One MoP change I'm actually anxious about...

[NiteFox]

So it's no secret that stat sticks are basically going the way of the dodo. Hunters will stick with ranged weapons, and all the melee classes will stick with their melee weapons. Of course, there's nothing stopping anyone wielding whatever they can even if it provides no combat abilities, but the first time I see a tank wielding a bow in a party I am so organising a vote kick for him just as I would for a hunter still equipped with their LFR Kiril (Yes, I'm fully aware of the hypocrisy). Okay, weapons are getting buffed or restatted so that the loss of a stat stick or stat gun is irrelevant so we're not going to miss their performance on our characters.

But...

Every time I look at my transmogged Hellreaver, I still think to myself "that looks awesome". I picked it up as a weapon skin for the black Earthfury set, but found it worked well with... Well, everything. Nothing says badass than a honking great big cleaver made of magma. Since transmogging was put into the game I've seen various characters use the same weapon but that doesn't seem to diminish how awesome it actually is. It's apparently being turned into a set of swords in Mists. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

It'll be going away soon, and that actually makes me sad. I've had some great-looking two-handers since I actually started playing seriously during TBC. Before then I just picked whatever weapon or weapons I had available; I didn't know much about statting hunters, and I thought that having a dual-wield ability meant that I had to dual-wield weapons to be effective. TBC started throwing some great two-handers that stuck to my back, always in view while my more important ranged weapon did all the work blocked from view at the front of my character.

I'm going to miss the time I spent in TBC clown gear swinging this awesome sword around. I still remember switching that for this. I'll miss the Fabulous Crusader, the Xbox-hugeness of the big blue chopper. I still remember all the pain I went through for the Sonic Spear and refarming it again for transmogging purposes. I had the Ice Barbed Spear and it's Icier cousin that I still use for transmogging. I'm fond of Vendorstrike and the odd action-toy stylings of the Runeblade of Demonstrable Power. I still have the Staff of Feral Furies, and wish I still had the Tower of the Mouldring Corpse. I may not wish to remember the number of times I've been meleezoned by my Kiril, but I'll still remember the joy I felt when I won the roll for it. And I'll still revel in the fact that there was one scythe that was actually statted for hunters rather than warlocks.

I can't remember the origin of a single ranged weapon in my collection except maybe Lohn'goron. I do appreciate that these two guns match the aesthetics of both Giantstalker sets perfectly (Beakblade for the original, True-Aim for the yellow recolour), but that was only a happy coincidence that I'd kept both.

Sorry for gushing, but I am going to miss strapping huge slabs of polearms, axes, and staves onto my back. No amount of stat increases on guns and scopes will make up for that.