The hands down best thing about 3.0.8?

It broke Wintergrasp. 

No, really.  I hate Wintergrasp.  With a fiery passion the likes of which the destruction tree has never seen!  *shakes fist* 

Not only is it a zone-wide no fly zone that makes getting from Dalaran to the Sholazar Basin a major pain in my Undead ass (My Oracles!  Are dying!  And I’m stuck skirting the edges of Icecrown to get to them!  /cry), but it causes continent-wide lag that makes the rest of the game virtually unplayable.  Seeing “LFM, Wintergrasp Raid” in Trade is my cue to high-tail it to an alt and hide in Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor for the duration of the battle. 

And … ugh.  If I have to hear my sister tell me one more time that she and her friends are going to go retake Wintergrasp so Carebears like me can raid Archevon (only a battleground junkie like her would consider the three minute zergfest that is Archevon a “raid boss” /scoff) … well, I just might be forced to roll an Alliance rogue and l2PvP so I can gank her.  Repeatedly.  Because all a rogue has to do to kill a warlock is look at it and /spit, right? 

 Right?

/end rant

See you in Storm Peaks!

Patch 3.0.8 is live!  

… And while my boyfriend is lamenting the loss of something like 4K armor, I’m /dancing for joy.  Not because warlock DPS was fixed (it wasn’t; clearly, warlocks are intended to be the ret paladins of Northrend), but because of this:

Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.

 

IT’S ABOUT FREAKIN’ TIME. 

If you think Sons of Hodir dailies suck, try doing them as an Affliction ‘lock.  There’s nothing quite like running up to a Niffelem Forefather, throwing all of your instants on him — and then watching the resto druid drop out of the sky and tap him with a Moonfire before your DoTs tick.  If the druid isn’t a complete jerk, he’ll follow the Moonfire up with something to build threat; if he is, he’ll stand back and watch you pull DoT aggro and tank his mob for him. 

If I had a Soul Shard for every time this happened to me, I could summon the entire Stormstrike battlegroup to Dalaran.  One at a time.  The old way.  Before 3.0.8 and these newfangled “Summoning Pebbles” (as they shall henceforth be known).

Even in this era of “lolock,” Affliction is an insanely good grinding spec, and the new insta-tap mechanic makes it even better.  It may even be too good … but don’t tell Blizzard I said that. >.>

Case in point: doing the Polishing the Helm daily, I will typically DoT-kite my way through the Hiburnal Cave, tossing Curse of Agony, Corruption and Siphon Life on every Viscious Slime and Jormunger I see, occasionally dropping a Howl of Terror to scatter them, followed by a Drain Life to heal myself back up to full.  It don’t have to worry about how many mobs I pull as long as I can stay ahead of them, because with Siphon Life ticking on every one and my Howl of Terror/Drain Life  combo as a safety net (not to mention Death Coil for emergencies), I can tear through the entire Cave without stopping except to loot.  Given that my DoTs can now tap instantly and at range, I really don’t see anyone else being able to compete with me.  Sure, a Druid or a Hunter can insta-tap at range, too, but they have to stand relatively still to DPS.  Like the Energizer Bunny, I just keep going …

On a somewhat related note, I really wish that there was some way we could cancel DoTs — kind of like a Totemic Recall for DoT effects.  So many raid bosses drop aggro between phase changes (I’m looking at you, Hydross!) that I have to “stop DoTs” well before the end of each phase.  That’s 60% of my DPS, gone. 

The fact that Ghostcrawler is actively soliciting feedback on warlock spells gives me hope.  Maybe now that he’s done playing with Death Knights, Druids and Hunters, it will be our turn.  In the meantime, I’m determined to enjoy what we did get with this patch: a brand new tapping mechanic and a 6 second cooldown to Circle of Healing and Wild Growth. 

(You mean I may actually get to raid heal again?  My days of pretending I’m a paladin with these Flashes of Lesser Healing Light could be over?!  Madness.)