WoW Cataclysm

[Shakermaker]

And I probably will play it... there's just not a whole lot else to play at the moment. Not gonna hardcore it or anything... just take it nice and easy.

I highly suggest rolling a Goblin. It is by far the best starting area ever. Plus by leveling up again you get to see the new Azeroth in detail. It has changed a lot, both geographically and quest-wise. Too bad you can't skip Outland. I think I saw some level 65 mobs in the eastern Plaguelands though, not sure.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Wait, you can't skip Outland? I thought there were new zones for all the level groups, including 60-80?

 

[StarBob]

Why would they make an expansion that doesn't require you to have the other two expansions? Blizzard wants all your money not just a little.

 

[Letters]

I highly suggest rolling a Goblin. It is by far the best starting area ever. Plus by leveling up again you get to see the new Azeroth in detail. It has changed a lot, both geographically and quest-wise. Too bad you can't skip Outland. I think I saw some level 65 mobs in the eastern Plaguelands though, not sure.

I'll probably do that then! I was actually thinking Worgen before, but I know next to nothing about all the new stuff.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Why would they make an expansion that doesn't require you to have the other two expansions? Blizzard wants all your money not just a little.

It still requires both to install, that doesn't mean they have to make the content mandatory.

Can't find anything about new zones in that level range though, so I guess it's back to Outland for the thousandth time.

 

[Warped]

yeah I have 2 Pre-orders for the collectors Cata when it comes out. one from Amazon.com and one from Gamestop.com. i've seen the upsell of Collector's editions on ebay

 

[15357]

What, wait wait, you people need to buy all the games just to play Cataclysm? You mean, you can't just sign up for 30 hours of WoW and they give you whatever expansion for free?


Wut? I mean, I didn't have to buy WoW to play, and will get Cataclysm for free as long as I have an account. I thought this was more like an update kind of thing.

 

[StarBob]

What, wait wait, you people need to buy all the games just to play Cataclysm? You mean, you can't just sign up for 30 hours of WoW and they give you whatever expansion for free?


Wut? I mean, I didn't have to buy WoW to play, and will get Cataclysm for free as long as I have an account. I thought this was more like an update kind of thing.

I literally have no idea what you're talking about at all.

 

[15357]

I literally have no idea what you're talking about at all.

Was talking about this:

That means I don't have to buy 4 damn games just to play Cataclysm when it comes out!

So, in order to play Cataclysm, you'd have to buy all the original/expansions prior to Cataclysm?

 

[Bad^Hat]

Sounds an awful lot like communism to me. :frown:

Edit: Yeah, you will, unfortunately. I'm assuming they'll at least put out another battle chest, since this is meant to be a "fresh start" in some respects. Kind of nullifies the appeal to new players if they have to make a huge investment to start playing.

 

[15357]

Sounds an awful lot like communism to me. :frown:

Edit: Yeah, you will, unfortunately. I'm assuming they'll at least put out another battle chest, since this is meant to be a "fresh start" in some respects. Kind of nullifies the appeal to new players if they have to make a huge investment to start playing.

That's interesting. Over here, WoW is just one huge game. In order to play Cataclysm, you'd only need to pay for the amount of hours or days you'll play, regardless of version.

 

[StarBob]

Sounds an awful lot like communism to me. :frown:

Edit: Yeah, you will, unfortunately. I'm assuming they'll at least put out another battle chest, since this is meant to be a "fresh start" in some respects. Kind of nullifies the appeal to new players if they have to make a huge investment to start playing.

I don't think Blizzard is trying to appeal to new players anymore. When you're a company that has twelve million current subscribers - simply regaining former subscribers is enough to mark a large profit for the year. However, I assume that there will be some bundles including the game and all expansions for minimal cash. Plus it would be weird for the story if you got to skip Draenor and Northrend entirely... not to mention Blizzard would have to make twenty levels worth of new game content in addition to the content they have now in order to facilitate people. In order to make 20 levels worth of quests and dungeons interesting, it would need story elements and then you'd have story elements people who are already 80 would miss.

I can't see a really simple way to bypass the requirement of other expansions in order to get from 1-80. I mean what do you think? Just have people grind it out killing level 60-80 mobs with no quests? At the very least they'd have to design all new zones to contain them. It's already going to be interesting to see where they put level 80-85 stuff inside the current Azeroth world.

A reasonably priced battle chest would be amazing for a new player though. It would suck starting out with a thousand worgens and goblins running around and not know what's going on.

 

[Bad^Hat]

I don't think Blizzard is trying to appeal to new players anymore. When you're a company that has twelve million current subscribers - simply regaining former subscribers is enough to mark a large profit for the year.

This is a company who sold a ****ing sparkle horse for $25 and made a cool million off of subscribers dumb enough to buy it. They can always use more money.

Plus it would be weird for the story if you got to skip Draenor and Northrend entirely... not to mention Blizzard would have to make twenty levels worth of new game content in addition to the content they have now in order to facilitate people. In order to make 20 levels worth of quests and dungeons interesting, it would need story elements and then you'd have story elements people who are already 80 would miss.

I can't see a really simple way to bypass the requirement of other expansions in order to get from 1-80. I mean what do you think? Just have people grind it out killing level 60-80 mobs with no quests? At the very least they'd have to design all new zones to contain them. It's already going to be interesting to see where they put level 80-85 stuff inside the current Azeroth world.

Good point about the story progression, although I suspect most players couldn't care less. Actually I remember hearing that some old Azeroth zones were being retooled for 60-80, but I'm obviously misremembering as I can't find anything on it now, so never mind.

The level ranges can be seen here, and here's a zone map (rough, not to scale):

 

[Warped]

I can't wait for the changes, and I'm trying to experience as many as low level characters as i can before the areas are gone for good! my friend is doing the same and she just started the game. i told her when the new content comes out she should buy lich king and cata and just try being a Worgen

 

[morgs]

I was going to do all that, Loremaster etc, but I'm not sure if I can be bothered. I'm probably going to be rolling a Worgen come expansion and I figured I'd just start all the stuff fresh right when the expansion was released so I don't have to rush. I'm glad I bought all my heirlooms before 4.01, they're bloody expensive now with justice points.

I'm glad this expansion is changing all the old zones up, I could only level so many characters through the same drudgery over and over again, although this new leveling content isn't going to do my alt-itis any good.

In other news, it's cool to see earthquakes every now and again in the old world, in preparation for Cataclysm, a nice touch.

 

[Warped]

thats what those were?? i thought it was a new spell or something. it looks really awesome and totally random. I was going to the Auction House and saw one and I thought something bad was going to happen. also I'm really loving the fact that this game is getting changes just like the original Guild Wars had which changed the game dramatically both visually and story wise.

 

[arch5]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYFskTHpJ3c&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfC0jACUeyg&feature=related
Could have been better. Would have been nice to see a mix between the twilight hammer portal and Deathwing instead of scrapping the first one.

Also, http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2040-Blizzcon-2010-Art-Panel-and-Cinematics-Panel-Pictures
Some people made some really nice login screen art here.


Moving on- Enhanced Dungeon Maps (yes, this includes classic dungeons)

Enhanced Maps
The 2D maps for each dungeon was the first step.
Detailed boss info will be added to the map, including loot, lore, and abilities! (Yep, in-game AtlasLoot)
You won't have to pull a boss and die anymore to find out what he does.
"We're not going to tell you how the boss works, but we want you to have an idea of what you're getting into."
3D Portrait of the bosses will be available.
It will work in both Dungeons and Raids.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2034-Blizzcon-2010-Raids-Dungeons-Panel-Press-Trailer

Some previews of the new dungeon maps (like the lighting effects)

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Yorick]

The new patch seems to have a lot of glitches, but there's so much to it that it's pretty understandable.

That said, I'm pretty pissed that it dropped my Shaman's gearscore to the point where people won't even take me into Heroics anymore.

 

[arch5]

The new patch seems to have a lot of glitches, but there's so much to it that it's pretty understandable.

That said, I'm pretty pissed that it dropped my Shaman's gearscore to the point where people won't even take me into Heroics anymore.

**** Gearscore. If you're having trouble playing due to it, you might as well just switch to another server that doesn't use it as much.

 

[Yorick]

**** Gearscore. If you're having trouble playing due to it, you might as well just switch to another server that doesn't use it as much.

I'm not paying like $15 per character to move my 6 level 70+ toons. Also, the Looking For Group system is cross-realm. But I agree, **** Gearscore.

 

[morgs]

Gearscore is the bane of WoW at the moment, an item dropped in my guild raid and the RL asked someone over vent "Is that better than what you have?" to which she replied "Well it's got the same GS so I might as well keep what I've got".

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Gearscore is the bane of WoW at the moment, an item dropped in my guild raid and the RL asked someone over vent "Is that better than what you have?" to which she replied "Well it's got the same GS so I might as well keep what I've got".

Bad players, yay

 

[Warped]

I log in to sell stuff in the Auction House and play a few BGs but as of lately the game is getting boring. I just can't wait to see the new content

 

[arch5]

Gearscore is the bane of WoW at the moment, an item dropped in my guild raid and the RL asked someone over vent "Is that better than what you have?" to which she replied "Well it's got the same GS so I might as well keep what I've got".

Luckily, the guy who created the Gearscore addon wasn't allowed to join a raid because of he had a low GS, so he raged and stopped updating Gearscore. Lmao.

 

[15357]

I'm only a lvl 60 noob, so I'm not sure how Gearscore works, but its very prevalent here as well.

Anyway, if gearscore isn't updated, how will they deal with it when Cataclysm and a bunch of new items come out?

 

[StarBob]

Luckily, the guy who created the Gearscore addon wasn't allowed to join a raid because of he had a low GS, so he raged and stopped updating Gearscore. Lmao.

If that's a true story it's pretty funny.

 

[Yorick]

I'm only a lvl 60 noob, so I'm not sure how Gearscore works, but its very prevalent here as well.

Anyway, if gearscore isn't updated, how will they deal with it when Cataclysm and a bunch of new items come out?

Gearscore basically takes the Item Levels of all of your gear and runs it through some kind of averaging system. I'm not sure if it places more weight depending on the slot. But basically if you have gear that's all item level 200, your GS sucks. I think you need all of your gear to be around ilevel 250 or so to break a 5k gearscore, which is around what you "need" to run Icecrown Citadel.

Sadly since it runs off of information that Blizzard already includes, it shouldn't require any updates to keep working, and even if that was the case, it's so popular that I'm sure someone else would take over running it.

I'm going to do what I do every time a new expansion is coming out. I'm going to stop bothering to get gear on my 80's, and instead just wait until the expansion drops, and then level them to 85 and go for gear. There's no sense bending over backwards for Tier 10 gear when it'll be outdated in a month anyway.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

It's actually almost universally based on www.wow-heroes.com, they have a somewhat intricate formula for each of the 3 character archetypes. That doesn't make it any less frustrating.

The developer of that addon has since retired, but he based his scores in a large part based on WH.

 

[Eejit]

Gearscore basically takes the Item Levels of all of your gear and runs it through some kind of averaging system. I'm not sure if it places more weight depending on the slot. But basically if you have gear that's all item level 200, your GS sucks. I think you need all of your gear to be around ilevel 250 or so to break a 5k gearscore, which is around what you "need" to run Icecrown Citadel.

It's based off item-level?

Wow, that would have been 100% useless when I played my feral druid in BC.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

item-level factors in.

also: gemming, glyphs, spec and enchants

but yeah, it's an extremely simplistic and downright dumb way to judge players. oh yeah, and none of the most used calculators have been updated for 4.0.1, rendering them obsolete

 

[arch5]

I know quite a few people on my server who exploit the gearscore system (although my realm doesn't use gearscore that much) just by buying high iLevel items that they can use but doesn't really fit their class/role to get into the raid. Once in the raid, they switch back to their normal gear. It works- sort of.

 

[StarBob]

The funny thing is, I had gear from a year ago that was basically part Ulduar, part normal mode Trial of the Crusader, and I think maybe one or two heroic TotC - and it was enough to pass the gearscore test for mostly everyone. I don't even know if any of it was 251. I've since picked up a couple 271 pvp things and some tier 10 stuff. My guild was always a super high end raiding guild though and they've trimmed the fat so much so that I can basically never get in to a raid now. There are like 30 ultra commited people that show up every raid night (like 4 days a week) on time and raid for 4-5 hours. I used to do it, but now I have a lot more going on and I don't think it's even feasible. I like being successful in raids and it sure would be a far cry from the old issues of people not showing up and leaving early, but that's 20 hours out of my week.

I might stick it out in cataclysm just to do things like rated BGs and what not. I don't think everyone will be getting in to the whole hard core raiding thing for a good bit anyways. At least not for the time it takes people to level up. The new arena season will come around again soon and that'll be a good time. I think Arenas are the most challenging aspect of the game. At the very least the most dynamic... especially from a healing standpoint.

 

[Yorick]

Digital Pre-Sale has gone into effect, so it can be purchased and accounts upgraded at any time now, and be eligible for play immediately on Dec 7th.

 

[15357]

Digital Pre-Sale has gone into effect, so it can be purchased and accounts upgraded at any time now, and be eligible for play immediately on Dec 7th.

Damn it, we get it on like Dec. 27th or something.

But then again, we all get it for free, so ha!

 

[StarBob]

Damn it, we get it on like Dec. 27th or something.

But then again, we all get it for free, so ha!

Another drug deal? "Hey play this for free for a couple months then you have to buy it! HAH!"

 

[arch5]

Digital Pre-Sale has gone into effect, so it can be purchased and accounts upgraded at any time now, and be eligible for play immediately on Dec 7th.

That's a good thing and a bad thing for me, I wish I could do the pre-sale but I've already ordered the Collector's Edition. I guess on launch day I'll have to wait for it to install. Ugh.

 

[Warped]

I'm getting 2 Collectors Editions plus I'm doing the digital download that way it pays for my game and some game time. people will want this for Xmas and Ebay will be my friend

 

[15357]

Another drug deal? "Hey play this for free for a couple months then you have to buy it! HAH!"

Uh, no. It's not like Starcraft 2; the update itself is free.

 

[<RJMC>]

whats whit you koreans and getting free games?

 

[arch5]

Well, cataclysm is right around the corner already. With nothing to do this month I'll probably be rolling a Troll Warrior to try out tanking and see how it feels, and if it's worth it for the instant dungeon queues and praise at 80. Anybody here have an experience with playing a tank?