Well it's been a couple months and a couple patches and it's time to review World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Cataclysm is a game by blizzard that is an expansion of World of Warcraft. The third expansion to be exact. It has been a highly anticipated game because the new area of play is on the old continent of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. While the other expansion had player in new zones, it left the old ones nearly abandoned. Now we all come flooding back to our safe cities.
It is hard to review an MMORPG game simple because there is SOOOO much content to the game and it changes on a nearly constant basis. Something that a reviewer may dislike the month before could be patched and fixed the day after. To make it easier, let's break this down into two easy groups. PVP and PVE
PVP - Player vs Player
Blizzard is always messing with the PVP aspect of the game and it seems to fluxgate in heavy directions. One month a certain class seems to dominate and the next month they are patched and can't do anything at all. It's something that is hard to balance. When you have 12 million players in a game, they learn the little bugs and quarks that make their class better then exploit it and tell others. However, PVP in this expansion is very much a plus in the right direction. The new maps that are provided distribute control between sides much more evenly. Plus, siege weapons have been introduced, giving a neater feel to the game.
PVE - Player vs Environment.
PVE is what attracts most players to World of Warcraft. It is the aspect of the game where players take on NPC monsters and try to best them with strategy and all out brute force. Cataclysm has majorly revamped their raiding experience. To put it simple, it ain't easy anymore folks! Unlike the previous expansion, much more of the responsibility lies on the DPS rather than healers and tanks. Healers have taken a major hit to mana regen and tanks have been stripped of defense so they are taking much more damage. If I had to say which role was hit the hardest it is definitely healers. They just can't throw out aimless heals anymore; they need to be much smarter. So guess what? That means DPS needs to avoid ANY damage they can. You can't put that strain on the healer anymore. If I had to sum up the raiding experience in Cataclysm in one word, it would be Mobility. Time to learn how to move and DPs or heal and be good at it. Every fight now has the players darting around.
So I have to give the game a good review because it is World of Warcraft. It is fun and the new boss fights are much more immersive and fun. However, I feel like Blizzard's heart is falling out of the game. They've been at it a long time and I just don't feel like they care as much as they did. I have a feeling that a WoW killer is coming up closer than most people think.
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