The next next item I'll focus on is monster AI and difficulty... In this respect Funcom has overdone it, leaving many monsters too powerful, but they have said that reducing the difficulty after launch is better than having to increase it. Unfortunately the monsters in the Shadowlands apparently did not undergo any final balancing. They are much too hard. Not because of their AI, but because of their stats and skills. Even the monsters that are deemed too easy by the game and thus appear gray (a sign they are easily killed), can quite easily wipe the floor with me. This is being worked on as I write and such balancing issues are usually taken care of quickly by the AO team. It remains to be seen what Funcom considers "Not overly hard, but not too easy either". Let's take a look at monster AI: most monsters roam the lands in groups and are social, which means they call for help from their brethren if they are attacked. This in itself is not a problem, but the fact that crowd control is virtually not functional in Shadowlands, makes surviving groups of monsters very tough.