What aspects of World of Warcraft are enjoyable to you, as a mage player?

[Jarion]

Shit's getting kind of intense in the mage community right now with the alter time war(?) and Akraen's crusade. I find in fights like these people are more often talking past each other rather than to each other. People don't take time to consider the point another person is trying to make, before they rush to make their next point, or deconstruct the other person's argument.

So. I'd like to approach this schism from a slightly different angle and see if we can get a little bit more constructive discourse than petitions and name calling (elitist! bad!)

Why do you play World of Warcraft? Why do you play a mage in World of Warcraft? What aspects of the game and genre do you enjoy? What are your goals with the game? Why do you continue to spend $15 a month and various hours on this particular form of entertainment?

Please allow me to begin the discussion with a little of my own history, in game and real life. I was born in 1975 and I've been playing video games for most of my life. I have always enjoyed thoughtful, slower-paced games over faster paced, reflex based games. I openly admit that when it comes to games I prefer thoughtful strategy to demanding action. This inclination naturally drew me toward RPGs and other turn based affairs. I tend to think that I fully blossomed into a gamer when i got my PS1 and discovered Tomb Raider, FFVII, Twisted Metal Civilization II and other classics of that generation.

One of the first PC games I played that rocked my world was the original Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. I have played every Warcraft game since then and consider myself a fan.

World of Warcraft was my first MMO. I start playing right before the launch of Burning Crusade in 2005. Once i reached level cap, I joined a hard core raiding guild and we competed for server firsts through Black Temple, but we kind of lost our motivation when Sunwell was released. The group continued raiding into Wrath, but by the end of that expansion, our guild had basically evaporated. A few of us stuck together into Cataclysm because by this time we've become true friends and we just love spending time with each other. We raid normal 10s now. Our hardcore days are well past us.

I have only ever mained my mage. I love the archetype and have dabbled in other classes, but my mage will always be my main.

I honestly have to say that the MOST fun I've had playing this game was back in BC when our "rotations" were very simple. It meant that the challenge of playing didn't come from my reflexes, or button mashing, but in executing boss mechanics successfully with the group. It meant co-operation and planning and watching out for damage, not watching for procs, or over focusing buff timers, or any of that meta shit that has developed since Wrath. We didn't have dots and our AOE was blizzard and it was GOOD. We used to have to plan pulls, use CC, be tactical. THAT was what the game was about and I really enjoyed it.

That aspect isn't gone entirely, but it has greatly diminished. I still enjoy playing with friends. I do not enjoy the DPS metagame (I have called them minigames for a while now) that have developed. I'm older now. I feel like my reflexes aren't what they used to be and they were never great to start with.

But here's the thing. Many people are on here are worried that the game might change and become simpler. That Blizzard might be removing abilities and streamlining that DPS metagame. They don't want their game to change. They like the frantic proc watching, button spamming that the game's developed into. But if Blizzard makes these changes, it will be changing BACK. You see, the game I liked has been gone for a while now. As people got bored with an increasingly older game, the developers kept adding abilities and complicating our rotations. Every time moving the game slightly away from what I enjoyed to what others did.

Now there are hints that the game might be moving back on the spectrum and people are freaking out. Why?

I opened up and told you what I liked about playing this game and my mage. Now let's discuss. What do you like? Do you like action games? Do turn based affairs bore you or do you enjoy slower, thoughtful gaming experiences? Do you constantly have to be taking some kind of action for the game to be fun? Do you prefer to play with others or is the challenge of max performance what you find most fun? Do you think that mages are fun right now? Why or why not?

Come on, mages. Open up. Be honest. Why do you like this game?

[LocNess]

I am a Wizard that can shoot out giant fire boulders, incinerate enemies, manipulate time, do the time warp again, freeze my foes to their core, shatter them, manipulate the arcane to my liking, and shoot out huge numbers. We can also make food.

GG other classes.

[Deleted]

For me who have been sticking around on and off since vanilla and played a few different classes it feels kind of important that there is some complexity to the rotation which makes the effort rewarding. The overall playerbase has an increased knowledge and skill in how to use their abilities and oversimplifying the rotational basics is gonna lead to some dullness and also put a massive weight on the boss encounters to be mechanically challenging enough to compensate.
The fact is that we can never go back to those days when many of us had little clue of what we were really doing. Granted complexity can be had without reflexive abilities but removing that severely limits classdesigners.
Basically I like the ever-changing parts of the game, how I can almost always improve on myself thanks to new abilities or mechanics to be mastered.

[Coldvibes]

Honestly, the fact that expansion is almost over, and that ilvl inflation has been at it's worst, I would have started playing my warlock.

[derpkitteh]

i like bouncing around and shooting stuff, also polymorphing every single critter in every city into black cats, because cats are the best :3

and rping to myself. i don't rp with others, too awkward.

[Polarthief]

Chaining Hot Streaks in a row, plus the kiting was great (basically, solo content when I wasn't being attacked).

Everything else though... Well, let's just say there's more than just Siege being boring/repetitive to me as to reasons why I've quit for over 2 months now

[Jarion]

The pyroblast machinegun mode in ICC was pretty amazing >=)

[mrgreenthump]

For me.. personally, I don't enjoy playing Mage atm. Hence not being subbed.

But what draws me to Mage, probably the feel of the class.. Being able to just do direct damage, having to position yourself properly, etc

[IsrafaelMage]

1. Spellsteal in early cata, that buff in Grim Batol, pyro chaingun with fire thingy stolen from one of the caster trolls in ZA. Shame it got reduced to nothingness in PVE (mana cost notwithstanding) apart from Spirit Kings HC and spoils. Being able to CC and control things in raids /dungeons. Thats what we (especially frost) are made for.

2. Ancient Portal to Dalaran, obviously. Hilarious to see that some people in our raid continue to click on it after 3 or 4 'shock treatments'

3. Ability to execute certain special tasks like Lei-Shen 2/2/4/4 shock soaking / Paragon Aim etc.

4. Jumping off the high cliff with AT popped a microsecond before the fall.

[Deleted]

Being a newbie back in TBC, I was amazed that I could summon my own food and drink. And portals, too! That was just the best.

Today, I still love portals, I wouldn't know what to do without. Also, there has never been an armor set I loved as much as Mage T5 and its pvp (S2) recolor. What keeps me playing is mostly the playstyle of rarely using DoTs.
Oh, and fire. Fire is always a good point.
Since my mage is a bloodelf, I love him even more. The lore around the bloodelfs is my favorite and I really like the style.

Have I mentioned fire? I should mention that I shoot fireballs out of my palm. Do you?

[Deleted]

Shit's getting kind of intense in the mage community right now with the alter time war(?) and Akraen's crusade.[...]
[...] and people are freaking out.[...]

Ok.. I'll try to be polite.... but there might be some sarcasem in my post...

a War? a Crusade? Did I miss something or might it mean something else, what I think it means? (I sighned his petition)
I am sorry, but I really dislike your kind of disrespectfull behavior towards Akraen. He stands for soemthing he likes, starts a petition (a democratic, non violent instrument of telleng the designers/leaders or whom ever about the !oppinion! of lots of people... does blizzard make a poll? do the ever ask the community what they like!?)
SO even if you might not agree on the content of the petition you, at least, have to recognize the effort.

I really doupt this "We are all shiny Unicorns on fluffy pink clouds and riding rainbows" kind of thread... will not change the game or bring you back what you miss or what you want from the game.


I for myself really like my mage... I even don't know why, but every time I hear someone hast to fly across Azerothe or got Hearthstone CD I just don't understand why someone wouldn'r play a mage
And beside this... I just love the small gnome hitting hard, very high intellect and being abel to flame those stupid strength classes, which only got a head, so the insode of their armor doen't get wet ehen it raids...
Ah and I love this mage, intelect, feeling superior to others and being a bit arrogant :P
...mage way of life ^^

[Jarion]

See, that's the thing. I'm not trying to change the game. I'm only wanting to have a discussion to try and understand my fellow mages better. I totally respect Akraen for some things he's done. His frost theory crafting is a huge contribution. But thinking that a single Twitter post by Ian Hazzikostas that got several responses that he disagreed with required him to start petition threads on three different sites which he describes (ominously?) as "only the start" is silly at best. As far as the war metaphor goes, a bit of colorful language, yes. However look at the situation and some of the language that has been used on both sides and I hope you can understand why I chose that metaphor. Finally, disrespectful? Really?? You do know the definition of crusade, right? That is in no way a metaphor or disrespectful. It is literally what Akrean is doing.

Also, I cannot help but notice that many mages that have signed in that thread are pretty chill and reasonable, but also that many seem very angry and judgmental. Just as a lot of mages that want to see alter time removed get angry and upset. Why? What is it about us as players that drives these negative emotions over something that, in all honesty, we have very little control over? Havig a reasonable discussion that helps me understand the root cause of this shit was my purpose here, not fluffy unicorns.

That being said, much love for my gnome mage compatriots!

[Polarthief]

For me.. personally, I don't enjoy playing Mage atm. Hence not being subbed.

But what draws me to Mage, probably the feel of the class..

Exactly how I feel, Greenie In MMOs, I've just always been drawn to the typical spellcaster, with Mage being the 'base' of pretty much all spellcasters and splitting off from there. Mages are by far the most iconic class in the game, and even in 'life' if you think about it (going back to the middle ages where it was nothing but wizards and warriors).

Idk, being other classes that can deal Spell DPS just don't feel the same to me, with the one exception of Warlock because they're more the "evil" Mages, which are also iconic. Priests, Shamans, and Druids haven't ever really been known to be a (damaging) spellcaster outside of WoW. I'll still acknowledge them for what they are, but they simply aren't as iconic and the feel isn't there.

That said, Blizzard has blasted fun in Mages to oblivion, so... yeah. HOPEFULLY WoD will fix things, but if not, well, there's always other games I guess.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, I cannot help but notice that many mages that have signed in that thread are pretty chill and reasonable, but also that many seem very angry and judgmental. Just as a lot of mages that want to see alter time removed get angry and upset. Why? What is it about us as players that drives these negative emotions over something that, in all honesty, we have very little control over? Havig a reasonable discussion that helps me understand the root cause of this shit was my purpose here, not fluffy unicorns.

That's basically the reason: We have little control over it and that upsets us greatly. We're tired of being pushed around and not getting the attention that other classes have gotten (*coughwarlockcough*). We've become this outdated, clunky, watered-down mess of a class that we can't do anything about. We've given feedback during the beta about L90 talents and yet they refused to change them. GC said the changes they had in mind for Siege were "too big for a patch", but went and REVAMPED the Warlock L90 talents, essentially just giving us a huge middle finger. Frost Mages for the longest time just wanted some PvE playability, and while they finally have it, find it falling JUST short in their heroic guilds with GMs and Officers forcing them to go Fire or Arcane instead. Arcane has NEVER been worse (with the exception of Vanilla, AKA THE DARK AGES) than what it is now, 100% changing based on your L90 talent with only one choice (the most boring one) being competitive in any way.

We're just tired of the neglect from the devs and tired of the abuse from bandwagoning douchebags who claim "LOL MAGES ARE OP" because they see Fire's top parses beating most classes in PvE (which it should due to RNG being a factor), and Frost being so good in 1v1 PvP that the douches bitch and whine because they lost in a duel/non-rated battleground because they don't think to stick with allies, as the game is balanced around. Make a forum thread anywhere and notify that you're a Mage just to get your post BURIED and downvoted to hell purely for being a Mage.

Simply put: The community and the devs don't think too highly of us. We're like the red-headed stepchild that no one like and everyone enjoys laughing at. Even the underdog Warlocks are now simply "Mages but better", and I'm really worried for WoD, as I was for MoP.



Then again... When you think about it... Rogues and Hunters have roughly the same problems, too... Maybe Blizzard just wants to kill off non-Warlock pures.

[ripponesan]

I started a mage in TBC, because back they they were cool and exactly what i was looking for.

I like to deal damage straight to the face, no lame dots that may get me kills after i died. I also like to deal damage from range.
I alsolike to Support my mates, which as a mage i can. Slowing stuff, freezing stuff, kiting stuff, polymorphing stuff, cheesing oneshot mechanics, doing Special Task since i can just blink there where others had to walk.

I liked the role a mage played in TBC, well i hated having to conjure Food and water 20 minutes preraid.

[dryankem]

Simply put: The community and the devs don't think too highly of us. We're like the red-headed stepchild that no one like and everyone enjoys laughing at. Even the underdog Warlocks are now simply "Mages but better", and I'm really worried for WoD, as I was for MoP.



Then again... When you think about it... Rogues and Hunters have roughly the same problems, too... Maybe Blizzard just wants to kill off non-Warlock pures.

Sorry to jump into this but EVERY class feels like the red-headed stepchild of WOW (with the exception of maybe warlocks at the moment). DKs are bitching and moaning that they don't scale well, hunters dito, MW monks too random, Ele Shamans dito, Rogues haven't really changed since almost day 1. Every class thread on this forum has a post about why bring their class when you can bring X.

[Akraen]

Shit's getting kind of intense in the mage community right now with the alter time war(?) and Akraen's crusade. I find in fights like these people are more often talking past each other rather than to each other. People don't take time to consider the point another person is trying to make, before they rush to make their next point, or deconstruct the other person's argument.

Hey, I'm not the one on the crusade here. I'm the shield wall surrounding Alter Time, defending it against those who are crusading against it! Lots of other people have shared mega opinions about changing it, or how they want to change it, but I simply don't care. I just don't want it removed, so I am defending it to the bloody death. I also think you are being a bit unfair in the assertion that either side deconstructs or opposes the other without considering the other side's point. Lissanna, at least, is a very intelligent and respectable human being. I'm sure she understands what I'm saying and simply disagrees. I respect her for that, but it does not mean I will back down.

So. I'd like to approach this schism from a slightly different angle and see if we can get a little bit more constructive discourse than petitions and name calling (elitist! bad!)

Careful, might undermine your entire post if you start throwing the 'e' word around.

Why do you play World of Warcraft?

WoW: I play for the following reasons in order of most to least important: Immersion > Social Networking > Lore
However, I don't do things half-assed. If I'm going to raid, I raid well.

Why do you play a mage in World of Warcraft?

Mage: I play a mage because I enjoy complex gameplay out of simple ability usage, timing, APM, etc. I have quick reflexes and love mental math. I play mage because of lore, Akraen has gone through a lot in his story, from being a young druid taught by Bearwalker and secretly given lessons of the Arcane by Staghelm right up until he met Evenshade and brought mages back into Darnassus. Akraen is a Kaldorei Elite and works closely with Evenshade. His caution towards fire magic isn't as much a personal preference as requirement of his being a Night Elf and his own personal story.

What aspects of the game and genre do you enjoy?

I enjoy the fluid combat, personalization of one's character, and the power to forge one's own path in the endgame. I do like the avenues in which I can influence others, bring others into causes I invent, and exercise my INTJ mastermind skills on the game and its people. The beautify of an MMO is that it can be a testing ground for modern-day conquest in a world where conquerors don't get to exist anymore.

What are your goals with the game?

I've met and exceeded my goals years ago. I have but one remaining goal: to mold an entire server and offer alternative paths of entertainment for people, constructing a gaming environment above and beyond what Blizzard offers. That server is Argent Dawn. The goals I most notably achieved were pre-nerf Insane, getting a gang of halfwits to defeat pre-nerf Vashj, Kael, and Illidan (no raid content since has felt as rewarding), and not dying on the Heigan dance in Naxx40 when I played on a laptop from 1999 that had a 4mb ATI RageM video card.

Why do you continue to spend $15 a month and various hours on this particular form of entertainment?

Because $15 is a quarter of the price of a coffee in Milan, and I think more than affordable for an entire month of a playground with infinite options. I'm probably borderline sociopath, don't care much for dating or meeting people. I study absurd things on my own time, work my QA Analyst job, and travel the world once or twice per year. My travel lifestyle costs a lot, so it's nice to have constant downtime activity that barely costs a thing. Also given my nomad nature, I keep my friends on WoW, and see them maybe once a year at a guild party. Works out wonderful for me.

Please allow me to begin the discussion with a little of my own history, in game and real life. I was born in 1975 and I've been playing video games for most of my life. I have always enjoyed thoughtful, slower-paced games over faster paced, reflex based games. I openly admit that when it comes to games I prefer thoughtful strategy to demanding action. This inclination naturally drew me toward RPGs and other turn based affairs. I tend to think that I fully blossomed into a gamer when i got my PS1 and discovered Tomb Raider, FFVII, Twisted Metal Civilization II and other classics of that generation.

Born in 1985 here. I'm sort of with you on the game type, I hate RTS games so much. I don't care if they're made by Blizzard, I just don't like Starcraft. Honestly I tend to hate multiplayer games entirely. WoW is an exception because of the degree of control I have over it. I never, and I mean never PUG. I do not play the game with people I don't know, it's awkward and uncomfortable for me to do so. That's the reason I don't PvP, LFR, or dungeon queue. If I can't get a group of people in my guild or friends list to do something, then I play solo. So I've really disliked everytime WoW-devs have made me feel pressured to random queue.

One of the first PC games I played that rocked my world was the original Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. I have played every Warcraft game since then and consider myself a fan.

I was a very young kid then, when my older brother played WC1 and WC2. I loved the concept, but in all honesty I dropped it real quickly once I began playing Heroes of Might and Magic II and III, which were much more suited to my playstyle (turn-based).

World of Warcraft was my first MMO. I start playing right before the launch of Burning Crusade in 2005. Once i reached level cap, I joined a hard core raiding guild and we competed for server firsts through Black Temple, but we kind of lost our motivation when Sunwell was released. The group continued raiding into Wrath, but by the end of that expansion, our guild had basically evaporated. A few of us stuck together into Cataclysm because by this time we've become true friends and we just love spending time with each other. We raid normal 10s now. Our hardcore days are well past us.

I have only ever mained my mage. I love the archetype and have dabbled in other classes, but my mage will always be my main.

I could give you my WoW history but it'd be a novel. It really is. I have attempted it before, but here's a clue:
http://i.imgur.com/wBWEJVk.gif - that's just some key people who have been a part of my guild on a chart I made, yes I realize the obsessive overload madness that went into making that thing. I made it in MSPaint

I honestly have to say that the MOST fun I've had playing this game was back in BC when our "rotations" were very simple.

Back in BC, my mage was named Jolear because Akraen was a druid (my main). I loved my mage though, always more than my druid. I wore Frozen Shadoweave gear and as much haste/frostpower items as I could. I ignored hit rating entirely. People made fun of me. However, I beat mages in full Tier 6 regularly because of my bizarre approach. How I do things is not new, people who have known me this long understand that. New people I encounter continue to struggle with my odd viewpoints and creative thinking. It's a perpetual battle that you see play out on forums here regularly.

It meant that the challenge of playing didn't come from my reflexes, or button mashing, but in executing boss mechanics successfully with the group. It meant co-operation and planning and watching out for damage, not watching for procs, or over focusing buff timers, or any of that meta shit that has developed since Wrath. We didn't have dots and our AOE was blizzard and it was GOOD. We used to have to plan pulls, use CC, be tactical. THAT was what the game was about and I really enjoyed it.

I agree with you wholeheartedly here. I wish encounters were complex, but rotations simplified. I think a lot of that comes down to our L90 talents. Sure, I can handle it and be one of the top in the world-- but that doesn't mean I like it. I want fights to be like how they were in Tiers 5 and 6. I think that was the best class & encounter design in the game, *****BUT NOT BALANCED IM NOT SAYING WE WERE BALANCED DONT THINK I THINK WE WERE BALANCED THATS NOT WHAT I MEAN***** - I believe current numbers balancing + old style design would = a fantastic WoW golden age.

That aspect isn't gone entirely, but it has greatly diminished. I still enjoy playing with friends. I do not enjoy the DPS metagame (I have called them minigames for a while now) that have developed. I'm older now. I feel like my reflexes aren't what they used to be and they were never great to start with.

I'm 28, I've been waiting for my reflexes to get worse. I know they will any day now. Right now I seem to be at the top of my game still, but either way my priorities have changed. I do not like how rankings exist. I love logs, but if those APIs would just refuse to do rankings, I think the game would be better off. No real way to address this though, it'd have to be on the honor of each website which does log analysis. I believe logs should be personal and help motivate one to self-analyze and evaluate. I think I'm in a tiny minority here with this opinion so I don't really broadcast it.

But here's the thing. Many people are on here are worried that the game might change and become simpler. That Blizzard might be removing abilities and streamlining that DPS metagame. They don't want their game to change. They like the frantic proc watching, button spamming that the game's developed into. But if Blizzard makes these changes, it will be changing BACK. You see, the game I liked has been gone for a while now. As people got bored with an increasingly older game, the developers kept adding abilities and complicating our rotations. Every time moving the game slightly away from what I enjoyed to what others did.

Oh man, I thought you had a great post going until you got here. This is the entire reason you made the post, isn't it? This is your method for leading people on a journey of nostalgia and constructing reason via building blocks of empathy. Well I'm not buying it, sir. Times change and abilities that defeat encounters and offer fun, creative, and innovated gameplay must also change. You look back fondly on the 2006 version of mage, but that doesn't mean you really would enjoy it the same if you suddenly were to flip back to how it was.

Just as with Lissanna, I do agree that button bloat is a big deal in WoW and some things need to go. I mean look at druids and hunters! I'm a pretty simple-bind person. I want to only have to bind a few things and treat other things by clicks. Yeah bad trait right? Well I've done it that way for years and I don't make any more mistakes than people who boast about binding 329180 things on their stupid Nagas. Instead, I use a very high DPI Mionix mouse and I click blink, Alter Time, Ice Block, and Greater Invis. I can do it with my eyes closed, at a faster speed than I can press a keybind, I promise. I've demonstrated this on my livestream before, too!

However, the argument, once analyzed, falls apart once you view mages. Remove the L75 & L90 talents and you have 1 nuke, 1-2 proc spells, a 3m cooldown, a less-dps but utility 3m cooldown, and then survival buttons as necessary. Is that honestly too complicated? I think our AoE needs some help, yes-- because it isn't even clear what to do to the best of us number crunchers so we just say do whatever.

I just can't honestly, truthfully look at the mage class and say above all other things that bloat is a problem. We have major design issues here, our spec identity is up in the air. We have no real direction, we've been ignored as far as lore goes for eons, and our pizazz level is below that of a stale hotdog bun.

Why isn't the passion against Alter Time being spent on fixing Mana Adept? Combustion? Water Elemental? Why is the mage community able to get fixated on all the wrong issues while going expansion after expansion continuing with our troubles not being addressed while Warlocks soar into 2014 with modern design and we sit pouting in our 2005-designed antiquated corner?

Now there are hints that the game might be moving back on the spectrum and people are freaking out. Why?

I opened up and told you what I liked about playing this game and my mage. Now let's discuss. What do you like? Do you like action games? Do turn based affairs bore you or do you enjoy slower, thoughtful gaming experiences? Do you constantly have to be taking some kind of action for the game to be fun? Do you prefer to play with others or is the challenge of max performance what you find most fun? Do you think that mages are fun right now? Why or why not?

Come on, mages. Open up. Be honest. Why do you like this game?

Your closing here is unfortunately fruitless, mostly reiterations of earlier questions. Overall you wrote a good post, but I think that your true intention was blatantly clear: you're against Alter Time. There is not an either or for "max performance" vs "play with friends" - because I play at max performance and surround myself with friends. It's a winning recipe, I swear.

I hope you really read what I say here, because I'm not picking on you. I've identified and empathized with you but we still disagree.

[Deleted]

I picked a mage back when I was a lot younger and didn't really get what World of Warcraft was about. I started playing because my brother did. He presented me with each class at the time and explained what they could do. I ended up picking the one that could "cast fireballs" because I thought it was really cool at the time. Generally I love mage's in any game, the idea of casting spells is really appealing and the more I played my mage the more I wanted to stick with her. I tend to pay the subscription for World of Warcraft because I enjoy playing and have a connection with my characters, there's nothing more to it really.

[Txiv]

I enjoy the toolkit. Blink, spell steal, blazing speed, portals . I love the Dps but it's this stuff that makes Mage fun on a day to day just dicking around in timeless fun. I am on the side of making alter time a non Dps spell and adding it to these spells as fun utility.

[Jarion]

I appreciate all the responses and interesting points of view! A special shout out to Akraen. Thank you for the thoughtful and deliberate response. I now know a side of you that I never would have before if you hadn’t shared that.

It may seems that I made this thread to argue against you about alter time, but that’s honestly not true. I intended this to be an exploration of what it is about us as WoW mage players that leads to such charged disagreements. In that sense it’s already been a bit of a success! I am now much more understanding of your actions of the past day or two. I now understand that you enjoy the leadership fantasy (no disparagement! I understand and acknowledge that the people you bring together and lead are very real, as are you accomplishments) metagame and that championing and leading a cause like this is rewarding to you! Hopefully you understand that I am older, and slower, and a little sensitive about my ability to play a game that I feel has outpaced me, but still enjoy.

People are different. That’s an awesome thing, not an awful thing, and I always like to explore those differences and examine what they mean for us and this silly colorful world that we all love so much.

And, sweet Jesus, I miss polymorphing things. Like seriously. We can turn people into sheep. Why aren’t we doing it anymore?? I still have my focus macro. It’s just waiting for the triumphant return! For this reason alone, Garrosh trash may be one of my favorite things in the entire expansion.

[Akraen]

I'm so with you on polymorphing, Jarion. I think I poly'd more things in Vanilla and TBC than every expansion since combined, ten times over.

It's no slight to you - I just thought I could detect some underlying reasoning for your post there.

You might be getting old, but I don't think that's a problem. I've successfully incorporated grandmothers and grandfathers into my raid core. I think you raise a very good point with regard to the forums, assuming I'm interpreting you correctly-- that quite often we lack the context of others when we read their words, which can mislead us down different and often inaccurate paths of interpretation.

I enjoy making difficult situations work. The more difficult the situation, the more enjoyable it is. I'm the guy that loves the 11th hour madness, the guy that realizes Brawndo doesn't -actually- have what plants crave. By that I mean, for over 7 years I've organized my guild to incorporate people at all skill levels. I've held myself back in progression electively and happily to do this because it's been my prerogative. As elitist as I apparently come off on these forums, I'm not one of the world top mages, nowhere near.

I just do math, post a lot, play in heroic content, and have stupidly good coin luck. I'd love the community to realize if I was just some obtuse prick, I wouldn't fight so passionately on behalf of whichever camp within the mage community I feel needs it most.