Byron Huskey

Hurray!

I have a druid and dk both, and I think it's a great addition. Raise Ally was always a cute gimmick, not a shiny toy. Now it's a useful reason to bring the player, not the class, so to speak, because of additional raid utility. Frankly, I like that they gave it to a non-healing class. It fits the flavor, the lore, and makes it a unique trait.

I think the Horde is clearly strengthening itself after the defeat of the Lich King. Hellscream is proving himself to be a capable, considerate leader, able to deal policy with both speech and axe. Cairne was wise but old and his son seems like a strong heir.
The trolls are somewhat of a loss to the Horde in terms of politics, but they've rediscovered druidism which helps the Horde as a whole.
The Forsaken have found new ways to keep their race populated, and Sylvanas keeps gaining more power, gaining territory along the way.
From what I hear, the land grabs are more about game and lore balance from Vanilla than anything, giving the Horde a bigger presence in their adopted world. It may swing back toward the Alliance eventually, but the only obstacle in the Horde's path currently is the friction between Sylvanas and Garrosh. Course, I've always thought the Forsaken would be the undoing of the Horde (which partially came to pass during the Wrathgate).

I had a thought the other day about my druid alt, and classes with similar buffs. Is their overall DPS tuning affected by the fact that they will almost always have Gift of the Wild (or Blessing of Kings, etc) up? A hunter, for example, will usually have Aspect of the Hawk so this additional AP boost is factored in I'm sure, with the dps boost from Gift accounted for in raid design I assume. So are Druid/Pally/Shaman damage numbers tuned or lowered to account for this constant buff they grant themselves, and do the other classes just get that as bonus damage (possibly accounting for some of that hybrid tax)?

Big congrats Adam! I just engaged 6 weeks ago, so I empathize! When's the big date set?

Also, where the heck is Nesingwary in Cataclysm? I miss my genocidal hunter.

Niiice.

It's my birthday too! Happy birthday!

I just did my first Loken last night (heroic no less) with a Paladin healing, and while we did wipe 3 times, once everyone actually understood the fight it was rather easy.

Oh yummy, I want!

Mjummy!