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We all have an emotional attachment to our toons to some degree, whether its because we can one shot a clothie or just because we have cute pigtails that make us giggle when we look at ourselves. The point is that we can’t help but get a little anxious about incoming patches and the myriad of changes that can entail. This is a list of things to do to help cope with that anxiety so the transition to 3.1 goes as smoothly and stress free as possible.

Where to start-
Our stress really stems from worrying about what’s going to happen. So… what are you worried about? The first thing you should do is figure out what it is that has you so concerned about the patch. Is your favorite attack or “oh shit” button changing? Are they moving stuff around in your talent trees? Is no longer going to work?? These are all important questions given that many of the things we’ve taken for granted as being set to this point will be changing.

Once you’ve determined what it is that concerns you, figure out if you have any control over it and whether you should do anything about it. If your favorite attack just got bumped to a 51 pt talent from a 31 point talent, you can’t do anything about moving it back. If the damage bonus from an attack just got nerfed, there isn’t anything you can do about that either. If the icon for the Wintergrasp buff got changed, there isn’t anything you can do about it, so let all that stuff slide. For the other stuff that you DO have control over, like your spec, your gear and your rotations… YOU NEED A PLAN!!!

The third step to dealing with the strain of an incoming patch is to prepare yourself for the things you DO have control over. The first thing I would do is some research on what is successful on the PTR. Maybe there IS a viable dual wield spec out there for end game raiding. Next, if you have a toon on the PTR, go play it. See what’s available to you now that things have changed. Sometimes it’s really easy to focus on the stuff that went from really cool to really crappy and to miss the stuff that may have improved for your class. Take some time to really look at the changes and see if they’re really all that bad. I got my panties in a bit of a wad because they took out the component for the heal over time removal from Plague Strike, then I remembered I hardly ever PvP so who cares? They increased the damage of the attack to make up for it! That’s a bummer for pvpers, but awesome for any DK that uses PS regularly in their rotation! My point here is that you have control over what spec you use to do what you do in game so find out what is going to work and what won’t before the patch rolls out. There are resources out there if you don’t have the time to get on the PTR to find things for yourself and lots of people are putting in alot of time there to help you out… so use those resources to get ready.

What’s next-
So now that you’ve done all you can do to prepare for the patch, for all the rest of that stuff you’re hanging on to, let it go. Find something to take your mind off of what you have no control over. Listen to music. Thrash the mobs in a low level isntance. Get a group to romp through Black Temple or Onyxia or Zul Gurub. You can even take it offline and (/shiver) work out or write in a journal… or blog. Hehe.

There is no need to worry about things in the patch because you have the power to get ready for them or you can’t do anything about them and worrying won’t change anything. Change is coming either way.

This week on The Rawrcast Show we welcome Darren Allarde, Director of Community relations for mygamemug.com and wowheadhunter.com! Together we will talk about the status of recruiting within World of Warcraft, how players deal with changing guilds, and successfully adapting game-related businesses to our WoW community.

Also on tap… our take on Blizzcast: Episode 8, review of this week’s April Fools hilarity, and a few amazing listener e-mails – one of which has entirely changed my viewpoint on Blizzard’s new add-on policy.

All of this, along with the complete absence of any toilet humor! Needless to say, it is shaping up to be another fantastic show!