World of Warcraft Cataclysm Guide

With the upcoming launch of Blizzard Entertainment’s new Cataclysm expansion for their runaway hit, World of Warcraft, players are preparing for new challenges and months of new content from the world-famous software developer. Getting a head-start in the online game is absolutely essential when you want to get into hardcore Raiding and PvP guilds, but finding out how to get ahead of the game can be a problem when a brand new expansion with new class mechanics hits. Here’s where aid from game guides come in.

I used Vivi’s World of Warcraft Cataclysm guide, so below is my review of that guide. There was also Uma’s Cataclysm guide that I was considering getting but ended up with Vivi’s. From the description over at umasguide.com, I figure Uma’s guide should be pretty good as well. Review will be added when I get a copy of the guide.

Vivi’s Guide offers an up to date and extraordinary WoW leveling guide all prepped-up for the new expansion. This guide is loaded with all kinds of tips for the new World of Warcraft expansion, packed with information on PvP, PvE, and leveling/grinding for players of all experience levels. The manual is noob friendly and easily understood by all players. Detailed step-by-step guides on how to make use of mining, jewelcrafting, engineering, and other WoW professions put players a step ahead of the competition.

All of the quest information is taken fresh from the Cataclysm beta with up to date info on quest paths and objectives. Vivi’s Cataclysm guide uses a team of professional WoW players to create the most efficient quest maps in order to bring a character from level 80-85 in just a few days.

Is Vivi’s Guide a scam? Absolutely not. It’s one of the lowest-priced World of Warcraft Cataclysm guides on the market, jam-packed with useful information that are not easliy found. After using this guide to level a character from 1-85 in Cataclysm, it was extremely impressive how quickly the character reached the level cap. It only took a total effort of about 7 days of played time to reach the level cap in World of Warcraft Cataclysm.

Other Vivi’s Guide reviews reflect the information found in this one. Vivi’s Cataclysm Guide is almost unanimously acclaimed by top internet critics and hardcore WoW bloggers alike. With a focus accessibility and usability by players of all classes, races, factions, and experience levels, entry into the guide is homogenized, making it ideal for pros and newbies alike. Definitely the best guide for Cataclysm on the market.

Varian Wynn, the new leader of the Alliance, hates Orcs, and Garrosh, the new leader of the Horde, after Thrall’s mysterious disappearance, hates…All non-Orcs! This sets the stage for more tension, new Cataclysm Quests, and more importantly, new Battlegrounds. The change players will notice most is that Garrosh has kicked out Undead, Blood Elves, Goblins, and Trolls from Orgrimmar, thinking they can’t contribute to the war effort. Only Orcs and Tauren remain. (Is he not threatened by the big anthropomorphized cows? Or does he consider them strong enough to contribute somehow?).

The Goblin race—who are oddly the ultimate inventors and the ultimate capitalists in one—are working extra-hard to prove their worth to the Horde, and the new Alliance Race, the Worgen (Werewolves), are distrusted by Humans, for obvious reasons.

One of the Goblin Quests has you “accidentally” rescuing the kidnapped Thrall—the old Warchief of the Orcs!

The Worgen intro Quests are truly inspired, with you playing a Human whose town is besieged by Werewolves, and just as you’re making your Heroic Last Stand, you realize that the Werewolves are your old friends and colleagues—then you are Turned as well! You wake up with a mysterious mentor teaching you how to control your transformation. The Worgen-infected town is attacked by the Forsaken, but then a Tsunami wipes out the enemy fleet—and your town—so your only choice for survival is to join the Alliance.

The Goblin intro seems to be inspired by “Mad Men” or Las Vegas. You act as a high-powered executive, and amidst all the trash in the streets and billboards, you start thinking you’re the king—then the Cataclysm hits! Desperate to save your own green skin, you pay a smuggler to get you out—who betrays you and tries to sell you as a slave! A naval battle knocks you off course, and you link up with Horde forces, trying to find the “Secret Cargo” the Alliance had—It turns out to be Thrall, who, impressed by your bravery, inducts you and your whole Clan into the Horde!

Phased In

The best change WoW Cataclysm brings to the table is “Phasing”—your actions actually make a PERMANENT difference, but only to YOU. In other MMOs like WarHammer: Age of Reckoning—and even AION—you could enact “changes” to the environment, like setting/extinguishing fires, snatching supplies—sometimes even destroying a whole building—But it would just reset, so the next player would have something to do. In City of Villains, you were given “instanced” destructible environment—a whole sub-universe for you to destroy and devastate at your whim—But it had no effect on the “real” gameworld. They don’t have enough server-power to instance EVERYTHING, and it would ruin the “Multiplayer” part of MMO—and more importantly, make it no longer worth the $17/month WOW charges!

Halfway between instancing, and the temporary “changes” you could enact in previous MMO games, the game actually tracks your changes and shows them ONLY TO YOU—even terrain-changes (Like flooding or mountains being formed or leveled)!

This is a truly AMAZING system, and it will make players actually feel like they’re making a difference, AND takes advantage of the fact that different clients are sent different information—the same reason “Stealth” powers work in PVP—to show each player THEIR own customized version of the gameworld, reflecting the Quests they’ve completed, and the changes they’ve wrought, or helped cause. (Destructible environments and/or “leaving your mark” were a big part of the popularity of Duke Nukem, Red Faction, and even Crusader: No Remorse!)

The only problem I can foresee is that some of these changes cause TERRAIN differences, so how will they explain when one player is walking up a hill, and the other player sees a player walking in the air over flat land? That is the main reason no other MMO has dared to have deformable terrain!

If this makes you feel sad you really shouldn’t let it. Nostalgia will always make us remember the good points of something and forget the bad. One of the most challenging aspects of instances was finding someone with a key to open the door. WoW Cataclysm classes were unique because only one class could tank, one could heal, three could DPS and the rest had unique ways of doing nothing well. And the reason epics were actually epic was because everything else was loaded up with spirit! Blizzard has fixed all these problems in its expansion content, but so much of it is ingrained in pre-sixty play that only a full rework of Azeroth can elevate it to the games current standard of quality. I know I’ll feel a little bit sad when I finish installing the expansion and log in because a part of the game will be gone forever. But I also know that it will usher in a brighter age for Azeroth. (And not just because everything will be covered with Lava.)

World of Warcraft Cataclysm

Credit: forums.animesuki.com