I figured that part out, did it, but it said my key was no good because it was banned, suspended, or one other possibility I don't remember. It never was, I just haven't used it in 2 years. I ended up just buying another one for $20 since it includes 1 month.

I still play. Since my main is a hunter I am not really looking forward to Cata and the huge changes to that class.

I have been doing some raiding although we are a fairly casual guild so we are still wiping on LK. I suspect if we had been able to get our raiders online this week we might have downed him.

So me picking hunter as my new character was a bad idea? I was thinking warlock also. Are they better?

I did notice people chatting that everyone hates hunters at the higher levels but they never said why.

Not sure why anyone would be unhappy with the changes that are coming to the Hunter class. The removal of their dependancy on Mana is a GREAT change.

Warlocks are getting a decent rework too, their Soul Shard functionality is getting revamped. Again, another change for the better.

Ahhh, the ole huntard debacle. The reason people hate hunters at a later levels is because hunters can be really lazy and get to 80 by just sending their pet in (typically beastmastery spec) and shooting a few arrows. Therefore, those particular hunters aren't very useful in heroics and anything that requires some skill. With that said, there are some very awesome hunters and these particular players take pride in their hunters and would be a welcome addition to any group or raid. But those hunters seem to be few and far in between.

There really is no class is better than any other class, it's a preference of the way you want to play. Certain classes are better than others at certain things. But for the most part they balance out despite the bitching you hear on the trade channel. My only dislike is for pallies. I still think they are OP and most of them have an ego to match. But see even then I'm bitching about a class that in all likely hood is just the same as the others.

A note on hunters vs warlocks. I have two hunters (one alliance, one horde), but they are sitting at 25 and 35, I've gotten bored with them rather quickly. On the other hand, I do have a lock and I'm up to 42 with him making him my third highest character. So personally, I have grown to like locks a lot more. However, I couldn't stand my lock until he hit roughly level 30. He died sooooo many times. But once I understood minion aggro (which is a lot different from pet aggro), life got a million times better.

Still playing. Was fortunate enough to get in on the friends and family alpha. Flying around in Stormwind for the first time was weird but very cool.

You forgot the main reasons people hate hunters:

1). They are deemed the "playschool" class ... super easy for anyone to use, which leads to
2). Night/blood elf hunters with some name variation on "Legolas" .. and ...
3). Noob hunters think all loot is hunter loot, and will roll NEED on it accordingly.

Though I have to say, that Death Knights are starting to take over the "NOOB" title from what I've seen.

Oh man, the DK hate was a hard thing to battle. I played a DK when the expansion launched, and I definitely grouped with my fair share of retard DK's.

To top it off, my main spec at 80 was DW Frost Tank, and this was way before they made it more easier to do. I definitely got some apprehension from some people at first, but usually after the first pull or so I put peoples minds at ease.

I can't count the number of times when I was bored with tanking and wanted to do DPS, only to have some "tank" DK join the group and then we wipe after a pull or two, causing me to switch spec's.

I have an 80 Mage and an 80 Pally that I haven't played in a few months. I'll probably just wait until the whole Cataclysm fad has died down before I attempt to even play again.

I'll probably miss a bunch of world events leading up to the destruction but oh well.

one of my mains is a frost DW DK tank and i have the same problem. the only tank i can really trust is myself.

Hunters are well balanced in PVE now. We are not always top DPS but usually competitive in fights for those spots.

I have been playing my hunter for years now. I know how to play him and they decide to turn him into a ranged Rogue on the third expansion?

So now I will go from a cooldown based rotation to a rotation that allows me one to two shots then spam Steady shot to get enough focus to make a few more shots. We will lose all of our burst and now have to have them rebalance us around this new resource.

Going into any expansion I would always be concerned of the few small changes that can break any class. Now I have to hope they can totally remake our class in the next few months while balancing us to remain competitive in a raid and heroic environment.

They also are removing ammo and rebalancing the class for that drop in DPS.

Hunters will likely be dead in PvP since we can not spam steady shot to get focus to do any moves if we are in melee range and a mess for months while they patch us.

Yeah, you are right, it's not like they have done any other class overhauls successfully in the past.

Did they ever address or is it in the works to handle ammo and food? One thing I hated back when I played my hunter pre-bc was the loss of bagspace due to one less bag for a quiver and even less spots to carry food for the pet.

They have never done a class overhaul this big that I have ever seen. Do you know of any where the resource was changed like is going to happen with hunters?

If you know of some examples I will bow my head to your WOW knowledge otherwise I will stand by my concerns.

One thing I've learned about the blizz developers ... is, when it comes to this game, they are smarter than you. So stop worrying, and wait until you actually try it out before you start bitching and moaning.

this seems to almost always be the case. if there ends up being a big problem, they usually revert back anyways.

While I was playing, there were usually revamps that I didn't care for but in the end it really didn't end up that bad. They do a pretty good job with balancing issues, the game is always evolving in some way or another.

surprised no one brought up the new realID fiasco.

They're making it so if you post on their forums, it will display your real name! There's no opt out, either, so far their stance is, if you don't like it, don't post.

I've already had a guildy quit because of it. Sucks too, losing a pally healer while we're working on the lich king

I guess you could draw a parallel to this site ... if this forum, which you've used for years all of a sudden required you to post with your real name, what would you do? Would you want potential employers to be able to find some of the things you've posted about on here?

They gave up on this for now. I suspect they will try it again later.

No idea why they seem bound and determined to try to turn their game into a social network.

Interesting read on why this was a bad idea I saw over at PA: http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-...ackaxe#3171416

Blizzard changes their mind: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...68987278&sid=1

It already is a social network if you consider how many people probably log in just to chat with friends.

From the post in the forums it seems the benefit is being able to talk with friends playing different games or on different Realms.

I've only read the above links on this really, but it seems the big deal was that it wasn't going to be optional. As long as they keep it optional I don't think it's that big a deal.

I was on vacation last week and missed this all. I even played some over the weekend and didnt see anyone talking about it.

This maybe, but Blizz has shown multiple times that certain classes and/or certain builds are all the deem worth fixing/improving. Hunters have been nerfed several times, only to return to the top. The same is true with Pallys, Rouges and Locks. Mages have been bounced back and forth and are low on DPS, but Frost Mages have been completely screwed and ignored. One reason I stopped playing was I got sick of being the best geared mage in my guild, and not being top 10 DPS in a raid; and I refused to be a cookie cutter build and change from what I enjoyed playing.

My mage is my current main and i kill on the meters; even beating people with way better gear than me.

blizz has a tough job to even out all the DPS at the highest level gear and to maintain balance in PVP gear and lower level gear

If potential employers want to go look on this forum or anywhere else for information on me and use that to negatively spin me in some way or fashion, they can go right ahead. I most likely don't want to work for them. They know exactly what they are getting when I walk through that front door. A dedicated and loyal worker who is a bit eccentric.

Anywho...before I talk about WoW, I want to get something off my chest. If somebody quits WoW because of something as simple as RealID on forums, they were going to quit anyway. I saw somebody on Facebook post, I cancelled three accounts because of this. Really? Really...I can count on plenty of hands things that Blizzard did that I didn't care for. However, at the core I still like playing the game and the interaction with others. Stop QQing and quit already. Nobody wants to hear the whine.

I'm currently playing my 80 shadow priestie dwarf, got about 2100gs (per WoW Heroes) and playing out until my card expires in a week. Not bad for a weekend player. Then I'm in hibernation on my account until Cataclysm (unless I get bored). I'll probably still play my troll rogue (combat) on my wife's account and try to get him to 80 (he's at 77) but that's honestly it. I'm excited for Catacylsm and can't wait to create my troll druid.

Anyone on here playing the beta? Some pretty cool looking stuff coming out of that. I'm very worried about my hunter (main toon) with all the changes that are coming out, but I will trust in Blizzard for now. I've got a death knight and a paladin (both 80) to level if I hate the hunter changes, I guess. Working on leveling my 61 shaman to 80 before Cataclysm hits for now.