DING! The 80-85 journey of Cataclysm

Mmm… reaching max level, it’s not something we get to do often, so it’s all about enjoying that one short second it lasts.

I leveled as an elemental shaman, and I was satisfied with the damage output and crowdcontrol, but damn… in some of the areas the mobs hit hard, and I wear mail armor and a shield, so I dread to think about leveling my shadowpriest.

In Wrath of the Lich King, the epics from Burning Crusade raiding took most people far into the content, some replaced epics with epics. This time around, it’s a proper reset. I had a mix of 264/251 and was even replacing those with greens… greens… yeah, the ones low level alts have. It’s like being royal and forced to wear a boiler suit, stained with dirt and sweat from the hard work of leveling.

I snapped a photo of my shaman right after she became level 85, just to keep a memory of the ugly gear I had at this stage of the expansion.

I guess this sums up the style of green and blue gear in Cataclysm. I was hoping for something interesting to add to roleplaygear.wordpress.com, but Vanilla gear still tops in terms of good looks. And as I’m sure you remember, greens in Lich King were exceptionally bland.

Currently I’m doing heroics, and this meant I had to reach the golden itemlevel value of 329. I was dreading the whole normal instance farming, but with a little help from wowhead I bought one inscription-crafted relic and did one questline for a better chestpiece, thus avoided farming normals altogether. I strongly encourage others to do the same. Quests, although some long-winded, will award blue gear that can take you right up to the gate of the heroics, figuratively speaking.

I completed three quest zones:

1 -Vashj’ir

Some like it, some don’t. I, myself enjoyed this zone, heavily inspired by the Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I actually read this book in school a long time ago, so I picked up on this reference (thank you old teacher).

I should say, I’m very impressed with the postal service in Azeroth. They even deliver to the underwater caves!

When you go there, pay attention to not only the big whale shark,  but also the little fish.

2 – Deepholm

I’ve heard mixed reactions to this zone. I liked it, you really get a sense of being in a hole in the ground.

It’s a very scenic descent into the underworld, so remember to visit Thrall and get your ticket down through the Maelstrom.

When you’re there, make sure to visit Therazane the Earthmother. Contrary to her name, she is not very caring and would rather have you leave.

Maybe at exalted, she’ll “soften up” and hand out cookies… who knows, she’s a stone after all.

3 – Uldum

Oh yes! Everyone had been talking about this place almost exclusively, so I didn’t hesitate. Uldum the egyptian themed zone was the final destination, and yes, it lived up to my expectations.

This zone also hosts some really good questlines. I was almost executed by Commander Schnottz, a goblin reincarnation of Hitler. His questline is one continuing reference to a lot of the big personalities and events of the Nazi regime. Definately a story worth doing.

The next questline “Gnomebliteration” have been said to be one of the funniest quests in this expansion.

My heart broke a little when I did it, all the gnomes were screaming when I burned them alive. Watching them fly around as I hit them was really comical, so I got over my heartache and played around past the thousand I had already killed. But… why this obsession with killing gnomes?

The Heroics

In Vortex Pinnacle, the dungeon located in the clouds south of Uldum, I ran into this sort of mob:

Yes, it plays dead and doesn’t attack as long as you look at it. Sneaky thing might throw a lighting bolt when you peacefully walk past it though. They are said to take some effort to kill, but no worries, this cowardly guard doesn’t drop anything of interest, so you can easily pass him if you stare him down. He’s a funny detail, although I wouldn’t want this one guarding my castle!

I remember when everyone was chanting about the hardcore ultra difficult and elite heroics of Cataclysm, when we were still storming through the WotLK heroics while watching TV, cooking, babysitting and doing the dishes at the same time. So how do they measure up now?

I did a spree yesterday with guildies and a pugged healer. The healers were all very thankful and repeatedly stated it was a nice group, and this despite us wiping a few times! I still havn’t really been pugging it much, so I can’t personally compare, but if people wiped in WotLK, either someone was going to take some abuse or people left one by one within 5 seconds. So as a comparison, heroics are harder now and some of them will kill you if you don’t know the tactics.

We even had the mage sheep! Speaks volumes doesn’t it!