Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) has uttered the words of relief for countless guilds and Casuals: “Attunement No More”.  The Cipher of Damnation by Gul’dan or the “Mutants No More” words uttered by the Scarlet Witch (Marvel Comics) didn’t have as much cowbell effect as Tigole’s words have caused to nearly nine millions Wow Players worldwide.

This is the smartest thing to go, specially if a new expansion pack is to be announced.  I leveled up a Blood Elf Paladin and I know how hard it is to find a group in Azeroth (the Old World).  I never got to find a group for Stratholme, Upper Blackrock, Lower Blackrock, Dire Maul, and far less Naxxramas or Ahn’Qiraj.  The Old World is a ghost town.

Once the next expansion hits the shelves, there won’t be as many guild runs in Outland.  Attunements will be a pain for any who levels up alt-characters.  I applaud the decision.  Specially for Casuals who wish they could at least try Kael’Thas, Lady Vashj and Illidan.

Tigole: “After a lot of thought and deliberation, we’ve decided to remove the attunement requirements to enter Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep: The Eye. While many of our attunements in the Burning Crusade have been good progression checks, a few of the attunements have turned out to cause unnecessary stress on guilds either doing the content or attempting to do the content. With Black Temple and Battle for Mount Hyjal thriving, we want to encourage (rather than prevent) new guilds and raid groups to attempt Serpentshrine and TK. We are going to leave the current attunement quests in the game so that players can still engage in the challenge and the lore of those quests should they choose to. At a later point, we are considering adding a final reward step to those quests as well (that way those who have already completed them would not miss out on a *new* reward).

We’re listening to feedback from you guys constantly and your opinions are important to us. We want this game to be the best possible MMO experience for our players.

Enjoy Serpentshrine and Tempest Keep =)

(Please note: This change will go live later today—it’s not yet active)”

Thanks for the heads up, Wddg