Beta

I've been in the WotLK beta for several days now. I really haven't played it very much at all. It's not that I don't like it, I just have reservations about getting burned out on all the leveling stuff before I even buy the game. But from what little I have seen, it's looking pretty good. The beta servers are ridden with lag, since they're doing stress testing, but it's liveable. My Priest was turned into an offensive weenie into a powerhouse, because I respecced her to Shadow in anticipation of leveling, and the spellpower changes mean that in my healing set I have close to 1100 damage. Killing stuff with her is fun now, in contrast to the hell that was the QD dailies back in the summer.

I also leveled my mage to 70 after they announced the PvE -> PvP transfer change, bringing my total up to three. Haven't actually transferred him yet, as I'm a little anxious about my RL playgroup's willingness to come back when the expansion comes out; both have sounded fairly reticent about leaping back into the game. I don't think I'll play it much at all if they decide not to return, as 90% of the fun is in that interaction.

I'm also thinking about whether to keep playing my priest, or at any rate about whether she'll be the first character I level up. I'm pretty bummed about the treatment the class is getting in the expansion with respect to talents and skills. Switching to my mage or hunter would obviously end our carefully crafted tank/healer/dps setup, but healers aren't particularly hard to find anymore, and if Tim rolled a death knight Ben could switch to resto and maintain the arrangement, though he's said he'd prefer to stay feral. All in all, I'll probably just stick to the priest, thinking about it.