Shared Topic: What Would You Bring Back?

The only constant is change. This week's shared topic at Blog Azeroth has been put forward by Mia, of the Chronicles of Mia. She's wondering what changes have been made to the game that you'd like to see rolled back.



World of Warcraft is a persistant world, it goes through constant changes, abilities are changes, or removed entirely. Bosses are arbitrarily adjusted to be harder or easier. The technology of creating a ring to put keys on is suddenly lost to the world, like very mundane greek fire.

I thought about writing about some of the many changes that Blizzard made that I didn't quite agree with. The overhaul to Prot Pally AoE in Cataclysm, the loss of some great quest lines like the Scepter of the Shifting Sands, or Battle for Undercity, the aforementioned Keychain. There's a lot of things that Blizzard has changed over the years that diminshed the game somewhat in my eyes. It's tough to narrow it down to one thing. So I began to really look at why I played the game.

I raid, almost exclusively these days, but there really isn't enough going on in the raid game these days to keep me interested. I'm really not a fan of where the story's going these days, so that's not what's keepig me around. So it's neither the gameplay, nor the story that has me playing. It's the people. It's my raiders, my guildies, my friends, who keep me anchored to Azeroth.

Just as much as Blizzard's changes to the physical constraints of the game changes Azeroth, so too do the decisions of the player change the social landscape. I once wrote about what I sacrificed to get Legacy from a lousy trade chat guild to one of the best ten man raid teams on the server. If there's one change I could get, it wouldn't be bringing back quests, or Naxx40, or rolling back the Firelands nerfs. I would bring back all my friends who raided for me in the past and for some reason or another, can't do so anymore.

I want my best friend back in Azeroth, I was the best man at his wedding, and we still talk about the game and the guild when we get together. It's not the same without him.

I want the Illinois Trio back, who formed the backbone of both my ranged DPS and my tank healing team for almost the entirety of Wrath, and into T11.

I want Jenny and the Exiles back, who always gave the raid a youthful exuberance and always pulled their weight.

I want my Co-Tank from Wrath back, one of a very small number of tanks whom I trusted to handle the heavy lifting.

I want our slightly crazy feral druid back, he put up great numbers, but apparently can't open a pack of Hot Dogs without ending up in a psyche ward.

I want Heather, my mage, my confidant back.

I want the quiet DK who once topped the meters in naxx after getting hacked; he was nearly completely naked and was wielding a Runeblade of Demonstratable Power from the rep vendor, and he still pulled 3K DPS.

I want my silent canadian priest back, no matter how much I yo-yoed her between holy and shadow, she was always ready, willing, and able.

I want the guild drunk back, regardless of weather he was on his paladin, priest, warrior, or druid, his boistrousness in vent always brightened my day.

I want my original hunter back, who came with me from GDiR, to Mean Machine, to Legacy.

I want my DK Bro back. He reminded me of my college days.

I want them all back. They mean more to me than anything Blizzard could ever do to change this game.