@Inwë: What??? You get a free HS to Shatt for killing Illy-beans? What is this OP nonsense!? Onward to BT, I say!

The other side of that is that I’m finding battlegrounds so frustrating. Its a less controlled environment than in arena, in that in arena you don’t have a half dozen alliance melee zerging you all at once, which rather hurts with my 300 resilience (theres a bit of poetic licence in there..). A geared pvp Paladin lives a very long time. I just don’t have the skill and gear yet to do that on my druid. Added to that, horde on my druid’s battlegroup are rather terrible. We don’t often win AV, and the other battlegrounds usually start with us 2:1 outnumbered.

I’m just finding the transition from a Paladin difficult – from often being frustratingly powerless as a paladin yet very resilient, to being incredibly flexible and powerful as a druid yet in a way quite fragile.

I guess my “not much more than heal” comment was directed towards pve solo-play – questing and the like. Certain daily quests are just irritating in comparison to my pally. Having to roots and then wrath mf spam things is frustratingly slow compared to gathering up 10-20 mobs on my pally and conc’n them down I will have to try an insect swarm build, and get over my nervousness re: needing all the healing I can get cos I’m so much more squishy than I’m used to!

@Teranin: I’ve read that the intention is for T5/T6 items to last until a few levels into the expansion (74/75). I’m sure there will be exceptions, though, especially if you’ve built a specialty set with stats that aren’t typically found on leveling gear (like spell haste).

You make a good point about being a bigger part of your raid’s success in a 10-man instance. I also happen to think that the Druid’s very nature as a versatile class will always shine best in smaller environments where specialization is less important. That’s also one of the reasons that we shine in 2v2 vs. 5v5. As a Resto Druid in particular, we have a whole assortment of versatile tools at our disposal.

@Lotha: That’s excellent. Have you guys given any thought to how many people your guild will need to sustain 10-man progression? It seems like you’d need some cushion for those times where a couple of people go on vacation.

@Kirkie: “Refreshing” is a good word for 10-man content. The 10-man raids (even timers in ZA) have always seemed more laid back and fun, where anyone and everyone can feel free to participate in cheerful banter over voice chat. It’s also a LOT easier to coordinate healing for.

@Sheshonk: What an interesting parallel between smaller raid sizes and the Dragonlance series. I think, however, that people can’t possibly ask for a smaller raid size than 10-man. Those would just be Heroic instances!

@Walkere: You aren’t alone. It seems like many players develop a last-ditch desire to see everything there is to see before an expansion is released. We’ve recently had guild members who previously have had very low attendance clamoring to see the inside of Black Temple. We’re probably going to capitulate to those requests before the ones asking to farm trash in Sunwell. (>.< )

@Adremma: I was wondering why there was a sudden resurgence of interest in Naxxramas on my realm (RP also, Scarlet Crusade). It hadn't occurred to me that people might want to see it the way it was before it's changed. From everything I'd heard about its original pre-TBC difficulty, I'm quite happy not seeing it the way it was personally!

@Lovemace: I don't think I've ever heard someone say that as a Resto Druid, you can't do much more than heal. I played up to 1915 as a Resto Druid in Season 2 and I must say that it was one of THE most challenging things I've ever done. It also made me a tremendously better Druid overall, improving my reflexes and familiarizing me with skills and spells I'd never had occassion to use before. Feral Charge, Pounce, Travel Form, Bash, Barkskin, Cyclone, Entanging Roots, Insect Swarm, Abolish Poison, Faerie Fire, Moonfire ... the list goes on and on and on. Playing a Restoration Druid is one of the more challenging healers because there are so many options. When leveraged properly, though, we can do very well in those Arenas where our core strength (mobility) isn't hampered.

@Koriban: I actually really enjoyed the rep grinds from TBC. I thought it was a neat way of measuring your experience with the individual instance hubs and rewarding people with a little something extra for choosing to go through dungeons while they leveled rather than trying to solo/duo it outside. I do think that some of the rewards were a bit lackluster. I hope that there are more viable pieces for assorted specs in WotLK.

@Wynn: Me too! I've been excitedly planning my revised level 70 spec in anticipation of the pre-release patch we know will come before the expansion!

@Dyera: That definitely is one downside to leveling up separate from your friends and is probably one of the reasons that they reduced the Heroic requirements from Revered to Honored (which is generally pretty easy to reach through collecting-turnins and quests). I hope that the Heroics in the new expansion start at Honored requirement, too.

@Josh: Why, thank you, sir. It was actually my Arbor Day submission. I cheated. ^_^

@Asara: Keep in mind that the Badges of Justice you acquire now almost certainly won't be usable in the expansion at all. So you really have a couple of options: spend badges on definite upgrades that will probably be usable for at least a few more months, spend badges on epic gems to use or to sell, spend badges on primal nethers to craft tradeskilled items. Personally, I finished nabbing all the upgrades for my main spec, gemmed out my gear with epic gems, and am now planning to spend any more badges I get on epic gems to sell.

@Tenka: I think that the size of 40-man raids definitely lent itself to bringing along sub-par players ... who were often quite sociable and enjoyable. What a shock when we moved into Karazhan for the first time. It turns out that several people you considered pretty important and as strong contributors really didn't have the first clue about what they were doing. ^_^ Seriously, how in the world did we ever kill Ragnaros?

It *does* stink to lose the ability to allow sub-par players to participate in progression-oriented raids, but I still find those environments more socially enjoyable. I do miss the one Hunter who used to sing nigh-incessantly.

@Sheshonk: That's different than the progression I had read. I thought they were aiming to have people replacing T5/T6 with WotLK items in their mid 70s.

@Sydera: You've described very well how I look at the gear improvements in WotLK. I personally can't wait to look like a space clown on acid... well, maybe I can. But the intially easy-to-acquire stat upgrades will be welcome and fun.

What you point out about 25->10 man raids and having to cut back on the number of any given class you bring along is pretty scary. I suspect that most guilds that currently run 25-man content will probably continue to run 25-man raids on their “main” scheduled raid nights and run 10-mans on “off nights” for the purposes of gearing people up outside of the DKP system.

I’d like to see my guild go into the expansion strong, friendly, and organized–with a dead Illidan behind us. I’m not sure if we’ll get to Sunwell, as I don’t want to push us to the breaking point in an instance that kills guilds who’ve farmed T6 for months. I also want to see us stay balanced for 25-man raids. Why? 25-mans are a greater challenge, especially for guild officers. I am the healing lead and recruiting officer for my guild, and part of the fun is the difficulty of finding new raiders and fitting them into the group. The ten-man progression might be easier, and might certainly let me play with a more select group. However, I don’t think there will be enough room in 10-mans for the friends I’ve made playing in 25s. Are we really going to take two resto druids and two holy priests to 10-mans? And what about the fact that my boyfriend is a tank, and two other good friends in the guild are also tanks? We can’t all play at once. I might not get to play with my very favorite people in the smaller-size raids. Yes, in 25s there is the occasional difficult personality–but that would probably happen at the 10-person raids too. I love what my guild has going at the 25-man size and would like to continue to progress along that model in Wrath.

When BC came along a lot of my old guildies who I really enjoyed raiding with could not get a raid slot in the new 10 man, kara. So a lot of my close friends quit.

Now, because of the demands placed on each and every raider in the 10/25 mans, you can no longer bring a friend a long just for the fun of it even if they weren’t as hard core as you. I’ll admit it has made me clean up my game and pull out my 110% like never before, and all my current guildies are lean mean raid boss grilling machines, but I would really like it if they brought back 40 man raid instances .

Not that I don’t love my current guildies, it just seems a little less like a group of friends playing together, and more like a military unit. Still close knit, but not everyone you enjoy being with can join.

With regard to raiding, I’m still going to keep pushing through the current content, it’s still a great high to come together as a group and kick the big bad bosses in the teeth. I am interested to see how the raiding changes will come across in the expansion, but until then I’m content to follow the current progression and see how far we can get before WotLK comes out