What classes bring what buffes/debuffs to raids, Part II

My last post on this subject listed the various buffs and debuffs that each class brought to raids, organized by the buff itself. I decided to repost that list with the entries organized instead by class, rather than buff. Like the last post, if a certain buff can only be brought by a specific spec of that class, I'll say so, and if being a certain spec improves that buff, I'll list the spec in parentheses, and ditto for hunters' and warlocks' pets. Items in italics are debuffs, while the rest are buffs.

Buffs

Death Knights: +strength/agility: Horn of Winter
Death Knights: water walking: Path of Frost
Blood Death Knights: +10% attack power: Abomination's Might
Frost Death Knights: +20% melee haste: Improved Icy Talons
(Balance) Druid: cause damage to attackers: Thorns + Brambles
Balance Druids: +5% spell crit chance: Moonkin Form
Balance Druids: +3% haste: Moonkin Form + Improved Moonkin Form
Feral Druids: +5% melee crit chance: Leader of the Pack
Feral Druids: heal self on melee crit (unique): Leader of the Pack + Improved Leader of the Pack
(Restoration) Druids: +armor: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +arcane resistance (unique): Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +fire resistance: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +nature resistance: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +frost resistance: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +shadow resistance: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
Restoration Druids: +6% healing received: Tree of Life Form
Hunters: +nature resistance: Aspect of the Wild
Hunters: detect stealthed/invisible enemies: Flare
Hunters: +ranged attack power (unique): Hunter's Mark*
(Beast Mastery) Hunters: +movement speed (unique): Aspect of the Pack + Pathfinding
Beast Mastery Hunters: +3% damage: Ferocious Inspiration
Survival Hunters: Replenishment: Hunting Party
Marksmanship Hunters: +10% attack power: Trueshot Aura
Mages: +intellect: Arcane Intellect
Mages: +healing/spell damage taken (unique): Amplify Magic*, -healing/spell damage taken (unique): Dampen Magic*,
Frost Mages: Replenishment: Enduring Winter
Paladins: +fire resistance: Fire Resistance Aura
Paladins: +frost resistance: Frost Resistance Aura
Paladins: +shadow resistance: Shadow Resistance Aura
Paladins: +10% stats (unique): Blessing of Kings, gain mana on dodge/parry/block (unique): Blessing of Sanctuary*, +mounted speed (unique): Crusader Aura
(Holy) Paladins: +mana per 5 seconds: Blessing of Wisdom + Improved Blessing of Wisdom
(Holy) Paladins: not loose casting time: Concentration Aura + Improved Concentration Aura
Holy Paladins: +resistance to poisons, diseases, magic (unique): Cleanse + Sacred Cleansing, Concentration Aura + Improved Concentration Aura
(Protection) Paladins: +armor: Devotion Aura + Improved Devotion Aura
Protection Paladins: -3% damage taken: Blessing of Sanctuary
Protection Paladins: +6% healing received: Improved Devotion Aura
(Retribution) Paladins: +attack power: Blessing of Might + Improved Blessing of Might
(Retribution) Paladin: cause damage to attackers: Retribution Aura + Sanctified Retribution
Retribution Paladins: Replenishment: Judgements of the Wise
Retribution Paladin: +3% damage: Retribution Aura + Sanctified Retribution
Retribution Paladins: +3% haste: Swift Retribution
Priests: +spirit: Divine Spirit
Priests: +shadow resistance: Shadow Protection
Priests: reduced fall speed: Levitate
(Discipline) Priests: + stamina (unique): Power Word: Fortitude + Improved Power Word: Fortitude
Discipline Priests: -3% damage taken: Renewed Hope
Shadow Priests: Replenishment: Vampiric Touch
Shamans: +fire resistance: Fire Resistance Totem
Shamans: +nature resistance: Nature Resistance Totem
Shamans: +frost resistance: Frost Resistance Totem
Shamans: water walking: Water Walking
Shamans: water breathing: Water Breathing
Shamans: +spell haste (unique): Wrath of Air Totem
Elemental Shamans: +spellpower: Totem of Wrath
Elemental Shamans: +5% spell crit chance: Elemental Oath
(Enhancement) Shamans: +strength/agility: Strength of Earth Totem + Enhancing Totems
(Enhancement) Shamans: +spellpower: Flametongue Totem + Enhancing Totems
(Enhancement) Shamans: +armor: Stoneskin Totem + Guardian Totems
(Enhancement) Shamans: +20% melee haste: Windfury Totem + Improved Windfury Totem
Enhancement Shamans: +10% attack power: Unleashed Rage
(Restoration) Shamans: +mana per 5 seconds: Mana Spring Totem + Restorative Totems
Restoration Shamans: not loose casting time: Earth Shield
Warlocks: water breathing: Unending Breath
Warlocks: detect stealthed/invisible enemies: Detect Invisibility
Warlocks (Voidwalker): detect stealthed/invisible enemies: Consume Shadows
(Affliction) Warlocks (Felhunter): +intellect: Fel Intelligence + Improved Fel Hunter
(Affliction) Warlocks (Felhunter): +spirit: Fel Intelligence + Improved Fel Hunter
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): +health: Blood Pact + Improved Imp
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): +fire resistance: Fire Shield + Improved Imp
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): cause damage to attackers: Fire Shield + Improved Imp
Demonology Warlock: +spellpower: Demonic Pact
Destruction Warlocks: Replenishment: Soul Leech + Improved Soul Leech
(Fury) Warriors: +health: Commanding Shout + Commanding Presence
(Fury) Warriors: +attack power: Battle Should + Commanding Pressence
Fury Warriors: +5% melee crit chance: Rampage
Protection Warriors: -3% damage taken: Vigilance

Debuffs

Blood Death Knights: -movement speed (50%): Heart Strike + Glyph of Heart Strike
(Frost) Death Knights: -melee attack speed (20%): Frost Fever + Improved Icy Touch
Frost Death Knights: -movement speed (50%): Chilblains
Unholy Death Knights: +13% spell damage: Ebon Plaguebringer
Druids: -armor (5%): Faerie Fire (Feral)
Druids: -melee attack speed (20%): Hurricane
Druids: -movement speed (20%): Hurricane + Glyph of Hurricane
Druids: can't flee: Rake + Glyph of Rake
Druids: can't stealth or turn invisible: Faerie Fire (Feral)
Balance Druids: +13% spell damage: Earth and Moon
Balance Druids: +3% spell hit chance: Faerie Fire + Improved Faerie Fire
Balance Druids: -3% chance to hit (melee): Insect Swarm - Glyph of Insect Swarm
(Feral) Druids: -attack power: Demoralizing Roar + Feral Aggression
Feral Druids: -melee attack speed (20%): Infected Wounds
Feral Druids: -movement speed (50%): Infected Wounds
Feral Druids: +bleed damage (30%): Mangle
Shadow Priests: +3% spell hit chance: Misery
Hunters: -3% chance to hit (melee): Scorpid Sting
Hunters: -movement speed (50%): Wing Clip
Hunters (Sporebat): -armor (3%): Spore Cloud
Hunter (Carrion Bird): -attack power: Demoralizing Screech
Hunters (Serpent): +casting speed (25%): Poison Spit
Beast Mastery Hunters (Wasp): -armor (5%): Sting
Beast Mastery Hunters (Worm): -armor (20%): Acid Spit
Beast Mastery Hunters (Core hound): +casting speed (25%): Lava Breath
Beast Mastery Hunters (Rhino): +bleed damage (25%): Stampede
Beast Mastery Hunters (Wasp): can't stealth or turn invisible: Sting
Marksmanship Hunters: -healing taken (50%): Aimed Shot
Arcane Mages: +casting speed (30%) Slow
Arcane Mages: -movement speed (60%): Slow
Arcane Mages: -ranged attack speed (unique): Slow
Fire Mages: +5% chance to be critically hit by spells: Improved Scorch
(Frost) Mages: -movement speed (70%): Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt + Permafrost + Chilled to the Bone
Frost Mages: +5% chance to be critically hit by spells: Winter's Chill
Frost Mages: -healing taken (20%): Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt + Permafrost
Paladin: can't flee: Judgement of Justice
Paladin: limited to normal movement speed (unique): Judgement of Justice
Paladin: heal attackers (unique): Judgement of Light
Paladin: restore mana to attackers (unique): Judgement of Wisdom
Retribution Paladins: +3% critical strike chance: Heart of the Crusader
Retribution Paladins: -attack power: Vindication
Shadow Priests: -healing taken (20%): Mind Blast + Improved Mind Blast
Shadow Priests: -movement speed (50%): Mind Flay - Glyph of Mind Flay
Rogues: -healing taken (50%): Wound Poison
Rogues: -armor (20%): Expose Armor
Rogues: +casting speed (30%): Mind-numbing Poison
Rogues: -movement speed (60%): Deadly Throw + Glyph of Deadly Throw
Rogues: -movement speed (70%): Crippling Poison
Combat Rogues: +4% physical damage: Savage Combat
Subtlety Rogues: -melee attack speed (20%): Waylay
Subtlety Rogues: -movement speed (70%): Waylay
Shamans: -melee attack speed (10%): Earth Shock
Shamans: -movement speed (50%): Frost Shock
Elemental Shamans: +3% critical strike chance: Totem of Wrath
Warlocks: +13% spell damage: Curse of the Elements
Warlocks: -armor (5%): Curse of Weakness
Warlocks: +casting speed (30%): Curse of Tongues
Warlocks: -movement speed (70%): Shadowflame + Glyph of Shadowflame
Warlocks: -resistances (unique): Curse of the Elements
Warlocks: +swim speed (unique): Unending Breath + Glyph of Unending Breath
Warlocks (Voidwalker): -10% chance to hit (unique): Suffering
Warlocks (Succubus): -melee attack speed (10%): Soothing Kiss
(Affliction) Warlocks: -attack power: Curse of Weakness + Improved Curse of Weakness
Affliction Warlocks: -movement speed (30%): Curse of Exhaustion
Destruction Warlocks: +5% chance to be critically hit by spells: Improved Shadow Bolt
Warriors: -armor (20%): Sunder Armor
Warriors: -melee attack speed (20%): Thunder Clap + Improved Thunder Clap
Warriors: -movement speed (50%): Hamstring
Arms Warriors: +4% physical damage: Blood Frenzy
Arms Warriors: -healing taken (50%): Mortal Strike
Arms Warriors: +bleed damage (30%): Trauma
(Fury) Warriors: -attack power: Demoralizing Shout + Improved Demoralizing Shout
Fury Warriors: -healing taken (50%): Furious Attacks
Fury Warrior: -movement speed (50%): Piercing Howl


*I only included these buffs for completeness sake. I know Hunters Mark only helps the hunter, that Blessing of Sanctuary only helps the paladin, and that Amplify/Dampen Magic suck.

What classes bring what buffes/debuffs to raids

I don't really consider this an advice post, so I'm posting it on Monday. In my last post, I covered how many class-specific buffs and debuffs were given to other classes when Wrath of the Lich King came out. I thought I'd go over the various sources of the various buffs, just to see how many sources of each buff there really are. I list them first by the buffs themselves, then the classes that bring them. If a certain buff can only be brought by a specific spec of that class, I'll say so. If being a certain spec improves that buff, I'll list the spec in parentheses. This also applies to a specific pet if the class is a warlock or hunter.

Update: This list is now accurate for patch 3.2. The wowhead links may not reflect these new changes yet, but they will.

Buffs

Replenishment:
Survival Hunters: Hunting Party
Frost Mages: Enduring Winter
Retribution Paladins: Judgements of the Wise
Shadow Priest: Vampiric Touch
Destruction Warlocks: Soul Leech + Improved Soul Leech

+3% damage:
Beast Mastery Hunters: Ferocious Inspiration
Retribution Paladin: Retribution Aura + Sanctified Retribution

-3% damage taken:
Protection Paladins: Blessing of Sanctuary
Discipline Priests: Renewed Hope
Protection Warriors: Vigilance

+6% healing received:
Restoration Druids: Tree of Life Form
Protection Paladins: Improved Devotion Aura

+strength/agility:
Death Knights: Horn of Winter
(Enhancement) Shamans: Strength of Earth Totem + Enhancing Totems

+intellect:
Mages: Arcane Intellect
(Affliction) Warlocks (Felhunter): Fel Intelligence + Improved Fel Hunter

+spirit:
Priests: Divine Spirit
(Affliction) Warlocks (Felhunter): Fel Intelligence + Improved Fel Hunter

+health:
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): Blood Pact + Improved Imp
(Fury) Warriors: Commanding Shout + Commanding Pressence

+attack power:
(Retribution) Paladins: Blessing of Might + Improved Blessing of Might
(Fury) Warriors: Battle Should + Commanding Pressence

+spellpower:
(Enhancement) Shamans: Flametongue Totem + Enhancing Totems
Elemental Shamans: Totem of Wrath
Demonology Warlock: Demonic Pact

+Armor:
(Restoration) Druids: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Protection) Paladins: Devotion Aura + Improved Devotion Aura
(Enhancement) Shamans: Stoneskin Totem + Guardian Totems

+mana per 5 seconds:
(Holy) Paladins: Blessing of Wisdom + Improved Blessing of Wisdom
(Restoration) Shamans: Mana Spring Totem + Restorative Totems

+10% attack power:
Blood Death Knights: Abomination's Might
Marksmanship Hunters: Trueshot Aura
Enhancement Shamans: Unleashed Rage

+5% melee crit chance:
Feral Druids: Leader of the Pack
Fury Warriors: Rampage

+5% spell crit chance:
Balance Druids: Moonkin Form
Elemental Shamans: Elemental Oath

+3% haste:
Balance Druids: Moonkin Form + Improved Moonkin Form
Retribution Paladins: Swift Retribution

+20% melee haste:
Frost Death Knights: Improved Icy Talons
Enhancement Shamans: Windfury Totem + Improved Windfury Totem

+fire resistance:
(Restoration) Druids: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
Paladins: Fire Resistance Aura
Shamans: Fire Resistance Totem
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): Fire Shield + Improved Imp

+nature resistance:
(Restoration) Druids: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
Hunters: Aspect of the Wild
Shamans: Nature Resistance Totem

+frost resistance:
(Restoration) Druids: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
Paladins: Frost Resistance Aura
Shamans: Frost Resistance Totem

+shadow resistance:
(Restoration) Druids: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
Paladins: Shadow Resistance Aura
Priests: Shadow Protection

not loose casting time:
(Holy) Paladins: Concentration Aura + Improved Concentration Aura
Restoration Shamans: Earth Shield

cause damage to attackers:
(Balance) Druid: Thorns + Brambles
(Retribution) Paladin: Retribution Aura + Sanctified Retribution
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): Fire Shield + Improved Imp

water walking:
Death Knights: Path of Frost
Shamans: Water Walking

water breathing:
Shamans: Water Breathing
Warlocks: Unending Breath

detect stealthed/invisible enemies:
Hunters: Flare
Warlocks: Detect Invisibility
Warlocks (Voidwalker): Consume Shadows

reduced fall speed:
Mages: Slow Fall
Priests: Levitate

Unique Buffs:
(Restoration) Druids: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
Feral Druids: Leader of the Pack + Improved Leader of the Pack
Hunters: Hunter's Mark*
(Beast Mastery) Hunters: Aspect of the Pack + Pathfinding
Mages: Amplify Magic*, Dampen Magic*,
Paladins: Blessing of Kings, Blessing of Sanctuary, Crusader Aura
Holy Paladins: Cleanse + Sacred Cleansing, Concentration Aura + Improved Concentration Aura
(Discipline) Priests: Power Word: Fortitude + Improved Power Word: Fortitude
Shamans: Wrath of Air Totem

Debuffs

+4% physical damage:
Combat Rogues: Savage Combat
Arms Warriors: Blood Frenzy

+13% spell damage:
Unholy Death Knights: Ebon Plaguebringer
Balance Druids: Earth and Moon
Warlocks: Curse of the Elements

+3% critical strike chance:
Retribution Paladins: Heart of the Crusader
Elemental Shamans: Totem of Wrath

+5% chance to be critically hit by spells:
Fire Mages: Improved Scorch
Frost Mages: Winter's Chill
Destruction Warlocks: Improved Shadow Bolt

+3% spell hit chance:
Balance Druids: Faerie Fire + Improved Faerie Fire
Shadow Priests: Misery

-healing taken:
20%:
Frost Mages: Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt + Permafrost
Shadow Priests: Mind Blast + Improved Mind Blast
50%:
Marksmanship Hunter: Aimed Shot
Rogues: Wound Poison
Arms Warriors: Mortal Strike
Fury Warriors: Furious Attacks

-armor:
3%
Hunters (Sporebat): Spore Cloud
5%
Druids: Faerie Fire (Feral)
Beast Mastery Hunters (Wasp): Sting
Warlocks: Curse of Weakness
20%
Beast Mastery Hunters (Worm): Acid Spit
Rogues: Expose Armor
Warriors: Sunder Armor

-attack power:
(Feral) Druids: Demoralizing Roar + Feral Aggression
Hunter (Carrion Bird): Demoralizing Screech
Retribution Paladins: Vindication
(Affliction) Warlocks: Curse of Weakness + Improved Curse of Weakness
(Fury) Warriors: Demoralizing Shout + Improved Demoralizing Shout

-3% chance to hit (melee):
Balance Druids: Insect Swarm - Glyph of Insect Swarm
Hunters: Scorpid Sting

-melee attack speed:
10%:
Warlocks (Succubus): Soothing Kiss
Shamans: Earth Shock
20%:
(Frost) Death Knights: Frost Fever + Improved Icy Touch
Druids: Hurricane
Feral Druids: Infected Wounds
Subtlety Rogues: Waylay
Warrior: Thunder Clap + Improved Thunder Clap

+casting speed:
25%:
Beast Mastery Hunters (Core hound): Lava Breath
Hunters (Serpent): Poison Spit
30%:
Arcane Mages: Slow
Rogues: Mind-numbing Poison
Warlocks: Curse of Tongues

-movement speed:
20%:
Druids: Hurricane + Glyph of Hurricane
30%:
Affliction Warlocks: Curse of Exhaustion
50%:
Blood Death Knights: Heart Strike + Glyph of Heart Strike
Frost Death Knights: Chilblains
Feral Druids: Infected Wounds
Hunters: Wing Clip
Shadow Priests: Mind Flay - Glyph of Mind Flay
Shamans: Frost Shock
Warrior: Hamstring
Fury Warrior: Piercing Howl
60%
Arcane Mages: Slow
Rogues: Deadly Throw + Glyph of Deadly Throw
70%:
(Frost) Mages: Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt + Permafrost + Chilled to the Bone
Rogues: Crippling Poison
Subtlety Rogues: Waylay
Warlocks: Shadowflame + Glyph of Shadowflame

+bleed damage:
25%:
Beast Mastery Hunters (Rhino): Stampede
30%:
Feral Druids: Mangle
Arms Warriors: Trauma

can't flee:
Druid: Rake + Glyph of Rake
Paladin: Judgement of Justice

can't stealth or turn invisible:
Druids: Faerie Fire (Feral)
Beast Mastery Hunters (Wasp): Sting

Unique Debuffs:
Arcane Mages: Slow
Paladin: Judgement of Justice, Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom
Warlocks: Curse of the Elements, Unending Breath + Glyph of Unending Breath
Warlock (Voidwalker): Suffering

*I only included these buffs for completeness sake. I know Hunters Mark only helps the hunter, that Blessing of Sanctuary only helps the paladin, and that Amplify/Dampen Magic suck.

On the homogenization of Wrath of the Lich King solo content

If Burning Crusade was Blizzard's attempt to homogenize World of Warcraft in some way, Wrath of the Lich King was their success. We could see the beginnings of homogenization in BC: all elemental items were now primal [element], which were obtained by combining motes; starter gear could be obtained from badges of justice, gotten from any heroic instance; and many reputation grinds were done in instances, not by grinding various mobs. (There were exceptions, of course.) We also saw the advent of dailies, a reliable, albeit repetitive way to make money. Class balance was brought into sharper focus and actually attempted by Blizzard, and most classes had something unique to bring to the raid. Profession balance also become a concern, and Blizzard tried to give every profession something special to make it different from the rest and worth taking.

The problem with Blizzard's design philosophy during BC was that it was near impossible to keep all these things balanced. Some reputation grinds were immensely harder than others with worse rewards, some classes were more useless than others in raids (although, as I discussed here, I think that was a mistaken assumption), and some professions were much more useful to the crafter than others. Despite their best intentions, Blizzard wasn't able to balance everything in BC, but it was certainly a start.

Wrath of the Lich King changed all that. "Bring the player, not the class" became Blizzard's new design philosophy. Their goal was to make each class equally viable so that raids would choose to bring people based on the player's skills, not their class and spec. It was a noble pursuit, and for the most part, it was successful. Frost mages still fall behind in DPS and ret paladins were overpowered for some time, but most classes were on equal footing. Not only were the classes now performing more or less equally, but they were also given new abilities that had been exclusive to other classes for the longest time. For example, Leader of the Pack was one of the main draws of bringing a feral druid to raids. With the release of Wrath, however, warriors were given the same ability. This was one of many examples of class exclusive buffs being given to other classes. With these new buffs was added a new buff mechanic: identical buffs no longer stack. If you bring a feral druid with LotP and a fury warrior with Rampage, your raid members will only get a 5% bonus to their melee crit chance, not a 10% chance. Since buffs like these were also made raid-wide, there was no longer a benefit to bring multiple members of the same class to give the same buffs to different groups in your raid. Thus many classes lost the unique things they had previously brought to raids, and these buffs became viewed as mandatory, rather than a nice bonus to bringing along an atypical DPS'er to your raids.

Blizzard wasn't done there, though. They made reputation grinds more similar as well. Most factions now have their own dailies which grant rep, and for some you can also don their tabard and gain rep from any heroic or level 80 instances you enter. Compared to the old days where only certain instances gave rep with certain factions, this gives players much more flexibility in how they gain rep. I have bad memories of grinding Steamvaults to get rep for my Earthwarden. It was not a fun instance, and the only thing that kept in bearable was the fact that it dropped two pieces of the hunter dungeon set, as well as two pieces of the mage set, so I had a constant supply of DPS. With the advent of Warth, you can now run any instance you like and gain rep, allowing you to choose to run easy ones or ones which drop gear you want. All these changes makes grinding reputation easier, and as a result, the rewards from reputation grinds are less remarkable. Still pretty good, but not as remarkable.

It was worth it, though.

Speaking of dailies, they became a lot more prevalent in Wrath. Once the exclusive right of those with flying mounts, these repeatable quests were revered for the amount of money you could make with them. (120g was a lot back in those days) With patch 2.4, new dailies were added with the Isle of Quel'Danas, as well as the cooking, fishing, and PvP dailies, all of which did not require a flying mount. There were now dailies for everyone, but they were still a distinct, separate part of the game.

Nowadays, dailies are everywhere. Almost every faction has daily quests now, and most of what you do at level 80 that doesn't involve a group involves daily quests. Trouble is, there are only really two rewards from daily quests: rep and money. Once you have gotten your rep as high as you can with the various factions, the only reason to do dailies is for the money. (With the exception of the Argent Tournament dailies, that is, which also reward Champion's Seals, but those are incredibly boring. Patch 3.2 can't come soon enough.) The problem with this is that the different sets of dailies award vastly different amounts of money, so unless you have a lot of time to spend on them, you're only going to spend your time doing the ones that reward the most money. Thus you spend your time doing the same dailies over and over and over again, and unfortunately, they haven't got any more fun since Burning Crusade. Since there weren't as many dailies in Burning Crusade, they didn't need to be as fun and varied, and yet Blizzard still put in the effort to make them interesting. Now we have more dailies than we could ever have dreamed of, and yet Blizzard hasn't tried too many new things with them. I'd even go as far as saying they are less fun than they were before. Perhaps I just have rose-tinted glasses, but I miss the days of Bomb Them Again! and Disrupt the Greengill Coast. The only daily that really compares is Thrusting Hodir's Spear, though it is a pretty awesome quest.

Yes, that dwarf is in the dragon's mouth. This quest is a far better reward for getting honored with the Sons of Hodir than those shoulder enchantments are.

Burning Crusade also brought a lot of changes to professions that made them more viable and useful. However, this caused a lot of players to take professions only for their own self benefit and drop them when they were no longer useful. (Case in point: tailoring and leatherwoking had good starter armor for raiding that only the crafter could equip, but this armor was quickly made obsolete by raid drops.) When Wrath was released, the crafter only benefits were radically changed. There was no more starter-set BoP crafter armor and many of the old exclusive benefits were removed or made less useful (Example: with the advent of potion sickness, which prevents people from using more than one potion per battle, the Alchemist's Stone and its upgrades lost much of their appeal.) New items were added to most of the professions that gave stat bonuses that were exclusive to the crafter. They weren't that exclusive, though, in that with the exception of tailoring and engineering, they all give more or less the same stat benefits. The only thing that differs is how those benefits are conferred; enchanters get exclusive ring enchantments, leatherworkers get bracer enchantments that are better than the equivalent enchantments, jewelcrafters get gems which are better than the gems they can give to everyone else, alchemists gain improved effects from their elixirs and flasks, blacksmiths get to add extra gems to their gear, and inscribers get shoulder enchantments that are better than their Sons of Hodir counterparts. And unlike in the days of BC, these effects no longer apply to you if you drop the profession, so you can't level up each profession and then drop them to get all of their buffs on your gear, which most min-max'ers did back in the day.

What this means is that, with the exception of tailoring's cloak enchants and all of the engineering benefits being added in 3.2, professions are now less about what they give you and more about what you can give others. The unfortunate part of this is that some professions just aren't as useful as others. Alchemy sees a lot more use than leatherworking, and ditto for enchanting compared with tailoring. More importantly, the professions are all much more similar now. That's really the point I am getting at with this post: everything is much more similar in Wrath of the Lich King. Everything has been streamlined, simplified, and almost dumbed down.

How you acquire your profession's recipes is a perfect example of this change. With rare exception, all recipes for all of the professions are either obtained from a trainer or obtained from another NPC by trading for them with some sort of token or material you usually use. New research mechanics have also been added, but these are guaranteed to give you a new recipe, unlike the days of BC when you could discover a new recipe every time you made something. Gone are the days of checking wowhead to see which vendors strewn over the land sell recipes or plans that you need to buy. Factions also play less of a role in our professions. Maybe I feel that more than others because I am an enchanter and we get no recipes from faction quartermasters, but I find it a bit disappointing that getting all of our recipes is so simple and... well, boring.

That's really my main problem with the homogenization of Wrath of the Lich King. Everything is more boring now. I still find raiding and instances to be fun, but all of the nuances of solo-ing have been lost. I find this especially ironic since this expansion was supposed to be the one for the casuals. From all of the changes made, I'd wager that Blizzard's intention was really to get casuals into instances as soon as possible, rather than improve their old stomping grounds. After all, the sooner we start raiding, the less time we spend on our own, and the less time Bizzard needs to spend on developing solo content.

In fact, all of these changes can really be traced back to Blizzard trying to get people to raid more. All classes were made raid viable, so no players can blame their class for not raiding. Reputations were made easier to get exalted with, so players can spend less time getting their raid starter gear and get into raids sooner. Dailies became more prevalent so that we would always have something to do to make a bit of money for the repair bills. Professions were homogenized so that players could pick a profession they liked rather than one that would have a positive impact on their raiding. It seems to me that all of these changes were made for the raiders, and not us solo-ers.

I see a parallel between these changes and the arena fiasco. When arenas were released, they brought class balance into sharper focus. Previously, the classes' individual strengths and weaknesses in PvP were glossed over by the fact that battlegrounds were so huge that players' individual contribution or lack thereof weren't easily perceivable. With arenas, however, classes were pitted against each other in a very direct way, and the sad state of class balance was brought into sharp focus. Because of this, Blizzard began to balance classes around their performance in arenas. This became a problem as classes that were perfectly balanced for raids were nerfed because they were doing too well in arenas (such as resto druids). This also applied to battlegrounds, where the battles are more objective based and longer, and thus emphasize survival rather than rapid killing. Because of this difference, some classes lost effectiveness in battlegrounds because they were too good in arenas.

This kind of thing still goes on, and what makes the situation ironic is that arenas are the part of the game with lowest player participation. There are even many die-hard battleground fans who hate them. Arenas used to be more popular when they were a source of easy epics, but now that all arena gear requires good ratings, those days are gone.

In the same way that PvP was balanced around arenas, I think that PvE content has been balanced around raiders. While this could be seen as a good thing for players who want to get into raids as soon as possible, those of us who don't are left more or less in the dust. Don't get me wrong; I do enjoy raiding, but some people just don't have the time for it, and it is those people who suffer the most from these changes to PvE. Solo end-game is dying. I would like to think that the new Argent Tournament dailies we are getting in patch 3.2 will change that, but even if they do, it's such a shame that they will only be available to people with the Crusader title, which will force players to play inferior content in order to get to good content. If these new dailies disappoint like the last ones did, we solo players will just have to go back to levelling alts; there's just nothing fun left to do.

Edit: Patch 3.2 has been released, and I have to say, I am pretty disappointed with the new dailies. With the exception of Get Kraken!, they are all typical, predictable, and boring. Come on, Blizz! Challenge your quest designers. Give us something new!

Why Burning Crusade wasn't that bad for class balance

A lot of people liked to complain back in the day about how the not-pure-DPS classes still fell behind their counterparts in DPS. Feral and balance druids, ret paladins, and others were denied slots in raids because their damage, and thus their perceived contribution to the group, was low. Damage meters were a big part of this accusation, but they missed the bigger picture. DPS classes who couldn't do high DPS brought something even more valuable to their groups; group buffs.

Let's take, for example, Leader of the Pack, a feral druid talent. Back in the day before raid-wide buffs, it increased the melee and ranged critical strike chance of all group members by 5%. This was a pretty big deal, and it made feral druids a good addition to any melee-DPS group within a raid. However, because cats didn't perform well on the damage meters, they were generally not viewed as valuable group members beyond tier 5 content.

Like I said before, damage meters miss the point when it comes to measuring a DPS class's contribution to a raid, and I'll explain why. Let's say you put that cat druid in a group with four other melee DPS, none of which are cats. Not only is that cat contributing his own damage to the raid, but also the increase in damage that LotP is giving his group members. Let's assume that the four other group members all do 1000 DPS without the cat in their group. Now let's say you add that cat to the group and all their DPS goes up to 1050. That cat could be doing 800 DPS on his own, but because he is responsible for an increase of 50 DPS for his four other group members, he is contributing to the raid just as much as they are.

Paladins were really unappreciated in this manor. The could increase everyone's critical strike chance against the target by 3% with Improved Judgement of the Crusader (now Heart of the Crusader) and could increase everyone's damage by 2% with Improved Sanctity Aura (now simply Sanctified Retribution). They also allowed holy paladins to actually use their judgments, since they could use Crusader Strike to refresh the duration of judgements other than their own. This meant they had endless raid utility, but because their own damage was so low, they were overlooked.

I actually find the Burning Crusade system to be more fair than the current system of "bring the player, not the class" where everyone does the same amount of DPS and each group buff has multiple sources and now affects the whole raid. In the olden days, hybrid classes couldn't do as much damage as the pure-DPS classes, but their could fall back on their healing and/or tanking abilities to help them while solo-ing. This gave them more solo-ablity, while the pure-DPS classes (rogues, hunters, mages, warlocks) needed to rely on their high damage output to kill the mob before it could kill them. Hunters and warlocks could use their pets, but they still had no way to heal themselves reliably or take a lot of damage. Thus it was only fair that they should be able to do more damage than the hybrid classes.

Now all the classes can do the same amount of damage while they are out on their own, but the pure-DPS classes have no defensive or healing abilities to fall back on when things get desperate. As a druid who can fall back on both defensive and healing abilities, I feel bad for classes who can't get themselves out of a jam as well as us hybrids. We druids, as well as paladins, shaman, and priests, can heal ourselves when things get out of control, and while death knights and warriors can't heal themselves that well, they can still use their tanking abilities to get themselves out of a jam. The pure-DPS classes have no skills of that nature, and when things get out of control, their only options are to rely on their pet or flee.

So, should we go back to the old system? I think that the new system of everyone doing equal damage is too ingrained in the player psyche for Blizzard to change it without the hybrid classes feeling cheated. I do miss the days where every class brought something unique to the raid, but those days are long gone. BTPNTC is here to stay. I suppose this can only be expected; balancing the different group buffs around one another was probably just too difficult for Blizzard.