When do you say, "enough"?

First, a quick 5-man fail PuG story.  Then a 10-man fail PuG discussion.

I’ve been working on my shaman’s DPS set, in case I need to swap roles during a raid for any reason.  Because of that I’ve been queuing as DPS so that I can also get practice as enhancement.  I’m finally feeling the long-queue wait pains that DPS folks have been facing recently.  There were multiple almost-starts along the way, but someone would decline and I’d go back to the top of the queue.After nearly an hour hanging out in the queue I finally zoned in to the Nexus.  There were multiple almost-starts along the way, but someone would decline and I’d go back to the top of the queue.  I was unamused that it was the Nexus, but I sucked it up and stayed. (I hate the Nexus because for some reason, the color scheme makes it hard for me to distinguish the enemies from the environment.)  The group makeup was me (enhancement shaman), a marksmanship hunter, a subtlety rogue, a protection warrior, and a restoration druid.

Right from the start it went badly.  The hunter decided to take it upon himself to pull extra mobs.  The tank called him out on it.  It wasn’t in the most polite way, but he certainly wasn’t being a jerk about it.  He just very clearly and directly told the hunter to stop pulling.  The hunter decided not only to deny that he’d been pulling extra mobs, but that it would be fun to pull even more extra mobs.

When we engaged Grand Magus Telestra the hunter went back out into the hallway and pulled the extra packs of mob back into the group while we were fighting her.  Even though we didn’t wipe, it was really obnoxious.  This of course set the tank off.  The warrior and the hunter spent the rest of the time yelling at each other.  They were still fighting when we got to Anomalus.  The warrior then did one of the strangest things I think I’ve ever seen an angry, retaliating tank do.

As a form of retaliation he engaged Anomalus and proceeded to kite him away from us.  Back down the ramps, across the platforms, and back towards the hallway we’d just come from (where Telestra was).  And I know it was retaliatory because he made a point of telling us, “I’m doing this to annoy the hunter, and because I think it’s funny.”  The warrior got Anomalus a good way away from us and by the time we were able to catch up he’d gathered up additional packs and Anomalus had opened a bunch of Chaotic Rifts and tons of angry mana wraiths were coming through the rifts.

I know that some groups actually do this kiting technique on purpose for the achievement.  But they usually don’t also aggro as many extra mobs as possible, and then laugh about making it hard on the hunter.

The hunter died, followed by the warrior.  But the rogue, druid and I managed to take care of the rest of the mobs (shaman tank ftw!).  The hunter and warrior continued their pissy bitch fest.  Finally I gave up and said, “Look I can’t deal with this anymore.  I know it will be easy to replace me as dps, but I’d rather eat the debuff then put up with this nonsense anymore.”  And I dropped group.  The healer dropped group too.  (It took me a second to get from typing to clicking ‘leave party’ and in that time I saw him drop.)  I’m willing to bet the rogue left as well.  And I doubt that the hunter and the warrior even noticed through all their bickering.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they did their corpse run, got all the way back, pulled the first group, died, and then got mad at the departed healer for letting them die before they realized anyone was missing.

Blurg.

You're not going to believe this, but I promise it's true.

Ok, so I’m sorry I keep doing so many prefaces/making excuses/etc but I just need to say: I’m still getting my blogging voice back.  So this post, and probably plenty to follow, is a little all over the place.  Not quite the caliber of my previous posts.  But I’ll get there.  I promise.  Also…I’m sorry I seem to be letting the obscenities fly a lot more lately.  I hope nobody gets offended.

So, as I mentioned, I recently had a pretty bad accident, which resulted in some head trauma.  Because of said head trauma, I’m have some normal, expected memory loss and trouble processing things.  Needless to say, it’s taken a little bit of a toll on my tanking.  Where once I was a fantastic multitasker, able to process lots of information, coming in very fast and furious, now there seems to be a hard cap on the amount of info I can process.  It’s like it isn’t even happening.  Pretend I’m tanking a group of 5 and one of them breaks away and goes after the healer.  Then a patrol comes by and joins the fray.  Suddenly it’s as if there is no patrol.  It doesn’t even exist.  I’m so busy trying to catch the mob after the heal that the patrol doesn’t even register.

As the days and weeks go by, the amount of info I can process has gone up significantly, in fact it’s not really noticeable any more.  But that’s just so you don’t worry, my brain is getting back to normal.

But let me get back to my story.  I logged in to wow about a week ago to see if playing would take my mind off how stir crazy I was feeling.

Oh wait! Side story!  I totally forgot!  Word of advice: If you are going to get into a sever accident and end up in the hospital, make sure someone logs in for you so your guild doesn’t toss you to the curb.  That’s right.  That new guild I joined?  Booted me.  Because I hadn’t logged in for (count them) 4 whole days.  4 days! And they booted me! Ridiculous right? Good riddance I say.

Ok, so after getting over the initial confusion of no longer being in a guild, and stopping myself from sending a very snarky, guilt-filled tell to that guild leader, I decided to stick myself in the random dungeon finder and see what the fates had in store for me.

The dungeon of the moment? Heroic Ahn’Kahet.

I’ve done this one quite a few times, so I didn’t foresee any problems.  Nonetheless, I decided to issue this warning to the group: “I’m currently recovering from brain surgery so I’ll need to take it a little slower than most of you are probably accustomed to.”

Pretty simple and straightforward explanation right?

No response from the group…

“Ok, well, anyway, I’m going to do my best, so here we go.  Ready?”

No response…

I go for the first pull.  No problem at all.  We clear all the spiders near the first set of stairs.  The dps is super high and the mobs are going down fast.

We get up past the first set of steps and I’m lining up for the pull in the next room, and I just completely forget that there’s a patrol.  I don’t even think to look.  I’ve done this dungeon many many times, and yet I forgot about the patrol. I charged right into the group in the room and pulled the patrol right along with it.

Now as far as every day tanking foul ups, I will admit, this is a pretty stupid one.  First, even if I didn’t remember that there was a patrol, I should have checked to see if there was a patrol coming around the corner.  I should not have charged headlong into the room without even looking.

However, the dps and healing in the group was high enough that even though I totally screwed up the pull, all the enemies went down and none of us did.  So I figured that everyone surviving, combined with my earlier warning, would have earned me a little slack.

It did not.

Now, I am going to relate to you what the rest of the group members said and I promise you, I am not making this up.

DPS 1: Dude what the hell? Are you retarded?

DPS 2: Yeah, what did you have brain surgery for?  Stupidity reduction?

Healer: haha yeah, if I were you I’d get my money back, clearly they fucked up that surgery.

DPS 3: Hey come on guys, you don’t know, his stupidity may be unrelated to his surgery.  He’s probably always been this stupid.

Healer: You probably didn’t even have surgery, you just use that as an excuse because you’re a dumbass.

You have been removed from the group.

Before I could even process what they had said and respond at all I was sitting back in Ironforge.

First of all, in hindsight I probably didn’t need to tell them I was recovering from brain surgery.  Maybe a little bit too much information.  All I really needed to do was say, “hey I like to go slow, so don’t expect a speed run.”  But I was still a little woozy and not thinking quite straight.

However, that one PuG has pretty much destroyed my faith in the WoW community.  I know, maybe I’m overreacting, and probably should lay everything on this one group.  But their reactions were so horrible and so out of line that I just lost it.  Seriously.  What kind of mouth breathing low life ass whole fucking dougebag cock ass says shit like that?

Sorry…sorry I don’t usually let the obscenities fly like that but it pissed me off so much that I haven’t played since.  First off I don’t think that being that angry is good for my head injury.  But regardless, I just don’t need stress like that.

It’s just amazing that a group of people could be so arrogant that when a slightly difficult situation arose but everyone lived, they could react that way.  They just expect that everyone else in the group (tank, heals, or dps) be perfect, rocking tier 9, and able to pull at least 5k dps.  Do they not remember that everyone had to start somewhere? Or are they all just warcraft savants that just instantly knew how to rock the game, and had their gear gifted to them?  Yes, I know, your gear level makes it super easy to go into the original Wrath heroics and faceroll.  I know that in ilvl 225+ gear you could auto pilot yourself through an instance, skill or not.  But guess what?  Not everyone is in your same situation.  Some people are still starting out and are in blue gear.  Some people just don’t have that much experience, and are still learning how to run these instances.  And some people are recovering for fucking brain surgery you goddammed obnoxious twits!

I hope they die in a fire.

So I have decided that, at least for now, I am done with the random dungeon finder.  First of all, I don’t want to get stuck in another PuG.  Secondly, I don’t want to do another “vanilla” Wrath mess where the only communication in party chat is “gogogogo”.  And third, I’m just not interested in running instance after instance for no real reason.  I mean, I’m not in a guild, so I’m not raiding.  And I sure as hell aint gonna PuG a raid.  So there’s not a real reason for me to need to upgrade my gear.  It just feels like a long pointless grind.

Man I hope Cataclysm comes out soon.  I could use something else to do in the game.

“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]“

~Fizz

An open letter to the folks on the public test realm.

Dear players on the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm Broxigar,

I think there has been a bit of a miss-communication.  Either you forgot (despite having to click on ‘public test’ every time you log in), or no-one told you (maybe they installed the PTR on your computer without telling you?) but you seem to have missed the fact that this is the public realm.  For testing.

I’m going to repeat that, for emphasis.

Public.

Realm.

For testing.

An open letter to those who stand on flight masters, mailboxes &c, with their mammoth mounts:

Dear sir or madame;

My my, I love seeing you fellows around!  Boy it just tickles me pink watching folks squirm around you trying to get their mouse icons to switch from targeting you to targeting whatever you stand on.  I’m ever so impressed when I see one of you positioned so well that it really has become impossible to click on whatever you are standing on.  Oh, and when there are two of you? Brilliant!  I mean, you must have an unfathomably large mental capacity to be able to come up with that clever of a scheme.  You’ve spent time and effort getting that fancy new mammoth.  The world of Azeroth deserves to see you, up there all proud and prim.  This scheme is admirably brilliant.  Far beyond anything your average 12 year old could come up with.

But what do you do when the masses start yelling at you, whispering and such?  Why, go AFK of course!  It’s the perfect plan!  After all, you can stand there for a good 15-20 minutes before people realize that you haven’t just gone AFK to go to the bathroom or get a drink.  But you have to make sure to flag yourself AFK rather that actually go AFK.  No sense in letting the game automatically log you off right?  What fun would that be?

Those of you standing on mailboxes and the like, what are you thinking?  I mean, honestly what a waste.  Especially with all the additional mailboxes they have added.  How are people going to admire you and your new mount if they just jaunt off to a new mailbox?  The same goes for vendors and the like.  If there’s somewhere for them to move on to, you can bet they will.  I know, I know…they just don’t appreciate the leetness you have attained.  That’s why it’s up to you get them looking in your direction.  I recommend quest givers (especially neutral ones) and flightmasters (especially in neutral cities).  You’ll get the most bang for your buck!  But why am I telling you this, a clever fellow like you doesn’t need my help, I’d imagine you’ve already thought of this a long long time ago.

I’m curious, how do you deal with your one weakness?  I’m talking of course about baby spice.  What is that nonsense anyway?  I mean, here you spent all that time and effort gathering up rep or shards or gold to buy yourself a fancy new mammoth, and all you want to do is show it off right?  And what better place to do it than a heavily trafficked point, especially in a neutral city where Horde and Alliance alike can bask in your obvious leetness.  If you stand on the flightmaster in Dalaran, everyone will have to see you!  I mean, how can they click it without seeing you first?  So here you are, standing there relishing in the spotlight, and someone tosses babyspice at you.  And suddenly you are so tiny that you are no longer blocking access!  It’s insta-death for your audience.  Oh sure, eventually the buff will wear off, and you’ll gather a new group of admirers, but if the baby spicers can just bypass you that quickly, they won’t have the privilege of admiring you for an extended period of time!  They’ll be totally missing out.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you to keep up the good work.  People everywhere are very excited to see you there.  No one gets sick of it or irritated in anyway.  It’s not an inconvenience of any kind.  No no!  It’s not like they have better things to do that spending a couple minutes trying to click on whatever you are standing on only to finally give up and try something else.  You aren’t a total and complete waste of time and space.  You are very valuable to everyone’s World of Warcraft experience and I genuinely hope that you don’t suffer any diminished brain capacity due to the vast amounts of effort you have committed to this endeavor.

Cordially signed,

Thistlefizz T. Cogsproket.

The third sign of the apocalyps?

Well the day has finally come.  You can now spend real world money and receive an item in game.  Sure there have been similar types of things in the past (e.g. the trading card game pets, or collectors edition of Wrath/BC), but those have all been indirect items received from spending real world money.  You buy the trading cards and you might get a pet card as a bonus.  You specifically buy the expansion, and just happen to get a pet included in it.  But now you can spend real money and directly receive on specific item in game.  This has caused quite the stir around the bloggosphere.  Elina over at the Pink Pigtail Inn has very strong opinions in opposition to this new feature.  Tobold isn’t surprised that this has happened at all.  There are plenty of others but I’ll spare you the link listing and actually get through my own view on this.

My initial response? I don’t give a rats arse about this.   Seriously, it makes absolutely no difference to me.  I’m not in the least bit surprised either.  World of Warcraft, like any other MMO is run by a corporation.  And that corporation, Blizzard, is out there to make money.  Despite the pedestal that some people like to place them on (‘other games might have micro transactions, but at least Blizzard is taking the high road!’), profit is their bottom line.  It’s true that they make a fantastic game and that they do a wonderful job of thinking about their customer base.  It does seem like for the most part they don’t do things just because it will make them money even if it’s bad for their player base.  I’m not saying they won’t do something just because it will make them money, but I am saying that they do a good job of taking the players into consideration before doing it.

Now one might say, ‘but Fizz, that’s exactly what they have just done!  They did this just for profit and it’s bad for the player base!’  Well I say that’s a bunch of nonsense and rigmarole.  Paid faction/race/(probably one day class)/appearance changes are clearly money driven, but I’m of the opinion that it’s a boon not a bane to players.  And as for the introduction of purchasable pets (with the removal of the TCG or collectors edition middleman)–it is neither a boon or a bane.  The fact is, it’s just a vanity item.  Some little pet is not going to create some huge differentiation between the haves and the have-nots.

One of the arguments out there is that the reason this is bad is because it’s a slippery slope.  ‘This will inevitably lead to Blizzard selling gold, gear, raid items, etc! And that’s not fair! It should be about player skill not wallet size! NERD RAGE! RAWR!’  Let me be blunt.  The slippery slope argument is typically a rather specious one.  I think there’s some fancy Latin term for this type of argument but I can’t think of it at the moment.  I think it’s something like post hoc ergo propeter hoc.  Actually I think that means one assumes that because one thing happened after another thing, it means the first thing caused the second. And that’s not the argument I’m going for…ok hmm…maybe there isn’t actually a fancy Latin phrase for it.  I do know that sometimes the slippery sl0pe argument is represented by the Camel’s Nose.  The Camel’s Nose is a metaphor that says, “If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow.”  It’s a non-sequitur argument.  There is no causal evidence to say that just because the camel sticks his nose in the tent, the rest of him will follow after.

Just because Blizzard has decided to sell two vanity items, does not mean that they will start selling gear/raid items/etc.  Right now it’s just another way for them to make money.  Just vanity pets.  Do I think they will stop with two pets?  No.  Do I really believe they will tumble down the slope and start charging for gear and so forth?  Not even a little.  And I stand by that prediction.  There is just not enough causal evidence to make the claim that they will.  Just because other games do it is hardly evidence they will.

Now, if it turns out that I am wrong, I promise to let everyone who disagrees with me comment and say, “I told you so, I told you so!”  Additionally, assuming the player backlash isn’t so high that Blizzard stops the practice, if they ever do start charging for things other than vanity items, that will be the end of my $15 a month.

 

“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]“

~Fizz

 

PS: I should say that I make no plans to buy either of these pets.  I feel the same way about them as I do about the collectors edition or TCG pets.  I don’t feel like paying real money for a vanity item.  I mean if someone decided to gift it to me I wouldn’t send it back or anything…. But I sure as hell aint spending the money for it.

Are you (virtual) legs broken or something?

Alright time for a quick rant.  You know what absolutely drives me crazy?  People who do not release after a wipe, and people who wait for summons to instances.

Ok so first people who don’t release after a wipe–what the hell?  If everyone is dead, there is no-one to rez you.  That means while you and your lazy self are lying there waiting for a healer to show up, everyone else is running back through the instance.  And some instances are not short.  It’s just rude.  It says that your time and energy is somehow more valuable then everyone else.  Now, if it happens occasionally, like there’s a wipe on a really frustrating boss and you just need to step away you can say, “I need to go afk a sec, could someone please rez me?”  And when I’m the healer, if we wipe and one person doesn’t release and run and doesn’t say anything other than ‘rez plz’ I will ignore them.  And even if they ask nicely the first time, the second time they are on their own.

Your virtual legs work just as well as mine do you lazy jerk!  Release and run back.  Stop being an ass.

Then there’s the other people–who as soon as they get into a group, before the say anything else they chime in with, “summons pls.”  They are apparently so busy with whatever they are doing that not only can they cannot take the time to make their way towards an instance, but they can’t even be bothered to fully type out ‘please’.  You know when it really stood out to me that there was a summoning problem was right after Wrath came out and people started running the Violet Hold.  Most of you know this, but for those that don’t, the Violet Hold is in Dalaran and there is no summoning stone.*  So right after Wrath was release people would ask for summons to Dalaran all the time, and some of them were very very adamant that there was a summoning stone and the rest of us were just being jerks.  Now, there are some understandable exceptions to this as well.  If we are going to Halls of Lightning or something and 4 of the 5 people are in Northrend and the 5th person is in the Shimmering Flats, it may make more sense to summon that last person.  But I would still prefer that they make a token effort or at least type a full sentence with complete words.  Something like, “hey since I’m stuck aaaaaaall the way down in Shimmering Flats and my hearthstone is on cooldown, would you mind summoning me?”  The group might chuckle a bit, but really they aren’t laughing at you.  They are laughing because they are surprised by your etiquette and all the times in the past all they’ve gotten is “summons pls”.

 

“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]“

~Fizz

*Can you imagine the abuse if there were a summoning stone in Dalaran?  Oh, your hearth’s on cooldown? No problem, just group up with a few people and get summoned to Dalaran.  You think the lag is bad now? Hoo-boy I don’t even want to think about what it would be like if there was a stone in Dalaran.

So anyway….

I haven’t been tanking much lately.  Like at all.  Well, I’ve been running the Headless Horseman every day to get that damn pet and helmet (just got it! yay!) to drop, but that doesn’t really count.  No, the last run I actually remember going on was Heroic Trial of the Champion, sometime in the beginning of September (just after my trouble with Arthas).  So it’s been a bit.  Here’s what went happened (hmmm, suddenly I feel a little like Monk):

I have always been very self conscious about tanking.  Well, in PuGs anyway.  I know I’m a good tank, probably better than most simply based on my awareness of the rest of the group (hmm, you seem to be out of mana…maybe I’ll stop for a sec).  And when I run with guildies or friends I’m always confident and sure of myself.  But many times when I get into a PuG I just freeze up a little and become much more susceptible to criticism.  This is especially true when I get with groups where I know people have run Ulduar.  Whether they say anything or not, I tend to project my own assumptions that since they have run Ulduar they are running with better tanks, more experienced tanks, [insert I'm not good enough statement] tanks.  Most of the time people are pleasant about things and just want to get the run done.  But if anything goes wrong, if they don’t immediately blame the healer, they blame the tank.  Having played both, there is a distinct difference in the criticism.  When I am healing and screw up, if the blame is placed on me typically all that is said is, “Nice heals” (said snarky), or “Next time, heal me”, or “Dude, why the #%!@ did you let me die?”, etc.  And it usually ends there.  But when I get criticized as a tank the comments are much more…thorough. “Dude pay attention.” “Keep them off me.” “I don’t think your gear is good enough for this.” “Are you even def capped?” “Do you even know the proper rotations?” “You don’t know these fights do you?” “What, did you just turn level 80?”

Well anyway, I was in a PuG for heroic ToC.  I had run regular ToC over and over and over again.  Not only that, I had run it almost every day since the patch came out.  I say this as a preface to establish that I had run it before, on heroic, and had been successful many times.  But on this particular day the run was not going well.  We were having trouble with the champions.  We had a warrior, rogue, shaman combo (which in my opinion is the hardest combo).  The rest of the group greatly outgeared me, so I was having trouble holding threat against their high dps.  We wiped once.  I told them the issue, and said, “if you just slow down a little with the dps, we’ll get past this.”  They scoffed a little.  We went again.  They didn’t slow down.  We wiped.  The first thing the healer said to me was, “You aren’t geared enough for this.”  And not in whisper, in party chat.  Apparently that left it open for the rest of the group to rail into me.  It was crazy.  It was as if they had decided to let out every nasty thing they had ever held back but had wanted to tell their tank.  I won’t repeat what they said, as most of it isn’t appropriate for PG audiences.  Or even PG-13 audiences.  At first I let it go, cause I’ve had people rail against me in the past.  But after each person got in a good shot and then they started in for another round, I started to defend myself.  That seemed to just draw out their venom even worse.

And then they booted me.

It really shook me up.  Normally I can shake these off after a few days.  But with my string of unsuccessful events tanking during that time just made it impossible to get past.  And combine that with the great success that I was having on my shaman–why should I bother to put up with tanking where everything is negative, unsuccessful, and unappreciated when I can go heal where I am valued, appreciated, and dare I say, needed?

I don’t know as if I’m really going anywhere with this.  I guess I just felt like getting this off my chest.  I’m not posting this to give some dramatic announcement that I’m retiring from tanking forever, or that I’m making my triumphant return to daily tanking.  Mostly I just feel like venting.

And you know, I feel much better now.  Thanks Internet, for listening.

“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]“

~Fizz

The New LFG

So wow.com has recently posted info about the new LFG interface. I’m at once filled with deep apprehension and cautious optimism.

Before you continue on past the cut I must leave a disclaimer.  Yes.  I KNOW this is all still on the PTR and is subject to change.  So don’t tell me that.  I’m not an idiot.  I’m still going to voice my opinions about it.

What a Long Strange Trip it Will Be

So tomorrow is the start of the Hallow’s End event.  By the end of it I will have my What a Long Strange Trip it’s Been achievement done and my Violet Proto-Drake.  It will technically be my second Proto-Drake mount, as my shaman got one from Culling of Stratholme.  But it will be the first one I can actually ride (cause my shaman still doesn’t have his epic flying).  I’m really looking forward to finally getting around to riding on a dragon.

I would have gotten the mount during Brewfest like most people, but last year during the Hallow’s End event I didn’t know about the Violet Proto-Drake, and that I would have to do all the achievements in the world events to get one.  And the reason I didn’t do the Hallow’s End achievements is because I absolutely hate Halloween.  I hate everything about it.  And so an in-game event related to it is the last thing I want to be a part of.  So it actually kills me a little inside knowing that I’m going to have to get my drake via Hallow’s End.

But that’s not what I’m talking about.

One step forward, two steps back (aka another Gnomer post…sort of)

So one of rumouncements (that’s rumor/announcements for those of you playing along at home) posted on WoW.com today was about the retaking of Gnomeregan.  Seeing as how this issue is near and dear to my heart I was super excited to see a semi-official source saying that we will be retaking Gnomerergan.  I looked at the image in the article and read the text in it, “For Gnomeregan! After five years of players purging Gnomeregan of its irradiated inhabitants, Gnomes may finally be able to reclaim their home as a new capital city for the Alliance…”

Seriously. Awesome.

However my joy was short lived.  First I had to bring myself back down to reality and remember that this was all hearsay and speculation anyway.  The second thing that I realized was I had missed the last part of the text in the quote on the image. “…until they mess it up again.”

Ok look.  I love gnomish engineering in all its quirks.  Sometimes the failures are more fun and exciting than the actual intent of the device (catastrophic poultryizer failure anyone?), and it’s these little quirks that make playing Gnomes fun.  We’re eccentric, clever, ingenious, and loyal.  We are not however, children, footballs, fools, or failures.

What I’m getting at I suppose is I am bothered by the continual lack of respect for gnomes, and to a somewhat lesser extent, the players who play them.  I’m not railing against the taunts and cries of the Horde.  They are the opposing side.  They are supposed to hate us.  I’m bothered by those who would call us allies.  Goodhearted teasing isn’t the problem.  I tease my friend who plays a Night Elf about being a dang dirty lazy hippie.  So when a few jokes about my stature or the reach of my arm comes my way, it doesn’t phase me.  It’s when people step in with the attitude (and sometimes the phrase), “Step aside shorty, let the real heroes take care of this.”  It shows a fundamental lack of faith and trust.  So when I read that we might get to retake Gnomeregan “until [we] mess it up again” I can’t help but feel the heavily implied (intended or not) disrespect.

Don’t write us off.

You may regret it.

“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]“

~Fizz

PS: Anyone who doesn’t think that the gnomes are heavily denigrated, just go read the comments in that post I mentioned.  Yes, many of the comments are cheers of huzzah, and there are an equal amount of people crying “If you give the Gnomes back their home, the Trolls should get theirs too.”  But if you really read the comments, you will pick up on an immense amount of flippant disregard for the Gnomes.

PPS: Just as a side note, for anyone wondering, yes I support the Trolls getting their own city (whether it be the Echo Isles or not).