As we all know, Cataclysm is coming out sooner or later. We all also know that Cata was basically the end of the real classic era of World of Warcraft. A lot of changes were made to the game back then: Talents were redesigned, you didn’t have to pay gold for skills anymore, and new stats were added while old stats were either removed or reworked.
Simply put, Cataclysm, as we understand it, is not classic wow. So how can we solve this problem? How can Cata keep that old classic feel? Well, I’ve got some tips here to help Blizzard figure out how to do so.
Tip #1: Keep the current Talents, don’t add new ones, just give us 5 more talent points to work with.
As we all know, Cata talents sucked. Forcing everyone to pick a spec and stick with it until it was maxed out really bummed everyone out. it was no longer possible to do half and half mixed specs or unusual specs. Restricting everyone to abilities related strictly to their spec also really sucked, and we didn’t like it.
I think I speak for everyone when I say, the talents we have now are pretty good and flexible, lets just keep them, just give us five more talent points to work with.
Tip #2: Keep the Skill gold sinks.
Now, I know some people might disagree, but I find the regular trips back to org or UC to train to be opportunities to take a step back and reflect on what I’ve accomplished so far.
Having to go back all the way back to your home city just to train is undeniably part of the classic experience.
Tip #3: No permanent Glyphs.
Allowing players to save every glyph they learned basically ruined the glyph economy. Don’t do that.
Tip #4: Keep the current stats.
Keeping spell Power independent of Intellect, as well as keeping block values, MP5, and Skill points is nessicary because they are undeniably part of the classic experience. Haste is fine, but if you keep the old talents, Mastery will be a bit tricky. Perhaps a mastery glyph in the middle of the glyph window?
Tip #5: BFA style Experience progression.
Now, this one you might not have expected me to put here, but I honestly think that allowing people to maintain an constant experience progression while questing in any zone would honestly make Cataclysm better.
In OG Cata, one would gain xp so fast that you would out level a zone before that zone was out of quests, forcing people to abandon that particular storyline so that you could keep getting xp.
Doing what I suggested above would allow people to quest at their leisure, without having to worry that they’d out level the zone.
Now, when I say BFA style xp progression, I don’t mean BFA style gear progression or any of that rot, just the xp progression. Seriously.
Tip #6: As part of the above, Don’t force people to quest through Outland and Northrend just to get to max level.
It sure would be nice if we could just keep questing in the same two continents and then seamlessly progress to the last few zones when we hit the right level. Hmm, it would almost be like the original classic!
Tip #7 Under absolutely no circumstances should you add the Random Dungeon Finder.
Look guys, I know that the group finder isn’t the best thing in the world, but let me just say that it made finding a group a lot easier, without having to take the final step into full automation.
The group finder has a lot of problems, But honestly? I would take it any day over any kind of automation in that regard, because the Random Dungeon finder just isn’t classic, no matter how much you think it should be.