Although Verigan's Fist is a drool-worthy weapon, it's not necessary in the way that the warlock's Succubus is. The creatures he or she can summon are part and parcel of the class--an extension of
their list of spells. The warlock can't "tank" like a melee fighter--he can't just sit their and soak up damage, so he needs someone to keep the enemy distracted from him while he whales away with powerful spells. He does a better job here than the mage can, but he needs a minion to add the extra damage that a mage can do on his
or her own. Still, when you put it in perspective, these issues beat the heck out of swinging at the same dumb mobs all day. It beats taking several minutes to recoup from each fight and wait for another mob to appear. Several minutes might not seem like a lot, but when most players do the MMO thing for several hours a day, those minutes add up fast. Since the retail release, I've spent around 100 hours of play leveling my warrior up to 30, and I spent a few more hours testing out a mage on both the Alliance and Horde sides. (My warrior is a member of the I Got Nuggets guild, created by the IGN editorial team and consisting of a few of us and the Insider members that play the game and asked to join up with us.) That's a lot of time that usually spent running or sitting down, but the quick, inexpensive and extensive transportation system and the tools to eliminate
downtime pack so much content into the experience that it puts the genre in the shade. DAOC was, when I played it, more of a graphical chat room than a game, because of all the time spent not actually playing. This may make for a strong community, but what's the reward when it's a community of people sitting and running in between the actual content phases?
WOW Gold was released in 2000 and is part of the WOW Hits series.