Cataclysm, not as bad as we remember?

[Pull My Finger]

Overall not my favorite expansion, but it never was "bad" in the first place. The snivelling of forum morons rarely has anything to do with facts.

[endersblade]

Well, I ran DS all of once in LFR just to see the ending for myself, so it never got old for me. I ran the three epic instances probably 200 times, and loved every minute of it. I had all of my chars geared from those instances, both specs on most of them (my rogue and hunter only have one spec). The overall storyline throughout the zones was pretty cool, and I loved Vashj'ir.

I don't consider MoP to be a bad expansion overall, but I definitely liked Cata better.

[Normie]

Multiple periods of months with nothing to do (except level another alt or three), and especially bleak for non-raiders.

[Deleted]

Cata started very strong.

T11 was (and still is) my favourite raid tier of all time, I did not like Firelands of Dragonsoul as much, and certainly if you compare them to ToT and SoO there is no comparison imo.

Cata had nothing to do in the outside world really.

MoP has all the Lost and Found stuff, pets to collect, Rares to kill.

Proving grounds and Brawlers guild also added a dimension that we did not have before.

After 4.3 there was only one way to really earn valor out of raiding.

I was sick to fucking death of the HoT 5 mans after about a month, no one run any of the older 5 mans and if you tried outside of a guild group it was a total clusterfuck.

At least in MoP you can.

Do 8 5 mans, 15 scenarios, Dailies (I know some people hate these but I don't mind sprinkling some in), Weeklys (Like the ToT summons and some of the Isle quests).

So in summary at the end of Cata I logged in did 3 HoT 5 mans over and over and over again or raided with my guild.

There is far far more to do in MoP, I still have not finished endless proving grounds or brawlers guild.

I really have not done much pet battles.

Each raid tier has been FAR bigger than Firelands or SoO (remember we have LFR to thank for that).

So imo cata was and still is the worst expansion overall.

Do I think MoP is perfect, no ofc it is not but every time I log in I fell I have plenty of options for things to do.

I would like to have seen some more 5 mans (even if the had been reworks of old 5 mans).

[Deleted]

For me: Mop is even worse than Cata......

[Darkhallows]

Cataclysm has succeeded in being the first xpac that gives me absolutely zero nostalgia, and I've played since Feb. '05. (Except I think, my first time in the Worgen startin area with my Druid. Kinda miss that feel.)

Kinda unfortunate, but...I just don't get ANY feels from Cataclysm. I already miss parts of MoP though, if that tells you anything.

[Deleted]

Meh I still think something went wrong in cata.

[Deleted]

I like the firelands patch I thought the raid was cool and the dailies wasnt bad but yeah rest of the expansion wasnt that great

[Deleted]

Cataclysm was mainly a downfall for me, because my guild ended up having to quit. Lots of real life issues for all of us at the same time. No guild = No real commitment.

But as OP pointed out, parts of the expansion was quite nice. Loads of the art was amazing and Uldum is one of the nicest zones, could maybe have expanded a bit more on the whole Titan deal with some additional content tho.

The major downfall of Cata raiding, as I see it, is that most of the "epic" bosses weren't all that great.
Al'akir the Windlord was sitting nearly all alone in a basically 1½ boss raid. Him alone was an alright fight, but he did not give the same feel of awesome as fighting Ragnaros ever did.
Nefarian and Onyxia were both combined into a single boss and even though they both gave semi new tactics to the fight, it wasn't at all that epic to refight the undead dragons.
Whats his face from Bastion of Twilight was underwhelming, all considering the lore and lead up to him.
The extra heroic only dragon I can't talk about, since I didn't try it.

Dragon Soul was a big screw up and barely felt like a raid. You didn't have to walk, run or ride by yourself most of the time and half of it just barely fits together. It's like a bad fan fiction of the final fight between Harry Potter and Voldemort >.<

Deathwing was never build up as a bad guy with an actual plot and more just of a terrorist who wanted to burn down Stormwind. We could have used maybe a Cavern of Time dungeon/raid to set him up as a better character and used him much more in both human and dragon form throughout the questing. Both between 80-85 and 1-60. Sadly the issue here is that his dragon form is a wee bit too big and the whole deal about him flying around the world randomly burning zones and players without leaving any actual impact. Unlike the Lich King, who showed up in Borean, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak and Icecrown several times. He defeated one of our (atleast the Alliances) favorite characters, he showed up in our tournament and we beat his derpy plan of killing us and we killed his firetrucking heart before we went into his freaking citadel and killed him together with his father, all the while we've been to the past and helped him become the Lich King and seen how he obtained Frostmourne.

This became very long all of a sudden, sorry for that.

[Apology]

Cataclysm started off awesome. 4.0 was amazing after Wrath - dungeons were difficult again, gear meant something (getting something purple was an experience!), the old world revamps suddenly made it possible to level alts via questing, etc. People praise Wrath as the pinnacle of WoW nowadays, but at the time, the forums were flooded with how horrible it was. Everything was too easy, fucking Halls of Reflection. Cataclysm fixed all the concerns the community had with Wrath, and more...to start with.

Then we found out that the old world revamp apparently raped the production cycle for the entire expansion, and we got next to no new content for the entire life-cycle of Cataclysm. We got literally zero artistic additions post launch outside of Well of Eternity (Firelands was literally an entire patch of fire effects and black rock, HoT and Endtime were reskinned Dragonblight, DS recycled everything...). We had one, maybe two entire raids scrapped (Well of Eternity was meant to be a raid and then, of course, there's the rumoured Abyssal Maw raid). Dungeons were eventually nerfed back into oblivion and became mindless chores yet again.

AND, we were left with Dragon Soul for months. They gave us LFR...but left us with DS as its only use for months.

Months ;_;

4.0 was the most fun I've ever had in WoW, and I've played since just before Burning Crusade...and I don't even raid. The heroics themselves were awesome because you had to think. I loved doing those at the time.

Then they went to shit and Cataclysm itself went to shit and really did become as bad as everyone remembered. Even the addition of transmog and LFR in 4.3, as awesome as they were, couldn't carry the entire expansion.

[Deleted]

Cataclysm wasn't that bad. The zones were cool but the whole portal traveling thing sucked. The first 2 raids were awesome, BWD still one of my favorite raids of all time and Nefarian my favorite fight after Lich King. Firelads were awesome too, I loved every single fight in there. Then it all went to shit. Overall I enjoyed it.

[Anakso]

For me: Mop is even worse than Cata......

Really?
I suppose I'm not a raider in MoP and haven't been playing as much as Cata so maybe I don't see it, but with Cata for me outside of raids there was nothing at all to do. In MoP, there is always something for me to do and I don't even raid or pvp anymore (bar LFR occasionally)

[Ron Burgundy]

i couldn't wait for cata to end. worst expac ever.

[Krommm]

People will remember old expansions how they want to. Also, surprise, different people will have had different experiences and remember them fondly or have disdain for a certain time period. Opinions will vary, but in general heroics were too hard for most PUGs and lesser skilled.

Cata's theme had potential but was ultimately a letdown, especially in the lore department. Dragonsoul and Deathwing was a huge disappointment considering the significance of both. Throne of Winds was just... horrible. (Though some people have a strange affection for it.)

End game content was severely lacking for long stretches of time. The common excuse was the old world revamp taking too many resources. Simply put there's a lot to not like, but the additions to the game were also nice.

(I believe Reforging, Transmog, Rated BGs, 10 and 25 dropping same ilvl loot and being tuned accordingly while sharing a lockout, and LFR were the main features included at some point in Cata.)

[nekobaka]

Really?
I suppose I'm not a raider in MoP and haven't been playing as much as Cata so maybe I don't see it, but with Cata for me outside of raids there was nothing at all to do. In MoP, there is always something for me to do and I don't even raid or pvp anymore (bar LFR occasionally)

Personally I like five mans and I did not get burned out from the five man heroics in Cata despite largely solo queuing. I like to heal and DPS holy-trinity content and MoP doesnt really provide that outside of raiding and LFR for me is more stressful than it is enjoyable and I dont care to do organized raiding anymore. Solo content and scenarios bore me and I dont like PvP anymore. Cata had my bases covered for a handful of hours a week while MoP doesnt. I could even get tier gear from a vendor without having to raid until LFR came in.

[Anakso]

Personally I like five mans and I did not get burned out from the five man heroics in Cata despite largely solo queuing. I like to heal and DPS holy-trinity content and MoP doesnt really provide that outside of raiding and LFR for me is more stressful than it is enjoyable and I dont care to do organized raiding anymore. Solo content and scenarios bore me and I dont like PvP anymore. Cata had my bases covered for a handful of hours a week while MoP doesnt. I could even get tier gear from a vendor without having to raid until LFR came in.

That is one thing Cata had over MoP that I forgot about actually, the 5mans were far more enjoyable.

[Deleted]

Dungeons are launch were great and hard - it was shoking for the majority because they were already used to WotLK steamroll dungeons and the uproar was so great that the Nerf bat had to hit like 2 weeks later.

First and second raiding tier were great. Whoever say the opposite then he havent done them all. FL hc was hard, specaily the horrors of Ragnaros. What ruined all that could be good end for Cata was butchered with DS and the introduction of LFR. This litteraly mutilated the game so much that it will take still a lot of years to heal back.

And also the separated Cata zones. They were literaly in the four corners of the world. And to add to the "excitement" Blizzard decided to put portals to all of them in the capital cities.

However despite all i said above the major uproar in the forums against Cata is from veteran players, because they remmeber the game a bit harder than it was back then in t13(the fatal number ). Blizzard's Dragon soul and catering towards the casuals almost killed WoW Soul
Atleast with MoP they tried (and in my opinion quite good) to patch the things and thats why MoP is way better accepted than Cata even despite the "kungfu" pandas

[Pyromelter]

The only thing good about cata isn't something that was inherently good, but I look back on it because it was taken away, and those are the conveniences - the 5mans, the rep tabards, the "not having to grind myself into a complete pulp just to be halfway not useless in an alt raid."

It was still a pretty crappy xpac compared to BC and Wrath. It just wasn't as bad as MoP has turned out to be.

[Itisamuh]

P.S. I dunno how the hell someone can say they hate MoP and at the same time gives props to Cata.....I can understand hating both but MoP was better in every shape or form that can be described or compared. Guess nostalgia really is a disease

That's the wonderful thing about opinions: they aren't facts. I liked Cataclysm more than Mists in almost every way.

[Deleted]

That's the wonderful thing about opinions: they aren't facts. I liked Cataclysm more than Mists in almost every way.

Wars have been started in RL over opinions.