The Beta Problem

I'll admit, I haven't logged in to actual, real WoW in maybe a month. I'm not getting to a quitting point, it's mainly that the novelty of Diablo 3 and the Beta are drawing me away. My guild's been off-and-on getting enough people for actual raids, and I realize I'm not helping the situation, but I figure if I can't take a break from WoW, that's probably a bigger problem than if I do take a break.

The Beta level-cap is now 90, which as we should all know is Mists' level cap (I doubt we'll be seeing 10-level expansions again, at least until we get past level 100.) Beta Jarsus is level 88. Part of me wants to get him to 90 to start testing out the heroics and raids, but on the other hand, I think I might be at that point where I've done what I want to do in the Beta.

Obviously, the real reason anyone's in the Beta is testing. If you're not getting on the forums to report on issues you've come across, you're kind of doing it wrong. That said, there's literally over a million people who are at least eligible for the beta. The chance that the problem you've come across is one that no one else has is pretty unlikely.

I also don't really want to spoil everything for myself. Granted, as an altoholic, I'm going to be running through all this content on probably more than ten characters (every expansion I've had more toons at the level cap,) so by the time that I take, say, Torem, the Dwarf Elemental Shaman through, I'll be very surprised if I find any new quests, and there will be very little novelty left, but I've purposely left things a little spotty in my questing on the beta (well, I was pretty thorough in Jade Forest when that was all that was open) to ensure I do actually get to see new stuff (the Beta has actually been somewhat accommodating in that regard, given the missing and broken quests) when I play the game for real.

The beta's also got some frustrations. For example, several patches ago, when they implemented account-wide mounts, I lost a ton of them, including my precious Turbo-Charged Flying Machine and my Mekgineer's Chopper (the latter of which will remain character-specific - guess that answers the question of whether my Hordies will get the Mechano-Hog.) I made a forum post back when that first happened, but I haven't complained since because I'm sure that's something they'll work on before the thing gets released (if I lose my Chopper on live, though, you can be sure I'll complain. Before the release of Wrath of the Lich King, which introduced the Mekgineer's Chopper/Mechano-Hog, a friend of mine and I had literally been talking about a hypothetical video game we would make if we had any idea how to make video games that would involve, among other things, Paladins riding motorcycles.)

Probably the main reason I was interested in the Beta in the first place was to get my hands on the Monk. It's been very interesting to see how the Brewmaster's developed. I haven't actually tanked any high-level content with them, but it's definitely gone from a convoluted mess to something that actually makes a lot of sense and even makes Active Mitigation seem more interesting and less "you will now suck at tanking, suckers."

I'll probably still log onto the Beta on occasion, and I might even get Beta Jarsus to 90, and check out the Dread Wastes and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, but (and don't hold me to this) I think I'm going to save the rest of it for the real thing.