Whiny Post Day

Klepsacovic threw down the gauntlet, and I’ve decided to pick it up. The challenge was in finding something to whine about. First I thought I’d whine about losing a roll for the Bulwark of Smouldering Steel to a pug, since I’m still rocking with the Voice of Reason. I’ve got a long, bad history with shield drops going back to Kara, when I ran around with a flashlight on my back for what seemed like forever, and the damn shield from Chess (which was even more of a slam-dunk than the gunship battle) wouldn’t drop – except for the one time when I wasn’t there, of course, and it got sharded. The one stinking time ToC25 dropped the Bastion of Purity I was outrolled by a shammy – the only person that rolled against me. Sure I have the Vigilant Ward, but that was after passing on it three times or so because, quite frankly, it’s not as good as Kel’Thuzads’ shield. Which is mine now and has been for about 11 months, with no end in sight.

Anyway, I’m not going to whine about that.

No, my main problem right now is with Cataclysm Saturation. Sure I’m going to buy it. Sure my world will be rocked when everything I’ve known about Holy Paladins gets turned on its head with the great stat upheaval. Sure I’m interested in how the world will change, what new quests and dungeons and items will be in the game, and if they will actually add anything useful to my crafting profession of alchemy, which has been the red-headed stepchild of professions for quite some time now (apologies to any red-headed stepchildren out there – you are loved!).

I’m interested, but I don’t want to be buried in it.

I’m not playing Cataclysm now – I’m playing Wrath of the Lich King. Spirit is not currently a mana regeneration tool for Holy Paladins. I don’t have Mastery. My guild hasn’t leveled. So, while I’m keeping an eye on the Cataclysm news, in a lot of ways I just don’t care. My focus now is on improving my character – not for Cataclysm, but for Wrath. Not to beat the big-ass baddie at the end of Cataclysm, but to beat Arthas – you know, the current big-ass baddie that has been downed by all of 5 guilds on my server (10 man) and once on 25.

The problem that I see with all this Cataclysm reportage is that it infects the WoW playing population like some kind of insidious, sneaky virus. Larísa at Pink Pigtail Inn reported a bit of ‘late-into-expansion apathy’ setting into her guild, and further states ‘it’s in the blogs, it’s in the podcasts, it’s everywhere.’ Suddenly nobody wants to run heroics anymore, nobody shows up for raids anymore – why should they? Cataclysm’s coming and everything’s going to change!

The infection comes from WoW.com, WoWhead, MMO-Champion, and directly from Blizzard. With every forum posting from a top Blizzard flunky about Cataclysm, the infection spreads and works its way deeper into the masses. Every blog post that says ‘Ho hum, I just don’t care anymore, Cataclysm’s just around the corner’ is like an uncovered sneeze on a crowded subway. Cover your nose, for Gods’ sakes! We likely have six months or more to go before Patch 4.0 changes the world and I want to kill Arthas before then. Give the Cataclysm stuff a rest and focus on the game we have now: Wrath of the Lich King.