Somehow I Ended Up Playing WoW: Cataclysm

This is the story of how I lost my soul, otherwise known as "Somehow I Ended Up Playing WoW: Cataclysm." To make a long backstory short, I was waiting for TERA Online to come out for CBT and needed to play something in between that was new and entertaining as I was getting bored of the same old thing day after day. Since the server I play WotLK on just released Cata realms not too long ago, I decided to sell my soul and try my hand at Cataclysm. I had heard horror stories from enraged fans about how Blizzard destroyed X and Y classes, the talent system was completely changed, and this that and the other. But.. Surely it couldn't be that bad, could it? I mean, when I heard of Cataclysm's changes to Priests (my default class in most games), I looked into them and was rather excited. Not to mention I was curious about what environmental changes Blizzard had done to different zones now that Deathwing was prowling about. And, to be honest, I was really frickin' excited to see those underwater mounts and zones. That sounded really friggin' cool. (And shut up, I know I'm easily amused sometimes.)


I often ask myself why WoW has gotten to be so big for a rather... repetitive game. WoW can be summarized in this manner: level up as quickly as you can so you can get good gear so you can raid so you can get the best gear physically possible and have lower level people oggle at your shiny baubles. (Zero Punctuation's review of Cataclysm over at The Escapist captured this point perfectly.) Many MMO players will always say that WoW has stolen different aspects of its core gameplay from other games and when new games come out, they're always compared to WoW. ALWAYS. I wonder why that is, sometimes, but then Blizzard hits me over the head with a brick and reminds me that it's the dominant game on the MMO market right now and I simply cry and nod my head in understanding.

WoW has a bit of a cult following. And by that, I mean that it has people who will defend it tooth-and-nail, foaming mouth and all. Even when there are people who disapprove of WoW, they are drowned out by the sheer number of players. I feel that it is unfair that new games that come out are constantly pushed aside by WoW. It's like WoW is the schoolyard bully who likes to beat the smaller, weaker kids upside the head with a dodge ball for fun. I don't know what it is about WoW that makes this happen. Perhaps it's the simple, yet rich graphics; perhaps it's the fact that players of all types have something to enjoy; perhaps the end-game raids are like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. I don't know. All I know is that WoW is virtually the first thing that people think of when they think of MMOs. (I've heard rumor that free to play games are going to knock WoW off its pedestal, but... Somehow I doubt it, even though I think it'd be awesome. I think the Mists of Panderia expansion will be WoW's undoing, personally.. Pandas, really, Blizzard?)

Anyway, as I said before, I was curious about the Priest changes in Cataclysm, so I decided to roll one, of course. I wanted to mess around with the Discipline class because not only is it my favorite, but there are a few new talents that allow D. Priests to heal through DPS, which I thought was neat. (I haven't actually specced into them, but I probably will in an experimental off-spec.) I find it interesting that in your spell description, it'll explain what the spell should be used for. Like, if it should be used at the start of a fight, "at all times," etc. No friggin' way, WoW! It's like I don't know how to read what a spell would do!

For example, take Inner Fire. It is a Disc Priest talent that increases armor and spell power by a certain number. And they've also removed the charges from it, making it a straight 30 min buff.

 Me: "Awesome, I got Inner Fire!" 
WoW Spell info: "This should be used at all times!"

(I never thought I'd be able to use a meme in a review. I think this has made my day.)

One thing I definitely do not like about Cata is that they don't tell you how much your spell will damage/heal, like it used to. It used to say, for example, that your Greater Heal spell would heal for X number. Now it just says that it'll heal a "large amount." What the hell is a "large amount?" Is it a percentage or a concrete number? To me, a "large amount" would be if my teammate was near-dying and one spell healed them to full capacity. Is that it, WoW? I wish you would tell me! It'd be really useful for me to know numbers so I could figure out how many times I'd have to heal that person or if a Flash Heal would cover one person so I can potentially save another from nearly dying.

I can't decide if this is more of a "What!?" or a "Why!?" face but I think both are applicable to the situation.

Cata seems to have increased the absorption of the Power Word: Shield spell, which is really, really useful. I remember my bubbles usually didn't last long at all in dungeons; now I find that most of my tanks will usually have the bubble go for the full 30 seconds, which is really nice. I find that, if with a competent tank, I only need to bubble two or three times (a little more if painful) during a boss fight, throw on a HoT a couple of times in between shielding, and that's that. Sometimes, if the tank doesn't have a lot of stamina or something, I might have to pull a Greater Heal but that's very rare. I've only gone OOM twice and that was due to my server specifically and not Cata itself (slightly elevated rates and bugged quests that forced me to get from 10 to 60 on a level 10 chest piece, for example).

Little OOMing? Me gusta.

 In terms of playing other classes and the Holy Priest spec, I have plans to try them all out. I have played a Holy off-spec before as well as a Restoration Druid and (briefly) a Holy off-spec Paladin. So far, I'm greatly enjoying the Disc Priest changes, but I also haven't gotten to end-game content yet (I'm at level 66 or 67 right now).

In terms of the updates to the environment in Cata, I'm overall very pleased. Many areas have been given subtle updates, such as having 3D grass and plants on the ground, many of the Undead buildings have been redone to give a more Tim Burton-esque feel (warped buildings with lots of twisted wrought iron, though they're all purple and gray/silver, for some reason...), and some creatures have gotten updates to look more.. realistic (I remember seeing a bear that actually looked angry, with small irises and a clearly "I'm going to maul your face off" expression). Of course, the areas that have been affected by Deathwing look really neat. Some of the maps have been split into different sub-maps (like the Barrens and Stranglethorn Vale being split into a North/South sub-map idea).

I haven't played either of the new playable races yet, but I have created a Worgen to try. I don't think I'll play a goblin. They look... weird and I want to punt them as much as I do gnomes (punting contest, anyone?). I've also created races that I've never played before, such as Trolls and Tauren. Ultimately, I'd like to try each race and see what the updates to their areas are, as I've at least played both factions and have been to every major city. I was slightly disappointed that Outland seems completely untouched in terms of graphics updates and I haven't gotten to Northrend yet to see if there are any major changes there. 

I'll probably post more once I get to end-game Cata content, but for now, that's all I have to say on this soul-sucking game. Hope you enjoyed this meme-tastic review. Feel free to comment below, post on Facebook or Twitter. Feedback is, of course, greatly appreciated. This is LMS, signing out!