One thing that WOTLK did exceptionally well but Cataclysm fails at

[Karazee]

In Wrath of the Lich King, as you were leveling up and making your way through the content, the Lich King was everywhere. You learned who he was, what he did, what he was doing, and in general just to really, really hate this guy. He popped in up numerous quests, zones, lore, dungeons, the guy had a more active PR department than Lady Gaga. They learned a lot from the mistakes of Burning Crusade, where you didn't really learn anything about this Illidan dude who was supposed to be all big and bad.

In Cataclysm, they have departed from that. Sure, Deathwing makes the world explode, and of course, people are kinda upset about it, but you rarely ever see the dude. Sure he randomly flies overhead and lights things on fire, and yeah he appears in like one maelstrom quest and one twilight highlands quest, but they did a really, really terrible job of describing who the heck this dragon is, why he's so pissed off, and what his goals are. He's just... well... angry.

The Alexstrazsa/Deathwing quest scene in TH shows of the potential this story could have had, but they stopped well short of what they should have done. Something about elementals being restless, some name mentions by random worshippers, but not much other than that.

If the Lich King was Michael Jackson, Deathwing is Tito.

And Tito is pissed.

[McNeil]

Who's Deathwing?

[Anjerith]

Deathwing shows up often during the questing experience, the major disconnect is this begins at lvl 3 or so (Goblin area) and persists through several leveling zones before going to Outland. Then reappears in some of the 80-85 content.

He is there enough if you look in the right spots.

[orcshaman24]

Have to admit, this is truth. Its like blizzard can't find a level of balance for there characters. People bitched about how the lich king appeared all over northrend, but it WAS he bloody expansion people forget, and even those who didn't either care or knew anything about his lore, they still got to see him and learn something about the final boss of that expansion, what he was doing, and why he had to be stopped.

Deathwing has had nothing of that, he's had limited involvement and only appeared in a few places. Its like blizzard just turned back into Illidan mode with did the same to him as they did with Illidan.

[Koen]

The problem in Wrath was that The LK popped up everywhere you looked and every time he spared your life for some stupid reason. In the end it made him feel like no real threat, or at least you always knew that he would let you get away with whatever you did to piss him off anyway. However, you certainly did want to see him dead and really knew what the guy was about.

Deathwing on the other hand, who is he really? I know next to nothing about him and I remember seeing him once when he talked for a bit? His background, why did he get so pissed, how come he felt the urge to explode out of Azeroth? I know next to nothing about it, considering I am not into reading his lore or whatsoever.

No matter how much The LK could seem like a joke sometimes as he popped up everywhere, it was a lot better than what they did now imo. Though, the problem may also be that The LK was a human being, someone we can relate to, whereas Deathwing is merely some random dragon with a stupidly bigger chin than most other dragons.

[Rahrah]

Have to admit, this is truth. Its like blizzard can't find a level of balance for there characters. People bitched about how the lich king appeared all over northrend, but it WAS he bloody expansion people forget, and even those who didn't either care or knew anything about his lore, they still got to see him and learn something about the final boss of that expansion, what he was doing, and why he had to be stopped.

Deathwing has had nothing of that, he's had limited involvement and only appeared in a few places. Its like blizzard just turned back into Illidan mode with did the same to him as they did with Illidan.

Although I agree with what you're saying, also have to realize that Icecrown helped a lot in the development in the Lich King story. You could sit there and see the moving, fighting creatures the LK brought about. They were a direct result of him. Now yeah Deathwing broke some shit and was like LOLStormwind but you aren't fighting his minions he created, you aren't like ZOMGDEATHWINGISGONNAKILLMYSHIT, you're like oh Deathwing yeah he is pretty epic looking I guess.

[Kylecat15]

OP is right, it's one of the biggest flaws in this fail x-pac.

[scottwardadd]

Granted, we had Warcraft III before to get Arthas and the Lich King going, but I think this finally hit the nail on the head. I've been wondering what really made me end my sub and I think this is one of the big reasons. Thanks for putting it into words for me

[Lagfest]

If the Lich King was Michael Jackson, Deathwing is Tito.

And Tito is pissed.

This wins the internets for the day

[Koen]

Deathwing shows up often during the questing experience, the major disconnect is this begins at lvl 3 or so (Goblin area) and persists through several leveling zones before going to Outland. Then reappears in some of the 80-85 content.

He is there enough if you look in the right spots.

The average casual player, which indeed is the majority of the gaming population of World of Warcraft, is not interested in hunting for the right spots to maybe see something relevant to Deathwing's lore.

And well, about the Goblin part; there is only a slight faction of the gaming population that plays a Goblin or has rolled one. I for one never rolled a goblin, and I am sure many are with me.

[Belloc]

Deathwing is on your freaking login screen. You see the results of his actions everywhere in the world. He's involved in at least a few quests.

I'd say Blizzard has done an excellent job of displaying who Deathwing is without overusing him, like they did with the Lich King.

The average casual player, which indeed is the majority of the gaming population of World of Warcraft, is not interested in hunting for the right spots to maybe see something relevant to Deathwing's lore.

And well, about the Goblin part; there is only a slight faction of the gaming population that plays a Goblin or has rolled one. I for one never rolled a goblin, and I am sure many are with me.

Actually, the average casual player is the kind of player that spends more time leveling new characters than raiding and running heroics. With that in mind, the average casual player is exactly the kind of player that will find those "right spots."

[Alraml]

I'd agree that Deathwing is a bit lacking.

I went 1-85 from the start of Cataclysm without him doing a single zone fly-over. Only time I saw him was at the start of Hyjal and in Twilight Highlands.

[Psychos]

If the Lich King was Michael Jackson, Deathwing is Tito.

And Tito is pissed.

Im sorry if it's off topic, but: BEST. ANALOGY. EVER!

[Vepres]

The problem in Wrath was that The LK popped up everywhere you looked and every time he spared your life for some stupid reason. In the end it made him feel like no real threat, or at least you always knew that he would let you get away with whatever you did to piss him off anyway. However, you certainly did want to see him dead and really knew what the guy was about.

Deathwing on the other hand, who is he really? I know next to nothing about him and I remember seeing him once when he talked for a bit? His background, why did he get so pissed, how come he felt the urge to explode out of Azeroth? I know next to nothing about it, considering I am not into reading his lore or whatsoever.

No matter how much The LK could seem like a joke sometimes as he popped up everywhere, it was a lot better than what they did now imo. Though, the problem may also be that The LK was a human being, someone we can relate to, whereas Deathwing is merely some random dragon with a stupidly bigger chin than most other dragons.

Because the Lich King wasn't interested in just killing you. He wanted the strongest players to struggle and rise up the ranks, compete in his argent tournament, then he planned to turn them into his own Death Knights.

[cquirki]

I think this is why the game has lost its subscribers. (don't rage yet i haven't really said anything) Now, so in WOLK we had the drive to kill LK. the lore was strong, there was a villain and a story. there isnt ANY ALLURE AT ALL WITH DEATHWING IN THE GAME. I don't care at all. Some people think hes not even going to be the last boss because the lore is so unbelievably WEAK. EVERYONE wanted to kill LK; it got people excited to see him before anub. people would /scared him. no1 gives a shit about deathwing.

[Deleted]

The problem in Wrath was that The LK popped up everywhere you looked and every time he spared your life for some stupid reason. In the end it made him feel like no real threat, or at least you always knew that he would let you get away with whatever you did to piss him off anyway. However, you certainly did want to see him dead and really knew what the guy was about.

They should have made him kill you once or twice, or at least capture you for "experimentation"..

[Kathion]

Not to mention that this expansion, to me anyways, doesn't feel like it had any sense of story line. WotLK made sense even in the progression of the raids. Cata feels like HEY deathwing, ok firelands now, alright now that that's on farm we get to wonder what is next. WotLK showed LK's progress as we got closer to challenging him, but for all we know Deathwing could be off sleeping on an island somewhere.

[orcshaman24]

Although I agree with what you're saying, also have to realize that Icecrown helped a lot in the development in the Lich King story. You could sit there and see the moving, fighting creatures the LK brought about. They were a direct result of him. Now yeah Deathwing broke some shit and was like LOLStormwind but you aren't fighting his minions he created, you aren't like ZOMGDEATHWINGISGONNAKILLMYSHIT, you're like oh Deathwing yeah he is pretty epic looking I guess.

and thats just it, we saw all across northrend all that the lich king created, all undead creatures and raised things, all of it was result of him, and even some none undead threats were riled because of what he was doing. He was even refered to by yogg Saron in his vision, prompting his place as the villian there.
As a lore fan I can say I know enough about deathwing seeing what he's done in the past. But looking at it from a none lore fan, who's going to be more well known as the antagonist, the lich king, who was everywhere, or deathwing, whos.. well... just in a few places.

[312guiltyspark]

I think this is why the game has lost its subscribers. (don't rage yet i haven't really said anything) Now, so in WOLK we had the drive to kill LK. the lore was strong, there was a villain and a story. there isnt ANY ALLURE AT ALL WITH DEATHWING IN THE GAME. I don't care at all. Some people think hes not even going to be the last boss because the lore is so unbelievably WEAK. EVERYONE wanted to kill LK; it got people excited to see him before anub. people would /scared him. no1 gives a shit about deathwing.

well yea thats because of wc3 - i mean the whole underlying story in wow since it launched has been the hint of a lich king in the future. it was there in vanilla with naxxramas - it was there in tbc with illidan, kael and vashj being defeated and it was there in wotlk with arthas running around like a madman all over the place. not to mention that arthas' story - going from the shining light of a kingdom to the dark and brooding lich king captivated people.
whihc is completely the opposite of neltharions story - there hasnt been any mention of deathwing except in the most obscure in game books and quests up until cata launched, so yes its understandable that people arent as hyped about him as arthas.

[Arrowstormen]

No. Deathwing is just right.

Illidan was there never.

Lich King was everywhere, doing nothing, being a crappy Scooby Doo villain.

Deathwing is just right, showing up only to do cool stuff, and burning zones.