A Must-Read for the Cataclysm Player

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Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying a nice little break from WoW before Cataclysm. Spent time with family for Turkey Day, beat Mass Effect (never played it before), and I’ve been looking forward to the new expansion for the WoW TCG–not for the loot card but to actually enjoy the game.

I came across a great post on the MMO-Champion forums which let me reminisce about my original post here when I was still a guest. I’ve tried to focus a majority of my blogging on how everyone can help each other. The name of the guild I’m in is Team Sport, and that’s what I believe this game is. Hence, when I read the forum post by Daetur, I felt like a proud father. Not because I had any direct impact on him/her but because it goes along with everything that I believe this game should and could be. Instead of making a small link to it in the midst of this text… I’m going to make sure you don’t miss this:

DAETUR’S CATACLYSM FORUM POST

Daetur discusses what each player (Tank, Healer, DPS) can do to ensure the success of any dungeon or raid. He takes the stance that many of us have gotten “complacent” in WotLK with regard to raiding and dungeons. Through my experience, I have to say I agree. We’ve come to expect AoE’ing down 3 packs of mobs, healing through debuffs, and risking death to get a few more casts in. According to Daetur, we’re in for a rude awakening. I’m excited! A few things he mentions:

  • CC is key. We are going to need to CC mobs, and avoid breaking them at all costs.
  • Defensive cooldowns are key all around. Tanks, Healers, and DPS are going to need their cooldowns to help stay alive.
  • Healers need to manage their mana, since it’s now at a premium and no longer infinite.

I can’t help but feel like the whole thing meant to make the job of the healer’s more manageable. Well, it’s true. The goal of any fight is to kill them before they kill you. We may be able to burst to high hell, but if we can’t stay alive doing it, then what’s the point? I’m already bracing myself for the backlash of the “uninformed”: “L2Heal noob.” We no longer live in a world of invincibility. Everyone is reponsible for helping everyone else stay alive and do their job easier.

Remember, I only lightly summarized the forum post by Daetur. I implore you to please read the entire post. You may not disagree, and all of it may not be pertinent to you, but you’ll know what everyone is up against in Cataclysm. Help each other out.

6 thoughts on “A Must-Read for the Cataclysm Player”

  1. I stumbled across that post yesterday and really enjoyed it and agree with the content. I do worry though that the people who really need to have this knowledge are those who don’t read blogs or do research on how to play (their class) well or how to improve.

    I for one can’t wait for the promised extra challenge that Cataclysm is said to provide! I thoroughly lost interest in partying/raiding during WotLK and often longed for those days strategising, wiping, practising and finally succeeding in TBC dungeons and raids. I don’t think I ran out of mana once in WotLK (resto druid). It’s that balance between managing and reacting to your character, your fellow players and the boss/environment that can make raiding so intensely enjoyable.

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  2. I am really excited for the challenge of complex 5-man boss fights. I admit I am not thrilled about the prospect of overly complex 5-man trash but I am willing to give Blizz the benefit of the doubt on that one.
    What really bothers me though is how common it has become to equate wrath 5-mans with “10min AOE zerg-fests”. Yes, the trash was designed to be AoE’d but the dungeons are only 10m zerg-fests because of gear. Will people be saying the same thing about Cata 5-mans two years hence? Because we WILL be zerging them in 10 minutes by then.

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    • I can assure you it won’t be too terribly complex. It’s just challenging enough. There’s all these different encounter mechanics, and you’ll get a handle for them within an attempt or two.

      Not only did gear affect the time it took to run Wrath dungeons, I believe each of them experienced a set of nerfs or two. We won’t be getting that for a while.

  3. I am also looking forward to the challenge. I do, however, feel confident as a Holy Priest with all these weapons to choose from. I’ve just been wondering lately, it’s been a while since anybody tested the new heroics with entry level gear (level 85 blues), I wonder if they were tuned down before release. Guess we’ll have to wait and find out in a couple weeks.

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  4. Mass Effect fan here. Played both ME1 and ME2 through several times, both as good/evil Shepard (favorite classes being vanguard and sentinel). Hope you liked the games too.

    Daetur’s post, while excellent in content, will not be anything new to vanilla/BC WoW players. Most of those folks will adjust relatively quickly once they start hitting Cata 5-men. As for players who started WoW in/facerolled through Wrath, they car start by putting CC abilities back on their hotbars.

    I lost faith in pug DPS a long time ago. Between melee hunters who like to tank, mages who enjoy dying, and locks who do less DPS than a ICC5-geared tank, I am very tempted to avoid pugs for the first three month of Cata.

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