[CataBeta] Initial Impressions *Probably Spoilers*

[Svpernova09]

Cross posting this from the LoB site:

I got a beta invite yesterday, and naturally jumped right on as soon as I got home >.> <,<

I started out making a worgen, and realized I could send some heirlooms to him and swapped to the druid to mail off some stuff, and got sucked into looking at the druid talents. So I ended up going out to Vashj'ir to start leveling. The event that takes you out to the area is really awesome. The first quest hub is a sunken upside down ship that you must rescue the NPCs that came in with you. Pretty quickly you get the ability to breath and move at 60% underwater. Shortly after that you can complete a quest and you get a seahorse mount. The seahorse moves at 280% (despite me having 310%) and moving underwater is nothing like you've ever seen, it's much better than I could have imagined. I've done ~30% of Vashj'ir and I hit level 81 in ~3.5 hours. Unless they change something, it's going to be a very QUICK run to 85. All of the collection quests where very easy and high drop rates. As melee DPS I never had to stop and eat or heal myself. Mobs in the zone have ~30k HP. So far I haven't skipped any quests. It's been the typical collection / go find type quests and there have been some event quests like defending NPCs, baiting / wrangling a shark, riding a shark as you feed the shark naga, etc. Everything is done with Earthen Ring NPCs.

Mobs were giving ~4k XP (rested) and quests were giving 27.7k XP + 7g 80s. If the quest numbers in the achievement system in beta were correctly copied over, I had 2905 quests completed on Live, and now have 2939 on beta, so 34 quests took me from 80 -> 81.Who knows if all the quests I did actually counted, but that seems about right. Not sure what the current cap is, 83 I believe. So I'm going to stay in this zone until I finish it or hit the cap and then start running the instances.

[Fursphere]

Cool shit.

I seem to recall both BC and Wrath beta's having a quick leveling curve to help with testing - then when they went live leveling slowed waaaaaaaaaaaay down.

[Svpernova09]

I hit 82 and yeah, these XP amounts are nerfed 82->83 = 6.4 million XP.

[Ualaa]

Could be wrong, but I seem to remember them saying 80-85 will take about as long as 70-80, to make each level seem a little more important or epic in scope/nature.

[Maxion]

That's odd how fast you got the seahorse, as I've completed all the quests in the kelp forest and some in the next part and still don't have it.

[MiRai]

Could be wrong, but I seem to remember them saying 80-85 will take about as long as 70-80, to make each level seem a little more important or epic in scope/nature.

I've heard this as well, I think it was at last year's Blizzcon the mentioned this.

[Svpernova09]

That's odd how fast you got the seahorse, as I've completed all the quests in the kelp forest and some in the next part and still don't have it.

That's odd. I got very quickly. After I saved the drowning soldiers, defended them in the sunken ship, and ran away with the earthen ring NPC, it opened up for me.

I'm currently stuck in Vashj'ir and Mount Hyjal, I can't complete anymore until they fix the 2 broken quests that have me stalled. So I'll probably hit deepholm soon. I'm nearly halfway through 82. Looks like a new build will come Thursday. Hopefully the druid talents will be more complete. Leveling feral right now is rather annoying.

[Oatboat]

Looks and sounds fun! I'm so ready for fresh/new zones and quests. Better start putting a little dough back for boxes on release so the wife doesnt see a huge chunk come out of the account lol.

[MiRai]

That's odd. I got very quickly. After I saved the drowning soldiers, defended them in the sunken ship, and ran away with the earthen ring NPC, it opened up for me.

I'm currently stuck in Vashj'ir and Mount Hyjal, I can't complete anymore until they fix the 2 broken quests that have me stalled. So I'll probably hit deepholm soon. I'm nearly halfway through 82. Looks like a new build will come Thursday. Hopefully the druid talents will be more complete. Leveling feral right now is rather annoying.

Start grindin' brah!

[Svpernova09]

Start grindin' brah!

Best quest ever:
Throwing bears out of trees