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After the NDA for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was lifted yesterday I was able to look at some of the new loot that would be available for leveling and the initial 5 man dungeons. Let me recall the first words out of my mouth:
“Holy fucking shit-balls.”
Like many of you, I have been raiding throughout the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and as so many guilds were experiencing the, “Summer Boss,” I remained vigilant in my quest for loot. After all, loot would help me level more quickly in Cataclysm and I was not going to replace my gear until well into the first raid zone anyways. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) this is not the case as Blizzard is implementing the most definitive gear reset in an expansion to date.
Cataclysm Gear much more powerful than WotLK’s
Since we’re only raising the level cap to 85 in Cataclysm, one of the goals is to pack as much content and gameplay as possible into the new 78-85 zones and dungeons. We don’t want the leveling experience from 80-85 to feel as if it’s only half of the content we’ve provided in the last two expansions. So, with that comes more substantial scaling of items and character power with each level gained. A level-82 character should feel significantly more powerful than a level-80 character, for example. There are some epic and legendary items from Wrath of the Lich King raid content which may take a while to replace, but chances are most of your gear will be replaced by the time you start running level-85 normal 5-player dungeons. (source)
Alright, intial shock value over. Let’s do a few item comparisons to see how bad things are really going to be. I will start with a prized weapon for warriors such as myself, the Heroic Cryptmaker 2-Handed Axe, and compared to a few average axes in Cataclysm.
Seeing a very comparable level 81 blue axe and a level 85 starter epic that remorselessly facefucks the Cryptmaker was a bit surprising to say the least. As I continued to peruse other gear, I quickly noticed that 5 man dungeons in the earliest levels of Cataclysm would provide immediate upgrades to even those of us in the best of gear, much less the epics coming at the beginning of 85.
After seeing all of this and doing some reading, it is safe to say that this is the most definitive gear reset that Blizzard has done. It is essentially pointless to really push for a specific piece of gear or even entire sets at this point considering by level 82 everyone will be doing 8k DPS in leveling greens.
While surprising, I cannot say I am particularly upset as this is a definite way to level the playing field for all guilds come Cataclysm. In addition, with it being mentioned that epics would be harder to come by, much like they were in Vanilla WoW (as I mentioned several months ago), it will be interesting to see how things shape up.
Thoughts?
Posted in Cataclysm, world of warcraft
Tagged Cataclysm, gear reset, loot in cataclysm
Written by Krieg
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So, it will be just like the transition from Vanilla WoW to BC all over again – and that is okay with me.
Blizzard wants the leveling experience to be the same for everyone – enjoyable and grandiose. Most of us tore through Wrath when we leveled and did not replace our Epics from BC until a few levels in. Those that were in T6 probably kept it all the way until the end. That sort of thing really robs a player of the full experience. I mean, a reward from a quest should be just that; rewarding. If you have nothing to gain while leveling then you are just waiting until you get to 85.
This probably would not even be an issue except that they added realm first achievements for being the first 80 of your class and race. This is the only reason to hasten the process. Who really thinks leveling is difficult? How epic does that Quest boss feel if you chop him down with 2 hits. Trivial content is boring.
Good Job Blizzard – you got this one right.
Transition from Vanilla to BC? Are you kidding? There were Chinese guilds that downed Illidan with tier-3 set bonuses active. This reset is “your gear will be complete obsolete by level 83.”
I think the real interesting thing will be how much gear impacts your leveling. One interesting consequence of this change is that a level 83 mob *should* be hitting much harder than a level 82 mob because you’ll have so much more stamina than before. That’s likely not to be the case, however. It’s much more likely that a level 83 mob hits about the same as a level 82 mob, in which case your BIS Icecrown set is likely good enough to get you all the way to 85 without any problems.
I have to agree with Blacksen, it’s much more drastic then Vanilla to BC was, and for this I am extremely happy.
I’m waiting to see how it turns out, and hopefully it will be well done.
I, for one, am relieved to be off the hook the rest of my summer from stressing over getting my last 3 BiS to drop and to not have to worry about gearing out my alts in ICC gdkp’s
Yea, it will let raiders take a break and let other ppl catch up
I’m just glad that blizzard is bringing back the leet have purple and the noobs do not.
I don’t believe Blizzard’s claim of making “epics feel more epic.” Just look at the itemlevels above. A blue level 81 sword is ilvl 316, while an epic 85 polearm is only ilvl 359. Maybe it might take longer to get fully epic’d out, but with every serious player hitting the point caps every week, you’ll have everyone in full epics by the end of the first tier.
I think that is the point Black, as you are getting the epics gear via raids, and less of them through badges and 5 mans. You can get an almost entirely epic set without stepping foot in a raid currently, in comparison to Vanilla where the best you could get was full blues. I expect a blending of the two now, to where you can get a few epics, but not entire sets.
Is it because it is still in Beta that both of those items above say “Cannot be disenchanted”?
Yes, that’s because of the beta.