Rewind to a year ago...Follow

This is something I never thought I'd be saying, especially after how thoroughly unimpressed I was by Cataclysm, but I'm considering coming back (that I can basically pay for game time and get DIII for free is nice as well).

I will decidedly not be playing hardcore in any way, shape, or form. That includes arena, raiding, etc. I will likely only be soloing on my hunter and doing BGs and maybe some casual arena on my rogue.

That said, I stopped playing pretty much one year ago. I've seen things like transmogrification, etc mentioned. How different is the game now? Have they made it harder? Easier?

From what I recall, my rogue has some decent PvP gear from early in the expansion and I don't think he had really any PvE gear at all.

Oh, and hi, by the way. I've missed some of the people on this forum.

Theo's coming back? Mark my words, Mental is next!

I was gone for almost exactly a year so we're probably in similar positions. My priest is dressed up in PVP purples and blues (and a lot of blues, IIRC) from that first season after Cata. I'm not playing her actively but spent a lot of time in bg's grinding heirlooms with her, and was shocked by how well she was able to hold her own. I expected a much bigger gear gap. So either that gap is not as big as in previous expansions, or people just suck more, or else priests are OP. I am not sure which. Healers seems hard to kill in general, but that's not new.

When I left Cata still felt fairly new. Now it feels like we're in the end-of-expansion lull where gear and groups are easy to come by, the hardcore people have already done everything, and people are generally casual and relaxed. I'm playing very casually, yet probably participating in more content than I ever did when playing more actively simply because things feel so low stress. (That may also have something to do with the fact that I'm DPSing instead of healing for the first time ever, though.)

Also my hunter is leveling, so the situation is different, but I top every dungeon DPS meter without much effort, unless there's an enhance shaman in the group, so they may be well positioned right now, not sure.

So, short answer: easier. Otherwise the same. I didn't feel like there was a big learning curve or anything.

Transmog is fun, too.

You know I have been waiting for Theo to come back. This forum seriously lacks a cocky overconfident theory-crafter to point fingers and steer folks in the right direction. I mean that in a positive way.

Welcome back Theo!

As others have said, the game is easier if all you are looking for is to see the content and get some pretty purples. Heroics are still hard and normal modes still challenge the casual guilds as always. LFR lets people who never raided get into raids and see watered-down content that doesn't require quite so many raid skills. People still do wipe in LFR and you do run into people who really don't seem to have a clue about what they are supposed to do in there (sucks when it's a tank who's like that).

Some of the old rep grinds have been made drastically easier. Timbermaw is easily done from start to finish in several hours. Argent Dawn is annoying in that you have to do quests in EPL up to a specific point but once you hit that point, you are revered and have two repeatable quests that are the only ways to gain further rep. I hear that Thorium Brotherhood is much easier now too though I haven't done that on any alts since the changes. Cenarian Circle rep got messed up a bit in Silithus with the removal of some of the repeatable rep quests but there are quite a few quests in Desolace that earn rep with them so you can get some of the rep that way instead of the AQ grinds or Twilight mob farming.

Transmog is fun for a lot of people and prices on some items in the AH have gone up considerably. This is especially true for 'sexy' leg and chest armor and interesting weapons of all qualities. Even on my server with its struggling dwindling Horde population, you see a fair amount of people putting together old content runs in search of transmog gear.

One fairly notable change that I can think of right now is that they moved almost all dungeon quest givers inside of the dungeons. They did that for the classic dungeons at the onset of Cataclysm but they later went and did it to the Outland and Northrend dungeons as well. This means that you no longer have to do outside quest chains in order to gain access to the major quests for a particular dungeon. This is a nice change for those who really don't like questing though it does mean that many people will know even less lore and story than ever before.



Oddly enough, enhancement feels bursty on the front end damage but in actuality (at least at 85) our real power doesn't come until after 5 stacks of searing are on the target. We have a longer ramp up time than many classes and our dps can kind of suck on fights that end 'too fast'. I sometimes watch recount during boss fights and on many of them, I start out lower than the top five but after a few minutes, I see my name start creeping up and I usually end up near the top by the end.

True story: so I'm sitting here going, OMG I AM A HUNTARD, because I have NO IDEA what this superpowerful Stormstrike thing he's talking about is, and clearly I should have been using it all along! Then I realized that my misplaced pronoun made you think I was calling the shaman well positioned, but really I meant the hunter. :) On account of Theo saying he was going to be playing one. I'm level 77 or 78 now and there's been no level bracket in which I wasn't topping meters quite easily most of the time (barring the aforementioned shaman or the occasional DK). No idea about endgame though and we all know that's different.

As a hunter, you wouldn't - its a Shaman spell.

One thing I loved about the old D&D was that after reaching a certain level a ranger could retrain as a druid. You lost access to your ranger abilities until you reached the the same level as you were at when you switched, you then were dual-class and could function as either.

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll be getting a scroll of resurrection and grab my old (super powerful) PC out of storage tonight on my way home from work.

Thanks again.

Yeah, I've been thinking about actually playing again myself. I might as well, since I signed up for the annual pass back in November. I'm paying for the game, might as well actually play it. I just haven't felt like it much the last few months.

It's nice that you get to pick abilities regardless of your specialization, but it's not so nice that they're taking game-changing core abilities away from some classes and forcing them to choose between them.

I'm not looking forward to a game where my Druid has to choose between Feral Swiftness (renamed Feline Swiftness) and Feral Charge (renamed Wild Charge). Both are absolutely crucial in PvP. Feline Swiftness gives a passive movement speed buff, which is a must have because Blizzard, seven years in, still haven't fixed the hitbox issue with Druids in Cat Form and Shred's positional requirement (you end up behind someone and can't hit them despite being within physical range). The other, Wild Charge, is a must have because Druids don't have a true gap closer in MoP with Feral Charge being removed. Dash and Roar won't prevent you from being lolsnared ad nauseam while you try to catch the backpedaling Huntard and his immortal (wtf?) pet.

So I can choose between a gap closer that I've had for the last many, many years, or a passive moment buff that fixes a bug that will be eight years old by the time MoP comes out.

Why, thank you.

Alternatively, I can get a Blink'n'Vanish talent that'll come in handy as I can't catch anything...

Edited, Mar 23rd 2012 4:34pm by Mazra

You can also grab Faerie Swarm and Ursol's Vortex though...


Edited, Mar 23rd 2012 7:59am by someproteinguy

You know you'll have the option to get that back ya?

Also, you should PvP with a ranged class...

Edit: This is going to feel weird though. There are a lot of classes getting a lot of weird or new abilities. I'm not sure how PvP is going to feel. There's a lot more CC and a lot more CC breakers. I imagine they'll keep us with big health pools and everything. I wonder if I'll ever have time to damage or heal anyone though...


Edited, Mar 23rd 2012 8:34am by someproteinguy

They take it away, wait until people forget about it and then give it back as "buffs." I haven't forgotten that Druids used to be able to shapeshift out of roots. I won't have forgotten it by the time I get to shapeshift out of roots again if I sacrifice Heart of the Wild.



Now you make it sound like I've only ever played Druid. It's been seven years, Protein. I've tried other classes.

I complain because I care!

And because I'm a pessimist at heart and won't let an issue go, but mainly because I care!