WOW GOLD Fact: I haven't touched my World of Warcraft account in almost a year (and while I can practically hear the collective clicks on your browsers' Back buttons, hear me out). I started playing Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game (after a long stint of turning my nose up at the prospect, no less) when the Burning Crusade expansion hit in early 2007. "Just level a character to 20 and see how you like it," my buddy said. Fine, I agreed. Two weeks later, I was rocking two level 30 characters (a tauren hunter and an undead warlock, if you're curious)... and the rest is history.
But a time comes in every rational MMO player's life when they've played a particular game so much that they can see the seams in the virtual world.WOW GOLD Nothing's a surprise anymore; simply playing the game eventually becomes a process in which you know all the variables, and you're rehearsing the same script ad nauseam. It happened to me with Ultima Online, it happened to me with Guild Wars, and eventually, it happened to me with WoW.
The Blasted Lands are looking a bit less... well, blasted these days.
But soon -- by the end of 2010, I'm guessing -- World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be upon us, reeling tired old skeptics like myself back in with its promise of an all-new world of Azeroth, torn asunder by a massive dragon overlord in the titular apocalypse.WOW GOLD And it's going to mean a heck of a lot more than a few scary lava pools strewn about.
Yes, the so-called "Old World" has been subtly (and in some cases, not-so-subtly) redressed to accommodate the myriad advancements that WoW's expansions made, enabling everything from flying mounts (finally) to phased zone content a la the Wrath of the Lich King expansion's phenomenal death knight citadel. Stormwind and Orgrimmar -- the Alliance and Horde's respective capital cities -- get full-scale overhauls that put them more in line with the game's evolving fiction (no more running to the ass-end of Orgrimmar to see the Warchief,WOW GOLD Horde fans... he's smack-dab in the center of town). And, most crucially, the sundering has changed Azeroth's leveling roadmap. The Southern Barrens (no more super-long run through one giant zone) becomes a mid-level playground, while the formerly high-level Azshara finds itself as a lowbie Horde area, perfect for funneling new goblin characters into once they outgrow their starting city. If you're an alt-a-holic that's sick of running new characters through the same grind for the ninth or tenth time, Cataclysm should give you something new to chew on (at least for a while).
Welcome to Orgrimmar v2.0.
Heck, in the precious few hours I spent in the new Old World during a recent visit to Blizzard HQ, I devoted most of my time toward simply flying around Azeroth to see what's changed. Thousand Needles' Shimmering Flats are decimated, now submerged in water. The Barrens are half lush, lava-spiked jungles -- while the other half is same-old, same-old. And Hyjal,WOW GOLD long infiltrated by determined map-hackers in its perpetual "under construction" state, is officially open for business, with the World Tree at its center near an as-yet unfinished crater where Archimonde had his ass handed to him by countless Caverns of Time raids. The goblin starting area of Kezan took the cake, though: This haphazard steampunk city is on par with Acherus in terms of creative merit, with all the same slick quest-phase trickery. My baby goblin warlock entertained partygoers, engaged in some mech-powered sports, and ran roughshod over scores of looters in his gratis goblin hot-rod. Here's hoping the "Pick Up 10 of A Thing" quests are few and far between in this new world order.
As sweeping as it all is, these big world changes aren't the first things that pop into my head when I think "Cataclysm." No, in my mind, the sneaky subtitle refers to the effect this expansion -- hell, this remake -- will have on WoW's hardcore user base.
At level 80, Hyjal will be your first destination.
Everyone's no doubt heard the buzz about Blizzard's revised raiding philosophy. In Cataclysm, endgame raids -- both 10- and 25-man variants -- will yield the same loot (the latter will simply yield more of it). No more exclusivity for the power-raiders; no more bragging rights to put on display. For the dedicated players out there, the satisfaction of having gone down the 25-man route will have to be its own reward. While it sounds like pro 25-man raids will get a crack at the occasional Algalon the Observer-esque "prestige" boss fight, it's time to come to terms with Blizzard's underlying message: Raiding isn't an exclusive club anymore -- in any way, WOW GOLD shape, or form. The very fact that 25-man raids can be "downshifted" into multiple 10-man raids (though not the reverse) to help cope with off-nights during a disorganized raid week... well, that says everything. At Wrath of the Lich King's launch, I predicted that WoW's next expansion would end 25-man raiding for good. It seems Blizzard's come but one step shy.
WoW's renewed embrace of casual players is evident in other sweeping changes, WOW GOLD too. The new rated Battleground system -- which, yes, offers the same rewards as the much-harder Arenas -- appeals to the everyman who enjoys the occasional player-versus-player team fight. The new guild features, specifically the ability to earn points toward guild reputation rewards for participating in quests and dungeons with your guildmates, promotes consistent group play from early levels. And the new crafting skill, Archaeology, essentially amounts to piecing together purely cosmetic items for your avatar. It's a casual cataclysm -- an apocalypse of all-inclusiveness.
And I'm good with that. I may even take it for a spin. You know, just until level 20 or so |
