WoW: Cataclysm

[Verse Dawnstrider]

Caution! This thread may contain.....spoiliers and rumors. If you don't want to ruined please move along.






It's that time of the year and such. Releasing aot of leaks and rumors. What do you like and dislike?

Phasing and Troll Druid. I want to roll a Druid but I want no part of a Night Elf or Tauren. I want a Cat/Bear with Tusks.

All the new race/class combos may put more kick into the game for people that have played awhile.

[Peter McCoy]

While there's a lot I really like in the possible expansion (nothing's confirmed yet) I'm not too impressed with the new class combinations. For example, Tauren Paladin. That's just silly IMHO. It doesn't make sense to me why a Tauren could be a Paladin - they're tribal and have different spirits they worship, hence their druid and shaman classes. But The Light? They don't have anything to do with it as far as I know.

And Night Elf Mages!? The Night Elves abandoned magic in the aftermath of The Sundering, deciding to take up Druidism so that they could heal the damage they had done to Azeroth. It'll have to be a pretty good background story as to why Night Elf Mages start popping up if that's included in the expansion.

The mention of revisiting old areas with new twists will be a very welcome addition since I much prefer the vanilla areas to the expansion locales. I still like Draenor and Northrend, but Azeroth is classic!

[Peter McCoy]

So it's confirmed then: Cataclysm has been officially announced.

Based on the trailer, it looks like Blizzard could really out-do themselves with this expansion. Out-do relative to WoW that is (Starcraft is still my fave Blizz IP).

The shots of the Barrens all sundered and molten looks brilliant. And Im interested to find out more about the new archaeology profession. Oh, and Worgens look completely badass.

[Figrin D'an]

I'm at Blizzcon now, I'll try to post some of the more interesting tidbits when I get home on Monday.

Besides content, game mechanics are going to be changing dramatically in the expansion. Spell power, mp5, armor pen, expertise, attack power... all will be gone. Instead, other core stats will compensate to provide those attributes. It's a return to some of the basic stat concepts from vanilla WoW, but kind of super charged.

Archeology will be tied into the Path of the Titans progression, but nothing was said as to how.

The new race/class combos are welcome, IMO. There are already lore hints in game about these upcoming new options, particularly Tauren Paladins and Night Elf Mages.

Open Q/A sessions are today, I'm sure there will be plenty of questions asked about Cataclysm.


And slightly off topic... Diablo III is so amazingly polished for a test build. The Monk class kicks ass.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I love that they are totally revamping Azeroth. This is going to make playing through new characters so much more interesting, and that was part of the reason I got bored of playing in the first place: repeating the same zones over and over. Obviously the new Azeroth will only remain novel for so long, but some novelty is better than none!

Is there any indication on when this expansion will be released?

[Figrin D'an]

No release information. I think we're looking at late 2010 at the very earliest. The 3.2.2 5th anniversary Onyxia revamp is targeted for this November. 3.3, Icecrown Citadel (which was previewed today at the Dungeons and Raids panel), is looking to be early next year at this point (thinking late January).

They did say that Cataclysm will ship with 4 major raid/dungeon hubs, two of which are going to be The Firelands raid with full strength Ragnaros as the final boss, and Blackwing Descent, which is a new raid begins in Nefarion's room in Blackwing Lair and will involved his return in some manner.

[Shadow Storm]

I don't see more time apart from 9 months passing from announcement to the expansion being released. In addition, Lich King, being a predominatly cold themed expansion, was released during winter. Seeing as how this theme appears to be fire themed, with Ragnaros and Deathwing, I'm predicting a Summer of 2010 release for this expansion.

[Figrin D'an]

I'm a bit skeptical of Cataclysm arriving that quickly, but I guess we'll see. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is scheduled to ship in first quarter of 2010, and Diablo III is actually being rumored to hit by next summer (it's amazingly polished for a game that is still technically in alpha). Blizzard was a little better about getting Lich King out in a reasonable amount of time, but this is still Blizzard, and the "when it's done" philosophy of releasing games is going to take precedence. Three major releases in 2010 (or potentially four if the 2nd chapter of SCII stays on schedule) just seems like a little much for them.

[Morgan Evanar]

I dunno, with all the horrible server queues for anything except a full raid, I'm not totally sure I believe in "when it's done" any more for WoW.

[AmazonBabe]

While they never told us much of anything, my prediction is that Cataclysm will be sometime next year... maybe even the first half of next year?

As for SC II, hard to say... I know some info, but it's one of those "if I told you, I'd have to kill you" type infos.

And as for D III, yeah, my gut says don't expect that for another couple of years.


As for Cataclysm, I'm really excited for it! I'm totally rolling a Worgen! Hell, even my desktop is of Worgen flavor (http://us.media.blizzard.com/c_1256-4/wallpaper/worgen/worgen_1920x1200.jpg). :)

[Shadow Storm]

Re-activated my account last Saturday. At the time my main was a lvl 76 warrior, but I just hit lvl 80 earlier tonight, which is my first lvl 80 character in the four years (on and off) that I've been playing WoW.

[Atreyu]

I dinged my warrior alt to 80 a couple of weeks ago, and had him all kitted out to tank ...

... only to discover I don't like tanking very much. |I

So he's now in hibernation for the moment and I've dusted off my 80 hunter who's been gathering dust since August. I have to say - the new Dungeon Finder tool released with 3.3 is hands down, for me, the single greatest thing Blizzard have done for the game in the time I've been playing it (early 2007). No more having to spam trade channel, guild chat, or constantly refresh the LFG tool just to try and find a party to do an instance with; instead I just sign onto Dungeon Finder when I log on, start doing my dailies, and the game finds a group for me and teleports me straight to the instance. Simple.

My hunter has just now dinged Exalted with Argent Crusade and I have collected enough Emblems of triumph to buy my first iLevel 232 armour (shoulders), this along with drops from a couple of other normal instances (iLevel 219) has now brought my iLevel high enough that pretty much all Heroics are now open to me (I think Halls of Reflection is the only one that is still locked). I'm currently just trying to collect Emblems (mainly Triumph, but with Heroics now more available I might start building up Frost as well) plus work towards my 'Crusader' title (already exalted champion of Orgrimmar and Undercity, champion of Thunderbluff (still working towards exalted) and am currently working on champion of Sen'jin and will then do Silvermoon).

To top it all off, after a fairly quiet December the guild is now talking of getting it's weekly raids going again including some Naxx runs for those who are still a bit lower geared, so I hope to join in on some of those too (an experience my first proper actual RAID in this game).

I'm thoroughly enjoying the game right now. :cool:

[Shadow Storm]

Oh yes, forgot to mention that. Indeed, I do love the new Dungeon Finder system, and the Random Dungeon queue that you get 2xEmblems of Frost/Triumph for doing. The only thing is, it's spread across five realms, and you can't give your healer mana pots/water if he's from another realm, etc.

And FYI, you can exchange Emblems of Triumph for Emblems of Frost or Champions in the second level of the Alliance section in Dalarn, and I assume it's the same for the Horde vendors as well, at the rate of 1 for each.

[Atreyu]

You can trade a Triumph for a Frost??? :huh I'd have to check that out - I know you can trade emblems down (Frost > Triumph > older emblems etc) but wasn't aware that they allowed trading upwards.

[Droo]

Wouldn't surprise me that much, really. WoW has become easy mode for grinding/levelling/gearing up, etc.

[Atreyu]

Well I did some checking and I can't find any NPC that allows 'Triumph to Frost' trades, only the other way around (and continuing on down through the lower emblems), so I think Shadow got muddled up a bit there (have also googled and didn't find anything either). :)

Whilst there I traded in my 10 Frost emblems for Triumph so I could then afford some iLevel 232 hands - very nice upgrade as I still had ye olde iLevel 187 (level 78) blues on beforehand. With that upgrade the last lot of Heroics has unlocked for me so I might now start concentrating on those.

Just did a full run through Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection (all Normal) right through with the same group (barring one who dropped out after Forge - got him replaced) which was very satisfying (though no drops for me). The other two DPSers were still all kitted out in blues so us remaining 3 had our work cut out a bit - happily I comfortably topped the DPS and didn't die once. I love my Hunter. :)

[Lady Vader]

Wouldn't surprise me that much, really. WoW has become easy mode for grinding/leveling/gearing up, etc.

No kidding. I look at all the "easy" stuff now, and all the "hard" stuff I had to do when the game first came out.

I feel like going up to new players, like a crookity old man with a cane "Let me tell you, sonny, back in my day..."

[Droo]

Old school UBRS 15-mans yo! :cool:

[Tear]

Wouldn't surprise me that much, really. WoW has become easy mode for grinding/leveling/gearing up, etc.

No kidding. I look at all the "easy" stuff now, and all the "hard" stuff I had to do when the game first came out.

I feel like going up to new players, like a crookity old man with a cane "Let me tell you, sonny, back in my day..."

Actually that's the same way I feel about people who think WoW at any time, beginning or present, was a grind. The original EverQuest. Now that MMO was a grind. Where level 30 would and could normally take several weeks to 'ding.' Oye, don't even get me started.

You kids get off my lawn!:lol

[Droo]

Actually, I've never found much difficulty in levelling in WoW, in as far as time consumption goes. You see, I have several level 80s and more 70+ characters than I care to mention. However, the levelling has gone from a pleasant stroll down a winding country lane to a mindless race along the straightest motorway in the fast lane!

[Figrin D'an]

I've found myself slowly drifting further and further away from WoW, to the point that I am now not even sure I'm going to buy Catacylsm when it comes out. The luster from the Blizzcon hype has worn off, and looking at things with a more critical eye, I'm just not sure I like the direction the game is going. I've logged on and legitimately played through content twice since the 3.3 patch went live. My goal at this point is to see and experience all of Icecrown Citadel, which I can do with my guild's "alts and friends" raids on weekends. After that, I might just retire my WoW account permanently.

[Lady Vader]

Not to mention all the little perks... like mounts at level 20, and epic mounts at level 30. I remember waiting and waiting for level 40 to get my FIRST mount, and thinking it'd take forever to get to 60 to get my epic one.

And, of course, the leveling thing where they've shortened the amount of XP points, etc etc.

Yeah, what Droo said.


But, I'll still keep playing. Granted my playing has slowed, but that's mostly cause I'm somewhat busy with a baby. :p But I am looking forward to Cataclysm.

[Droo]

Touching on what Fig said, I'm pretty much in the same boat since I haven't played for months now, but I have a good feeling about Cataclysm... well, mixed feelings because one way or the other, I think it will change the game a lot. Hopefully, Blizzard are going to address some major issues that have wormed their way into the game over the course of the years with patches and balancing. First of all, I don't see as much difference between classes when it comes to combat anymore, all PVP is much too nukey-nukey and is over in a matter of seconds. I love PVP but it has become a bit bland and senseless to me. The pace of PVP needs to slow down and become more tactical again. And as has already mentioned, things are becoming much too easy and players are being given convenience over enjoyment in this respect. I don't mind a grind as long as I enjoy it.

On the other hand, these changes (and there seems to be quite a few) that are coming could turn out to be Blizzards equivalent of the notorious Star Wars Galaxies' Combat Upgrade or, even worse, the NGE. I have faith that Blizzard won't make such a gargantuan mistake but you never know. One way or another, I think Cataclysm will make or break this game.

[Figrin D'an]

Don't get me wrong, there are certain things that are planned for Cataclysm that I think are good for the future of the game. Like the stat simplification for one, and some of the design changes to Azeroth to improve travel. My main concerns are the Path of the Titans progression (the infamous "alternative character progression path" that has helped to kill some other MMOs) and, thusfar, there is not nearly enough end-game content planned for launch.

I think Blizzard is banking on the revamp to Azeroth and the opening of some of the previously inaccessible areas to bring back some of that "brand new" excitement that players had when WoW was first launched, when just as many people liked to explore the world as run lvl 60 instances. I'm just not convinced that is the right way to go to maintain the existing player base (let's be honest here, WoW is not growing much anymore, all signs are that the subscription pool has been overall pretty flat since the WoTLK launched... part of that is the problems in China, but US/EU numbers are pretty stagnant).

[Yog]

From my perspective, there are basically 5 variables that may keep a MMO interesting in the long term:

1. Plenty of end game content
2. Deep character development
3. Deep crafting / player based economy
4. Deep guild based features (such as player cities)
5. Risk / reward PvP with serverwide consequences

WoW has always ignored #3-5, but in return, it has been about #1 in form of high end raiding, and epic encounters for groups. #2 is never going to be great because it's a class based MMO, and being too liberal about what skills the various classes can spec into will just lead to game balance issues. Yeah, I'm looking at you "Path of the Titans".

[Atreyu]

Not to mention all the little perks... like mounts at level 20, and epic mounts at level 30. I remember waiting and waiting for level 40 to get my FIRST mount, and thinking it'd take forever to get to 60 to get my epic one.

And, of course, the leveling thing where they've shortened the amount of XP points, etc etc. I often hear how a lot of these things have made the game 'n00b friendly' but to be honest I think most of these changes have been done to benefit the older player community. As Fig mentioned above the subscription base for WoW has been fairly flatline for some time now, with not many new gamers joining in - I recently levelled an alt to 80 a few weeks ago I'd reckon 90% or so of the players I grouped with were alts who had 80 mains. Most of the areas of the vanilla game are complete ghost towns.

This all leads into what you have all touched on, WoW is now over 5 yrs old. For comparisons sake, in that time frame Everquest had a bunch of expansions and released a sequel; Ultima Online also had several expansions plus a planned sequel (that ended up getting canned). WoW on the other hand has only had 2 expansions (plus a number of additions added via patches) and is about to release a 3rd - I sort of see Cataclysm as Blizzards way of releasing a 'sequel' but not quite, instead continuing the 'storyline' but achieving it by redoing the vanilla game so as to keep the current playerbase but also to appeal to newer players.

Aside from all that I'm still curious to see what else might come along that might topple WoW from it's still current #1 spot - even though they all declined shortly afterward the initial subscription numbers for other MMOs such as Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Aion etc etc etc I think point to a yearning in the gaming community for something big besides WoW but nothing has yet come out to fulfill that.

[AmazonBabe]

(I know it's an old thread, but seeing as how Cat is around the corner [the boxart and CE contents were announced in August, therefore the game is to be released Nov/Dec of this year, in keeping with their "release 3/4months after revealing game box content"], I thought maybe resurrecting this thread as opposed to starting a new one would be best.)


Aside from all that I'm still curious to see what else might come along that might topple WoW from it's still current #1 spot - even though they all declined shortly afterward the initial subscription numbers for other MMOs such as Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Aion etc etc etc I think point to a yearning in the gaming community for something big besides WoW but nothing has yet come out to fulfill that.

Joe and I were talking about this the other day, and it's very possible Old Republic might bump WoW from it's #1 spot, but Old Republic is taking a different twist in the MMO genre than what WoW currently is (I have a friend who moved from Blizz to BioWare and has told me he'll 'take good care of me' in getting me into the alpha/beta for Old Republic *nerd squee*).

It's hard to out-wow WoW right now, as it has basically solidified the MMO genre it's in. The only way to really bump it from it's #1 spot would be for something to really outdo it (which, funny enough, I see happening with the new project Blizz is working on).

But, that aside, who all has gotten into the Cataclysm beta? Joe and I have been in it since alpha, and been testing a lot of the new stuff. I can't even BEGIN to tell you how NICE it is to finally use a flying mount in the 'old world'. It makes traveling much faster and easier and less frustrating.

Also, a lot of the changes they've made to the landscape is awesome, especially the new and improved effects they've added, like the water. I can't say anything but good things about the new water effects. Sooooooo much better than the 'cut n paste' pixel squares they had before.

So, for those of you that have made it into the beta, what are your takes and impressions? :)

[Atreyu]

Not playing in the beta I'm afraid.

In regards to WoW in general, I'm still subscribed but barely playing. My old DK (the one I created way back when WOTLK was released) is craaaaaaaaaaaaawling his way to 80 (currently 77 - haven't played him in nearly a week though). I log onto my 80 hunter on weekends to join in some guild runs however things have been growing increasingly quiet on that front over the last couple of months (we'd be lucky to have 7-8 people online at the same time these days). I think everyone is taking a break and waiting for Cataclysm to arrive.

[Figrin D'an]

I'll just say that I've been very, very skeptical of MMOs that have come along since 2004 that were discussed as being "WoW-killers", etc, and I've been proven right every time.

That said, I think SW:TOR is the first one I've seen that could legitimately dent WoW's player base and at least make Blizzard take notice. I don't think SW:TOR will "beat" WoW, but it's got the best shot to challenge it of any MMO I've seen since WoW first came out.

[Acacius Blade]

Regardless of how good a game is, I can't fathom the idea of it taking players away from a game they already enjoy. I already come and go from WoW and Eve Online. Sometimes I'm subscribed to neither, sometimes both, sometimes just one. SW:TOR will have no effect on my current behaviour. If people truly enjoy both WoW and SW:TOR, they'll play both. At the very least I can't see that '12 million subscribers' going down to 11 on account of The Old Republic.

[Atreyu]

Does WoW even have that many subscribers nowadays? :huh I thought I read last year that it's subscription numbers (especially in China) had taken a hit (which is why we haven't seen any more announcements of record subscription numbers in a fair while).

EDIT: Just looked it up - it was apparently around the 11 million mark earlier this year and had been flatline for most of the year previous.

I don't think WoW will ever be 'killed' - at most it'll probably eventually go the same way that Ultima Online did (which has just slowly faded into the background over the years).

[Droo]

Honestly, I think it all depends on what Cataclysm will do. It looks like they're deviating from the old expansion formula and adventurously changing a lot, and this has to be the way to go because I don't see a rehash of Lich King or Burning Crusade doing very well for very long. I don't know about the subscriber numbers but the impression I get from people in the game is they're finding it all a bit tedious now and my old realm is practically a ghost town. Cataclysm is a smart, and ballsy, move. If they get it wrong, it's the Star Wars Galaxies NGE all over again. If they get it right, it will be breath new life into the game and give it legs for years to come. And as for me, I'll try it, but I'm not holding my breath - the whole WoW experience has become stale for me now, and unsurprisingly, given the length of time I've played it. I'd never say it was a bad game, it's a brilliant game, but I think I've played it to death. Let's see if Cataclysm will prove me wrong!

[Acacius Blade]

w00t! Cataclysm Beta invite - installing client now :)

[Acacius Blade]

Alas - a 600MB download which took around 4 hours, followed by a 13GB update.

Maybe I'll play it tonight.

[Droo]

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Ohhhh my... :ohno

[Tear]

I still don't get why Blizzard wants to go life action for their movie. I would drop money for this sort of quality cinematic adventure easy.

[Acacius Blade]

I still don't get why Blizzard wants to go life action for their movie. I would drop money for this sort of quality cinematic adventure easy.

Me too - I think it would be a lot more charming.

Also - and no pun intended by this - it'll lose a lot of it's character. Without heavy prosthetics you won't get the looks right for Dwarves, Night Elves, Gnomes etc. Even the human characters would need prosthetics to look like they're from Azeroth - it's a very stylized visual in the game. Look at how awesome The Clone Wars is (and yes, Droo, I know I need to watch more).

[Acacius Blade]

Just watched that trailer now (was posting from work yesterday).

I've always considered the scope of the quest in LOTR to be one of the most epic I've had the pleasure of watching/reading. But I have to say that the concept of Deathwing , his power and its effect upon Azeroth is just awesome in the truest sense of the word.

[Dasquian Belargic]

The story is what always attracts me back to Warcraft. It's just a pity that the games don't often capture the same magical, epic feel.

[Dasquian Belargic]

:o I've just discovered I can get 10 free days of Lich King on my old account (that I remembered the password to after about 40mins) so I'm going to give that a go.... since I have also just realised (silly me) that I will need to own Lich King to be able to play Cataclysm |I

BTW Droo and Peter - do you fancy levelling some Worgens together when Cataclysm is released? I don't think I have ever had the chance to play WoW with anyone on the boards.

[Miranda Tarkin]

Impressions? The fact the place is huge is great. I love exploration and that you actually get experience for finding places. Since I'm human, Stormwind (i think that is the capital) has the usual chat box annoyances that you find, but again .... huge city o_o

It is getting some use to the combat system with a Pally - and I still can't figure out where the hell the holy power is XD I love being a n00b

[Blade Bacquin]

^ Hypocrite I thought WoW sucked and you would never play it. :P

BTW Alliance sucks do it for the Horde!

[Dasquian Belargic]

I am just trying out being a Death Knight. The starting zone was actually pretty fun.

[Miranda Tarkin]

Sigh... I have too many friends and I would like a fantasy online game. I am not a hypocrite to actually try something instead of nay saying.

[Dasquian Belargic]

If anyone else wants a go, I've got a couple of 10 day guest passes that I've never used.

[Figrin D'an]

Just an FYI for anyone playing, it's been confirmed that Patch 4.0.3a is going live tomorrow. Why is this important?

Because it means that 'The Shattering' will occur tomorrow. That's right, Deathwing emerges from Deepholm, changing the face of Azeroth forever. This is the final part of the prelude to the Cataclysm expansion.


A quick summary:

What's in Patch 4.0.3a

What is not in:

* Creating worgen/goblin characters
* Worgen/Goblin start zones
* Archeology
* Professions past 450 (Illustrious Grand Master)
* Guild leveling
* Guild achievements
* Eastern Kingdoms/Kalimdor flight
* New Zones (80+)


What is in:

* Portals in Dalaran/Shattrath Removed
* Class trainers in Dalaran where portals once were
* New race-class combinations (excluding worgen/goblin)
* New Gnome/Troll starting areas
* Changes to existing zones
* New cata load screens
* New cata intro cinematic
* New cata login screen
* New music
* City Quartermasters, with rep tabards
* Bug fixes
* Class balancing
* Druids, paladins, priests, and shaman will have their talent trees reset
* Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 is being reduced by 20%
* New tamable hunter pets (Monkey, fox, dog, and beetle, as well as new skins for existing pet classes.)


A lot of lower level quests from the areas affecting by The Shattering will be altered or removed as well, so keep that in mind if you are leveling currently.

Should be fun to see the changes though.

[Dasquian Belargic]

And I am off work. Splendid! I think I'll level a new character.

[Acacius Blade]

Ooooh. Dwarf Warlock is a strong possibility.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Is there any particular time frame when this is going to go live? I can't seem to find an official word anywhere to say what time the Shattering will occur.

[Droo]

The EU servers are patched between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. So this time tomorrow, all of Azeroth will have changed... forever!

I haven't played WoW for a few weeks but today, I'm going to go around, and take in the classic sights one last time. :cry

[Anne Phoenix]

I wonder how they're going to do the character locations. Just teleport them into a city? I'm assuming they wouldn't leave the characters logged out in the affected areas just to have someone log in and promptly free fall into a chasm of lava after the patch goes through. Or, if you logged out after dying, trying to reach your skeleton which is hanging in mid-air several hundred feet above you. :lol

[Figrin D'an]

US servers are being patched right now. New cinematic and loading screen are part of the patch.

The new cinematic is as impressive as ever for Blizzard. Deathwing is badass beyond belief.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I wonder how they're going to do the character locations. Just teleport them into a city? I'm assuming they wouldn't leave the characters logged out in the affected areas just to have someone log in and promptly free fall into a chasm of lava after the patch goes through. Or, if you logged out after dying, trying to reach your skeleton which is hanging in mid-air several hundred feet above you. :lol

You get ported to your heathstone location, apparently.

[Morgan Evanar]

Apparently the world ended today. I wanna see it when it comes back up :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

Did anyone do any last explorations of Azeroth? There was a load of people on my realm doing run after run of Zul'Gurub, trying to get the tiger mount.

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A 'guided tour' for the changes occuring.

[Figrin D'an]

US Servers have been up for a few hours. The changes are impressive. It's easy just to spend hours walking/flying around seeing everything.

[Atreyu]

Quick question - if we buy Cataclysm will it already have all these updates included in the install, or will we have to download all these updates anyway?

(I only ask because if it's the latter, I'll probably start downloading them now so I'm all ready to go when Cataclysm is out)

[Figrin D'an]

Quick question - if we buy Cataclysm will it already have all these updates included in the install, or will we have to download all these updates anyway?

(I only ask because if it's the latter, I'll probably start downloading them now so I'm all ready to go when Cataclysm is out)


There's always patching that has to be done when these expansions go live anyway, so you'll be downloading stuff regardless.

Easiest way... buy the Cataclysm download via Battle.net, upgrade your account now, and it'll start doing background downloads so you will be ready to go completely on launch day.

[Atreyu]

Thanks Fig - I've just been doing some Googling and I figured that would be the best option. Seems the simplest route, not to mention the cheapest (in Australia there's almost $20 difference between the digital copy and buying from the local computer store o_O).

[Morgan Evanar]

If you’ve been thinking about getting into World of Warcraft, now would be an excellent time. The 4.0.3a patch has gone live, changing Azeroth forever, and Cataclysm’s release is a few weeks away. Now, on top of all that, World of Warcraft and its first two expansions are on sale. World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade are £4 / $5 and Wrath of the Lich King is £8 / $10. The deal is set to run until November 29th on the Blizzard store.

[Dasquian Belargic]

The new starting zone for Trolls is very nice!

[Droo]

Dwarf Shammy. :)

[Atreyu]

Should we all list the characters we intend to roll?

I'm planning on a Goblin Mage first off. I might roll a worgen eventually (not sure which class yet, we'll see) but it can wait.

(I predict that 90% of new toons created are going to be worgen anyway |I)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I wish I could get in on this. :(

[Dasquian Belargic]

I rolled Troll Druid (Anachronos EU - where all my chars are)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Got to say, I love the Worgen starting zone. The visual aesthetic ticks all the right boxes for me.

[Acacius Blade]

My copy hasn't arrived yet :(

[Atreyu]

Just dinged my Goblin Mage to 14 - having a blast with him so far. The starting zone had fantastic visuals and a very entertaining storyline. :)

Now I'm in Orgrimmar atm and I already find it a royal PITA to get anywhere - hopefully it's just unfamiliarity. Though that run to the back door gets tedious |I I can't wait until I ding 20 and get my mount.

[Dasquian Belargic]

My copy hasn't arrived yet :(

I went with the digital download. Instant gratification!

I don't like the new Ogri either... but I think that is probably just on account of not knowing where the hell everything is. I always had the same problem when I roll an Alliance char and visit Stormwind.

[Acacius Blade]

It was here when I got home from work today. Woohoo!

[Anne Phoenix]

Had a heck of a time getting my account back up into running order. Had to get it unlocked because from back in May Blizzard had charged me for two months in one, in which I denied one charge, and got my account locked for a negative fee. Then, after it was unlocked and everything was in running order, I got my account hacked less than 6 hours after I renewed the subscription, and ended up with my main having 400G missing, but with several full stacks of Eternium Ore and some other Ore with a green name that I've never heard of.

So after all that humbug, right now I'm up to lvl 10 with a Worgen Rogue.

[Acacius Blade]

Level 9 Worgen Druid FTW! I just love Gilneas!

[Atreyu]

Level 31 Goblin mage (Fire specialisation). Having a great time thus far - just finished Stonetalon Mountains and am heading off to Southern Barrens next. :)

[Anne Phoenix]

Talking about the Gilneas questing zone, Elf war machines ftw. I killed probably twenty times the amount of orcs I needed to, just having fun rolling around alternatly firing salvos and singles of the scythes. :p :cool:

The only quest more win then that one so far would be the Keeshan Rambo quest in Redridge Mountians, although that entire quest line was pretty much win. :lol

[Atreyu]

My mage is now 53 - this is the fastest levelling experience I've ever had. Since my last post I've done Southern Barrens, Dustwallow Marsh, Thousand Needles, Tanaris, Un'Goro Crater and am now in Winterspring.

Of those only Dustwallow Marsh and Un'Goro Crater I've found a bit disappointing, mainly due to the seemingly lack of new quests or storylines existing (admittedly I didn't spend much time in the crater so maybe there's more stuff there I just haven't seen - the new quest hub area south of the volcano is nice though).

Thousand Needles was awesome - completely redesigned quest hubs and storylines; I spent a lot of time just going underwater searching for mining nodes and marvelling at all the dead critters left over from when it was still dry. :cool:

[Figrin D'an]

The pinnacle of questing in Cataclysm is, IMO, the Harrison Jones quest line in Uldum. Amazingly fun, interesting, and plenty of LOL moments as it pays homage to everyone's favorite globe-trotting archeologist.

[Anne Phoenix]

Of the two things I've wanted to do so far in the expansion, I have a Worgen Rogue up to lvl 16, and a Human Hunter up to lvl 29. I also rolled a Worgen DK through the starting zone quests just for the heck of it, and the /growl command is pretty darn eerie, like an actual Hollywood Werewolf movie sound.

[Lady Vader]

The pinnacle of questing in Cataclysm is, IMO, the Harrison Jones quest line in Uldum. Amazingly fun, interesting, and plenty of LOL moments as it pays homage to everyone's favorite globe-trotting archeologist.

THIS!!!!

I was SO sad when the quest chain was over! After completing the quest chain, I was kicking myself for not frapsing it. SO much fun!

[Atreyu]

Since LV has bumped the thread I figured I'd post an update.

I got my goblin mage to 71 last week, then logged off him and haven't played him since. Honestly, Outland and then Northrend were just so boring and were real drags to play through - the quest changes they've done for new-vanilla and the 80-85 areas have really spoilt me so to go back to ye olde back-and-forth-back-and-forth style questing gets really tiresome very quickly. The fact that Outland/Northrend is practically a ghost town doesn't help matters much either.

Meanwhile, I've stated levelling my hunter from 80 and he's now 83 and in Deepholm. Really enjoying him and the new areas. :) Unfortunately my guild is very quiet at present so I've been taking my sweet time levelling (only logging in and playing every 2-3 days for a couple of hours).

[Morgan Evanar]

I'm really terrible at being a boomkin. :(

[Atreyu]

What is the Best Hunter Pet?

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:lol Sporebat!

[Atreyu]

::bump::

Well I dinged 85 a few weeks ago with my hunter, and that's been about as far as I've gotten him.

My goblin mage still gathers dust at 71, and I have no interest in budging him.

My guild's virtually inactive - the guild masters (husband and wife duo) have been offline for over a week and already a couple of the more active players have /gquit.

I've just allowed my sub to rollover for a new month, but I daresay that minus any new developments on the guild front this might be my final month of play, if indeed ever. I have never hit the level cap this fast before (it usually took me a good 8-12 months previously) and the lack of things to really do is just leaving me with no interest in continuing WoW. :(

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13973145


Popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW) is to be offered free up to level 20.

Previously fans of the game, which has 11.4 million subscribers, had to pay a monthly fee of £8.99.

Under the new system, players will be able to build an unlimited number of characters but they will not be able to join guilds or accumulate more than ten gold coins.

[Atreyu]

Clearly only for the brand-new fan - I can't imagine trying to play with those limitations (especially the 10g), even at the lower levels.

EDIT: turns out it's not so free ...

Users wishing to take advantage of the WoW free offer will still have to buy the base game, which costs around £10. Pretty cheap, but still means that anyone new to the game will have to fork out first. :\

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=20590

Blizzards FAQ doesnt say that you need to buy the game. You just download the client from their site and start playing.

[Atreyu]

That is indeed better then. :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Haha I could finally play!

[Peter McCoy]

You go girlfriend!