Wrath of the Lich King: One Year Later (part one)

So here we are, one year into Wrath of the Lich King and the final showdown with the Lich King is drawing rapidly closer as each day passes.  This is the first full year I've personally seen in an expansion, having started playing in December of 2007, 11 months from the launch of Wrath.  At lot has changed, some good and some bad.  (Who could forget the great hunter nerf of 3.0.8?)  I'm going to recap some of the major changes that have happened in the past year.

• Design Philosphy-The design philosophy has changed significantly over the course of this expansion.  "Bring the player, not the class" has been a phrase that's been echoed countless occasions, and has led to many, many arguments between 'casuals' and 'hardcores'.  All that phrase means is that once you have your basics covered (i.e. buffs and debuffs) you bring players based on other factors such as skill, comradarie, loyalty, etc. rather than encouraging stacking of any particular class.
• Raiding-Raiding has been made more accessable for everyone who puts the effort in.  This has caused a lot of...contention amongst those who feel that only the best of the best deserves to raid.  That philosophy may have existed back in BC and Vanilla, but it doesn't fly now and it does not make sense from a developer point of view.  Let's look back at Sunwell, the final raid introduced in Burning Crusade.  I have never seen anything inside of it but from what I hear it was insanely popular with the raiding set due to the difficulty and near flawless execution it required.  However, how much did it cost Blizzard in manpower and money to design that instance that only the 'elite of the elite' got to see?  In this troll's opinion, I would view Sunwell as a complete failure from a developer's standpoint.  Personally, I know if I designed something as grandiose as Sunwell, I would want more people to see the amount of hard work I put into it than just a handful of people.  Raiding more accessable: GOOD THING.
• Hard Modes-For those of you who like to challenge yourselves, Ulduar introduced hard modes, that were more difficult than the original encounter and summarily offered better rewards.  This was Blizzard's answer to the whining hardcore that raiding was too easy in Wrath of the Lich King.  Ulduar's hard modes were incredible.  Most of them changed the dynamics of the fight completely (hello Firefighter, Steelbreaker last, and Keeperless Yogg) others tested a raid's ability to output while still executing the fight (Hodir, Thorim).  I loved the hard modes I was able to complete, and I wish my guild as a whole was more inclined to go back into Ulduar to actually finish the ones we haven't gotten yet.  However, Crusader's Colliseum changed the way hard modes worked.  Instead of something being triggered during the encounter, it was a seperate setting (like changing difficulties for a five man) with its own lock out.  This was a catastrophic failure in my point of view, and I'm sure amongst most of you as well.  The hard modes for the Crusader's Colliseum are not that much different than their normal counterparts, except with a new ability or two thrown in for kinks.  Most of the fights are just bosses with more health and hit harder.  This system has artifically caused a lot of burnout amongst raiders most likely due to the fact that it was just running the same instance twice a week, with nothing new or interesting being thrown in.  Tie that with underwhelming content by itself and you have a powder keg waiting to explode for guilds.
• PvP-WTOLK has added in two new battlegrounds, Strand of the Ancients and Isle of Conquest.  Strand of the Ancients has both sides competing against each other to see who can capture the relic the fastest.  Isle of Conquest is a combination of Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley where each side fights for control of various nodes that aid each army in their attempts to slay the opposing general in his keep.  Both battlegrounds are fun and I recommend those who haven't tried them at least try them a few times to see how they work out for you.  Arena can go die in a fire.  Blizzard needs to seriously let these things die.  They have been nothing but headaches in terms of balancing and since they insist on having both sides (PvE and PvP) in the same game, more often than not a change to one side almost always steps on the toes of the other.
• Leveling-Leveling has been made much simplier for both new players and players with alts.  For the new player, the reduced XP requirements and mount changes has made leveling for the discerning newbie easier than it was when I was leveling back in December of 07.  For alts, heirloom items have greatly accelerated the speed you level at, due to the +20% exp bonus from the shoulders+chest, weapons you don't need to replace and the health and mana restoration trinkets make leveling an alt an almost no-brainer (unless you're leveling on a brand new server or opposing faction of course)  Has faster leveling increased the number of players who don't know how to play their class properly?  Perhaps, but there are plenty of resources for players to go to for their class and if someone doesn't learn, it wouldn't matter if it took them three weeks or three months to level, they will still be a bad player.
• Professions-At this point in time, professions are still a pain in the ass to level, particularly at the pre-300 stage, due to the lack of farming going on for things like Thorium, Rugged Leather, enchanting mats of any kind, herbs, etc.  This is slated to change soon where points will now be gained based on the composition of the items in relation to the materials needed to create them.  Also, professions now offer unique perks which are now mostly in balance with each other (Dragon's Eyes still beat out the others, not as much as they did before 3.2 but they still have a slight edge) but there are some that still trail behind the others (hello engineering.).

I don't want to sound long-winded so I'll wrap up here and continue with part two soon, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.