Bits and Pieces

Nothing I have done lately that is note worthy so why not direct folks to some important, but lesser known WoW news.

Warcraft Books
There is a quality interview with author Christie Golden at the Shadow Council Strider. Its a bit short, but they cover the books she has written and their background, how she got stated and her plans future WoW books. She just signed a contract to write three more by the way. Oh and those talbuk mounts you see everyone...you can thank Christie. Yeah check out SCS's previous interview with Aaron Rosenberg too.

Armory Statistics
Both Okoloth and Vhairi have done great things in the world of armory statistics. Okoloth has been doing class breakdowns for over 4 million armory profiles. Vhairi has done class break downs as compared to arena brackets and arena ratings from a sample of 100k+ teams. Both works should be poured over and reviewed by Blizzard (I'm sure they have this stuff already) and the player base. A lot of arguments in WoW are personal experienced based not quantifiable. Here is just a sample...

Mages are the second most represented class at roughly 13% of the population (Warriors are #1 at roughly 14%). They are are second to last in terms of 2v2 teams as rating increases. Sixth most represented in 3v3 teams as rating increases. Fifth most represented in 5v5 teams as rating increases. This seems to point to a broken solo class, but increasing utility as you add teammates. So be social mages, it is your best chance at getting your rating up...statistically speaking of course.

Update: It looks like Blizzard is already aware...

Honestly, 2v2 has a ways to go before I'd be truly satisfied with its balance. In fact, at one point during the Burning Crusade beta we considered removing the format in favor of 4v4, but have decided to stick with it since so many players enjoy only needing to find 1 teammate to be able to participate in arenas.

However, 2v2 balance goes beyond just a warlock/druid vs warrior/druid issue, there are a lot of classes out there that are left out of having a reasonable chance at the very high end because of the endurance nature of the format, and drain tanking felt to the class team as a meaningful part of the problem.