Guild Achievement System Brings the Ban-Hammer on AIE

As you will recall from my earlier series of articles on how to build a successful guild, I am a member of two very large guilds on Earthen Ring - US. My first guild on Alliance side is The Illuminati, which has 396 characters as of this writing. A very big guild, to be sure. But The Illuminati is dwarfed of course by Alea Iacta Est, my horde side guild better known as the largest guild in the game across all servers. AIE has 6792 characters right now and is a fantastic community of gamers who are a great resource for leveling, professions, grouping, and anything else you want to do in the game. There has always been some problems with AIE and the guild interface, which is only designed to handle 500 characters. Nevertheless, AIE got along just fine and nicely asked Blizzard to fix the problem if they could, despite it being very low priority.

However, a blue post yesterday shattered AIE and fellow mega-guilds like Taint, Goon Squad, and others. As of patch 4.0.1, which looks like it will be next Tuesday, all guilds will have a hard cap of 600 members. You will not be able to add more characters unless you are below 600. Which means AIE, as of next week, will not add another new character ever again. No alts, no rerolls, no friends and no players that have been removed for being inactive for a few months. Not one more player, unless AIE gets below 600 members, which will not happen until the servers stop running in all likelihood. So while AIE and other mega-guilds will not have their rosters fractured or culled through at this time, they also will stagnate from here on out in the existence of Azeroth.

While I disagree with blizzard on disallowing mega guilds after 6 years of setting a precedent with them in the game, the real problem is how they've brought this change about. There was literally no warning, and AIE is thrown into absolute chaos right now as the officers deal with another big challenge. I'm sure they will step up to the task and keep the guild moving on, but that's no excuse. The stated reason is actually that Blizzard cannot or does not want to handle the additional work of tracking individual statistics for more than 600 characters when figuring out guild achievements. Reading between the lines, they don't want to make people flock to mega-guilds who will earn guild achievements faster. Or if you take a pessimistic view, this is just a lame excuse for them to do something they have wanted to do for years, which is kill the mega guild.

However, AIE is one of the most active communities of WoW players because many of them listen to The Instance and talk actively about wow to their friends, more so probably than non-listeners of the major wow podcasts. While they throw around server load like it is a major concern, they are allowing AIE and other mega guilds to continue existing while fixing the guild interface and achievement problems for everyone, mega guilds included. So they fixed the problem, but undercut our guild at the same time. And make no mistake about it, there will be some kind of backlash, whether it be at Blizzcon where 300 AIE guildies or more are planning to attend, or in public forums such as blogs and podcasts. There will be public comment on this, even if it does only affect 0.1% of guilds (a misleading number because there are a massive amount of players in those guilds compared to the many bankalt guilds and personal guilds).

The real fix to the problem is good game design, and specifically good achievement and guild perk design. Guild perks from achievements should not be major draws for people to a guild, they should just be time savers and nifty other benefits that allow you to make the game slightly easier. Think of these like heirlooms, not talents that must be had by everyone. The achievements should be designed so all serious guilds including small raiding guilds can get all the available perks within a few months of cataclysm's release. Sure, the large guilds will get these perks a bit quicker, but that will not matter as long as the perks are not must-have items. The simple solution would have been to remove all mega guilds (defined as guilds with more than 600 members) from getting any realm-first type guild achievements. This levels the playing field for those with fewer members, and stops the world from becoming a bunch of mega guilds.

In reality, Blizzard has the power to make the guild interface work, as proven by their assertion that it will now work for guilds of all sizes post-cataclysm. However, this decision is a result of plain lazy achievement design. Remember, achievements were added to the game in WOTLK to give people something else to play for, something else to enjoy. Now achievements are being used as a pitiful excuse to slam some of the best communities in Azeroth. AIE has recently transcended warcraft and is moving into other games such as Eve online, and it's all because the community is supportive and great. Taint is a wonderful community of gay, lesbian, transgender players who support each other in game and out. And all the new players who come into cataclysm as wow 2.0 will never get to experience either of these communities. Now I understand there will be sister guilds and networked chat and people will prevail with workarounds, but it will not be the same as having one guild for all your members.

So lazy design in a relatively unimportant aspect of the game (achievements) now leads to the death of growth forever in AIE and other mega guilds. I was planning to move either my shaman or my druid over to Horde side with the paladin to join AIE and have two main healers on either side of the fence in cataclysm. However, I wanted to wait for the new race/class combos to make the switch and it is easier to level on the alliance side with the sugar momma Ekat and the sugar Daddy Navar paying for everything the alts need. However, if I cannot join AIE, I will not transfer that character. So that's $25 out of Blizzard's bank account. And who knows, my limited interaction with AIE may eventually drive me away from the game. I know I'm not alone in that sentiment, and this comes at a terrible time as people come back for cataclysm after the usual doldrums breaks and they will not have that community to return to. In fact, most people server transfer or faction transfer to get into AIe with their favorite characters, but that will not happen anymore. That's money out of the bank account for Blizzard. Plus, even guilds like The Illuminati will likely start putting limits on people to 1-2 characters maximum, which stinks when you want to participate in a lively guild chat.

In fact, that brings up another possibility. Perhaps Blizzard wants to limit guild size to limit the usefulness of guild chat access in the mobile auction house application. Perhaps they do not want to enable a facebook-or-AIM like instant messaging service for the mega guilds most likely to use the service for that purpose alone. Again, this looks like they are willing to give up moderate cash gains to remove the major users from loading a service and making them design servers and systems well.

Again, I do not want to paint this like they are making AIE shatter immediately. But this is a ridiculous and unwarranted decision that has been made for all the wrong reasons, and Blizzard is simply not being honest with their consumers. That's just not right. And while we may be a small percentage of the playerbase, hopefully we are vocal enough to let Blizzard know that this action is in poor judgment, much like the idea to force forum users to use only real ID's was. Life will go on, but this blindside tactic by Blizzard is shocking to those of us affected and will not be forgotten when we are making the all-important decision on whether the good outweighs the bad in this game to keep on paying that monthly subscription.

If I'm in a particularly grumpy mood, my apologies. My favorite guild member in my alliance guild quit the guild for reasons I'm none too thrilled with. I'm certainly not going to take it out on guild leadership because they are not slighting me at this point, but my sense of community in that guild has also been seriously shaken this week. So it's a real shame, but both my guilds are currently leaving me disappointed, despite all that is good about them. Until next time, don't let bad judgment happen to you, at least not without a fight.

The Raiding Game Changes Forever

I had a bachelor weekend this weekend, so what did I do? I got into both of my guild raids of course! For a few weeks my Alliance guild has been running the weekly raid on Wednesday or Thursday, ICC-10 on either Saturday or Sunday, and ICC-25 on the other weekend day. Which means I ripped through Marrowgar, Deathwhisper, Gunship, Saurfang, Festergut, and Rotface on Saturday (and chewed glass on Dreamwalker). Sunday I ripped through the 10-man version of the same six bosses, and then we chewed glass on Professor and got him to 8%.

And here's the thing. While I enjoyed the opportunity to run with many different people and have many more opportunities at gear, I cannot imagine doing that repeat job every weekend or even very often. So then today's bomb dropped on raiding in Cataclysm, and it's one we should have seen coming. Here's the blue post.

We're designing and balancing raids so that the difficulty between 10- and 25-player versions of each difficulty will be as close as possible to each other as we can achieve. That closeness in difficulty also means that we'll have bosses dropping the same items in 10- and 25-player raids of each difficulty. They'll have the same name and same stats; they are in fact the exact same items. Choosing Heroic mode will drop a scaled-up version of those items. Our hope is that players will be able to associate bosses with their loot tables and even associate specific artwork with specific item names to a far greater extent than today.

Dungeon Difficulty and Rewards
10- and 25-player (normal difficulty) -- Very similar to one another in difficulty; drop the exact same items as each other.
10- and 25-player (Heroic difficulty) -- Very similar to one another in difficulty; drop more powerful versions of the normal-difficulty items.

We of course recognize the logistical realities of organizing larger groups of people, so while the loot quality will not change, 25-player versions will drop a higher quantity of loot per player (items, but also badges, and even gold), making it a more efficient route if you're able to gather the people. The raid designers are designing encounters with these changes in mind, and the class designers are making class changes to help make 10-person groups easier to build. Running 25-player raids will be a bit more lucrative, as should be expected, but if for a week or two you need to do 10s because half the guild is away on vacation, you can do that and not suffer a dramatic loss to your ability to get the items you want.

Of course the blogging network has fired up within twelve hours of the announcement. Two voices I value almost above all others in the community have already asked the question...will anybody continue to run 25 man content? While Blizzard promises quicker emblems and more gear for 25 mans, right now 25 man content drops 4 pieces of gear (16%) while 10 man content drops 2 pieces (20%). I expect this to be evened out or maybe only switched in the other direction to 6 pieces of gear. Bottom line - I expect gearing through 25 man content to be not that much faster than 10 man. So where do they stand?

Larisa at PPI says...
So where do I stand in this? Well, since I'm a 25 man raider myself and would like to remain so if possible, it's hardly a surprise that I look at this from the 25-mans-must-have-better-rewards perspective. This doesn't mean that I don't like 10 man raiding or that I somehow look down to it. I enjoy 10 mans immensely - especially since they normally offer better teamwork in a more closely knit group. And I have full respect for those who prefer it to 25 mans - with special kudos to the 10-man-gear-only strict guilds. But at the same time I believe that the law of the least resistance is what basically rules WoW and if the incentives aren't enough the 25 man raiding will die off, which I think would be a shame.

And Matticus at WoM says...
Please, do not screw over the players who prefer to do 25s. I believe some of the extra rewards are badges, loot, and gold. The extra gold is nice and all but for most organizations, it isn’t a problem. Having extra badges will speed up the gearing process for sure. On the other hand, what some players seem to have forgotten is that there is only 10 players allowed. Someone’s inevitably going to have to sit. 25s feel a little more accommodating, and dare I say it, more forgiving. With more players, you get access to more outs to help put you over the top during encounters. In addition, don’t forget about Kae’s point on difficulty. The reason that 10’s are perceived as easy is that players often run them overgeared. Doing ICC 10 with ICC 25 gear made it that much easier. But we’re using the same gear now. I know that for now, I’m still committed to 25 man raiding into Cataclysm.

Now to be fair, both of those players are part of solid 25 man raiding guilds. It comes as no surprise that they are cautious when approaching a change like this. If the goal is to get more people access to the best content in the game (raiding), then this is a good change. However, these players like the feel of what they are used to and don't want it taken away by a core group of players who are the best 10 in a 25 man guild, leaving the rest out cold to progress more slowly. There's just something "epic" about getting 5 times as many people as a normal group together to take down an enemy.

However, I have a suggestion for Blizzard that could make this change even better. I do not know the answer to forcing people into 25 man raids over equal 10 man raids. If you want to tune 10 and 25 man versions, then you should also tune a 40 man version and give special achievements/mounts/etc. for taking on the epic challenge of a 40 man raid. From an organizational standpoint, I know 25 is a nightmare and 40 is even worse. But I'm not suggesting guilds outside of a superguild run 40 man content often or even regularly...I'm talking about the best raiding guilds on a server coming together occasionally to feel truly epic. Heck, maybe put these on a special once a month timer. One of the greatest things I've ever done in this game is taken down the world dragon in the middle of Duskwood. Another is For The Alliance. Take this opportunity to let raiders of all styles enjoy raiding the way they like.

After all, the vast majority of people will be running 10 man content most of the time now anyway. Let's not lose the epic feel of the game. Go for it blizzard and see what happens!

Oh and for the record, this past weekend showed my thoughts on raiding twice. Fun once in a great while, but I hate that people who play more 25's than me are always better geared by leaps and bounds. I think some fights are truly harder on 10 man, and it will be nice to have the same gear for both so nobody trivializes 10 man content anymore. I do hope the most solid big guilds keep running 25 mans though it will be tough to convince raiders during the chewing glass point. Hopefully Blizzard makes 10 man truly just as hard so that there's no upside to ripping apart your 25 man guild.

Cataclysm Changes - Paladin

Well the paladin healers had to wait only an extra five days past all the other classes to hear how the spells and talents would change, but the analysis had to wait an extra week from me since work sent me off to DC for a few days and the hotel had no wireless. At $500 a night. Ouch! I suppose I got to see the White House by being so close, but not much time for tourism when in DC for work. So let's get on it, albeit a little bit late!

The only low-level certain heal to be added has yet to be named, but it will be the equivalent of Greater Heal. The new setup will match the other three healing classes, with a fast yet inefficient role being played by Flash of Light, and an intermediate heal being played by Holy Light. I've always felt Holy Light was more of a Greater Heal equivalent, but apparently there will be something bigger. The basic three-tier toolbox is now the same for all healing classes, giving players of multiple healers like myself some level of familiar backbone spells. I'll speak my thoughts about this homogenization later, but overall it is probably a good thing.

Also, Sacred Shield will be modified to be a 30 minute long spell on one target. For a class that already is pigeonholed a bit into tank healing, this is not a step in the right direction. However, the blue post in the very same line spoke of improving the Holy Paladin toolbox to make them better raid healers. I was hoping for a bit more proof of that direction for paladins, but it appears we will need to wait a bit longer for those new spells in the toolbox.

Also the final dispel mechanic of the healing classes is Cleanse, which will remove defensive magic, diseases, and posions. A minor change for Paladins but nothing too major to get used to. Again, I'll give some thoughts a bit later about the standardization or homogenization of the dispel mechanics. One other note is that Blizzard wants Holy Shock to be a core healing spell for all paladins. The balance of the hybrid healing/damage spells is always interesting, so perhaps Holy Shock will continue to enable the shockadin players to do something completely different.

The Cataclysm level abilities feature Healing Hands at level 83. Healing Hands is a six second long AoE heal with a relatively short range. It is not a channeled spell though, so the paladin healer will be able to cast other heals while "radiating" small AoE heals. This is precisely the kind of spell holydins have not had in their toolbox. While it stinks that they will wait until nearly endgame to get it, this is a step in the right direction. The spell is currently tuned with a 15 second cooldown, so it will only be up 40% of the time at most.

The new endgame spell is called Guardian of Ancient Kings at level 85, and basically this is a summoned guardian who does something different for each spec of paladin for 30 seconds. For Holy paladins, the guardian will heal the most wounded ally in the area. I do not anticipate this will be a massive heal, but it will make paladin raid healing more automatic and clutch. I still believe more needs to be added to the toolbox for paladin raid healing, but the two Cataclysm level spells are a step in the right direction.

The top level Mastery bonus is Critical Healing Effect, which is no surprise for this class. This passive ability will further increase the healing output of critical hits. As usual, expect paladin heals to be happy to pack on some extra crit to maximize most of their healing spells.

On the whole, paladins have to be happy with the changes to their class coming in Cataclysm. While the changes may not be as spicy as shamans or earth-shattering as druids, it is good that paladins will basically double their amount of healing spells and join the other non-priest healing classes in utility. As I mentioned earlier, I believe there will be even more coming down the pipeline during the beta phase of Cataclysm, which makes it a great time to pick up a paladin healer and try it out if you have stayed away thus far. Also, paladins are one of the most enjoyable classes to level, so I strongly encourage you to join me in leveling those paladins.

Cataclysm Changes - Druid

Well here I thought the druid changes may be more interesting than priest and shaman changes, but I was W-R-O-N-G. You see, Blizzard thinks resto druids have enough to play with already, which means perhaps this is a nod to priests having a truly biggest toolbox than the other healing classes. Or maybe druids do have more than enough to play with, but I know at level 60 that this does not seem to be the case. So on the whole, I am disappointed with no new spells coming to resto shamans considering all the new toys the other three druid roles are getting.

However, there is one bit of big news. I mean...BIG.



Yes that's right, Tree of Life will no longer be your passive state but a cooldown-based ability. This means druids will finally be returned to heal as much as other classes without needed to be in tree form all the time. You will finally be able to admire your gear (not so important), and you will not automatically be target number 1 anymore in PvP based on appearance alone. This will revolutionize the battleground experience for trees, who always get picked on. Plus this may be the new "different spell" for druids, in that they can enter tree form to really be clutch for 30 seconds or however long the ability lasts. Perhaps not the game-changer that heroism is for shamans, but I imagine this could be a similar result for endgame raiding.

Druids will be able to dispel defensive magic like all other healing classes, but the same dispels remain for curses and poison. Plus HoT's will benefit from haste, which will help tremendously. Speaking of heal over time spells, a new talent called Efflorescence will cause a bed of healing flowers to sprout beneath targets you critically heal with regrowth. This means that melee could get bonus heals just for standing next to a tank, and could make resto druids better tank healers.

Which leaves us with the mastery top level bonus, which is called HoT Scale Healing. What an original name, Blizzard, honestly. However, the ability is nice as it will be the heal over time equivalent of the shaman mastery, increasing the effectiveness of HoT spells for targets with less health. Again, making a druid healer more clutch, but perhaps to a lesser degree since it is heal over time spells.

So that's it. Hopefully I stretched that lack of news to a full entry here, and I think the extra week of paladin work will give us more to talk about next weekend. So far, druids have the biggest appearance change, but shamans and priests have to be a bit more happy looking forward to cataclysm. See you next time!

Cataclysm Changes - Priest

Late last night the Priest changes were release at a time which only benefits Oceanic realms. But there was a lot to digest, since we have two healing specs in one class here. As a priest main, my only hope was to stay more versatile than other healing classes (because unlike the other three classes, we cannot tank or put out two very distinct types of DPS) and for Power Word Barrier to come back into the fold. Shielding is a cool mechanic, but only having one shield in PWS is not all that interesting after a while.

Well let's start with the new spells for both discipline and holy. The only low-level change for both is Heal, which will bring the priest back in line with the shaman changes we heard yesterday. Basically Blizzard wants a big heal which is Greater Heal, a fast but inefficient heal in Flash Heal, and a mid-range heal when you do not need the speed or the power in Heal. The current Lesser Heal and Heal are useless, so I think this is a good change that will make all the healing classes at least similar on a baseline level. Especially for priests, there's a ton more.

Healing priests will also get Mind Spike at level 81, which will be a nice quick damage dealing spell that does not require you to ramp up like normal shadow DPS. I think this will be competitive with Smite if you are discipline, but Smite is probably still better for holy. Not that important of a spell, and shadow really got nothing but this so kind of disappointed for them.

Inner Will is learned at level 83 and it is good and bad. The good is that Inner Fire now has another option and both of these have no charges. The bad is that Inner Will is very situational by only boosting run speed and mana cost of instant cast spells. This could be good for a shield-happy priest, but those are supposed to go out of style in Cataclysm with mana conservation being key. I cannot see you using Inner Will very much over the armor buff and spellpower buff of Inner Fire.

And now the bomb drops. The level 85 ability for all priests is called Leap of Faith, but it will forever be known as Life Grip or LG. LG is essentially a death knight's death grip for friendly targets. This has a 45 second cooldown, but it will be used to pull people out of fire, out of aggro, and out of focus in PvP. This seems like a perfect counter to death grip in PvP, and I'm happy that priests got what is probably the coolest ability in the game for their own needs. Plus this will be so much better than Levitate for screwing with people. However, I see many priest bloggers terribly unhappy because not only are DPS characters not allowed to dispel anymore, but now priests will be expected to save bad DPS from themselves. I don't see it like that. Bad DPS will still not be healed or life gripped. Sorry. If you are stupid, we'll let you die. Plain and simple.

Speaking of dispels, priests don't change as they will still dispel offensive magic and diseases with defensive magic (which every healer can dispel now). Mass Dispel and Abolish Disease are gone like a shaman's totem, which is kind of sad but fair. Also divine spirit is gone but who cares...less candles to buy.

With the simplification of stats, they are now making heal over time effects benefit from crit and haste stats. Haste will not shorten the duration but give more ticks, which is nice. Another interesting thing Blizzard said is that Greater Heal will probably be the tank-healing heal of choice. And apparently discipline priests are not being successful tank healers enough (what?), so they are considering adding a more powerful PW:Shield for tank use only essentially. I still cannot imagine a discipline priest not relying on PWS and Penance to the detriment of everything else since G-Heal is not currently talented by discipline. Maybe this will change in Cataclysm to for Greater Heal over Penance. This will be a very interesting development.

Now we get to the spec-specific abilities. We'll start with discipline, which Blizzard hopes to improve for single-target healing. I feel like discipline is just simply better at that already, but maybe not. They are indeed bringing PW:Barrier into the game at long last. This will be like the Healing Rains of Shaman but with the obvious priest twist of being preventive. The discipline mastery top ability will be Absorption, which will improve all shield strength. This is an obvious development choice for the shield spec, and while it is not original, it is good.

For holy, they claim that holy should be more interesting to play (it's already pretty close in my opinion), and that holy should be better in PvP. One new talent for holy will be called Chakra and will put the holy priest in an improved healing state if they cast Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. This sounds like when you need to put through more thoroughput or focus on one task, you will be better at it. Adding another layer to the biggest set of healing spells any class has already. Chakra is another good change. The holy top level mastery is called Radiance, which will add a small HoT effect to targeted healing spells. This is a nice benefit that will make top level holy priests feel a bit more like they can compete with divine aegis for discipline.

So while the overall changes for priests are not as groundbreaking as shaman healers, the changes are mostly good and interesting. And I suspect Life Grip will be the talk of the town for Cataclysm abilities like Death Grip was the signature of death knights early on. So two classes in for the healer changes, and so far I have to say kudos. I wish shadow priests did not get such a shaft, but maybe everyone else changing will make shadow priests interesting and unique somehow.

Next up are druids tomorrow. Thankfully we only care about the tree parts over here, but that class will likely be thick with changes due to fitting all 3 or 4 roles (if you count ranged and melee DPS separately). See you then!

Cataclysm Changes - Shaman

It appears Cataclysm is closer and closer, as blizzard has finished up their beta changes to all the classes except Paladins, which they are close on. So for the next three days we will get detailed class changes coming to the other 9 classes, and here at Healer Trek we will have it covered for you from the healer side. The first day brings us Shaman and Priest changes (sometime, Priest changes are still not announced as of 11 PM). The Shaman changes are more than enough to keep us occupied though.

Let's begin with the new spells being added at lower levels for Restoration Shamans. At level 4, a Shaman will get Healing Wave, as the current spell with that name will become Greater Healing Wave. Considering there is a Lesser Healing Wave, this will set up shamans with the same basic toolbox as priests with "Heal". This is not a major change but it may give the shaman more flexibility if the new Healing Wave is like a Flash Heal for a priest. This could be a good change or it could be worthless.

The second spell a shaman will learn is Unleashed Weapon, which will work like a paladin's judgement. You have the Windfury/Flametongue/Earthliving Weapon on and then you can release it for a special ability with Unleashed Weapon. The healing on is Earthliving Weapon, which will release to heal the shaman slightly and buff the next healing spell by 20%. This could be critical in some close fights, and it brings more strategy to healing.

The third spell is a rehash from a previous new spell called Spirit Link. Essentially Spirit Link links your target with two or more nearby targets, causing damage to be spread among the targets. This is a nifty idea that may allow a DPS to transfer hard hits to a tank in certain circumstances. Or on especially hard fights for a tank, you can spread the damage out a bit and then AoE heal. Again, this is adding more strategy and interest to healing.

Now we turn to Cataclysm level abilities. At level 83 you will receive Healing Rains
which is an AoE heal over time spell that you put down like a lightwell, except the healing happens automatically to all characters in the area for 10 seconds. This will obviously be a new complement to Chain Heal, and may allow the shaman to be an even more efficient raid healer. This would be the most exciting new spell if not for...

Spiritwalker's Grace at level 85. This is a self-target buff that allows you to avoid spellcasting interruption for 10 seconds due to MOVEMENT. Yes, a shaman will be able to cast all their heals on the move for 10 seconds, with a cooldown of 2 minutes. On current fights like Professor Putricide and Marrowgar, this would be a godsend. As it is, I think this is a much better endgame healing ability than the class has ever had. And again, the spells are encouraging smarter and more strategic play, something I am all for.

All in all, these changes alone make shaman healing quite a bit more versatile, like priests. It makes me, as a priest main, more excited about leveling my shaman Clara. But we're not quite done yet.

Each of the healing classes is changing to have one dispel mechanic for two of the four kinds of negative buffs in the game. This is a nerf for shamans, who will only be able to remove curses and magic (no more poison removal and no more brainless cleansing Totem). Blizzard wants you to actively monitor and remove debuffs, and this will bring shamans in line with everyone else. I agree with this change despite the fact that it is a nerf.

The mastery top level for resto shamans is called Deep Healing, which will give progressive bonuses to healing targets based on how much life they have. Thus, a tank at 5% will receive much more bonus healing than a tank at 95%. Without knowing the endgame mastery of other healing classes, it is hard to say where this will stack up. But it looks like resto shamans are going to become more "clutch".

That sums it up, and this is just for restoration shamans! There are tons of changes coming down the pipe, but that makes sense since this expansion is basically dubbed WoW 2.0. I think these changes will make restoration shamans far more versatile and powerful, but only time will tell if the other classes see a similar overhaul. One healing class down, and we're feeling very good so far about Cataclysm.

next up will be Priests tomorrow, my expertise. I'm kind of hoping for the return of Power Word Barrier, honestly. But priests are very balanced already, so it's just small stuff in all likelihood.