Cataclysm Patch - Day One

Okies!!!!! I finished my last bit of school work and logged in to see what was up with the Cataclysm terraforming the precedes the expansion. I had the overwhelming experperience that defines the expression "kid in a candy store." There were so many choices of things to do and see. I spent the first twenty minutes chasing my tail. Then I settled in and decided NOT to roll a new toon just to see the start zones. I'll do that with the new Worgen and Goblin races when the expansion comes out. Instead I thought it would be interesting to see the changed new worlds.

I took Tynaqua around, for the most part. I've had some trouble with screen captures. Not sure why. Several Orgrimmar ones weren't full shots even though they looked fully rez'd on screen. =shrug= Anyhow, this first shot is Tynqua who managed readily to beat the ingame game of plants vs. zombies. I was awarded my own sunflower, which sings in a sweet four-year-old voice. It was a lot of fun to play and I'd go back if there were a reason to other than the game mechanic fun. This took place in the region that's behind Hillsbrad, up where the prison camp used to be.

Notice too, that I'm standing with a silver fox, one of two new cool pets for hunters. I got the silver fox outside Gilnea. Yah, that's right, the Greymane Wall has fallen. You can ride around in what will soon be the Worgen start zone, but you can't get in to the city itself yet; I imagine that's saved for the expansion. The place is mostly deserted except for some stray Horde troops setting up to attack that Alliance city.

The second shot here is from the plants vs. zombies ingame game itself.  As always, you can click on the thumbnail to enlarge it.

The shot here is a very cool quest I encountered in, I think, Silverpine, when I was heading to the Greymane area to get my fox pet (you can get the dog there too, which I did, but he's hella ugly). As you can see, I AM THE QUEST GIVER in this quest. How funny is that, eh? I have to hand out quests and converse with three NPC players who come along the road. I must admit there is some satisfaction in sending 'players' off on FedEx quests and the like. Kudos to whatever level design cubicle guy thought this one up. I did enjoy it, probably more than players who haven't leveled a shit ton of alts.

So yah, I spent yesterday in Hillsbrad mostly. I had been almost through with loremaster when the patch dropped and reset almost everything, but I managed to knock off all the Hillsbrad quests and I got to see the new land. Southshore is gone. It's ruins. And full of oozes.

Generally they've made the game easier to play in PVE mode. There are flight paths EVERYWHERE, which is hugely ironic, given that they've already reduced the level at which you get your mount from lvl 40 to lvl 20. I hear, though, that the dungeons have gotten harder, which I think is a fine idea. I'm hoping we're back to vanilla WoW levels of difficulty, where players have to actually play and strategize their class skills, e.g., the return of crowd control.

I'll be playing most of T-day weekend I hope. Meanwhile, enjoy these sneak peeks.