Having been around from the beginning of World of Warcraft I have seen a lot of things come and go in the game.  Sometimes the changes are good, and sometimes they are not.  A lot of what makes a change good or bad though is personal preference and personal playstyle.  With Cataclysm coming sometime soon, there are more changes coming to the game yet again. 

Many of the changes, but not all, have already been announced to players.  Knowing what some of these changes are ahead of time allows us all a little time to think about them and look over what we will miss and what we can’t wait to be gone from the game.  This article looks at the items that are changing that I will miss, and that probably most casual raider type players will miss.

So what are the things that I will miss in Cataclysm? There are many that I know of already that have to do with the changes to the game.  There are also some that I will miss in the short term as the game always changes from progression game to a leveling game for a short while after each expansion release.  So let’s start by looking at the short term items first, and then go onto the long term items after.

Short Term Things to Miss

We all know that after an expansion is first released the game shifts from a gear progression game to a level progression game.  This change happens and only really lasts for a few days to a few weeks due to the speed at which you can level in WoW (which is way too fast!).  When it does happen though, there are several things to miss.  Even if you manage to get to the new level cap in 2 days that doesn’t mean that you get back to these items any faster as you really need players to participate with you.

I know I am already missing raiding as Arthas has been defeated. Sure there are hard modes to do, but its still the same raid.

Raiding – No matter how fast you level to get to raiding you need 9 or 24 more players to get there as well.  This takes a while unless you are in a top guild that expects all players to get to level cap in 2-3 days.  This means most players should expect a break from raiding.  While this already essentially exists due to pretty much everyone having beaten the old content already, the anticipation of new content will make it harder when Cataclysm is released

This for me is a mixed curse / blessing since I really like 5 player content and doing instances when they are released.  I will miss raids for a while though as my guild will take a little while to get to the level cap and that means we will probably not raid for a few weeks after Cataclysm’s release.

Arenas – For all you PvP players out there arenas will be gone for a while to allow everyone to get to level cap.  This applies just as much to PvP players as raiding does to PvE only more so, no matter how fast they get to the level cap, they can only start participating in arenas once Blizzard starts the new season.  Given the fact that many players are once again getting hooked on Arenas since all the PvE content is completed there could be a large number of players put off of PvP since they can not compete.

Gear Score – When you are leveling and getting ready to raid, or even once you start to raid, what will we all do if we don’t know what gear scores you should be for content?  Oh no what shall we do?  Just kidding!   I won’t miss the fact that for a few short weeks gear score will be meaningless!  Hurray!

Long Term Things to Miss

Many of the changes that are coming in Cataclysm have already been announced.  These are things in the game that we are used to and that will be gone.  Which ones am I going to miss most?

It seems like these stats will be almost all that is left in the game.

Stat Variety – In Cataclysm a lot of stats are being simplified or merged.  Many classes are going to be focusing on fewer stats, for example Tanks will get attack power from stamina through Vengeance.  This means heavier reliance on single stats for each player. I am one of those players that likes having to micromanage stats. This separates the poor players from the good players and further separates the good from the great. 

As in life everything comes back to math and numbers, why shouldn’t wow? I am hoping that new micro management comes in with the stat juggle, but am not holding my breath.  To me someone that doesn’t understand the math and mechanics behind a system should only be able to operate at 50%, someone who knows it but doesn’t actively manage it at 70%, and someone who manages it and tunes for it at 90%+.  This grants the players that take the time and effort to know the system a big bonus.

Defense – I am really going to miss gearing up my various tanks and trying to manage being defense capped as well as getting other avoidance and mitigation stats.  This could be seen as a variation on stat variety as well, but really applies to tanks.  I like having to constantly juggle and fine tune as it really makes you think about your gear and analyze what is best.

Badges – Badges will be gone, and replaced with an honor like system.  While it still ends up doing the same thing, I know I will miss collecting 1-2 items.  It makes it feel more epic when you turn in lots.  Also with the two tiers of points being used and the high-end auto degrading to the low end at each tier change, it will not feel as important to collect and save.  I know that it is probably just a perception issue, but I still feel that way.

Epic feeling raids and raid nights – Blizzard has announced that raids will be shorter.  I will miss the epic feel of going in for the 5th straight night to try to defeat a 12th boss in a raid while learning it.  My wife won’t as she may get to see me more, but there is just something that feels like a bigger accomplishment after finishing a long raid.  The new shorter raid scheme seems like it only tailors to those with short attention spans.

Hard to earn gear – By everything said, gear will be even easier to get in Cataclysm than in WotLK.  For example players in 10 person raids will get the same gear as those in 25 player raids.  While I personally like that part, I will miss players having different gear. 

Remember way back when you saw someone that had amazing gear and lusted after it.  You saw them and went “they are raiders” or “they are PvP’ers”  now everyone has the same epic gear with very little effort.  Everyone looks the same and has fairly similar stats just by being online for a while.  While I am sure it is nice for casuals, did we not lose something by homogenizing everyone?  There is no more lust for the best gear, its just oh well grind a bit more and get it.

AoE – While I personally will not miss this one, many players are already complaining that Blizzard has said AoE and AoE tanking will be toned down substantially in Cataclysm.  For me that is a big Huzzah! AoE tanking lead to unthinking uncaring tanks and DPS, that simply ran through content without thinking about it.  There was no challenge or skill involved.  Hopefully reducing AoE will bring back some skill, effort, and caring about challenge to the game.

What will you miss?

 Well, those are the items that I am going to miss most when Cataclysm launches, what about you?  Do you agree or disagree with the items I listed?  Do you have your own list?  Are you going to miss things like unique profession specializations, or maybe a specific talent that is leaving the game?  Maybe you will miss the fact that specific builds no longer have sole access to certain abilities through talents, for example all Paladins will gain Crusader Strike rather than just Retribution Paladins.  Join us in the forums to comment on what you think.