[1.Local]: Take from the comments everything!

So what do you think of Patch 3.2?
Let's start off this week with a sampling of the ripples of opinion about patch 3.2.

Kaphik: I've got mixed reaction. I'm kind sad that it came so quickly. I wanted to have my Warlock get those last six levels to 80, and I wanted to spend more time in Ulduar without all the other distractions. Everyone is running heroics all the time, which is good, but I've done them all so many times already. All I've really been doing is getting JC cuts and transmuting gems, stockpiling recipes and gems for the time when people are gemming new gear.

Other than that, I'm sort of underwhelmed. I don't think I like the new instances; while trash can get annoying, at least it gives a feeling of adventuring. Just going in and fighting bosses, especially the way the ToC is laid out, doesn't feel as fun. Plus, the storyline is ridiculous.

I'm figuring on doing some more to get the most out of the new content in the next week. There was such a frenzy of people rushing to try out everything, too hectic for me. Also, still waiting for some addons to be updated, just stuff I had gotten used to.

I dunno, 3.2 seemed exciting before it was released, and then this week once it hit, I haven't been impressed. I even spent all day yesterday playing Champions Online preview beta, and started playing Requiem: Bloodymare, just to give myself a short WoW break.

Kylenne: As a confirmed altoholic, I am freaking loving it. I've never had this much fun leveling alts. Mounts at 20 are such a game changer -- it really was surreal and awesome finishing off the last few Ghostland quests on my chocobo. And the Frost changes I thought were so lackluster, when applied to my pair of 80 Mages, are freaking incredible when it comes to the little one I'm bringing up now -- between that and heirlooms, I seriously don't have to drink. Which is insane. Also, god help me but I tried a Druid for the fourth time, and I'm actually having fun now that I learned you don't have to be masochistic and Bear stuff to death until you get Cat (thanks, Allison!).

This is totally the patch of the altaholic.

David: My biggest issue is simply that 3.2 has made it impossible for me as a RL to get our 25-Ulduar runs up and running. When I used to have between 20 to 30 signups every week, suddenly I'm facing 10 to 15, and the reason seems to be simply that people don't see the value in facing off against a boss and wiping on him for an hour to learn the fight and get past him when you can just run through instances, get Emblems of Conquest and get similar gear.

Not to say that everyone is gear-obsessed, but every guild is going to have people who don't see the value in tackling new content when the loot is equal to what they can get just by grinding easy content until they're blue in the face, and for smaller guilds like mine, that can be a death sentence to 25-man raiding.

A Lightwell primer
Lightwell's not really so bad, is it? I mean, you can even click on it while stuns and CC effects are rippling over you ...

nav: If you are going to macro it, you really, really should download the Aftercast mod. It's not been updated for a while, but still works great. All it does is do the macro after a successful spell cast, not before. So if you had:
/ra *Lightwell placed*
/cast Lightwell
... that would announce the Lightwell before you had even clicked to place it, and you might decide now wasn't a good time after all or something, or people might start looking for it too soon. Instead, you do:
/aftercast /ra *Lightwell placed*
/cast Lightwell
... and it only announces once the Lightwell is successfully down. Massively better.

Zusterke: ... Lightwell is probably the number one talent that received the largest number of suggestions on how to "fix" it. I'll honor that tradition by throwing in mine, for fun's sake: make the Lightwell macroable. With an action button resulting in a Lightwell charge consumption, DPS will find themselves using it a lot more.

Creid: I've said this somewhere before but, instead of clicking the Lightwell, couldn't it instead have like a very small range AoE heal every few seconds that DPS have to stand near? It makes the Lightwell more appealing without losing its feel or design.

awwjwah: Ironically, Cried, the Lightwell that gets cast by the Argent Crusade Confessor in the five-man Trial of the Champion instance does something almost exactly like that. Instead of sending a straight AOE heal to everyone, it appeared to rotate through each NPC in the fight, regardless of them taking damage, and it would hit them with fast "small" heals. It was also immune to damage. Even that would be better than clicking and hoping you don't get damaged.

The lost art of crowd control
Why use crowd control when you can blast through entire packs of mobs with rock-hard, rippling DPS and tanking?

zenmastermets: I "sapped" a mob in H UK about six months ago. It was so unusual for me, I forgot to get in Stealth.

BioHazard: I don't know about your groups, but I've never been in an Uld-25 (or 10, for that matter) that hasn't had to have stuff CCed for multiple trash pulls (especially those couple pulls in the Antechamber). The stuff in there just hits way too hard to AoE tank.

Everything else though, meh. I really didn't enjoy spending one to three minutes on every trash pull before a boss back in BC. That's just my opinion, though.

Kaphik: Maybe some of us like playing a game for a bit of a challenge -- you know, the real purpose of a game? Just being able to AoE-blast through instances as quickly as possible is like playing a game with a cheat code. Crowd control made things interesting, especially for the tank, and I enjoyed instances where you needed to figure out some sort of CC to get through them.

I remember running heroic Slave Pens with a Druid tank, a Shadowpriest, Holy Priest, a Rogue and myself as a Fury Warrior. When we got to the five-pulls after the second boss, it took us a bit of figuring, but if we pulled them back far enough to cleared area, we could chain fear for CC. So much more satisfying then just blasting through without a care in the world, and no crying because we lacked the "right" class makeup.

Congratulations, WoWathon
The WoWathon charity team has sent not only a sizeable monetary donation but also a wave of community spirit rippling through the WoW community.

Goosecomics: Was a lot of fun watching them all from the start of ZF spam runs. Interaction with the server GMs was awesome, as well. Thanks for a fun and enjoyable two weeks of letting us watch your lives for a great cause. In habit, I keep checking the Wowathon website to see what they are doing, in hopes that I will see them online. It's honestly a void now in my daily routine. I got used to watching them or listening to them in the background and will miss Kelly, Jacob, Alex, EB, Charlie and all the other pitch-hitters that helped out.