The Vernal Equinox

The Vernal Equinox is defined in astronomy as the point in time at which the Sun is directly over Earth's Equator. Contrary to popular belief, this is actual a fixed point in time as opposed to an entire day. Nevertheless, the world celebrates the coming of the Spring Season. Beautiful purple lilacs with a soft, clean fragrance, the chirping of songbirds, long forgotten since the early Autumn days, ever growing daylight hours, more sunlight and a renewing of the land all mark the transition from Winter to Summer. However on this Vernal Equinox, the frenetic weather in a time of such planetary symmetry brought fourth a new and unexpected change to my 12-year-old step-daughter. That change was a nasty spring virus.

The virus was brutal causing a hacking cough and a blistering 104 degree fever for over two days. Needless to say, my weekend was full of hydrating, taking temperatures and trips to the doctor. This also was a major factor in the lack of content on the blog this week.

As a result, I was unable to generate a solid response to my last article, Time is Money, Friend. Rest assured that a clear and well thought out response will be provided in the days to come. I also have another article in the wings ready to write so more content will come soon. In the mean time, I wanted to provide a few quick observations regarding the upcoming 2.4 patch:

Warrior Changes: I have to admit, I can't say I'm thrilled with the upcoming changes. I appreciate Blizzard's intention with the Cleave changes but reducing the game to stacking Cleave on my white damage attacks with a mouse over Devastate macro seems like a simplistic solution to AOE tanking. This takes some of the limited challenge out of the game with regards to PVE. The rest of the changes are virtually all bug fixes from the Endless Rage change to the Flurry and Whirlwind changes. All in all very ho hum.

Druid Changes: By contrast, I was most happy to see the druid changes. The original change to Lifebloom undone and instead a 20% nerf to the final bloom effect was added. This will change the PVP game a fair amount but the PVE healing game will not be effected. Furthermore, a reduction in the cost of Regrowth actually buffs PVE druids quite a bit. I have gone from dreading the upcoming patch with my druid to really looking forward to it.

Shaman Changes: I really liked the original change to the fire totems with the Mortal Strike debuff added. Perhaps a bit overpowered but nonetheless, it would have provided Enhancement Shaman a serious niche in PVP arena combat. I must admit, I had an entire article ready for the 2.4 Shaman Mortal-Strikesque debuff but alas, it was beat down with the nerf stick.


Honor Changes: I am on the fence with this one. On one hand, I think that the volume of honor one could achieve with this change in Alterac Valley has seriously increased. By contrast, the amount of Turtling this change will instill will be mind boggling. Hell, the alliance already turtle most of the time and lose with zero honor on my battlegroup. At least with this change, honor kills will theoretically net some decent honor in rehash style battles like Stormpike Graveyard sieges. I guess only time will tell.

Overall, I really do look forward to the patch if for nothing else new content to explore. Regardless, the patch is well anticipated and promises to be fun. Until next time...