The nerfbat smiles at us all, and all a man can do is smile back.

We're WoW players. We've been around a long time. We've seen Tier sets that pigeonhole hybrid classes into one (healing) role. We've seen shadow priests used as healers with no itemization until Blackwing Lair and beyond. We've seen all raiding mages forced to spec a certain way until BWL and beyond. We've seen a pally class where the supposedly strongest single target healer in the game only had two heals in their entire repertoire and a seal/judgement system that, while central to class mechanics, had nothing to do with them. We've seen druids forced into subpar healing roles, two entire trees more or less ridiculed. We've seen warlocks with subpar dps and nothing to be done about it. We've seen raids where if you wanted to tank, you rolled a warrior, end of story.

And still, people played the game. Those shadow priests, holy pallies, prot pallies, ret pallies, moonkins, feral druids, fire mages, fury warriors, destro locks, etc....soldiered on. And today, they have more options to play their toon the way they want to. You want to dps as a paladin? Fine, go to it. You have gear upgrades that actually give you stats you need, that are plate, not leather, not mail. You have a better, more tightly organized tree, making it easier for you to do what you do best. And you have raids that will actually take you as dps without having to be Esotarious, the god-paladin of Argent Dawn.

And still, so many classes complain about their supposed "inbalance" and the lack of love to their trees, to the point where it becomes a game-quitting decision. You all have no idea. You never had it this easy.

Priests, I know that as the only healing class forced to wear cloth, you're at a disadvantage when it comes to gear. Not only do all the other healers have the option to downgrade to cloth, but mages and warlocks and moonkins all want to roll on your shit. Yes, the itemization in Wrath sucks right now for you. I know that Circle of Healing is getting a cooldown soon, possibly making the Holy tree less desirable. Yes, I know that Rapture in the Disc tree is currently bugged so that it's a hard tree to play if you don't have the mana regen for it. Yes, I know that you cannot dispel poisons so a lot of heroic instances are hard for you to heal. Yes, I know that the complexity of the shadow rotation has increased, and that you might find yourself out-dpsed on the meters, at least until you hit 75 and then and start spamming Mind Sear to inflate your dps like all the other classes that have AOE. Yes, I know that Hymn of Hope is kind of stupid and that Dispersion doesn't seem like a worthy 51-point talent.

Is this enough to quit the game over?

Well, I don't know, you tell me. Are you the kind of person who only does something if it's easy?

Why don't you talk to holy pallies, who sat by and watched while ret got massively buffed, while gameplay for them stayed essentially the same (and let's not even get into the prot pallies that left the class in disgust because of the prot warrior buff. If you're a prot pally who thinks the spec is worthless now, then yes, you probably should quit, and good riddance). Or to resto druids, who throughout all of Burning Crusade dealt with their hots getting overriden in higher level raids, to the point where Nihilum's druid class leader complained that restos couldn't get a raid spot in Sunwell level content?

You have an entirely overhauled new tree designed to be an even better main tank healer than holy paladins, who have long since filled that role. Discipline is actually a worthwhile tree now! And shadow dps seems fine at level 80. Yes, it's complex. So is being a death knight. Does that mean it's any less rewarding to play? Shouldn't that make it more so?

There will always be a class that can do certain things better than you. You cannot do everything best, and if you can, you probably should be nerfed. Instead of despairing over the differences, and whining about them every chance you get, why don't you instead re-evaulate what you do have, and try to find ways to use them better?

Some people don't play their class because it's OP. They play them because they enjoy it, and they use skill to cover their weak areas, realizing that a scenario that may be difficult for them may be easier for someone else -- but that it works both ways. Blizzard is in a tuning stage right now and the round of nerfs and buffs will continue for a little while longer. If you wring your hands in despair and reach for the cancel account page every time they change something, or compare every little difference to what used to be and what others have, then maybe it's best that you quit, because frankly I worry about your mental stability.

I can understand leaving the game for other reasons -- it's not fun anymore, you're moving on, etc. But quitting because of a sense of inferiority is just silly. It's a game. It's not like life, where you're born with an identity and stuck with it forever. Make the best of what you have, reroll, or quit.

This goes for everyone, not just priests. Ret paladins, hunters -- you knew it was coming. I guess you'll actually have to be skilled and geared instead of just OP now. Isn't that a novel concept? Maybe you should feel what it's like to be a mage in Burning Crusade, knowing that past Karazhan you'll always be considered an inferior dps class. And we're still here. Well, some of us are. We stuck with it because we enjoyed playing it and we had faith in our ability to be of some service to the raid even if we can't sneak off with Number One on the charts all the time. And let's not even go into the PVP aspect of it...

Perhaps, someday, Blizzard will tune the game perfectly so that all classes are unique, yet equally viable in all situations. Until that day comes, get used to the roller coaster.