The winds of change

So its been two whole weeks since THE PATCH, the world didnt end and we all survived. Things have calmed down a little (unless you play a ret paladin) but I admit to being a little undecided about some of the changes.

Great things:

The cower animations: particularly the female nelf and druid treeform ones. I fully intend spending all my time afk cowering at something, this seems particularly appropriate given the impending rise of the Lich King.

Shadowmeld: when I first saw the proposed changes to my precious shadowmeld, I admit to panicking. How was I going to cope without my shadowmeld & drink macro, obviously the whole world was going to explode and I suddenly wasnt going to be able to drink in pvp (ignoring the fact that both my draenei paladin and shaman manage just fine without shadowmeld). Then I took a deep breath and calmed down to consider the possibilities. Having tested it in some pvp since the patch.. the new shadowmeld rocks and is bound to get nerfed.

Some warlock or hunter sends their pesky pet at you, shadowmeld = no more pet. Same is true of Doomkin's little forest, elementals or trinket spawns

Pull too many mobs whilst grinding, shadowmeld = feign death, albeit one that never seems to resists

In PvP it drops you from combat straight away, allowing you to los and then drink

Its wonderful and makes up for losing starshards completely.

Crews on Boats: I like the world to feel lived in. Having people wander around doing their thing makes it all feel so much more alive. Some improvements could be made however, maybe a ship's cat minipet or some form of unique to the highseas beverages/food buff.

The expansion Pre-event: Ive collected my undead slaying set, my personal pet paladin (can't help feeling that this sums up Blizzard's feeling towards the class though...) and my tabard of the Argent Dawn which I never got around to doing last time the Scourge were in town partly due to my dislike of tabards (which raises the question why did I get this time? Couple of reasons really

 

1. It suits the sombre serious look Mariposa is currently sporting
2. I was over flowing with necrotic shards and I like spending things)

I love the way the story is evolving. The Argent Dawn showing up again in all the major cities, the fact that the Lich King is already starting to make his presence known with his servants whispering into our minds, telling us our fears, threatening our loved ones. I want my characters to have a reason to head off to Northrend and it seems that we will indeed get that.

New Talents: Recently specced Disc again to experiment with the new talents and im loving it. Shame penance isnt selfcastable, but I love the fact that its instant, can do damage and has a great graphic. Also enjoying Divine Aegis, especially now prayer of mending can crit. The fact that its a perfect bouncy bubble just adds to its perfection really. Haven't done a huge amount of pvp since the patch, but I managed to survive a rogue on me whilst helping a lv 67 2 man Tuskar, we killed the rogue, then Tuskar with no real issues. I certainly do not feel like a free kill unless Im being zerged by 4 or 5 people and then lets face it, everyone is a free kill under those circumstances.

Achievements: Whilst Im not falling over myself to complete these, their addition to the game has netted me over 5000g since the patch came out in sales of runecloth to my own faction (all after the Ambassador title) and in sales of mini pets and cooking recipes to the opposing faction. I admit to ticking off certain achievements, but I refuse to play my game differently just so I can "achieve" something. If for example, I am already in a zone doing something and I notice that I havent uncovered all the map, I might take 5 minutes to do so, but Im not flying somewhere just for achievements. I do however like the fact that people hungry for warbears have started organising lots and lots of city raids.

Decreased Level time to 70: We really werent sure that the Gnomeling would succeed in getting a warrior to 70 before the expansion hit but as it turned out we had weeks to spare.

Mounts and Booty Bay: Its always annoyed me that you couldnt ride in Booty Bay and finally they have fixed it, must have strengthened the dock or something. You can also ride though the Inn in Moonglade and all those other spots that looked mountable but werent.

**Ill cover my negatives in another post since this one turned out to be somewhat larger than I was expecting**