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... just wait! This just in! WoW always has issues on patch day! EVERY GOD DAMN MMORPG TO DATE HAS ISSUES ON PATCH DAY! Welcome to the "real world" and now let us continue with our regular scheduled programming.
There were some significant changes with the patch and I'm not talking about the Shaman/Paladin gear drops.
- Arena System introduced
- Honor System revamped
- The Burning Crusade talents introduced
- Massive UI changes
The Arena system was introduced and subsequently has crashed. The Arena is set for small teams to do battle against each other while competing in a ladder type competition among all players within your Battle Group. Currently the Arena is set up for practice matches only. It requires a team of all level 70's before you can advance in the ladder. So the Arena system can't really be judged until after The Burning Crusade is launched.
The other part of the PvP changes comes in the form of a new, but not really new Honor System. Honor decay is gone and Battleground faction grinding has been removed. In their place has come a static Honor system where you never lose points and a Battleground reward system built around completing goals. For example to earn the top rewards for Alterac Valley you may be required to win 30 matches and turn in the tokens to an NPC. The current feedback is that it is much easier than grinding faction which is a great change for casual gamers.
The main complaint with the PvP changes has come from the hardcore rank grinders who were pushing for rank 14 prior to the 2.0 patch. They feel cheated because all their hard work was washed away when Blizzard reset honor back to ZERO. The only thing I have to say to these idiots is; "You got what you deserved. Blizzard announced the changes in plenty of time for you to stop, but you continued to grind. Someday you will wake up and realize what a waste your life has been and maybe then you will go out and do something with it." Yes, that is exactly what I would say and I believe I've just said it.
The Burning Crusade Talents
Every class has had their talent tree updated in preparation for The Burning Crusade and level 70. Of course this has introduced a plethora of bugs and outright overpowered classes. Warlocks kill with a single DOT spell. Paladins can actually do damage now (like they couldn't before???). Pretty much a case can be made for any class being overpowered at this very moment.
This isn't shocking considering how much the game will change when The Burning Crusade hits and people start to reach level 70. WoW wasn't exactly balanced to begin with. In a classes most basic form without tweaked talent sets and green gear there may be balance, but when epics and uber talent templates get involved it is all tossed out the window. I will leave this topic here because I believe it will take a month for the community to adjust to these changes and then it is a mute point because The Burning Crusade will be ready for launch.
Massive UI Changes
With the 2.0.1 patch there has been upgrade to the LUA scripting laguage used for the WoW UI and this takes me to my title for this post. WoW players can't play the game without their easy mode UI add-ons. Decursive, ClickHeal, CTRaidAssist, and on and on and on are now completely broken and most likely won't be fixed. Most of these gamers will scream at Blizzard for the lack of a decent UI to play the game. I will blame the players for letting UI mods dominate their play style.
The cry is heard the loudest in the raiding community. Their precious raid schedules are screwed because easy bosses that they used to defeat in minutes are now wiping their raids without UI mods to hold their hands. I personally applaud Blizzard for finally putting their foot down and forcing people to play their game.
I am happy that it now takes two button presses and manually clicking a target to remove a curse, poison, or disease. I am elated that healers now have to communicate to heal. I am glad that players with skill will now be rewarded with a better experience. I laugh at raiders that suddenly found out that they can't and could never play this game.
This changes the game and I'm glad for it. I have never used anything, but a few minimalistic UI add-ons. A cleaner quest tracker (MonkeyQuest), Auctioneer, and the Census+ mods have been my staples since launch. Everything else has been done through the standard UI. I have never relied on a UI mod to make my class easier to play and I strongly believe I am a better player because of it. I play a Shaman and there is no shortage of UI mods that could of made my life easier.
Conclusion
Let me conclude this with a bold statement. Fuck the whiners. I've whined a good bit in my days and almost always I was told to stuff it. Let me return that advice to the current WoW community. Blizzard has shown a remarkable knack for getting World of Warcraft up and running after a few patch delays just like any other MMORPG out there. The only difference is that Blizzard does it for 6 million users.
