Cataclysm Closed Beta Key Contest!Follow

what i am looking forward to the most is the wonderful new changes to the world and lvl areas for the first time in a very long time i want to lvl a new char

Hey there, I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to, then I'll tell you what I'm really looking forward to. Higher spec graphics, water graphics, lovely models riddling the world, great! All new zones manifested from the ideas of the classic zones I spent so much time in, great! New class mechanics, an overhaul for everything which has been long overdue, great! Threads of lore being pulled out further and further, the old storylines I so much adored being evolved and alive once again, amazing!

But, what I'm really looking forward to...

I love the idea, that the game as I've known is is evolving over the years both as a world and as a game - a community. I love the idea that all those many years ago playing the original warcraft games that the world I play in now, is still the same world... but the playerbase has exploded into a myriad of different people! I love the idea that the lore, so lush and so vibrant has continued to astound me with every patch, sure there have been some dodgy bits, but what's history without a bit of dodgy-ness? I love that the game has formed and changed over so many years, and this is just another very- nay, the largest step Blizzard has ever taken with this and that is what I'm looking forward to most in cataclysm.

I'm looking forward to playing through level 1 to 85 with the new quests that flow together like Northrend's and Outland's quest did.
Also flying in Azeroth, exploring all the changes that have occured.
Exploring underwater areas, without worrying about drowning or fatigue for once.
Completing both the Worgen and Goblin starting areas.

I'm really excited to be able to explore Azeroth on a flying mount. Also the change to the talent trees is amazing because they took out all the dumb talents and made it short and sweet to get what you need out of the tree, so I cant wait to see how well they actually play. And in another note I have always been excited to see how the new raid content is as well as dungeons.

Really excited about the changes done to the old world, as well as the new zones. I'm really looking forward to exploring every last bit of it and trying the new quests and starting areas.

I'm most looking forward to tanking new dungeons and raids with my Feral Druid !

And leveling a cute little goblin Shaman in the new zones too :)

Edited, Jul 27th 2010 8:23am by Laurelia

I am most excited by the changes to the raiding scene; where 10 man raids become a possible alternative to 25 man raiding, I feel 10 man raiding offers more challenge and allows a tighter-nit group of people to interact within the WoW raid scene without potentially feeling that the difficulty is scaled down significantly. This presents huge opportunities for hard-core guilds that only want to raid for a limited schedule guilds in the 25 man scene like Minions Of Mithril have already performed into the top 200 and top 100 raid scene on live using dedication and a good player base. With the smaller raid size and hopefully challenging content this would provide the ideal platform for a group of friends to play at the level they desire without devoting their souls too the gaming overlords. This to me seems a great opportunity to be both more competative and spend less time raiding. Tight-nit players would be able to perform much better then 25 players with less knowledge of each other and although 25 man guilds can be highly-interactive, there are clicks and groups that form regardless; this is especially evident in European guilds where national language barriers seperate groups of players more often then not. I have had the pleasure of playing with alot of remarkable European players from many countries and this is great but I feel it's less of a choice for them and more of a necessity to get the content they desire. I am not saying this is a bad aspect alot of these players became friends and I expect this will still happen. However one can potentially get a guild with more like-minded players with a smaller raid size.

10 man raids have been really engadging since Karazhan and even UBRS (by the time I was playing it was 10 man effectively) was one of the most exciting dungeons when one attempted Lord Valathak. I always felt there to be some need for more 10 man raids that were seperate from the current content, yes I don't really like the smaller version of the same dungeon pattern but if the difficulty works out to be challenging enough i'd enjoy it. In the recent past 10 mans have had elements that were tuned far too high for a 10 man only guild and these guilds were few and far between, alot of low population realms could have more success with 10 man focussed guilds. I remember instances where it was only down to 3-4 players in a 25 man to cause wipes in 25 man instances, this was rather annoying and lead to many guilds disbanding. With the change to not allowing both 10 and 25 man resets this does kind of eliminate my complaint that repetition of content is boring (ToC instances are a great example of repetition is boring).

Now while I don't currently play WoW I spent 4 years playing it, however I had said at the beginning of Wrath that I would stop playing once i'd seen ICC, I did after doing all the hardmodes apart form the lich king. I had lost interest in the game because the amount of thinking needed to perform well was so dumbed down, 10 mans were exciting but frustrating because they were always done on spare time, with alts/friends and on days when I had real life activities scheduled, I was missing out on the part of raiding that engadged me the most and when doing it, it was always harder then necessary due to people playing alt characters.

In Cataclysm I see a new game effectively where-by everything from the world design, quest content, raid content and leveling content is re-introduced in a new (learnt from experience) format that I really want to dive right into and taste, While my favourite change the raiding change won't be available in beta for a while(or potentially at all) I have good expectations for both the new leveling mechanics aswell as the revamps to the paladin class (which so far seem along the right track I was devistated when the wrath changes made retribution a faceroll class, where I had worked hard in sunwell to become decent for my gear 2k DPS on brutallus without my ideal gear, suddenly every paladin and their mother was doing 3k with any button push, even players who had unbound utiliity skills like Hand of Protection were equivalent to me and I lost ALOT of interest in the game. I am also quite excited for the healing changes because in wrath it became a spam feast.

In my mind the quallity of game design input has gone considerably up since wrath of the lich king, yes some features were scrapped due to time constraints but the general feel is that they want to bring new life to an aging game with aging systems. I will be playing Cataclysm regardless of getting a beta key just for the sake of experiencing the new leveling experience and probably will raid 10 mans and see how things go.

The current downsides with Cataclysm I see so far are some players may feel boxed in by the talent redesign (however I quite like it due to eradicating the need for expanding the talent system further), the potential lack of content to clear as people are used to this pattern of having an alt-main due to the avaiabillity of gear in 10 mans and 25 mans and my personal biggest fear; that the game won't be challenging enough(for players with any common sense most of wrath was a cake-walk, Ulduar was however beautiful in almost every way(it had flaws but they weren't terrible). Likewise ToC was a complete joke and the gating system used then made the progression slow and pain staking. I hope Cataclysm brings us to the point where hardmodes are for good players and normal modes are for the more casual gamer (which is fine) with the changes being that atleast classes will require some form of attention to perform well in raids be it through resource management or correct skill useage.

The things that stopped me playing were: The long wait till Cataclysm, the monotony of healing and paladin gameplay(im sure this is true for alot of classes), the time commitment(as a university student my alt gained very little attention and with GS I got in very few raids), GearScore as people have forgot how to value players on word of mouth and simple inspection and the current raid content once beat was a cake-walk(apart from lich king which I did not attempt to beat in heroic mode, however as someone who killed Muru pre 3.0 I expect I would have been able to kill him!!!).

What got me into WoW originally was the dungeon and raid game; and if done right it will keep me playing. That moment when you first enter an instance (for me it was the epic deadmines) was the moment I was fascinated by the gameplay dynamics that could evolve from this style of delivering content. For me it has never been about the loot but the experience of beating a challenging boss, like muru(or any of the sunwell bosses) or Nefarion. Sure I play the loot game but only because I want to get the most out of my character. Cataclysm brings a potential rejuvenation to the World of Warcraft world which I think could be what is needed to get players back and interested in the game, with even small changes to the old world the leveling experience is made somewhat fresh and exciting. I long to see the content changes, to work out the best possible rotations, to play alongside people in instances and to enjoy the exploration of the world of warcraft.

I'm going to test how my current toons looks an works in this brand new world while enjoiying enhanced look of the world itself. Ofc gonna check new races and classes mixes but really stick to my old toons 1st! So new areas, instances, RAIDS! New MH and BR instances! So checking new specs is the way to go! Then a new races, starting areas and quests!

Edited, Jul 27th 2010 8:31am by Jeremyshade

yea im really interested about all changes in cataclysm and about the new races coz I've wanted to play as goblin from the beginning of WoW and im happy they are coming at last after 2 expansions so it would be nice to test them out and explore some old zone changes like STV and Duskwood since they're so awesome places lol yea

What I am most looking forward to in the upcoming expansion is all the new starting zones and quests. Having palyed for years it will be nice to have some new things to see and do. Also turn my blood elf pally into a tauren is something I look forward too.

I think what I'm most excited about is the return of the need for CC and the new mage abilities. Finally, I can feel like my mage has a use again. Especially with Curtain of Frost for large groups and of course PvP. Let's not forget Time Warp either! This is going to be a blast!

I'm excited to participate in the beta because I know once the beta is completed, the next game Blizzard releases will be Diablo III.