Warcraft Frustrations

So, version 3 of World of Warcraft is scheduled to go live in a few days, with major reworks on combat rules, the roles of different classes and talent builds. Minor changes too, like pets no longer taking up valuable bag space and hairstyling available in all the cities. All in preparation for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, which is due to hit next month. There's a lot to be excited about.

But I'm not.

My main character the past six months has been a Shadow Priests. Spriests play a useful role in raiding - their Vampiric Touch spell causes the damage they do to monsters is returned to their allies in the form of mana, giving them the ability to cast more spells and do more damage without running out of mana. During a long fight, a shadow priest can return more mana than there was to start with. Additionally, spriests debuff their target, making them more vulnerable to attack, particularly from shadow magic. To balance this, our ability to do damage is less than that of other caster classes, such as mages and warlocks. But it's a fair trade, and I've enjoyed being the guy that makes it easier for others to do their jobs.

But that's all going away.

With the new rules, spriests are supposed to be generic casters. There will remain some mana resotration ability, but it will be at a flate rate - independent of how effectively we're hurting the monster. And two other specs - survival hunters and retribution paladins - will also be able to provide that mana. And the debuffs on our targets? Gone. To balance this, our damage is supposed to be ramped up to the point where we can match anyone in the raid.

But Blizzard got the math wrong.

All of the beta testers and theorycrafters are reporting that spriests are still at the bottom of the pack, damage-wise. Blizzard has aknowledged that something is wrong and that they're still working on it, but the actual class designer has said nothing. And now weeks have gone by with no changes, no updates, no explanations. Meanwhile, other classes are getting what appear to be final tweaks to their abilities. 

People are getting excited about the changes. Lots of buzz on the internet. Not everyone getting stuff as cool as the rhino pets for hunters, but most folks are getting something. There are complaints about Blizz pushing some specs to play in a way different than they'd like. There have been a few outcries when one rule change causes real problems (holy pallies comes to mind) but those seem to be getting addressed fairly quickly. I don't think any of the other classes are outright not working as supposed to, except ours.

I know my guild would allow me to keep raiding, even if the shadow priest build remains broken.. Showing up on time, bringing supplies, following instructions, and not standing in the fire count for a lot. Possibly being a nice guy helps too. But I don't want to the weak link in the raid's chain. It has zero appeal. And since I can't tell what Blizzard will do or when they'll do it, I'm no longer willing to wait on them to fix the problem of crappy dps. I've created a paladin, and I'm focusing on getting her leveled as fast as possible. I'd like to get to level 70 before the expansion, but even if I only get as fas as 58 or so I'll be ahead of the new Death Knights, and that should be enough to be at 80 when we start the new raids.

But it's really frustrating to hear the buzz and excitement going on around me, and not feel a part of it.