This week, Krool (of the guild Heartless, on Daggerspine US)shows off his pre-TBC UI, so think of this as one of those flashbacks you may see in LOST or Jericho or whatever show is doing flashbacks this week. I remember using Charcoal's unit frames and fonts way back, but could never develop an appreciation for, or understanding of, Discord Unit Frames. I'm really digging the borders around the UI elements, separating them from the rest of the screen. Is there any way to do something like this without Discord?

Anyway, I digress, and here's Krool to tell you about his UI:

Here's a screenshot of my UI. Unfortunately Charcoal isn't working any more and I'm so sad. It was my favorite bar auto-configurator of all time. As far as basic action bar, player and target bar geometry flexibility, Charcoal pwned everyting else I've ever seen. Crash said he's working on it, but it's going to take some time. But having said that, the screenshot enclosed is my UI the way I like it best of all at any time since the original beta when I started playing.

Players in the BC beta have hit 70 and are beginning to raid, which means the return of Azeroth's favorite sport: complaining how underpowered your class is in groups! Warriors and rogues started fast out of the gate with some pretty heavy complaints. Warriors state that their rage generation has been nerfed enough that they won't be good DPSers anymore, and since druids and paladins can tank now, why would anyone bring a warrior? Rogues have noticed that they don't do damage as well as equally-geared mages and warlocks at 70, and since a lot of bosses have cleave and AOE attacks, why would anyone bring a rogue? Well, there are enough spare rogues and warriors running around to fill a large pit in Outland, and someone has to take the gear. Mages and warlocks have utility outside damage in raids, but rogues and warriors don't (unless you count suppression rooms, which you shouldn't.)

The casters have fired back, claiming that mages were always intended to be top DPS due to ... the character class descriptions in the guidebook, apparently. They also note that casters have limited mana pools, unlike rogues' constantly regening energy and the warrior's rage bar, and that caster DPS is more dependent on group composition than melee DPS (i.e. shadow priest group damage buffs.)

People from both sides and from healing classes have argued that because there aren't many great melee weapons and armor yet available at 70, melee classes appear underpowered -- but things will even out as better gear becomes available.

Do you think the melee classes have a point? Should melee DPS be higher on average than caster DPS because of the extra healing required by melee? Are rogues and warriors really in trouble? Or are they just whining because they have to work harder to compete on the DPS meters?

(Image from The Last Watch, Turalyon-EU server. DPS meters on Patchwerk in Naxxramas.)