World of Warcraft Cataclysm: A lot more is changing than you expected
A lot more is changing than you expected…
The weirdest part of watching Blizzard reinvent World of Warcraft? Just how deep and how bold some of the design decisions its making are. Blizzard isn’t not just providing new quotes, new landscape and new dungeons for their 11 million players,it’s radically redesigning how its game works – from the classes that players have felt comfortable in for years, to the structure of the endgame. The array of tweaks and changes is dizzying.
Druids are losing their everlasting tree form. Rogues are being stripped of stunlocks. Paladin’s shield duration are being significantly reduces. Death Knights are seeing a serious alteration in the way their runes ( the resources they need to use ability ties) generate. And all classes are expected to have smaller mana pools.
The changes are controversial, but when viewed dispassionately, make a certain sense. Druids spend so long shapeshifted that players rarely get to see the cool armor sets they’ve earned. Stunloks are extremely frustrating for the victim and repetitive for the Rogue. The current rune system make it too easy for Death Knights to lose resources, due to tiny bits of lag. And anyone who’s ever dueled a paldin under stands just how ludicrous it is to face a player who can shield himself from all damage for such long stretches of time.
This is Blizzard’s strength; it’s been playing, watching and tweaking this game for over a decade. they understand what’s working, and what’s not. And they’re not afraid to make tough calls, even if they’re certain to upset the playerbase.
The toughest call of all? It’s the limit on raiding that Blizzard will enforce come Catalysm. Right now , World of Warcraft raid teams can occupy themselves all night, every night and then some, if they want to. They can raid 10-man and 25-man versions of every top-tier instance, each of which drops different, insanely powerful loot. There are nine level-80 raids,meaning there are 18 total raids players can (and are sometimes expected to) run each week.
Thankfully, that’ going to change. Now 10-and 25-man dungeons will each drop the same armor and weapons, although 25-mans will drop appropriately more each run. And each boss kill will reward the same level of hero and valor points-the new currencies that you’ll spend on loot in Cataclysm.
Social life Saver
Here’s the second bombshell: the amount of dungeon currency you an earn is capped. Hero points are earned from low-difficulty bosses, the equivalent of today’s triumph emblems. You an earn them very quickly, but you won’t able to hoard them- there’s a cap to how many points you can hold at one time. Valor points are the equivalent of today’s frost emblems; they’re earned for high-difficulty boss kills(the latest raid tier), and for daily heroics. But there’s a limit to how many you can hold and how much you can earn per weak.
These are fantastic changes, We’ll finally be able to choose the size of our raid based on what we want to play, not what gives us better loot. Secondly, there’s no longer that nagging feeling of obligation to run twenty million raids each week to earn the maximum number of badges-simply pick the ones you like best and run those. You can choose to earn your loot at your own pace, in your own way; and as freedom-lovin’ Americans, we fully support that.
The community response to these changes has been fascinating. The usual anger and rage that we’d expect has been surprisingly absent, replaced by warmth and excitement. Warmth, because the limits on raiding mean that World of Warcraft can be a hobby, rather than a lifestyle choice. And excitement, because we have no idea what Blizzard is going to change next.
A lot more is changing than you expected…
The weirdest part of watching Blizzard reinvent World of Warcraft? Just how deep and how bold some of the design decisions its making are. Blizzard isn’t not just providing new quotes, new landscape and new dungeons for their 11 million players,it’s radically redesigning how its game works – from the classes that players have felt comfortable in for years, to the structure of the endgame. The array of tweaks and changes is dizzying.
Druids are losing their everlasting tree form. Rogues are being stripped of stunlocks. Paladin’s shield duration are being significantly reduces. Death Knights are seeing a serious alteration in the way their runes ( the resources they need to use ability ties) generate. And all classes are expected to have smaller mana pools.
The changes are controversial, but when viewed dispassionately, make a certain sense. Druids spend so long shapeshifted that players rarely get to see the cool armor sets they’ve earned. Stunloks are extremely frustrating for the victim and repetitive for the Rogue. The current rune system make it too easy for Death Knights to lose resources, due to tiny bits of lag. And anyone who’s ever dueled a paldin under stands just how ludicrous it is to face a player who can shield himself from all damage for such long stretches of time.
This is Blizzard’s strength; it’s been playing, watching and tweaking this game for over a decade. they understand what’s working, and what’s not. And they’re not afraid to make tough calls, even if they’re certain to upset the playerbase.
The toughest call of all? It’s the limit on raiding that Blizzard will enforce come Catalysm. Right now , World of Warcraft raid teams can occupy themselves all night, every night and then some, if they want to. They can raid 10-man and 25-man versions of every top-tier instance, each of which drops different, insanely powerful loot. There are nine level-80 raids,meaning there are 18 total raids players can (and are sometimes expected to) run each week.
Thankfully, that’ going to change. Now 10-and 25-man dungeons will each drop the same armor and weapons, although 25-mans will drop appropriately more each run. And each boss kill will reward the same level of hero and valor points-the new currencies that you’ll spend on loot in Cataclysm.
Social life Saver
Here’s the second bombshell: the amount of dungeon currency you an earn is capped. Hero points are earned from low-difficulty bosses, the equivalent of today’s triumph emblems. You an earn them very quickly, but you won’t able to hoard them- there’s a cap to how many points you can hold at one time. Valor points are the equivalent of today’s frost emblems; they’re earned for high-difficulty boss kills(the latest raid tier), and for daily heroics. But there’s a limit to how many you can hold and how much you can earn per weak.
These are fantastic changes, We’ll finally be able to choose the size of our raid based on what we want to play, not what gives us better loot. Secondly, there’s no longer that nagging feeling of obligation to run twenty million raids each week to earn the maximum number of badges-simply pick the ones you like best and run those. You can choose to earn your loot at your own pace, in your own way; and as freedom-lovin’ Americans, we fully support that.
The community response to these changes has been fascinating. The usual anger and rage that we’d expect has been surprisingly absent, replaced by warmth and excitement. Warmth, because the limits on raiding mean that World of Warcraft can be a hobby, rather than a lifestyle choice. And excitement, because we have no idea what Blizzard is going to change next.
