Leveling is such a big part what I enjoyed about WoW. Cata is mind numbingly easy. So many of the changes I like but I can’t get over how nothing is a challenge.
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A reminder of what killed classic for me…Cata.
I fixed your topic for you.
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It has always been generally accepted that Vanilla/BC/Wrath represent the first era of the game, and Cataclysm marks the beginning of the second era.
You can argue about the names for these eras (usually the first era is referred to as “Classic”), but if you’re trying to say that Cata did not reflect a major change in design style, playstyle, mechanics, world, and much more, then you are not expressing a serious opinion.
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Implying leveling was ever difficult. Then again I guess someone who thinks “range pull one mob to a safe corner and spend the next 30 seconds spamming 1 and sometimes 2 while watching YouTube on the other screen, then sitting down to eat/drink” is difficult is probably the same sort of person that thought BFD in SoD was too difficult
Cata didn’t make leveling easier, it just removed the tedium. Now people who want to feel powerful can do so, and people who want that “everything is a threat” feeling can just start removing gear or pulling more for the same feeling. It may surprise you to learn that non-tanks pulling 4 or 5 mobs at a time in Twilight Highlands can get a pretty good sweat out of their defensives and self-healing
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Leveling was certainly a challenge in the classic era. It was slow, tedious to some extent but yes challenging. Gaining/unlocking that next ability felt rewarding, it forced player interaction, requiring people even at early levels to party up, something I’m seeing again now as I go back to classic. People are genuinely grateful for the help they get when they know they are going to die from accidently pulling to many. Expanding the store, raid finder, transmog, I’m sure all these things added to taking some of the soul from the game.
When Cata released all those years ago, I was leveling a mage my fourth toon, I tried to dive back into leveling him but that was it. So many people I knew/know in game and rl left for the same reason. People can like Cata I’m not telling anyone they can’t like something but it’s fact the hard decline in population started with Cata.
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No, it wasn’t. It was tedious, and there is a difference. There’s nothing difficult about being aware of your surroundings. There’s nothing difficult about having to stop every other pull to eat and drink. There’s nothing difficult about reading quest text to find out where to go. There’s nothing difficult about hearthing and then flying across the entire continent to deliver someone’s lunchbox, only for them to tell you to go back where you just came from because they had the wrong jam on their sandwich. That’s all mindless tedium
Difficulty is having to manage an involved class rotation to do relevant damage, or solve a complicated puzzle, or a big boss with actual mechanics to play around and avoid
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If it wasn’t challenging people wouldn’t have been dying, wouldn’t have been more inclined to partying up. It was certainly more challenging to level before Cata and with the challenge came player interaction that just doesn’t exist now. I don’t think memorizing a rotation of buttons is really all that difficult, either way I’m not saying a more Indepth system hurts the game. I’m saying playing a game where the fear of dying just doesn’t exist drives players away because it’s boring.
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hipocrisy at its best
as usual
literal zero changes going from wrath into cata but maybe 2 buttons
the gap between styles is MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH larger between tbc and wrath while cata and wrath barely has any difference
STOP FORCING
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Fixed that for you.
Having situational awareness and making good decisions based on them is certainly a skill.
The act of drinking/eating isn’t. Properly managing your resources and using consumables in a smart way to minimize downtime and prevent unnecessary death is a skill.
This is an immersion point not a difficulty one. Traversing the entire world map is a major part of what makes the old world special, it’s an MMO and living breathing world, not a lobby game like retail. I’ll give you a few of the more obnoxious quests give garbage rewards though and you should be aware of those. But stuff like whirlwind axe quest, succubus quest, and onyxia attunement are a ton of fun and have you traverse all over, which is something that sadly got lost in retail.
These are extremely specific forms of difficulty. You just don’t like the type of difficulty in classic WoW leveling. You can just admit you personally don’t like slow games.
I’ll give you this one. Though early vanilla without final patch class changes and itemization, and no world buff meta, the mechanics that are there matter way more. Compared to modern games it would still be easy even with progressive patching vanilla WoW (it’s 1-2 simple mechanics but they 1 shot you if you fail), but not the auto pilot mote world buff fest classic is.
Adding more involved mechanics in the game was the biggest improvement TBC made over vanilla while keeping most of the vanilla philosophy. TBC for this reason is the gold standard of world of warcrafts quality, it’s only mistake was flying mounts.
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People die because they’re bad. People still die in Cata because they’re bad
At no point was partying ever a necessity in Vanilla. Elite quests were never a requirement to reach level 60. Beyond that, needing a group doesn’t inherently make something more difficult. An elite mob that needs a tank still has the same mechanics as any normal mob (that is to say, stand and hit it until it dies)
It’s not. It’s performing that rotation in tandem with everything else that’s difficult. That’s the point that you’re missing here: “the threat of dying” by itself is not fun. Plain and simple. There’s no stimulation in pressing 1 button over and over against a single mob because 2 will kill you, but there is plenty of stimulation in actively pivoting between single target, cleave, and aoe rotations depending on a given moment, and using the knowledge of those rotations as well as your own ability to gauge how much you can handle at one time and build your personal experience around that knowledge. Not pulling enough and feeling no threat? Pull more for a faster quest. Pulled too much and died? You learned your limits and can use that knowledge to tailor the next pull
To put it another way: Cataclysm’s design allows for each individual player to tailor their experience the way they want. Too strong? Take some gear off and pull more. Too weak? Slow down and be more careful. Vanilla’s design only appeals to the people who think sitting there slowly tapping away one button at a time like the dad from Coraline meme is a riveting experience
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lol no one’s dying while leveling in cata or after cata. The point being made is more people party up in classic while leveling because there is a higher risk of death if anything goes south in a fight. Cata was definitely a low point in the history of WoW.
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You can always go back to Classic Era instead of complaining about how terrible Cataclysm is.
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Maybe not if they’re too afraid to actually stretch their ability and are still just single pull andies
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LOL nobody dies in cata. You have to literally, actually be brain dead to die in cata. Mobs hit you like a wet noodle and you kill them in 2 hits and you know this. You can pull as many mobs as possible with close to 0% risk of failure. Vanilla has actual risk of death if you aren’t careful.
You know this is true, you are just being dishonest.
Sure, but why would you choose not to? Hate yourself? The game is designed around socialization being the paramount way to play, you are gimping yourself if you refuse and probably shouldnt be playing an MMO.
In leveling you use your entire tool kit for a variety of situations if you are actually playing efficiently. In PvP too, you use most of your tool kit. On raid bosses the rotations are super simple, but we are talking leveling here lmfao. You sound like you never got past level 6 if you aren’t intentionally being dishonest.
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Ahh the “go play something else if you don’t like the game” these are the defenders that stay originally after millions left, should my response be "go play cata instead of chilling in the forums defending the game? But yes, that’s what I’ll do.
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K bye. You won’t be missed.
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Is your argument seriously, “you can die in cata you just have to try and die”
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Ah Delvin, the king of projection…
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Not really, but by that logic you have to try to die in order to actually die in Vanilla too, so 
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Umm no. You’re saying pull 5,6, 20 people and you’ll die in cata. What people here are saying is if you make a “mistake” you will die while leveling in vanilla. It’s why no one party’s while leveling in cata.
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