Now that cata has been out a while... what are your plans for the expansion?

[katsurahama]

I just came back to wow less than six months ago. I started over with RAF (twice thanks to the sale and realizing my old server was way too underpopulated). I started over as alliance because i had never ever played alliance even though i started wow shortly after it launched.

Anyway, since im starting over completely my plans are to get a whole bunch of teams up. For me, a lot of the fun is leveling up teams with different compositions and learning to get them working together in harmony. I only have cataclysm xpac on one acct so far and that is just so my rocket can carry lowbies on the 5th acct to instances for boosting. Thats all cataclysm has brought me so far - the ability to fly in the old world on one acct.

I guess its also brought the joy of getting one shotted by 85s. I was boosting in SM and left cath on my 70 dk tank to see if it was safe to run the lowbie across to the next instance. An 85 feral druid took me to half health with ONE blast of moonfire. I think the health and damage inflation of cata is insane. Whats going to happen in the next xpac? Toons with one million health who can one shot 85s with pyroblast? Its making previous xpacs even more worthless. When bc came out it at least took a few levels to replace your gear. Anyway, rant over.

My plan is to level many teams. I try to stagger them out so theyre a couple levels apart. I also make the groups as different as possible to keep it more interesting. The fact that there are four tank classes to choose from also keeps it interesting since i lead with the tank and their styles are all so different.

Im planning for my next 60+ team to be a holy paladin, three dks, and an enh shaman. I will lead with the healer on that team and see how it goes. Ive never played a holy paladin or enh shaman and thats part of the fun - learning new classes and combinations. Ive also never led with the healer...

[gunsun]

I've cancelled my ten accounts because there wasn't enough content.

I saw everything either solo boxing a warrior or leveling up a team, and beat all the new instances on normal with the team, before week four. Then I found myself in a pattern of attempts and repairs, on the same bosses, for heroics. It was boring really fast.

Maybe if there were more zones and instances, maybe if there had been more focus on end game content instead of revamping the old world, maybe if they had added two end zones instead of two new races . . . I don't know. I expected more.

Also, I had just finished Wrath with a process of leveling a team and then farming drops. I found myself right back in the farming mode way too fast. Wrath seemed to have more to do, at 80, before you farmed emblems, points and drops.

Somehow, with Cata, gear equals content. Wrath had this but not as bad. Wrath felt a lot bigger. The overemphasis on gear, especially with dungeon requirements and the asinine ways that the dungeon finder just turns off was a big let down.

Part of my problem is that I have 20 level 80s and no interest in leveling another team. So a lot of the revamped world is no interest to me. I'd rather race change a toon than spend a couple weeks leveling up another one.

I even tried solo boxing, but queue times and idiots reminded me why I boxed. I'd try to tank and get a bad healer, or dps that wouldn't dance around easy to avoid damage. Healers have very fast queue times, but the mana issues and changes to healers really upsets me. I loved healing, and now my healers feel incredibly weak and almost useless. If a pull goes bad the mana runs out and everyone dies. This pattern gets too old too fast. I'd like to have mana to adjust to things going to hell, it's very fun when a group manages to survive a messy pull but now I feel too handicapped to do anything.

All to say, I was very underwhelmed and needed to pursue something more fun. I'm hoping they fix things, but I doubt it because it looks like the year is mapped out with gear as content. Instead of releasing more content, they'll release a dungeon and a bunch of new gear. I'm supposed to run the one new raid for three months to get those rare drops, instead of giving me two or three raids to run for two to three months.

I grew tired of this model in Wrath and Cata seems to be doing more of this with less instances, which makes it too painful.

I think Cata would have been ten times better if the old world revamp had been a content patch, and another team had built an expansion as big as Wrath (or at least had that epic feeling). More instances, more heroics, etc. Doing both at the same time, and my disinterest in leveling alts anymore, seems to have gimped things.

[valle2000]

Today I got my first team up to 85. :-)
Haven't tried any cataclysm dungeons yet, so I'm wondering which to start with? Normal mode first and then move on to heroic.

My left hand is useless due to a disability so I'm a clicker since I only play using one hand. So boss fights with a lot of movement are very difficult for me. So if possible please keep this in mind as well if you can recommend any dungeons. Thanks.

[zenga]

Maybe if there were more zones and instances, maybe if there had been more focus on end game content instead of revamping the old world, maybe if they had added two end zones instead of two new races . . . I don't know. I expected more.

I can understand that if you compare Northrend with the cata zones, that the wotlk feels way bigger. But then again, how long do you actually stay in those zones before reaching the cap? Now I wasn't playing when WotLK was released, but as far as I know they only had nax normal up as a raid instance. Whereas now, there are 3 different raids, with a a very flexible lockout, 12 normal and 13 heroic modes. Most of them quite challenging. There are 8 heroic dungeons available, challenging and pretty big. There are 2 very good bg's added (and I yet have to meet a player ingame that doesn't like them).

Your statement about 'more focus on end game content' seems a bit weird if you ask me. I agree that there are quite a lot of bugs, that the game was poorly tested in my book given the total lack of balance & bugs in raids, etc .. but that has not much to do with the amount of content.

[Shodokan]

I can understand that if you compare Northrend with the cata zones, that the wotlk feels way bigger. But then again, how long do you actually stay in those zones before reaching the cap? Now I wasn't playing when WotLK was released, but as far as I know they only had nax normal up as a raid instance. Whereas now, there are 3 different raids, with a a very flexible lockout, 12 normal and 13 heroic modes. Most of them quite challenging. There are 8 heroic dungeons available, challenging and pretty big. There are 2 very good bg's added (and I yet have to meet a player ingame that doesn't like them).

Your statement about 'more focus on end game content' seems a bit weird if you ask me. I agree that there are quite a lot of bugs, that the game was poorly tested in my book given the total lack of balance & bugs in raids, etc .. but that has not much to do with the amount of content.

Naxx had 12 bosses in it, sarth and then maly. Naxx on a BAD night took 6 hours of raiding(complete pug)... you can't complete all 12 bosses right now in 6 hours.

I don't like BfG.... people are retarded and can't play it correctly.

[Multibocks]

Tol Borad is a piece of shit too

[Shodokan]

Tol Borad is a piece of shit too

Agreed

[Littleburst]

I can understand that if you compare Northrend with the cata zones, that the wotlk feels way bigger. But then again, how long do you actually stay in those zones before reaching the cap? Now I wasn't playing when WotLK was released, but as far as I know they only had nax normal up as a raid instance. Whereas now, there are 3 different raids, with a a very flexible lockout, 12 normal and 13 heroic modes. Most of them quite challenging. There are 8 heroic dungeons available, challenging and pretty big. There are 2 very good bg's added (and I yet have to meet a player ingame that doesn't like them).

Your statement about 'more focus on end game content' seems a bit weird if you ask me. I agree that there are quite a lot of bugs, that the game was poorly tested in my book given the total lack of balance & bugs in raids, etc .. but that has not much to do with the amount of content.

I gotta say i agree with Gunsun on that point. For some reason, going back to old content doesn't really feel like a "new" expansion. Whch has very few to do with how many new instances, BG's or whatever we got. The allready existing area got expanded with some neat new additions, but still.

Might also have to do with Cata being the third expansion in line and it's just more of the same. Not that It's really possible to change that, though.

Not so much to do with thinking as with how it feels to play.

[zenga]

Maybe that feeling also has to do with the fact that wrath had a new class (dk)? which is something i guess most players tried, and still feels more new (and probably longer as well) than just a new race?

[jinkobi]

I've cancelled my ten accounts because there wasn't enough content.

I saw everything either solo boxing a warrior or leveling up a team, and beat all the new instances on normal with the team, before week four. Then I found myself in a pattern of attempts and repairs, on the same bosses, for heroics. It was boring really fast.

Maybe if there were more zones and instances, maybe if there had been more focus on end game content instead of revamping the old world, maybe if they had added two end zones instead of two new races . . . I don't know. I expected more.

Also, I had just finished Wrath with a process of leveling a team and then farming drops. I found myself right back in the farming mode way too fast. Wrath seemed to have more to do, at 80, before you farmed emblems, points and drops.

Somehow, with Cata, gear equals content. Wrath had this but not as bad. Wrath felt a lot bigger. The overemphasis on gear, especially with dungeon requirements and the asinine ways that the dungeon finder just turns off was a big let down.

Part of my problem is that I have 20 level 80s and no interest in leveling another team. So a lot of the revamped world is no interest to me. I'd rather race change a toon than spend a couple weeks leveling up another one.

I even tried solo boxing, but queue times and idiots reminded me why I boxed. I'd try to tank and get a bad healer, or dps that wouldn't dance around easy to avoid damage. Healers have very fast queue times, but the mana issues and changes to healers really upsets me. I loved healing, and now my healers feel incredibly weak and almost useless. If a pull goes bad the mana runs out and everyone dies. This pattern gets too old too fast. I'd like to have mana to adjust to things going to hell, it's very fun when a group manages to survive a messy pull but now I feel too handicapped to do anything.

All to say, I was very underwhelmed and needed to pursue something more fun. I'm hoping they fix things, but I doubt it because it looks like the year is mapped out with gear as content. Instead of releasing more content, they'll release a dungeon and a bunch of new gear. I'm supposed to run the one new raid for three months to get those rare drops, instead of giving me two or three raids to run for two to three months.

I grew tired of this model in Wrath and Cata seems to be doing more of this with less instances, which makes it too painful.

I think Cata would have been ten times better if the old world revamp had been a content patch, and another team had built an expansion as big as Wrath (or at least had that epic feeling). More instances, more heroics, etc. Doing both at the same time, and my disinterest in leveling alts anymore, seems to have gimped things.

I basically quit for similar reasons myself. Didn't even buy Cata because I saw this coming a mile away. All the changes look great and everything but I'm still in the same old Elwynn Forest, same old Gadgetzan despite the changes. Everything feels too familiar.

Completely understand why they did Cataclysm. It is sort of a necessary evil if they are to proceed with further expansions. With each expansion the player population was being spread over a greater area. They wanted to tighten it up so people weren't as scattered. This way their next expansion won't further spread everyone out.

Really WOW has peaked and is on the downslide. Nothing drastic- WOW's downslide will be like a glacier melting. Yet they have hit their peak imho. With so many great games around now plus great new MMORPG's like DC Universe, Rift, and SWTOR down the road. I'd like to experience new MMORPG's since WOW is offering the same old same old after 6 years. Do anything over and over for 6 years you get burnt out or go insane.