As I wait in the interminable Bloodlust (Alliance) queue for a dungeon, waiting for someone to need a level 68 healer, I thought I’d drop in my two cents about the upcoming Cataclysm Beta.
I got into the Wrath beta, thanks to my RL friend the resto druid. She had a spare beta key that she gave me and I spent much of my time screenshotting things, getting my hunter to 73, laughing my ass off when Unholy Blight would crash world servers and generally exploring things. I remember when Infusion of Light would cause an instant HOLY LIGHT, not just a Flash of Light. I remember when there was only a 25% penalty to healing when using Divine Plea, not a 50% one.
I really enjoyed my time in Beta. I got to see half-finished mobs in Dragonblight, I got to experience quests before others. You know the quest for Nexus called Quickening? You kill the big ol’ tree things in the zone and get Arcane Splinters. In Beta? They weren’t group loot. There were like, 10 of them available total or something. I wrote feedback, recommending group loot or 25 total so that all five people could get their quest items if all five people were on the quest. Guess what? That’s what happens on live. :D
I also really enjoy just learning the new mechanics before things go live. One thing I hate about expansions is that it’s a near-total knowledge reset. By the end of Burning Crusade, I could have tanked on a warrior at 70, even though my own warrior is only level 16. I had done my research. I could have played just about any spec of any class adequately throughout any encounter from Kara to BT. I might not have topped damage meters or healing meters or been able to hold aggro from our resident fury warrior while I was tanking, but I knew enough about what abilities were available to everyone and when they should use them that I could have done an okay job.
Come Wrath, most of that knowledge was gone.
“Vigilance?” I remember asking, “What the hell is that?”
It typically takes me at least a full year to be relatively acclimated to the game changes an expansion brings. Beta knocks off a bit of that time and lets me learn about my own classes right off the bat so that I have the knowledge that’s most important to me already subsumed by the time live hits. When live hits, it’s about learning about other classes, newer quests and instances I never tried on beta and such.
I’m hoping I get into Cataclysm’s beta early on so that I can learn about some of the big changes — guilds, mastery, archeology and the like — as well as my own classes so that when Cataclysm comes out, I am ready to hit the ground running.
I really do want to restart my dear old Apotheosis (most of the time, anyways!) and the best way for me to do that is to go into 4.0 filled to the brim with knowledge about how things work in Cataclysm.
The thought of going forth into the beta and the next expansion really reminds me, too, that a lot of the content I post here, the informative stuff, is technically time-sensitive. My Holy How-Tos are going to be all but useless come the expansion. Definitely something to bear in mind, going forward. Every patch, every expansion, things will probably change, which is something I haven’t had to deal with since I only REALLY started blogging in earnest after 3.3 hit, despite the fact I started this blog up around 2.4!
Anyways, should I get into the beta, I WILL be posting stuff here. I’ll put it all behind the cut, though, and my blog subjects will be not-too-spoilery. :) This is your notice!
The queue still hasn’t popped. In other news, I got Portal Jockey and I’m on a Boat last night!
… yeah, that’s about it for now, I guess. This queue is awful. I think I’ll try my hand at some AV.
I’m hoping rather desperately to get into the Beta, because… well, it would be cool. And because, like you, I’d like to go into things with an idea of what I’m doing, not least so I don’t have to be a drag on my guild when we’re all getting used to new content. (I’m the girl who can’t for the life of her wrap her head around gems and enchants. It’s horrible. I basically go to one of my friends and go “HELP ME, what do I need?” It’s kind of embarrassing.)
Apple – everyone was there at one point or another. For example, back in the day, I put +5 skinning on my Beaststalker Gloves on my hunter. Why? So I wouldn’t have to swap gloves when skinning dragons in Upper Blackrock Spire, or Core Hounds in Molten Core.
Instead of, you know, +7 agility or whatever the enchant was at the time that would help my damage.
The more you play, the more you get comfortable with whichever toon you’re focusing on and the more you’ll be able to look at the available gems and enchants and go “wow, you know, that would be pretty awesome!”. Plus, there’s always Elitist Jerks. (I don’t post there, pretty much ever, but I do some reading there now and again.)
The plus side to Cataclysm is that stats will become simpler — no more AP, just strength and agi. So that ought to simplify your gem/enchant issues, too. ;D
I want into the beta. :( Remember Corruption ticking for 1,000,000+?
TBH, I’m kinda not wanting to get into beta.
I am hoping that I will be able to level up with my friends with out seeing the new content before we go in. I have a thing for running content blind (so long as every one is down for it), but we will see where this goes.
I remember being in the Beta for TBC. It was fun and interesting, like getting your driver’s license, while while everyone else you know is still stuck traveling by bicycle. I did a lot of questing, exploring, and leveling up.
…then TBC dropped…
I was completely bored! In fact I was more than bored. It was disheartening to realize all the work I had done was gone, wiped out. I knew it while I was leveling but still all the hours gone.
I spent many hours getting those levels back, in TBC but not by re-doing the same quests, instead I ran the dungeons over and over again. The TBC beta, for me, was a bad experience. I will never do another wow beta again…
*Although I am enjoying the SC2 beta…go figure*
thansal – I can definitely see the reason someone would want to go in blind, but I think I’m too much of a control freak to do so. ;)
R – I did hate re-doing Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord, that’s for sure. But I didn’t spend a lot of time levelling in beta. Kurn got to 73, Madrana to 72. I spent a LOT of time exploring things, testing out new skills and talents and builds. If I had pushed myself to level to 77 or whatever the cap was, I probably would have been like “screw this!!!” and not been as eager to level. As it was, I was okay with going through BT again (well, moderately okay) and going to Dragonblight on Kurn. Everything after that was kind of new to me. :)