World of Warcraft recently released its third expansion pack, Cataclysm, which to no surprise broke plenty of records. The game expansion has been out for only a few short months and, despite being only a modest content patch, some gamers are starting starting to get vocal with major complaints.
Though, these complaints are really coming more from casual players – not necessarily the hardcore World of Warcrafters.
In the previous two expansion packs, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, the game focused more on bringing new players into the game. The world was purposefully dumbed down to appeal to the casual audience. Dungeons were easier, raids had more “tank and spank” type bosses, and acquiring epic gear became pretty easy. With the release of Cataclysm, it seems as though they’ve gone back to the roots of WoW.
In the new game, the heroic dungeons actually make players feel heroic – if you manage to complete them. It is no longer just the same dungeon with ramped up mob and boss health, there are actual changes to the boss mechanics that make them increasingly more difficult. For example, in normal mode, a boss may need to be turned away from the group (in order to have the damage of a wide attack hit only the tank) but now, in heroic mode, not only does the boss need to be turned away from the raid, but you will need to dispel a buff on the boss and get rid of any de-buff the boss puts on the player.
Examples like this alone have some players complaining that the game is “too hard” now. Blizzard has hit these complaints head on with an article released last month entitled, “Wow, Dungeons are Hard” - essentially saying that they know the game is harder now and that’s what they want, and if you don’t like it, then find a new game.
However, it’s understandable why some people are complaining about the new difficulty. During the days of Wrath a person could just jump on their level 80 toon, hop on over to a heroic dungeon with some friends or the group finder, and complete the mission in about an hour. But, in Cataclysm, these new heroics are quite difficult at times. I personally sat through nearly a four hour run on one of the new heroics.
Additionally, Cataclysm has made it harder to acquire epic gear again. In BC and Wrath, players had no trouble obtaining epic gear. In each heroic dungeon an epic piece of gear dropped – and it wasn’t always the same item either. There was a rotation of five or so pieces that would drop after a clear, each with a different chance of dropping. In the Cataclysm world, if you see a player walking around brandishing full epic outfitting, you know they worked for it.
There is also not as much raid content in Cataclysm as previous expansions. This is because it actually takes more to prepare for the raids than it used to. You need a lot of heroic blue gear, as opposed to regular blue gear, (and maybe a few purples) to even matter in a raid. It’s a great addition. In Wrath the second a player hits 80, everyone was wanting to go and run Naxx or later Ulduar without really doing many heroics at all. It just shows that Blizzard is tuning Cataclysm for the more hardcore of players.
A lot of casual players were drawn to Wrath because they could jump into raid content the second they hit level 80. The raids and such are the only reason some people play the game and Wrath made it easier to access these missions. Now, it’s not like you could just go straight to downing the Lich King when you hit 80, but it didn’t take nearly as long as it would now – with Cataclysm’s guidelines for gear and raid-readiness.
With the increase in difficulty for the end game stuff, players have exploded on the boards complaining about the increased difficulty. The title is quickly becoming a line-in-the-sand for players. On one side you have the hardcore players that are looking for a challenging game to play and on the other you have the causal player who may not have as much time to dedicate to the revised battlefield.
Just because Blizzard has made the end game content more difficult doesn’t mean they’ve changed how players level up their characters. Even before the release of Cataclysm, it had become increasingly easy to level your characters. It seems that since BC, when they moved the mount level down to 20, Blizzard has been focusing more on a streamlined approach to the level cap. Through content patches, they’ve not only been decreasing the amount of XP it takes to level from say 20-60, but they’ve also increased the amount of XP gained from killing monsters and completing quests. The developer also gave players the opportunity to acquire flying mounts at level 60 – just shortly after entering Outlands. This alone, cuts down on the time it takes to level a character significantly. Don’t forget that players can now obtain cold weather flying, the ability to use flying mounts in Northrend, at level 68 – right when they enter Northrend.
It is nice that Blizzard has done their part to cut down on the amount of time it takes to level-up – so even casual players can reach the level cap, but it also cuts down on the overall experience the game offers. It’s an investment to take a character from 1-85 and, with a more streamlined leveling system, Blizzard has depleted the significance of building a character up.
Overall, Blizzard has done an great job of balancing their difficult end-game content with an easier/streamlined leveling system. Now you can get to 85 a bit easier – but once you get there the game really kicks in.
How are you feeling about the changes made in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm? What future changes would you like to see Blizzard make?
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I really don’t see the point of these people complaining? If they want a game that they can faceroll their way through, then they should find something else. Gaming should be about being challenged and actually recieving a feeling of accomplishment.
I’m really impressed that Blizz has listened to the hardcore fans this time. If you’re going to take the time to reach the level cap, I don’t understand why you’d want less game. Being presented with a challenge is what makes playing games fun.
There is a difference between “Challenge” and being forced to waste the better part of your day TRYING to get anywhere in a game that is as likely just plain frustate you as it is to give you any kind of reward
I’m just wondering what it is that you’re trying to do that you claim is so difficult. Sure, they’ve increased the difficulty, but it’s still manageable. I’ve yet to experience anything that has been the least bit frustrating aside from useless players in PUGs, but that’s always been a part of the game.
Never said it was difficult. Said it was frustrating, which it is, and which is why I dont play it anymore. When you dont have sufficient time to play to really cultivate any relationships within the game, and therefore cant get in a guild, you have to rely on PUG’s, which will be hell because PUG’s are filled with either newbies that dont get how to play, or raiders that kick you out of the group for not having the best possible gear, meaning they would have to spend 5 minutes extra in a given instance.
Simply put, they game has nothing to appeal to me with and offers only grief. Hence, Its frustrating.
ill tell you what you need in WoW.
You can be a drooling chimp playing with one hand in your pants, the other hand on the keyboard as long as you got these things.
(Listed i order from the most important to the least)
1) Time (Alot of it)
2) Friends that play WoW (If you dont know people in WoW dont bother, you cant play that game solo at ALL)
That is it.
Skill is not a factor in WoW chimps can easily learn to press the right button to get a banana, youd think at least most humans can aswell.
I personally would like to see them completely revamp Outlands and Northrend like the did the new leveling areas. Have them be the same level ranges for the zones, just put something new. They are just so boring to me now in comparison.
The game is noticeably harder, but as a casual gamer I really enjoy the game. They introduced new races, which gives me more opportunities to experience the game differently. I really like starting new characters and trying new races with new classes. My only wish for WoW would be to introduce new classes (maybe a new heroic class?). I have only been playing for about 9 months, but I almost have 1 lvl 85 (remember causal gamer!). Oh and the writer of this article is awesome!!!
OAL
I bought tye new pack. I was really excited. I have 9 level 80′s. After leveling my first character to 85 i got discouraged because i dont have the time to gear up 8 more characters. I loved this game. I havent played in a month.
I am a casual player and the only things I hated when the change happened was the changes they made to the classes and having to redo my talent points like three times… I also dislike the dungeon finder now cause even though I have a high enough I lvl to get in to most dungeons it still won’t let me roll.. The game has gotten a bit more frustrating in some areas but I am sure to get use to the changes.. But really in ogling I havent really noticed a difference.. The game is still good.. Even tho it’s going to take longer for me to do things but I already know it’s from being so casual.. So technically the fault is due to time not blizz.. I try to play more but it’s hard.. But I still like the game so I hardly complain.. And never do on the boards..
There is a difficulty level beyond which content stops being fun. This break point is different for different people. Even some relatively hardcore players are complaining the heroic raid encounters are too hard, for example.
For me, the difficulty of heroic 5 mans, and especially the normal mode raids, is beyond the level I find enjoyable. So, as the first commenter suggested, I have taken my business elsewhere. I suspect there are a great many former customers like myself, which is likely one of the more important reasons why Blizzard didn’t open any new servers for Cataclysm (even though it’s been reported they were all set to do so, if there had been demand, as they had done in both previous expansions.)
I have to say in BC, and WoTLK I was a hard core raider. My guild got realm firsts (we weren’t slackers), and I enjoyed raiding a good bit. Though at some point this started to feel like a part time job and I noticed my social life was suffering due to spending 5-6 hours 4-5 nights a week on World of Warcraft. I have since pulled back a bit, but was planning to raid again in Cata. After my first few heroic dungeons, however, I said screw it. I don’t enjoy heroics. This is because I don’t enjoy pugging (Because it will ALWAYS be a pain in the arse, and 85% of the time you will get a general bad group). Even being in a good guild you won’t always have a group to run with if you want to grind heroics. Further more, as the article notes it’s not hard to spend a huge chunk of time in these new heroics. That being said, I don’t/didn’t play to fight my way through frustrating lame heroics with players that couldn’t keep up. There’s just no learning curve for people any more… Who has the time to devote to running this tedious heroics AND keeping a raid schedule… and still be able to maintain any sort of normal life outside of this stupid video game? Give me a break… Anyways, that said I have quit WoW. It’s become a huge frustrating time suck of epic proportions.