Putting quests into perspective

If you've ever taken stock of the number and scale of the quests facing you in Outland and shrunk back from the task through sheer intimidation, a shadow priest called Apanthrone on the US Bleeding Hollow server might have exactly what you need.

The volume of quests in Outland is staggering. Three times I have managed to ding 70 without even stepping foot in Netherstorm or Shadowmoon Valley. On one occasion, I hadn't even made it to Blade's Edge Mountains. This is great for your bank account, as you rack up the gold instead of experience. But the quests lines at seventy are massive, dragging you all over Outland and into instances and raids. Unless you luck out and find a bunch of people on the same quest line at the same time, it's all a bit overwhelming. And when you are faced with repeating the same quests multiple times on different toons, you'd be forgiven for passing them over in favour of your bog-standard dailies: easier gold in less time.

At least, that's how I've always looked at it. Maybe if I'd stopped to consider the story behind the quest, it might have felt differently. But as it stands, one thing that has always put me off progressing with the end-game quests is the sheer scale of the task. Apanthrone's answer was to take all the major quest lines and put them in one brilliant chart. I've seen this done for raid attunement before but never full quest lines. If, like me, you find yourself grinding primals or finishing up dailies because you can't think what else to do, this could be your ticket back into the game. I love it.

My place in the (5-man) world

I ran Sethekk Halls last night, giving me a rare chance to blow the dust off shackle.

Shackle undead is a priest's only means of crowd control, and it's a beauty. At max rank it will chain a mob to the spot and prevent them from causing any damage for 50 seconds. The only limitation is in the name — it only works on undead.

Most groups in Sethekk Halls contain at least one undead, so for the first time in Outland I found myself in need for more than just my face-melting abilities. And it made me realise how limited my normal contribution is to a 5-man group. Outland instances are very reliant on crowd control and so you would usually look first to rogues, mages and hunters to fill you dps spots.

Sure, I can buff. Nice to have. I can burn mobs down, but any class can do that. I can restore mana and health to the group, but in 5-mans where the mobs go down quickly, the benefits are marginal. I can even mind control, but the spell is so unreliable and is such a drain on 5-man dps that I don't really consider it viable cc. To be honest, right now my spot in a group could easily go to anyone else.

That's why I am so excited about Wrath of the Lich King expansion. A Scourge theme promises a lot more in the way of undead instances and with it a much-needed utility role for shadow priests in small groups.

And I've been thinking about ways the class could be developed to cement that spot in a group. My ideas so far:

• Shackle could be expanded to cover demons too. It certainly seems to fit with the lore. Why shouldn't masters of light have power over creatures of the underworld? This overlaps somewhat with the warlock banish ability, but I'm not sure that matters. After all, hunters can trap anything.
• Shadowform could include an aura. Don't get me wrong, shadowform is already very sweet, but I like the idea that a priest in shadow form would give off some kind of buff or debuff, perhaps a flat reduction in damage by mobs, or a small spell hit increase to party members.
• Make mind control more like enslave demon, so instead of effectively 'switching' to the mind-controlled character, it becomes a pet with an action bar and controls, leaving you free to continue to dps. The duration could be the same, or even reduced, but the reliability of the spell would have to be improved to make this a viable form of cc.
• Make divine spirit trainable. It's about time. Let all priests carry this fab little buff to the benefit of the whole group. Spec for improved divine spirit if you want.

I really don't think any of these ideas are particularly class-breaking. I want other things which probably would be — more direct-damage spells, an increase to crit bonuses and an aoe attack. I can live in hope. But I'd take any one of the things on the list above before them. What do you think? Overpowered? Underwhelming? What's on the top of your wish list for the expansion?

Primal scream

When you hit 70 you have no choice but to suspend all enjoyment of the game and go grind elementals until you are cross-eyed and dreaming about them. This is because they drop motes, which are the basis of the most evil economy known to man (or troll, or gnome etc).

Many high-level crafted items require primals — powerful elemental ingredients that are created from ten motes of the same element. And the elementals drop the motes. Occasionally. If they feel like it. On a good day. You collect ten motes, right click on the stack, and hey presto you have a primal.

If, like me, you are a tailor, you will spend mind-numbing hours nuking the little buggers for slow progress on your epic set. Ditto blacksmiths, leatherworkers and engineers.

Even if you don't need to make something, you need 5,000 gold for your flying epic mount and primals are one of the best ways to get it.

You will be competing with gold farmers, sociopaths and 12-year old boys.

The result is a world of cut-throat camping and competition that reduces even the most noble of paladins to dirty, underhand tricks. If there is a night elf hunter within firing distance you can bet the scum-sucking bastard will time an instant shot while you're casting your first spell.

If you try to buy your ingredients you will be permanently broke, begging every mage in Shattrath for water and emptying your bank for silver.

The worst thing is, I really have nothing better to do with my time. The frozen shadoweave and spellstrike sets are widely considered to be the best items out there before raids. And I'm too busy grinding primals to raid. (Is that what you call a circular argument?)

So if you see me in Nagrand with a harried, haunting look in my eye, please be kind and find another area to grind in.