In this earlier post, I highlighted a frustrated druid player who wrote a very extensive list of issues with the druid class. It covered PvE & PvP problems for Balance, Feral and Restoration specs. Tharfor, a Blizzard Europe Community Manager, has created a summary of that very lengthy document.

From that summary, here are the questions he is going to take to the devs:

*Will druids ever be able to gain benefit from melee 'buffs' such as windfury or weapon procs?

*Are there any plans to re-evaluate the scaling and itemisation so that druids (of all specs) have their own loot upgrades to chase rather than stealing other classes' loot?

*Constantly shifting roles takes its toll on the druids mana pool, are there any plans to adjust the costs/penalties to make shapeshifting 'easier' and more viable in longer battles?

*Can the restoration tree be looked at so that druids are able to be dedicated, and useful, healers whilst still having the ability to play the game alone outside of raid situations?

*Can the balance tree have more burst DPS options to remove the tediousness of the current slow and steady output of damage?

His full summary after the jump.

A frustrated druid player on the European WoW Forums, Synneth, composed a lengthy, druid class complaint thread. She clearly stated the problems for druids in both PvE and PvP for all specs and backed up her assertions with examples. She did not flame, accuse or demand. She simply made a well-informed argument backed by facts.

And she got a blue response. She got many blue responses. Admittedly, it's not devs who responded, it was Community Managers. But those blues are the ones who take player concerns to the devs. They couldn't guarantee a dev response, but they did promise to take her concerns to them.

So take note, those of your who feel your class is broken and your complaints are falling on deaf ears: a calm, strong argument supported by facts may be the quickest route for change. Now would be a great time to get the attention of the devs as they plan new abilities and talents for the expansion as well as itemizing the new zones.

Since Synneth did not provide a synopsis of her extensive post, I'll be summarizing it in Tuesday's druid class column, Shifting Perspectives, as well as analyzing her points about PvE play.

Late Saturday night, Tseric, a community manager on the official WoW forums, got into an argument with a (literal) troll about freedom of speech on the WoW forums. Tseric then posted a pretty stunning denunciation of the whole forum concept:

"When you can understand how a group of beligerent and angry posters can drive away people from this game with an uncrafted and improvisational campaign of misery and spin-doctoring, then perhaps, you can understand the decisions I make. Until you face mobs of psychology, you will not see my side.

Until you see some bright-eyed player coming onto the forums wanting to know what they should spec as this class, and see them shat on and driven away by petty and selfish people who are simply leveraging for game buffs, you will not understand.

You will not understand until you have to see it daily, for years..."

Pretty tough words from someone who gets paid to manage the forums, but I have to admit that I kind of agree with them. The WoW forums can be a great resource -- specifically the UI, Customer Service, Guild Relations and Professions forums -- but most of the class forums, the raids and dungeons forum, and the general forum can quickly become a cesspool of complaining. Instead of helping people in the game and offering constructive criticism, the forums can serve to drive away new players, and make them see problems when there may not be any. For example, while I'm writing this post and skimming the forums, I've "discovered":

• All the battlegrounds suck.
• Diplomacy is one of the worst racials in-game.
• Everyone is quitting WoW.
• It is a slap in the face that people who are hated with the Steamwheedle Cartel cannot get epic blacksmithing weapons. What do you mean, buy some cloth and get my rep back up? I like being a pirate!
• Blizzard hates casuals.
• Everyone hates hunters.
• The American health care system sucks (originally titled Are Nihilum Human, thus demonstrating some pretty admirable topic derailing.)

Man, and ten minutes ago I was happily grinding on dinosaurs in Un'Goro until I got killed and camped by a rogue. (Just checked -- yep, he's still there.) Who knew I had so many things to be angry about?

Do you read the WoW forums? What do you think could be done to improve them? Overall, do you think they're good or bad for the game?