Yukeake

I rather like this idea, as it meshes rather nicely with the "mechanical" aspect of Azerothian lore - Algalon as an antivirus program, Re-Origination as reformatting, and the Emerald Dream as a post-install backup image.

Some giant Titan-created machine forms the "core" of Azeroth, which in turn forms the rest of the planet around itself. The "Matrix" that keeps being referred to could be something like the core programming of this machine - the "blueprint" of the planet, as it were.

The Old Gods corrupt and infiltrate the core programming, inserting *themselves* into Azeroth's code - ensuring that were they to ever "die", Azeroth would just re-make them. (Malware infesting the boot sector?)

From there, they initiate the "Curse of Flesh", subtly re-writing the blueprints/patterns for other Azerothian life, to make them easier to corrupt. (Reverse security patching?)

Mortals come along and kill parts of the Old Gods (functioning sort of like a preliminary malware scan/remove process), and manage to "clean" the infection from some parts (Watchers in Ulduar), but the greater infection "lives" on.

Look at who both sends you to the Barrow Dens, and who you deliver him to afterwards...

*Exactly* 3 Red, or *At Least* 3 Red? The wording is a little ambiguous.

Since cross-color (Orange, Purple, etc...) gems count as both of their colors, an "exact" requirement might me rather limiting. On the other hand, at least for DPS, an "at least" requirement is a bit of a no-brainer.

Keep the debuff, but allow queuing while it runs its course. Once you reach the top of the list, you're simply passed over, until the debuff expires.

For folks with long queues, who are already waiting longer than the 15 minute debuff anyway (3-4 times that for DPS currently), they just deal with the long queue. Folks with very short queue times get a wait (but one that's still *much* shorter than the DPS queue).

10-mans will be easier to form, overall. The role distribution fits the combination of 5-mans almost perfectly:

5-man group:
1x Tank
1x Healer
3x DPS

10-man group:
2x Tank
2x Healer
6x DPS (with one capable of swapping to Healer if necessary)

That's pretty much perfect. Everyone generally stays in their preferred roles.

25-man role distribution isn't so clean:

3x Tank
4x Healer (one capable of going DPS if necessary)
18x DPS

Merging two 10-man groups together leaves you 5 short *and* one tank too many, so already one tank must switch to DPS. Then you can't just pick up another 5-man group - you need 5 DPS - so overall three folks won't be in their preferred roles. On paper that doesn't sound bad, but it can (and does) cause issues, unless there's a rotation.

Having a rotation means nobody needs to do their off-role all the time, but also means that *every* tank and healer *must* maintain their off-spec gear - which means rolling against primary DPS for limited drops.

This becomes a loot distribution problem for some groups - so you end up tacking on a loot distribution system. Since nobody ever agrees on a loot distribution system, this tends to cause some additional drama that needs to be taken care of.

A 25-man raid leader is going to be expected to be on top of where each and every member of their raid is, and making sure they're doing their jobs, running to the proper locations at the proper times, etc... That's quite a bit harder to do with 24 other people than with 9 - particularly on fights with multiple phases and/or complex mechanics.

The fact none of that is necessary at all in a 10-man group is going to attract a *lot* of burnt-out raid leaders, I think. Personal accountability is higher in a 10-man than a 25 (you account for 10% of the raid, as opposed to 4%), so it's much easier to identify and deal with problem areas. The flip side of that is that it's much easier for a single mistake to bring about a wipe. Difficulty normalization across 10/25 may do a good bit to even that out - but that remains to be seen.

The tech looks strikingly similar to FF7 - pre-rendered backdrops with 3D characters running along them, 3D turn-based battle system... Heck, I think FF7's models were less detailed - I know the textures were. Haven't played FF8 in a long time - might actually be closer to that.

As much as I'd jump on a re-release of the PS-generation FF games (7/8/9) on the iPhone, I'm rather glad they went with a new story.

So long as it's not priced stupidly, this looks like it'll be a definite buy for me.

I'd have liked to see AN get as much raid attention as AQ did. Two raids, 10/25 man versions. Most likely split in the same way as the 5-mans ended up - one for Anub, the other for a Forgotten One.

The Forgotten One raid should have probably been either T7 or T8 level - can't really have it higher than Yoggy, seeing as he's in control of 'em. Anub has no such restriction, and could be any level (although I'd have seen him as an entry-level T7 instance over the Naxx rehash). A sprawling AN instance for him would have been awesome.

The Icecrown phasing mechanic needed a lot more attention and testing, IMHO. Leaving folks separated from their party members sucks. An easy solution would have been to tie the phase to the group leader. Everyone gets pulled into that phase - so there's little problem with folks helping their friends out. The current issues with the ICC summoning stone should never have happened. We have folks in our guild who've completed every available quest in Icecrown, yet are phased out from each other at the stone (we've tried the "Battle Before the Citadel" trick, and that's not getting them in the same phase either).

I'd like to see more instance/raid bosses where the general tactic changes away from "Melee on the boss, ranged handle all the annoying mechanics".

I'd like to see more "annoyance" mechanics that affect melee/physical DPS. Most fights have some mechanic that hobbles casters, but physical DPS just chugs right on through without being harassed. Harass us all equally!

More new recipes for Alchemists, Inscribers, and Enchanters.

It's a mechanic problem that's affecting all casters, so far as I can tell. Physical DPS all revolves around instant, cooldown-based abilities. They deal damage immediately, but have to wait before they can do it again. Casters, on the other hand, have to stand perfectly still and wait a few seconds before our damage happens (aside from a few anemic instants, or in the case of DoTs, another 3s wait before the first tick).

If a caster has to move, or is interrupted for any reason, our DPS goes to 0, until we can plant again for a few seconds. Combine that with the fact mage DPS is based on "ramping up" cycles (in the case of Arcane) or stacking (in the case of Fire), and we have to be able to plant for quite a bit to stay competitive.

Most fights now aren't favoring this playstyle. Blizzard wants us moving all the time. That's fine if you're a cooldown-based class, who can either DPS on the move, or stop for a split second, hit your ability, then keep moving. It *sucks* for casters.

Combine *that* with things like spell reflect, disrupting shouts, and other abilities that *only* affect casters, and we're in a tough spot compared to our more physically-oriented siblings.

I don't know what the solution is, but it seems unlikely we'll go back to encounters that allow us to plant in one place for the duration and just DPS, nor will we get relief in the form of replacing cast times with cooldowns.

As it is, most fights end with hunters, rogues, ret pallies and DKs on top, followed by every caster we have, followed by the rest. That's not a case of all our casters sucking, or our melee being awesome, it's indicative of mechanics favoring one over the other.

Naxxanar, Utgarde Keep, and Old Kingdom were merely setbacks!

Definitely feeling the pain trying to gear up my DK to tank. He's at 540 Defense (542 actually, but who's counting? ;P ), but hasn't quite breached 30k HP yet.

As my main is a Mage, I've never tanked before - so I need to learn what's what, in addition to gearing up. This requires practice. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor do long-time DPS players know the ins and outs of tanking without actually, you know, tanking.

Noone wants to let a new tank learn how to be a tank. If you don't have ~40-45k HP, you're a scrub who has no business tanking H UK. If you can't hold threat against fully-raid-geared 5-7k DPS who don't (or won't) use misdirection/aggro dumps, you're a scrub with no business tanking whatsoever. If you don't already know exactly how to tank, exactly how every pull goes, etc... you have no business being there at all. That's the current mentality out there

It's essentially lean on guildies, or run as DPS and don't get tanking experience. You're not going to cure the tank shortage that way. You'll end up (eventually) getting a bunch of folks with "decent" (IE: non-raid) tanking gear, but no clue how to tank, because noone will let them.