Great info, thanks!

First, it's great to hear that grouping will come back into the norm. It's my belief that grouping and creating new friendships are a big part of what keep players playing a game for the long term (that and challenging-but-rewarding high-end game content). Not since the first-gen MMO's (UO, EQ, and FFXI), have games been so group-centered/dependent from the get-go, where mobs (or PvP) are so challenging/risky you were practically forced into grouping and where groups were so much more efficient in terms of XP-over-time. I'll be really interested to see (and happy) if grouping does come back into style here.

I'm also interested to play the classes for myself. Interesting mechanics and cool flavor sound like what I need, but I've fooled myself into believing new class mechanics would be great in other recent MMO entries (Vanguard, LoTRO, TR, AoC), but have been Massively Disappointed (TM) with them.

Anyway, thanks...this podcast leaves me very hopeful...*destruction rules*