Alright, so this question is going around through a lot of people’s heads: Will there be Cataclysm Classic? Now, I want to start by saying that IF Cata classic does happen, there will 100% need to be changes made this time around. I want to talk about some of those changes in this post.
NOTE: Skip the next paragraph if you want to read the changes that should happen for Cata classic!
First I want to start by saying that Cataclysm WAS NOT a bad expansion entirely, YES it had some bad decisions made in it, but NO, it was not an overall bad xpac. People like to believe that Cata was a bad xpac for multiple reasons: The player base started dropping, LFR came into the game, the old world was revamped, and while yes, these weren’t exactly great things, they didn’t inherently ruin the whole xpac. The pvp was insane, the raids were amazing (except spine, nobody liked spine) and the class design wasn’t bad either, most classes were really fun to play. But I would like to mention something that a lot of people tend to look over/forget as to why the player base started dropping in Cata. From what we can gather, the average age of WoW players now is about 29-30 years old, Cataclysm launched in December of 2010, that was 12 years ago. Now, how old were these people turning back then??? 18-19 years old, they were graduating high school, going to college, etc. They didn’t have time for video games anymore, they were getting on with their lives and pursuing their future. Another factor is that after we killed Arthas on top of the Frozen Throne, that was the end of Warcraft 3. Think about it, we defeated Nefarion and Ragnaros in vanilla, we stopped Lady Vashj and Kaelthas in TBC, we defeated Illidan atop the Black Temple and defeated the Burning Legion all in tbc. Then fast forward to Wrath, we defeat the Lich Kel Thuzad in Naxx and Arthas on the Frozen Throne. That’s it, it’s over, Warcraft 3 is concluded. A lot of people that were playing WoW played Warcraft 3 before it and continued on to WoW to see the rest of the story, so when we defeated Arthas, a lot of people didn’t really feel the need to keep playing and so they didn’t, they just left WoW on good terms.
Now I want to talk some about the changes that should happen for Cata classic. As we all know, the world revamp happened in Cataclysm, zones were forever changed, entire questlines gone and old places we used to love going were also changed, like Southshore, for my pvpers out there. Now, 1 change that probably should happen, and this one is up for discussion by the community might I add, Is just including the option to just go back to those old zones whenever we please. Retail has an npc that’s utilized quite a bit, you all have no doubt heard of Zidormi, who takes you back to a certain time in zones before a particular event. Perhaps she could be placed in Certain zones that were severely changed by the Cataclysm, places like The Barrens for example, or maybe the Badlands, DARKSHORE ESPECIALLY!! The destruction of Darkshore just shattered my heart man, that one actually hurt something bad, and I didn’t even main a night elf like that. Old Hillsbrad Foothills as well, so Alliance players can go and experience the questlines of Southshore and do all those old quests and stuff. That would most likely please a lot of players like myself, because I personally love to go and spend time out there in Hillsbrad, absolutely amazing zone, I afk there a lot while I q bgs or something. So that would be a healthy change
Another one that also really did a mark on the community was LFR, I still honestly think that to this day, LFR was probably the absolute WORST decision blizz ever made for WoW. It impacted guilds and caused a nice gaping tear in the community. Why would anybody look for a guild now to go raid with when they can just hit q for this raid and go in and get their gear. If Cata classic does happen, LFR needs to be removed, and it really is just that simple. The same way you took RDF from wrath classic, you do the same with LFR in Cata.
Next up is the topic of tuning. Now I know this might be a little bit of a sore spot but please hear me out, give me a chance here. Some classes and specs really do need to be looked at in terms of tuning in Cata, Rogues in general could use a small few nerfs, because they were next lvl in Cata, it was actually unreal LOL. Other specs like Destruction warlock could use some small buffs. I remember in the Cataclysm pre-patch (4.0.1) Destruction looked exceptionally promising because not only did it feel really fun to play, but it also did some NASTY damage, like you were one shotting people would chaos bolt/soulburn/soul fire combos. But then you hit lvl 85 and while everyone else was doing lvl 85 Cataclysm damage, Destruction was still doing lvl 80 Wrath dmg and it stayed really bad dmg wise for majority of the xpac. So some small tuning there would be healthy. I understand that you would MOST LIKELY go with the final patch tuning, as you have with tbc and wrath classic and that’s totally fine, but some specs do need a few buffs, and others some minor nerfs. Obviously don’t do anything crazy, I’m just meaning small buffs, like maybe 10-15% on incinerate and/or Chaos Bolt, nothing insane by any means. What would make this a very easy task as well, is also the fact that there’s nowhere NEAR as many damage modifiers on Classic as there are on retail. On retail, there’s so many that you really have to tip toe around what you can and can’t buff, because let’s say you just buff chaos bolt by like 25-30% or something, well guess what, you’ve just broke it. Even though the buff is warranted since 1 bolt by itself does nothing, you got talents like Eradication and the big one, Madness, that exist that would just flat out break the ability entirely. On Classic, that’s not a problem because those types of modifiers don’t exist… not to that extent at least. There’s a few small ones, but they don’t have that lvl of impact you know what I mean?
Next, I would like to mention a few positives that come from Cata, because it wasn’t all doom and gloom you know? Flying in the new world, to get around quicker, that wasn’t too terrible, It certainly helped me get from Undercity to the Stath service entrance a lot quicker LOL (Rivendare mount farm) And Transmog!!! Yes man, transmog, easily the best thing blizz ever added to WoW. Being able to collect these item appearances that you had over the years and then change the look of your characters armor to create a look that was totally amazing was just the best thing ever. Being able to mix and match different pieces from different xpacs in wow was just flat out awesome, I loved my ol Bloodwoven mask and Teebus Blazing Longsword with the Merciless Glad robes, gloves and shoulders (warlock).
So, IF Blizzard does do Cata classic, I think this is how it should be approached. What do you guys think, do you think these are some changes and good notes? What else do you think should change with Cata classic IF they do it? Let me know in the replies here. Also as a little side thing, what is something YOU like about Cataclysm, it could be anything, a zone, a quest line, a system, whatever. I personally loved Tol Barad, I never could get enough of the PvP there!
