Filed under: Forum Post of the Day

Our reader Fenn wrote in to let us know about a forum thread written by a suspicious player who's certain that her tank of choice is cheating on her with another healer. He never seems to want to group anymore and he's "too tired" to raid. "We have 3 dps so i can't just leave him," she confesses. "(I) don't know what to do."

The thread is pretty much win from the start, and even gets a visit from an amused Nethaera to boot. Suggestions range from "Make him a sandwich" to "Respec Discipline, all tanks like a good beating," sparking arguments over whether the healer had buffed him properly ("A tank has needs!") to whether tanks are cheating scumbags by nature ("What happens in AV, stays in AV"). You can't go wrong, but Fenn correctly observes that page 21 is a particular gold mine.

I have to admit that the response that made me laugh hardest was an early one from Öbvious of Zuluhed: "This is going to sound dirty, but can one of your DPS respec?"

WoW has changed considerably over the years, often for the better and sometimes for the worse. Better and worse are, of course, a matter of perspective. Slovotsky of Turalyon is getting fed up with people complaining about the easing of raids. He's confident that Blizzard made the choice to lower the difficulty on raids because more of the player base can now have a chance to experience them. He disagrees that casual players have ruined the game. Familiarity may also lead to boredom. Some of the guilds that have progressed through Naxx have already done so either in the Pre-BC era or on the PTR.

As some pointed out, Blizzard is a for-profit business. The company's job is to sell a product, not to rule with a heavy hand or coddle the incompetent. The switch to an inclusive raiding environment was most likely a marketing decision. Caydence of Draka drove this point home, to rebut the argument that players will quit WoW because it's easier. It is simply a better business decision for Blizzard to alienate the "hardcore" players who make up a small minority. She suggested that the subscriber base has grown with each ease in difficulty.

I don't have to say that folks are annoyed with Blizzard's new advertisements on the official forums. The forums today are filled with threads complaining about everything from their presence to their content. Lure of Eradar suggested using Adblock Plus and Remove It Permanantly in Firefox to ditch the ads.

After loading the first addon, you must subscribe to a list appropriate to your region. The second addon gets rid of the grey frame left where the ad was. The original poster gave us handy dandy instructions on how to use it:

• Load a random thread on the WoW forums, any will do. See that annoying grey frame?
• Right click on the frame.
• Go to RIP Advanced.
• First choose "Remove from this Domain"
• Go to RIP Advanced again, Next click "Remove all similar parent items."

The entire process took less than three minutes and my forums look just like they did before. For the most part we should be used to online advertising. You can just ignore them, but if you're really that annoyed by it do something about it. I also won't hear the objection that you don't use Firefox. You should. I'd check into how to remove ads for IE, but I'm not willing to load Exploder on either of my computers.

Thanks to Lure and everyone else who offered similar simple solutions. If only there were an addon to block the trolls, we'd be all set.

I'll give you a quick run down of the general forums today:

• Take away the arena point requirement, or else!
• Epic flight costs too much!
• Requiring arena points for PvP gear is a slap in the face!
• I can't get this or that achievement because it involves something I don't want to do!
• This is the end of casuals, I don't have time to play arenas!
• /waggle
• GG Bliz, the arena requirement is going to make me go play <insert any other MMORPG here>!
• Death Knights should tank!
• If you're going to make us play arenas, let us PUG them like battlegrounds!

It is hard to find someone who is happy with this new PvP development. I'm indifferent. Personally I find arenas to be the best part of PvP and the purpose of battlegrounds anyway. Like so many others, you need not agree. That last theme however, Blizzard should players to PUG arenas, gave me a moment of pause.

Maximogu of Firetree posed the question "Why bring a Rogue to an 80 heroic?" in the general forums. He claimed that at this point there CC is unnecessary for most tanks that rely on AOE. Most of the trash pulls are handled by AOE classes now, making the Rogue's single target focus obsolete. He argued that Rogues are best suited with Druid tanks that do not handle multiple mobs as well as other tanking classes do.

Here are some of the reasons given for bringing a rogue along:
Anushka of Kel'Thuzad: There's a lot of nasty things that can be interrupted in most heroics. Though I wouldn't take more than one rogue.
Khadros of Frostwolf: To listen to the sound of theirs daggers going schlick schlick schlick.
Morgrimm of Korgath: Because one of my friends is a rogue.
Owari of Frostwolf: To DPS, of course.
Mypetgoat of Bladefist: It's one expendible DPS that won't roll on my gear.
Madia of Maelstrom: They need loot and stuff too.

Khanagi of Maelstrom sent out a plea in the official forums for players to be prepared when they group up for a heroic instance. His main complains is that as a Warrior Tank, he is often out DPSing the DPS. He feels that everyone in the group has a job to do, and many are falling short of their appointed task. His sentiment was met with considerable agreement from responders, who pointed out that AOE tanks will often have high DPS. This does not excuse the DPS from their responsibilities.

Back in the day, when Burning Crusade was launched, one had to be revered to get their heroic instance keys. This meant you had to grind out reputation with a particular faction to get the heroic key, usually through the highest level instance. This changed in Patch 2.3.0, which lowered the requirement to honored. At that time, there was much rejoicing. Honored reputation with a faction can easily be achieved with leveling quests. You no longer have to cross the threshold of a dungeon to meet this requirement.

It seems Blizzard has been listening to the complaints and concerns of players. I've been taken aback by the implementation of paid name changes, PvE to PvP transfers and gender changes. For years, I've read clamoring for race, faction and class changes.

Zarhym weighed in Wolfbite of Chromaggus' thread in the general forums requesting class changes. Name and appearance changes are purely cosmetic, while allowing class changes would affect the overall dynamics of the game. Later in the thread Zarhym stated that this is partially to avoid creating a "flavor of the month" class, and would prefer to address player concerns. Rerolling was the most common prescription amongst posters to solve the original poster's issue.

Wrath is an odd mix. It's unquestionably darker in tone than both classic WoW and Burning Crusade, but it's not hard to find funny bits and pieces scattered around. Därkseid of Deathwing, after having a disgusted murloc refuse to be rescued by him ("Ewwww, orc!") during a quest in the Borean Tundra, started a thread dedicated to peoples' favorite humorous moments so far in Wrath. All the normal world PvP events can be found here (aggroing a Storm Giant while being attacked and Feigning Death onto your enemy? Check!) but you'll also find a growing catalogue of memorable quest text and great NPC dialogue, like Akini's entry on this page.

For my money it's tough to exceed the tongue-in-cheek commentary you'll find in the books scattered around Acherus as you start a career as a Death Knight, including the one pictured above. Some of them are actually serious and give accounts of the Scourge's spying into the preparations made by the Horde and the Alliance for an assault on Northrend. Some of them, like The Death Knights of Acherus, are just hilarious, namely the entry concerning one "Harmony" whose period of service turned out to be extremely brief: "The name of this death knight was found in violation of common Scourge decency. Struck down by the Lich King." Well, Arthas, in such matters I defer to your excellent judgment.

The Warcraft storyline has come a long way since Orcs and Humans. Bobbyjeh of Aman'Thul asked how Blizzard maintains their "seemingly endless lore and story arc. Nethaera responded that the company has a Historian on staff as well as an expanding department dedicated to lore. They cover all three of the major Blizzard universes. They help to keep continuity in the game and keeps things interesting for our resident Lore Nerd.

While I was doing the quest chain for my Swift Flight Form, I wondered to myself. What does someone who's been asleep for so long know about Outland? I've often wondered how it is that new Draenei characters all crashed "one month ago." As some pointed out, there has been some discontinuity in the Warcraft Universe. But Blizzard does a pretty good job of keeping their story straight. No stranger than C3PO saying, "Thank the maker," when technically, Darth Vader is the maker. We accept these plot holes and move on.

Retiribution Paladins had about three weeks to really shine. Think of it as retribution for many years of being laughed out of PUGs. Blizzard implemented promised nerfs to the Class in patch 3.0.3. Dumptruk of Frostmourne is upset about the effect that these changes have had on tanking in the Protection specialization. He opined that reduced damage in Judgments equates to reduced threat per second. He finished is post with a plea to reevaluate protection Paladins.

In a response to the thread Rauss of Sentinels disagreed. He believes that a Paladin tank should not rely on Judgments to build threat. Rauss relies on Consecration, Hammer of Righteousness, and select Seals/Judgments to build aggro- depending on the situation. He thinks the original poster should expand to additional aspects of the class to realize its true potential.

As evidenced by zombies and Necropoli, the time of the Lich King is nearly upon us. Most players who intend to have a copy of the game preordered have already done so. Soon we'll be zipping open our prized expansion and ready to install. Well, most of us anyway.

Zachriel of Kirin Tor found a surprise today when he checked the status of his preordered game. Without notification the complete order of two collectors editions and two regular Wrath packages had been canclled. He was upset that he did not receive any communication that his ordered had been canceled. Some suggested that it may have been an issue with a credit card or some other technical problem. Most of the posters indicated that their orders were still active. But it's time for Tuesday maintenance; could it really hurt to peek at your order status?

It seems the jury is out on this year's Hallow's End celebration. Chakras of Cenarius is loving the event. She's excited about the holiday achievements. In her thread she was met with agreement from many posters. Ritsuka of the Thorium Brotherhood agreed that it's been fun to farm decent gear off an easy boss with her friends. Halloween is a favorite holiday amongst many WoW players, and it's a good addition to the game.

Not everyone is entirely thrilled with their experiences so far. Some folks are frustrated that they've not yet gotten the Sinister Squashling or the Horseman's helm despite many attempts. Some like Crexia of Hyjal have made better than twenty-five attempts today without seeing either of those items drop all. Her attitude is to try again tomorrow since Blizzard has stated that there will not be a change to the event. (EDIT: though now it appears you can get these items from trick or treating and Blizzard has stated the drop rates of the pet are significantly higher than last year.) On the other hand Orcshock of Archimonde reported seeing two drops out of five attempts today. Such is our fate when using Random Number Generators (RNG).

I have to admit, since the patch I've had other goals in mind so I've turned down most invites for holiday groups. So how has your Hallow's End been?

As a whole was as WoW players are a pretty tough crowd to please. This is probably because of the diversity of the player base as well as the variable goals that we set for ourselves. We range from casual PvPers to hard core raiders. We all have our fair share of complaints, but judging by the games massive popularity, it seems Blizzard has done a decent job of responding to the competing demand of its subscribers.

Amgusrex of Moon Guard is concerned that play in Wrath of the Lich King will not be challenging enough. He feels that Blizzard does a disservice to players by nerfing the difficulty of content with progressive patching. His post is pretty inflammatory, calling others cry babies and pointing toward a "massive population that is bad at video games." Taking a look at the Original Poster's Armory profile, I have to assume that he is not posting on his main, because if he is he still has to over come many challenges himself before declaring the game "easy mode."

This may come as a big surprise, but not everyone likes to do Arenas. Even some who very much enjoy Battleground play, are not enthralled with the small-scale and highly-competitive arena environment. I'm of the opinion that if you don't enjoy the arena, you probably shouldn't do it. Sasquach of Bahazzar is with me on this one. Like me, he enjoys arenas and is not partial to the PvE game. Sporting a 2300 rating for Season Three, he's looking forward to doing arena matches in wrath.

The original poster vented his frustration that all PvP gear has an arena requirement on the test realm. Though Battlegrounds and Arenas are disparate systems with divergent goals and playstyle, Blizzard is putting rating requirements on all PvP gear. Even playing battleground after battleground, players will have to do arenas in order to don any PvP gear.

Recently, rumors have been spreading about a mobile application for WoW. Blizzard has been trying to get some information through a series of mobile service polls on the forums. Bornakk began a poll regarding the number of times forum users have downloaded games or applications for cellular devices. In the cellular era, Blizzard appears to be making our favorite MMORPG more mobile friendly.

Many of the posters indicated that they have the latest in smartphones and thus are constantly adding new aps. This will likely encourage Blizzard to provide better mobile support. This will be handy considering that they have been resistant to third party mobile applications.