WoW Off-Season and Warhammer

It's been over a week since I've even logged into WoW. Even then, it was just to do some mindless dailies on my mage. I got bored and didn't even finish all of them on the isle. In preparation for the pre-Wrath patch, I dropped skinning and power-leveled herbalism to 375. Once it actually hits, I'll drop mining and pick up inscription.

I haven't even really been motivated to log in and check out Brewfest. Aside from being busier than normal with RL stuff, I've also been playing my bright wizard in Warhammer and having a lot more fun than I thought I would. Mythic seems to have gotten the glass cannon DPS class right, unlike Blizzard. The damage is aboslutely ridiculous, and I die in about 2 hits from any melee class. I have a feeling they'll get nerfed a bit. During one of the last RvR (like WoW BG's) scenarios I ran, I did 3 times the amount of damage than the second place person in there. Granted, I was at the level cap for that zone and most others were several ranks below me, but still...that's an extremely wide gap. As I walk around incinerating trolls and searing monsters to a crisp before they even touch me, I get a feel of what it must be like to be a Warlock in WoW. It feels good to be OP.

The game isn't perfect. It's still somewhat buggy. When I root something, my screen shows it as still following me, so I can't tell where it's actually been rooted until after the root breaks. Quests are sometimes tedious and annoying to figure out exactly what it's trying to have you do. The interface itself tends to feel clunky at times, certainly not as polished as WoW. I'm still enjoying it, so I'll keep playing and see how it goes.

I've tossed around the thought of reversing my decision and pushing onward into Wrath with my warrior as my main, especially with things like removal of tclap limit, general increasing of damage dealt, removal of crushing blows, aoe ability, etc. It looks like Blizzard is finally coming through for the prot warriors. In the end, though, I think I would still get burned out. Raid tanking can be very rewarding but takes too much commitment for me.

Blizzcon is coming up very soon. It's gonna be an awesome trip - can't wait!

Not much else to add. It's very much WoW off-season. Even PvP is basically worthless since it was recently announced that honor points are being reset for the expansion. I'm guessing patch 3.0 will hit either next Tuesday or the week after, which will give a month to mess around with it before the big event November 13. Until then, I'll keep running around in Warhammer.

Why I Won't be Tanking in Wrath

My thoughts on playing a warrior tank have really boiled down to two things:

1.) I have no interest in being an off-tank. Ever.
2.) I don't necessarily want to be the main tank for every single raid I go to, and I don't always want all the extra responsibilities that fall on the MT position.

These statements do not exist well with each other.

Put a different way - I don't want to tank half-way, but tanking all-out is just too demanding to keep up. At least, not as long as I want to have a life outside of raiding.

You can't be a raid's MT only when it's convenient for you. A boss tank's consistent attendance is probably more important than any other position for most fights. It's hard enough to work up to a MT spot to begin with - if you miss a week or two, you'll probably find yourself replaced. WotLK will likely be this way, too. Guilds put an awful lot of reliance on one or two main tanks. It's not really their fault; the game was just designed that way. I really liked being that tank. It was a lot of fun, and I got very good at my role. But I realize I can't have it both ways.

That's why I've all but finally decided that my mage will be the first one I take to Northrend. I'm sure I'll still take my warrior to 80 to satisfy the occasional urge to tank, but my main activity will be burning, freezing, and blasting mobs to pieces. I'm looking forward to the change of pace. Now I just have to figure out whether to take up enchanting or inscription...