We're Not In Kansas Anymore.

I saw a rather large amount of the content of Vanilla and TBC. Never completed AQ40 or stepped foot in Naxx and never waved hello to Lady Vashj, but everything else up to those points I was able to participate in and help clear. Needless to say, it was a significant amount of content that now exists only as a shadow of its former self. With the changes I've seen, I half expect candy-colored midgets to start dancing around my house with ruby slippers.

o 25-man raid PuGs
Seriously? The idea makes me break out in hives. The only raid I've ever PuGed was AQ20 on an alt and went in knowing it would be a joke. It certainly didn't disappoint. People actually do this successfully? I know it's been a common occurrence in Dungeons and Dragons Online for ages, but in WoW, where the idiot ratio of 100:1 stands in stark contrast to DDO's 1:5 (before free-to-play), I just can not wrap my brain around the idea.

o Mount training at level 20...
Back in my day, unless you were a druid or hunter, you ran to your next quest/town/instance/trainer/herb and you liked it! Uphill, in snow or blistering heat--the best you could do was line yourself up, turn on auto-run and go make a sandwich while you headed to the next zone and flight point. At least with the flight points it was only one way.

o ... for 4 gold
It only makes sense for the price to be lowered with the level attained being lowered. Even 4 gold is a large sum for a level 20 character without a rich main to supply it with extensive amounts of gold. Talk about deflation; and people complain about the WoW economy.

o Achievements
With the Achievement system already implemented, we're just asking for an X-Box 360 port. Just for logging in, I received a "Feat of Strength" achievement (5th Anniversary.) Some of them are amusing, but I feel like I should be displaying a banner with this score alongside my X-Box Gamer Score and PS3 Trophies.

o Inscription
I don't know what to think quite yet as I haven't been able to actually use these (no AH/trades on trial accounts). The concept reminds me of the Druid Idol trinkets; it just seems that they've been expanded to all classes and don't take up my trinket slot.

o Boomkin, Feral Tanking, and Tankadins - 'Off-Specs' are no longer very far off
Even in TBC, Moonkin were not generally taken seriously in raids. Paladins could tank most non-heroics and even some heroics; same with Feral Druids, but you rarely saw them filling such roles on raid nights. Druids and Paladins healed and that was about it until the content was on farm.

o Dual-Speccing
This is awesome and I'm looking forward to it when I get toward end game. No more nights of "We need you to respec to Resto for the evening", it sounds like it's just 'click a tab and you're good to go' (after a purchasing the ability, of course.) Due to this, it seems not as uncommon for folks to request trash and things noone else wants for off-specs, which makes any Moonkin happy for those times that they do have to crack out the healing.

Like flattening a wicked witch with your house, some of the changes are pleasant. Others have me wanting to click my heels together to teleport back to 2007.