For those asking about my broken finger: Last Saturday, while on the way home from an event, I was struck by a drunk driver. Got taken to the hospital, got a bunch of glass taken out of my arms, but luckily, the only real damage was my broken pinky finger. My car was 100% totaled, however. Now I'm just dealing with the insurance company. Thanks everyone for the concern. 😊
Been saying this for 5 years now it feels like. Every streamer and youtuber who talked about how much they love the OG leveling experience all follow and preach rxp or zygor. It's so antithetical to the classic leveling experience I can't even....
@@ryanmullen483 Thats 99% of the "classic" playerbase. They dont WANT vanilla, they want fresh seasonal servers for that dopamine hype train of what classic LAUNCH was in 2019. If you all really wanted vanilla theres era but shits dead as fuck. Nobody wants to play perma vanilla content cause they don't actually like the game lmfao.
@@veppy4952 Era Whitemane is still active man. we're progging Naxx right now. still raid MC/BWL/AQ40/ZG/AQ20 every week. still roaming STV looking for victims
I actually like the questing of Cataclysm the best of all the different expansions and leveling/questing changes. Each area has its own story that you contribute to without being "THE HERO". Classic leveling feels too much like you're running around doing shit that achieves very little, while in Cata it feels like I'm actually having an effect on the world narrative even if its small. I feel like its the right middle ground between Classic and Retail leveling imo.
I get what you're saying, I loved Silverpine forest storyline a lot, but mobs are too easy, professions are useless and lfging gives you more xp anyway. It all felt useless, at least for me. I still leveled slowly by questing, because dungeon spamming got boring fast (what's the use of all the people in the group if you don't interact at all?). But it was really, really boring gameplay-wise. I wish I could just read all the quests and books and whatever you had to interact with without killing mobs. There were also mobs with exclamation marks, like mini bosses or something but there was nothing special about them, you killed them with ease, too. Maybe if not all quests gave you gear or weapon as a reward or no quests at all gave you them and lfg teleportation wasn't available until level cap, leveling would feel better (and dungeons, too, because gear from dungeons would feel even more worth it, because of the demand to travel by foot or on mount). And professions would feel more rewarding that way. I dunno. Cataclysm just wasn't designed as a journey, even though it had all these cool and really interesting storylines (but they don't feel as good after you complete them once because of gameplay problems described above, especially in goblin and worgen starting zones which you can't escape until you complete them because of phasing restrictions and thus you don't feel like you have full control to do anything your heart desires) I started in cata, I love many of its features, but overall I prefer classic approach despite classic having tons of outdated things and mechanics
@eveahn9595 eh. I think you and I have different tastes for MMOs. I would actually prefer an MMO without leveling grind. Give me a story and let me progress the story and my gear, I do not want to be gated from story and content by a made up number. So Cataclysm leveling is a bit too slow for me but I like the stories and the feeling of getting more powerful. I have 0 interest in whether or not it should be longer, the story should decide that imo
@@jacobyboyer3681 I'm not a fan of grind, either, I'm a fan of open alive world in which you can escape from your own just to do something stupid with your fellas or do quests or whatever. Classic provides that to some degree. Cata doesn't, unfortunately. World was a little empty even then if we don't count capital cities and starting zones. You want to become powerful? Me too. But you don't feel like you're becoming powerful in cata while leveling. Whatever spell you get or don't get (maybe you decided not to spend gold and wait a level or two, idk), whatever talent you choose just doesn't matter (in open world at least). The abilities or spells you get don't matter in terms of killing mobs faster, you just maybe get some shiny cool looking ability, but that's it. I don't feel it making me more powerful. In classic I do. Because there's not much gear, everything I find or craft or buy or steal or whatever - all of it instantly makes me feel more powerful. Sorry for trying to convert you or something, it's just nostalgia hitting me and I'm also an idiot. I think what you really would enjoy is some single player bioware-like rpg from blizzard with no grind or undead rogue gankers, just you and well-written story you can fully immerse with. I wouldn't mind playing such a game, too.
@eveahn9595 no worries on the conversion lmao. I'm an RPG player first and foremost. I'd rather play an RPG than an MMO but when I play MMOs I tend to just want to be max level and experiencing the story and content. That said I'm also down to run Heroic raid and Mythic + but if imma level another toon I want something more interesting and we'll written than classic but less speeding through a zone before I can experience the story like in retail.
Cata is just in the perfect middle between the classic and modern feeling. TBC immediatly moves the main game from Azeroth to Outland and even if it adds upon Classic mechanics, it's really a huge shift from Vanilla, it's meant to be experienced as an expansion rather than an evergreen experience like Vanilla. WotLK feels plain out odd, it has deep root in Classic, but instead of expanding on it, it twists it while not completely changing it. This results in most classes only properly working at max level, and feeling unfinished while leveling. The leveling experience is very weird, the Paladin is a complete disgrace and is all what they didn't want the warrior to be in OG WoW : a default MMO fighter class with mana. Same goes for the hunter. They didn't give up upon spell ranks, but they effectively removed downranking. It makes no sense. Why ? Cata handled it right, they had to change some mechanics, and they did it mostly well, the leveling is fun, you get your core spells early on, yet every new spells feels like a new option and a great upgrade. The talent points are fine, they're on odd levels while new spells are on even levels, so you're guaranteed to get something every time you level up. The points are more significant, they give you something immediately exploitable, and they don't feel like a shore like "put 5 points here to get 2% damage with x spell, so you can unlock this core ability". Of course there are some exceptions, but that's right most of the time. For me it's the last time WoW felt like an RPG, you still had to learn your spells to the trainer, professions are still a thing, stats are simple but fun, they removed superfluous stats like spell/armor penetration, you're not in some other world / island, you're in Azeroth, in the continents, there's no physical separation between the leveling and max level zones. It really feels like the perfect base of a wotlk+ experience. I'd be really down if they raised the levels of LK raids to 85 after DS goes on, and give us some new / scrapped dungeons or raids. I just think people were pissed because "no lich king + zones changed", and that's true, back then, there was no alternative to see the old world.
@@garrettk7152 AFAIK, I never knew they put it back in the game. This was around the time they also changed names and things in classic as well. Because of the drama with blizzard. I think it is still out of the game / removed.
the same with the Quests u have in Classic too, sure the first time nice the second time nice too, but the 3rd or 4th time u take the fastes route. Sure some ppl dont do that, but the most ppl. I started WoW with pre TBC back in the Day, but i pref the Cataclysm Quest design more, take all quest do the stuff move on. I really hate it, when in Classic i get a Quest " Go in that tunnel and kill 10 Kobols" after that u get " Go again in that tunnel and kill 8 bigger Kobolds" and after that " Go a 3rd time in that Tunnel and take the Chest @ the end." .
After seeing how many elite areas got turned into normal mob areas, I kind of wish all of them got turned into dungeons for cata instead. Stuff like Jintha Alor or Stromgarde.
I vividly remember having so much fun leveling my feral druid through the new barrens and 1K needles/Tanaris in the orginal CATA. Also, the CATA zones are super cool imo. Deepholm is still one of my favorite zones to this day.
I made a fresh Undead Warlock when Cata launched, and now that he's 43 I must admit my experience has been pretty mixed so far. Keeping in mind that I've only been leveling through questing for the most part, only doing dungeons when a quest required me to go. I found that when you hit around level 12-13, most of your quest begin to turn green and you have that slight level advantage on the mobs you're killing, this only really stopped when I hit the Eastern Plaguelands. In terms of professions I took Enchanting and Tailoring, and while at the start I made some cloth gear for myself and a couple of bags later on, I ended up only making things to progress my enchanting by disenchanting the lot. If you want to travel the world a bit without feeling like you're losing progress on anything, Archeology is pretty good for that, allowing you to get out of the zone you're questing in for a short period without the feeling of "where the hell was I again" when returning. There are plenty of bugs at the moment, some of which are quite disappointing, not being able to do a BG for my Arathi Highlands quest because they've been disabled due to the experience gained being extremely broken, most of the cooking dailies not being able to be done in the Undercity due to objects that you need to pick up being unclickable.
Sean Dempsey shows up at least once more in the forsaken quest lines in Silverpine. It's a hidden quest. When you kill the Crocolisks outside the Gilnean gates by the marsh you might pick up his head. You, undead Godfrey and the other barons search for the rest of his parts to bring him back to life. Only to then kill him again. I don't know how or why he got eaten up in the first place. But it's a neat little call back for any worgen players who play forsaken too.
Classes in cata were perfect. It was the first time I had more than just a main and 1 alt. I've made all the classes and it was hard to focus on one class since all were amazingly done.
Did they make dk runes in one specific type of runes depending on your spec in legion? And hunters having focus, man... Maybe I'll check it out one day.
@@eveahn9595 they made hunter use focus, but dk runes functioned similar, except a second rune cant start it's cooldown before the first one finishes. This was offset by Runic Empowerment to make use od runic power better. Also they made uhdk similar playstyle to blood dps in wotlk, which is was more fun objectively
@@aFoolsMartyr I have memories of a hunter friend who was always complaining to me because everytime he was close to outdps I just used combustion and skyrocket my dps, I didn't even have dragonira lmao
Cata to me was when the game felt the most complete, everyone had options to experience the content if they wanted to. When it comes to lvling I feel like people remember bis enchant heirlooms and just oneshotting mobs with fiery weapon and crusader even tho that was present all the way back in vanilla just fewer people knew about it until twinking became way more popular in cata. The game is only as difficult as you make it which has always been true until blizzard added outdoor world scaling far later down the road.
Excited for cata. Been prepping since prepatch launched and sadly, I think this'll be my last year with wow. Not too amped for the next few new expansions, nor did I like MOP-Legion. So unless Legion Classic is eventually a thing, I think this is it. Gonna play Cata like it fkn matters!
Has anyone else had the bug where they do a random dungeon queue in LFG and then after completing, that dungeon is no longer on the list of dungeons to queue for, even when being in the level range for it? It happened for Dead Mines and Black Fathom Deeps for me. But yeah, other than some bugs, I love Cata classic as Cataclysm is my favorite iteration of WoW. The perfect mix of convenience and QoL stuff, but still has its features and stuff that make it still feel like classic WoW. (Class trainers, leveling isn't too fast, but is a decent pace, the mobs feeling actually dangerous, gear still matters at all levels, etc.) Plus the questing is linear, but in a way that feels complete. Compared to Vanilla world where many areas felt they didn't even have finished quest lines, or very many quests at all, or making you travel half way across the world just to do a simple quest. Overall I think Cata quest/world update was meaningful and was 100% for the better.
Cata was my first and only time experiencing a fresh expansion launch. I remember questing in Hyjal, Deepholm and even in Vashj'ir. I hit 85, spammed dungeons over and over until I had pretty much pre-raid BiS, but that's when I stopped playing. I was too scared of raiding, and my friend who used to play with me all the time quit the game.
Reason I think Cata failed as it did, was because people didn't have as strong of a tie towards Deathwing as a villain, and the Old Gods being as fleshed out either, all they had been until then was sort of filler raids, with somewhat interesting story. Then the Twilight Hammer had sort of a fanbase, but not as big as perhaps Gul'Dan from Warcraft where he came from. Many things was there in the story in the background, or raid content, along with books, which most people didn't really read, they just wanted to play the game and experience the story that way. If Deathwing had been built up I'm sure Cata would've done much better, along with more Old Gods lore. Sadly they didn't and probably didn't think they had to, since WoW had done extremely well so far by that time. But now Deathwing is a beloved villain, as is the Old Gods, and Twilight Hammers, so I imagine people will be more happy and enjoy the experience once again, giving what they dismissed back then, another try, looking at it from a new perspective
I started at mop, never played classic nor cataclysm before and played every single expansion since legion (at least first patch ...). As a group of 4 we all wanted to try this expansion and it felt good. Just as you said, it really felt like a hybrid between classic and modern wow. Leveling seems balanced, died a few times with my priest, had to drink mana and use hpots. The same way I was harsh with mop just because of pandas, I think that og players are a bit too harsh with this expansion. The game still had a soul compared to last expansions imo.
I just hit 40 on cata classic on my Arms warrior and it just feels like retail and not in the good way. I went mining and engineering and those bombs you can craft were useful in the first 20 levels and i was having a good time but by the time i hit lvl 25, i was nearly killing mobs in a single attack because i was critting for 80% of their health 2/3rds of the time. Im blowing through entire questing zones in a single sitting and I have yet needed to eat or use bandages when i can just kill a mob in less than 2 seconds and blood thirst off another to heal right back up and even engineering has been useless for 20 levels. Im trying to stick with it but man, i really miss TBC.
i still have no idea why people hate cata so much because i always thought it was amazing, the quests turned into more then just go gather 10 cactus apples and kill 14 boars to get tusks that drop like 5% of the time even though i can see them right on the mob. Even endgame, shit, even dungeons, it was more than just pull the mobs and aoe down/tank and spank Now even for the packs there were like actual things that can kill you and mechanics that you start having to do that prepares you for mechanics in raids later on. Patch daily outpost zones that lie in conjunction for the new raid had meaning as you are building up and preparing for a battle with say ragnoros in the firelands. I would say that my main complaint with the expansion is the legendary weapons and how they were pretty much class exclusive. In my opinion they should have been something everyone could do and get a respective variation of it for all the classes and specs. And as much as people complain about LFR, at least that gives people a chance to actually do raids that don't have time or friends to complete them. Edit: Also at least you still go through all the other expansion questlines so it isn't confusing as hell for a new player that doesn't know WoW lore as to wtf is going on (Ex. getting outed and ridiculed as a death knight and then all the sudden hailed as a champion at level 10 to save the world) like that always bothered me with the level squish
Many ppl lost interest in cata bc Warcraft lore was over (Arthas was gone) and everyone remembers day 1 cata it was a mess and hard to play, nobody wanted to do hardmode dungeons, i only played 1st phase (firelands) and last phase in cata, and what i remember last season pvp was fun
love the Dubliners. As for increased speed in stealth, I believe that came with tbc. I will admit, when it does come to cata, the goblin and worgen starter zones were the best.
cataclysm was when I was old enough to read and started to get into the lore of Warcraft. Though I wasn't good enough to get to the endgame which was apparently the core problem of cata.
Leveling was boring, especially lfg, the only thing I remember from doing dungeons is me and some guy talking about how bad we want Thrall back. Guess what, Garrosh turned out to be a great villain. But I think Thrall still gotta return. I'm tired of warchiefs constantly dying and changing. Some gigachad gotta become one and develop like Varian did. Either bring Thrall back or develop the new guy. And yeah, I hated that professions are useless on low level, too.
I enjoy Cata, even I don't think it's classic, because I like Goblins and I love their starting quests in Kezan and The Lost Isles. Basicaly Goblins are the main reason I play Cata in first place.
So is Cata a completely fresh realm where you start from zero? I somehow thought it was Wotlk shifting to Catalysm... meaning my 80lvl character will go to Cata
With the exception of Dragon Soul, Cataclysm was an absolutely solid expansion. Dungeons, raids (the first three patches at least), and pvp were some of the best WoW experiences I've ever had.
Wtih the leveling thing, if I remember when I first started playing WoW back in MoP, you're right that you get abit OP at lvl 10. You get all your spec abilities and such at lvl 10, and if I remember correctly that gives a huge boost when you first reach lvl 10. Though it stagnates abit after lvl 10 due to going far between different upgrades. And the new cata world still have those quests where there's nothing for your class/spec despite there being multiple item rewards. Abit like outland/northrend questing if you catch my drift. I played a ret palading leveling up back then, and I remember taking a mail headpiece in STV because it was better than no headpiece. And remember, the armor type thing is still there in cata. As a plate class, you still get Mail armor to begin with, then plate beyond lvl 40. And as a noob, I had no heirlooms at all. So I didn't feel overpowered at all leveling through the cata zones beyond lvl 10. Even tried the Iron man challenge in WoD a few times, and never got past lvl 12. So my guess is that the overpowered leveling thing mainly comes from those that chose to wear heirlooms. As heirlooms are pretty overpowered. Level the old school way and it's the same old same old challenge. Abit easier due to abilities, but still engaging. Even done abit of leveling on MoP and Cata private servers without looms, and had a blast doing so.
I'm speaking for myself. so whether an expansion was good or bad depends on whether I'm in a good period in my life or not. So at the end of Wotlk, I was quitting cigarettes, it was winter, and I associated it with this cold emptiness that I felt. At the beginning of Cata and exactly that worgen starting zone I was clean from nicotine it was summer, and I was so happy, it felt full and warm. BTW did he punch something? The first time my hand looked like that was because I sucked at Warcraft II and instead of the flat surface of the desk I got the edge, the second was after a lot of alcohol and practicing "fists of fury" on a concrete wall (I got rejected by a girl).
It's about time people stop peddling the myth that cata feels like retail. Cata feels a lot like the expansion after wrath. Classes and systems are incredibly similar. It's actually a fun expansion, cata haters are finally starting to dwindle cause they're actually playing and not just yelling talking points that aren't true.
Or you’re like me, you dont like cata for good reason, open world flying sucking the life and huge world feeling of the game. Open world feels like it’s dead because of LFD and blizzards refusal to do what they did to classic to cata with cross realm to make the game feel like it has other players to meet. Also dont like the class design change of my main class (hunter). Who cares about deathwing? Paid level boost LOL. A lot of cata haters are probably dwindling because like me, their time has come to a complete end and they left the game, if you enjoy cata then good i hope you enjoy it but for me its back to classic and try this new season of discovery and if thats not for me then ill be done with world of warcraft as i was the first time around until vanilla was rereleased.
@@Real-Ruby-Red Flying was in TBC and Wrath. LFD was wrath. And hunter is WAY better with focus instead of running out of mana and having to do bad damage with viper Paid level boost was TBC/Wrath as well Sounds like you hate TBC and Wrath not just Cata lmao
@@BeraninFlying in tbc and wrath wasnt the main world of the game, those continents were designed with flying in mind. LFD sucked just as much in wrath as it will in cata, your views on hunter are subjective and personal as are mine, paid level boost came out in pre cata prepatch and it still sucks they decided to do that, the 1 level boost an expac for the sad sacks I didnt like but could tolerate. Say what you want, classic has been popular theres no doubt and it will die off slowly, look at the # of available servers closing down due to the population die off. If you’re happy then goodluck to you but dont tell me I have to enjoy eating shit like you, the game dwindled after woltk once and its already doing it for a 2nd time.. Numbers dont lie.
Update: I heard they’re not adding LFR in Cata.: I’m actually really excited for Cata, I really wish LFR wasn’t going to be a part of it though, and they would wipe all gold out and monitor buying it better, as well as ban gdkps just to name a few. The game would be so much better if a couple of things happen. I will still play it regardless as well as wait for our beloved TBC Era and hopefully a Wrath Era server in the future.
Interesting. Because for the longest time I maintained that the critical fault of 4.06 was the ungodly player power increase that let us 1-2 shot mobs, and that basically sapped any threat out in the world. Instances, ofc, were diff. Overall, there was this massive incomprehensible understanding of power balance in that (original) expansion. A lot of other stuff, too. Sharp to hear Blizz got their act together on that... I forgot, however, how much of a suck it is on the linear questing - that Blizz decided to script/determine the experience for the player (linear) rather than letting us pick/choose how we'd engage the world (dynamic). That sucked hard, and they'd have to delete so much to override that... I still gotta say, I miss Vash'jir. Man that was a great zone, linear questing or not.
I remember back in the day, I would get home from middle school excited to watch the newest Nixxiom machinina video. There are times that I look back and miss those times. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I miss machinima content, and even gameplay content like the LOTR challenge. But if you are happy and successful doing more content like this, I support you Nixxiom, as a long time fan. Also, good luck dealing with insurance, and I’m glad you’re alright.
I've been gone and returning to WoW for many years now, basically with MoP being my last expansion to which I have fully commited and I must say - my hype for Cataclysm is astronomical. Looking for that slower, more personal trip than what the current WoW offers. Another great video Nixxiom, can't wait for the TWW summary.
Cata had a lot of good, but it reaaaally took linearity to the next level. And the gamification of reward tiers was just...too much for me. The combat was good at least.
this expansion was when I peaked as a raider. I remember explaining the fights to so many people. It carried over to Pandaria, but my guild was getting smaller and smaller by then. It was good while it lasted.
The point that you make about hitting level 10 and beginning to one shot things is interesting, I just leveled a char on classic SoD for the first time and honestly there were noticable power ups that you'd pick up when you got certain runes or certain abilities at certain levels, but it never made me feel OP, I very much could still easily die if I pulled too many enemies. I think the strongest powerup I got was when I got maelstrom weapon on my shaman because it allowed me to instant cast some spells or heals periodically which enabled me to be able to start pulling 2-3 enemies at most before doing unlike before where even 2 enemies could be a death sentence if I couldn't kill one fast enough or ran OOM. You're still much stronger in SoD than you were original classic but enemies can still wipe you out if you get over confident.
I found the quests to be incredibly boring. It doesn’t feel like an rpg, it feels like I’m at a carnival running from one quick mini game to the next. It’s too artificial and cheesy
If you don’t pay attention to the storyline within the quests, then yes, it’ll be boring. If you’re looking for an RPG experience, either read the quests or download AI voiceover
@@shawtynoikilpeople3905 risk of what? murlocs running around and pulling more? players of other factions ganking you? No thanks.If you want risk then play Elden Ring
The world gets revamped and there are new quests and rewards in just about every zone sans, maybe, Silithus, so playing a Worgen isn't the reason you felt like the quest gear was fast outstripping your crafted stuff. Greens and blues are aplenty in Cata quests, you can see for yourself if you play through retail Cataclysm zones; in fact, just about every zone ends with a quest that rewards you a blue, and pretty much all of it is far and away better than any random green or blue you stumble upon by virtue of having secondary stats, which a lot of old random green drops just didn't back in the day. Add to that every dungeon had its gear updated as well and there's basically no way you can experience the questing with any sort of difficulty without actively gimping yourself by abiding by, say, Iron Man or Tin Man rules.
The spider you fought at 9:26 is supposed to be a big, bad spider, and you're a lowly adventurer, right? But the spider died in a few seconds, and you lost about 25% of your health... And that is before you get the level 10 super buffs.
After playing it over the past week or so, I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying it so far. I think the classes all feel quite good, buttons feel good to press without things getting overly complicated or having too many core spells to worry about. The questing overhaul was really refreshing as I never hit a wall where I had to grind mobs or travel halfway across the world to find more quests my level to complete. The pacing was nice, and getting a spec specific spell at level 10 feels so good. I think Cataclysm has been misjudged. While it may have been somewhat lacking in endgame content perhaps, it did so much for the rest of the game that gets so often overlooked when judging expansions. Endgame isn't the entire game. I used to love leveling up alts, and for me, that started in Cataclysm and I can clearly see why that is the case. I would much rather play Cataclysm world of warcraft, than live, that's for sure. I also think Cataclysm's world revamp is easier to enjoy now than it was originally, because we still have classic era to experience the original world without having to go to private servers. So those that prefer the original version can still play original wow. Admittedly it would have been nice to have a single era tbc server and a single era wotlk server for those then particularly enjoy those expansions, but it is what it is I suppose. My only gripe with cataclysm that I've personally encountered so far, is, like you said, getting a talent point every other level doesn't feel great. Every time I level up I open my talents and half the time I'm disappointed. I like the actual talent trees a lot though, so it's a minor gripe. I think cataclysm talents have the right amount of complexity without being confusing. Retail talent trees end up giving you half of your spells which is a little jarring, even for a veteran player like myself. Also, while there is definitely a lot lost with dungeon finder, the convenience factor is pretty massive. I just had a son, and although I would love to continue playing classic hardcore, I simply just don't have the block time to play at this stage in my life. With cataclysm dungeon finder, not only do I only need maybe 20 minutes at a time, but if I need to leave in the middle, I'm not screwing my group over. So it's a trade off. Good for some, bad for others. So long as both remain playable options, I think everybody wins.
Keen to see your levelling experiences and thoughts. I think from previous videos, you enjoy the same things in WoW that I do and have the same frustrations.
I enjoyed Cata, the levling and dungeons in cata is great. So are most of the raids, only shitty fights is like deathwing, the 5man heroic dungeons in Cata is prob some of the best 5 mans that have existed. Most of them beats the shit out of Wotlks 5mans-
Nixiom, but a person extend his experience and being overpowered doesnt mean invincible. As a player understands he is strong he starts pulling more things. Some of us die while pulling over 10 mobs other just 3, some don't die at all
I started playing a worgen rogue as well with my friend who is new to WoW a few days ago. I have to say honestly Cataclsym has been so much better in terms of leveling and character progression than I remember from when it first came out. We're both almost level 50, and here are my thoughts so far. My friend tried to play both vanilla and retail about 3 years ago. The appeal of vanilla was obvious because it was a true open world rpg that was challenging, but the grinding got pretty unbearable at times and it felt extremely slow. Retail is retail, and my friend who wanted to get into the lore had no damn clue what was happening since they threw him straight into BfA. He went from being a lowly footsolider on tutorial island to the champion of azeroth in minutes. In Cata, you still start off just in your race's starting area learning the lore of your race, and then over time you get to experience different zones that have their own lore. You spend maybe 5-10 levels in a zone before moving on (especially with dungeons being done super easily whenever bc of the dungeon finder), and the prospect of going from vanilla to burning crusade, to then northrend, and then finally cata for questing is exciting for both of us, which is how leveling was intended. In regards to class, Nixxiom is right that it feels extremely easy to be overpowered once you get your specs at level 10. He's playing an MM hunter and I'm playing subtetly. And for the following 30 levels that was the case, but then once we got to some of the end game zones from vanilla like Eastern Plaguelands, we found that we couldn't just mindlessly pull too many mobs or we would die. In dungeons, we would still be challenging the rest of the dps/tank in heirloom gear on DPS when we just had greens and blues. In Scarlet Monastery, the group left before killing the side boss and we still had the quest to kill him. Rather than requeuing, we tried to 2 man him. After a couple attempts we got him and it was an amazing feeling of success. So far, I think the Cata classic is more appealing to new players without feeling bland or super grindy.
2:58 I was beating myself up trying to remember if and where Sean Dempsey was from, and just this past year I had been introduced to The Dubliners! Thanks for solving that mystery for me!
I remember back when I played cata, I was doing pvp and getting one-shot by any assassination rogue with heirlooms. It was one of those weird thresholds due to the huge dmg of ambush and the talent you could get as the first thing that increased its crit chance to close to 100%, people would just get straight up deleted and camped on the bg respawn.
I mean rogue was always really good in killing stuff fast. Also all classes have like a breakpoint in the lvling where they become a lot stronger than before even in classic. Warrior getting WW weapon+MS. Rogue getting ambush. Mage getting blizzard. The list goes on.
Tbvfh, Cata was the first time i had a warrior tank and actually liked playing the class. No need to stance dance unless you really want to play on the highest echelons, as soon as I got the talent that allowed me to charge in any stance I switched to def stance and levelled there all the way - even the questing was decent and the dps was not too bad.
This bring me back to Cata coming out and me playing a worgen rogue till 3am when I had school the next day. Was beautiful and my net was working well that evening.
Cata was always fun, why Cata isn't well looked at is mainly: 1- Old World doesn't exist 2- 1-60 = new, 70-80 go back to TBC and WOTLK feels disconnected, then 80-85 back to new 3- Longest time between raids, the down time was insane, especially compare to how good and diverse the tier 11 is. 4- Buggy a lot of bugs or lack of polish 5- The Hype, they sold every feature like Archeology but in the end everything was boring or not cooked enough (no water raid)
This is what posted about my thoughts on one of my large WoW Face Book groups ( along with a pic of my hunter atop the tree in Grizzle Maw ) "Tonight is the last night of Wrath classic as the cata pre patch drops tomorrow. Much like on the last night of regular Wrath my heart was sad it was the world i enjoyed so much and was fun to take a trip back there I played on Bloodsail Buccaneers RP US since night one of classic and though i didnt raid and didnt spend as much time as i should have in the last 5 years of classic i had a great time and brought back a lot of memory's from the past. I spent the last cpl weeks running around the old world as well as Outlands and Northrend just exploring all the old stuff on my personal stream. I ended my journey and my pet gorilla Code Monkey in Grizzly Hills setting my Hearth Stone to Amber Pine Lodge and logged out at the tree in Grizzle Maw . If you are ever up in Northrend stop over at Amber Pine to say hi You Always have a home here"
So, as someone who went from WotLK directly to Pandaria, the whiplash for talent points is real. The once every 5 levels grew on me when I realized it was meant to be a power spike, but I certainly missed making a character my own.
Cata is interesting in that its remembered as the expansion that changed wow forever. I think its kind of interesting looking in on it in the modern day, to see how maybe some of the things a lot of us considered bad in 2010 have changed. Actually slipping back in and trying out the prepatch has reminded me that Cata actually feels good to play, the world had changed but the classes still felt very classic (well at least not leagues different from WotLK). Thinking back about what people actually complained about back in 2011 when it was current, paints a very different picture then what people have and will complain about in the modern day. Complaints from what I recollect and can find from back then mostly boil down to, Heroics being too easy, content cadence and of course Raid-finders introduction. It wasn't so much that the world has changed (A big reason people wanted Classic mind you), But people just didn't care about that as much back then. But that got me thinking, how much of that really effects Cata Classic? Well its not so much really. The re-release has a lot going for it honestly. It basically comes with a patch cadence that assures we wont see 6 months between major patches, We won't see 11 months of Dragon Soul. We'll also likely get buffed Heroics, even if its via the new protocol difficulties. Finally things have been quiet on the Raid-finder front, But I think that's very much in the communities hands to whether it will be added. We wouldn't see it until Dragon Soul anyway, as that was the only raid to actually have it in Cata. My personal opinion going forward into MoP (should we get MoP), is simply take the LFR gear and stick it in the protocol dungeons after the next raid tier drops, and let that be the new catch-up gear.
Cataclysm was good and idgaf what anyone says, it was only expansion I played entirely without quitting. Leveling wasn't completely dumbed down, PVE was hard but rewarding, Firelands was such a good raid, justice points. PVP was fun, competitive, and rewarding, and it was the first expansion I ever climbed to 1950 rating in arenas.
No matter if players like to play as Worgen or not, the Gilneas starting zone experience is by far the best in the game. The people I played with back in the day, both irl and in-game, all pretty much shared my opinion. The fact that it's so good, combined with the fact that when you out-level the zone it then becomes completely irrelevant makes it just a crime against the players. And all just because of an almost misguided sense of equality from Blizzard, who decided that because a bunch of dumb-ass Goblins decided to make an active volcano their home that was lost when it blew up, it wouldn't be fair to the players that the Alliance then would have one more capital city than the Horde so they made sure that after leveling there wouldn't be anything useful there to go back to, when it could have been just as functional as Stormwind or Ironforge. And I'm not sure but I bet the people who created the artwork, the quest and the phasing tech couldn't have been happy when they realized the zone they worked on for a couple of years would be abandoned by players after the better part of an evening. Such a shame
i don't see "linear" in questing is a bad thing. If the quest are good, a good lore or mini history is well maded then it doesnt matter that they make you move from here to there all the time
@@WinterWolf99 if the mobs were stronger a lot of players would quit before even reaching cataclysm 80-85 content. That sounds like the most surefire bad decision they could ever do, both for community and economically
5:12 I just realized how much more hype cata could have been if they had kept Deathwing being the source of the earthquakes and changes a secret until it actually happened. like the whole pre-xpac event could have been the cataclysmic changes and no one knew why. until deathwing burst out and started flaming people.
To be honest - Cataclysm was my favourite expansion until the Dragon Soul patch - it not only destroyed whole Cata reputation, but the game's as a whole. Bastion of Twilight with Sinestra and Nefarian as first raid tiers (with Al'akir as a bonus)! Firelands - both raid and zone, that changes as you progress! Hard Dungeons where you actually need to cc mobs! Hyjal leveling! This expansion had one of the strongest lineup in WoW's history.
Hey! Just to make a "poke" but once u get to the war within your character has been through alot and collected alot of gear... sooo its kinda natural u should feel alot more powerfull by then compared to a starter char (But as u said this is easily copied with the use of hierlooms ofc). Best wishes!
I'm level 30 on my troll shaman at the moment and Im using a mix of questing and crafted gear. I'm loving being able to make some of my own gear and that professions feel relevant :D Also very interested in a level up series, i personally love cata leveling but im playing horde onky at the moment seeing the alliance side of things would be cool
Wrath and Legion were my favourite woW expansions overall but Cata had really tight questing that was engaging for sure and judicious use of what was new tech when Cata was current retail WoW then - phasing - was amazing.
At one point i wanted druid and i didnt like to play elves so i went to play worgen, and at that point the phasing really blew my mind, the story was nicely bittersweet too.
Questing was such a nice thing to do.. Since this same level each zone stuff came in, I absolutely stopped doing any quest in the game, because you have the choice to play legion and bfa multiple times but nothing more, its boring as hell. Back in the days it was so good to have new interesting regions to go in choosing where to level..
Cata had the best balanced leveling experience, and butthole tearing brutal heroics (at the time). I loved it and the only thing I wish was different was Dragon Soul being a bit harder.
Cata is a great expansion imo. It is definitely flawed, yes. Some of the world changes are annoying/ugly, yes. So much good stuff came with Cata though.
I dont think that was the reason the undead were trying to take the scythe of elune. Because if they turned all humans into worgen they wouldn't be able to raise them into undead. Maybe im wrong.
tbh outside of very specific points (which were usually boes) most crafted gear outside of the endgame would've been worse if they were crafted. sod has a decent balance regarding crafting professions, even if it essentially forces you into them due to the sheer power of the items presented per phase (for example the feral druid gloves can still see use in the most recent instance as well as the gnomer hat still being bis or only rivaled if you have enough hit). Definitely understand the power spike with level 10 due to getting the entire spec, I think that it's better than, hey you're not level 70, no crusader strike/divine storm etc. I haven't experienced true cata since, cata, though I did the cata quests as wod without heirlooms (until I unlocked them) and still absolutely pumped everything. 17:20 it's also a removal of player choice and agency, though..... from wotlk onward it was becoming more and more "this is how this spec should be for X side of the game" and information was being passed along furthering that playstyle. 18:00 it's absolutely a stepping point in the game.
I would argue entirely against the fact that cata professions are all that different at low levels compared to classic. In classic, almost all of the super low-lvl profession gear is white with no stats, which is almost always worse than a green with ANY stat in a similar lvl range, so if you happen upon a quest that gives you a green item in that slot right after crafting something, that's life man. Same in the opposite direction, some of the classic and cata profession items can last for a good little while, despite the zone and quest reward reworks. Both classic and cata still have the same grindiness, needing lots of leather/herbs/cloth to level up while making, mostly,, superfluous things. Like your 14th pair of the same gloves, the first one of which was actually a big upgrade poggers, but now you're just making it over and over again for skill ups. That hasn't changed whatsoever.
"I was twoshotting everything!" That's just sub rogue. In OG wrath, I leveled my rogue as sub, and that's just how they play. Big stealth nuke, lower out of stealth damage.
Yes, make a levering series please. I share the view on linear questing design, challenging mobbs and early game prof rewards. If content Is too easy, you cant stomble across players in STV struggling with bhag'thera. And heroicly charging in and saving a noob paladin😅
10:10 you felt this as a rogue at level 10, i made a cow pally (best class race combo btw) and i was 2 shotting or 1 shotting mobs if it was a crit since level 1. Yes i do jave heirlooms on but i still feel like i shouldn't be able to 2 shot mobs. Also i can heal myself forever basically, i never go out of mana. Cata is where i have to actually try to go oom while in wrath and previous expansions i went oom after like 6 spells lol. Idk tho it felt super like retail leveling. In my experience as a cow pally i one shot mobs all the way til level 15 and i stopped there
I called this under ur "why nobody wants cata" video. Cataclysm is unironically the best expansion Blizz ever put out, at the time it was jarring, but it is perfect for nowadays. Anyone who hasnt tried it should definitely try classic Cata, and anyone who didnt 100% like Cata should also try it again and see for themselves. Deathwing woke up, chose violence, nuked my shi- in Blasted Lands for no reason other than him liking his own Twitter post, and I loved every second of it.
more linear questing is a pro to me rather than a con, it feels really bad to have to run 3000 yards to talk to someone then run 3000 yards back to talk to another person to then run 3000 yards back again for a minimal reward
Finally, Cata getting some love after a decade, people start opening their eyes and realize most of the things they hate about Cata actually came out in MoP or WoD
It’s definitely easier than vanilla-wrath. But it does feel way closer to wrath and older wow compared to newer expansions and I’ve been having fun with it. Good blend of new and old and still feels like wow
For those asking about my broken finger:
Last Saturday, while on the way home from an event, I was struck by a drunk driver. Got taken to the hospital, got a bunch of glass taken out of my arms, but luckily, the only real damage was my broken pinky finger. My car was 100% totaled, however. Now I'm just dealing with the insurance company.
Thanks everyone for the concern. 😊
Holy shit dude, glad to hear you're OK!
I'm so sorry to hear you have to go thru this. Glad you're alright.
glad you are ok chief
Glad you're okay! That's rough.
Wow I'm glad you weren't totaled too brother!!!
"Cata questing is more linear and hand holdy, anyway this video is sponsored Zygor to hold your hand through the questing experience of classic"
Been saying this for 5 years now it feels like. Every streamer and youtuber who talked about how much they love the OG leveling experience all follow and preach rxp or zygor. It's so antithetical to the classic leveling experience I can't even....
@@ryanmullen483 Thats 99% of the "classic" playerbase. They dont WANT vanilla, they want fresh seasonal servers for that dopamine hype train of what classic LAUNCH was in 2019. If you all really wanted vanilla theres era but shits dead as fuck. Nobody wants to play perma vanilla content cause they don't actually like the game lmfao.
@@veppy4952 Era Whitemane is still active man. we're progging Naxx right now. still raid MC/BWL/AQ40/ZG/AQ20 every week. still roaming STV looking for victims
Yup. “I like the original wow it was the best” loads up 50 addons to help them play
Done every zone quests now for the first time and I think they are surprisingly fun and well designed
I actually like the questing of Cataclysm the best of all the different expansions and leveling/questing changes. Each area has its own story that you contribute to without being "THE HERO". Classic leveling feels too much like you're running around doing shit that achieves very little, while in Cata it feels like I'm actually having an effect on the world narrative even if its small. I feel like its the right middle ground between Classic and Retail leveling imo.
I get what you're saying, I loved Silverpine forest storyline a lot, but mobs are too easy, professions are useless and lfging gives you more xp anyway. It all felt useless, at least for me. I still leveled slowly by questing, because dungeon spamming got boring fast (what's the use of all the people in the group if you don't interact at all?). But it was really, really boring gameplay-wise. I wish I could just read all the quests and books and whatever you had to interact with without killing mobs. There were also mobs with exclamation marks, like mini bosses or something but there was nothing special about them, you killed them with ease, too.
Maybe if not all quests gave you gear or weapon as a reward or no quests at all gave you them and lfg teleportation wasn't available until level cap, leveling would feel better (and dungeons, too, because gear from dungeons would feel even more worth it, because of the demand to travel by foot or on mount). And professions would feel more rewarding that way. I dunno. Cataclysm just wasn't designed as a journey, even though it had all these cool and really interesting storylines (but they don't feel as good after you complete them once because of gameplay problems described above, especially in goblin and worgen starting zones which you can't escape until you complete them because of phasing restrictions and thus you don't feel like you have full control to do anything your heart desires)
I started in cata, I love many of its features, but overall I prefer classic approach despite classic having tons of outdated things and mechanics
@eveahn9595 eh. I think you and I have different tastes for MMOs. I would actually prefer an MMO without leveling grind. Give me a story and let me progress the story and my gear, I do not want to be gated from story and content by a made up number.
So Cataclysm leveling is a bit too slow for me but I like the stories and the feeling of getting more powerful. I have 0 interest in whether or not it should be longer, the story should decide that imo
@@jacobyboyer3681 I'm not a fan of grind, either, I'm a fan of open alive world in which you can escape from your own just to do something stupid with your fellas or do quests or whatever. Classic provides that to some degree. Cata doesn't, unfortunately. World was a little empty even then if we don't count capital cities and starting zones.
You want to become powerful? Me too. But you don't feel like you're becoming powerful in cata while leveling. Whatever spell you get or don't get (maybe you decided not to spend gold and wait a level or two, idk), whatever talent you choose just doesn't matter (in open world at least). The abilities or spells you get don't matter in terms of killing mobs faster, you just maybe get some shiny cool looking ability, but that's it. I don't feel it making me more powerful. In classic I do. Because there's not much gear, everything I find or craft or buy or steal or whatever - all of it instantly makes me feel more powerful.
Sorry for trying to convert you or something, it's just nostalgia hitting me and I'm also an idiot. I think what you really would enjoy is some single player bioware-like rpg from blizzard with no grind or undead rogue gankers, just you and well-written story you can fully immerse with. I wouldn't mind playing such a game, too.
@eveahn9595 no worries on the conversion lmao. I'm an RPG player first and foremost. I'd rather play an RPG than an MMO but when I play MMOs I tend to just want to be max level and experiencing the story and content. That said I'm also down to run Heroic raid and Mythic + but if imma level another toon I want something more interesting and we'll written than classic but less speeding through a zone before I can experience the story like in retail.
Cata is just in the perfect middle between the classic and modern feeling. TBC immediatly moves the main game from Azeroth to Outland and even if it adds upon Classic mechanics, it's really a huge shift from Vanilla, it's meant to be experienced as an expansion rather than an evergreen experience like Vanilla. WotLK feels plain out odd, it has deep root in Classic, but instead of expanding on it, it twists it while not completely changing it. This results in most classes only properly working at max level, and feeling unfinished while leveling. The leveling experience is very weird, the Paladin is a complete disgrace and is all what they didn't want the warrior to be in OG WoW : a default MMO fighter class with mana. Same goes for the hunter. They didn't give up upon spell ranks, but they effectively removed downranking. It makes no sense. Why ?
Cata handled it right, they had to change some mechanics, and they did it mostly well, the leveling is fun, you get your core spells early on, yet every new spells feels like a new option and a great upgrade. The talent points are fine, they're on odd levels while new spells are on even levels, so you're guaranteed to get something every time you level up. The points are more significant, they give you something immediately exploitable, and they don't feel like a shore like "put 5 points here to get 2% damage with x spell, so you can unlock this core ability". Of course there are some exceptions, but that's right most of the time.
For me it's the last time WoW felt like an RPG, you still had to learn your spells to the trainer, professions are still a thing, stats are simple but fun, they removed superfluous stats like spell/armor penetration, you're not in some other world / island, you're in Azeroth, in the continents, there's no physical separation between the leveling and max level zones.
It really feels like the perfect base of a wotlk+ experience. I'd be really down if they raised the levels of LK raids to 85 after DS goes on, and give us some new / scrapped dungeons or raids.
I just think people were pissed because "no lich king + zones changed", and that's true, back then, there was no alternative to see the old world.
Does Garrosh call Sylvanas a bitch?
Yes. It was removed for only 1 expansion then put back in Legion
@@JonpaulGee Is there a profanity filter? If there is it must be turned on by default. I did that quest yesterday and he didn't call her a bitch.
Now he call her Biaaaatch.
@@garrettk7152 AFAIK, I never knew they put it back in the game. This was around the time they also changed names and things in classic as well. Because of the drama with blizzard. I think it is still out of the game / removed.
They took it out for cata classic
Most of my best WoW memories were from Cata and MoP. Legion was really good but Cata was special to me and my friends.
the same with the Quests u have in Classic too, sure the first time nice the second time nice too, but the 3rd or 4th time u take the fastes route. Sure some ppl dont do that, but the most ppl. I started WoW with pre TBC back in the Day, but i pref the Cataclysm Quest design more, take all quest do the stuff move on. I really hate it, when in Classic i get a Quest " Go in that tunnel and kill 10 Kobols" after that u get " Go again in that tunnel and kill 8 bigger Kobolds" and after that " Go a 3rd time in that Tunnel and take the Chest @ the end." .
After seeing how many elite areas got turned into normal mob areas, I kind of wish all of them got turned into dungeons for cata instead. Stuff like Jintha Alor or Stromgarde.
@@kyleellis1825 yeah that would be awesome. The one part is love in Classic is the Group Part!
And that's how you eventually get retail, use your brain
Worgen still has best starting zone imo
I'm really partial to Eversong Woods and Ghostlands.
I vividly remember having so much fun leveling my feral druid through the new barrens and 1K needles/Tanaris in the orginal CATA. Also, the CATA zones are super cool imo. Deepholm is still one of my favorite zones to this day.
I made a fresh Undead Warlock when Cata launched, and now that he's 43 I must admit my experience has been pretty mixed so far. Keeping in mind that I've only been leveling through questing for the most part, only doing dungeons when a quest required me to go. I found that when you hit around level 12-13, most of your quest begin to turn green and you have that slight level advantage on the mobs you're killing, this only really stopped when I hit the Eastern Plaguelands. In terms of professions I took Enchanting and Tailoring, and while at the start I made some cloth gear for myself and a couple of bags later on, I ended up only making things to progress my enchanting by disenchanting the lot. If you want to travel the world a bit without feeling like you're losing progress on anything, Archeology is pretty good for that, allowing you to get out of the zone you're questing in for a short period without the feeling of "where the hell was I again" when returning. There are plenty of bugs at the moment, some of which are quite disappointing, not being able to do a BG for my Arathi Highlands quest because they've been disabled due to the experience gained being extremely broken, most of the cooking dailies not being able to be done in the Undercity due to objects that you need to pick up being unclickable.
Sean Dempsey shows up at least once more in the forsaken quest lines in Silverpine. It's a hidden quest. When you kill the Crocolisks outside the Gilnean gates by the marsh you might pick up his head. You, undead Godfrey and the other barons search for the rest of his parts to bring him back to life. Only to then kill him again. I don't know how or why he got eaten up in the first place. But it's a neat little call back for any worgen players who play forsaken too.
Classes in cata were perfect. It was the first time I had more than just a main and 1 alt. I've made all the classes and it was hard to focus on one class since all were amazingly done.
Did they make dk runes in one specific type of runes depending on your spec in legion? And hunters having focus, man... Maybe I'll check it out one day.
@@eveahn9595 they made hunter use focus, but dk runes functioned similar, except a second rune cant start it's cooldown before the first one finishes. This was offset by Runic Empowerment to make use od runic power better. Also they made uhdk similar playstyle to blood dps in wotlk, which is was more fun objectively
Woltk "classic" felt so much like retail that I stopped playing it, I cant imagine this release being any different
Cataclysm has great class design
Nothing will come close to Fire Mage on Cata man. Combustion was so amazing to use.
@@aFoolsMartyr I have memories of a hunter friend who was always complaining to me because everytime he was close to outdps I just used combustion and skyrocket my dps, I didn't even have dragonira lmao
@@JustNrik I've mostly mained warrior over the years, but I just can't forgot those juicy, juicy damage numbers from combustion back then...
Signed: Not a hunter
@@flambelk4489 lol what
Hey Nixxiom. Do you want to come over for dinner on Thursday this week? We are having meatloaf.
endgame honestly was fine, people just remember Dragon Soul which kinda sucked
@@zoom8772 And people complained about how hard HC was at launch and then complained again when they made it easier.
Can't, I'm afraid. Already got plans that day.
@@NixxiomOnUA-camGreta Thunberg sEZ: “How DARE YOU!”
totally relevant reply lol@@zoom8772
Cata to me was when the game felt the most complete, everyone had options to experience the content if they wanted to. When it comes to lvling I feel like people remember bis enchant heirlooms and just oneshotting mobs with fiery weapon and crusader even tho that was present all the way back in vanilla just fewer people knew about it until twinking became way more popular in cata. The game is only as difficult as you make it which has always been true until blizzard added outdoor world scaling far later down the road.
Cata was my first fully invested xpac back in the day. Loved the starting worgen area before they revamped the whole thing
"I'm gonna play as a sub rogue so i can feel like some assassin worgen living out in the woods." Cries in assassination
sub is better
@@nexusobservebut shadow dance animation sucks
Excited for cata. Been prepping since prepatch launched and sadly, I think this'll be my last year with wow. Not too amped for the next few new expansions, nor did I like MOP-Legion. So unless Legion Classic is eventually a thing, I think this is it. Gonna play Cata like it fkn matters!
Has anyone else had the bug where they do a random dungeon queue in LFG and then after completing, that dungeon is no longer on the list of dungeons to queue for, even when being in the level range for it? It happened for Dead Mines and Black Fathom Deeps for me.
But yeah, other than some bugs, I love Cata classic as Cataclysm is my favorite iteration of WoW. The perfect mix of convenience and QoL stuff, but still has its features and stuff that make it still feel like classic WoW. (Class trainers, leveling isn't too fast, but is a decent pace, the mobs feeling actually dangerous, gear still matters at all levels, etc.)
Plus the questing is linear, but in a way that feels complete. Compared to Vanilla world where many areas felt they didn't even have finished quest lines, or very many quests at all, or making you travel half way across the world just to do a simple quest.
Overall I think Cata quest/world update was meaningful and was 100% for the better.
Cata was my first and only time experiencing a fresh expansion launch. I remember questing in Hyjal, Deepholm and even in Vashj'ir. I hit 85, spammed dungeons over and over until I had pretty much pre-raid BiS, but that's when I stopped playing. I was too scared of raiding, and my friend who used to play with me all the time quit the game.
Reason I think Cata failed as it did, was because people didn't have as strong of a tie towards Deathwing as a villain, and the Old Gods being as fleshed out either, all they had been until then was sort of filler raids, with somewhat interesting story. Then the Twilight Hammer had sort of a fanbase, but not as big as perhaps Gul'Dan from Warcraft where he came from.
Many things was there in the story in the background, or raid content, along with books, which most people didn't really read, they just wanted to play the game and experience the story that way. If Deathwing had been built up I'm sure Cata would've done much better, along with more Old Gods lore. Sadly they didn't and probably didn't think they had to, since WoW had done extremely well so far by that time.
But now Deathwing is a beloved villain, as is the Old Gods, and Twilight Hammers, so I imagine people will be more happy and enjoy the experience once again, giving what they dismissed back then, another try, looking at it from a new perspective
Had nothing to do with that bro
I started at mop, never played classic nor cataclysm before and played every single expansion since legion (at least first patch ...). As a group of 4 we all wanted to try this expansion and it felt good.
Just as you said, it really felt like a hybrid between classic and modern wow.
Leveling seems balanced, died a few times with my priest, had to drink mana and use hpots.
The same way I was harsh with mop just because of pandas, I think that og players are a bit too harsh with this expansion. The game still had a soul compared to last expansions imo.
I just hit 40 on cata classic on my Arms warrior and it just feels like retail and not in the good way. I went mining and engineering and those bombs you can craft were useful in the first 20 levels and i was having a good time but by the time i hit lvl 25, i was nearly killing mobs in a single attack because i was critting for 80% of their health 2/3rds of the time. Im blowing through entire questing zones in a single sitting and I have yet needed to eat or use bandages when i can just kill a mob in less than 2 seconds and blood thirst off another to heal right back up and even engineering has been useless for 20 levels. Im trying to stick with it but man, i really miss TBC.
i still have no idea why people hate cata so much because i always thought it was amazing, the quests turned into more then just go gather 10 cactus apples and kill 14 boars to get tusks that drop like 5% of the time even though i can see them right on the mob. Even endgame, shit, even dungeons, it was more than just pull the mobs and aoe down/tank and spank Now even for the packs there were like actual things that can kill you and mechanics that you start having to do that prepares you for mechanics in raids later on. Patch daily outpost zones that lie in conjunction for the new raid had meaning as you are building up and preparing for a battle with say ragnoros in the firelands. I would say that my main complaint with the expansion is the legendary weapons and how they were pretty much class exclusive. In my opinion they should have been something everyone could do and get a respective variation of it for all the classes and specs. And as much as people complain about LFR, at least that gives people a chance to actually do raids that don't have time or friends to complete them.
Edit: Also at least you still go through all the other expansion questlines so it isn't confusing as hell for a new player that doesn't know WoW lore as to wtf is going on (Ex. getting outed and ridiculed as a death knight and then all the sudden hailed as a champion at level 10 to save the world) like that always bothered me with the level squish
Because of Nostalgia. No other reason because the leveling experience in Vanilla has never been good.
Many ppl lost interest in cata bc Warcraft lore was over (Arthas was gone) and everyone remembers day 1 cata it was a mess and hard to play, nobody wanted to do hardmode dungeons, i only played 1st phase (firelands) and last phase in cata, and what i remember last season pvp was fun
@@brandonkruse6412 Oh yeah playing an actual game to level is so boring. I much prefer to roll my face on the keyboard from 1 to cap level.
love the Dubliners. As for increased speed in stealth, I believe that came with tbc. I will admit, when it does come to cata, the goblin and worgen starter zones were the best.
cataclysm was when I was old enough to read and started to get into the lore of Warcraft. Though I wasn't good enough to get to the endgame which was apparently the core problem of cata.
It was great until they nerfed dungeons because people cried. Raids were good too, it was just Dragon Soul that sucked.
Leveling was boring, especially lfg, the only thing I remember from doing dungeons is me and some guy talking about how bad we want Thrall back. Guess what, Garrosh turned out to be a great villain. But I think Thrall still gotta return. I'm tired of warchiefs constantly dying and changing. Some gigachad gotta become one and develop like Varian did. Either bring Thrall back or develop the new guy.
And yeah, I hated that professions are useless on low level, too.
I enjoy Cata, even I don't think it's classic, because I like Goblins and I love their starting quests in Kezan and The Lost Isles. Basicaly Goblins are the main reason I play Cata in first place.
"This is all part of the Jailer's Plan" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
People will now understand that cataclysm wow is the perfect MMO for the modern age.
Hey Nixxiom, please keep us updated on your worgen rogue! More videos about your cata leveling experience is always welcome 😊
I'm having fun, getting close to lvl 20 on my Worgen Druid, but the population on my server is very low which is a bit of a bummer.
same
So is Cata a completely fresh realm where you start from zero? I somehow thought it was Wotlk shifting to Catalysm... meaning my 80lvl character will go to Cata
@@betahumanx no it’s not fresh
@@betahumanx just not many people playin g, it went from like 18k people to 6k
@@Sinactualgaming You mean from Wotlk to Cata?
Cata is a better expansion then WotLK, i think alot of people realized how bad wrath actually was after getting to play through it again.
Cata is too hard
Wrath is too easy
BC hit the right balance
I'm currently leveling a Warlock through the new revamped Eastern/Western Plaguelands, it's fun as hell.
With the exception of Dragon Soul, Cataclysm was an absolutely solid expansion. Dungeons, raids (the first three patches at least), and pvp were some of the best WoW experiences I've ever had.
Wtih the leveling thing, if I remember when I first started playing WoW back in MoP, you're right that you get abit OP at lvl 10. You get all your spec abilities and such at lvl 10, and if I remember correctly that gives a huge boost when you first reach lvl 10. Though it stagnates abit after lvl 10 due to going far between different upgrades. And the new cata world still have those quests where there's nothing for your class/spec despite there being multiple item rewards. Abit like outland/northrend questing if you catch my drift. I played a ret palading leveling up back then, and I remember taking a mail headpiece in STV because it was better than no headpiece. And remember, the armor type thing is still there in cata. As a plate class, you still get Mail armor to begin with, then plate beyond lvl 40. And as a noob, I had no heirlooms at all. So I didn't feel overpowered at all leveling through the cata zones beyond lvl 10. Even tried the Iron man challenge in WoD a few times, and never got past lvl 12. So my guess is that the overpowered leveling thing mainly comes from those that chose to wear heirlooms. As heirlooms are pretty overpowered. Level the old school way and it's the same old same old challenge. Abit easier due to abilities, but still engaging. Even done abit of leveling on MoP and Cata private servers without looms, and had a blast doing so.
I'm speaking for myself. so whether an expansion was good or bad depends on whether I'm in a good period in my life or not. So at the end of Wotlk, I was quitting cigarettes, it was winter, and I associated it with this cold emptiness that I felt. At the beginning of Cata and exactly that worgen starting zone I was clean from nicotine it was summer, and I was so happy, it felt full and warm.
BTW did he punch something? The first time my hand looked like that was because I sucked at Warcraft II and instead of the flat surface of the desk I got the edge, the second was after a lot of alcohol and practicing "fists of fury" on a concrete wall (I got rejected by a girl).
It's about time people stop peddling the myth that cata feels like retail. Cata feels a lot like the expansion after wrath. Classes and systems are incredibly similar. It's actually a fun expansion, cata haters are finally starting to dwindle cause they're actually playing and not just yelling talking points that aren't true.
Or you’re like me, you dont like cata for good reason, open world flying sucking the life and huge world feeling of the game. Open world feels like it’s dead because of LFD and blizzards refusal to do what they did to classic to cata with cross realm to make the game feel like it has other players to meet. Also dont like the class design change of my main class (hunter). Who cares about deathwing? Paid level boost LOL. A lot of cata haters are probably dwindling because like me, their time has come to a complete end and they left the game, if you enjoy cata then good i hope you enjoy it but for me its back to classic and try this new season of discovery and if thats not for me then ill be done with world of warcraft as i was the first time around until vanilla was rereleased.
@@Real-Ruby-Red Flying was in TBC and Wrath.
LFD was wrath.
And hunter is WAY better with focus instead of running out of mana and having to do bad damage with viper
Paid level boost was TBC/Wrath as well
Sounds like you hate TBC and Wrath not just Cata lmao
@@BeraninFlying in tbc and wrath wasnt the main world of the game, those continents were designed with flying in mind.
LFD sucked just as much in wrath as it will in cata, your views on hunter are subjective and personal as are mine, paid level boost came out in pre cata prepatch and it still sucks they decided to do that, the 1 level boost an expac for the sad sacks I didnt like but could tolerate.
Say what you want, classic has been popular theres no doubt and it will die off slowly, look at the # of available servers closing down due to the population die off. If you’re happy then goodluck to you but dont tell me I have to enjoy eating shit like you, the game dwindled after woltk once and its already doing it for a 2nd time..
Numbers dont lie.
@@Real-Ruby-RedNumbers > Feelings 😂
@@Real-Ruby-Red paid level boost was TBC classic, you are incorrect
Update: I heard they’re not adding LFR in Cata.: I’m actually really excited for Cata, I really wish LFR wasn’t going to be a part of it though, and they would wipe all gold out and monitor buying it better, as well as ban gdkps just to name a few. The game would be so much better if a couple of things happen. I will still play it regardless as well as wait for our beloved TBC Era and hopefully a Wrath Era server in the future.
Lfr gives weaker gear. You still need to do normal/heroic 10-25 raids.
@@Daniel-kx3zz Update: I heard they’re not adding LFR.
Interesting. Because for the longest time I maintained that the critical fault of 4.06 was the ungodly player power increase that let us 1-2 shot mobs, and that basically sapped any threat out in the world. Instances, ofc, were diff. Overall, there was this massive incomprehensible understanding of power balance in that (original) expansion. A lot of other stuff, too. Sharp to hear Blizz got their act together on that... I forgot, however, how much of a suck it is on the linear questing - that Blizz decided to script/determine the experience for the player (linear) rather than letting us pick/choose how we'd engage the world (dynamic). That sucked hard, and they'd have to delete so much to override that... I still gotta say, I miss Vash'jir. Man that was a great zone, linear questing or not.
I remember back in the day, I would get home from middle school excited to watch the newest Nixxiom machinina video. There are times that I look back and miss those times. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I miss machinima content, and even gameplay content like the LOTR challenge. But if you are happy and successful doing more content like this, I support you Nixxiom, as a long time fan. Also, good luck dealing with insurance, and I’m glad you’re alright.
I've been gone and returning to WoW for many years now, basically with MoP being my last expansion to which I have fully commited and I must say - my hype for Cataclysm is astronomical. Looking for that slower, more personal trip than what the current WoW offers. Another great video Nixxiom, can't wait for the TWW summary.
Cata had a lot of good, but it reaaaally took linearity to the next level. And the gamification of reward tiers was just...too much for me. The combat was good at least.
16:10 How many Worgen do you want to make? I had one, I don't have him anymore. Deleted. I have been through the Orc starting zone many times tho.
this expansion was when I peaked as a raider. I remember explaining the fights to so many people. It carried over to Pandaria, but my guild was getting smaller and smaller by then. It was good while it lasted.
The point that you make about hitting level 10 and beginning to one shot things is interesting, I just leveled a char on classic SoD for the first time and honestly there were noticable power ups that you'd pick up when you got certain runes or certain abilities at certain levels, but it never made me feel OP, I very much could still easily die if I pulled too many enemies. I think the strongest powerup I got was when I got maelstrom weapon on my shaman because it allowed me to instant cast some spells or heals periodically which enabled me to be able to start pulling 2-3 enemies at most before doing unlike before where even 2 enemies could be a death sentence if I couldn't kill one fast enough or ran OOM. You're still much stronger in SoD than you were original classic but enemies can still wipe you out if you get over confident.
I found the quests to be incredibly boring. It doesn’t feel like an rpg, it feels like I’m at a carnival running from one quick mini game to the next. It’s too artificial and cheesy
If you don’t pay attention to the storyline within the quests, then yes, it’ll be boring. If you’re looking for an RPG experience, either read the quests or download AI voiceover
@@ThePacman9 You missed my point. The quests feel like poor attempts to steal your attention with shiny gimmicks rather than having any substance.
@@shawtynoikilpeople3905so the same of wow classic but more developed.
@@Daniel-kx3zz At least there is risk involved in vanilla quests. Cata is just running around looking at flashing lights on a screen
@@shawtynoikilpeople3905 risk of what? murlocs running around and pulling more? players of other factions ganking you? No thanks.If you want risk then play Elden Ring
I wasn't hyped about it but questing through the new (old) new questing zones brought back a lot of memories.
The world gets revamped and there are new quests and rewards in just about every zone sans, maybe, Silithus, so playing a Worgen isn't the reason you felt like the quest gear was fast outstripping your crafted stuff. Greens and blues are aplenty in Cata quests, you can see for yourself if you play through retail Cataclysm zones; in fact, just about every zone ends with a quest that rewards you a blue, and pretty much all of it is far and away better than any random green or blue you stumble upon by virtue of having secondary stats, which a lot of old random green drops just didn't back in the day.
Add to that every dungeon had its gear updated as well and there's basically no way you can experience the questing with any sort of difficulty without actively gimping yourself by abiding by, say, Iron Man or Tin Man rules.
The spider you fought at 9:26 is supposed to be a big, bad spider, and you're a lowly adventurer, right? But the spider died in a few seconds, and you lost about 25% of your health... And that is before you get the level 10 super buffs.
After playing it over the past week or so, I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying it so far. I think the classes all feel quite good, buttons feel good to press without things getting overly complicated or having too many core spells to worry about. The questing overhaul was really refreshing as I never hit a wall where I had to grind mobs or travel halfway across the world to find more quests my level to complete. The pacing was nice, and getting a spec specific spell at level 10 feels so good.
I think Cataclysm has been misjudged. While it may have been somewhat lacking in endgame content perhaps, it did so much for the rest of the game that gets so often overlooked when judging expansions. Endgame isn't the entire game. I used to love leveling up alts, and for me, that started in Cataclysm and I can clearly see why that is the case. I would much rather play Cataclysm world of warcraft, than live, that's for sure.
I also think Cataclysm's world revamp is easier to enjoy now than it was originally, because we still have classic era to experience the original world without having to go to private servers. So those that prefer the original version can still play original wow. Admittedly it would have been nice to have a single era tbc server and a single era wotlk server for those then particularly enjoy those expansions, but it is what it is I suppose.
My only gripe with cataclysm that I've personally encountered so far, is, like you said, getting a talent point every other level doesn't feel great. Every time I level up I open my talents and half the time I'm disappointed. I like the actual talent trees a lot though, so it's a minor gripe. I think cataclysm talents have the right amount of complexity without being confusing. Retail talent trees end up giving you half of your spells which is a little jarring, even for a veteran player like myself.
Also, while there is definitely a lot lost with dungeon finder, the convenience factor is pretty massive. I just had a son, and although I would love to continue playing classic hardcore, I simply just don't have the block time to play at this stage in my life. With cataclysm dungeon finder, not only do I only need maybe 20 minutes at a time, but if I need to leave in the middle, I'm not screwing my group over. So it's a trade off. Good for some, bad for others. So long as both remain playable options, I think everybody wins.
Keen to see your levelling experiences and thoughts. I think from previous videos, you enjoy the same things in WoW that I do and have the same frustrations.
I enjoyed Cata, the levling and dungeons in cata is great. So are most of the raids, only shitty fights is like deathwing, the 5man heroic dungeons in Cata is prob some of the best 5 mans that have existed. Most of them beats the shit out of Wotlks 5mans-
Nixiom, but a person extend his experience and being overpowered doesnt mean invincible. As a player understands he is strong he starts pulling more things. Some of us die while pulling over 10 mobs other just 3, some don't die at all
I started playing a worgen rogue as well with my friend who is new to WoW a few days ago. I have to say honestly Cataclsym has been so much better in terms of leveling and character progression than I remember from when it first came out. We're both almost level 50, and here are my thoughts so far.
My friend tried to play both vanilla and retail about 3 years ago. The appeal of vanilla was obvious because it was a true open world rpg that was challenging, but the grinding got pretty unbearable at times and it felt extremely slow. Retail is retail, and my friend who wanted to get into the lore had no damn clue what was happening since they threw him straight into BfA. He went from being a lowly footsolider on tutorial island to the champion of azeroth in minutes.
In Cata, you still start off just in your race's starting area learning the lore of your race, and then over time you get to experience different zones that have their own lore. You spend maybe 5-10 levels in a zone before moving on (especially with dungeons being done super easily whenever bc of the dungeon finder), and the prospect of going from vanilla to burning crusade, to then northrend, and then finally cata for questing is exciting for both of us, which is how leveling was intended.
In regards to class, Nixxiom is right that it feels extremely easy to be overpowered once you get your specs at level 10. He's playing an MM hunter and I'm playing subtetly. And for the following 30 levels that was the case, but then once we got to some of the end game zones from vanilla like Eastern Plaguelands, we found that we couldn't just mindlessly pull too many mobs or we would die. In dungeons, we would still be challenging the rest of the dps/tank in heirloom gear on DPS when we just had greens and blues. In Scarlet Monastery, the group left before killing the side boss and we still had the quest to kill him. Rather than requeuing, we tried to 2 man him. After a couple attempts we got him and it was an amazing feeling of success. So far, I think the Cata classic is more appealing to new players without feeling bland or super grindy.
2:58 I was beating myself up trying to remember if and where Sean Dempsey was from, and just this past year I had been introduced to The Dubliners! Thanks for solving that mystery for me!
I remember back when I played cata, I was doing pvp and getting one-shot by any assassination rogue with heirlooms. It was one of those weird thresholds due to the huge dmg of ambush and the talent you could get as the first thing that increased its crit chance to close to 100%, people would just get straight up deleted and camped on the bg respawn.
3:51 - talking about linear questing while using a leveling addon... isn't that a kind of hypocrisy ?
I mean rogue was always really good in killing stuff fast.
Also all classes have like a breakpoint in the lvling where they become a lot stronger than before even in classic.
Warrior getting WW weapon+MS.
Rogue getting ambush.
Mage getting blizzard.
The list goes on.
Tbvfh, Cata was the first time i had a warrior tank and actually liked playing the class. No need to stance dance unless you really want to play on the highest echelons, as soon as I got the talent that allowed me to charge in any stance I switched to def stance and levelled there all the way - even the questing was decent and the dps was not too bad.
This bring me back to Cata coming out and me playing a worgen rogue till 3am when I had school the next day. Was beautiful and my net was working well that evening.
Cata was always fun, why Cata isn't well looked at is mainly:
1- Old World doesn't exist
2- 1-60 = new, 70-80 go back to TBC and WOTLK feels disconnected, then 80-85 back to new
3- Longest time between raids, the down time was insane, especially compare to how good and diverse the tier 11 is.
4- Buggy a lot of bugs or lack of polish
5- The Hype, they sold every feature like Archeology but in the end everything was boring or not cooked enough (no water raid)
This is what posted about my thoughts on one of my large WoW Face Book groups ( along with a pic of my hunter atop the tree in Grizzle Maw )
"Tonight is the last night of Wrath classic as the cata pre patch drops tomorrow. Much like on the last night of regular Wrath my heart was sad it was the world i enjoyed so much and was fun to take a trip back there
I played on Bloodsail Buccaneers RP US since night one of classic and though i didnt raid and didnt spend as much time as i should have in the last 5 years of classic i had a great time and brought back a lot of memory's from the past. I spent the last cpl weeks running around the old world as well as Outlands and Northrend just exploring all the old stuff on my personal stream.
I ended my journey and my pet gorilla Code Monkey in Grizzly Hills setting my Hearth Stone to Amber Pine Lodge and logged out at the tree in Grizzle Maw . If you are ever up in Northrend stop over at Amber Pine to say hi
You Always have a home here"
Removing spiders from the game wtf???? now that's some next lvl bullshit...
It’s gonna be cool to see ya leveling the rogue my man you are awesome in this and I’m chilling every time you post new video 😊
So, as someone who went from WotLK directly to Pandaria, the whiplash for talent points is real. The once every 5 levels grew on me when I realized it was meant to be a power spike, but I certainly missed making a character my own.
Cata is interesting in that its remembered as the expansion that changed wow forever. I think its kind of interesting looking in on it in the modern day, to see how maybe some of the things a lot of us considered bad in 2010 have changed. Actually slipping back in and trying out the prepatch has reminded me that Cata actually feels good to play, the world had changed but the classes still felt very classic (well at least not leagues different from WotLK).
Thinking back about what people actually complained about back in 2011 when it was current, paints a very different picture then what people have and will complain about in the modern day. Complaints from what I recollect and can find from back then mostly boil down to, Heroics being too easy, content cadence and of course Raid-finders introduction. It wasn't so much that the world has changed (A big reason people wanted Classic mind you), But people just didn't care about that as much back then. But that got me thinking, how much of that really effects Cata Classic? Well its not so much really.
The re-release has a lot going for it honestly. It basically comes with a patch cadence that assures we wont see 6 months between major patches, We won't see 11 months of Dragon Soul. We'll also likely get buffed Heroics, even if its via the new protocol difficulties. Finally things have been quiet on the Raid-finder front, But I think that's very much in the communities hands to whether it will be added. We wouldn't see it until Dragon Soul anyway, as that was the only raid to actually have it in Cata. My personal opinion going forward into MoP (should we get MoP), is simply take the LFR gear and stick it in the protocol dungeons after the next raid tier drops, and let that be the new catch-up gear.
tl;dr
Cataclysm was good and idgaf what anyone says, it was only expansion I played entirely without quitting. Leveling wasn't completely dumbed down, PVE was hard but rewarding, Firelands was such a good raid, justice points. PVP was fun, competitive, and rewarding, and it was the first expansion I ever climbed to 1950 rating in arenas.
No matter if players like to play as Worgen or not, the Gilneas starting zone experience is by far the best in the game. The people I played with back in the day, both irl and in-game, all pretty much shared my opinion.
The fact that it's so good, combined with the fact that when you out-level the zone it then becomes completely irrelevant makes it just a crime against the players.
And all just because of an almost misguided sense of equality from Blizzard, who decided that because a bunch of dumb-ass Goblins decided to make an active volcano their home that was lost when it blew up, it wouldn't be fair to the players that the Alliance then would have one more capital city than the Horde so they made sure that after leveling there wouldn't be anything useful there to go back to, when it could have been just as functional as Stormwind or Ironforge.
And I'm not sure but I bet the people who created the artwork, the quest and the phasing tech couldn't have been happy when they realized the zone they worked on for a couple of years would be abandoned by players after the better part of an evening. Such a shame
i don't see "linear" in questing is a bad thing. If the quest are good, a good lore or mini history is well maded then it doesnt matter that they make you move from here to there all the time
If Cataclysms mobs were as as strong as classic mobs, linear questing would not be an issue
its bad because its not what i want in a game like wow
@@WinterWolf99 if the mobs were stronger a lot of players would quit before even reaching cataclysm 80-85 content. That sounds like the most surefire bad decision they could ever do, both for community and economically
I don't like linear hand holding style
5:12 I just realized how much more hype cata could have been if they had kept Deathwing being the source of the earthquakes and changes a secret until it actually happened. like the whole pre-xpac event could have been the cataclysmic changes and no one knew why. until deathwing burst out and started flaming people.
To be honest - Cataclysm was my favourite expansion until the Dragon Soul patch - it not only destroyed whole Cata reputation, but the game's as a whole. Bastion of Twilight with Sinestra and Nefarian as first raid tiers (with Al'akir as a bonus)! Firelands - both raid and zone, that changes as you progress! Hard Dungeons where you actually need to cc mobs! Hyjal leveling! This expansion had one of the strongest lineup in WoW's history.
I have this silly bug where when I hit W, my mouse disappears, as if I'm holding the left mouse button down all the time. FUN STUFF.
Hey! Just to make a "poke" but once u get to the war within your character has been through alot and collected alot of gear... sooo its kinda natural u should feel alot more powerfull by then compared to a starter char (But as u said this is easily copied with the use of hierlooms ofc).
Best wishes!
I'm level 30 on my troll shaman at the moment and Im using a mix of questing and crafted gear. I'm loving being able to make some of my own gear and that professions feel relevant :D
Also very interested in a level up series, i personally love cata leveling but im playing horde onky at the moment seeing the alliance side of things would be cool
Wrath and Legion were my favourite woW expansions overall but Cata had really tight questing that was engaging for sure and judicious use of what was new tech when Cata was current retail WoW then - phasing - was amazing.
At one point i wanted druid and i didnt like to play elves so i went to play worgen, and at that point the phasing really blew my mind, the story was nicely bittersweet too.
Questing was such a nice thing to do.. Since this same level each zone stuff came in, I absolutely stopped doing any quest in the game, because you have the choice to play legion and bfa multiple times but nothing more, its boring as hell. Back in the days it was so good to have new interesting regions to go in choosing where to level..
the main reason i started playing wotlk classic was because of cata . cuz i wanted transmogs xD
I came back to play a goblin and I’m having a lot of fun . Looking forward to bringing my goblin shaman through cataclysm
Cata had the best balanced leveling experience, and butthole tearing brutal heroics (at the time). I loved it and the only thing I wish was different was Dragon Soul being a bit harder.
4:52 - That's a Cataclysm change. Druid Prowl also changed then iirc
Cata is a great expansion imo. It is definitely flawed, yes. Some of the world changes are annoying/ugly, yes. So much good stuff came with Cata though.
I dont think that was the reason the undead were trying to take the scythe of elune. Because if they turned all humans into worgen they wouldn't be able to raise them into undead. Maybe im wrong.
tbh outside of very specific points (which were usually boes) most crafted gear outside of the endgame would've been worse if they were crafted.
sod has a decent balance regarding crafting professions, even if it essentially forces you into them due to the sheer power of the items presented per phase (for example the feral druid gloves can still see use in the most recent instance as well as the gnomer hat still being bis or only rivaled if you have enough hit).
Definitely understand the power spike with level 10 due to getting the entire spec, I think that it's better than, hey you're not level 70, no crusader strike/divine storm etc.
I haven't experienced true cata since, cata, though I did the cata quests as wod without heirlooms (until I unlocked them) and still absolutely pumped everything.
17:20 it's also a removal of player choice and agency, though..... from wotlk onward it was becoming more and more "this is how this spec should be for X side of the game" and information was being passed along furthering that playstyle.
18:00 it's absolutely a stepping point in the game.
This is so crazy, I remember so well when cataclysm launched back in the day and now here we are doing it again :D
I would argue entirely against the fact that cata professions are all that different at low levels compared to classic.
In classic, almost all of the super low-lvl profession gear is white with no stats, which is almost always worse than a green with ANY stat in a similar lvl range, so if you happen upon a quest that gives you a green item in that slot right after crafting something, that's life man.
Same in the opposite direction, some of the classic and cata profession items can last for a good little while, despite the zone and quest reward reworks.
Both classic and cata still have the same grindiness, needing lots of leather/herbs/cloth to level up while making, mostly,, superfluous things. Like your 14th pair of the same gloves, the first one of which was actually a big upgrade poggers, but now you're just making it over and over again for skill ups.
That hasn't changed whatsoever.
"I was twoshotting everything!" That's just sub rogue. In OG wrath, I leveled my rogue as sub, and that's just how they play. Big stealth nuke, lower out of stealth damage.
I agree minimizing the talent system was a big mistake with wow. Its so nice that Retail has brought this system back.
Yes, make a levering series please. I share the view on linear questing design, challenging mobbs and early game prof rewards.
If content Is too easy, you cant stomble across players in STV struggling with bhag'thera. And heroicly charging in and saving a noob paladin😅
10:10 you felt this as a rogue at level 10, i made a cow pally (best class race combo btw) and i was 2 shotting or 1 shotting mobs if it was a crit since level 1. Yes i do jave heirlooms on but i still feel like i shouldn't be able to 2 shot mobs. Also i can heal myself forever basically, i never go out of mana. Cata is where i have to actually try to go oom while in wrath and previous expansions i went oom after like 6 spells lol. Idk tho it felt super like retail leveling. In my experience as a cow pally i one shot mobs all the way til level 15 and i stopped there
I called this under ur "why nobody wants cata" video. Cataclysm is unironically the best expansion Blizz ever put out, at the time it was jarring, but it is perfect for nowadays. Anyone who hasnt tried it should definitely try classic Cata, and anyone who didnt 100% like Cata should also try it again and see for themselves.
Deathwing woke up, chose violence, nuked my shi- in Blasted Lands for no reason other than him liking his own Twitter post, and I loved every second of it.
more linear questing is a pro to me rather than a con, it feels really bad to have to run 3000 yards to talk to someone then run 3000 yards back to talk to another person to then run 3000 yards back again for a minimal reward
Hey! I see your paints and your dnd books and I just wanna know how do you balance your other hobbies with WoW?
Finally, Cata getting some love after a decade, people start opening their eyes and realize most of the things they hate about Cata actually came out in MoP or WoD
Oh, you saw the wall of living steel traps too?
Edit: Now I need to listen to my Best of the Dubliner's CD, thank you, Nixxiom.
That has got to be the funniest you've looked in a thumbnail. Nice job.
I was a big fan of Cata till the Dragon Soul patch. Nostalgia is almost pulling me back for this again. Smite priests were way to fun.
Im not gonna lie. I didnt even realize you were Nixxiom without the Nelf DK XDdd. Ty for the review. I will give it a a try.
I've never understood why people hated Cataclysm so much
It’s definitely easier than vanilla-wrath. But it does feel way closer to wrath and older wow compared to newer expansions and I’ve been having fun with it. Good blend of new and old and still feels like wow