Changes to Mining

From the current patch notes:

Mining

• Mining veins and deposits no longer require multiple hits to receive all the ore. Players will receive around the same amount of ore, stone, and gems they would have received from multiple hits.

I am not a fan of this.

At first glance it is just more of Blizzard's current trend of homogenizing everything in the game. I understand that there were some complaints:

"Why do I have to spend 2-10 times as long at a mineral vein than a flower?"

The quick answer would be that mining is a more physical process than picking flowers.

All "reality" issues of this fantasy game aside, I have to point out some things from perspective.

Before I bought my epic flier, it was a chore to mine. It was painful to watch people drop from the sky and tag "my" vein while I was still trying to kill the mine's "body guard(s). I could not fly past them, but at least I was not racing with the thieves either. I was happy to remind myself that his epic flier was taking him far away from me. I would be able to pick up ore that might spawn behind him.

The multiple strikes allowed me a chance to retake "my" vein on occasion. It also slowed the epic flying thieves just a little so that they didn't just swoosh up behind me quite as quickly.

When I finally did get my epic flier, I sometimes found myself racing with other miners. The multiple strikes ensured that we would at least be held up long enough to allow the other miner to get some ore along the same path.

The above change however means that mining will be far more competitive than it already is. Near instant ore gathering will only allow the scrupulous to be more so. Are you fighting the mob guarding the ore? Awesome! Now I can snatch it up in a single strike then scoot on over to the next 2-4 veins while you are still fighting.

Come on, Blizzard. You've already made the game faster than it needs to be for your near 12 million players. You've homogenized far too much. Now you're attempts to speed up the game further are only making things more difficult.

Stop "fixing" things that aren't broken.