I'm concerned that the guides will disappear. For example I frequently look up the guide for lockpicking on the rogue forum to recommend to guildies where to go for lockpicking at their skill level. Are we losing these guides too?

well i have to say I'm am gonna miss those retarded getting shot down for crying in the warlock forums, lol. But i think this is a good idea, although it is a small menial change overall if you ask me. IDK why this would be a big deal for anyone

This is great. Now people can trade perspectives instead of wallowing in each others misery.

I personally think it's a very bad idea and I may be a bit sentimental, but each class forum has its own culture. It's sad this happen. Why do I have to sift through a thousand different topics just to find my own class's topics? It decreases efficiency and readability.

Let me see if I have the concept of the artical as writen straight. Blizzard is saying that instead of a class forum where the members of a class talk to each other about there class, where we exchange Ideas on our class and info that is of use to that class blizzard is saying that a Farral Druid is going to advise a Warrior or Pally about Tanking....hummm That arguement makes about as much sense as telling us that those of us who have played for over 2 years and read every artical we can find about WoW that we don't know our lore so we are going to waste 4 of your days to teach it to you...oh and theres no choice here again...hummmmm. On the other hand if blizz makes these changes as sub-catagorys of class forums that would be a decent Idea. I personaly feel that the discription of what is a Main Tank, an Off Tank and a main assist is good enough for general tanking discussion then let the classes disscuss how to implament it for themselves. This Form/type of break-down would also work for other classes as well IMO. But then who are we ...We are just the players that pay to play a game and the developers are not in reality listen to us unless we agree with them. Well I'm getting off this treadmill. I'll investigate something like guild wars and be done with blizzard at least till thet come to their collective senses.

Well, I never used the forums too much, but this appears to be part of an overall trend to less quality and less diversity. It sure looks to me like Blizz is making the migration from quality services and products to self serving profit generating, crass commercialism. When you look at the quality of the annimation from the original WOW compared to the BC stuff, while colorfull, BC lacks the detail and texture of the old world content. Not that all introduced changes have been lacking, but the overall feel of the game has been cheapened. So, the move to eliminate the class and race system and introduce a three tiered toon play style (and thus forums format), appears to be a way of eliminating the salaries of as many developers, artists and programers as possible. Furthermore, what's wrong with having certain classes being "overpowered" compaired to others? Some of us, may actually enjoy taking on the challenge of a more "handicapped" character, as opposed to the impatient players who just want to be the first to level to 80. It would be like having the choice to play on a more difficult setting. For me the joy is in the challenge, the journey and the experience, not in being the first to get to "the end" and I for one value quality and am willing to pay a little more for it (otherwise you can always play runescape). Reducing the forums to three general threads is just going to make us have to look through even more junk posts just to find something usefull. We all know, its just gonne get filled by posts bragging how such-and-such a class is way better and your an idiot for playing that other class.

No the way they are trying to manipulate and manage the game is changing the dynamics of it. What used to be fun is getting to be a chore, and that means I will eventually move on to something else i.e. pc or console games. The fact they buff and nerf classes all the time is another irritation I have with them and lumping these into 3 categories instaed of by class will just make the forums less attractive to me to visit to figure their endless stream of ?balacing acts? out. That in turn will make the game again less enjoyable and more of a chore.

Profoundly clueless. It's going to be one giant pissing contest. It's functionally pointless. If a Hunter is looking for information about his shot rotation, or how he should spec his pet, etc. he doesn't care what spells a Frost Mage uses; a Rogue doesn't give a **** how a Warlock DPSes; etc. The signal-to-noise ratio on the class forums is bad enough already -- now 90+% of post will not be relevant to your class. Another one of the functions of the forums is for people to vent complaints to a hopefully-sympathetic ear. People feel solidarity with their own class, and are far more sympathetic to their complaints. Moreover, not all classes are the same. Different personality profiles are attracted to difference class, and the resulting communities have a different feel. Having a raiding Mage and Druid, I know those communities are very different. That's a very cool thing, and Blizard'd going to flush that down the toilet.

Looks like the part about taking the Class Specific forums away has been taken out...now it just says that they're "Adding" the other Role forums. Good move I think as there needs to be easy to find discussion of both imo http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065381338&postId=120640764794&sid=1

Like just about everything else Blizzard has been doing recently, it can be described in one word: retarded.

I wonder if the Damage Dealing should be broken into two -- ranged and melee -- since they are often very different. Hawksy

some of it is a really good idea, but what I fear is the way the forums already are flooding with crap and your post disappears fast, it will be even worse now

By all means, bring in the new forums. Just don't get rid of the old ones. Let people interested in being a DPSer go to the damage dealing ones and ask for peoples opinions on which one is "best" so they can figure out which to roll. But then let them go to that specific class's forums to get more information. A warlock isn't going to know a Mage's rotation for DPSing. A Paladin isn't going to be able to tell a Priest how and when to use their spells. There are different classes for a reason. Stop trying to turn them all into one of three things with no differences. I rolled a priest because I liked Priest healing mechanics (...and I really didn't want to be a Tauren for a druid). As a priest I heal far differently than a Pally or Shaman might. I like things that way.

I think it is a pretty decent idea. Whenever I go to the class forums, now, it's usually filled with people sharing the perspectives of other classes, anyway. Warlocks in Mage forums, Druids in the Rogue forums, you get the idea. Not sure that breaking down into 3 forums alone is necessarily a great idea, but class forums always seemed a little short sighted. In order to fully grasp what is wrong with one class, you really do have to weigh against every other class in the game.

For constructive thoughts I use elitistjerks.com. Personally, I think Blizzard forums have lost the high end raiding community and nothing they do will improve it. Snide remarks from uncaring GM's have never helped. Some forums seldom if ever see Blizzard presence at all. This just means that a GM can say we posted here more often even if it was a nonsense post.

Horrible, HORRIBLE idea

I'm hoping it brings people to post about more constructive things than QQ posts. I guess it's the first step to making the live forums more like beta forums. More dev feedback and more posts with actual useful information is just what we needed.

Maybe they'll actually look at posts by rogues now, who knows?

lol, I'll just miss them. I probably won't lurk around the Damage Dealing forums as I did the Rogue forums.