cataclysm

The third expansion pack to World of Warcraft, Cataclysm, was released this Tuesday. I tried not to jump into the bandwagon so soon, having been in WoW-remission since July, but in the end I bought it on release day. I’m Blizzard’s sheep as awful that might be, I can’t do much about it.

For very practical reasons, I decided to level my Dwarf Paladin as my main character this expansion instead of my perennial main, my Human Rogue. The paladin was my first healer, as soon as he reached 80 I respecced from Retribution (my leveling spec) to Holy (my instancing/raiding spec) and never went back to anything non-healy. Now that dual-spec is very cheap (a 99% drop, from 1000g to 10g), I ended up buying it. I’m going Retribution-Holy, Ret for easier questing, Holy for dungeons. My endgame plan is going Holy/Protection for complete utility, but I’m not sure yet. I’m actually enjoying the Ret playstyle, the remake made it rather rogue-ish. I haven’t abandoned my rogue, he is still my favourite character, but hybrids are just so more useful.

For no actual reason I’m questing at Vashj’ir. I had no idea where to start and followed the first quest I got, the one given telepathically by the Draenei, and ended up underwater. It’s RIDICULOUSLY linear but at least the scenery is pleasant I guess. As I get deeper into the zone it gets kinda scary, it gives me the feeling a gigantic abyssal monster will swallow me whole. The rogue will go to Hyjal for sure.

WoW seems to have fully embraced its "easymode pastime" image, because it keeps getting more and more brainless. You now level at an alarming rate and everything became user-friendly to the point of ridicule. Seriously, there was a quest I had to shoot spears at nagas and I didn’t even had to CLICK the nagas, just click the spears in my inventory (or rather, in the quest log conveniently placed below the minimap – I didn’t even have to search my bags for the quest item) and they would automatically hit the nagas that were passing by, who as a matter of fact didn’t aggro either. There was absolutely ZERO danger in doing this quest. After playing some League of Legends I can definitely notice the difference in a skill-based PvP game and WoW’s grindy leveling/instance playstyle. It’s still fun, but I’m not sure for how long.