back to article World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

World of Warcraft actually bears more than a passing resemblance to it’s new - or old, depending on your perspective - villain Deathwing. Since its launch in 2004, it has trampled through the lives of millions, wreaking havock and destruction while altering the landscape of massively multiplayer online role-playing games forever …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    "I bring Pandamonium!"

    "OK, where are the pandas?"

    Glad to see I'm not the only one who's been waiting for Pandarin monks forever.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "I'm Horde through and through..."

    No.....you're not...You are a human being.

    Now...slowly...step awaaaay from the keyboard. That's it....we don't want you hurting yourself, or anyone else again now do we...

  3. BoldMan

    not new, just samy

    > altering the landscape of massively multiplayer online role-playing games forever

    Um no sorry, WoW just did the same as the others but more cartoony and with a bigger marketing budget. They took the best from EQ, Asharon's Call and DAOC and packaged it nicely. Nothing revolutionary, just the same old stuff with more marketing.

    1. Thomas 18
      Thumb Down

      or more finese

      Lets face it warcraft 2 was just Dune and C&C but perfected. And starcraft is warcraft 2 in space. I would say Blizzards success comes from perfecting an existing genre more than it does from advertising.

      1. Inachu
        Thumb Up

        THE TRUTH about WOW lore is

        The characters of WOW have been out since 1984.

        Back then it was a Japanese coin op game called "ASH THE LIGHT BRINGER"

        The videos of the game are on youtube.

        Have a nice day!

    2. Danny 14
      Thumb Up

      indeed

      isnt that the point though? Although not groundbreaking it HAS changed MMO's forever because it *worked*

      All the other MMOs had good ideas within their own sphere but also had glaring issues. WoW combined the best of all correctly.

      That being said, its not for me as I refuse to put so much time into a game.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Why am I secretly pleased......

    ....that I haven't got the first clue what the reviewer is talking about?

    1. TheRealRoland
      Happy

      Almost sounds like Goldmember...

      I am your 'Vashj'ir'...

  5. Venael

    Gear at level 85

    I'm not sure you should have 90% of your T10 gear left at level 85. Even if the quest greens/blues don't improve your stats that much, the stamina will certainly be needed. At level 85 as a rogue (if you're a hunter it will be similar) you should have around 95k health - this won't be the case if you keep your T10 stuff.

    That is going to really hurt when you start doing the dungeons.

    1. Kevin 6

      T10 at 85

      T10 should be ditched ASAP

      And if you wait til 85 to replace anything you are in for a world of hurt when you can not get in a single dungeon unless its a guild run seeing the Looking for group tool will basically say YOUR GEAR SUCKS TOO BAD when you click join.

      Only the new black rock dungeon, and the water zone normal dungeon are join able in T10 gear, and even then you are going to die FAST from the AOE hits (was in one yesterday and seen T10 people get 1 shot)

    2. Ammaross Danan
      Go

      Agreed

      The author must be an idiot thinking the extra 0.2% crit from keeping the ilvl264 gear as opposed to 305+ gear with way more stam and exp/hit rating was worthwhile. I found myself swapping out my T10/ICC25 gear by the time I left Hyjal. Deepholm 2nd-shard quest line gives a very nice 2-hander that beats anything prior. I think there's a few fail points for such oversights.

      The new environments and the like do make the day, as well as the difficulty. Welcome back CC-required trash pulls! And I think they learned a thing or two in WotLK about boss encounters and have put that complexity into heroic 5mans. Cheers all around.

      The main disappointment (for me at least) was with all the new race/class combos, Worgen could not be my two main classes: paladin and shaman. :(

  6. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    What?

    I'm guessing this review is written for those who already live and breath WoW, as I didn't understand a word of that.

    1. Bongwater
      Grenade

      Nice

      Good thing you read this review over a topic you (apparently) seemed interested in and then made that brilliant comment.

      give it a shot man, play like 1 hour a day and if it is boring you can always drop it for Skating With The Stars or The Al McAfee Dance Party.

  7. Andy 75
    Stop

    This is the required title

    The expansion in which they bring out panderans is the expansion they won't be able to sell in China. At all. Period. Remember that anything that involves pandas getting hurt is illegal in china.

    And as for keeping your gear.... people weren't looking too closely. Even if you had T10 from Lvl 25 heroics they are replaced before you hit 85 otherwise you are really gimping yourself. Your health will be really low and because the ratings decay pretty fast you will be performing a lot more poorly than you would be in new greens.

    Looks wise though the new stuff isn't too shiny yet but then it *is* levelling gear / greens.

    1. Thecowking
      Thumb Down

      I refute your argument thus

      Tekken.

      Warcraft 3: TFT

      Ranma 1/2

      None of these are illegal in China, this is a myth. I was there when it started I think, back on the original WoW forums.

      1. ratfox
        Thumb Down

        Second refutation

        Anyway, they would just have to change the colors to claim that these are bears, ordinary bears. After all, they already have replaced corpses by little crosses for China, so a palette swap is not going to be a big change.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WoW Addict Here

    Ok, I admit to being a World of Warcraft addict (hence my anonymous status), and have been since vanilla. I just thought I had to make my own comments..

    Regarding the graphics, yes, I agree the graphics update was long overdue, and worth the wait. I even updated my PC to be able to play it with everything graphical set to the highest level.

    Regarding the two new races, goblins are fun; that is true, however I've also found some pretty gnarly bugs with the goblin questchains. Mind you, having a 'pimpmobile' at level 4 was fun, until they took it away again. I also agree that the worgen startzone is very dark and creepy, but if you follow the lore, you realise it has to be. The worgen quests are simple, fun, and fast (I got to level15 in just a few hours by questing alone). Worgen get a top-hat, and in my opinion, to shapeshift into human form, put on the top hat along with a black tux, and roll-play the english gentleman... Yes, I know I'm a saddo.

    The level 85 cap, if I recall a 'blue post' on their forums, was because they didn't want to hit the level 100 cap with their next expansion, so they switched to 5 level increments, instead of 10. I do have to admit though that reaching level 85 from level 80 was trivial.

    The new instances rely more on personal skill than on your gear (gearscore), and your ability to work as team. This is a very good change imho.

    Overall, the game has become repetitive, just more "kill x of y", "kill even more x of y", "bring me the head of z!!", just like in a past xkcd comic. Overall, I don't think it was worth the £22.96 I paid for it from a major UK grocery chain starting with T, and I probably won't be as quick to buy any future expansions.

    1. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

      This is where they've got you by the balls...

      Personally I don't care for the levelling up experience. Maybe like yourself, I don't care for the "kill x gobos" or "bring y to z" or "find theta" quests. I don't care for bloody pve instances either.

      I just care about hosing the other guy.

      So yeah, I hate levelling up etc but it's gotta be done, for better gear and abilities so the xpac purchase in my case is a foregone conclusion - either that or quit wow. I did toy with both options seriously.

      Unfortunately, in my opinion, there is no other MMO just out there at the moment that comes close. Be willing to listen to options however.

      Maybe guilwars 2... dunno

  9. Major N
    Coat

    It's fantastic

    Took my squidface Shammy to level 85 within 10 days, which was perhaps a little disappointing, but it's not about getting to 85 it's all about the dungeons. The Normal mode dungeons are sufficiently challenging that they're no faceroll, but with an intelligent group doing them at level is eminently possible. the Heroics are HARD. As they should be. Dioubtless after we'vew all got tier 13 we'll be facerolling them come the death of the Exp-pac, but not they are challenging. We spent many an hour wiping on them alrewady, with many more to come.

    The new zones are reallyn nice. I agree about Deepholm, it is a little dark and samey, but Vashj'ir is lovely, with some awesome quests (who DOESN'T want to mind control a shark and swim around eating Naga, humming the Jaws theme all the while?). Twilight Highlands is Very Cthulu in places, which is cool.

    Not sure about still wearing full T10 at lvl 85; I had one piece left. Admittedly, I wasn't wearing 25man heroic versions...

    If you don't want to be queueing forever for dungeons, roll a tank. Then don't suck at tanking.

    Mine's the one with the ilvl333 rare mace in the pocket.

  10. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    Ah, yes, PVP....

    So, what's it like on a PVP server? Well, if you started levelling your 80 char a day after release then you realised some "dedicated players" (AKA saddos) had already levelled to 85, got the gear to have three times the hitpoints and massively more defence than even the best 80, and they were all looking for a chance to prove it. Cut to the Alliance intro to Cataclysm, where you jump on the mercenary ship to Vashj'ir, only to find a group of 80+ horde camping the Alliance spawn point in the new zone. Friends told me that there were cases of Alliance doing the same for the Horde spawnpoint.

    Then, look at the new extensions to the professions and go looking for the raw materials. Problem being all those 80+ saddos are also looking for all the raw materials as the new PVP endgame sets need LOTS of materials. So you're trying to ramp up your professions whilst having to compete for materials with 80+ chars determined to be the Alpha dogs in the next arena tournament. Cue lots of graveyard scenes.

    Want a break? Then go back to the old level 80 haunts, which are now just about as deserted as the old level 70 haunts (Isle of Quel'Danas, Silithis) were after the release of Wrath. Having seen how easy it is to level a Worgen compared to the old races, I suspect many will be taking a break doing just that. Of course, that would miss the real gems of Cataclysm that Lucy also seems to have missed - a lot of the original races have also got new development lines, new quests and new environments. I'm already looking forward to going back and creating a new Night Elf. Just as soon as I get my new Twilight PVP set sorted.....

    1. Steve Roper

      ...And that...

      ...is why I'm on an RP carebear server. My brother got me into the game around the time of the BC expansion and started me on a PvP server. Within a month I'd migrated to a PvE server because I was sick of getting ganked by skull-level (probably 70) Horde* every few minutes in Stranglethorn Vale while trying to level. The other thing that pisses me off about world PvP is the stupidly long wait (up to several minutes) before you can respawn. If it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't mind world PvP so much.

      Seeing how the new Azeroth layout puts the Alliance's and Horde's bases right on top of each other I can see the PvP servers turning into a free-for-all gankfest making it almost impossible to actually play the game. I can foresee Blizzard making quite a bit of money out of the $30 character transfer as people ship their characters over to carebear servers to get away from it all.

      *(Yes, I'm an Alliance fan, because I'd rather play a tough-looking bloke than some green-skinned monster!)

  11. Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

    My experience of Cata

    The goblins are great fun, although agree Worgen don't "feel" very alliance... they look great but their anims seem a little clumsy. I am hugely enjoying the goblins, although their technology sometimes seems a little too advanced and grates on my world view of wow. Still I can put that aside as they are quite funny.

    I am enjoying the redesign of the old world, it actually made me start a new char and level again. Previously I couldn't be bothered with starting again from scratch and doing the same quests with a new char. Seemed pointless, now its fun again.

    I have completed the underwater quest chains, and loved the storyline, although I must admit I was keen to get on dry land after a while. "Jewels" Verne is awesome, I hope to see his "ship" again. After a weekend of snowed in playing I am almost to 83, so the levelling is as someone said trivial.

    As for still wearing tier 10, I have very few purples left and it makes me sad each time I replace something with a green or blue. Those who are still wearing all their old purples are likely just doing so out of reluctance to go from looking cool to looking pants (fashioncraft is the real game here right?).

    That brings me onto another thing, why do they always make helms and such that look ridiculous/downright stupid? I only had tier 9 priest head but wow it looked good, now I look like a budget batman!

    Throne of Tides we did last night for the first time, and we beat it. Although it was a challenge, it relies heavily on team work, and intitially whilst our gear is still "green" we all had to pop most of our abilities/spells to get through each boss.Good fun, and its reinvigorated my love of WoW, I was bored of the grind, and played once a week. I don't know how long it will last but for now, I am loving it. Now to finish DeepHolm.

    Oh and guild rep and such seems a nice addition, shame my guild is so small.

    Overall happy, but but not sure how long term the appeal will be to a small guild like ours.

  12. brakepad
    WTF?

    Seriously, WTF?

    I'm with the anonymous cowards. How much of this review makes no sense whatsoever to someone who's not played WoW?

    "Failing dismally as an arena player, but enjoying PvP as much as the next cow, I’m really looking forward to Battle for Gilneas, which seems to be the new Arathi basin and Twin Peaks, which is the new Warsong Gulch."

    Eh?

    "Cheap at the price, and a welcome change from previous mount capability gouging!"

    Come again?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    commentards

    why are people complaining at the review being full of WoW related jargon ??

    It's an expansion !!!

    do you not understand what that means ?

    it's not a standalone game that requires no previous knowledge of WoW, therefore the reviewer writes from that perspective.

    if you don't like it, don't read it !

  14. Carsten Holmskov
    WTF?

    Strange...

    Wow thats one curious review, on one hand I agree with the score, on the other hand I disagree with almost everything you said about it, except of course that Worgen > Goblin.

    Lets see, where to start.....

    Ok, people quitting due to level 85 insted of 90 being the cap.......uhh people reached 85 in 2 days, they would reach 90 in 4, you think the extra 5 levels would somehow mean that those quitting again this summer would not ??.

    I don't care at all about the 5 insted of 10 levels, what dissapointed me was the (mostly) worthless new skills and the total lack of talent improvements.

    Thats what makes your class fun, switching it up and trying new things, not having a 90 next to your name rather than an 85.

    As said before, Goblins are a lame introduction, I agree and I would actually also rather have seen Pandarean and Worgen go to the horde, but such is life.

    Next the zones, im curious as to how you start off complaining about Blizz promising underwater wow, and then you go to the normal land-zone rather than the underwater one, which (in my personal oppinion) is a thousand times more interesting than the "Been there, Done That" Hyjal zone, which has a few memorable experiences, but mostly is the same crap as always, without even a new atmosphere to enjoy.

    Then the "Graphic Whore" in you complain about Deepholm, which to me and many I know is BY FAR the most beautiful and amazing of the new zones, incredible crystal formations, pillars than break and re-assemble, hidden underground caverns, Giants with glowing beards!, the most incredible crystal spiders and etc etc, mobs you never saw before, a zone unlike any other....

    Then you get the good old Tanaris, I mean Uldum desert-zone and you go off like it's incredible......the quests are cool, Indiana rocks, but the zone itself ?, it's a giant desert.........

    I'll not spoil the twilight Highlands or any of the other stuff for you, so i'll move on to the most strange part of your review........gear.

    HOW THE H!!!! sorry how on earth can you be in your tier10 at level 85 ?, I had replaced all of mine at level 82, hell my guildies replaced Shadowmourne at level 82........the gear is a marginal improvement once you reach Deepholm, by the end of deepholme all of it is an improvement, even above the tier bonus, by the end of Uldum and level 83, everything from pre-cataclysm should have been replaced or you are doing something wrong.

    I would like you to name a single player who has "90% of their tier 10 at 85" and then lets compare the stats of that person to anyone else who has replaced it, it's not even REMOTELY close or even discussion-worthy, greens at level 83 give better stats than tier10 heroic......

    My only gear-gripe is that Normal instance gear is often more crap than the "end of quest-chain-blues" you get in so many of the zones.

    All in all, a very strange review for me which seems to capture nothing of the changes in wow, seems to be primarly negative and yet gives a very high score.........

  15. waylander
    Thumb Down

    That was the worst review ive ever read

    Was that written by a 12 year old or something. Blizzard have done a fantastic job with the game. the level cap being 85 isnt really a problem as everyone is forgetting about the level cap being 85 is about 60% of the expansion work went into the original wow game levels (1-60) they are virtually new and any review that only mentions level 80-85 in cataclysm isnt even reviewing half the game and there is a hell of a lot of content at 85 anyways and personally i dont want a situation where i have to level a new character to level 120 before i meet any people( like what happens in most MMOs after a few expansions). and there are a percentage of players that do the levelling game and then get fedup and cancel, wouldnt matter if the level cap in the game was expanded by 20 levels

    if your levelling to 85 and not changing your teir 10 gear out by the end of hyjal/vashir your doing something radically wrong, i got a random blue staff drop and it was better than my heroic Teir 10 staff. you need to change your gear rapidly

    and secondly Pandarean as a playable race ?? WTF blizzard never promised that ever, the fans have been calling for them as a playable race but blizzard have never said they would be even present in the game. The pandarean were originally a april's fool joke that got out of hand anyways and if they put them into the game they'd never get a licence to sell WoW in china again

    1. Abremms
      Boffin

      this.

      was just coming here to make this very same post. I agree with the reviewers score and conslusions, but all the stuff along the way makes me question whther or not the reviewer REALLY plays wow, or if they just spent an afternoon skimming forums.

      <nerd>

      your average player spends far more time at the level cap than getting to it, so I would much rather Blizzard spend more time making level cap content than leveling content (though the new 1-60 is a very welcome improvement). and they have certainly done that with 80-85, which took me about as long to do as 70-80. the pacing and speed of leveling is very good at the moment, i think.

      and there is SO much to do at 85 now! dungeons, heroics, raids, quests, professions, guild leveling, new achievements, new rares to hunt, new arena season, rated battlegrounds, new battleground... anyone who gets bored at 85 anytime soon is entirely too narrowly focused on what they want to do in the game. Archeology alone is good for weeks of gameplay (not all at once though, that might kill you.)

      regarding gear, in both previous expansions, the top tier epic of the previous raids has lasted into the first tier of the new raids. this is absolutely not the case this time around. I replaced the last piece of my shaman's t10 at 84. holding on to your lvl 80 gear isn't doing you any favors, itemization is drasticaly different this time around, and with ilvl requirements for heroics and dungeons, you will absolutely need to upgrade asap.

      </nerd>

    2. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

      A few additions.

      I believe the Tauren were the result of a diablo joke that got out of hand.

      I think (but cannot confirm off the top of my head) the current new races were the result of 'customer research'. I'm not sure whom they polled but rumour has it the reason we have worgen and goblins is due to some end-user survey. I certainly was not polled, else I would not have voted for wolves or gobbos. I would probably have voted for Pandas though.

      Also I'm not sure if putting pandas in the game would cause it to be banned in china. As far as I remember there used to be a limited edition panda cub pet.

      But yeah, the Chinese government can be fussy. Apparently the Chinese censors did not take too kindly to 'skeleton's though the last time they tried to launch an xpac there.

  16. Thecowking
    Thumb Up

    OK, what's your draw distance?

    Because if you think Deepholme is a dark hole, you might be missing the massive glowing pillars of crystal which explode and then implode every now and then. I swear I mashed my screen shot button more in that zone than I have in thelast 6 years put together.

    Hell, it's my wall paper.

    (And Vashj'ir, women seem to love it but I don't know a man who can stand the place. I got my seahorse and left. Don't understand the appeal, only so many times I can see kelp and care.)

    <rant>

    Also I had replaced all my t10 by 85, dungeon grinding, a healthy stack of JPs to spend on new gear at 85 and my inability to use new gems in old gear meant I was pretty quick to replace them. Still have them in the bank of course, but I wasn't wearing them. I mean you can't wear them to instance in, you need the right ilvl for the dungeon finder and they are far too low for that.

    Actually given the changes to set bonuses, even breaking these doesn't add that much longevity to the tier items. If your guildies are wearing T10 at 85, I have to tell you that they're doing it wrong, they won't have anything like the hp needed for dungeons, especially not the tanks.

    </rant>

    Though the expansion has reignited my passion, dungeons are actually fun now, heroics are hard and raids are more than an AoE fest. The questing might be fun, but I've not had time for it yet. Too busy dunegon running.

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      RE: OK, what's your draw distance?

      Agreed, Deepholme is pretty good eyecandy. I spent a good few minutes just wandering around and staring at it. It hasn't tired yet.

      ".....And Vashj'ir, women seem to love it but I don't know a man who can stand the place...." Damn, I feel so metrosexual after that! I quite enjoyed Vashj'ir, especially the fun of the Battlemaiden retroquestline. My vote is playable Naga for the next expansion and stuff the Pandas! Vash also seems to be the best zone for obsidium mining for all those engineers and blacksmiths. I thought the idea of an underwater zone was a bit much, but Bliz seem to have done a decent job, tbh. Opinions vary, but I'll beat you with my manbag if you disagree!

      "....Also I had replaced all my t10 by 85...." Now just hit 83 and only have two purples left, but to make use of the better 285+ gear I spent a lot of time at the reforger. Considering how long it took to get the purple set I can understand why people hold on to them, but you can see those 85s that do as they're running 30-40% less hitpoints than those with top-end Cata gear, and on a PVP server that's like hanging a big "gank-me" sign on your butt.

      "....Too busy dunegon running...." BIG annoyance was that you can't queue for the new dungeons straight away. I think Bliz intended you to actually play and enjoy the new zones first for a bit - sneaky lot!

  17. RyokuMas
    FAIL

    Too little, too late

    I'd bet every gold I had that no changes have been made to ensure that dungeons below level 75 or so are being run by groups of suitable-level characters.

    Until changes are made to prevent boosting and help lower level players learn to play their characters in instance environments, I'm staying out.

    It's too bad really - until TBC, WoW used to be fun - then it became all about power levelling, maths and who your mates were when trying to raid.

    1. windywoo
      Jobs Horns

      You'd be wrong

      RyokuMas how long has it been since you last played WoW? Did you miss the bit where you can now form groups for dungeons cross server and all the English realms are combined into one big pool of potential players?

      In wotlk they made changes to the amount of exp required per level, introduced heirlooms so that those who already had a max level character could level faster and made end game content so easy that you could level alts and get T10 within a week.

      In Cata they made new starting zones for trolls, worgen, gnomes and goblins. They made some of the level 60 dungeons more suitable for lower levels. Mounts can be obtained at lower levels, the priced for the mounts and skills has been reduced.

      The only problem now with the cross server dungeon tool is that players are morons. They all want to be DPS heroes so groups have to wait forever for a tank or a healer.

      Another commenter remarked that he took as long to get from 80-85 as 70-80. If you did that you did it wrong. Reaching the new level cap should only take a few days even if you aren't trying hard.

      Back to the review, Goblins are the best thing that has ever happened to the Horde. Hopefully it will make those heavy metal listening, smug retards take themselves less seriously. I have played Alliance and Horde from near the start of vanilla wow and I can say that while Horde overall tend to be better players they tend to be bigger arseholes too. More likely to gank, more likely to take a hissy fit in a raid.

      Overall the expansion has been great. Questing has been fun and hasn't felt too tortuous. Heroics have been challenging although I can't see them staying that way once everyone knows them off by heart and has better gear. It is still better than wotlk where you dinged 80 and went in and facerolled in your quest greens.

      We still have the problem of everyone wanting to be a DPS hero and so queue times for heroics can be extreme. Since I play a tank I don't have this issue, and levelling a healer isn't too bad either. I am dreading the time when I level one of my DPS alts.

      1. RyokuMas

        I was a healer...

        Windywoo, I stopped playing about two months ago and cancelled my account about two weeks after that. And I hate to say it, but I think you've got the wrong end of the stick.

        I've always tended towards healers, or at least classes that I can respec as healer as my early experience in vanilla WoW showed they were always in demand. For a good while - the best part of a couple of years - I had a lot of fun. Then I dropped out for about six months due to other commitments.

        When I came back, Wrath was out. I'd lost the feel for my character and wanted to try Horde (I'd been playing Alliance until then), so I started over. All the way up to about level 70, I'd spend hours playing solo with the worldwide dungeon finder ticking away - nothing. Well, the usual bunch of DPS heroes, but I think in the entirity of levelling that character, I ran two dungeons below level 70.

        Got above 70 and suddenly, the group interest started picking up - except for one thing: having done only two instances in nearly a year, I was extremely rusty at healing. I recall numerous occasions of wiping and getting ragged on/kicked from the group, despite my telling them in advance that I was out of practice.

        So WoW lost its interest to me. DPS? Thousands out there, again, no chance for a group. Tank? Again, who wants a tank that can't hold aggro because they've never had the chance to learn how at low level?

        I've been disillusioned by two expansions already that have ultimately ended up (for me at least) as new areas to just grind around in. I'm not wasting my time and money on a third.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Blizz Be Damned

    I hope this is the final death throes of a tiredly pop-culture referencing regime. Redonkulous that MMOG-tards keep buying into this slop.

  19. iamapizza

    Don't forget Uldum

    One of the best bits of Cataclysm was the new zone Uldum - they did pretty good there for an outdated graphics engine (plus the Indiana Jones quest line). You can tell they've spent a lot of time and effort on creating this beautiful zone. Vash'Jir is good, but nothing compares to the earthy tones and visuals of Uldum.

    I'm not sure what you mean by worse gear - the stats that you concentrate on 80+ has changed. So previously, in WotLK, it was all about hit points and mana, whereas in the newer gear, they're concentrating on mastery and hit points as a mechanism for defeating bosses. So your hits and spells become more powerful and your heals become more powerful the more mastery you have. Going back to Level 80 raids with 80+ gear actually makes things easier. Further, even if you ignore hit and mastery, the stats are far above WotLK gear - if you quest enough you will get them.

    Throne of Tides is definitely entertaining, as is Lost City and Vortex Pinnacle.

  20. GrumpyJoe
    Happy

    English

    Do you speak it!

  21. Matt Brigden
    Thumb Up

    So much more to it you havent even touched on there .

    I've been playing since the original game and seen the game morph into what we have now . Cataclysm is so much more than you have brushed on in your review . A lot of the donkey work for the expansion was laid out in the previous patch which gave us the new graphics and environments . The old azeroth is gone . The quests changed and 1-60 is now a whole different game . If your aim is to do 80-85 your missing an enormous chunk of the magic Blizz has worked . Old dungeons have been revamped with new bosses and mechanics .

    Rather than mess about in the choked 80-85 zones I decided to wait and bit and play a worgen . I agree Gilneas is an awesome zone . But once you leave you end up in Darkshore after a brief trip to Darnassus . I have now done the quests there end to end and Im pretty sure there isnt an original quest left . I did most of them on my Gnome rogue to farm Darnassus rep for a nightsaber mount as I hate robot chickens .

    The amount of care Blizz have taken on this expansion is epic they really have changed the world although I cant help feeling they may have used Deathwing to tear up the bits they didnt particularly like in the first place . What better way to sort out zones your not happy with than to get an irked off Dragon to level it for you . Farewell Auberdine and Southshore you really wont be missed :p .

    Add to all this the changes to classes and Glyph changes plus the long awaited (by some) return of crowd control in dungeons and archaeology and masterys and you have an entirely new game .

    If you got bored and left its time to come and take another look . WoW once again is destined to remain top of the mmorpgs for a long time to come .

  22. Bassey

    What?

    I didn't understand a word of that. Could we not have a review from someone capable of describing the game in English rather than Ogre or whatever that was? Or are you just assuming the only people interested in the game have been playing it for years?

  23. boz0
    Pirate

    Cataclysm

    On PvP servers, Hyjal's a real pain - or at least, it was in the first few days of the extension. Since all of the quest givers are shared, you regularly end up clicking a member of the opposite faction instead of the NPC you were trying to talk to, and the guards definitely have a problem with that!

    As to still using the T10 at 85 ... errr, definitely not. With green quest rewards having an ilvl of up to 318, and reputation rewards ranging from 333 (honored) to 359 (exalted), there's just no reason to hold on the T10.

  24. Marcus Aurelius
    Unhappy

    Flying mounts

    Clutter up the cities - their wings get everywhere on the ground and make crowded areas such as near banks/ auction houses a total PITA

    1. maclovinz
      Thumb Up

      THAT

      ...is the one thing that pisses me off on a regular basis (aside from Trade chat).

      (And why is this review in "Hardware")

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Um

    Well this was a terrible review. If I wanted to read people spouting cheesy acronyms I'd visit the official forums and play with the trolls.

    Also, if the author can't see that your Tier 10 gear is supposed to have been replaced by 83-84 then perhaps they need to read the stats a bit more carefully.

  26. James Hughes 1

    Thanks for that...

    Didn't understand a bloody word of it. (well, I understood 90%, but not sure of anything else)

    Great review then.

    So, for someone who has never played WoW, what's it all about, or is the nonsense speak from the review pretty much it?

    1. Abremms

      not sure it can be explained

      not sure if it can be explained to someone who doesn't play. there is 6 years of game developement since the original release...

      best bet is to hop over to worldofwarcraft.com and hit up the free 10day trial. I can tell you one thing, there has never been a better time to start playing wow. like the review says, they greatly improved the learning curve for new players.

  27. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

    A few points.

    1. Battlegrounds are slightly more fair. Brackets are now 5 levels instead of 10 as per previously.

    2. 'Nerf' to heals - I thought I' suffer really bad as I play all healing classes bar shammy (lowbie at present). I think priests probably got it the worst. My pally is ok, druid is ok. Tendency is to OOM more especially in PVP when you're really under the pump. Survivability of the latter two are stll good. Can't say the same for the priesty though although they are looking into it I believe.

    3. I take your point about the gear. I play on a pvp server however, and the horde outnumber us here. My resi heavy gear helps but I suspect as I climb upwards, I'll have to swap more and more of it out. We shall see what happens.

    4. Flying around in azeroth as you rightly say, is quite something. I especially recommend it if you've got flightform.

    5. Overall, this game is now extremely noob-friendly imho. That's not a bad thing in someways but in others... the problem is between the keyboard and chair.

    6. Only bad things about the xpac I can't stand are too many races have too many class choices. I mean, troll druids? Dwarf shammies? They should have left druid races the way they were.

  28. Mike Green
    Thumb Up

    I've been enjoying it

    I've only quested vash, uldum and a bit of Twilight, but I've enjoyed it a lot. Lots of diverse questing, funny stuff in the goblin zone (including the Zoolander tribute) and the worgen area looks like dark fun, though I've yet to get too much into that. Levelling was fairly quick, but the dungeons are really hard on Heroic, as they should be. The only problem is everyone seems to have forgotten how hard dungeons should be when you don't have all epic gear and I've yet to actually get through a boss, or even keep a team together without someone ragequitting. Figuring out the encounters has been the most fun, when no one knows what to expect and didn't look it up on wowwiki. I thought I was going to hate the changes as I mainly play a mage, and I enjoyed the huge talent trees we had to configure, but they seem to work quite well, with enough talents to keep it interesting.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So if I've got this right,

    WoW is for people who don't want to outwardly appear to be the nerdy speccy types who play Dungeons & Dragons and spend far too long with miniature metal figures and a paintbrush?

    Anonymous because there's clearly far too many of those types on the internet, as evident by D&D reaching no.3 in the recent 100 Greatest Toys tv show. Seriously, no.3? WTF?!

    1. Abremms
      Happy

      only #3?

      D&D got robbed, clearly.

      lols

    2. Jedit Silver badge
      FAIL

      D&D #3 toy

      Dungeons and Dragons stimulates imagination, promotes literacy, and encourages lateral thinking, social interaction and team play. You can play it with your kids, and any number can play. It's a hell of a lot better than sitting your kid in front of the Phony Slaystation with Grand Theft Auto 17: Rape Some Bitches Then Run Them Over so they'll stay quiet and you can ignore them, which seems to be the most common parenting method among people who insult "nerdy, speccy types".

  30. Witty username
    FAIL

    Oh the irony

    the irony in people on an IT website calling other users sad for playing WoW, when they're usually creaming themselves over the latest ifad or whatever.

    Also cataclysm is awesome

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      South Park season 10 episode 8

      http://www.rodostube.gr/video/57bce0a1b547d34/

      Nuff said.

  31. Inachu
    FAIL

    FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

    For years I complained that here is Stormwind that uses a lion as a mascot of the city but are there no lion mounts NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but finally they do not have a lion mount.

    Things that still tick me off. GEAR SCORE IS STILL FUDGED your gear score goes down as you drop that Tier 10 armor for better rated ilevel green armor....COMMMON!!!! FIX IT!!!!!

    Level 81 can't go to DeepHolm...........sad so sad. Premade LFG can ninja items for themselves VS a player who joined it.

    You can not do ICC10 HEROIC if you never got a lk kill but the raid leader did.

    GRRRR!!!!! so no fresh ICC 10 heroic for people in the above instance. Makes it that much longer to build a 10 or 25 man raid.,......geee thanks blizz!

    People selling the new CATA green items for 500 gold..... you fail hard.

  32. P. Lee
    Troll

    Lineage 2 ftw!

    What's this levelling out within two weeks?! Pah! What's all this about a block on killing anyone?

    Try L2 - teamwork is required and a good team will normally beat a larger higher-level but uncoordinated team.

    I laugh at your cartoon figures and attempts at stunning scenery.

    Just don't even start if you have a life or any obligations at all...

    Troll, obviously.

  33. 68 SK LFG
    Go

    Never liked WoW

    It was just too easy to level and lacked the depth of Everquest when I tried WoW a few years ago. Didn't like EQ2 either because it was so WoW-like, sure better graphics but the... how do I say this... the 'texture' and game play just felt wrong.

    So now I'm back playing EQ with the little wife (yup, tweaking the moderatrix lol) after a three year hiatus (over 500 zones now!) - just forgot how fun it was and with life getting pretty damn serious, it is good for the mind to have a break.

    Yes, I played D&D

    Yes, I played Battletech

    and

    Yes, I still have my lead and pewter by-my-own-hand-painted Omni-mechs. (Wolf Clan all the way, baby!)

    lol.

    Good Times.

    btw" dinged lvl70 with my SK last night hehe

  34. Rattus Rattus

    I thought the graphics were supposed to get an upgrade?

    Judging from those screenshots, it's still the same ugly engine. It's nearly 2011, I expect near-Crysis levels of graphical prettiness these days.

    And have they fixed the horribly broken PvP yet? PvP in WoW has always been all about (a) the gear and (b) who can stunlock who. Makes for a very unfun PvP experience if you don't want to build your character solely around PvP.

    Bah. Until one of the other MMOs I've got my eye on make an appearance (Secret World, Black Prophecy), I'll stick to Eve Online.

  35. Catroast
    Grenade

    Cattleclysm

    Mooo! Blizzard will take a Piper's fee from its cow-stituents.

  36. Mark Leaver
    Go

    Levelling to 85 with most of your T10

    That isnt so bad... when Wrath came out, I levelled my 2 old mains from level 70 - level 80 in my karazhan gear without changing a single thing. This time around, my druid was wearing Cataclysm blues and greens by the time he finished levelling.

    And my two old mains... they are still mosting wearing their T10 stuff and possibly wont have any new gear until they hit 85.

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