World of Warcraft has undoubtedly grown by leaps and bounds since its debut in 2004 and much of this can be contributed to Blizzard’s dedication to opening the game up to more players. As patches and expansions were released, more features were introduced that allowed for players to more easily quest, group up, obtain gear and complete achievements–changes that opened Azeroth’s doors to small children, geriatrics and even techno-hating-housewives. Though, these changes eliminated once deeply held values, such as the sanctity of epics, the difficulty of raid encounters and the necessity of crowd control. However, as Cataclysm approaches, it seems that World of Walking will return to many of its original roots, while holding firm its grasp of a previously untapped market.

The Return of Crowd Control

It is no secret that as The Burning Crusade came to an end and Wrath of the Lich King began that the once mandatory endeavor of crowd control within raids and instances was eliminated nearly completely. Once again as more players came into World of Wanking, Blizzard realized that very few of them in comparison to the now incredibly large player base wished to spend an hour or two on a 5 man dungeon and sometimes even on a raid. The obvious fix is to eliminate the central way encounters and instances slow a group down, which is crowd control and more blatantly almost the ability to fail altogether on trash.

It is very uncommon in WotLK for your group to go into a 5 man and die to a trash pack, even if you happened to pull an extra few mobs. In contrast, if you played vanilla you know that nearly every trash pack required maticulate crowd control and this was especially true within vanilla raid instances–I am fairly sure my toon still has scars from being face fucked by the brutal trash after Twin Emps and damn near every pack in Naxx 40. Fortunately, a ray of hope was shone during the Blizzard Twitter Developer Chat:

Q: Can you make crowd control in raids and 5-mans an important aspect of the PvE game again?
A: An emphatic yes

and

There will still be some AE pulls. AE pulls are fun and they give you a chance to use some different abilities. But what we want is variety so that you actually stop to think about whether the next pull requires single-target, CC or AE (or some mix) rather than doing the same thing every time.(source)

While 5 mans are an arguable joke now to nearly all players, not just the elite of the game, it seems that crowd control will once again be implemented within the ever-shortened instances in an attempt to increase their breadth and respect. After being handed epics and instances for the entirety of Wrath, it seems plausible that the community as a whole is ready for a bit of added complexity.

Simplifying Overly Complex Gear Stats

As World of Warcraft was getting progressively easier, Blizzard made several additions to gear statistics that would allow more advanced players to min-max their gear and perform significantly better than players that did not take the time to weigh a plethora of confusing stats. Thus, the discrepancy in “good” and “bad” became very large. Furthermore, comparing gear stats has become such an arduous task that top level players were forced to create advanced spreadsheets that would allow themselves and others to see what was actually the biggest upgrade for their character. Fortunately, a great deal of gear complexity is being reeled in and things will be similar to the clear upgrade path that was paved in Vanilla WoW:

MP5: This will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability.

Spell Power: Spell Power is being removed from items as well. Don’t panic, we’ll be improving Intellect so that it provides mana and Spell Power.

Attack Power: We’re removing Attack Power from items as well. Instead, we’re allowing Agility to provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers. Strength will provide the appropriate amount of Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers.

Defense: The Defense statistic is also being removed from items so that players no longer have to worry about juggling around “the cap.” Tanks will receive the necessary anti-crit from talents, like Survival of the Fittest.

Armor Penetration: This ability is too confusing and “mathy.” It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. More on that later!

Haste: Will also increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus. Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit.

Block: Block Value is being removed. Blocking will now always mitigate a percentage of damage.

Stamina: Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed.

Increased Difficulty of Raid Encounters

Perhaps one of the most missed aspects of World of Warcraft in Wrath of the Lich King is the lack of difficulty in raid encounters. Aside from Sarth 3D 10 Man, Yogg-0, and Lich King Hard Mode, nearly every other encounter in the expansion has been an relative breeze for most players (and if they weren’t, a nerf or zone buff was applied so that they would be). Moreover, 10 mans became nearly as easy as heroics did given that through either 25 man raids or the badge system, players were able to obtain higher item level gear than was required by the instance. Recently, a rather controversial blue post was made regarding 10 and 25 man raids and how they would be changed in Cataclysm:

We’re designing and balancing raids so that the difficulty between 10- and 25-player versions of each difficulty will be as close as possible to each other as we can achieve. That closeness in difficulty also means that we’ll have bosses dropping the same items in 10- and 25-player raids of each difficulty. (source)

Without getting into discussing the newfound legitimacy of 10 man raiding, since that is in another article, it should be noted that the increased difficultly of 10 man encounters, and perhaps all encounters is a welcome change to many. Now, this is not to say that Blizzard is suddenly going to bring back the glory days of 2-3 weeks wiping on any boss you are trying to progress on, considering that normal and hard modes are very much here to stay, but there are several factors that will allow them to focus more on creating great, challenging encounters in Cataclysm:

• With the implementation of CC into trash, it will undoubtedly also re-appear in boss encounters as well since the players will once again become familiar and accustomed to the mechanics.
• As gear complexity is being reduced, the discrepancy in raid DPS, raid HPS and tank survivability is much less, allowing Blizzard to more finely tune encounters to prove challenging for all, rather than very challenging for some groups and not any challenge for others.
• New abilities that further emphasize the role that each individual class plays within the game allowing for more diverse and complex encounters.

A Simpler Game With More Advanced Features

In summary, it definitely appears as though World of Warcraft:Cataclysm is attempting to get back to its roots of great, challenging content, but maintaining the new features and pacing that allows the game to appeal to a broader audience than Vanilla was unable to. While the some of the changes listed are rather controversial amongst players, it is safe to say that Blizzard has the best intentions for the overall community and to make Azeroth an enjoyable experience for everyone, both elite and casual.

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