In General

There are some fair additions to the game, such as the expansion of the quest log from 20 to 25 quests total. The Looking for Group interface has been totally revamped, and though I haven’t benefited from it directly, it will no doubt come in handy, especially on new servers with people looking for parties for quests of all levels, rather than merely raids and dungeons.

Several changes are planned for gameplay mechanics as well. Certain add-ons that automated healing and de-cursing may find themselves limited or unable to function altogether, as Blizzard aims to make players actually play the game. We have mixed feelings on this, since healing and de-cursing are more like a round of whack-a-mole than what one would expect from a proper game. On another note, healers may find that their +heal items will be normalized much like +damage was several patches ago. This means that lower-level heal spells will no longer be extra efficient if the healer has a lot of +heal gear on him. The exact details of the changes, if they happen, are unknown but those are the rumors flying around in beta.

Jewelcrafting is the new profession and is concerned with the creation of rings and trinkets. Its ultimate profitability and utility is of course unknown, but it would be fair to expect that crafted rings will be much like crafted anything – good, but not the best. The best gear is almost exclusively reserved for raids. Thus, depending on whether or not any consumables are produced, jewelcrafting may become the next alchemy, or the next leatherworking. Only time will tell.

Ultimately, we are a little saddened to see that the uniqueness of each faction is diluted by the crossing over of Shamans into the Alliance and Paladins into the Horde, but it is an exciting prospect, seeing what a Shaman can do alongside a Paladin or other Alliance characters. The beta looks just like the World of WarCraft beta did – a phenomenally polished product that could and would be launched now if it was any other company at the helm. However, this being Blizzard, their attention to detail almost certainly guarantees that the January date is the earliest we can expect the expansion in stores.