Pokey-slow NPCs on escort quests have long been the butt of player jokes, but with more extensive NPC participation in the patch 4.3 5-mans, I've started wondering if things are going from bad to worse. Shortly after patch 4.3 hit, I wrote on Twitter that Tyrande, Illidan, and Malfurion in the Well of Eternity are all shining examples of players who would be vote-kicked from the average PUG.

Really! Think about it:

• Tyrande runs out of arrows, still manages to pull aggro, and then stops DPSing entirely past a certain point during the Mannoroth fight.
• Illidan thinks he's leet and never shuts up, and he's also the archetypal Go Guy from Wowcrendor's How to win at PUGs and Gear Score.
• Malfurion goes AFK before the boss fight and then (conveniently enough) shows up while loot is being distributed.

So does this mean that the average person with a bit of common sense is a better player than three major lore figures? I think it kinda does. This is not to say that all NPC participation in your questing or 5-mans is bad (Anduin Wrynn during the Alliance's pre-Twilight Highlands quests is pretty cool), but I hope this isn't a sign of more to come. Oh, and Thrall -- epic ground mounts are not expensive these days. You have no excuse.

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