Cataclysm

[01101010]

I am really kinda surprised at the night and day queue times, even at my level (40) with my Pally. I ran holy and main healed, queue times would roll between 1-5 minutes. Turned on my Ret spec and equipped my 2h and my queues were in the ballpark of 20-45 minutes flagged dmg. Needless to say, I am sticking with holy - melee healer ftw...at least till I can't stand in the scrum anymore.

[Khaldun]

So let's see, now that I'm into heroics and almost done with the quests except in Twilight Highlands, some thoughts:

1) Some of the 80-85 quest chains were among the worst the game has ever offered in terms of writing and overall fun factor as well as taking anything even remotely feeling like an immersive decision away from the player. I just sat there for five minutes at one point trying to stab Goblin Hitler in the face rather than running quests for him, and that   The Indiana Jones thing was funny as a bit reference at the beginning of an instance or two, but as the theme of a long, boring quest sequence it might be one of the few cases where I'd actually like to see intellectual property rights enforced mercilessly.

2) I fucking hate the Tol Barad dailies and Tol Barad itself is only slightly amusing.

3) I am kind of liking the heavy use of cc and interupts in Heroics but boy has it brought out the absolute misanthropic cock-in-mouth douchbaggery of most WoW players. In a Heroic pug, you get one of two things: a) folks who still want to lol-aoe their way through it as if it were a Wrath heroic and they were in their ICC purples  or b) shitfucker elitists who act as if they've already run every single heroic forty-five times even though they have a GS lower than me and vote to kick someone the first time they miss a single interrupt or do less than 9000 dps on a fight. I generally much prefer doing stuff with my guild but it's become a near-requirement.

4) Archaeology was fun for a while but it's quickly become an even bigger chore than levelling fishing. Needs more randomness.

5) The whole game has been so relentlessly streamlined that the feeling of lifelessness is sometimes overwhelming--there's no quirks, no weird little class features, etc., no strange game mechanic that you can arbitrage in some fashion.

[Oban]

Well, I liked Uldum and it's quest lines, but I agree with the rest of your comments.

[Zetor]

I liked most of the Uldum questline, but I agree that it was kind of 'eh' at times -- in particular this and this quest made me go  , and the 'use invisibility cloak to sabotage explosive barrels' quest is kind of obnoxious from a gameplay POV.

I hate all dailiy quests equally (and have since BC): repetitive easy/routine tasks you spend ~1hr a day doing are not my idea of a good time. I do the JC and cooking ones because they're required to gain access to recipes, and do the fishing one since it's faster and more interactive than leveling fishing the 'normal' way -- but that's it. Thankfully this time you don't need to do dailies for the Hodir-equivalent faction, you unlock the tabard and that's it (of course, unlocking the faction itself requires you to do almost the entire deepholm zone, which is... not good design).

[Sjofn]

I liked Uldum but I can definitely see how it could wear on people, and I am totally able to say it was really, really lazy from a story standpoint.

The only zone that I haven't done all the way through yet still is Twilight Highlands, which I will tackle once we're back from Christmas whatnot. I think I liked Hyjal best, although it feels weird to do as Horde for me ... maybe it would've felt better as a tauren druid, but as a blood elf rogue (my human paladin went the Vashj'ir route) I felt really out of place. I would've felt even sillier if I had been Forsaken.

I like the streamlined-ness and such, but I think overall I liked the leveling from former cap to new cap in Wrath better. Wrath was much better about Horde and Alliance doing different shit in the same zone (when I went through on my Horde person, I had several "I didn't even know this shit was HERE" moments, which I know will absolutely not happen in Cataclysm), and making that shit fit the faction's goals. Cataclysm it's pretty much all the same (what I did in Vashj'ir was the tired old "you're doing the same exact shit, it's just an orc telling you to do it instead of a human" formula, and I expect Twilight Highlands to be similar), and while I understand they had to do that this time around, given the whole REVAMP THE ENTIRE WORLD part (which is the highlight of the expansion for me), it's still pretty disappointing.

I heart the new dungeons though, and I heart paladin healing, so it's still a win in the end for me.

[Simond]

So I'm getting Cata for Xmas. How are DPS queues?

If you can queue as a healer or tank, queue as a healer or tank.

[Setanta]

I liked Uldum but I can definitely see how it could wear on people, and I am totally able to say it was really, really lazy from a story standpoint.

I made the mistake of starting at Hyjal - boring as all hell. I switched to Vashj and really enjoyed it. What ruins it all for is having to make the choice as to whether I level or enjoy the content. Switching zones for more XP ruins any immersion I have - Vash is the only one I completed.

There has to be a better way to do this - exponential growth of XP based on level so you can play the storylines through without chopping and changing maybe?

[craan]

I liked all the new places except the water one.   I really liked Deepholm and was sad to leave it but discovered I had another quest left to do to get some Twilight Documents so I queued for the Stonecore.  In addition to the documents the Vitreous Stone Drake reins dropped.  Everyone needed on it and I won.  The rest of the group dropped a few seconds later with just enough time to cry OMG U NIGGER I HAVE BEEN TRYING FOR THAT FOR SO LONG.  Happy Festivus!

[Rasix]

Well, compared to my mild annoyance at how noisy the first five levels are of goblinism, it's bliss compared to the slog that is the worgen starting area. Boy, this race is a goddamned mess.   Doesn't help that I just got done casting one spell for 10 levels.

They lope, they snort, and the whole design of the newbie experience is just dreadfully dreary and incredibly boring.  BLECH.

Back to the gobbie after I'm done visiting the parents.  See you in a year, SLAP!  (OK, I'll probably stop by once in a while.  It looks like my friend is either visiting relatives or quit already.) 

[Furiously]

My guild decided to all faction change to help with pvp timers. I'm not sure I want to spend the 30 bucks.

[Ingmar]

I liked Uldum but I can definitely see how it could wear on people, and I am totally able to say it was really, really lazy from a story standpoint.

I made the mistake of starting at Hyjal - boring as all hell. I switched to Vashj and really enjoyed it. What ruins it all for is having to make the choice as to whether I level or enjoy the content. Switching zones for more XP ruins any immersion I have - Vash is the only one I completed.

There has to be a better way to do this - exponential growth of XP based on level so you can play the storylines through without chopping and changing maybe?

The XP difference is not big enough to bother changing zones before finishing during 80-85 imo. You're not really forced into a this or that choice the way you're describing it. Finish the whole zone, then move on - if you outlevel the content it just means you get more gold if you choose to finish quests off after you're already 85 anyway.

[Shrike]

Hyjal was better organized and very speedy to work your way through. Hell, even the NPCs were gogogogo, go kill stuff! I enjoyed it and it served its purpose in getting my shaman to 85 as quickly as possible in a (mostly) enjoyable manner.

I played EQ, so I have a instinctive distrust of anything in water. However, once my shaman was reasonably well equipped (and bored) it was back to Vash for fun and faction. Man, I do have to say Vash is probably more fun, but it's slow (like Uldum). The battlemaiden quests were some of the most fun I"ve had in WoW in some time. Hell, technically they were vehicle quests and I enjoyed the hell out of them (so much so I dropped out of a 40 min queue just to finish one part up). I've always kinda wanted to play a naga and that scratched that itch but good. A shame you don't get to quad-wield, but the helicoptor trident made up for it. 

[WindupAtheist]

My meta apparently requires more blue gems than red now. I can't imagine it's even remotely worth activating. Not that it matters since I imagine I'll be replacing my hat with a green soon enough. Really not happy with trade pug rated battlegrounds being the new thing. Then again Ret is yet again "we didn't know what to do so fuck it" in terms of PVP design so I can't imagine I'll be bothering.

I have to play this game because of the other people who are playing it. I feel like I'm in jail. WTF is even up with glyphs anymore?

[Minvaren]

Woo Questioning Axe for a tanking weapon upgrade!  Nice reward for doing quests on the listing ship.   

[WindupAtheist]

Worgen "mount" animation is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

[Minvaren]

Glyphs are learned permanently (and are more expensive), but take a vanishing dust to change.

[Rendakor]

Glyphs are learned permanently (and are more expensive), but take a vanishing dust to change.

Vanishing dust pre-81, dust of disappearance 81+; the only difference being vendor cost.

[01101010]

Worgen "mount" animation is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

It needs to be slowed down a tad to keep from looking "floppy" but I tend to like it. Makes the race look even more feral.

[WindupAtheist]

I just saw some level 40 worgen newbie standing around Stormwind on all fours in his stupid looking helmet and thought "Wow, seriously?" Some guy at the dock told me to get on a mercenary ship, but I didn't see any ship so I logged out. I don't think I'll bother leveling until my friend catches up to me, and she's 59 and doesn't get to play much.

[Hawkbit]

If you go down to the dock, when you reach the end of it you'll witness a scripted dialog while the boat is arriving. 

I had to erase what I knew of WoW - this is much more like playing a movie.  There's stories happening everywhere.... I'm still training myself to slow down and watch it all, because it's important to understanding all that is going on.

[Khaldun]

I guess. I feel like I'm working with Blackboard: a kluge  desperately being redesigned to work with contemporary norms, and always feeling a bit seasick because of it. WoW wasn't designed to push cinematics and story, really, and while some of the cinematics are fun and interesting and worth watching, others are just subpar machinima that make me want to watch "Blind" again.

[caladein]

Glyphs are learned permanently (and are more expensive), but take a vanishing dust to change.

Vanishing dust pre-81, dust of disappearance 81+; the only difference being vendor cost.

Glyphs aren't any more expensive to make actually, just that the AH prices are fucktarded for a lot of them.  If you have a friend who's still a Scribe, toss them some Cata herbs (or the appropriate ones for your glyph if you don't have those) and they should be able to hook you up.  Inscription in general is really strange as I don't get why they haven't made the Books of Glyph Mastery drop from Cata content or replaced them with a new Discovery or... something.

This is another chance to plug Guild -> Roster -> Professions which I will not miss.

[Rendakor]

I'm not talking about the cost of glyphs, but the cost to replace them. Vanishing Powder costs ~6s per, while Dust of Disappearance costs 10g per.

Also, glyphs ARE more expensive because glyphs take 3 inks now instead of 1.

[apocrypha]

Plus the Ink Trader now uses the Cata ink as currency for all other inks, and there's only 1 and it's in fucking Dalaran. So Inscription in general is much more of a pain in the arse than it was before.

Oh, and it's almost impossible to actually harvest any herbs in Cata zones because of the 1000s of bots picking them all day and night.

[caladein]

I'm not talking about the cost of glyphs, but the cost to replace them. Vanishing Powder costs ~6s per, while Dust of Disappearance costs 10g per.

Also, glyphs ARE more expensive because glyphs take 3 inks now instead of 1.

Yeah, probably should have just quoted Minvaren instead of you quoting them.  I meant glyphs.

As for the ink change, glyph prices have always seemed more connected to the method they're learned by than the underlying material costs.  Maybe they'll come down in the coming months to a new, slightly higher floor both from the mat changes and people dumping the profession for something else.

[Rendakor]

Pre 4.0.1 and post 4.0.3a, glyphs are priced primarily according to spec usefulness. In the interim period, they were priced according to material cost (with those glyphs which required Outland herbs being the most expensive). I've never known glyphs to be priced by method of acquisition, and I've made tens of thousands of gold on glyphs.

[caladein]

On both servers I have characters on, trainer/discovery glyphs have been a good deal less expensive to pick up than ones from the books, even when both were on the "You're supposed to use this glyph." lists.

That said, I'll cede to your experience as mine only deals with an alt with the profession on one of the servers and occasionally needing to buy one I can't make.

[Sjofn]

Well, compared to my mild annoyance at how noisy the first five levels are of goblinism, it's bliss compared to the slog that is the worgen starting area. Boy, this race is a goddamned mess.   Doesn't help that I just got done casting one spell for 10 levels.

They lope, they snort, and the whole design of the newbie experience is just dreadfully dreary and incredibly boring.  BLECH.

Back to the gobbie after I'm done visiting the parents.  See you in a year, SLAP!  (OK, I'll probably stop by once in a while.  It looks like my friend is either visiting relatives or quit already.) 

Yeah, I didn't especially like the worgen starter area. I mean, it was fine, but it was a lot of "oh, we're fucked again, I see" and just felt sort of crappy. It didn't help that I really, really fucking hate the female worgens, I think they look terrible compared to the dudes and the voice actress has the worst goddamn accent this side of Dick van Dyke. I already deleted my worgen warlock and changed her into a dwarf one. :P

[Shrike]

I'm not talking about the cost of glyphs, but the cost to replace them. Vanishing Powder costs ~6s per, while Dust of Disappearance costs 10g per.

Also, glyphs ARE more expensive because glyphs take 3 inks now instead of 1.

10g? Aye, you were lucky.

I haven't really looked around, but on WW AH, it was running about 40g a crack. I'd heard it was inscriptor only, but if it has a vendor...well...still costs too much to hotswap glyphs.

[Rendakor]

Inscription supplies vendor sells it for 10g per. If you're paying 40g per on the AH you're a fool.

[Shrike]

Inscription supplies vendor sells it for 10g per. If you're paying 40g per on the AH you're a fool.

Just did my JC daily and figured I'd better look into this while in town. Quick question to a guard and, yep, it's 10g. There's like 3 pages of this stuff on the AH for 40g+. P.T. Barnum lives.

[Ashamanchill]

I finally dragged my way to 85 and pretty much feel as WUA does. I have a few friends playing the game again, but it actually feels unfun.

1: Heroics are a mess. I don't know why Blizzard messed with the system of raiding for hardcores, heroics for the masses, because I played the game back in BC and it was a lot less fun then wrath.

2: PvP is an ugly dichtomy of running rateds with all the elites, or running normals with retards who are barely aware that Warsong has a flag.

[WindupAtheist]

Run to the end of the dock, sit sit sit sit sit sit, bunch of NPCs eventually roll up and I sit there listening to them talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk about how the Alliance sucks and we're all doomed. I can't even skip this shit like a cutscene. Fuck me just POINT ME AT THE TEN BOARS AND LET ME PLAY.

[Paelos]

I'm not a fan of the 5 man design so far. It's just way too annoying. They need to fucking relax and realize they've totally over-reacted in the wake of AOE-gate.

[WindupAtheist]

STILL LISTENING TO DIALOGUE.

Oh neat, that whole rousing voice-acted speech about a brutal battle against the Horde to save Stormwind was just wank. Instead it's time to collect starfish. Are you fucking kidding me?