Pre 4.2 Observations

With 4.2 coming out in a week I take a look back on Cataclysm so far before our first patch.  No, 4.1 was not a patch, it was a snack to tide us over while we were waiting for dinner, nothing more.  The following are just random observations in no particular order.

- The trailer for Firelands has to be the lamest cinematic I've seen yet.  Even the cliche Godzilla, er... Deathwing cinematic was more engaging.

- My immediate impression of Cataclysm was it was lacking.

- Blizzard has made no efforts to change that opinion in 6 months.

- I started Cataclysm with my Priest being my main healer and now my Shaman is.

- I started Cataclysm with my Druid being my main tank and now my Warrior is.

- I started Cataclysm with my Hunter being my main DPS and now my Hunter is still my main DPS.

- I started Cataclysm saying playing a melee characters sucks, Cataclysm made playing them suck even more.

- Thanks to a higher hit point base I can now solo the first boss in AQ40 when I could not before.

- Thanks to upped damage and hit points soloing heroic MgT is no longer a major accomplishment as a Hunter.

- Camouflage has really made soloing so much fun for my Hunter being able to just skip past all the crap.

- Who would have thought I would be able to solo level 85 heroic dungeon bosses before I was even raid geared, now that is fun.

- I love fights that are more about mechanics then about gear, it makes them relevant longer being they can not be out geared so quickly and Cataclysm has a lot of mechanic based fights meaning I like it.

- I hate that most people don't know mechanics and fail at even simple ones leaving me nothing but to say I was wrong, mechanic based fights are a bad idea even if I liked them.

- I've heard Retribution Paladins crying so long about how they where nerfed to all hell that I need a raft to carry me along the river of tears.

- I've seen at least six Ret Paladins that could not break 6K in Zul heroics and blame it on the class being so horribly broken.

- I've seen at least three Ret Paladins in gear no better then 333s doing 14K single target DPS on non gimmick fights proving that Ret Paladins are not bad off, it is just a learn to play issue for a class that used to not need much skill in wrath.

- Mechanic based fights prove even more how important DPS is.  The faster a boss goes down the less likely people will mess up on a mechanic.

- The vast majority of players would probably suffocate if breathing was a mechanic that required them to do something in real life because they apparently can not grasp basic concepts.

- Cataclysm content, in concept anyway, is much easier than Wrath content.

- Blizzard doesn't want healers to actually enjoy the game.  Whenever they start to get comfortable with their mana, blizzard nerfs them.

- PvP balance can not be attained but they continue to screw up PvE in efforts to try and balance it anyway.

- Instead of admitting they made a mistake making heroics more challenging, they are making CC no longer pull. 

- The reasoning is because CC mechanics required communication which is sometimes harder or even impossible in a pug. 

- No shit blizzard, just nerf the content, stop screwing with things like CC because you refuse to admit you made a mistake with heroic difficulty.

- Blizzard overestimated the ability of 5 random people to work together.

- Leveling is now insanely fast and needs to be slowed down, a lot.

- My new Shaman is level 25 already after 4 hours play time.  No heirlooms, no guild bonus, limited rested experience.

- At least starting on a new server gives you the feeling of achievement again.  Buying that first riding and mount without hand me down money is awesome.

- Dancing in battle was such a huge game breaker that Blizzard made sure to take it out as soon as they noticed it was happening.

-  It was also so important to game play that they fixed it immediately and we will be able to dance again in combat.

- Apparently dancing in combat is more important then broken quests, bugged bosses, PvP imbalance, raid content, dungeon content, consumer satisfaction, etc.

- But at least you can dance again in combat soon.

- The Singing Sunflower rocks.

- The mini Jouster has a teddy bear with a lance on it, now that is awesome.

- My warlock is now 82 and still had an elephant following him around from a quest he did at level 69.

- The elephant is bigger then he is, even bigger then his mount.

- Even when it dies, it keeps coming back.

- But in different colors.

- Oddly enough, I will miss him when he is finally gone.

- Is it even possible to get a group that can do the poison boss in ZG with everyone living?

- I once went six times in a row where only the tank am I lived.  Five as healer and one as DPS.

- More I love mechanics based fights and I hate mechanics based fights internal conflict.

- Am I the only one that found the Zuls a thousand times easier at item level 346 then normal heroics where when I was first at 329?

- If I make an effort to not step into a heroic unless I can do at least 8K DPS why can't everyone else?

- How is it possible to do 2K DPS in a heroic?

- How is it possible to do 3K DPS in a Zul?

- How it is possible that I can still do over 70% of all damage done in a dungeon on occasion when I am not even doing that good to start off with?

- I still love the dungeon finder.  Better then spamming trade for what seemed like hours on end for a group.

- I still hate that Blizzard thought it was a good idea to make them require any sort of skill and did nothing to keep the skill-less people out of them.

- If the website can show you item level and item level equipped why can't they do that in game as well?

- Speaking of item level, how come heirlooms count as item level of 1 for the purpose of item level when they are better then the item level 289 you might get while leveling?  Shouldn't it be at least a 289 as well for reasons of item level at least?

- I guess dancing in battle was more important to fix then fixing it so people do not need to carry an extra back and helm to get into 80+ dungeons while leveling because their helm and cloak only count as 1.

- I am not looking forward to Firelands at all.

- I am looking forward to the new quest hub in Hyjal because it will give me something to do.

- I am not looking forward to flying not being allowed in certain areas.  I've become spoiled and I want to fly.

- All the forum hate really rubs off on you if you read to much of it.

- I don't think I've ever seen more varied complaints on the forums then now.

- Even people that love the game seem to have some things they currently hate about it.


- I've gotten both bindings for Thunderfury while doing my solo rep runs in MC, that is kind of cool, and lucky too.  Still need 15 more runs until exalted.

- My luck is awesome.  My Warrior went from a 324 item level to a 350 item level in only 5 dungeon runs.

- My luck sucks.  My Priest ran a ton of heroics and is still only 339 item level.

- My luck is even worse.  My Druid has run 22 normals and only managed to get from a 318 to a 324 item level.  And that is combining my tank and healer gear.  I never get any drops when I run.

- My luck is okay. At least my Rogue only needed 4 normals to get up to a 330 item level.

- I still suck at playing my Rogue, but at least I can pull 9K DPS now, so I am heroic ready.

- My DK and my Lock are the only two characters on my main server not 85 but could have easily been 85 if I actually ever played them for more then 10 minutes at a time. 83 and 82 respectively.

- Maybe I should have geared up my mage instead of just getting him to 85 and letting him sit.

- I've seen Mages pulling insane one button DPS.

- It has to come some day, so when do you think Mages will get the faceroll nerf they gave Paladins that required them to actually do something now instead of having a stupid easy rotation that allowed everyone to pull maximum DPS?

- I love being a caster on the camels in HoO.  Moving while channeling rocks.

- How long before channeling no longer requires standing still?  It is coming.  I know it is coming.  You know it is coming.  You just don't want to admit it.

- I hate that I lose my pet while on the camel on my Hunter.

- I hate that I can not charge on my Druid or Warrior while on the camel.

- But I can move while channeling.  I guess I will accept the trade off for one fight.

- What is with line of sight in some areas?

- I can't charge at things right in front of me.

- I can't put a Hunter's Mark on something right in front of me.

- Atramedes is the size of a three story building standing right in front of me, how the hell is he not in line of sight?  Maybe I am a marksman that can not hit the side of a building, at least not that one with a hunters mark.

- Why do I always get "that would be stealing" when I am soloing raids and try to loot?

- Trust me, I am not stealing from myself, I want myself to have it.

- At least I can dance in combat, so glad they fixed that really fast.

- What is with the random "you can not do that now" messages when you are not even doing anything?

- Does that mean I can not do nothing now?  Isn't that a double negative. I best start doing something then.  I'll go dance in combat.

- Thank god some raid bosses do not hurt my hunter with minimum range.

- Love being able to charge to generate rage at point blank range on those bosses on my warrior too.

- I am really loving focus on some fights for my Hunter.

- I am really hating focus on other fights on my Hunter.

- I still have not taken the time to learn how to PvP all over again on my Hunter.  I miss my burst.

- I always loved healing PvP and now I love it more.

- I still always feel like I am wearing a kick me sign as a healer however.

- One day Alliance will learn that if you protect your healer you win.

- One day Alliance will learn that if you attack the Horde healers you win.

- That is why Alliance always loses the battlegrounds I am in.  They never protect their own healers and never target the Horde healers.  They deserve to lose.

- Is there a secret question they ask when picking a side I missed that makes all the bad PvP players roll Alliance?

- Yes, I am one of the bad PvP players so I am in the right place thank you.

- But at least I know what needs to be done, I just suck at it.

- I have 11 Horde characters and I have never PvPed with any of them oddly enough.

- Maybe the challenge of winning with the underdog is what I find attractive.

- I have still yet to be in even one rated battleground.

- I really want to.

- I even have full PvP gear ready, willing and as able as I can be.

- I am not looking forward to PvPing on my Hunter however but I will do it because I have a ton of achievements I can get from doing it.

- My healer has some luck when it comes to Zul randoms.  Outside of the poison boss always killing everyone but the tank and me I usually end up with good groups with all DPS over 12K.

- How come when I am on my Hunter I am always the only person over 12K?

- How come when I am on my Hunter I would be happy if the other two could even combine for 12K?

- This is one of the reasons I am not looking forward to Firelands, more heroic grinding coming up and I have become so drained from trying to play with these people I can not do it any more.

- Isn't the game supposed to be fun?

- How is being stuck in a dungeon with people that keep getting you killed because they can not do mechanics fun?

- Is someone being bad and getting everyone killed because of their inability something we can report as griefing?

- "A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game that deliberately irritates and harasses others", not playing correctly is deliberately irritating and harassing isn't it?

- Yes, it is deliberate.  They can learn how to play, they refuse to.  That means it is deliberate.

- Next time you are in a dungeon and you explain a mechanic to someone after they have seen it once or twice and they still get it wrong it is deliberate when they fail at it.  Report them for griefing.

- I guess I am a griefer when I run up that hill with the rocks.  I've only once got up there without getting hit at least one time once.  I suck at that.

- At least I have never died to the elevator boss.

- Best quote ever on Wowhead refers to the elevator boss. 

- A comment on one of the trash mobs was someone saying "be aware that this mob knows how to use the elevator" to which someone responded, "That officially makes it smarter then 9/10ths of my raid group."

- I ramble a lot don't I?

- And soon I can dance in combat again.

- Speaking of completely useless updates.  Was being able to move the order of your characters around on the character selection screen really that important?

- I would rather a bigger then 16 slot starting bag before they did that.

- I would rather be able to buy another row worth of bag slots in my bank before that.

- I would rather my bind on account items being actually bind on account before that.

- Heck, even dancing in combat is more useful then that.

- Woohoo, they added a dungeon journal.  Another thing people will rarely look at. 

- Lets face it, if you cared what a boss did you would have looked it up before you where standing in front of him.

- When will they fix the united nations guild achievement?

- Oh yeah, they did.  Or so they say.  So why does it still only count my reps and not the 57 different exalted reps that exalted people with my guild have?

- Put a ticket in about it, you will love the response you get.

- Working as intended.

- So it is intended for a guild achievement to not count all the guild members?  Interesting.

- Speaking of rep, why doesn't the aldor/scryer frenzyheart/oracle all count no matter which one you currently have.  If you were exalted once with them then you were exalted.

- The achievement says "exalted reputations" not "current exalted reputations".

- I guess it takes more then over 6 months and they can still not fix one simple achievement.  Maybe if it involved dancing they would have put the whole team on it to fix it quickly.

- I don't like how Cataclysm has changed me personally as a player.

- I have less patience then I used to.

- I used to never mind if someone wasn't pulling their weight in a dungeon because it was easy enough without them and there was nothing they could do that could cause a wipe.

- Now I get irritated quickly with people.

- I still give people the benefit of the doubt and do not mind that people need to learn but each week I give less and less leeway when it comes to their learning curve.

- Me being irritated so quickly takes away from my joy of the game.

- Some asshat tank telling me my DPS on my Rogue sucks when I did 9K over all and 11K on the boss fight when I was still in only 330 gear unenchanted and ungemmed was irritating.

- Do you know what I would be willing to actively pay in real life money to make sure that I always got people that could do at least 9K overall and 11K on bosses?

- So it is a lose/lose in todays dungeon system. 

- Do the right thing executing all mechanics correctly and be able to pull your own weight and get insulted by someone that thinks 9K isn't enough for a heroic.

- Or end up in a group where people could not do mechanics even after 10 attempts or for that matter they could not pull 9K even with the 30% ICC buff and heroism.

- You either end up with an asshat that thinks they are gods gift or a bunch of monkeys at the keyboard who just slap keys and hope something dies.

- Don't worry, instead of fixing heroics so the monkeys could handle them they are making CC not pull.

- And they fixed dancing in combat.  I am sure that will make heroics a lot easier.

-  The whole CC thing reminds me of a quote from House M.D., A great show by the way.

- "You wake up in the morning, your paint's peeling, your curtains are gone, and the water's boiling. Which problem do you deal with first? ... None of them, the building's on fire!"

- Heroics are the building being on fire.  Making CC not pull is fixing the boiling water problem.  Screw the boiling water.  The building is on fire, fix the real problem.

- Gladly more gear will be easy to get soon, so now extremely over geared people will be finding new ways to reach new lows in DPS and skill because they think their item level is more important then mechanics or doing their damn job in a random.

- Why are people still buying BoT trash drop items for 15K when they will be replaced in a week?

- I would not have paid 15K even the day Cataclysm came out. 

- 15K for an item you can get something similar by killing a raid boss is insane.

- Even with my horrible luck with drops and even worse luck with rolls, I would rather kill a raid boss every week for a year hoping for it to drop then pay 15K.

- Maybe I am just cheap.

- Maybe I am just reasonable.

- Maybe it is because I do not buy gold.

- Anyone that buys all that BoE gear without a thought is one of two things.  A money maker and they make lots of it, so they buy gear instead of raiding or they are buying gold.

- Sometimes I think Blizzard should do a detailed examination of every account that buys an item off the auction house that costs over 15K.

- How long before they start selling gold directly?

- Blizzard already sells gold as it is. 

- There are at least a dozen people selling the winged guardian on my server for 20K gold.

- They sell all other pets and mounts too.

- Basically Blizzard is selling gold.

- How long before they cut out the middle man?

- I've read one blue on the forums saying that it was allowed.

- I read another blue on the forums saying it was not allowed.

- Sounds like people there do not talk to each other.

- That really sums Blizzard up right there doesn't it?

- I guess that is it for now.

- I guess I'll need to wait until next week to dance in combat.

- So glad they fixed that.  It was game breaking.

- Have a nice day.