to play a rogue, apparently.  It’s ‘easymode’ since all rogues can stunlock everyone to death.  See above.  About the only time I’d agree with this is when a rogue is weilding lollermaces - procs are not skill and this works for warriors, too.   However, learning to keep someone locked down takes a little time and effort.  Doing it well and being able to recover from their attempts to break out of it even more so.

From both these points, all I have to say is ‘don’t hate rogues just because they handed your arse to you in pvp’.

Also, rogue dps in pve is simple.  This does not mean that it is easy to be a good rogue.  To make the most of my dps I had to sit down and work on my combat cycle - yes rogues might have a reputation for sinister strike spam and that is partly true but I have to keep up SnD 100% of the time, try to juggle so that rupture has high uptime, too, and time my burst cooldowns to maximise both of these - just like most other classes.  Oh and I have to do it whilst running in and out of melee range for most bosses.  Now, this is something I, personally, revel in.  When we have a melee on Azgalor I ask to be that melee.  Standing killing infernals is deathly boring and though running in and out of a fire is less ’safe’ I know how to deal with it and relish the challenge it brings to playing my cycles.

Either way, I don’t think rogues are especially easy compared to other classes in pve dps situations.

Ninja-ing - Apparantly rogues are common committers of the foul deed of ninja-ry.  Now, I’ve never experienced this and never done it myself so I really don’t understand where it comes from - rogues are limited as to what they can wear (leather, cloth) and can wield a far smaller number of weapons than, say, a warrior or hunter.  I can’t explain this one as, like I say, I’ve never experienced it.

DPS - This is an issue of sheer e-peen and I have seen this working both ways.  Rogues are seen as being concerned overly with their dps.  Guess what?  It’s all a rogue can bring to most encounters (bar a little cc) so it will be foremost in their thoughts.  I have seen rogues picked on for not being top dps even when horribly undergeared comparative to whoever is preening and I have seen rogues who strut their epeen about being highest dps versus other class with dual roles or responsibilites.  This is a player-by-player issue and is committed to some degree by all classes capable of dpsing.

Any arse who cares more baout his personal dps than the raid / group is an arse - it doesn’t matter what class s/he is.

Loot Entitlement - This is another one where I can see from both sides of the argument - having to compete with feral druids, fury warriors, enhancement shaman and hunters for some loot can be irritating (as I’m sure it is for them to have to compete with rogues) but everyone is entitled to the loot which will help them progress.
However, the amount of bitching you hear when someone even suggests that a piece is ‘nice for rogues’ is astounding.  All I hear from most is ‘must justify why I want to take this piece of loot’ rather than being able to sit down and say ‘Yeah, nice loot for a rogue and, hey, my fury warrior would love that too’.  Some stuff will actually benefit one class more than another but, to be honest, it really depends on the player making best use of it so is more case-by-case.

I’d love to hear anything you could add to this list - even if just to be aware of possible prejudices I might face if I leave the swaddling of my usual guild groups.

However, I can’t let it rest at that, so I’m going to add some reasons you should like rogues.

Stuns - Not stunlocking, per say, but stuns in general - quite often myself and another rogue will take a necromancer in Mount Hyjal and trade stuns, burning down an untanked / un cc’d mob.  They can also take the heat from a healer in an aggro touchy fight, giving the tank a few seconds to pick the battered mob up before it chews its way through the squishy.

Vanish - Unlike some other dps classes the tank should not need to worry so much about aggro concerning rogues as a vanish will drop him/her below the radar with concern to theat even if their dps is phenomonal.

Lockboxes - Well, noone else is going to unlock those 20 Eternium Lockboxes you have stashed on your bank alt…

Lockpicking - I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked to open Arca / SH / DM / whatever instance door when noone has a key.  Thank your local rogue for bothering to spend the time maxing their lockpicking skill!

Ok, so most of these are pretty arbitrary but, to be honest, you should appreciate any and every good player.  Their class does not matter, at all!  If someone is going to be a twit then they will be one irregardless.  Believing someone will be a bad player because of their class is unfair and will often make you judge them harsher than if you’d assumed neither way to begin with - thus fulfilling your (negative) expectations.

Appreciate any player who is good - no matter what their class.  Some classes are seen as ‘easier’ (lol faceroll huntard, warlol, rog) but to be great at something you have to try.  It’s usually obvious when someone is trying and when they’re not.

So, go out there and give your local lovable ruffian some /hugs!

Well, so far the Midsummer Fire Festival has been a great hit this year and everyones bin havin’ fun!  Wi’ all that’s been goin’ on it’s nice tae see adventurers oot enjoyin’ themself.  If ye huvnae been oot tae try any o’ the events yet make sure ye have a go!

Like I mentioned in my last post - replayability is one of the things I particularly like to examine.  There has been much hoo-haa on the wow blogo-sphere recently about what makes you come back, what makes you stay, what makes you addicted even and I guess replayability somewhat ties into that - if nothing ever changes then why come back?

I was very glad to see Blizz had not dropped the ball on this event like I felt they somewhat had on the Lunar Festival.  Events like the fire festival seem well attended - a good proportion of my guild has done the bonfire runs - unlike collecting for Noblegarden and the Lunar Festival (which were mostly skipped, especially by those who had participated before).

The Midsummer Fire Festival is another ’step up’ in events, in my opinion.  It has greater levels of interactivity and reward than any other in-game events to date.  What makes me think this?

Lunar Festival

• Quests
• Outfits
• Consumables
• Rep

Love is in the Air

• Quests
• Outfits
• Consumables
• Special Boss Drop ([Bouqet of Red Roses])

Noblegarden

• Outfits
• Consumables

Children’s Week

• Quests
• Non-Combat Pet

Midsummer Fire Festival

• Quests
• High Level Items
• Daily Quests
• Dungeon Boss
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• Buffs
• ‘Fun’ Items*

Harvest Festival

• Quests
• Consumables

Brewfest

• Quests
• Daily Quests
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*

Hallow’s End

• Quests
• High Level Items
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*
• Repeatable (non-daily) Quests (Trick or Treating)

Winter Veil / New Years

• Quests
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*
• Repeatable (non-daily) Quests (Revelers)
• Special Boss Drop ([Red Winter Hat], [Green Winter Hat])
• Holiday Recipes

*(Things such as the Brazier, Pony Keg or Eyesight ‘Enhancing’ Goggles)

We can see from this list that, currently, the Midsummer Fire Festival outstrips most others by quite a lot.  Winter’s Veil comes close, though, as does Hallow’s End and Brewfest which have all been added to or updated in the last year or so.

Some, such as the upcoming Brewfest, will have the new ideas from previous events added - it will be gaining a dungeon boss, for example - with some new fun items and loot.  It is obvious to see that some events have far more planning but this is not a definitive marker of success - Children’s Week, for example, offers only a couple of quests and two non-combat pets per person but seems quite popular.

Now, it’s obvious that Blizzard can’t give us something akin to the Midsummer Fire Festival every month - it’d be too much work for them and us! You need some downtime, in my opinion, to enjoy the ‘up’ time more.  Having the small holidays give those who need a little vacation from the serious side of WoW time to relax and kick about doing something silly is nice - there’s nothing much lost if you don’t do them, though, so people don’t feel the need to drop everything and do the associated events.

Replayability

In terms of replayability, though, the updated events are gaining strongly.  Children’s Week’s popularity is, in my mind, high because there is a TBC-level quest which incorporates and enhances the general TBC level things.  That and people love new non-combat pets. *ahem*

The Midsummer Fire Festival took the success that was Brewfest and added what they had also learned from the Hallow’s End event.  Combining all of their ideas from both events has made for one rather huge festival which is extensive and even a little daunting at times.  It gives new ‘phat lewt’ for those who care about it, has a fun new boss encounter, gets you jaunting around the world and maybe enjoying a little world pvp while you’re at it.  You can grab an item to enjoy with your friends and an outfit which will look spiffy in those first-kill screenshots or when you’re idling at the bank / AH.

They’re not, however, just adding replayability to the festival itself, though, and this is where I start to get gleeful.  Like the Headless Horseman event they’re pushing people back into instances that are otherwise quiet - Slave Pens is an Outlands instance but I know I hadn’t been in it for a few months at least on my rogue as I need nothing from it and no guildies have asked about running it either.  The event is deemed quite hard at the moment but I wonder if they’ll keep it next year as it’ll, then, be a fun way to boost a few alts through an event and get them some nice gear before they hit Northrend.

With the Brewfest event they’ll be adding a boss in BRD, if I remember rightly.  Now, I go visit BRD every once in a while just for some fun - stealthing about and getting enchanting patterns and the like - but I bet a lot of people haven’t been there for quite some time or even at all!

Group Items

I mentioned fun items above and I want to look a little more closely at these and why I like the idea of them.  A few of these items I deem as ‘group’ items.  That is, they are more fun if used in a social situation - namely the pony keg and the brazier of dancing flames.  Adding items which encourage interaction is a way of getting people excited over holidays - some people who were never bothered about getting themselves something will go out of their way to get an item which allows for fun in a social situation - for example, people buying braziers because it’d make a fun item for raid downtime.

Adding new group quests which do not take as long to do as, say, a whole instance or daily dungeon / heroic is also a nice touch.  Some groups are finding it hard to complete them, though, which Siha at Banana Shoulders touches on here.  This is something I really think they should look at - I feel the event is supposed to be challenging (requires tactics knowledge) but shouldn’t be overwhelming (i.e. need really good gear / particular class specs).

So, What Now?

Now, I’m not going to sit here and cry about wanting all events to have the same masses of items / quests / etc. that the newly re-done ones have - I appreciate the effort which has gone into those which have been updated and the continual renewal of older events to make them more fun to re-do year by year, alt by alt.  However, there are some small suggestions I’d make for the events which have not been re-done - with an eye to the fact that these will likely be staying as small events (though it would be nice to get a boost around April/May when there’s little else happening and the weather can be quite miserable!)

• New Items - This one is simple.  Add eggs in Outlands for Noblegarden, for example, with different things in them - a new elegant type of dress and a new pant-suit for Love is in the Air which doesn’t look like pyjamas for example.  Perhaps patterns for them? Matching hat / shoes / belt?  I’m not much into making outfits for my characters but I know some people who are.  The Lunar Festival dresses / suits are some of my favourite for bank alts - perhaps new colours or cloaks to match?  Adding more random drops to current bosses (like the hats and roses) would also be fun.
• New Quests - I really do love the ‘honouring’ quests from the Harvest and Lunar festivals but it would be nice if they refreshed these - perhaps incorporating themes from the expansion - Honoring the  Shattered Sun memorial, for instance.
• Adding Outlands (and eventually Northrend) - A lot of the events happen only in the ‘Old World’  - it would be nice to see it spread through Outlands.  Where people go, so do their customs!  This has been done, a little, but it would be nice to see it continue so that, when Northrend is out and we’re bored of all the cool colours, we can come back and get some warmth in Outlands.

Ok, so I’m not terribly imaginitive but even simple small additions like this would, in my eyes, add to replayability.  I want more ways to play, more fun things to collect, more ways to interact with friends old and new.  I’ve actually met quite a few people this week due to running around doing the Fire Festival quests through either explaining to them how to do certain aspects or, in one instance, being helped through a capital city to get my flame (A big thanks to the warlock who ran ahead of me to aggro the guards in Thunder Bluff to and from the flame! Hehehe). This is the sort of stuff that I love looking at and one of the reasons I enjoy playing WoW - they’re not just throwing up superficial festivity items around the place but they go quite some way to integrate it into the world and make it appeal across all levels.

Each an’ every place I’ve been to has it’s own unique flavor. Some seem harder for me tae do, some harder for mah friends. It’s all aboot what skills ye can utilise at the time, ‘ken? Some o’ us are blessed wi’ sneakery and skills which are useful - others bring a solid, big lump o’ ‘presence’ tae any adventurin’ party and yet others, well, they bring ways tae benefit the group. Now, in mah mind, ah’d rather go wi’ someone ah knew and trust than just someone wi’ a trick up their sleeve but maybe that’s jist me.

This is not a whine, nor a ’screw you instance designers’ post - it is simply a look at how Blizzard have been moving forward with their instance design, how that can affect which instances are ‘unfair’ given certain class combinations and what ways there are to get around this. Initially this was, as you might suspect, a post I had started thinking about when Magister’s Terrace first came out but I believe it is, has been and will continue to be relevant for The Burning Crusade and Wrath expansions.

First of all, we have to look at what instances are for. They are there to give us a challenge, to go beyond the level of the world quests and grind and, with a group, have some fun or at least experience something different.

So, what’s the ‘problem’? Well, first of all a group comprises of five people. Out of 9 (soon 10) classes you can only have a small selection - which means lacking the key abilities of any classes you do not bring with you. This, to get rid of the big loomy thing, includes, but is not limited to, crowd control (including off-tanking) as well as AoE (tanking and damage), anti-crowd control (fear ward, tremor totem), HoTs, specific damage reduction (heavy melee dmg versus heavy magic encounters) and debuffs (wounding poison, mortal strike abilities).

Some examples where class-specific abilites are extremely beneficial:

• Shattered Halls - Paladin AoE tanking.
• Mana Tombs - Tremor totems / grounding totem.
• Steam Vaults - Multiple crowd control.
• Magister’s Terrace - Multiple crowd control.
• Slave Pens / Underbog - Nature resist + anti-poison abilities.
• Botanica - Fire resistance auras / totems + cleansing totems.

These are mostly what I can remember off the top of my head and kind of focussed around the classes I personally play (druid, shaman, rogue) as they’re, obviously, easier to remember for me but there are plenty more instances of certain utility spells, abilities or class mechanics making certain instance runs easier.

Now, you might be thinking: I totally don’t need that stuff, it’s easy to do it without! Think back to when you weren’t overgeared, or when you run a harder heroic etc. i.e. Where you’ll be when you first hit those Wrath instances on your way to 80. Heroic Underbog, way back then when it used to be a pain - I remember just standing back and abolishing / throwing hots as my feral druid as it made the fight far easier than me clawing at the arse end of Hungarfen. Utility over raw dps!

In fact, the five man setting is really quite different to that of the raid setting. Ten or twenty-five man bosses are supposed to take a long time, test your healers mana pool, your tanks avoidance / stamina and your dps’s pewpew. But, in a five man, the fights have to be a lot shorter and a little simpler. Why? Because you can’t be guaranteed some things which you might get in a raid - synergy in raids is what makes them able to last much longer than five groups of five would if all were split into the same structures as a five man.

As an example… in a raid my shaman might be in a group with other healers and a shadow priest. He’d get the benefit of paladins blessing, druid buffs, and mana regen from the priest, whilst giving his own totem buffs to them. In an instance he may get these but often he won’t. His mana totem has no use for the tank and the LotP aura does little for him as he’s not doing damage (ok, so it might make his work easier but you should get my point). Synergy is not guaranteed in five mans.

So here comes the rub. Blizzard wants to make encounters more challenging but are faced with the decision or trying to make it so that everyone can be useful. This is, obviously, entirely possible but the problem comes where there is a mechanic which makes one class far more preferable to another. People are fickle and will try to maximise their groups so as to take the least time and to run the most smoothly.

Magister’s Terrace was a big example of this. I’m glad I’ve waited some time to come around to this article as things have settled down enough to see how it’s panned out. From what I’m seeing in LFG and in guild normal MgT has become a little looser - people are willing to take fewer crowd control classes if the class in question has some other utility (i.e. shamans). I still see dps warriors and crittycats/boomkins being snubbed as they’re not seen as being useful enough to warrant one less cc. I have actually seen groups break up because there was no cc available even when there were plenty of non-cc available. Multiple melee are also still seen as a disadvantage as they make the healer’s job much more difficult. The third boss is easy if you can control all of the adds and burst them down in turn, for instance. If you don’t you can expect a dead healer most of the time. Crowd control is simply what makes this instance harder for it’s level than most other instances in TBC.

Heroic is even worse - one of our enhancement shamans ended up respeccing to resto just so he could have a shot at gear from MgT.

The thing is… this is probably one of the few instances I’d say is really nice and challenging now. Even on normal if you’re not paying attention a slip can cause a wipe. Good gear really doesn’t help much if you miss-pull or don’t kill the orbs or get charged by the warrior-mob etc. It is, in my mind, a sort of five person raid instance.

In vanilla wow, half of the ‘challenge’ was in the length, interesting pulls, big pulls, special debuffs etc. They’ve already said they’re intending non-heroic’s in Wrath to take around an hour or less - no more long slogs! However, this increases the need for more gimmicks to make the places challenging. If you can ‘breeze through’ it in 45 mins to one hour then are you really going to feel like it was a challenge? Now, MgT feels like a challenge even if you do complete it in one hour so I can see the designers plotting things with more intrinsic difficulty but how are they going to do it without over-reliance on one set of class abilities?

• Some mention has been made of using flying mounts within the instances - a gimmick (and not I do not use the word entirely negatively) which will, at least, make the place more interesting. How they implement it will very much depend on how much people end up feeling about it - too complex and people will dislike it, too simple and it will just be plain gimmicky (in the bad sense). Changing controls is not a thing a lot of people like to or are able to do quickly (i.e. Construct handling on Teron). If they ‘teach’ people how to handle it outside the instance, with quests, as seems likely given the interviews then we might see it working better. Of course, this is all speculative until we see what they do with it.
• Time trials are another thing which makes an instance more challenging. We’ve seen it in Zul’Aman and with some quests within five mans but it would be another way to make things more interesting or challenging. Of course, it’s a way to make it more frustrating, too, but it gives the place more replayability and that’s a big plus in my eyes. If the ‘time trial’ is limited to extra loot or extra benefits then I’d say it’d be a good mechanic to add to more instances.
• Wave instances - that is, where you are swamped by wave after wave of mobs and then get to a boss monster. Hate them or love them they certainly make an instance challenging. Think of the first few times you ran BM? It’s another way to keep the instance short too.

I’d certainly like to see them expand upon what they have as well as innovating something that I probably wouldn’t have even dreamed of. Utilising methods such as the time trials and wave instances make things more challenging without making it imperative to have one class type. More instance design like this will help work towards ‘fairer’ five mans and is something I certainly hope to see in Wrath.

Now I’m going back to shiny spam posts for a while… /ded

Well, ah like tae get from A to B in style and there’s nothin’ better than gliding along on the back ‘o a nightsaber or, if ye feel like takin’ tae the skies, a nether drake. Tae be honest wi ye, ah think ah’m gonnae huv tae start my own stables wi all the mounts I have!

Blame Fim for this post… and the title. It’s his fault. No really. He’s ‘the man’ when it comes to post-title-jokes which invariably make me groan. Go check out some of them here.

Mounts are our companions, always with us and taking us to places we wish to go faster than we could on foot. They are a cornerstone of the WoW economy - with many people spending the majority of their gold on getting one. They can be a status symbol, a roleplaying companion or simply a fast way from A to B but for a few people one is not enough!

Personal Mounts
I loves them all even though I don’t really have any special ones. A while ago I posted about getting my mist ’saber - a mount I’ve wanted for quite some time and was asked if I had named it. I haven’t yet, but I’ve not been averse to doing so in the past when I’ve been so fond of a mount or worked hard to get it.

Mharai, my first druid, was on an RP server. Her ’schtick’ was that she was an avid collector and breeder of oversize mounts for the use of Tauren. I’m not really into ‘epic’ roleplaying, can you tell? *ahem*

I’ve never owned a kodo on Mharai and set out to get a wolf for her at 40. It took me until level 43 to get it (not sure why) but I was happy and that wolf was the first mount I ever named: Ice. She was a brown wolf but I named her for the glacier-ice green/blue of her eyes. At 60 I got myself a white wolf and then set out towards Outlands with a greedy eye on all of the mounts I could now work towards.

I was always sorely disappointed that Tauren couldn’t ride some mounts - with a happy moment coming when I found that pvp raptors were Tauren-approved. I spent some time in battleground and came out with a rather huge lizard. If you’ve never seen a Tauren on a raptor you’re missing out. Doubly so as you’ll never have seen them on a raptor with the Sen’jin village buff, Winterfall Firewater and Bloodlust! (and, I’ve been told, the cookies from the Halloween Event also stack).

Collecting
Anyway! Like many others I enjoy collecting mounts and will go to silly degrees just to get myself one. I really do like how Blizzard has noticed the love of new mounts and made them available by, for instance, relatively easy rep-grinds. It’s something a little easier than pet collecting (though I do that too) but with more of a presence (I mean, who doesn’t gawp when someone rides by with the Anzu mount?)

Prior to patch 1.something it used to be the mount which cost (for example) 80 gold and the training was cheap. When this was changed (and subsequently the riding skill was changed to be across the board for all mount types) it meant that mount collecting was within the reach of more than just a rich few.

Mounts are something which you can get by yourself, with a group and pvp-ing - they have been integrated into all the common aspects of the game and something relatively rare is available to pretty much any level of player. They are not just a creature / flying machine to get around on but, like our gear, are status symbols. They also have the added benefit of increasing individuality in a world where often everyone is wearing nearly the same thing within their class!

The Burning Collectors?

Burning Crusade has catapulted mount collecting to a whole new level, in my mind. Before TBC, you were limited to your faction’s mounts and even getting some of those were hard (Troll and Nelfen mounts come to mind). PvP ones weren’t so easy to get and there were only a few rare dropped mounts in high level instances / raids (Tiger and Raptor from ZG, Baron’s Mount from Stratholme).

Burning Crusade changed all of that. Blizzard seem to have tuned into the fact that mounts were coveted and people would grind / pay rather a lot for them. Ok, they knew this already but half of that was a speed issue. What they had discovered here was the fact that people would pay or grind for a visual change rather than just a speed one. TBC saw an explosion of mounting options, not to mention a whole new category added - flying mounts.

Netherwing drakes were some of the first previewed (or, at least, some analogue thereof - I think they used the old drake model for the announcement) and I was terribly excited at the thought of riding around on a huge dragon! It felt so damned fantasy. Then, when I finally got to Outland, (rerolled at the start of TBC, mind) I realised this was in no way my only option. They had added not only the drakes to the basic selection of gryphons / wyverns but also Nether Rays and a plethora of ground mounts.

The talbuk seems to have been a huge hit as do the Amani Bears and players seem to love the inclusion of the other low-drop-rate mounts (Anzu bird, Midnight, Phoenix, White Hawkstrider). For some reason people didn’t seem to ‘click’ so well with the Cenarion Expedition hippogryphs, but maybe their expense is why I see so few!

Of course, there was also the addition of new racial ground mounts - Elekk’s and Hawkstriders. Both seem to have taken some ribbing (eww ugly huge mount and chooocooobooo or chicken) but I think each has their own loyal supporters.

Back to the Future?
I’m shying away from writing anything about Wrath at the moment as I really don’t think it’s worth commenting on stuff which hasn’t even gotten past alpha yet and will likely change a whole lot but some of the things concerning mounts piqued my interest. The following quote comes from the official website, for instance.

“Certain types of vehicles and mounts can now carry passengers, making it possible for players to, for example, break a prisoner out of a tightly guarded compound by attempting a daring escape on horseback… Even beyond the ability for vehicles to hold passengers, Wrath of the Lich King introduces an aerial combat system that will add a new dimension to gameplay.”

Looking at this and thinking in general terms I was wondering how Wrath might affect the ‘mount scene’ and what the new tier of riding skill would give us. I had, at first, assumed that we’d simply been given a riding ‘pass’ to allow us to ride in Northrend - some crazy quest thought up by gnomes which meant we had to have some type of license. However, it seems the next ‘tier’ will be one which effects not only ourselves and our speed but also our gameplay. Mounts, in Wrath, seem to have become more integral to play than ever before.

I’m also looking forward to seeing what WotLK brings by way of new mounts looks-wise. I’ve seen pics here and there of polar/grizly bear mounts and zhevra mounts. Both of these would be awesome (I mean, c’mon, a dwarf on a bear? That right there is win) as would being able to ride those new Shovel Tusks - hell, I want to know why I couldn’t get a Clefthoof mount!

An awesome resource for mounts is Mania’s new project Warcraft Mounts. Go check it out and see if there’s anything you fancy working towards!

Ye want a wee rampage through them Scarlet buggers in their fancy-pants big hoose again? They never seem tae give up, do they? Ach aw right, as suppose we can go an smite evil an’ all that stuff - ust make sure ye stay at mah back, ok?

“Hey guys, someone fancy giving me a boost in SM?” It’s become pretty commonplace to see this sort of request in guild chat (well, in my guilds chat anyway) and I’ve seen some debate concerning the issue in guild chat and in general. I had a think about it and decided I’d write those thoughts down here on the blog (it’s what it’s for afterall, right?)

So, what is a boost? I’m sure most people are familiar with the term but for those who are not: It is when a high level character groups with a low level character(s) and they complete an instance or quests for the purpose of the lower one gaining xp and / or items generally more quickly than if they had done so on their own / with a group their own level.

Why Boosting is Bad

• People don’t get the chance to learn their class in a group setting
• People don’t ‘work’ themselves for themselves
• Cultivates lazyness
• Annoys people when others always ask
• Less xp

Why Boosting is Good

• Faster runs
• More xp
• A chance to get good loot without having to worry about rolls
• You’ll actually see the instance instead of just levelling past it..
• You can do a bunch of instance quests quickly

Now some of these might seem contradictory - do you get more xp or less? Well you will gain less XP by having a level 70 in your party - annoyingly I cannot find an ‘official’ link with the exact numbers - Ghosthoof has provided me with a link! But your xp per mob at, for example, level 25 will go down considerably when partied with a level 36 (more than ten levels) or higher player i.e. when the mobs become grey to that person. However! You’ll be able to complete Scarlet Monastery Cathedral in about 30 minutes or so as compared to over an hour in a level-equivalent group - so your xp / hour is a lot higher. If, in the time you would have taken to do the instance with a full group at your level, you could get three boost runs then you’ll have gotten much more xp. This is due to the fact, also, that your xp gain is reduced in a party of same levels dependant on the number of them.

The biggest outcry, though, that I’ve heard against boosting and levelling changes is that people don’t learn their class. This seems a valid point - less experience = less class knowledge. However, how many holy priests do you meet when levelling? Or prot warriors? Sure, there are some, but the majority of people would actually be learning how to tank, heal or dps in a way they will no be doing at 70. Yes, even dps-ing is different at 70 than when levelling! So, those people could be hitting 70 without having gotten used to the quirks of their ‘main spec’ anyway.

In addition to this, many of the powerful class spells or abilities are not available until level 60+ - Heroism/Bloodlust, Lifebloom, Spellsteal, Seed of Corruption and mass dispel being some of the ones I could think of which would not be in that persons arsenal even if they were specced as far as they could be into their preferred raiding / high level partying spec.

The lazyness issue is one which flip-flops in my mind - some people are lazy and do spam chat all day asking for a boost when they could be out levelling - but others ask only when they want a boost past a particularly hated area or want a specific item. Not all players who want boosts are being lazy. This also ties in with people getting annoyed about being asked for boosts - those who are lazy are usually those who won’t even bother being thankful and / or will ask over and over again until someone is sick of boosting them or hearing about them asking for a boost. This means that someone else asking for a more ‘legitimate’ reason may be shot down too, sadly. Of course, there is also the fact that people want to kick back and relax and their idea of that is not running someone through RFD three times.

Now, personally, I like giving boosts but only to specific instances. In fact I sometimes actively ask people if they want a run through SFK or SM for instance as I love those instances and can do them pretty quickly. I don’t mind doing DM once in a while but I don’t like running it repeatedly as it gets a bit boring. I love one-shotting things and seeing how much I can pull without killing myself (or my charge). I will often say no, however, to anyone asking for gnomer as I hate it. If someone bugs me for a run or whines at me then they go nowhere! hehe.

I know what it’s like to level alts, I have sympathy for people who just want a little xp boost now and then or wish to complete quests and get specific items but I will not tolerate lazy arses who just want their work done for them. Luckily I have not encountered many of these people. In fact, when I boost people it’s usually those I enjoy to hang out with anyway and is as much fun as running with them to any instance on their mains.

Old Skool

A quick look at the other side of things shows why boosting is so valuable to those lowbies and also why, on the other hand, it might be fun to go back and kick butt old style! Old skool style, in this context, I am using to refer to doing an instance at its preferred level with a group of people who’re also at that level.

Why Doin’ it Old Skool Style is Bad

• Hard to find people
• Even harder to find competent people
• Takes a long time to do some pre-tbc instances
• Loot doesn’t seem ‘worth it’
• No tanks / healers

Why Doin’ it Old Skool Style is Good

• Learning your new class’ early ‘oh shit’ buttons
• Can be more fun
• A challenge for you and your guildies
• A break from grinding / questing

Getting a group can be hard these days - sure everyone and their aunt has an alt but they’reall spread across the board levels wise and, unless you want to go to one of the ‘favoured’ instances then you’re not likely to get a group. However! Going back to an old instance and doing it with a bunch of people can be awesome fun.

I recently have been doing this with a friend in the guild whose priest is about the same level as my druid. We’ve been to Scarlet Monastery - Armory a couple of times and are planning on a possible trip to Razorfen Downs. At level 30-31 I was tanking it with him healing. He’s shadow but has some very nice healing gear and experience as a healer pre-tbc. We’ve five-manned the place with three pug members and four-manned it with a level 37 prot pala (a little easymode ahem) and a mage guildie. It’s possible to two man it, even, at this level, but it does end up going a little slower. There really is much more of a sense of achievement doing this but it does suck up a lot more time - I could level faster with quests but they’re not always as much fun.

Balance

Really, what it takes is balance - especially when it comes to having fun when levelling. If it’s your second, third, fourth or even fifth plus character you don’t want to put up with pugs and waiting and idiocy etc and may want to level as fast as possible boosts allow you to get a whole bunch of xp and equipment fast. However, that can become pretty soulless and, if you want to learn your new class a little better, or at least train your reflexes to it’s earlier panic buttons (OMG BEARFORM *Poof*) then it might be worth hitting up an old instance with some guildies of your level.

There’s also the fact that it feels very different to go back to an instance you can easily smash our way through and have a hard time, have to think about the pulls and generally take in the atmosphere more.

Happy low-level instancing however you, personally, decide to experience it!