Cataclysm has died. R.I.P.
Today is patch day. However, it's not just any patch day. It is the patch day that ends the game we know as Cata, and replaces it with the beginnings of MoP (Mists of Pandaria). The servers are currently down for the next few (tentative) hours, and will rise again full of the bugs that hopefully Blizzard will detect before the release date of September 25th. The game will be clunky, buggy, and generally unbalanced since all the game content will be designed for level 90; but the cap will remain at 85, so don't fret for now. Basically, we will exist in a state of WoW "limbo" until the actual release of the game.
It is during this time of transition that I find it to be the most appropriate of times to look back before looking forward. Cataclysm, after all, existed for almost two years, took up a ton of recreation time, and had a major impact on the MMO gaming community. In this eulogy of sorts, I feel it most appropriate to review as much of the content in a purely retrospective manner. The game's many successes and handful of faults made the up the whole of the game, and all deserve a look back.
First off, let me start with my credentials for this personal retrospective of this game. I am mainly a PvE content player, even though I racked up over 30k honorable kills in this expansion alone. My favorite thing to do in WoW is to raid on my hunter, and is the the aspect from which I have gained the most perspective. Even though I mainly DPS'd on my hunter, I also healed raids on a shaman, and tanked on a warrior. I have also leveled every class to the max level of 85, and have leveled on both factions. I have leveled every profession, and earned over 11k achievement points including the "Insane in the Membrane" achievement, so my ability to withstand the mundane is well intact. I play most days of the week, and consider this game my hobby rather than just a simple diversion for recreation.
With that out of the way, I think instead of just giving the game a rating, it's important to look at all the features individually before looking directly at the sum. There's so much content in this game that it's entirely likely that individual features may be ignored by certain players who are still able to get a full gaming experience by just cherry picking the content they wish to enjoy. Therefore, it would be unfair to rate the game with a uniform grade when the intention of the player can vary to such great degrees. The following retrospective will split the content into individual pieces, and a final grade will only be given if I deem it appropriate to do so.
Let us begin.
Raids (A)
The first tier of raids offered up new raid bosses with extremely fun mechanics. The tier 11 raids, Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the Four Winds, offered up probably the most exciting and fulfilling content of the expansion. Between the three, there were 12 bosses that were, for the most part, all exceptionally fun fights. Whether I was chaining Magmaw's head to a spike, jumping from platform to platform on the Conclave of Wind, or trying burn the Ascendant Council evenly, there was plenty of nuanced excitement to go around. The first tier of raids was perfect.
Favorite Tier 11 fight: Magmaw
Favorite personal moment: As cool as it was to be the sole survivor in the twin dragons fight one week, defeating Cho'gall as the first raid clear for our guild in Cata sticks out as my most favorite moment.
Tier 12, the second tier in Cataclysm, brought us Firelands. For those who raided Molten Core back in the original WoW, Firelands was a sort of Molten Core 2.0. We journeyed into Ragnaros' elemental plain to destroy him for good, and ran into some good fun along the way. The Firelands' bosses were set up in a much less linear fashion which allowed the raid to decide which order the first five bosses were encountered. Initially, the instance was over tuned and frustrating, but once it was sorted out by Blizzard, it became one of the most intensely entertaining raid experiences imaginable. Each fight brought their own flavor, and all of them required precise execution to complete. While some were easier than others, none were able to be taken as "gimmes." As the months went on, Blizzard hit Firelands with the ultranerf bat, and basically neutred the experience for the sake of overall progression. This took some of the shine of Firelands, making it less than perfect, but still an incredibly fun raid.
Favorite Tier 12 fight: Alysrazor
Favorite personal moment: I'd have to say helping a guild member finish the legendary staff. It took a long time, and it was well deserved.
Tier 13, the third and final tier of Cataclysm, allowed raiders to finally take it to that bastard Deathwing, who had spent the majority of the expansion randomly killing players. While the raid Dragon Soul (DS) was indeed fun, it was definitely the most unsatisfying of the five raids in Cata. The raid was a very stripped down experience, requiring little to no utility by players. As a DPS, all that was required was learning the dance to each fight, and then maximizing your damage output while doing so. One fight even went so far as to just require players to hit a button avoid a boss mechanic. However, there were some truly innovative and fun fights like Spine, Warmaster, and Hagara that kept the instance fun, but the fact that too many fights were one trick ponies kept the instance to living up to my personal expectations for the final encounter with Deathwing.
Favorite Tier 13 fight: Warmaster Blackhorn (heroic)
Favorite personal moment: Using my pet to chain the last totem on Hagara to save a wipe, guaranteeing our first heroic kill.
It was also during this time that WoW first introduced the Raid Finder. It provided players an opportunity to get some basic experience with the DS raid and some lower tier loot. The groups were typically annoying, and after a while, I stopped doing them all together since the real raiding was more fun. That being said, it's really great that Blizzard is still thinking of ways to incorporate the casual player into the raiding experience.
In the final analysis, apart from a few dark spots, raiding was spectacular. I happily looked forward to Tuesdays to start a new week of raiding, and got the most personal fulfillment from the game with these Cataclysm raids. I will continue to raid in MoP, and Cataclysm only bolstered my enthusiasm from Wrath.
Dungeons (B+)
This was easily the most controversial aspect of Cataclysm (from a PvE perspective) throughout the expansion. In Wrath, there were tons of players who felt that the heroic dungeon content was far too easy. Blizzard's response was to make the dungeons significantly more difficult. The result was a learning curve that angered and scared off more casual players, and caused dungeon queue times to reach as high as an hour. Personally, I liked the original dungeon design as they felt like miniature raids. I liked it as a training tool for raids, but I understand many just wanted to grind out the gear, while others simply liked having a casual killing spree. As the expansion went on, the release of the Zandalari dungeons, which were actually old raids that were reformatted into 5-man form, pushed some of the casual players away, while causing gear grinders to stop running dungeons as they chose to focus more on the actual raids. Finally, Blizzard seemed to decide that accessibility far outweighs challenging players in the heroic dungeon format, and released the Hour of Twilight heroics along with the release of Dragon Soul. This final wave of heroics hearkened back to old days of Wrath where heroics could essentially be face rolled. As a net, no progress was truly made in Cataclysm, and dungeons basically served as data for ongoing research on what is truly the best direction for dungeons going forward.
Quests (A-)
Quests were almost completely overhauled from the original game in Cataclysm. Since Deathwing basically destroyed the existing structure of the world, it only made sense that new quests would result from it. The quests themselves became more streamlined and linear with the vast majority of them being able to be completed without the assistance of a group. Many old quests were replaced by easier, but in most cases, more interesting quests that allowed a more casual player to have a lot fun leveling on their own. However, the biggest drawback was lack of consistency in the overhaul from 1-85. Why weren't Outland and Northrend updated in a similar fashion? After level 58, the fun and new experience was over until you reached level 80. The questing system was a good idea, but didn't completely deliver.
Professions (B-)
There were no new major professions added, and farming the materials seemed to work about the same as it had in previous expansions. I will say that it did seem much easier farming in Cataclysm than Wrath since it seemed like materials were more abundant.
Archaeology was a secondary profession added. It was boring, and I only learned it to try to learn pattern for a mount.
PvP (A-)
While my PvP experience is limited, I did do my fair share of Tol Barad and random battlegrounds. For an open PvP environment, Tol Barad was a lot of fun. Several fights could get really intense with each side gaining massive, but equal, numbers of participants. The fighting was great, but the design of the game wasn't; too many times I would kill someone only to have them beat me to the next node. Blizzard was constantly tuning it as the capture rates never really seemed to adequately reflect who was winning the fighting in close matches.
With the launch of Cata came two new battlegrounds: Twin Peaks and Battle for Gilneas. However, they were only new in name alone as they were basically re-skins of Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin respectively. Battlegrounds truly lacked the step forward I think a lot of players were hoping to get. That being said, they were both fairly entertaining, and I logged several hours enjoying fighting the Horde.
I did approximately 20 arena matches and only a few rated battlegrounds. I, therefore, disqualify myself from forming any opinion on those two matters.
Final Thoughts
Cataclysm was a ton of fun. It was more fun than any game I can really remember playing. Like I said, it was the game that took MMOs from diversions to legitimate hobbies for me. The Raiding and other PvE content wasn't perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. I have a great deal of fond memories, and I am excited for the future of the WoW franchise. To give this game anything less than "A" would be a lie for me.
On to Pandaria...
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