Editorials December 2, 2010
Cataclysm!
Written by: Josh Thomas
Date: 12/01/2010
There’s a ton of World of Warcraft related information out there. My voice stands out because it comes from a wide survey of experience, and a lot of connection to different channels of chatter. My information comes almost entirely from guild chatter, reading patch notes, and having a historical knowledge of the game. I’m the kind of guy who’ll read everything, but I only rely on a few trusted sources. Basically, you won’t find a whole lot of jargon, links to long winded technical information about upcoming changes, or some variation of leetspeak intended to keep the noobs out. I’m here to break it down easy, convey what’s coming up next concisely, and give you a brief heads up on where your character will stand in a month or two.
It’s clear to anyone who has been paying attention that Warcraft Return of the Lich King was an act of love. Every texture, plot point, and quest was beautiful in the way that slavish obsession to the creation of a video game can be beautiful. The attention to detail and success of balance in Lich King begs some questions about the upcoming Cataclysm such as, is it going to be equal to or better than the awesomeness of Lich King? The answer is probably something like: it’s going to be a departure from Lich King in a lot of ways.
The Basic stuff you gotta know to play:
Cataclysm is an expansion that will be available for purchase through Battle.net, and will be live on the Warcraft servers on December 7, 2010. If you know you want to play, stop reading this and go buy the game, along with the other two expansions, Burning Crusade and Lich King right now, because they’ve got a sweet deal going on.
Cataclysm will be different from the other expansions in that there will be no addition of a wholly separate area, such as a broken world, or an island in the north that contains all the expansion features. Cataclysm is a revision of the old world of Azeroth, and will also introduce two new races, Goblins for the Horde, and Worgens for the Alliance. There will also be some rearranging of class-race relationships which will provide some Tauren Warrior entertainment, and the like.
As of about a week ago, many of the revisions to Vanilla Azeroth were implemented in patch 4.0.1a. Here’s a brief look at what they changed:
-Several old zones entirely changed, notably Darkshore, Loch Modan, and Westbrook.
-They substantially revised Stormwind and Orgrimmar, and they look incredible. Response from -many servers has been positive.
-They installed many of the new areas that will be used for either the new races, or for questing between 80-85
-They revised some of the classes.
-Deathwing is not out maurading yet.
-They kept the tone by and large of old Azeroth.
Cataclysm stands a very good chance of being awesome.
So far, Blizzard has done everything right with the release of Cataclysm, and that’s a good sign for players interested in WoW as a hobby. Because frankly, you won’t have a lot of fun if you only play an hour a week. Blizzard has honored the commitment so many people have made to this one game to the exclusion of all other up till this point with the release. They’ve drummed up expectations, release a lot of content, and made revisions that are very popular. The biggest thing they’ve done right is to release everything so far on time. That’s very unusual for such a massive endeavor, and as far as I am aware, has never happened with the other expansions. They’re getting pretty good at this.
The changes to the main cities are an indicator of how Cataclysm will be different, and what they are planning on emphasizing in Cata. Since the Burning Crusade, the pulsing heart of server activities has been outside of the two main old cities. In BC, it was Shattrath in Outlands, and in Lich King, it was in the floating mage city of Dalaran, in Northrend. When they finally released Lich King, Shattrath permanently emptied. The same thing is likely to happen when Cata is released. They’ve already significantly altered the utility of Dalaran. From the revisions they made, you’d think they assume that Stormwind and Orgrimmar are going to be the new homes for everyone. And yet the questing areas are going to be relatively far away.
They’ve addressed the travel issue in a couple of significant ways. You’ll be able to fly in Azeroth as soon as you save up the money. Right now, most people seem to think that the total cost for Epic Flight in Azeroth will remain the same, at 5000g. They will also have a new level of flying, 310% speed, which will also cost 5000g. This is not a bad thing. Many people have been complaining that it’s possible to make a whole lot of gold very fast through the use of the daily quests, and material farming. Inflation has been a problem on several servers. The fact there’s a 10,000g gold sink when you hit cap can’t hurt that situation.
More to come on this subject after Dec. 7.