Remember all that bitching I did? Scratch that.

Guess what I'm doing?

While I sustain that Blizzard gets way too into talent tree changes, I can't say that I'm as ambivalent as I was in my last post because I am so fucking excited to get new demons.

I was kind of hoping that this Grimoire of Supremacy was actually evolving our current minions and making our long-time friends more powerful. However, from looking at the talent, it seems that these demons are completely new and unrelated to our existing minions since there is no counterpart for the felhunter. Nevertheless, I am super excited to see what kinds of abilities they have, and the first thing I do when Mists of Pandaria goes live is pulling out my new voidlord and establishing a trustful and loving relationship.

My Picks for Talent Highlights:

Bear Hug - Instant, 1 min CD, Melee attack that stuns the target and deal 10% of the Druid's health in damage every 1 sec for 3 sec. Effect cancelled if the Druid moves away, attacks, or takes any other action. Using this ability activates Bear form.
AWWWWWWwWWwWWwWwwwwwww....

Divine Star - Instant, 30 sec CD, Fire a divine star in front of you, travelling 20 yds doing damage to all enemies and healing all friendly targets in its path. After reaching its destination, it will return to you also dealing damage and healing all targets in its path.
Like a shoooooting star! Effective or not, it's going to look badass.

Sacrificial Pact - Instant, 5 min CD, Your demon sacrifices itself to prevent all damage you would take for 10 sec.
I get a pally bubble! Yea, my minion has to die for it, but I assure you, he does it willingly. All of my minions and I are committed through a pact of blood, and their sacrifice is for the benefit of our dark contract. It's also reminiscent of the old voidwalker Sacrifice spell, of which I was such a fan that I got the icon tattooed on the back of my neck as a symbol of our deep connection that persists through death.

If you haven't guessed that I'm crazy by now, you're probably just as nuts as I am.

-Avia.

Mists of Pandaria confirmed. I is sad... panda.

BlizzCon is happening right now, and Mists of Pandaria is officially going to be the next expansion. There has been talk of Pandaren for months since the discovery of Blizz's trademark for the "Mists..." name, but I'm actually surprised and disappointed that what I had thought was a red herring is actually the premise of our next expansion and undoubtedly 1-2 years of my life. Pandas? T_T Half the community is seizing with joy, and the other half has the same face as I do.

Already some of the changes they are revealing are irking me, like their renewed obsession with talent trees and how they had made it too streamlined for Cataclysm. Now they want to reintroduce player choice and hybridization even though they're really just wasting their time. All the theorycrafters at Elitist Jerks and mmo-champion are going to break out their slide rules and in a matter of days, post the specs that players are supposed to use if they raid, just like they do every time there is a talent tree change. It doesn't even intrigue me anymore, but of course they haven't released any lock trees yet...

So far, the monk's food buff racial seems a little OP (double all stats from well-fed), but what actually disturbs me is the fact that they wear leather and are tank/healer/DPS. This means that while druids will now have to compete for gear and priests already share loot with mages and locks, shamans and especially paladins have no competition. If you play a priest, you know how God-awful (har dee har har) it is to gear up when you're rolling/bidding against the ranged DPS, and Firelands made it even worse by taking spirit off of almost everything. Now druids are joining them in their pitiful situation. I always felt bad for priests, but now I cry for my(alt)self.

I'll post more news (hopefully in a less whaaambulance tone) when they announce lock changes. So far, they've only mentioned that they're revamping the soul shard system. Again. Good.

-Avia.