Why I'm Not Going to Blizzcon

I thought about trying to nab a ticket to Blizzcon and taking a trip out to California, but for whatever reason, I couldn't justify it. I am, however, completely cool with not going because my twisted imagination has me thinking that the random conversations out there would resemble something like this:

Me to neighbor prior to the PvP discussion panel: Hey, nice to meet you! This panel should be pretty interesting. I hear Ghostcrawler has some interesting points to bring up about the weakness of casters against melee.
Neighbor: Eff that, ganker. I hope they announce that they're removing the Arenas and BG's. You griefing assholes ruined my game!
Me: ...

or

Me to dude wearing a Boomkin costume: Nice costume! What are you? Some kind of demented WoW Furry? You know there's no real life achievement for pretending to be the product of a Pigeon, Deer, Bear 3 way, right?
Boomkin: ...

or

Ghostcrawler: We're buffing melee!
Me: ...

Regardless of the possible exchanges with tardtastic WoW nerds, the underlying sentiment that completely nullifies any possible justifications for buying a ticket is that the game as developed a pattern in it's production/development cycle. Due to that established pattern, there is no real anxiety for me to go as I can pretty much anticipate what's coming next in WoW. To explain this, let me give a broad and reasonably vague example.

In the world of software, a typical business model for generating a continuous revenue stream consists of 3 phases: Implementation, Maintenance and Renewal. The implementation phase is where the software company installs their software and trains the end user how to manipulate the program to their benefit. Teething issues are worked out and eventually the software goes into the Maintenance phase where the software company supports the continued use of the product. When the next version comes out, the company works to secure continued use of the product (via the upgrade) and the cycle repeats itself: Implement new version, Maintain new version, sell next version. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

WoW has gone through this cycle once already from Classic to TBC, and now from TBC to WotLK. Heroic 5 mans? Check. Badges for Gear? Check. Entry level 10 man? Check. Entry level 25 man? Check. Completely borked first Arena season? Check. Completely stupid Honor grind? Check. How many people suspected that there was going to be a 'New Isle of Quel'danis' in WotLK? I know I did.

The bottom line is that the formula for Blizzard's last two WoW expansions works. It's generated record sales and subscriptions and has consistently produced excellent consumable content for a variety of gamers. To me, this formula is also stale and unexciting. As Blizzard is the master of taking what works and building upon it, I can already predict how the next expansion will play out and unfortunately, going to hear presentations on their upcoming content (ie: how they're tweaking their established business model) doesn't excite me or make me anxious for future releases.

And that is why I'm not going to Blizzcon.

Actually, that's all a big fat lie. I could justify it, but I totally forgot that the tickets were going on sale and happened to be away from the computer.

... Sorta.

P.S. I would totally wear a Boomkin costume for some hot cosplay action.

Did Blizzard Screw up? Malygos 10 Commentary

This is not a boast post, but at this point in the game, a month and a half after the release of WotLK, I, a casual raider and PvP enthusiast have completed 5/6 of the game's possible raids. With PuGs. I suppose that you could say that I haven't taken down 25 Naxx fully because I don't care to spend hours upon hours of playing 'lets wipe' with a rotating roster of PuGhhhhs, but really, Naxx 25 is so much easier than Naxx 10, just by virtue of having more DPS. The only hard part is herding the cats to actually start the pulls.

...And of course making sure that the cats aren't brain dead zombie kitties who like to stand in the fire helps as well.

Again, not a boast post, but really, the question is, "What now?"

I'll be blunt here, and please do tell me if my reasoning is flawed.

Blizzard, from a long term financial point of view, did themselves a disservice with the introductory raids and because of this, probably cost them more long term subscribers.

The rationale is as such: Aside from Malygos 25 and OS with drakes up, all of the bosses in the introductory raids are easy execution fights. There are no high level gear checks and as such, there are no extreme DPS or Healer fights. Malygos 10 is somewhat of a gear check, but not entirely. At my current gear point, which is all Naxx 10 stuff with some 25 man stuff, I can easily heal through all of the content. As long as I have competent teammates, there is no overwhelming urge for gear so that I can 'save the raid'. Perhaps for other people, getting all super uber gear is the most important factor, but for me, the casual raider, this is enough.

As a healer, I'm probably seeing this effective cap phenomenon in a different light than most other roles, as my results are largely unmeasurable as compared to the 'damage taken' or the 'damage per second' statistics. However, if history is of any indicator and the stories of Raid participation declining after completing content is true, I'm probably not the only one to feel like there's not much more to shoot for. Ulduar coming out soon? I expect to be able to PuG that, too, on day one because healing Naxx 25 was a joke and if there's content that requires more than half my mana pool in a 25 man raid, I'll be surprisingly amused.

Here's the kicker: If I wasn't a PvPer at heart, I'd probably have quit by now out of sheer boredom, because jumping between the beams on top of Org bank is only fun for the first hundred thousand times. Not Horde? Ever square jump in Ironforge? Yeah, same thing. If I can feel this way, I'm sure there are many others who feel the same.

Scarily enough, this is the closest I've ever come to completing all available content, and it's not a good feeling. Keep in mind that I'm not a hard core raider, nor ever aspire to be, and nearly all of my raid experiences have been with PuGs. If I'm this apathetic about continuing to do completed content when it's not a challenge, I can't even begin to understand what the hardcore raiders are experiencing.

Although I'm all for discrediting Blizzard with their mistakes, I do have to commend them for the Malygos fight. It's incredibly fun and its one of the few fights that really highlights each and every class out there such that a 10 man raid with one of every class would actually do very well. Well, except for Warlocks, but I guess a healthstone is better than nothing. Sorry, Warlocks.

Simply, Malygos is a tank and spank DPS race. It is NOT a healer fight as people have claimed. Yes, there is a lot of damage to be healed in Phase 1 and 2, but its entirely predictable, unless Malygos eats a spark. Guild can't do Gluth? Forget about Malygos (besides that whole key issue). Vortex, for all its vaunted claims of being hard to heal through is only hard if people don't pre-heal with hots. Don't have a Priest and a Druid? Maybe it's time to recruit. Sorry, Pallies.

So if the fight isn't about healing, then what's the difficulty? Well, The key part of this fight is that DPS needs to be very high. 2.5k + DPS is probably the minimum that you want to be able to put out for this fight. That value isn't astronomical by any means, but the only reason why I give this number is because that's what our average DPS was we had an okay buffer for the Enrage timer.

Do you need all epiczzzz for this fight? I used to think so, from all the smack that was thrown about, but the answer is an emphatic "No!" The gear assumption was the amusing thing about my Malygos 10 PuG a few days ago. There were a few blues on most of our raid except for a few characters that had obviously (gear wise) completed this content and I initially thought were were headed to Fail City (population: Us). However, much like nearly every other LK raid boss, its all in the execution.

Our first attempt as a PuG? Phase 3 and we figured out the drakes a bit too slowly. Two more silly wipes in Phase 1 due to DK power spark mismanagement and the fourth pull was all she wrote. We even lost a healer towards the end of phase 2 (not me) and managed to pull out the W.

Anyways, Happy New Years, everyone, and don't do anything that vaguely sounds like a Sons of Hodir daily quest all by your lonesome!

Pining for the Fjords, a look back at the first 4 levels spent in Northrend

Northrend has been a discovery experience for me, mainly because we've been discovering:

• how much I hate waiting for a quest mob to start, spamming my Shadow Word: Death button with the hopes that I'll tag it first.
• how much I hate bugged quests. Damn you spores.
• how goddamn slow the Turtles are (irony, no?) when travelling from Howling Fjord to Borean Tundra.
• how much I just want to skip all of this leveling bullpoop and just get to 80 so I can spec the way I want and experience real content, not some interim mishmash of talents designed to kill boars faster.
• how much I would like to quest with friends, but the fact that we're at different points in the leveling process makes it incredibly hard to coordinate quests.
• how brutally expensive herbs are when youre not an herbalist.
• how annoying 'Mist Vision' is when doing quests in Borean Tundra. Mist Viking respawn rates need to be looked into.
• how incredibly ugly the Taunka are. Talk about inbred flat faces. The Forsaken need to engineer some Mad Taunka Disease and wipe them uglies outta Northrend. Better yet, send them to Outlands.
• how awesome being able to Levitate over water has been while questing.
• how awesome siege vehicles are.
• how awesome the art is in each zone when compared to Outlands and Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms.
• how awesome it is to be able to call in the level 80 Warrior Tauren muscle when the Alliance get a bit too frisky near a contested quest hub. Scatter all ye would be gankers, for the cow-lvary has arrived!

Of course, this is just the short list of the things in WotLK that have stood out to me, good, bad and ugly. One thing's for sure, we cannot wait to get to 80. This leveling thing is killing us.

So, how much content have we completed? Well, we started our leveling in the Howling Fjord and we had an awesome time there. The ganking was fairly minimal because HF was pretty much horde dominated. Why? Well, It's easy to go from UC to HF and the lush and visually pleasing landscape doesn't hurt the eyes. Even the crazy cliffs were quite fun to Levitate off of. More than just that, though, is the fact that Blizzard touted the hell out of Stormwind Harbor, and since Stormwind Harbor only goes to Borean Tundra, BT became the unofficial starting point for the Alliance. Thankfully, HF wasn't nearly as Alliance dominated and this definitely helped the learning curve.

As we plowed through quests, we noticed all of the little things that Blizzard did to add realism to a virtual (and quite cartoony) world, such as the headbutting Shoveltusks and targetable birds. Flying critters are no longer as one dimensional as the Chimera of Shadowmoon Valley. We like the little things, oh yes we do, and after we found ourselves wondering where to go next, we picked up the Jame's leveling guide off of wow-pro.com and started making sure we got all of the possible quests completed.

One thing we did notice that didn't please us is that the reputation gains in HF and in BT wouldn't really help us in the long run. Sure, there was some fatty walrus rep, but for the most part, the quests and even the beginning instances of Utgarde Keep and The Nexus really didn't give any applicable rep. I would much rather be getting a bit of usable rep while questing than having to grind endless instances at 80. Memories of chain running Shattered Halls for the healing head enchant still makes me cringe. Oh well.

That being said, the beginning instances, while fun, were quite short and exceedingly simple. For both, and for much of the zones that I have seen, the art is amazing. Flame effects are gorgeous and layout/design of the structures are quite ingenious. Sadly, the moment I am able to get Cold Weather Flying, I will be hopping on my flying mount and avoiding all of the mobs between my quest giver and the target mobs. It's a little late now, but I would have liked to have PvP faction controlled flight hubs in each Northrend zone and all flying mounts disabled. Let's bring back a little world PvP, mmkay?

At some point, we got ghetto summoned to Dalaran from some kind Shaman who queued us into a BG from Dalaran and then told me to afk out. My prediction for the future? Dalaran is going to be paaaaacked. The streets are narrow and the presence of profession trainers are going to likely flood the city with travellers. On top of all of that, there are portals to instances in Dalaran. Thankfully, there is no 'Follow Khadgar's Minion' type quest. What a waste of time that quest was, eh?

After trying to navigate Dalaran and buying ourselves an Armored Bear mount to replace our ugly undead pony, we ventured forth to work on the Borean Tundra quests. Questing in BT has been truly hellacious and we're anxious to get out into some more diverse zones without the billions of potential bad players ganking in groups because they can't succeed solo. Literally every quest mob I've attacked as had several Alliance standing and waiting to complete the same (or similar) quest, which, in turn, necessitates staying mounted and at a respectable distance. Aka, the Wuss Syndrome. We don't like playing the part of the wuss, but starting a fight is just wasting precious time that could be better spent getting to 80. We are, however, writing down the names of the jerkholes that we've met while leveling and we're going to camp them later.

Oh, and the geography of BT? Sucks. The looks are drab and the boring color palette reminds me of both the Barrens and of Hellfire Peninsula at the same time. Yes, I know there's Coldarra, but Coldarra = gankfest so we tried our hardest to gtfo as soon as possible.

We're not done with BT yet. We have just a few more quest chains to go, but we hope to get close to 75 tonight. We've heard rumors of Dragonblight sucking a big one, but we'll faithfully follow Jame and his uber guides. Baa. We can be sheep for efficient xp.

So while I'm not a dead parrot, I am hoping that the next few zones will be like the Howling Fjord in both art and questing ease. It would definitely help me enjoy the excruciatingly painful time while I level.

80 or bust!

WotLK almost here! I has a sad.

I'm waiting with unbridled anticipation for the arrival of our newest shiny overlord (7 days to go!), but in actuality, I will not have much free time after it arrives. You see, the day after it drops, I will be going on a long weekend vacation out where there's no phone, no Internet, and no computers.

And this break from humanity is greatly needed.

Then, for several days during the Thanksgiving time period, I will be overseas on another vacation, again, without my computer. So while I'm incredibly excited for something new and different to immerse in (likely multi-hour stints), I can't help but to feel a bit jealous for those who will be paving the way to 80 without me.

So, what am I doing these days to pass the few days left before our game inexorably changes (and the 'oldschoolers' will be qq'ing "OMG WotLK sucks, I wish we had TBC back. Bliz, give us TBC only servers!)? Well, I'm short about 40k honor on my Druid and about 55k honor on my Priest. I'm determined to make the Priest my main for WotLK, primarily because Arena Resto Druid healing has become an incredibly one dimensional class, especially in any composition besides 2's (where it is even quite the same as 3's and 5's). Simply put, there's only so much "Sit in Tree of Life and spam heals" that I can endure before I get bored of the class' only viable healing options.

We'll see how that goes, but for now, we are on a quest for Honor, Gold and modest amounts of Glory.

Ok, maybe not glory, but we'll take a nod of recognition...

So close! Job selection...

We had a nice little grind session yesterday and the alt is a mere 10 bars from 70. I expect to have some PvP war stories when I get back from this upcoming long weekend/vacation. My goal is to get to ~1700 with nothing but Rep, AH and craftable gear, buying no PvP honor/arena gear except the 20 resilience PvP trinket (ok, maybe some arena gear if I can get it fast enough). If anything, Shadowform will help me hide my lack of gear and resilience. We'll see if it's possible.

The other goal is to define the two most beneficial professions for Arena/BG PvP with WotLK.

Here's the way I see it (Referencing Banana Shoulders' info post):

Gathering professions (Herbalism, Mining, Skinning) Not an Option
Both my characters can heal and if a 2k hot is going to make or break my game, I'm doing something wrong. Although, the ground blooming with flowers upon activation is definitely a nice touch. Mining's 500 HP and Skinning's half of a percent of crit rating are equally negligible.

Armor professions (Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring): Largely Uninteresting
-Leatherworking seems to be the least impressive, as the BoP/BoE gear seems to be pretty much replaceable. The bracer enchants are purely stat boosts, as are the leg enchants.
-Blacksmithing doesn't seem to be much of an option either as its primary product isn't usable by either of my classes, so the added sockets would only provide a stat boost. If (and only if) blacksmiths are granted the ability of adding another meta gem, would I consider going that route on either character.
-Tailoring seems as interesting as the other armor professions with the stat boosts from BoP spellthreads, but the two caster cloak enchants do add a bit of RNG to the mix. Darkglow is a mana return proc, a la Insightful Earthstorm Diamond and we've seen the popularity of that meta gem. Lightweave is a damage proc (1-1.2k holy damage) that could either add burst or keep people in combat. It's definitely something to look into.

Gear/ability improvement professions (Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, Inscription, Engineering): Moderately Interesting to Very Interesting
-Enchanting's new claim to fame, aside from the BoP ring enchants, are their upgradeable wands. I can't imagine a wand getting upgraded to the point that it has as much impact as Stormherald has had, and as such, will assume it will maintain its role as a stat stick.
-Jewelcrafting has some new trinkets that look vaguely familiar to the initial set of JC trinkets (i.e. Golden Hare, Jade Owl) in terms of trinket cooldown. I'm assuming later sets of trinkets will have shorter cooldowns and greater effects (ex: Talasite Owl vs Seaspray Albatross). The added gems sockets are nice, especially for meeting meta requirements or to accommodate for lost stats due to use of the JC trinket. The JC only gems are the stat boost that's pretty equivalent to other professions' stat boosts.
-Inscription seems lackluster with scribe only shoulder enchants and offhands. Pure stat boost without much else. Without the rumored extra glyph slot, this profession doesn't have any allure.
-Engineering has its usual array of gadgets and gizmos, but instead of creating specific gear to accomplish a function, its gone all 'enchanting' on us and now provides 'enchants' to gear. Two such 'enchants' stand out for me: Hyperspeed Accelerators (glove) and Nitro Boosts (boots). The Hyperspeed Accelerators provide a 10% haste buff every 2 minutes, which should stack with whatever other passive haste gear you already have. I'm not sure if it will stack with other 'on use' talents or abilities, but even if it doesn't, its a pretty nice boost for both DPS and Healing. The Nitro Boosts aren't as game breaking as the now-banned-from-arena Rocket boots (300% speed increase), but even at a 70% speed boost, matching a sprinting rogue shouldn't be too bad (just hope it doesn't backfire). Hopefully there is going to be a nice caster meta that has run speed built into it.

Other professions (Alchemy) Moderately Interesting
-Alchemy is inherently disadvantaged when talking about the arenas as its primary output is something that isn't allowed. However, the good thing is that WotLK is introducing Endless potions that can be used in the arena. The bad thing, is that they heal or provide mana in such tiny amounts that it's pretty much a joke. 1680-2160 health and/or 400-600 mana back from an Endless potion? Right. Combined with one of the new alchemist stone trinkets and its 40% potion bonus effect, and you're looking at 2352-3024 health and/or 560-840 mana back. Actually, its not bad. But woe is you (unless you're character race is Human) if you want to use any other trinket but the Alchemist stones (i.e. Burst trinkets or Battlemaster's).

So, what are my profession plans?

Well, I intend to keep my Druid as a Jewelcrafter for the money making aspect and for the new trinkets (I actually like the Seaspray Albatross line), but Enchanting doesn't seem to be that big of a draw. I will likely keep Enchanting just for the Disenchanting ability, until I can spot some trends of other top druids. Extra stats may be the key to RestoDruid longevity in WotLK, so 2 stat boosting professions may be the way to go.

My alt Priest will likely keep Tailoring, but most likely drop Jewelcrafting once WotLK hits (I love my Brilliant Glass), upon which she will take Engineering. With Imp Shadowform granting Fade the ability to remove all snares, it's likely that the Nitro Boosts will actually come in handy. If I decide to go healspec, the Hyperspeed Accelerators will help me with Manaburn. Either way, should be fun!

I'm definitely looking forward to the long weekend, and remember to be safe! Don't do anything Columbus wouldn't do. Also, get your Arena games done soon if you're going out of town!

(Boxer) Brief* Update

Work's been kicking my ass lately, so here's just a brief update as to what's been happening.

Priest is up to 63.5 and still on rest XP, which is good because I'll be damned if I have to grind quests and mobs without any bonus effect. It's THAT painful.

Shadow Word: Death is amazing. Ninja SW:D'ing other people's mobs to get Spirit Tap is awesome, especially if you're low on Mana. My mana issues are better now that I'm avoiding Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague like the.. plague... um.. yeah.

There's been some talk about the new Lifebloom nerf. While I'm extremely against it, because my main is a Druid and rolling hots is what we do, the mana inefficiency of it all makes it very unattractive and as such it may be considered a waste of a GCD. Beta Druids at 80 in starter PvP gear report a marginally larger mana pool. As such, efficiency is key, as mana costs for new spell ranks have scaled higher than the mana pool can support.

Does this mean that PvE gear will be near required to accomodate the change in mana cost? Personally, I hope not, but if certain stats are only available via PvE gear because they're not budgeted for Resilience, I will not be a happy camper, regardless of class.

And Blizzard, ffs, move Judgements of the Wise to the lvl 51 Ret talent. There's no reason why Holy Paladins should have infinite mana, even in PvE.

*There should be a worldwide ban on Briefs. The question should be, "Boxers or Boxer Briefs?" There is NO counterargument. Do not even try.

Planning for WotLK

Disclaimer: Everyone has theories on what to do for the expansion: farming gold, saving materials for leveling professions, etc. and as much as I'd like to think that what I'll be doing is the best approach, I'm sure there are some things I'm just not considering.

***Warning: Longish Post***

So, without further ado, here's Chu's plan for the expansion, optimized towards PvP but with some focus towards money making and possible small team raiding (10 mans), especially since the release date is about 2 months out.

Research: Research everything that the Blizzard unpaid volunteer testing team (aka Beta testers) have generated about factions, reputations, professions, quest rewards, 5 man drops, badge rewards and the starting raid (Naxx 10 man).

Much of the preparation work is in this step. It is important to know what faction reputations are need for which classes because reflecting upon the Thrallmar rep grind has me still convulsing at the thought of more Shattered Halls runs. There are some reasonable rep rewards that may be readily available if focus is given towards progressing that faction rep. At the same time, knowing which professions to level/relevel based on their synergy with my character classes is equally important. Trying to level a new profession such as inscription without a bank full of pre-farmed herbs would be prohibitively expensive.

Drop wise, Quest rewards/5 man drops aren't nearly as important, but it is still a task that is of reasonable importance as there are some quest rewards and 5 man drops that are viable long into the future. Look at the Idol of the Emerald Queen if you want a good example. Heroic Badge gear is something more towards long term future planning, however if there is any good PvP gear there (aka PvP Cloaks/trinkets), some effort should be directed towards acquiring a steady income of Heroic Badges. The same applies towards the first 10 man raid. Aside from rep rewards and just plain fun (I can't believe I said that), there may be some good weapons/gear that will fill in the starting Honor/Arena PvP sets.

Honor Grind: It is likely that Blizzard will not do a clean slate wipe of Honor gained through honorable kills/bg objectives, so going into WotLK with less than 75k honor is not an option. At the same time, going into WotLK with less than 100 badges may be permissible, but should be maximized.

Gold/Other Grind: Inflation is an inherent aspect of the upcoming expansion, much like TBC, and the value of gold will drop dramatically. If you can think back to pre-TBC times, grinding 100g felt like a chore and spending 500g for a BWL drop was an enormous expenditure. With the advent of dailies and quest rewards at level 70, gold has been greatly devalued. There are three schools of thought when it comes to using your gold: 1) Spend! 2) Invest! 3) Save! All are viable strategies.

The first seeks to get as much value out of the gold NOW, while it still has value. Proponents of this strategy argue that quest reward and random drops will easily make up the gold supply on the way to 80 and there's no point in saving money when it will have a fraction of its current value in a few months. Buy that Amani War Bear now! Buy those Gigantique bags! Advocates of the Invest strategy recognize that inflation will make their currency worth much less and as such, will invest in commodities such as herbs, profession leveling items, or leveling plate gear (for all those baby DKs). The last group will just Save their entire bankroll for WotLK and use its liquid buying power to obtain items they need quickly.

I plan on using a hybrid of Invest and Save, bringing with me a bank alt full of herbs, a good amount of uncut gems, and enough materials to level alchemy very quickly. The herbs are to both powerlevel Inscription and to sell at a marked up price for those who didn't think ahead. The uncut gems will be to level Jewelcrafting quickly and the alchemy mats will be for my new baby Deathknight. Why alchemy? Well, Blizzard is essentially giving everyone a free moneymaking alt. It shouldn't take too long to level a new DK from 55 to the min level for max alchemy specialization, thus providing me with a means to transmute for a profit every cycle. There are obviously other materials throughout TBC that should be collected for fast leveling (Netherweave Cloth for First Aid, components for Cooking, etc) and those should also be acquired prior to WotLK release.

I also plan on bringing a sizable bankroll to possibly buy world drop recipes off the AH that may be profitable in the long run, however, it is unlikely that these items will be available for purchase until the majority of the server population reaches the high 70's. I am part of the "I Will use the AH to Gouge You" Jewelcrafting 'Union' with a majority of the rare gem cuts and as such, I know the value of rare recipes.

Right before the expansion release, I'm going to also complete, but not turn in, 25 quests. If there are turn ins for other quests that I don't have to pick up, I'll collect those, too and hold on to them. The idea here, naturally, is to turn in all 25 quests as soon as humanly possible the moment I get back into the game after the expansion comes out for a decent jump in XP. While I'm not keen on racing to 80, I don't see any reason not to have a sizeable xp boost (approximately 250k XP) so that I can get ahead of the curve. If I can get to a zone before the masses do, I'll have an easier time finding quest mobs/items, thus making it easier in the long run.

Recruitment: News has leaked that there are going to be 10 man instance bosses that drop PvP gear (while Lake Wintergrasp is under your faction's control). While this doesn't mean a whole helluva lot to your average PvPer, Bliz has also stated previously that they will be focusing more on PvE in this expansion. This means my little PvP group will have to recruit some like minded PvPers who are capable of getting some PvE gear to help with some 10 mans. I'm not entirely estatic about having to PvE, but I think a 10 man focused group can accomplish a lot, while still PvPing a majority of our in-game time.

Leveling Gear: Leveling as a healer is probably one of the most mind numbing experiences possible and while grouping or leveling via instances is preferred/possible, there will be times where I will have to scratch and claw (lolmangle?) my way through some kill quests. As such, acquiring an offset of gear for the purposes to leveling will be very important. I haven't yet decided if this set will be Feral or LazerChicken, as I have average gear for both, but it should be complete and ready to go once we near xpac release.

Purge(?): While prices are still reasonable for many items, with the announcement of WotLK, various prices will start to tumble as people start purging their banks/etc. It's a great time to buy items, as long as you know you can either use them in any of the above preparation steps or turn around and resell later. One example of this the comparison of Greater Eternal Essence prices before and after the expansion. Many people dumped their entire store of GEE's prior to TBC, and yet theyre incredibly expensive right now as anyone who tried powerleveling enchanting will tell you. There is a strong case for saving TBC materials for the horde of baby DKs itching to level their professions. As such, keep an eye out for great deals as people panic and purge. In this case, our long term investment isn't a short term investment gone awry.

Well, that's my list of things to do prior to the expansion. It's not short, but honestly, a little preparation goes a long way when it comes to game play ease, especially if you want to get into activities you find enjoyable as soon as possible.