My Two Cents
Friday, July 16th, 2010Alright, alright. My 2 cents on Cataclysm. Some of it from an RP perspective and some from mechanics. It’s a bit of a rant, so it’s okay if you don’t feel like reading. These are all from my personal views and experiences and you may feel completely different. It’s perfectly valid to have different opinions based on gameplay. I would hate it if we all played the same, so I’m glad you have that different opinion. I just may not agree with it.
A few weeks into beta and Blizzard’s making some bold moves. This isn’t the first time they’ve done something so bold, but needless to say it always worries the community. We have a few more months. If you have worries, then people in the beta probably have the same concerns and are providing feedback already. If you get into beta, then provide constructive criticism once you’ve tried it.
Don’t knock til you try it.
Yeah, I’m worried about missing my Divine Spirit. Having been a Disc priest for so long, it’s going to be weird not having that buff. But, I want to try it before I worry about it. They say we don’t need it. We probably won’t. I am a bit concerned that they kept the Lightwell. Great spell in theory, but I rarely see it used. It requires two things: a group trained to use it and DPS having the opportunity to walk over and use it. In the AOE battles of today… it’s hard. It’s almost useless in some fights. I can’t even imagine using it on Marrowgar. However, I prefer my Disc spec.
I like condensing the talents. Looks like we’re going to still have plenty of room to move about. Locking us into one talent tree until we finish it? I don’t mind that so much. When I’m leveling a character I tend to do that anyway. Just like old days we’re going to have about 10 points to go into other trees. Same flexibility as vanilla in that respect. As long as we don’t have…”trash” talents that no one wants, then I think we’ll see variations in builds. It would be nice to see less “cookie cutter” builds. I’m not really going to comment on Mage or Rogue trees. I don’t raid with either one and I don’t feel I have the grasp of them to say anything.
I will comment on CC though. I love crowd control. I use it. I abuse it. Solo or not, I really, really like it. Leveling, I shackled, sheeped, and have sapped my way up. Maybe you can just beat it down with AOE, but I find the dynamics of crowd control much more fun.
I remember shackling through Scholo, Strat, and Naxx. Heck, I even shackled in ICC 5 mans. Why? It makes things easier. That means though that you have to move you AOE away from my shackle. That means you actually need to coordinate who you’re attacking. It means… OMG… you have to mark your targets. I played back in vanilla when you had to coordinate without AOE awesomesauce or having marks built into the game. I do not feel the current AOE design allows for the building of teamwork. It’s great for PUGs, but that’s about the only allowance I can make on it.
Cataclysm is supposed to bring that back. Blizzard, thank you. The number of times that a well-placed CC has saved my priest’s life is more than I can count. Especially when fade or shadowmeld was on cooldown. Most importantly, you’re giving purpose to these abilities again. I know that I hate having that spell on my bar that I never ever use. Or worse yet… you need it after nearly a year of not using it and you have to find the dang thing. To me, it’s important that the abilities that you give us have a purpose. Especially an entire category like CC, so I hope that you do bring them back. As much as I fussed about trying to heal and CC at the same time… it added an exciting dynamic and challenged me in a new way. We need those types of challenges.
Oh yeah… and fishing. Please, please, please change it! I fall asleep at my keyboard. I can’t believe that was ever your intention for fishing. PLEASE! Thanks! I hope I see changes in the later beta builds. Although I’ll have to rely on others for that information since I’m not in beta. ^_^;
Now, I said that I was going to touch on RP. Yeah, yeah. I know. This is an RP blog and I’ve been spouting mechanics for several paragraphs. Thanks for being patient if you’ve survived thus far. *grins* I think Cataclysm will be opening up tons of RP. After all, the entire world is changing. I’ll try not to be specific as I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone that doesn’t want it, but I can give some general ideas.
Guildhouses. Tons of RP guilds have an area that they hang out. You might want to have a backup plan/story/plot just in case yours isn’t there come Cataclysm. There’s a good chance that even if it’s there changes might have occurred. Be prepared. Where will you go? How will the loss of something affect you? Do you have RP memories associated with it?
Bosses coming back. For me, this is awesome. I love how this will affect one of my characters. Serephim despises one with a passion. It could put her in extreme danger. Will she become his unwilling minion? Will she stay his worst enemy? Are there any bosses that are going to affect your character? What about the new races? What about choices your faction/race is making? How does that make your character feel?
Every change is an RP opportunity. Look for them. Use them to your advantage. Let the world that Blizzard is changing influence your character. It’ll add a fun and new dynamic.
Most of all, realize that Cataclysm is still in beta. What we see now will not be the final product. There’s plenty of time for feedback and change. I know that I’m looking forward to see what Blizzard will do. And like most, I too am hitting refresh on my battle.net account and hoping to see the beta invite. Until then, I will have to rely on all of you for my information. Thank you!
