Let's talk alpha notes.

It's an exciting time right now because of Warlords of Draenor alpha notes. There is plenty of speculation, badgering of devs' Twitters, and crying about precious removed spells. That doesn't mean I'm not crying, because I definitely am. However, in RP Your Life! fashion, let's take a step back and look at the trends that these changes are indicating for the development of WoD.

- It now takes a lunch break to read mage talents.

- Healers are panicking about Cata-style healing when it was AWESOME.

In the Convert to Raid and FinalBossTV interviews, Celestalon assured healers that healing in WoD would not become the fight against OOMing that it was in Cata, but that period of time when healers had to think about which spell to use, not only to match the situation but to also preserve their mana, was the most engaging. The WoD movement away from critical burst healing back to triage seems like the perfect opportunity to bring that cerebral kind of healing back, but it's not looking like they're willing to push healers that far.

- The devs can't decide what to tell us their ultimate goal is.

If the new Mythic raiding is balanced around having at least one of each class, then why remove utility like healthstones and Innervate? If they want to remove unique utility so a raid doesn't require a specific class, then why leave in things like Gateway? If they leave things in like Gateway because they want to balance around having at least one of each class, then why remove utility like healthstones and Innervate? If...

- The devs might not even be talking to Mythic raiders.

Even after their big claim that the move to 20-man raiding would be the epitome of balanced raid tuning, it doesn't even look like many of the changes that they're making are geared towards Mythic at all. The homogenization of classes and making sure that certain class abilities aren't required are definitely safeguards for 10-man Normal and Heroic raids. Plus, when a shadow priest asks whether or not s/he needs to carry separate sets of gear for multi-target and single-target fights, the answer that I gleaned from Celestalon's appeasing "No, but..." was actually "Yes, but not for casuals," which he could have just said outright. I was hoping that FinalBossTV's interview would be more enlightening for end-game raiders, but there were very few instances in which the crew pushed the devs to a point where they were forced to defend their choices and explain their reasoning in a deeper manner. Why indeed is a certain DPS class retaining a raid-wide CD while others are having theirs taken away?

Watch your raid spot, everyone. The mages are after it.

-Avia.

Edit: Added a link to the FinalBossTV interview.

Boring times call for desperate measures.

After much soul-searching and contemplation of what it really means to farm the same content for six months, I've decided to finally commit the highest betrayal of my class just to have something to do.

I'm going to level a mage.

Sure, I could level plenty of other things, but unless I want to foolishly run head-first into a mob and start whacking at it like a cretin, what is there that I don't already have? I could make another lock, but it'd be like a sad younger brother of my main that never gets to play with anything first, never gets the same high expectations, and ends up the fifth best realtor at a strip mall agency.

But, after all these years, I'm finally going to work through the reasons that underlie my apprehension to "be" a mage: the fact that they aren't willing to go to greater lengths for magical power, their obsession with rules and bureaucracy, their dainty hands. Can I get over my deep-seated prejudices and embrace a new way of life?

In an effort to ease my conscience, I turned to my fellow warlocks for advice on how to resolve my issues. Besides the usual unhelpful assertions that it's just a game, the most intriguing suggestion I got was to just completely abandon my identity as a prideful warlock and view mages as, not better or worse, but different. She claimed that the two classes get along fine. Suddenly, my career-long belief that mages and warlocks look down on each other was shattered! Have I been living a delusion this whole time, a shameful bigot who unnecessarily shut myself off from others because of petty differences?

Well, it's time to end all of that. I'm opening myself up to new experiences and new ways of thinking. The Kirin Tor aren't magical dictators; they offer guidance and protect us from succumbing to the intoxicating power of magic. The mages of Stormwind are my peers, and Dalaran is my capital. It's an exciting journey with brand new eyes, and I'm going to take it!

Right after I play some Diablo 3.

-Avia.