What Wrath players need to know to not suck at Cata!

[Chtonios]

Well spoken OP.
Experience-wise I'm in the exact position where you are and I also admit that Wrath has caused a serious slack in my playstyle.
Thank you for reminding me of the good part about dungeons and raids:
Cohesion and Control.

[Amirishca]

To the OP,

After reading the first line, then subsequently yawning and scanning through the considerable wall of text you posted. I came to some simple conclusions.

These conclusions I would like to share with you, right now, here, in this post.

This is a pretencious self gratfication post that truely needs no front page time on mmo-champs, I'm suprised and ultimately dissapointed in them even taking the time to link it, maybe they are running out of cata updates.

Some simple logic is the foundation of my comments. First of all, anyone who reads mmo-champs are players who keep updated on latest news from the current game to any further expansions or "bolt ons". Thus this removes these people from needing to be treated like complete nubcakes in your post, because by definition, these are players who know the game, know their class and are informed to the point they reference mmo data mining sites like this one.

Secondly, anyone who needs to read this post do not read any forums, do not access any data sites corresponding on their mmo and who just play the game in a simplistic blissfullness.

Blizzard, I'm quite sure after over a decade of making games, know there are specific demagraphics to the people who play their games, vis a vis WOTLK. Now any player that has been playing world of warcraft since the raw early days will tell you that the heroic mode raid boss fights are the true raid boss fights and already know of the VAN/TBC feel of cataclysm.

In closing, in the begining there were a small few who achieved completion of end game bosses in VAN, the same is for TBC and WOTLK, and if you see this you will have to come to the conclusion, for us, the solid player, nothing really has changed. And as we had to do it for ourselves all those years ago, so then will the general population that is in the game now.

Your welcome.

[Yomiko]

100% of that stuff people should already know and do already...but I'll admit with us being at the higher end of the expansion the heroics/raids don't seem as hard as they used to be.

...but nonetheless it's a very well written post. I just want to say I hope Cata steps up the difficulty a little bit, but I do NOT want any 2+ hour long dungeon runs. I am fine with raids lasting up to four hours, but bringing back 2-4+ hour long dungeon runs (even in heroic!) would kill me. Hopefully Blizzard will balance this and keep it within the hour range with more difficulty overall

[Zeherah]

Great post. One thing that may be worth adding is a mention of being realistic about time constraints. People have gotten really used to dungeons taking 15-20 minutes per run. With the new dungeons people will not only be undergeared, they'll be full of folks who really aren't used to the content (and in some cases not used to their class/spec yet).

I wouldn't suggest anyone join a dungeon run without at least an hour to spare (probably more) until people are better geared and more used to the content. It's really annoying to go on a dungeon run, get 1 boss in and then have someone decide they're running out of time and just leave, especially if it's the tank or the healer.

[wasniahC]

My problem with this post is simple: The people who need to read it are the people who won't read it or mmo-champion at all.

95% of the posts I see on MMO champion are, unfortunately, fucking retarded. Most people who post on mmochampion need to read this. While the news posts and things are great, mmo champion's community ain't exactly elitist jerks.

[Cherrysoul]

Great topic /highfive.

I myself have played since Vanilla, so i know about all this stuff, but this is great, even while leveling my new Priest , i have seen some shocking cases of DPS not letting tanks generate enough threat before going hammer and tongs, pulling and wiping (if your thinking who cares at that level, perfect time to start practicing TO CONTROL YOUR DPS). Just one of many examples. In fact i would say do roll a new Char while your waiting for Cata, it's a great learning curve, even myself am learning a whole lot of new things, not just from rolling a class i have never played, but actually taking the time to learn everything again.

Anyway as i said Great topic

[VincentWolf]

We'll see how many of you would still actually be happy about all this after 15th wipe in some shitty heroic on same trash pull. Yeah bring it on, think I'll sit that crap out first few months and then get boosted by ubergeared ppl, like I myself boosted oh-so-many nubs in my 70% ilvl277 half a year ago.

[Ackadia]

The OP should be a sticky, it's a great example of how it SHOULD be done.

However, as I've said to a number of friends, most of whom have left WoW recently, Cataclysm is going to be a QQ fest full to the brim with ragequitters and elitists. Personally I'm going to sit back and LoL at it all from the stages!

Here's how it is:

Activision forced Blizzard to dumb the game down to the level of an 8 year old playing 'Whack-a-mole" Pew, Pew, gief epix...

The core players...
: whose that played the original Warcraft back in the early 90's:
: the hard core 'give me a challenge' raiders
: the addicts that buy all the store pets and pay for multiple accounts for RaF mounts or multi-box farming
... all getting older now, have less time for obsessive gaming, and far less patience for kids. Even the older teenagers are up in arms over some of the antics and /trade idiocy from pre-teens.

So, players start to leave in droves - even before 4.0 patch hit.

To appease these lucrative accounts (often the ones that fetch in friends and relations too), they agree to take the game back to old school Crowd Control.

As many posters have pointed out, we have East meets West and it's going to get really ugly, fast.

The kids lack the maturity, skills, tolerance and especially the patience to play anything way than pew pew for gratuitous (welfare) drops. Blizzard - Activision - have dumbed the game down to get all these bums of seats. There's literally billions of dollars riding on said bums being content in Cata.

The elitists will sandbox the hell away from anyone that doesn't raid at least 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, and put up with control freak mentality that instantly fine and/or and gkick players that stand in fire or break shackles. These are the ones that get the server / worlds firsts, that get the raids on farm. These are the ones the pew pew brigade aspire to be - gief free boost pl0x.

That leaves the rest between a rock and a hard place. PuG's will be a wipefest, progess will be grindingly slow and the divide so great that many people will get bored and leave.

What you'll get is masses saying something along the lines of "Sod that, I'm off to play CoD on the X-Box" They won't rage quit, they won't hit the forums and say "I loved you WoW, but I don't know you any more", they will just leave. And, in my opinion, it will be a quiet stampede for the exit. And all the other MMO's will literally and proverbially punch the air. as it goes.

You can see the headlines already: "Cataclysmic expansion for Blizzard! How did they get it so wrong?"

This isn't trolling, it's a simple fact of life. For years players have been spoon fed easy instances, gratuitous epics, instant teleports to PuG instances. Then you tell all these millions of players, the holiday is over, you have to work for everything now. Want to go to an instance? Find it first! Free epics? No chance, you need to learn how to play, earn your greenies, then blues, then better blues... Ding, 85, a few pugs and t11, I think not, my son!

Activision will cave in, the hard core will leave in disgust, then, because at the end of the day it's a business and they have to keep the stockholders happy, they will nerf it to the ground, whatever it takes to keep the numbers up.

Sorry, but that's how it's gonna be!

[Lenus]

These are very good tips. Gj Daetur.

Back to the days of Dps Skull, Sap X, Poly Moon, and with warlock new glyph you could probably now Fear Square. Weeee..

[Dammagia]

Having done all the content multiple times on the beta, I congratulate you on a well written and accurate post that all wotlk players should read.

Blizzard Activision has a choice now, bow to the QQ and make things easy again, losing them the most loyal players, or leave things as they are, continue to make the content like this, requiring skill over AOE and maybe lose 1 or 2 who can't hack it. All the rest will threaten to leave and not leave, as they have nowhere else to go.

[Healitosis]

I freaking love you! very helpful guide for the newbies.

edit: This game is too hard! ex: moving out of the fire.

[Amirishca]

These are very good tips. Gj Daetur.

Back to the days of Dps Skull, Sap X, Poly Moon, and with warlock new glyph you could probably now Fear Square. Weeee..

Ummmmmm, Skulll First Tank target, X second tank target, Nipple for sap, moon sheep........ anything after that was seduce, fear and bannish etc...

Your Welcome.

[Baganzai]

I'm glad this made it to the front page. It is very helpfull for alot of players, and if it wasn't on the front page i probably would have missed it. I suggest people to link this on guild forums etc, because its a very clear and helpfull "guide" or set of tips for anyone who does PvE.

[Coldfire989]

Well said well said! Everyone should read this and learn from it. I know 95% wont and that is sad but still awesome post!!!

[Deleted]

superb run down. Completely summed up LK instances to a t.

[Deleted]

Good post, I approve.

[Rakeoth]

Amazing post, patience is rare among the Wrath breed...

This is so true, I started playing a year after Wotlk was released by my friend who got me playing taught me the importance of not being retarded. 90% of Wotlk players have absolutely no patience and theres an even higher percentage on Mal'Ganis.

Also hey Femmes, I didn't know you trolled here too ahah

[Chtonios]

To the OP,

After reading the first line, then subsequently yawning and scanning through the considerable wall of text you posted. I came to some simple conclusions.

These conclusions I would like to share with you, right now, here, in this post.

This is a pretencious self gratfication post that truely needs no front page time on mmo-champs, I'm suprised and ultimately dissapointed in them even taking the time to link it, maybe they are running out of cata updates.

Some simple logic is the foundation of my comments. First of all, anyone who reads mmo-champs are players who keep updated on latest news from the current game to any further expansions or "bolt ons". Thus this removes these people from needing to be treated like complete nubcakes in your post, because by definition, these are players who know the game, know their class and are informed to the point they reference mmo data mining sites like this one.

Secondly, anyone who needs to read this post do not read any forums, do not access any data sites corresponding on their mmo and who just play the game in a simplistic blissfullness.

Blizzard, I'm quite sure after over a decade of making games, know there are specific demagraphics to the people who play their games, vis a vis WOTLK. Now any player that has been playing world of warcraft since the raw early days will tell you that the heroic mode raid boss fights are the true raid boss fights and already know of the VAN/TBC feel of cataclysm.

In closing, in the begining there were a small few who achieved completion of end game bosses in VAN, the same is for TBC and WOTLK, and if you see this you will have to come to the conclusion, for us, the solid player, nothing really has changed. And as we had to do it for ourselves all those years ago, so then will the general population that is in the game now.

Your welcome.

-Great... so you scanned the post. How about actually reading it before jumping to conclusions?

-"This is a pretencious self gratfication post"
Yes. Your post is indeed pretenTious and self gratifying. See what I did there?

-"Some simple logic is the foundation of my comments. First of all, anyone who reads mmo-champs are players who keep updated on latest news from the current game to any further expansions or "bolt ons". Thus this removes these people from needing to be treated like complete nubcakes in your post, because by definition, these are players who know the game..."


If you'd taken any of your precious time to actually read some comments on these boards, you could've come to the conclusion that the vast majority of posters is not well-informed of mechanics. MMO-Champ serves as a wonderful data-mining news-bulletin. Only sparsely as a guide on how-to-play.

You, Sir, are contradicting yourself in a plethora of ways and are trying to cover it up by using faux eloquence.

[Granyala]

Excellent Post!

[Shaazaam]

So in other words, all the stuff they should have known in Wrath?