“Changes Posted” means the same thing in WoW and the AF.

In the pilot world, if you hear your stan-eval guy (standardizations and evaluations office) tell you “Changes are posted” it means that the powers-at-be have updated something and officially changed the text in one of our volumes, and that we need to go review it and make sure our personal copies are updated as well. And, we need to incorporate those changes into our daily flying if they apply to us. Well, you can find the new priest changes posted (pre-Alpha OMG Cataclysm iz coming /rant time!) on many of the best priest blogs. I’m not a subject matter expert as much as I am a comparative analyst.

I just want to point out a fantastic parallel between WoW changes and expansions and my job as an AF pilot.

On almost a yearly basis the Air Force updates our “pubs,” the governing publications that have information on our aircraft, tactics, rules and regulations about flying. There are more volumes of official publications than you can possibly fathom, but each time something new comes out you can hear all the nerds talking about every inconsequential change. “Oh man, did you hear how they changed the procedure for an ITO on the H-model?” or “Dude, they are updating the Pen-Descent charts to be more in-line with our actual descent profile!” or “They changed the checklist response and now the engineer answers first when we call Oxygen!! OMGWTFBBQ”

Bottom line: WHO CARES. I’ve come to learn that changes to any institution always appear more abrupt and revolutionary than they ever are, because in WoW just as in the Air Force, there is always a natural process of balance and remodification.

We have a saying: “Resubmit in 30 days for further disapproval.”

I’m not being a pessimist, btw…that would be someone who assumes that the changes will not be good. I’m just pointing out a fantastic parallel…the attitude that most have about change is the same. “People innately fear that which they do not understand” and “people have an inappropriate sense of what is good and bad.”

My own opinion on the changes so far is: I love gaining passive benefits to the healing I already do. Most priests would agree in principle…we all stack spell power first, and even crit, haste, and mana regen are all innately PASSIVE bonuses to the job we’d do either way. So, I like the concepts of Chakra. Now, as far as adding a whole lot of new heals and spells…there is a principle that serves me really well from the military: KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid). Might sound dumb, but that simple principle is a valid foundation for most of our elite combat specialists and most of the truly great players in WoW. Like the rest of the blogs, as we find out more I’ll comment more!