I don't mean this to you in particular, but with some fear of getting downrated I'll continue anyway. in general, I wish people were a little more open minded coming into this patch, because I love most of the changes that have come. i think it is very important for big games like this to change things around a lot in order to keep things interesting. if the game continued exactly like it was before the patch, it would begin to be a boring and such a chore instead of a fun game rather quickly.

also, I like the more simple aspect of most of the system changes, especially talents. it doesn't get really fun when you have to spend hours outside of the game in order to perfect your talents, stats, and rotations. refitting is great too, because it allows for a lot more flexibility. for example, when I regemmed my enhance shaman for agility instead of haste, I realized I still needed some expertise, so instead of spending 100g on a gem, I went over and reforged 1 or 2 pieces to reach the cap exactly.

overall, this is a fairly positive change. and before people immediately label it as game-breaking (with all due respect), we are not viewing the changes in the same scope as we will when cataclysm drops, and at that point I think it would be OK for people to admit they really don't like the changes, specifically to classes. just hold it in for a little over a month, and i will be fine.

thanks!

@Powatodapeople
I think the main problem is people are still playing the game, as it is, not just dreaming of what's to come, and we want a game that works at every level: not just level 80 or level 85. I know they're still working hard to cata and I'm sure it will be in a much better state when the expansion is released, but they should have only released what was in reasonable shape for 4.0.1: there's too much here that just isn't ready yet.

People also forget that the game isn't even balanced for level 80 anymore, people will continue to QQ about this until level 85 and then find something new to QQ about.

@Powatodapeople:

"in general, I wish people were a little more open minded coming into this patch, because I love most of the changes that have come."

I think you're jumping to unjustified conclusions here. 4.0.1 introduced a lot of game-*changing* mechanics, but it was also a very *broken* patch. I know I'm not alone in feeling like this very important and very complex patch was rushed onto the live realms to get it out before Blizzcon. When people talk about this patch as "breaking the game," some of us aren't talking about things like Talent trees all being rebuilt from the ground up; we're talking about the way that a lot of things just. didn't. work. There's always a period of adjustment and rebalancing when you go from the PTR to live servers, but it shouldn't ever be this serious.

Considering that basically everything changed, the fact that 4.0.1 was playable is actually sort of impressive. Every single class was radically redesigned, the game engine had major new features bolted on, the battle system was rebuilt, bosses and battlegrounds had items change, currencies shifted and disappeared...

@Sleutel
but the whole point of this patch is to test out the mechanics and have the minor problems fixed for when cata finally does come out. it is essentially like "trying it on" before you actually get the complete change. imagine having every single change to the game come as soon as cats released. it would be a huge mess of no one knowing what to do, bugs appearing left and right, and chaos filling the trade chat as everyone complains about how they can't perform correctly. I acknowledge that it was a huge patch and you can't please everyone, but it has to come at some point, and it's just best for us to get our feet wet this early.

@Merus: The fact that a patch to the game was playable is impressive? Yes, I know there were a ton of huge changes, and there are bound to be some problems, but isn't the point of a video game for it to be playable? Releasing it when it was literally unplayable would have been utterly stupid. I like what sleutel said, that it felt like it was rushed to get it out before Blizzcon. While it was "playable", that doesn't mean there weren't some very large and obvious bugs that I would hope would get ironed out before a patch's release (the multitude of ways to get disconnected in the middle of playing spring to mind).

Having so much change all at once has been a real problem for me. (I'm one of those people who finds change difficult to begin with. You can't tell me that I'm the only one out there.) My main is a Hunter, and almost everything about that class has changed. Now it doesn't even feel like the same character. I have a hard time motivating myself to log on.

The fact that I can't play one of my alts without running into the same scenario doesn't help. No matter what character I log on to, I have to re-learn that class-- even though I've invested months (in some cases years) into learning the class and developing that character. They just don't seem like the same characters as a result.

Making such sweeping changes has sucked a lot of the fun out of playing, for me. Now, of course, the whole world is about to change, and I recognize the wisdom of making _these_ changes now, before _everything_else_ changes. But that doesn't make it any more fun.

I need a hug!

"Considering that basically everything changed, the fact that 4.0.1 was playable is actually sort of impressive"

Yeah, really impressive that something you PAY to play is....umm, playable? Fanboi.