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Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available from No Starch Press.

Some members, whether by their attitude or their behavior, don't give us much choice but to kick them. That doesn't mean their complaints are always wrong. This week, a guild leader wonders whether a recently kicked member might have had a good point about her guild.

Hello Scott,

First of all, thanks for the awesome and informative blogs!

Lately there have been some issues in my guild. The issues have been solved now (I hope), but I'm wondering about something.

The member that has been causing the issues has been known for being dead-set on getting a position as an officer. She had been there from the start and each time the previous GL promoted someone to officer, she'd whisper him with words like "Next time you're promoting someone to officer, it's me!" She never got that promotion for obvious reasons. Last week she caused an uproar in the guild about not being happy with there being a 'Supreme Ruler' (the guild leader) and gave the previous GL and another officer an ear bashing about it . . .

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. On Saturdays, Josh Myers tackles the hard questions about enhancement. Can we tank? Can we DPS with a two-hander? How does one shot web? The answer to the first two is "no," and roll a hunter for the third!

I love making the best of a terrible situation. When life gives me lemons, I make a cake. When I'm at the gym in the morning and the only thing on the television is Rachael Ray's talk show, I focus hard on committing delicious recipes to memory. And, when Blizzard hands us the worst area of effect ability in the game, I write a post about how to maximize its limited potential. I'm moving away from that line of thinking today. Instead, this post is dedicated to diagnosing why Fire Nova is so bad and what Blizzard can do to change it.

To begin, I'd like to say that I actually enjoy our AOE at its most basic level. Fire Nova erupting from Flame Shock to me really fits enhancement, which is a spec defined by its use of shocks and other instant-cast spells. I think the actual feel of the spell works and fits with the overall theme of enhancement, and the problem lies in the actual implementation of the ability.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• WoW in an Hour really enjoys doing the new raid weekly quest -- nice raid rewards, under an hour of play.
• Chill of the Grave has some great suggestions for Death Knight gear to be found in the new 5-mans.
• HTFTMFW takes you through quick strategies for the first four bosses in Icecrown.
• Starnaglethron has a declaration of love for the Dungeon Finder (which most of you would probably echo).
• And finally, Pike has some bad news for you Glyph of Bestial Wrath addicts. There's a new glyph in town and he'll up your DPS.

I really like this post over at Mend Pet -- after five years in a game's life, no part of the WoW interface should be remiss from getting the occasional update, and they mention possibly the only part of the game (even the login screen's been updated quite a few times) that's been the same since day one, the character selection screen. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with it, as you can choose your character and get into the game. But everything can be better, no?

Elnia at the Pink Pigtail Inn has some excellent and interesting advice for Blizzard's quest designers (or whoever they hire for the current position). As big a component as quests are in the game, they haven't been innovated on much since the game's release. Blizzard has played around a little bit with allowing us to repeat certain quests, and they've streamlined the group questing mechanic, but other than that, quests are pretty much the same: pick up a task, do it, and bring it back for a reward.

So how can it be done differently? Elnia has some great ideas: she asks for quests that span a little farther, that push players through a storyline that might even follow them all the way up to 80 (of course, there are quests like that, though they're few and far between -- and not all players have the patience to finish them). Rewards could be mixed up, too -- instead of the old gold and XP, how about some profession skill, or a tradeoff of badges based on certain quests done. Finally, Elnia suggests that every quest in the game become repeatable. Questing is paced to keep us interested in from 1-60, but we all know how the game works now -- why not let us do some of our favorite quests over more than once?

I'd suggest we go even farther -- Warhammer Online offers Public Quests that are an interesting twist on the usual "go kill boars" mechanic. I'd like to see branching quests with more than one outcome -- maybe a moral choice to make that affects the storyline of the quest you're doing. And talking real pie-in-the-sky here, I'd like to see questgivers treat you different based on the way you look or maybe what title you've got equipped. If you've got "Jenkins," they might not expect you to do much, but with "Champion of Ulduar" over your head, they should probably be groveling at your feet.

A while back I wrote a short post pointing out to the community that now is a pretty ripe time to see how Retribution can be improved. Ghostcrawler and the devs have taken an interesting direction with the Retribution tree, and although they've recently mentioned that there will no longer be big changes throughout Wrath of the Lich King, it's still a good time to examine the spec. It's come a long way since the launch of the game and 'lolret' is arguably a term now only used in spite and no longer with genuine ridicule. Ridicule and some fear and loathing, maybe, but no longer just ridicule.

Despite the statement that there'll be fewer changes to classes in the foreseeable future, Ghostcrawler did say "there will be some (changes)" in addition to "tweak(ing) numbers up and down as needed". So don't despair, Fury Warriors, you'll be swinging those two-handers once again in glory one of these days. I'm also dead certain that Paladin tweaks aren't quite done. For one thing, we know that Crusader Strike is in line for some coolification. Another is that Exorcism was quickly hotfixed not to work on player targets as precursor to what Ghostcrawler calls "a little more tweaking" to the class. So while I asked the community to share their thoughts on how to improve Retribution, it's taken me much, much longer to ruminate. Humor me for today as I go share my own thoughts on the matter.

Every evening there's a guy on my server who spams looking for group for an "experienced" group to do the Less-rabi and Make it Count Heroic Dungeon achievements. This has been going on for weeks now. I kind of feel bad for the guy. Some of the dungeon achievements are harder than others, but these have clearly been a pain for him. He really wants the Glory of the Hero achievement, and I hate the Occulus enough that I really can't bring myself to help him.

I never hear him complaining about the achievements being difficult, he just keeps at it. It's actually quite admirable. My guild has a few overachievers in it. We usually do the best we can to lend them a hand, but they seem to grind endlessly to earn their points.

I don't usually go off in search of achievements, but there's one I just can't seem to get. Since I'm playing Druid it seems appropriate to get the Guardian of Cenarius title/achievement. The problem is not that it's difficult, but since my character was created after WotLK was released, I have no Cenarian Circle rep to speak of. I find it hard to make the time to go back to the old world and grind rep while still working on endgame progression.

What's your elusive achievement?

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.

Reader Bo sent us an interesting idea. Like many players, has done the Bloodsail grind -- he's killed many, many goblins in Booty Bay, and ascended to the highest ranks of the Bloodsail pirates, letting him have a Bloodsail Admiral's Hat, and the parrot that comes with it. And now, as of Wrath of the Lich King, there's even an achievement for doing the quest for the hat. But that's not enough for Bo and his fellow pirates -- they're lobbying hard on the forums for Blizzard to grant a title as well.

As cool as a title like "The Dread Pirate" would be, we're not sure whether Blizzard really needs to pass out any more rewards for the Bloodsails (you want something besides a hat and an achievement?). But it will be interesting to see just how titles and other little rewards come into play with achievements. We know that more titles are coming into the game, and since it's super easy to change those titles, you'd think Blizzard was going to give out plenty. "The Dread Pirate" or "Admiral" is not beyond the realm of possibility, to be sure.

I'm still rooting for something like "Boar-killer" or something even sillier -- special titles for folks who have completed all the quests in BRD once upon a time, or a special note for people who have made the switch from Aldor to Scryer. Bloodsail reputation might not be the right place to start putting rewards, but considering all this stuff Blizzard has us tracking, here's hoping we'll see a few obscure titles find their way above players' heads.

Blizzard does not particualry appreciate petitions on the official forums. This does not stop players from starting them. Lyccan of Ner'zhul started a petition in the Suggestion forum to make the Recruit-a-Friend benefits retroactive. At this time Blizzard has announce no current plans to give these rewards to folks who have brought players into the game in the past.

Most of us are pretty open about our love or World of Warcraft, and many of us have invited our friends and family to join us in WoW. In the past, the joy of sharing the game and a potential game-time buddy was enough to bring our friends into the game.

By now, you've hopefully had a chance to look through all the Achievements that we'll be seeing in the Achievement system to be released with WotLK. There's definitely a lot of them, and they seem to cover almost every possible angle of the game. Still, there's bound to be one or two good ones Blizzard missed.

In this Beta forums thread, which is apparently being watched by Tigole, people have begun offering some pretty good suggestions for possible achievements that could be implemented in the future. Gish of Lich King suggests that one could get achievements for collecting full tier armor sets. Pez of Lich King suggests class specific achievements such as number of Mage tables summoned or number of lock boxes picked.

I'd like to hear your suggestions too. Is there an Achievement that you'd like to see in Wrath of the Lich King?

We learn a lot form playing on our own, but by doing only that we can miss some of the nuances of our class. We can also read up on classes on websites like this one or specialty forums. Some people would like to be taught in a more direct manner. At some points, we've all taken others under our wings to show them the ropes. Most of us have gotten a few pointers along the way. We have mentors in most of our roles in life, so doesn't it make sense to have them in WoW as well?

It can be hard to directly ask for assistance, especially in a places as prone to ridicule as the WoW General Forums. Apollymi of Greymane is looking for someone to teach her to be a better rogue. She said she's read the right guides but hasn't gotten the necessary experience to match other Rogues. She's looking for someone to mentor her in all things Roguish.

Since its inception World of Warcraft has been an evolving game. Someone who played only shortly after release would hardly recognize the game now. Blizzard has always welcomed feedback, but some changes have elicited more feedback than others. In a thread entitled "Epic moments in WoW QQ history," Gatsukaa chronicled some of the most upsetting events that have occurred in the evolution of our game:

Moment 1:
WoW is first released. Hunter and warlock pets could be one-shot. Hunter dps was pretty lackluster. Soulstones gave you rez sickness (I think). No soulshards from PvP. The first emo whiners in WoW were born: Hunters and Warlocks. World of Roguecraft video is released showing how a rogue in crap gear could wtfpwn people while warlocks were so gimp. Result is that warlocks went on to get buffed in nearly every patch as they were on their way to god-hood. No more world of roguecraft videos. Hunters saw substantial improvements as well, but weren't made into demigods.

We all know that it can be hard for new level 70 characters to break into the arena. Many people start out playing their 10 games a week in order to scrounge up arena points for their first PvP pieces. Welfare epics? Maybe, but having decent gear makes it easier for many players to progress. It make some time for players to really learn to play their classes in a competitive PvP setting. Despite their best efforts, Blizzard has largely failed at fixing problems in the arenas.

Cyrse of Farstriders suggested the creation of a minor league arena with reduced rewards to help players get their feet wet in PvP. The oginal poster listed several advantages of such a system. A minor league for PvP might discourage point and team selling, which despite Blizzard's efforts is persistent in the arena. It would also allow elite players to only be bracketed with folks who give them more of a challenge.

An interesting discussion went on in the Community Service forums yesterday concerning the role Blizzard developers play in those very forums. A poster was obviously attempting to troll and start some argument, asking if the Blizzard devs actually do read what people write or pay attention to the community at large. Kisirani, a Blizzard developer, responded that indeed they do.

A few interesting things came from subsequent blue posts that help outline the roles of the developers and community managers. First, it is the job of the community managers (CMs as we call them) to do just what their title says: manage the community. This includes the forums and everything that goes on in there. Kisirani tells us that they regularly collect feedback and suggestions and pass them along to the developers. Kisirani makes it a point to say that they don't have enough time to read everything themselves, and if they were to read everything the game itself would not be developed – and again, this is where the community managers come into play.