I think you overestimate the community...
And I think you underestimate them. The community can be jackface retarded, but changes like opening roles are one of the few things I literally see the community lose their shit over
in a good way. When druids and paladins were given the ability to be viable tanks, there was nothing but praise. People like getting new stuff, they only complain when they lose what they have. Taking away the talent system as we know it? BOO! Giving warlocks the ability to tank? YEAAAHHHH! They never asked for warlock tanks, but having them is exciting to players.
Paladins and druids could always tank, just not well. They didn't change the class to make it fit another role. I know you'll be able to find lore examples to fit any class combo you want, and I'm sure they'll make it up if there isn't. It just changes the feel of the game. I think that's why I lost interest in the game. There's not a whole lot of "Wow!" left in the game. The world doesn't feel big anymore, and the classes and factions don't really feel unique any more. It's like anything else. If you make it bland, obviously more people will like it. It loses what makes it great though.
I don't agree with paladins and druids always being able to tank. Yes, they had a spec that said it was a tank, but the whole game back in vanilla and going into BC was balanced around the idea of making warriors the only "real" tank. You couldn't tank at all on paladins or druids outside of world group quests. That only started to change in BC, when they started the process to make them more viable, and even then it was never finished until WOTLK. I remember attempting often to tank on my own blood elf paladin after the process started, and no one wanted me because the viability was so low. The best I could get was the rare Normal dungeon runs, never a heroic.
As for the second part of the paragraph, we need to change the feel of the game on some level, at least every expansion. This game came out in 2004, it is over 7 years old and will not have that "WoW!" factor, it's just not possible to expect that. If the game does not change in some form, to mix up the processes and alter the status-quo, it will crash and burn. As much as people like to wear rose-tinted goggles about vanilla or BC, everyone I talk with agrees that if either of those releases/expansions attempted to exist in the modern day, they would crash. Hell, Cata was an attempt to "recapture" some of what people had in BC, and it lost them nearly 2 million players.
I think in the end, your biggest issue is not changing the classes or giving them more options, the issue you have is the game itself does not interest you anymore and the alterations would be such a drastic step away from your memories. You want to feel like it's the same game you loved, but the more changes that happen the more distant you feel from it. I know with some people it can be hard to adapt.
I'm not saying we should go back to the way it was in Vanilla, that just wasn't fun for many people. There is the danger of taking it too far though. That's what it feels like they're doing.
I disagree. There is such a thing as "too far" but that, to me, would to to remove all variance entirely. If they made it so every race could be every class, and ever class could be every spec, that would be going over the line, but no one is asking for that. All the people that are crapping their pants in excitement over warlock tanking are not sitting there going "well why can't we heal too?", which seems to be what you think the next natural question is going to be on the process. It's not, not for us that play anyways.
Will it cause problems? Other than a temporary spike in horrible lock tanks, probably not. It's good that they're willing to trow out conventions and try new things. If I can get my lazy bum of a friend to send me a scroll I'll probably give it another try.
I can always send you a scroll if you feel like it, but I recommend at least waiting till MoP considering how you feel about the game right now. Cata was a bit of a failure to most players due to over-tuned difficult and a few shoddy systems that are being corrected, and while it's better then it was at the beginning, you would be coming into a game that sometime later this year is going to drastically change. Talents will be completely redesigned, end game mechanics expanded, class specs better condensed, leveling altered (no more trainers), etc.. Just hit me up though if you want to give it a go anyways, a free 80 can't hurt.
