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[Trickster]

Playing through the new zones in Cataclysm just makes me laugh at all the people that claim WoW looks bad.

Especially considering that this above place looks better than that when you are running around in it ingame.

 

[glaurung]

I have been having the same error, all the time, since 4.0.3.

And I have been plaguing the Technical Support forums with a request for help since Saturday.

I think I will cancel my subscription today, maybe that helps.

 

[Twig]

Playing through the new zones in Cataclysm just makes me laugh at all the people that claim WoW looks bad.

The characters look like shit more often than not and all the beautiful environments in the world will not change that.

And I fucking love the way WoW looks most of the time.

 

[Lumine]

I hate this kind of quest design: multiple users waiting for one item to spawn.

Seriously? That is absolutely brilliant! I wonder if that could ever work on my server. "Get the fuck in line, bitch." *mass PvP*

 

[CF_Fighter]

I thought I could just resist getting back into WoW after the expansion hit, but its been calling to me HARD. I have exams this week I'm finishing up, but I'm not sure what will happen next week. All these comments about how good the new quests are as well as the new races is really making it hard to resist re-upping my sub.

 

[Scalemail Ted]

I haven't played WoW since 2005 but I got interested in reactivating my old account. I tried to merge it into my new Battle.net account but blizzard says my old account name is already associated with a battle.net account. Does this mean someone stole my old account?

 

[Sullen]

The characters look like shit more often than not and all the beautiful environments in the world will not change that.

And I fucking love the way WoW looks most of the time.

Yup, the environments are looking quite good now, but the original race skins need a serious update. It's especially noticeable now because there are two more races that have textures that are way way way waaaaay better looking than the old races, and even before that it was noticeable because of how sharp some of the WotLK armor looked in comparison to the characters that wore it. I was really hoping they'd revamp the old races textures with this expansion. =/

 

[AceBandage]

Yup, the environments are looking quite good now, but the original race skins need a serious update. It's especially noticeable now because there are two more races that have textures that are way way way waaaaay better looking than the old races, and even before that it was noticeable because of how sharp some of the WotLK armor looked in comparison to the characters that wore it. I was really hoping they'd revamp the old races textures with this expansion. =/

It has to happen soon. Everyone was demanding new Druid textures and we got them, but it just makes the old race textures stand out more.
Hopefully we'll see it patched in soon.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Thinking of getting 2 copies for me and girlfriend as a Valentine's Day Gift.
Would I be okay with vanilla WoW or should I get 2 battlechests?

 

[Sethos]

Wasn't too impressed with the new zones ... Until I hit Uldum. What a fantastic looking place, the atmosphere is fantastic!

 

[Twig]

I thought I could just resist getting back into WoW after the expansion hit, but its been calling to me HARD. I have exams this week I'm finishing up, but I'm not sure what will happen next week. All these comments about how good the new quests are as well as the new races is really making it hard to resist re-upping my sub.

Want a scroll of resurrection? d: At the very least, you get a week to see if you want to play!

I'm fairly certain it works for Cataclysm, even though the FAQ says TBC only.

 

[CF_Fighter]

I'll let you know next week. My main priority is school right now.

 

[Twig]

Me too! I'm holding off until next week before I actually start.

 

[Runus]

I haven't played WoW since 2005 but I got interested in reactivating my old account. I tried to merge it into my new Battle.net account but blizzard says my old account name is already associated with a battle.net account. Does this mean someone stole my old account?

It could. I would call Blizzard and see what is going on. They could help you reclaim it or at least figure out the issue.

Oh, and get an authenticator if you start up again.

 

[Twig]

It could. I would call Blizzard and see what is going on. They could help you reclaim it or at least figure out the issue.

Oh, and get an authenticator if you start up again.

Yeah, lots of people get their account hacked when they're not even playing. It's bizarre.

But on the plus side, you might find that they've already paid for all the expansions for you! Happened to more than one person I know, and I've seen a few posts saying similar things in this very thread.

 

[zlatko]

I'm now playing WoW for the very first time, as I didn't have the time during the last 8+ years when I was playing FFXI. Coming from that community there was always this huge, stupid resentment for WoW and I have a feeling it was like that in many other communities and I never got it. Blizzard has always been a top-tier developer and while FFXI is fit more to my taste (I prefer the more mandatory group play, and still do after being exposed to WoW, to be honest), I really never even considered that WoW could actually be a bad game like people said...though I didn't have any experience with it myself.

After actually getting to sit down and see what it's all about, it's clear that this game is a great number of steps above anything else that's ever been on the MMO market...it really can't be compared with the rest of its genre. While I unfortunately haven't had the pleasure of being a part of the community since the early days and can't fully appreciate that changes that have come recently, I'm really enjoying the game as both an MMO and a game. It's just a ton of fun much like I enjoyed FFXI as both an MMO and a Final Fantasy RPG. Most other MMOs, FFXIV especially, just don't get it. They feel like a job and all the focus in building the game is put into the stuff that's there to hook you. There's very little I've seen in the rest of the genre that's there just for the sake of being there and enjoyable. There's so much polish and attention that goes into every aspect of those two games...Blizzard is definitely one of the most talented studios that has ever existed and I'm glad to see how much it shows in their flagship product.

Still very eager to get back to FFXI once I get something figured out with their stupid credit card security bullshit but I can see myself casually enjoying both games at this point. Definitely looking forward to seeing what high level WoW play is all about as the game continues to surprise me every day even though it's been out for so long and I thought I'd know what to expect.

I played FFXI since beta times and off and on for about 6 years total. Once I finally ended it for good I didn't get that itch to come back. This was a while after WotG launched, and nothing has been added since. I also 100% got rid of my account, and even though I heard great things about exping now in FFXI, I know what to expect from the game. The brilliance of that game to me was the story lines, the accomplishment in finishing something like Chains of Promathia, and those times you finally got an incredible drop. FFXI knew how to reward players, but eventually the cookie crumb trail ended, and with multiple 75's I felt the game was complete for my time in Vana'diel.

I also get where you are coming from with how other MMO communities disrespect WoW, because it's just a haters gonna hate thing. It's the equal brother to say a PS3 vs 360 fan boy war.

I convinced 2 friends to come join me here now on Cata time who were long time XI players, both disappointed FF14 players, and we've all been having a blast. I'll def. keep holding out a small glimmer of hope that someday FF14 will hit its big times and be a polished and content filled experience like XI was, but even then it's just a shadow of something like WoW at this point with all its expansions behind it. There's TOO MUCH for FF14 to compete with when they already started so far in the hole.

My only complaint about WoW now is how brain dead easy instances are. In Vanilla times I felt it was much more challenging and they took more time. While it's great to no longer have to shout around to find members, and find the right balance of classes, and then get yourself to the zone, etc I wish they had kept the initial difficulty within the instance intact. I at least hope the higher level ones manage to do that.

 

[borghe]

My only complaint about WoW now is how brain dead easy instances are. In Vanilla times I felt it was much more challenging and they took more time. While it's great to no longer have to shout around to find members, and find the right balance of classes, and then get yourself to the zone, etc I wish they had kept the initial difficulty within the instance intact. I at least hope the higher level ones manage to do that.

haven't done heroics in cata, but what you're describing is heroics. Standard instances in WoW serve two purposes. Get you better gear than you will get soloing in the world, and prepare you for group play (and the instance itself) on a normal manageable level. When you move to heroics of the leveling dungeons things become a lot more difficult, and both normal and heroics of the end game dungeons go up from there. It's a little bit confusing, but the bottom line is, enjoy the easy mode of the leveling dungeons. It's there to teach you. Until you start getting geared up from heroics, their level of difficulty goes up quiet a bit compared to the leveling dungeons. and obviously raiding goes up from there also.

and I don't know if WoW did this first or not, but adding leveling, reputation, and achievements to guilds was.. in a word... evil (ok, two words.. and BRILLIANT). I am genuinely considering going back to my IRL friend guild just because of this. Mind you the only reason I'm not in it is because I am on a different server, so I would actually have to pay $30 for the server move just to go there... BUT, man... the whole guild advancement thing is just way too fun. really gives guilds, even casual guilds, something to shoot for.. even beyond that, it gives hardcore guilds a reason to maintain a casual roster also.. out of all of the gameplay advances in cata, I think guild leveling and achievements may be the thing that moevs WoW forward the most now.. absolutely brilliant.

 

[ultron87]

Is it possible for a small guild to accomplish things in the guild leveling system? I've been flying unaffiliated for awhile so I have no idea how this all works.

 

[Dunlop]

Is it possible for a small guild to accomplish things in the guild leveling system? I've been flying unaffiliated for awhile so I have no idea how this all works.

Guild XP caps insanely quick in order to keep it a level playing field as much as possible

 

[webrunner]

Yup, the environments are looking quite good now, but the original race skins need a serious update. It's especially noticeable now because there are two more races that have textures that are way way way waaaaay better looking than the old races, and even before that it was noticeable because of how sharp some of the WotLK armor looked in comparison to the characters that wore it. I was really hoping they'd revamp the old races textures with this expansion. =/

They say that is on their list of things to do, whether it will be sooner rather than later is up to Blizzard.

I mean, even compare players/regular NPCs to npcs that have their own models. Compare the new thrall model to the old "Dopey" orc models, compare Varian to the human male models, there's no contest.

The player models stick out like sore thumbs, and hopefully they can address it soon without alienating people who like the way their character looks. Maybe add a makeup artist at the Barber shops that can return you to your old model?

 

[Infinity]

Seriously? That is absolutely brilliant! I wonder if that could ever work on my server. "Get the fuck in line, bitch." *mass PvP*

For some reason, I'm reminded of camp spots in EQ 1.

 

[Lain]

Got my CE today. I was amazed, I had no idea it would be that big (this was my first WoW CE).
Went to Vash'jr and did some quests there, I didn't think playing in a water could be that fun.

Also, for some reason, I chuckled when I read in the quest text

Blood and Thunder!

This changes everything, paladin!

 

[KibblesBits]

It could. I would call Blizzard and see what is going on. They could help you reclaim it or at least figure out the issue.

Oh, and get an authenticator if you start up again.

ugh. UGH.
Phone call of forever.
If I have to call them it's usually an hour wait.

 

[ultron87]

Some of the spawn times on mobs in crowded zones is kind of ridiculous.

I've had several occasions where you kill one guy, and a replacement instantly spawns and starts attacking you. It's really nice for getting quests done, but also makes things really hectic at points.

It seems like a fresh 80 going straight into the starting Cataclysm zones could get themselves in trouble pretty quickly.

 

[forgrim]

Some of the spawn times on mobs in crowded zones is kind of ridiculous.

I've had several occasions where you kill one guy, and a replacement instantly spawns and starts attacking you. It's really nice for getting quests done, but also makes things really hectic at points.

It seems like a fresh 80 going straight into the starting Cataclysm zones could get themselves in trouble pretty quickly.

This.

My first quest in Hyjal for killing 8 of something, and I managed to kill all 8 just standing in one location fighting. The problem was even after killing the 8, they kept popping, so i just had to run for it to get out of combat.

Spawnrate is currently super ridiculous, but super necessary considering the amount of people flooding the zones.

 

[Macattk15]

I played FFXI since beta times and off and on for about 6 years total. Once I finally ended it for good I didn't get that itch to come back. This was a while after WotG launched, and nothing has been added since. I also 100% got rid of my account, and even though I heard great things about exping now in FFXI, I know what to expect from the game. The brilliance of that game to me was the story lines, the accomplishment in finishing something like Chains of Promathia, and those times you finally got an incredible drop. FFXI knew how to reward players, but eventually the cookie crumb trail ended, and with multiple 75's I felt the game was complete for my time in Vana'diel.

I also get where you are coming from with how other MMO communities disrespect WoW, because it's just a haters gonna hate thing. It's the equal brother to say a PS3 vs 360 fan boy war.

I convinced 2 friends to come join me here now on Cata time who were long time XI players, both disappointed FF14 players, and we've all been having a blast. I'll def. keep holding out a small glimmer of hope that someday FF14 will hit its big times and be a polished and content filled experience like XI was, but even then it's just a shadow of something like WoW at this point with all its expansions behind it. There's TOO MUCH for FF14 to compete with when they already started so far in the hole.

My only complaint about WoW now is how brain dead easy instances are. In Vanilla times I felt it was much more challenging and they took more time. While it's great to no longer have to shout around to find members, and find the right balance of classes, and then get yourself to the zone, etc I wish they had kept the initial difficulty within the instance intact. I at least hope the higher level ones manage to do that.

Instances in the Cata level ranges are not anywhere near brain dead easy. You will wipe on normal instances. Heroics will sometimes make people cry.

I'm not kidding.

 

[Bisnic]

Yeah, gotta love it in Vashjir

"Ok, i gotta kill 10 nagas, easy quest!"
*Kill his 10th naga*
"Alright, lets go back! Oh shit, a naga just spawned. Lets kill it!"
*kill and loot naga*
"Alright, this time lets go back! Oh shit, another naga just spawned. Lets kill it but ignore loot!"
*kill naga*
"...lets go now... OH FFS ANOTHER NAGA IS ATTACKING ME. ill swim until he leave me alo... AND ANOTHER ONE NOW. FUKING CRAP A 3RD WAS HIDING BEHIND THAT ROCK TOO! AAHH"

 

[Jin]

This.

My first quest in Hyjal for killing 8 of something, and I managed to kill all 8 just standing in one location fighting. The problem was even after killing the 8, they kept popping, so i just had to run for it to get out of combat.

Spawnrate is currently super ridiculous, but super necessary considering the amount of people flooding the zones.

Yeah, I'd see a dozen Horde and Alliance spawn camping one mob. It became a "who can AoE first" event. I can't imagine what's it like in PvP servers. I think once Cataclysm cools off Blizzard will probably adjust the respawn rate.

 

[notworksafe]

Yeah, I'd see a dozen Horde and Alliance spawn camping one mob. It became a "who can AoE first" event. I can't imagine what's it like in PvP servers. I think once Cataclysm cools off Blizzard will probably adjust the respawn rate.

Respawn rates are dynamic based on the number of people in the zone. They will automatically slow when the leveling areas clear out.

 

[borghe]

yeah, but back in the vanilla and BC launch days, the exact opposite was true. heck, it was worse simply because there were so many "collect X medium drop quest item from this mob" instead of just "kill X mob". So you'd have people fighting for kills and then be praying you got the 25% drop you needed.

The other funny thing is that going into cata zones as a non-raider (pretty much 232 iLvl here) not only was Vashj'ir crazy in terms of spawns, but I was undergeared to boot. So yeah, there was lots of dying til I got my first few quest greens.

fortunately the areas that the spawn rates seem cranked way up on seemingly get extremely easy very quickly as you get geared with iLvl 272+ gear. then it's just annoying more than actually dangerous. once I got inside the big shrimp thing I noticed spawn times being a bit more reasonable.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

Yeah, I'd see a dozen Horde and Alliance spawn camping one mob. It became a "who can AoE first" event. I can't imagine what's it like in PvP servers. I think once Cataclysm cools off Blizzard will probably adjust the respawn rate.

I play on a PvP server that's about 4:1 Horde:Alliance, and I play Alliance. I can tell you that it can get very annoying getting ganked while questing. But, on the flipside, the horde all think they have a big advantage so they're never prepared if you get a small group together and you basically just steamroll the shit out of them.

 

[Ferrio]

Yeah, I'd see a dozen Horde and Alliance spawn camping one mob. It became a "who can AoE first" event. I can't imagine what's it like in PvP servers. I think once Cataclysm cools off Blizzard will probably adjust the respawn rate.

PvP servers are actually quite civil, least mine is. Everyone is too busy leveling that they can't be arsed with fighting. There's *lots* of accidental hits though from people clicking on an opposing faction instead of quest giver, or just plain targeting wrong.

 

[Bisnic]

I love being a high lvl frost mage for lvling. :lol All the Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze procs makes this really easy(and both proc happen quite often). Ice Lance always crits with Finger of Frosts and do 12k each hits. If i use Frostfire Bolt while i have both Fingers of Frost AND Brain Freeze, thats an instant free 15-16k crit right there. Even the Vashjir mobs that have 3x more health than the Icecrown ones cant live longer than a few hits.

I just wonder if it will stay that easy even when i hit, say, Twilight Highlands mobs.

 

[borghe]

I love being a high lvl frost mage for lvling. :lol All the Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze procs makes this really easy(and both proc happen quite often). Ice Lance always crits with Finger of Frosts and do 12k each hits. If i use Frostfire Bolt while i have both Fingers of Frost AND Brain Freeze, thats an instant free 15-16k crit right there. Even the Vashjir mobs that have 3x more health than the Icecrown ones cant live longer than a few hits.

I just wonder if it will stay that easy even when i hit, say, Twilight Highlands mobs.

it's been a while since I've been in the 50-60 range.. anyway, I headed to Winterspring for an archaeology run and there were a ton of mobs around the dig site I didn't want to bother with.. one aggro'ed on me and I started attacking... "wtf??? 4K HP?????? umm... that seems odd..." I seriously never remembered things being that low in HP.

fwiw, archaeology seems meh... almost more fun as a mini-game and/or lore side quest thing than actually being useful in the game. just starting it though so we'll see.

 

[Reluctant-Hero]

Just landed in Western Plaguelands after hitting level 41, where I hope the awesomeness returns...maybe?

West Plaguelands is pretty cool if you enjoyed what happened in Silverpine.

Spoiler

Sylvanas doesn't suffer fools lightly.

 

[Proc]

After my first hour with Catacylsm, here are my reasons why I'm loving it more than Wrath:

1) Flying from the get-go
2) improved quest system
3) self heal...my rogue has like 0 down time with all my abilities
4) crazy greens (can't remember if wrath was this generous with gear)
5) 50" panasonic g20 tv heh + wireless setup

 

[ultron87]

The trampoline at the "chuck bear cubs out of trees" quest is really fun to jump on. I want a deployable one.

And the Joust quest needs to be a daily.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

The trampoline at the "chuck bear cubs out of trees" quest is really fun to jump on. I want a deployable one.

And the Joust quest needs to be a daily.

I found the joust quest to just be really annoying. Mostly the egg portion of it though.

 

[Subliminal]

Another fuck up by city link means my package is sitting in their warehouse for the third day running!

And i paid £6 for this service.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Best quest in WoW is in Uldum. If you haven't read about it or gotten there yet...You'll see. So much fun.

 

[Raide]

After my first hour with Catacylsm, here are my reasons why I'm loving it more than Wrath:

1) Flying from the get-go
2) improved quest system
3) self heal...my rogue has like 0 down time with all my abilities
4) crazy greens (can't remember if wrath was this generous with gear)
5) 50" panasonic g20 tv heh + wireless setup

1) Old world flying is a pure joy.
2) Quest system is much improved and streamlined. Love it.
3) The heal ability is a godsend for Rogues. Great for solo and should be interesting for raiding.
4) Yeah, the early greens were pretty nuts. People replacing their 70 dungeon epics with green quest rewards within 10 mins. :lol
5) TV WoW is awesome.

 

[The Elite]

Another fuck up by city link means my package is sitting in their warehouse for the third day running!

And i paid £6 for this service.

You're late.

 

[kitzkozan]

The art direction in those cataclysm zones is incredible (although Blizzard was always great at this,even with the crazy and over the top Burning crusade zones),as is the look of the new races+druid skins. I am sure they will upgrade the textures of the original races sooner rather than later.

Playing Cataclysm is making me realize that nothing will touch it,not even Guild war 2 despite bringing innovation to the genre.The amount of content in WoW is now staggering and no modern mmorpg will ever be able to compete with it.

Revamping the old world is a major bonus,as leveling my worgen hunter is both fresh and fun.

 

[Finalow]

I hate this kind of quest design: multiple users waiting for one item to spawn.

:lol :lol

 

[Mister Zimbu]

Going by the quest layout, I think that Deepholm would have been a better starting area than Hyjal- there's alot more instances where the quest lines "branch out". I think an expansion's starter zone would do well to start out with something like 3 quest lines, which you can choose from on your own, and once you finish all 3 you can move onto the final quest line and finish the zone. This would limit the amount of player competition for the starting areas. Deepholm pretty much does this right off the bat, whereas Hyjal was more or less linear the entire time (with a few exceptions here and there). Hyjal even had a good opportunity to do the above, with the four aspects you had to free, but you ended up just doing them in order.

I hated the end of Hyjal (until the Ragnaros fight at the end, which was AWESOME). It seemed to have alot of "filler" quests that didn't really advance the story, and the last 5 quests were pretty much all the same "wait with 50 other players for named mob to spawn, then use your <item> to call for help and kill him!" quests. Hyjal also needed more or faster-spawning Obsidium veins. The 450-475 mining grind was horrible, whereas I got 475-525 within an hour or so of starting Deepholm. The fact that Obsidium is 4x the price of Elementium on my server reflects this.

I'm not sure how I like how the quests progress in this expansion as opposed to TBC or LK. They were very linear and if one quest even bugs out or you otherwise can't complete it, you're pretty much stuck at that point until it completes. There were alot of flagged horde on our server griefing named mobs, just spawn camping them over and over again to prevent alliance players from progressing. Really annoying.

Really digging the increased dungeon difficulty. The Stonecore bosses even on normal are going to drive PUGs to tears. Not as hard or aggravating as TBC was. I think they really nailed the difficulty here, but we'll see 6 months out if it just turns into a WoTLK AOE-fest again soon.

Guild levelling is a cool concept, but I don't like the execution. The caps seem to be really, really low, to the point where my small guild (40 members) will hit the XP cap within a couple hours of the reset. I feel like I'm not contributing whatsoever, due to the fact that I'm not logged on at 4am and that we're capped by the time I *do* start. What mainly bothers me about this is that almost all guilds in the game will hit max level at exactly the same time, and the fact that you can pretty much schedule the exact date and time that you'll hit max level, especially since they removed XP gains from guild achievements. Overall, your perks are pretty much completely based on "How long has my guild been around?", rather than some other meaningful metric. I don't really have a good suggestion on how to make it better, though, without making it less accessible to smaller or really casual guilds. Also, the "You have already earned the max reputation for your guild for this week" message every time I do ANYTHING is really annoying.

Overall the expansion is kind of underwhelming for me, and feels like "more of the same", instead of the revolutionary changes that came with TBC and LK gameplay and progression-wise. This may, however, be a really good sign that Blizzard has the formula down.

Despite all this, I'm still having alot of fun.

 

[TheExodu5]

Instances in the Cata level ranges are not anywhere near brain dead easy. You will wipe on normal instances. Heroics will sometimes make people cry.

I'm not kidding.

Yup instances really feel like mini raids now. Love it.

 

[ultron87]

I kind of dread leveling up to 82 tonight and watching my crit rate plummet even more.

 

[pix]

Yup instances really feel like mini raids now. Love it.

Enjoy it while you can, because in a couple weeks when people are out of greens/blues and into blues/epic it will be a snorefest again.

 

[Alex]

The end of Vashj'ir was fucking amazing, better presentation and production values in some of these chains than most single player rpgs.

 

[The Lamonster]

Vashj'ir is just awesome. I love going to the surface and flying above it and seeing just a bunch of water and some mountains, but knowing all the crazy shit that's going on under the sea at that moment.

And the seahorse mount is something I've wanted since the BC days.