Hi there nice to meet you ^_^

[Hatson]

I find nails dragging across the blackboard far more appealing then that. Just never got into it, I suppose. Well, there are some exceptions, but I can't say I enjoy the category as a whole. But if we're throwing some music around, here's a couple neat little tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWz0qVvBZ0 - Cast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUiOylPbfV0 - Penta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exbmO1uDMbM - SBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezCrOdC_PxY - Imagine Dragons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D2FPzS2sJo - Stand Behind

The amount of generic pop music there as well made me shudder real bad. I think I'll stick to my stuff for now..
But hey, everyone has different tastes.

Well, if you're thinking PvE, I don't see why you couldn't go Retribution. I recall there was some sort of utility to having 1 in every raid. Either it was some specced Pally Buff or a Debuff or something along those lines. I do recall each raid having 1 RetriPal/EnhaSham however. Although it is quite boring to play due to lack of Divine Storm, Crusader Strike and how poorly the Judgments and Seals interacted with each other in Vanilla.

As mentioned above by Shaggoth, Nightfall is a must have item on at least one raid member in early raiding at least. Its' debuff is a worthy dps boost for the raid as a whole.
Besides being Nightfall whores, a shaman and a paladin is always beneficial to have for buffs. Put the Enhancement with Nightfall into the highest dps melee group as he will have improved Str/WF totems to dramatically increase the dps of those melee party members.
And Paladins just have too much utility to not like in your raid, be it retri or not. At least having 1 retri/enhancement can be very beneficial in more ways than just Nightfall. Hybrid classes are naturally supportive with their abilities.

And I'd argue it's not necessarily boring. It's not like throwing the same 2 spells over and over is any more fun as a caster. As an enhancement, it was simple, but relaxing, imo.
1) Be hit capped and auto attack
2) Max out crit % for flurry proc to get faster attack speed = more nightfall procs = happy casters
3) Cast Stormstrike on every CD for more WF / HoJ procs = more hits = more nightfall procs
4) Keep totems needed up all times for your party members
5) Cast frost shock (edit: cast Earth shock instead ofc if Stormstrike is on the target) if you can afford the mana through the boss fight, mostly to try and proc elemental devastation which = more crit % = more flurry = more nightfall procs
6) Bonus pro tip: If you feel you won't have enough mana in the long run for shocking constantly, you can cast Rank 1 Earth Shocks instead (16 mana cost with talent iirc) to try and proc Elemental Devastation. The dmg is not the only reason for shocks. (It's also the cheapest and lowest CD spell interruption spell in Vanilla, irrc)

Oh, and, maybe go with Iron Counterweight on the Nightfall. Even though it might lower your dps over other enchants, it will increase haste by 20 (2% @ lvl 60), so... More nightfall procs.

I guess in the end it's still all about the Nightfall procs, eh?
Still, an easy job to do to help out your raid and progress in raiding and gear as an Enhancement.

[Shaggoth]

5) Cast frost shock if you can afford the mana through the boss fight, mostly to try and proc elemental devastation which = more crit % = more flurry = more nightfall procs

Sure about the frost shocks ? From what I remember, you get extra aggro (ok, which is not such a serious thing since your dps is kinda low, you won't have that much aggro anyway) and the stormstrike increase your nature spell effectiveness by 20%. Unless you want to let an elem drood get it, I think you should go for the earth shock.
From what I remember, the elem droods aren't worth in raid as a group with a drood and 4 mages will still have less dps than 5 mages but it might be unnacurate from me, I never tried.

[Hatson]

5) Cast frost shock if you can afford the mana through the boss fight, mostly to try and proc elemental devastation which = more crit % = more flurry = more nightfall procs

Sure about the frost shocks ? From what I remember, you get extra aggro (ok, which is not such a serious thing since your dps is kinda low, you won't have that much aggro anyway) and the stormstrike increase your nature spell effectiveness by 20%. Unless you want to let an elem drood get it, I think you should go for the earth shock.
From what I remember, the elem droods aren't worth in raid as a group with a drood and 4 mages will still have less dps than 5 mages but it might be unnacurate from me, I never tried.

You're absolutely right, Shaggoth. I should've clarified and corrected myself in the post that of course you want to cast a max rank Earth Shock if Stormstrike is on the target if you can afford the mana. It's just that Stormstrike has a 20 second cooldown (very long in Vanilla), and the debuff duration is 12. So there are always some Frost Shocks involved if you're going for max dps with mana pots and such.
But yes, Earth Shock does do noticeably increased dmg over any other shocks when Stormstrike is on the target.

Also no, the increased threat from Frost Shock is never an issue unless except maybe on trash mobs if you open up with a WF proc -> Frost shock - That does a lot of burst dmg and threat. In fact I have died many times to the stone charger guys (I forget their names) in MC due to my first swing being a massive WF proc / crits. Even after waiting patiently for threat much longer than the other dps, haha.

[Haeryung]

My orginal first post is back where I typed my presentation in this thread. Feel free to check it out. It got removed by misstake before .

[Letalis]

I find nails dragging across the blackboard far more appealing then that. Just never got into it, I suppose. Well, there are some exceptions, but I can't say I enjoy the category as a whole. But if we're throwing some music around, here's a couple neat little tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWz0qVvBZ0 - Cast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUiOylPbfV0 - Penta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exbmO1uDMbM - SBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezCrOdC_PxY - Imagine Dragons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D2FPzS2sJo - Stand Behind

Also; A little more on the subject - Feels like the Horde is somewhat outnumbered as of now. Judging from the forum posts thus far, I mean. Not unexpected, since Alliance usually is the preferred choice for PvE'rs, at least PreBC.

Let

Well always fun to see people have different music taste. The only song I really feelt I even cold listen too are the first and last song of the songs you linked.

When its comes to alliance or horde. I hope the server will be populated so that both sides have enough people at least to play the game balanced and finding groups. Even thou they might not be 50/50.

I find the alliance characters so ugly haha.

Happy to see you enjoyed some of it! Felt it was a good mix of randomness to throw up here.

The faction balance, in my estimation, based on personal experience, will end up being somewhere around 40%~/60%~. One faction always tends to have slightly more people then the other, rarely by much, but the differential is always there.

As for Alliance characters: I'd agree. Alliance only has 2 amazing races; Dwarves and Night Elves. Dwarves, while looking fairly goofy, are undeniable bad asses, everyone knows this to be true. As for Night Elves, well, aside from all the Lore reasons to be one, there's the fact that no one in the game wears gear better then they do. It is all very proportional and well put together. Although wearing no gear they look fairly wrong due to somewhat over-sized hands.

My main has always been a Male Nelf since late 2004, except for 2 years during WoTLK when he was an Orc. The only downfall, if any, that a Male Nelf has, is the 2h/casting animations. Animations really aren't the Nelf's strong suit. But overall look? Godlike. No other race does the Tiers justice quite like a Night Elf does. And when I say that, I mean that the armor you're wearing is the focus of the look of your character. Not any outstanding characteristics, except for the ears, but they're so small you hardly notice them. The emphasis of the look is always on the gear itself, and I like that, I want to see all that I've worked for in full glory.

Let

[Shaggoth]

As for Alliance characters: I'd agree. Alliance only has 2 amazing races; Dwarves and Night Elves. Dwarves, while looking fairly goofy, are undeniable bad asses, everyone knows this to be true. As for Night Elves, well, aside from all the Lore reasons to be one, there's the fact that no one in the game wears gear better then they do. It is all very proportional and well put together. Although wearing no gear they look fairly wrong due to somewhat over-sized hands.

My main has always been a Male Nelf since late 2004, except for 2 years during WoTLK when he was an Orc. The only downfall, if any, that a Male Nelf has, is the 2h/casting animations. Animations really aren't the Nelf's strong suit. But overall look? Godlike. No other race does the Tiers justice quite like a Night Elf does. And when I say that, I mean that the armor you're wearing is the focus of the look of your character. Not any outstanding characteristics, except for the ears, but they're so small you hardly notice them. The emphasis of the look is always on the gear itself, and I like that, I want to see all that I've worked for in full glory.

Let

In my opinion, UD casters (warlocks/mages/priests), trolls shaman/hunter and tauren warriors are better regarding looks. The Alliance has that noble feeling in it, and if feel more comfortable with the Horde's savagery. (sad thing is all the orcs are ugly because of oversized shoulders and not having a straight back)

[Hatson]

I'd actually argue that.. and bare with me here, this might be an unknown region for many players... Undead females have some of the best animations in game. Their casting animations are pretty rad, which you've probably seen sometimes before, but have you seen their melee special attack animations?
Now those are freakin' awesome. They do flips like they're god damn Jak & Dexter or something. It's the most rad Heroic Strike animation ever.

Also, another animation I doubt many have ever seen: An Undead Male shooting a bow. - That's a really cool animation, it really brings out their attitude in it. Standing straight up with legs as close as they can and shoot like a robot, really rigid. It's a pretty neat animation you barely ever see.

sad thing is all the orcs are ugly because of oversized shoulders and not having a straight back

You're starting to sound like my father.. Jeez, get off my back!

[Haeryung]

I'd actually argue that.. and bare with me here, this might be an unknown region for many players... Undead females have some of the best animations in game. Their casting animations are pretty rad, which you've probably seen sometimes before, but have you seen their melee special attack animations?
Now those are freakin' awesome. They do flips like they're god damn Jak & Dexter or something. It's the most rad Heroic Strike animation ever.

Also, another animation I doubt many have ever seen: An Undead Male shooting a bow. - That's a really cool animation, it really brings out their attitude in it. Standing straight up with legs as close as they can and shoot like a robot, really rigid. It's a pretty neat animation you barely ever see.

Very nice points. I am going to check out horde animations a bit . Thanks for opening my eyes a bit.