NB.  This is actually a competition at the end of this blog article so I hope you all join in.

It started off as an innocent look at an interesting article over at Flavour Text regarding ponies, and in particular the My Little Pony Pony Creator and how it's ability to let you create your own pony translates into self created fan art and a self created digital identity.  This, of course, was was the result of a large twitter conversation amongst bloggers in which many many ponies were created based on their WoW characters.  Norm at Flavour Text hit a really interesting point; that between the set number of models in WoW and the fact that nearly everyone is wearing the same sort of gear it's easy to feel a bit like a clone hero and that often our own imagination has a far deeper visual image for our avatars.  Unfortunately, unless you're a good artist or enjoy writing fan fiction it can very very hard to convey how you view your character in your mind's eye into your gaming within WoW.

And so enter the Pony Creator...

EDIT: I should perhaps clarify that I am referring to the EU Mage Forums, not the US forums.  In fact, on my rare visits to the US forums the reverse seems to be true; ie. other classes are supporting the idea that mage damage is not great atm even in Arena and many of the roots are negate by the number of interrupts and dispells available in the game.  I have no idea whether this is because the US servers have a larger PvP player base and therefore more people actually know what they're talking about over there or whether it's just a general difference in mindsets between EU and US players.  Anyway, go look there - it's quite enlightening and kinda makes me wish I could post on their forums to say hi.

If I read one more post in the Mage forums about 'OMG MAGES R SO OP, NERF NAO' and I swear to the Loa I will not be responsible for my actions.  Everytime I see one of these threads I die a little inside and my eyes begin to bleed.  There are a lot of things that really bug me about this attitude towards Mages being posted up in the Blizzard class forums, so in a therapeutic rant I'm going to mention it here.  But I will also touch on posting in appropriate forums and why PvP class players should look at themselves and what they're doing before they start hijacking another class's forum to rant.

1)  All these complaints (and I mean literally all these complaints) come from the PvP community.  Now I'm not against PvP, I happen to enjoy it a great deal whether I'm winning or losing.  But let's be realistic here - World of Warcraft is, at its very heart, a PvE game.  Initially there were no battlegrounds, no arenas, no real items of PvP gear.  These things were added later to appease a small section of the player base.  That's cool and all but let's not get ahead of ourselves here; the vast majority of players subscribe for PvE content.  Major patches and expansion are all about PvE content.  Although there are a great many things I would like to see with regard to PvP (Alterac Valley not being a glorified dungeon run and some good old fashioned world PvP making a return), I would never suggest ruining PvE content for the sake of PvP but this is what most of these PvP whiners seem to want.

Mages in PvE are sort of mediocre at the moment, they're not bad - in fact some very good players are still extremely competitive in terms of DPS - but for many we're in the middle of the pile.  I have no problem with this as such, it inspires me to improve as much as I can, but when you combine this with PvE survivability and with other ranged DPS vastly outclassing us and not having the survivability issues well that's a little bit cheeky (I'm looking right at you Hunters).  But hey, we're all on the same team so meh.  So when some PvP comes crying on my class forum that Mages should be nerfed I get really annoyed.  Yes take the mediocre PvE ranged DPS class and nerf them because all that matters is your PvP team rating so you can wave your gigantuan epeen around.  GTFO you egregious little turd!

2) This is the MAGE CLASS FORUM!!!!  Take your Huntard or Warrior opinion elsewhere.  If you have a genuine, serious complaint about another class post it up in an appropriate forum.  I would suggest, oooo I don't know, maybe THE FUCKING PVP FORUM!!!!!!!1111!!!!!oneexclamationmark!

I go on the Mage forum to read up on my class, to find out about more resources; gear, enchant, gem and spell rotation optimisation.  So I get really pissed when I have to scroll through pages of your self-absorbed whining in my class forum.  DO I go to your class forum and complain about DK AMS? Or Hunter auto-shot?  Or the fact that a Warrior can eat us if they have Recklessness and decide to smack us about with Colossal Smash and Throw Down?  No I don't, I accept that there are some classes that I have to be wary of and adapt my strategy accordingly - I don't sit and bitch about it cos I'm not getting my own way in some other class's forum.

Spamming your unrelenting shite in the Mage forum is going to get you nowhere.

You hear that???  That noise gently drifting in the wind coming from far far away?  That's the world's smallest god damn violin playing just for you fella.  And guess what?  It's playing in your class forum so you best go listen to it there.

3) If you are going to disparage another class because you consider them OP, please at least be constructive if your post.  I have no problem (and actually enjoy) reading post that sensibly discusses class mechanics and where things can be improved, balanced or re-thought.  I'm not arrogant enough to believe that my PvP awesomeness prior to patch 4.0.6 was all down to me - I play Frost and I was aware that in terms of PvP it's a good class to play (btw that's not why I play it - I didn't play as Frost in Wrath and I only switched over in Cata because I like the play style).  I was not adversed to sensible posts about how to rebalance some of the issues with Frost in PvP.  Diminishing Returns, a shrinking of Ring of Frost, rebalancing Frostbolt and Ice Lance - none of this was a problem and I believe at least some of this came from sensible, well thought out and constructive posts made in the forum.

But you know what isn't constructive?  OMFG NERF MAGES NAO!!!  ust given the Blizzard development team some wonderful new insight into class balancing but you sir are clearly a moron. (wanna read the rest of this rant? click the title or the read more button).