I'm leveling as prot. I want to play warrior how it should be played: tanking dungeons and smashing heads with my shield. I'm solo self found, so it's a bit tough & I've fallen behind a few levels. I enjoy being able to play with my wife's mage. I thought playing together would bring us closer.

She met a friend while leveling in higher level zones. He only plays DPS warrior. She keeps insisting he groups with us. I can hear her laughing at the stuff he whispers to her while we're dungeoning. He was able to level more quickly than me because he kept getting the best 2h weapon he could find and killing mobs. It's especially annoying because he constantly pulls mobs off of me. I tell him to wait for threat, but he says stuff like "the honeybadger pulls when he wants!" and just uses the rage from their attacks to do even more damage. He constantly talks about his Tesla and goes "Mind if I roll NEED" in a goblin voice whenever tank gear drops.

After we do dungeons together, my wife will often go in a private "DPS only" call with him to compare their meters. Sometimes she will stay in that call for an hour or more. She locks her door while she's in it. I baked cookies for us and tried to share them. She told me to just slide them under the door one by one. I felt pathetic doing it.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can catch up in leveling? I want to be high enough level to not worry about this stuff anymore.

He was ganking levelers for well over 30min, corpse camping. I first tried to kill him 1v1 and lost, my friend showed up in stealth and once the rogue opened on me the two of us made easy work of him. The irony of his comment is peak WoW

First time classic player coming from retail. Wife asked me to watch a film. Told her I’m just going to run a dungeon first (she expects 45 min retail dungeon time)

Fast forward 3 hours later, dungeons finally done, wife’s gone to bed in a mood with me, backs in agony, wrist feels like it’s got carpal tunnel, headache, thirsty, pretty sure I pissed myself a little

And the worst of all.. I didn’t finish 2 of the quests so I’ve got to run it again

Yet somehow I’m having an absolute blast.. god I really didn’t realise how much I missed mmos being grindy, the rewards feel so much sweeter

Well, since the wife’s already gone to bed, back to levelling I go!

Look. I know. I know how this must look, and how it must feel to all of you – especially you mages out there. I get it. I’ve wrestled with this, with the meaning of no changes, with the sanctity of the 20-year-old balance handed down to us by Blizzard. But here we are. And, my friends, I am tired.

The game that lives in our hearts as it did in our late-night LAN sessions and after-school marathons, has reached a tipping point. It’s not the mages’ fault, not as individuals. But as a force of nature within WoW Classic, they’ve become... dare I say it... unmanageable.

The botting. The gold farming. The unending boost advertisements that make Zul’Farrak and Maraudon sound like used car-lots. The portal spam in every major city. The way they rake in gold and super-rare world drops like it’s a sponsored stream. The way that they dominate every single aspect of both PvP and PvE. It’s like the class wasn’t designed for Azeroth—but instead to rule Azeroth. And at this point, they don’t just feel like a class anymore. They feel like sinister mini-GM:s, manipulating the game’s ecosystem to their arcane whims.

So, I snapped. I’m sorry, but I snapped.

And that’s why I’ve made something. An addon. It’s called MageAway and silences mages for you. Wherever you need it most.

Want to mute their chatter in Zul’Farrak? Done. Sick of them hustling portals in Trade like they’re running Azeroth’s sketchiest Uber knockoff? Consider it obliterated. Want to go full scorched-earth and globally mute every mage whether they're on your friends list or not? Say less fam.

I haven't dared release it yet, because chances are you'll love it. The serenity, man... I am already working on features to automatically decline party invites, and instantly open Trade with every mage in your close vicinity.

I know this might seem extreme. And that parallels can be drawn to... fascist regimes. I know. I’ve heard the arguments: “They’re just a class!” “Don’t hate the player, hate the game!” But someone had to take a stand. Azeroth isn’t big enough for the rest of us with the sheer, unrelenting chaos of unchecked mage privilege. And if Blizzard won’t do something, I will. MageAway isn’t just an addon; it’s a revolution, and a way of life.

It’s dramatic. It’s ridiculous. It’s completely unhinged. But by the Light, it works.

EDIT: I actually got a “Reddit Cares” message after this, so to whoever reported me: rest assured, I’m fine.

I watch clips of some of these "WoW streamers" and I can barely even tell what's happening. I'm pretty sure this one guy's UI included a live tracker of the Dow Jones exchange. The visual clutter is horrendous, and then you guys will have the absolute NERVE to be like "my UI is so clean and sleek" tf it is, my brother your screen is more UI than gameplay at this point.

Default UI for LIFE, only addon I use is for enemy cast bars + questie.

2 hours of killing the bots in blasted lands and now he got counter reported and a 6 month ban for botting???? is blasted lands just completely off limits to real players on the new pvp server? It feels like we’re supposed to ignore the bots and buy gold and that is just sad. Please blizzard we are begging you to step up and stop the botters mass reporting

Edit: I didn’t ask for an unban or write the name of the person banned, I merely want to have a conversation about the problem and every response so far is shitting on me, awesome

EDIT: UPDATE ON THE BLACK LOTUS CRISIS: https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/s/f0Qy3Rjbkz

Well, gentlemen, the inevitable correction has arrived. Blizzard finally caved to months of retail investor complaints on Reddit and stealth-patched Black Lotus spawn rates overnight. The result? Complete market collapse.

Fortunately, I was already positioned accordingly. I went short 21 Black Lotus contracts at a 160g strike, and let’s just say, I’m deep in the money. Big shoutout to the Goblin Clearinghouse in Gadgetzan for ensuring counterparty settlement.

On the other side of this trade? Your classic long-only bagholders, mostly Orc warriors and gnome mages who levered up on Lotus inventories under the assumption that “it only goes up.” Many of them were fully exposed, no stop losses, max long on an illiquid asset, and now they’re panic selling into a bidless market. Some poor soul from the insider trading ring “Ironforge Hustlers” was so convinced of continued scarcity that he ignored all external risks—turns out, his “fundamentals” didn’t account for Blizzard’s central bank intervention.

For months, Reddit’s casual investor class (aka dadgamers) had been lobbying hard for increased Lotus supply, arguing that flask costs were artificially inflated and suppressing raid performance. The thesis wasn’t wrong—auction house data from Kalimdor strongly suggested coordinated price-fixing by offshore farming operations, leading to unnatural price action. But few expected Blizzard to step in with a nuclear option, buffing spawn rates overnight with zero warning. Total policy shock.

And just to add insult to injury, it’s now becoming clear that Black Lotus was never the AAA-rated security the Booty Bay rating houses claimed—it was BB junk all along, propped up by artificial scarcity controlled by the CLC (Chinese Lotus Cartel).

And now? Absolute capitulation. Prices are in freefall, liquidity is evaporating, and anyone who was overleveraged is getting margin called into oblivion. I just picked up a guild bank tab’s worth of Lotus for the cost of a single flask last week. Meanwhile, my Zugzug Orc Warrior counterpart? Forced to liquidate his Thunderfury mats to cover losses. Classic.

Moral of the story? Never underestimate regulatory risk. And always hedge your alchemical exposure.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to reallocate capital into Scarab Lord futures before Blizzard decides to pump Silithid spawn rates next.

Stay solvent, stay ruthless.

Idk man, I’m having fun shield slammin.

Nothing like a "thorough review of the evidence" wtf blizz. Unjustifiable

Well, well, well. Would you look at that? Three weeks ago, Blizzard caved to the tears of filthy casuals on reddit and printed Lotus harder than Jerome Powell on a bender. Prices flash-crashed to 80g, and the usual smooth-brained, weak-handed, zero-due diligence retail tourist panic-dumped their entire stockpile, convinced “Lotus is dead, bro.”

And now? We’re back to 170g. If you sold at the bottom, you didn’t just lose gold—you straight up gave it to me. Let’s save the AH fee next time.

This wasn’t a market correction. This was a full-scale, no-prisoners, hostile takeover of your guild bank.

Blizzard thought they were executing big-brain macroeconomic policy to make flasking “fair” and enabling every deadbeat Costco Headset dadgamer parse +90. Instead, they handed the big boys a free stimulus check.

1️⃣ Casuals panic-sold at 80g. No hedge, no risk management, just pure maladaptive financial instincts.

2️⃣ Cartels (and me) stepped in like a distressed asset fund. We saw your paper hands, we bought, we laughed.

3️⃣ Supply dried up instantly. The CLC (Chinese Lotus Cartel) pivoted, their bots adjusted, and suddenly? No more cheap Lotus.

4️⃣ Full retrace to 170g. And now the same bagholders who sold at 80g are FOMO-buying back in at double.

I personally max-leveraged a long position at the bottom, and let’s just say, I am now so disgustingly rich I need a seventh bank alt.

WHO PRINTED, WHO GOT SENT BACK TO THE CHARACTER CREATION SCREEN?

🏆 WINNERS: - Me. My Lotus calls at an 85g strike are so deep in the money and I’m now as rich as a GL skimming the top of your weekly GDKP raid. - Gold swipers. Market conditions means nothing when your primary financial resources are your wife’s credit card (since yours got cancelled - a natural consequence of being “between jobs” for 5 months)

🤡 LOSERS: - You. If you panic sold at 80g, congratulations: your gold is now my gold. - Your GL. Who sold off all your guild bank’s Lotus at 80g and now has the entire guild margin called back to 40-manning Hogger for the hopes of a level 7 Green BOE, since no one in the guild can parse above 50 without flasks - Blizzard’s credibility. This was their Lehman moment. A failed intervention that only pumped my bags.

WHAT’S NEXT?

With Blackwing Lair launching in two weeks, the market is rotating out of raw herbs and into high-demand consumables. The real autists are 2 months too late YOLOing into Shadow Protection Potions, buying my stock at a 450% premium. Meanwhile, I’m moving capital into Elementium Bars swaps, because Thunderfury production is about to go vertical.📈

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a monopoly to expand.

Stay solvent, stay predatory. 🚀.

Even though I can't play, I hope everyone is having a blast making new friends and memories.