WotLK insanity

The Wrath expansion is looming.

I like that word here…looming.  It hangs over us like a huge wave about to crash on our heads.

So with the WotLK wave looming over us, do we keep going about our regular play and wait for it to hit, oblivious to its impending impact?  Or do we stop what we are doing and just stare at the wave as it inches closer and closer…

A few bloggers have already chimed in on this topic, pro or con, about the approach of the expansion and, in particular, its effect on raiding.

A lot of this goes back to the “raid for fun” vs “raid for gear” debate that really is the “hardcore vs casual” debate in different clothes.

I’m going to keep raiding.  I couldn’t care less if I never get another useful piece of gear.  I want to see more stuff before the expansion.  In addition, there is not a single player in my guild who has said that he intends to stop raiding before the expansion.  I guess that’s a good indication of the “casual” opinion on raiding pre-expansion.  (on the other hand, the #2 and #3 raiding guilds on my server have broken up recently – that’s the hardcore side)

Anyway…

Many of my favorite WoW-bloggers have now focused their blogs entirely on the expansion, new talents, new professions, etc…  I haven’t read much of that because I figure that (1) its not finalized right now, and (2) I’d rather learn it all by playing through it rather than theorizing about it months in advance.

The irony of it is that I am playing in the beta.  I haven’t made any attempt to blog about it at any length yet.  Why?  Because I am not going about it with the intention of data-mining for tidbits of information that might yet change.  I am playing through the game, leveling, doing quests, fighting mobs, and submitting feedback.  I am doing my job – helping to make sure that on release the game runs cleanly and with as few problems as possible.

Also, I am not spending vast amounts of time in the beta.  Without my guildies there, it is fairly lonely to play except when you are in a PuG.  When I am in the mood to have fun, I am much more likely to be playing in Live servers where I have lots of green chat to keep me entertained.  Also, I have a guild to run, and an absentee guild leader is a bad thing.

I could write more about what I see in the beta, but I wouldn’t be theorycrafting and number-crunching and giving advice on which spec is best.  That’s not the way I play the game.  If I blog about the beta its more likely to be general impressions of the way things are working.  Maybe some screen shots, some loot comparisons.  Is that interesting to anyone?  Am I the only one that is taking a wait-and-see approach to the expansion?  Because if I am in the minority, I can start going on at length about the stuff I see in beta.

That said, nothing is working right now.  The “cool” rogue talents aren’t implemented, and the paladin is outright broken.  So even if I wanted to blow the lid off of the beta I’d have nothing much to say at the moment.

So… beta info to come!  Or maybe not!