Lightwell – Maybe the dumbest spell I can think of.  The idea is not horrible but in today’s raiding environment does anyone have time to stop their rotation for a moment to click on something for a heal?  I know when I’m dpsing or tanking the last thing I want to think about is healing.  That’s what the healer is for.  I’ve got a great idea.  How about we put a little Shadowwell on the ground and the healers can click on it to dps things?  Dumb right?  Right.  Also, why in crap does damage break the heal?  The only time I could see something like this really being useful is during a high damage AoE from a boss except with that wrinkle, it’s completely useless in those scenarios.  According to Blizzard’s placement of the talent in the Holy tree, they must have assumed it was as powerful as Power Infusion or Shadow Form.  Whoops.  I don’t know a single Holy Priest who takes this talent and that is all the evidence I need.

Blizzard doesn’t appear to be dumping this spell and are even requiring that Holy Priest take it to get the Chakra talent.  If they’re not dumping it, maybe Lightwell could be a spell you cast on a player who then heals everyone around them for certain amount over 6 seconds which would add to a Holy Priests existing AoE healing abilities.

Dampen/Amplify Magic – I know, we use Amplify Magic on the Saurfang fight.  I’m aware of that.  However; one fight does not make a spell useful or necessary.  I also don’t know a single Mage who is excited when I remind them to please “give amp magic to the raid please”.  They all have the same reaction, “Ugh”.  Dampen Magic is especially useless unless you are in pvp and there are no healers which usually means you will be failing no matter what you do.  I do think the idea is solid but in practicality it comes up so rarely that these spells are often completely forgotten about by many Mages.

We already know that Blizzard is planning to dump these spells and that doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but if we were to keep them maybe make them into more of a defensive cool-down rather than a 10 minute buff.  I could definitely see the use in a combo spell that lessens magic damage taken and ups healing and lasts for say 6 seconds.

Raptor Strike/Mongoose Bite/Counterattack – Hunters are not a melee class.  Yet we get three, that’s right, three different melee attacks.  Absolutely the wrong way to teach a new Hunter that they should be shooting things from afar.  Wing Clip is useful since Hunters need to get away from close up enemies but other than that I think it’s time to face facts.  Hunters do need to be able to do some damage to people within melee range but to have three types of attacks is bit odd.

I love the idea of giving Hunters pistols to use in melee range.  While you could use the same ranged abilities there would be a damage penalty that would encourage Hunters to get back out to range while not forcing us to keep melee abilities on our action bar.  If you’ve ever played a Hunter you probably know how many abilities are already there and this would allow Blizzard to drop some lame abilities.

Mind Soothe/Soothe Animal – Druids don’t get Soothe animal until level 22.  By that point you should just be going Cat Form and Prowling.  Priests can Mind Soothe which I guess could be useful while questing but if you can’t kill a mob reliably you got bigger problems than Mind Soothe can fix.  These seem like spells that sneaked in there because Blizzard need to give players something new around level 20 and ran out of ideas.  Dumb spell with almost no uses at all.

I do like the idea of these spells upping the targets vulnerability to other spells though.  I’ve heard of Priests using Mind Soothe on the Instructor Razuvious fight but I admit I have never confirmed that it really works.  Imagine though that a Priest could use Mind Soothe to refresh a Shackle or a Mind Control or a Druid could use Soothe Animal to refresh a Hibernate or increase the length of a Cyclone.  I could see some use in that.

Now you get to tell us what you think.  Leave a comment with any spells you hate or think should change or tell me how wrong my analysis is.  Now’s the best time to talk about these kind of things since the future of World of Warcraft is still being…well crafted and many spells will be dumped and overhauled.

In case you’ve missed the news: Blizzard has taken World of Warcraft: Cataclysm to beta, and lifted the requirement barring disclosure of its content.  This means that:

• You are free to take screenshots of awesome things you see in the beta.
• You are free to post those screenshots somewhere, like Flickr or ImageShack.
• You’re free to share them in threads in The Instance Forums.  Woo-hoo!  You know you want to!
• If you’re not yet beta testing, and you really want to and have properly signed up, it’s only a matter of time before you get your invite.
• Whether or not you’re testing, you’re free to browse the official beta forums.  They’re a lot nicer than most forums on worldofwarcraft.com.

We’re planning all manner of fun Cataclysm beta contests and community events.  Be on the lookout for prizes to be given away on The Instance along with a “Most Badass Beta Screenshot” contest, perhaps a few “Caption The Beta Screenshot” contests, and a contest wherein you, The Instance listener, can win a cool prize for submitting a photos comparing the real-world to the world of post-Cataclysm Azeroth.  Get your creative eye ready!

World of Warcraft is now a part of the new Battle.net! In preparation for the rollout of Battle.net’s upcoming communication and community features, as of today, all World of Warcraft accounts must be merged with a free Battle.net account in order to log in to the game. To upgrade to a Battle.net account, please go here. For more info, check out the Battle.net site or read the FAQ.

Now is the time, and this is the place.

Have you hit 80 on your death knight without really knowing what you’re doing, or how to maximize it?  Let’s talk about that.

Today, we’re going to give away a code for a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance to one person who participates in this thread on The Instance forums.  Just answer the original question posed by Jinxest there, or ask a new question of your own in that thread, or answer a new question before 6PM PDT today (that’s 9PM EDT).  One poster wins!

Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character’s minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.

And there was much rejoicing.

Want to win a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance? To win today, just answer the question posed in this thread in The Instance forums before 11AM PDT today (that’s 2PM EDT), and tell us what you think Blizzard should do next. One poster wins!

It looks like Blizzard updated the 3.3 Test Patch notes last night, and this new tidbit just jumped out:

The Looking For Group chat channel has returned and can be accessed in all major cities (similar to the Trade chat channel) without the use of the Dungeon system interface.

It’s a brave new world.  But how is this going to play out in the wild?  Does this mean that there will now be two channels filled with drivel?  Will one rise above the other?  If so, which one and why?

If you’d like to win a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance today, just answer one or more (or all) of the above questions in a comment on this blog post before 1PM PDT (that’s 4PM EDT) today.  One commenter will win!

We’re recording a new episode of The Instance tomorrow night (at ~7PM MDT on Saturday, to be completely non-specific), and it occurs to us that we need one thing to really make the show special: More questions!  We don’t have enough.  Especially of the one-liner questions for Randy to ask Scott variety.

Want to win a code for a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance? Leave us a comment in this thread today before 5PM PDT, and include a question for the show or a QuickFire Question™ for Scott. One person who participates will be randomly drawn the winner!

The subject came up on the last episode of The Instance during Rumors And Scuttlebutt: Could Blizzard give the disenchant skill to another profession?  What else could be changed in the game to make it so that a party of five (that included no enchanter) could come away from a boss fights with shards and dust, instead of vendor trash?

Want to win a code for a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance?  Give us your best answer to the disenchant question in this thread on The Instance Forums before 4PM PDT today.   One poster who participates will be randomly drawn the winner!

You can join Blizzard this Thursday, October 22, at 3:00 PM PDT on Twitter for a developer chat with World of Warcraft’s director of production Tom Chilton, and game director J. Allen Brack.

You can submit your questions via Twitter on Thursday, by messaging Blizzard’s @Warcraft Twitter account.  Chilton and Brack will then answer via postings in the official forums, with links to the answers provided through Twitter.

Want to win a code for a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from The Instance and Blizzard today?  Just re-tweet a post in Twitter made by @Extralife or @Randydeluxe today between 8AM and 12-Noon PDT.  One lucky person will take the code!