No really, I mean, I’ve been watching the Live Stream and I’ve thinking about what to blog about regarding it, and I’ve got nothin’. Pretty much everything has been reported elsewhere and it seems silly to me to talk about what I “like” and “dislike” about the expansion when it’s so far away at this point that a.) things could change entirely and b.) who knows, I may not even be playing by then– not in a “ragequit” or “anti-expac” fashion, but simply because it’s a long time from now, and I may have simply and logically stopped playing by then. /shrug
I suppose I can say that leveling a new hunter to see the revamped content (and give me the needed background to provide updated guides for new hunters) is a given, and I’m goin’ 100% pure Goblin. Oh yeah.
Also: Heroic Deadmines and Heroic SFK pretty much made my year.
Another thing I noticed is that Cataclysm’s version of the WoW logo does not sit well with me on some deep, subconscious level, because the little globe in the logo has a big crack in it and doesn’t look very happy. And I don’t like to see my little virtual world in danger like that. >.> It’d be like if someone wanted you to buy their product so they stuck a big picture of your homeland being torn asunder on it. …yeah. Disaster movies are pretty much the only thing that can get away with it, and that’s what Blizz is going for, but it still makes me uneasy. WoW isn’t my disaster movie, it’s my escape. Ya know? >.>
Dang, it just occurred to me that a logo has got me more emotionally invested than anything else that was announced at BlizzCon so far. Freud would have a field day with me, wouldn’t he?
Anyways, other than that… yeah, I got nothin’.
Just figured I’d make this post since I know some people would probably be checking here for my input. My apologies if I didn’t provide much.
It’s just that I’ve got a lot to do between now and then, and the whole “lame duck” period right before an impending expansion pack tends to suck in my experience because everyone is panicky over it and/or bored with the current stuff, so I’m fine with pushing said lame duck period off as long as I can =P
Considering it hasn’t even been out a year and people are bored of Wrath already, I’d say Blizz better step up their game on Icecrown…
You make it sound like it wont be out for another year…but the way Blizz has been pushing out content lately…January has my vote for release.
@ Voldenmist – my speculation on it “not being out for a while” is based off of Blizz’s track record of game releases and their position in relation to when they were announced. My “money” is on “we won’t be seeing it for a year at least”. If they can get it out sooner, more power to them, but I won’t be excepting it right away. =P
I think I heard last night at the class discussion panel that Ghostcrawler (or one of the others) said 16-18 months until release. But considering I’m watching the live stream from Norway, I heard this around 3 or 4 last night, and I would not put complete faith in my memory…
There is some speculation that it will come out more quickly, because they were working on it before the release of Wrath of the Lich King, and because they’ve been releasing patches so quickly. A lot of people are banking on spring of 2010.
Personally, I’d like it to be a bit later. I missed out on vanilla WoW, and there are still some things I’d like to do with my 80s in old Azeroth (like Loremaster).
I do want my goblin ASAP, though.
I love the new logo for the exact same reason you hate it. xD
The only thing that I’m really concerned about (and curious as to how on earth Blizzard would pull it off) is the changing of the Hunters’ resource system (no more mana!? What!?). Only 100 Focus, and a shot might cost 30 to 60 Focus? What is the Blizzard going to do to Hunters?
My opinion is “I don’t care until there’s a beta.” I’m way too busy with this expansion atm to worry about another one.
Personally I LOVE the way the logo relates to the rest of the expansion- for instance growing up I would use my name as the main character’s in rpgs I would play because it would make me feel “heroic” about saving the world, getting the girl and fighting off evil. I feel a much similar feeling about this- your home is in danger from evil forces and from (the opposing faction) and instead of real life where you have little say in what is going on, here you CAN make a difference, HERE you can defend your home from the ravages of those that seek the freedom you have come to love in game. It looks to me as a rper’s paradise: from what I’ve heard you get very tangible rewards or penalties based on what your faction has done in pvp (access to a daily island type of deal if you win, and a dungeon) and the entirety of the world is in flux and it is your time to show the valour within you and change the world for the better….. but that is all my take on it 😀
I know there’s much more to read about the expansion, and there’s plenty that hasn’t been released yet, but at first glance it just seems like Blizzard is recycling more of their content for people to create and play more alts (revamp 1-60 zone, new races). They have mechanic changes coming, but you don’t really need a new expansion for that. In fact, for more of the broad changes coming to the game, you won’t even need to buy the expansion.
I’m sure there’s more coming, but so far the upcoming Cat-alt-clysm isn’t going to impress people who aren’t big on alts.
Let’s not forget that there are seven new zones in addition to the changed old world, it seems like there’ll be plenty for existing top-level characters to do apart from level alts!
I’m interested (and uncertain!) about the proposed hunter changes. I don’t think anyone can really say anything useful about how the ‘new’ playstyle will differ from the current one at this time, it’d all be speculation until we see how the focus system and new itemisation works ingame. I’m really fascinated to see what they’ll do with it, though!
There’s also some talk of improved pet control. As a beastmaster, this makes me happy!
I’ve just done my own blog post (plug, I know…but I wrote it to show I relate to what you’re saying in this article) about the class combos but I admit that it’s hard to write an article about the new expansion when lots could change between now and when it comes out.
However, I don’t reckon it will be too far off release wise. We just have Icecrown to get through really. And I really hope you don’t quit the game. I know if you did, it would be with good reason and all. I just like coming here and reading your blog so I wouldn’t want you to quit cause I’m selfish aha.
Anyway, wall of text over. Nice article that was both about Cataclysm and not really about it 😉
Guess what ? I rolled a new hunter… A troll… She’s doing tourism in the hordish capitals I don’t know, especially Orgrimmar which will be detroyed in the new expansion…
I am now officially a hunter addict… Because I just couldn’t imagine rolling anything else…
I’m pretty underwhelmed by the expansion news as well. It could be that it’s the sort of thing we’ll just have to see and experience to really get into it, but there are a few things that really worry me.
Hunters losing mana and gaining Focus is going to mean learning to play again, likely spending a lot of time in rebalancing, plummeting down the dps meters and generally being in a state of disarray for a couple of months until Blizzard sorts it out.
Basically I worry that I’m not going to enjoy my favourite character anymore, as it’s the Focus mechanic that continually pushed me away from my attempts at Rogues and Druids.
I agree the expansion sounds brilliant for leveling alts. It will be something of a new WoW to start fresh in, which could be a lot of fun for people with alt addictions.
At the core, I DO like the idea of taking us off of the mana leash. As a high 60s Beast Mastery PvP player, I run dry after less than a minute of combat (despite stacking as much extra Intellect as I can). And needless to say, Aspect of the Viper is not really ideal for PvP. In fact, it kind of runs contrary to the whole mechanics of PvP.
On the other hand, we have a lot of critical abilities already on cooldowns (like traps and disengage) that NEED to be there when it’s time to use them, not 4-6 seconds later after some focus regen. If they keep those abilities focus free with cooldowns… not so bad I guess.
If it’s like anything WoW has done in the past, when it finally hits we will be like Zeus hurling lightling bolts from Olympus for a few weeks (till the rapid nerf patch cuts us down) or it could be a “Gee… now I suck at EVERYTHING” feeling.
Who knows?
My personal predition for Cats release… June 2010. That gives them 2 months to get the major kinks corrected before they all decend upon BlizCon next year.
Yes!!! Finally I find some one else that loves the goblin lol. I’ll be changing my or hunter into one as well