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Sunday, December 12, 2010

First impressions of Cataclysm



Long story short, one week into Cataclysm, and it is looking great.

For sure, some effort was put in areas where high level players don't really go, except en passant. Such is the case of Darkshore and alike, which were heavily revamped due to the cataclysmic tsunami caused by Darkwing waking up. Flying in Azeroth is a long time wish, and specially Orgrimmar seems to have been 100% recreated, while Stormwind changed a bit in some areas, but essentially remained the same city.


What really looks great for me is Vash'jir. I did all the quests in this area with Netcownt and I'm now also doing them slowly with my other 6 chars (Mage, Rogue and Hunter are being left behind, the rest are trailing Netcownt, 4 of them dualboxing).

I still had no time to check up on the Goblin and Worgen starting areas, although in both cases, for me at least, a story link is missing that shows to level 80 players that killed Arthas, why are we going to interact more heavily with Goblins and Worgens now.


I'm now half way into Hyjal. The story background in Hyjal goes back to my beloved Warcraft adventures in the XXth century. Now it just develops a bit further.

Graphically, it couldnt be better. I'm still doing 50-60 fps, more detail, underwater movement, textures, etc, are stunning.

Questwise, it is also an improvement. We have much less optional quests, there is now a sense of duty, of chain questing that actually tries to achieve something. There are still those "kill 10 mobs", "grab 8 flowers", but there are also many quests where the player (this one is copied from LOTRO, by the way) impersonates the enemy (nagas), and some funny gnome adventures. Intermediate cinematics are also a good idea.

In terms of playability, I think it's too easy. Seeing hundreds of lvl 85 players after 1-2 days of the expansion being released is just ridiculous. I'm sure some of them farmed the same mobs over and over, and most quested without bothering to read one line, and are now gearing up in heroics. Ofc, each player is paying to play, and is free do to with his time whatever he pleases, and if he feels good by having 320+ gear level after 1 week of play, then be it.
Anyway, it is TOO easy. In LOTRO, in AION, in vanilla WoW, if you had more than one mobs on you, it was tough. If you had three, it was immensely challenging. In Cata, I go into Demo mode as a iLvl264 warlock and I can dispatch 5-8 mobs in 10-15 secs. I have more problems gathering them than killing them, although in some areas, respawn rates are so high you can simply stay on one spot for hours. It's probably that way that the first lvl 85 showed up, I'm sure.

I'm going slower, reading each quest, some times checking up on lore to see if it matches the RPG story outside of the computer game, and previous Warcraft games.

On Chromaggus, the PVP is..a nightmare. Alliance is outnumbered may be 5:1 or more, and horde are killing on sight with no remorse. Dualboxing plates should help, I thought, keeping them away. It doesn't. I cannot even get revenge, as when I try to, 5 of them fall on me in less than one breath. A nightmare indeed :) and it slows leveling a lot ! Oh well, it's fun too, yelling "filho da puta!" in my office :)

5 comments:

dário said...

Bem eu muito honestamente adorei as zonas que vi. Tenho estado a ler o quest text de todas as areas em que tenho passado e tenho adorado. Tenho completado todas as areas em que passei o que fez com que entrasse em deepholme mais avançado do que devia a nivel levando a que entrasse em twilight highlands ja quase a 85....
Quanto à velocidade de leveling sim concordo contigo isto esta demasiado rapido. Eu estou a levelar ao meu ritmo normal sem fazer rush e ja estou a 84 no belf... Em compensação o guild leveling esta demasiado lento. Tou numa guild em que de momento so aparece eu e o mythryn e de vez em kando um colega meu e não há maneira de por aquilo a nivel 2.
O PVP eu no kazzak ate ao momento nao tenho tido qualquer problema. Se fui gankado 2 vezes foi muito. Agora no chrommagus nao posso dizer o mesmo. Tinha de andar a fazer vanish sempre k tava fora do CD... Ultimamente ando tentado em tirar este char da alliance e leva lo po tarren mill com a hanna. mas nao sei se o faço pk assim perco char alliance...
Se calhar para nao o transferir, levelo um goblin no realm dela. K achas?

Pedro Lucas said...

o myth ? ele estava nos nemesis mas agora deve ter mudado de nome, ja nao aparece na armory o druida ou o mage dele. Limpei hyjal vashj com o lock e estou a 83.6, e só fiz metade de 1 dungeon. Está facil está, os níveis deviam ter o dobro da XP. E o guild leveling parece-me buggado, ou dá menos de 5%. Tenho o DK nos SDD (Lvl2) e o Warrior nos LOM (Lvl1), e a fazer dualboxing, e vão iguais a 82. A unica coisa que o warr fez a + foi apanhar uns 15 minérios. Mas tá-se. A ver se hoje começo a experimentar tankar. Vou com +50K HP nos dois.

Pedro Lucas said...

Não transfiras, senão ficamos sem nenhum server onde estamos os dois. Ao menos o chro, para fazermos umas dungeons.

dário said...

Quanto ao myth ele ainda tem o mesmo nome. Tá agora no Kazzak na minha guild The Number J (dont ask...)
os SDD ainda tao vivos?
E ja a level 2?
Eu a guild do kazzak ainda ta a um :s
ok vou manter o char do chrommagus onde ta e levelo o goblin no tarren mill.
God k azia levelar mais um char de 0 a 85 :S
Quanto a guild leveling isso foi nerfado paí a 100%. Reduziram imenso a velocidade em k levelas.

Pedro Lucas said...

Ah foi para o Kazz, eu só procurei no Chro. Julguei que a tua guilda no Kazz era só tugas, os ex-chrom. Os SDD tão bem vivos, estão uns 10 online. Eu voltei fizeram-me uma festa, o Toede, a Nila, o Elu.. o Strings tb lá está, um tipo mt porreiro. Mas tu queres mesmo um char para raidar no Tarren ? És doido. Eu estou em 2-3 servers e estou-me a passar. Falta sinergia para gemas, enchants, etc.