Cataclysm Review

Cataclysm was the 3rd expansion for World of Warcraft, but if your on here you probably already know that ..
It was released in .. December 2010? God it feels like yesterday but it has been a while..

The whole expansion was set around Deathwing coming back to Azeroth and pretty much destroying everything, with the elements being out of place.

The level cap was increased to 85 and two new races were introduced to the game, the Worgen for the Alliance and the Goblins for the Horde.
All zones in Azeroth got some soft of overhaul and 5 new zones were introduced 80-85.
Along with new professions and just a general tidy up of the game, with a ton of minor changes here and there.

I'll be brutally honest I was a little disappointed with Cataclysm, there was so much hype surrounding it and for me it just didn't deliver.

I do appreciate Blizzard going over the old Azeroth zones and re-doing them, some hadn't been touched in 5+ years and really were better off after the changes.

The 80-85 zones really didn't do much for me, they were a place where I levelled and that was it, none of them had much to do with each other, which was quite the opposite with the Northrend zones when you were working and going over a whole campaign around Northrend before finishing the campaign in Icecrown.

PvP content was non-existent, Twin Peaks is a pretty nice BG that I enjoy but Tol Barad was pretty ordinary. I prefer the Tol Barad dailies over the Argent Tournament variety we had in Wrath but it took what, a good 3-4 months for them to balance Tol Barad out..
Arena's were bland and world PvP was also non-existent, flying in the Azeroth zones was meant to change this but I didn't see how it did and I'm not a fan of the change.
Now people can get around the world even faster and spend more time waiting in Orgrimmar/Stormwind than travelling around the World of Warcraft on their 100% - in comparison to 310% mount.

PvE I thought was redeemable quality for WoW, the dungeons that were released were "hard" and I liked the challenge after the steamroll that was WoTLK dungeons.
They're a fair bit easier now but if people don't CC or pay attention to the encounter mechanics you will still wipe, its a bit more advanced than the brainless tank n spank 5 mans were in Wrath.

Blackwing Descent was pretty fun in my opinion and I liked the setting, Bastion of Twilight was quite meh - 4 bosses is a little too low for a raid in my opinion. Regardless BWD and BoT were both a step about Naxxramas and Obsidian Sanctum which players had to endure in Wrath.
Firelands was awesome and if you read my posts from before was one of my favourite raids of all time, it really shows how far Blizzard has came.
Dragons Soul I've only downed the first few bosses so I can't really speak for.

Things that Cataclysm definitely did get right were the Guild feature. Guilds actually felt important again and it sure brought my guild closer together as a community.
The rewards and achievements give you things to actually work for and complete as a guild, there are 25 levels and although I feel the levels are too easy to get and should take longer it definitely is a welcomed addition.

The 4.1 Zul Aman/Zul Gurub troll instances were pretty lackluster in my opinion and I was one of the guys who complained over the "recycled content" I mean not much had changed and most encounters were pretty mindless, the 4.3 dungeons followed in the 3.3 ICC's footsteps and were among the best 5 man dungeons I've ever taken part in.

With all that out of the way I'd like to list 5 things I'd like to see in Mists of Pandaria..

-More raids, we only had 2 raids (3 if you include BH) in Cataclysm until Firelands was released, if I was a pure PvE player I would of quit over that, thats really just ridiculous the fact that they didn't bring out a new raid in 4.1, the length of time in between patches was quite a while too.

-Updated character models - we NEED them especially for vanilla races

-New Arena map/instances, there are surprisingly few arena locations and it would be good for some more, they'd be quite resource-free to make and shake things up in Arena quite a bit.

-Reasons for World PvP again

-Balance, Mages and Hunters were ridiculous this expansion, period.

Aux's Favourite BG

I'm a PvP'er and have been for the last 4 years in World of Warcraft.
Battlegrounds are my favourite form of PvP, in Arena's if my class/partner is not the flavour of the month and I'm not geared to the teeth theres a chance I'll lose.

In Battleground's I can do my own thing and just with my sole presence I can seriously effect the game. Warsong Gulch or WSG has always been my favourite BG.

I mean capture the flag is always entertaining but WSG brings it to a whole new level.
Each team has 10 players and must capture the enemy teams flag and bring it back to their base, but however for this to happen the enemy must not have YOUR flag.
The zone is very beautiful and the two enemy bases are very styled after the Orcs and Night Elves.

There is plenty of terrain to utilize and hide behind, experienced players such as myself can take advantage of "hidden" or "trick" areas and techniques which give them the edge.

WSG games for 25 minutes and the first team to reach 3/3 flag captures or the one with the most at the end of the time wins.

There are a few things that I'm not a big fan of in Warsong Gulch. Firstly if your team is getting camped - you can't do anything about it.
You'll have the enemy team at 2/3 and ready to capture that final flag.. but they won't - they'll farm you for honor instead.
You'll have pets on aggressive and melee classes camping where your spawning. Ranged classes behind and in front of you - wherever you go you will get killed.
It's a problem and you can't do much about it, players will leave and new players will be thrown in to have to deal with it, usually you just have to stay there and take it until the games over and you can get your honour.

The last problem I have is players farming Honourable Kills in the mid zone. The goal of Warsong Gulch is to go AFTER the flag and DEFEND your base - offence and defence.
Instead you've got half your team picking off the enemy faction in the center. This is frustrating as usually your team will lose if you do this, as other players can strathe around or stealth around you.

For example if your on a team of 10 and 9 are mindlessly slaughtering the other team in the mid how are you expected to grab the enemies flag when there are 3 players on the other team defending?
Sure, they won't be able to get into yours but they CAN - out of the 8 players in the mid what are the chances that even just one enemy player will slip through unseen and grab your flag with no one defending in the flag room, exactly.

Battleground's are for PvP and I respect your choice to kill enemy players but its a lot funner and rewarding for everyone if you just go for the objectives, fighting on the road goes on in all battlegrounds whether it be Strand of the Ancients on the beach of in the water in Arathi Basin.

See this crap? STOP IT!


In all seriousness WSG is an AMAZING battleground and is a total blast to play, I have SO many awesome memories of staying up all morning and hearing the DOO-DOO-DOO whenever we got/had out flag taken.

Warsong Gulch .. check it out!

Aux's Top 5 Favourite Raids

In the last installment of my "Top 5 Favourite" series I'll be talking about raids.

I've always been more of a PvP'er but I enjoy the occasional dungeon/raid. I was too new to World of Warcraft in Wrath of the Lich King to really get into raiding and when I was I had a few unpleasant experiences and was turned off.
I'm definantely more of a solo-player and PvP allowed me to do that more so than PvE, in short I didn't have to worry about others screwing it up for everyone, I didn't have to rely on others as much.

Raiding is the pinnacle of PvE gaming, its designed to be the final frontier and most challenging for PvE'ers, raids usually come in "tiers" in an expansions life and each tier will be harder than the last, allowing for a "gear progression".


1. Ulduar: Ulduar was the first raid I ever took part in. I didn't know any of the fights but I was assured that I would be ok, after 5 hours that night we only managed to clear the first 3 bosses but it was still an amazing experience working as a team, overcoming and improving on what was keeping us down and downing a few bosses.
Later in Wrath and Cataclysm I ran Ulduar 10/25M and eventually the Heroic version of the raid for the Iron-Bound Protodrake. Ulduar has many wings like other raids and is absolutely breathtaking, particularly towards the end.
Most fun I've ever had in a raid and most fun I probably ever will, Ulduar is one of the most spectacular places in WoW and fits in well with the whole Storm Peaks/Iron Dwarves setting that I like so much.

2. Sunwell Plateau: Sunwell Plateau is the final raid "tier" of Burning Crusade, its set on an island called Quel Thalas, off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms.
Sunwell Plateau has a very Blood Elven theme, lots of reds and golds which looks nice.
Killing Kil Jaeden was one of the most epic things I've experienced in the game and although zone fights were too much of a steamroll at 85 it was still very enjoyable - and the legendary bow is AWESOME.

3. Black Temple: Black Temple is one of the middle "tiers" in Burning Crusade, its located in The Outlands, in Shadowmoon Valley. In the Black Temple is where Illidan is, Illidan is my favorite lore character in WoW and is a badass.
Most of the raid is pretty bland, but its not what your there for. Your there to kill Illidan, and that final fight with Illidan Stormrage is amazing.
I wish I played back in Burning Crusade where I could experience the fight where it wouldn't of been as much of a face-roll but even at 85 the fight mechanics in the final fight will Illidan Stormrage still had a few of us dying.
Also note, there is a chance Illidan will drop one of his signature weapons - The Warglaive of Azzeroth, these are the most badass weapon in World of Warcraft hands down, its a shame only Rogues and Warriors can wield them but after getting both on my Rogue its still awesome to walk around in Org with them and get a ton of /whispers.

4. Firelands: Firelands is a raid released in patch 4.2 in Cataclysm. I wasn't a fan of Blackwing Descent of Bastion of Twilight but Firelands restored some of my faith in Cataclysm raiding.
There's nothing I particularly enjoyed about the dungeon and even now I'm only 5/8, and I'm kind of disappointed they recycled Ragnaros but just the sheer polish on the raid is staggering.
There were no bugs and the zone looks amazing, its just so much smoother and polished than the other raids we've seen in Burning Crusade and WoTLK and is pretty challenging too!

5. ICC: ICC or the Icecrown Citadel was the final "tier" of raiding in WoTLK. Icecrown Citadel was released in three stages by Blizzard and although this annoyed a lot I didn't mind it as I wasn't pushing for server firsts or anything.
I did finally get around to running it towards the end of Wrath and had a blast, the best fights are by far Sindragosa and The Lich King and as always Blizzards left those fights to the end.
With 12 bosses and quite a bit of trash its certainly quite a long raid to get done in one sitting, I pugged this on Heroic at the end of Wrath and none of us were all that well experienced or geared, it certainly wasn't easy and we wiped a few times but it wasn't anything all that challenging.
My second favorite WoTLK raid before Ulduar hands down.

Aux's Top 5 Favourite Dungeons

Dungeons, or instances are specially designed PvE zones where a player, or group of players can fight monsters and have access to much better than average PvE gear/loot.
There are dungeons players can partake in from level 15-85 and they are a special part of World of Warcraft.

I level my characters mainly through PvE, its fast, exciting, involves interacting with other players and allows you to have the best gear available to your level.

I've ran every single dungeon in WoW at least once, here are my 5 favorites.


1. Forge of Souls: Forge of Souls is one of three dungeons introduced in the Horde/Alliance's campaign against The IceCrown Citadel in Patch 3.3
These three dungeons are harder than the other standard level 80 dungeons, think of them as Heroic versions.
Forge of Souls is my favorite dungeon in the entire game, I spent a ton of time in here farming for special drops for my characters.
Forge of Souls is a small dungeon with only 2 bosses but each fight is engaging and fun and even the trash is pretty awesome.

2. Utgarde Pinnacle: Utgarde Pinnacle, unlike Forge of Souls, is one of the "original" level 80 dungeons. Its similar to Utgarde Keep and has Vyrkul, the most awesome race to even hit WoW.
I farmed the Heroic version of this dungeon daily for the Blue Protodrake and I never got sick of it, the mix of warm wooden interiors and snowy rock paths is gorgeous and its just an amazing dungeon.
If your a fan of vikings, viking culture and the chance of getting a big blue dragon then check it out.

3. Trial of Champions: The Argent Tournament dungeon, Trial of Champions is also a WoTLK "original" level 80 dungeon. Trial of Champions has three phases each lasting for 5 minutes or so, its a fast dungeon and the bosses are randomly generated each time you go in, which is always nice to have something new to experience.
Trial of Champions is set in a circular arena and while you do move around you stay in the same area, while your enemies come to fight you.
Sadly I wasn't as impressed with Trial of Crusaders (raid version) of the dungeon, for a short dungeon being in a static area is fine, but not for a few hour long raid..

4. Stonecore: Stonecore is a Cataclysm dungeon designed for level 85's. I much preferred the WoTLK zones compared to the Cataclysm zones but Stonecore (and SFK) is the exception.
It can either be a blazing fast or sluggishly slow run depending on how the people in your group know the fights. There is a fair amount of trash but its all fairly easy to get through. The zone itself is beautiful, there's crystals, lava and rocks everywhere, its very pretty.

5. Shadowfang Keep: Shadowfang Keep is my favorite vanilla zone of all time and always will be, I'm not a fan of what they did to it in Cataclysm - I miss a few of the old bosses and the general layout of it.
Back in Wrath I remember running the hell out of this on all my characters as soon as they were a high enough level for it, if you played a class that could wear leather gear this dungeon was a MUST do.
Regardless its still really cool, they're are tons of werewolves to kill and a very generous amount of bosses, at least compared to trash, which there is quite scarce.
Its one of the longer dungeons but thats fine, while your climbing the old courtyard/mansions of Shadowfang Keep you feel that your going somewhere, not just walking around waiting for monsters to attack you.

Aux's Top 5 Favourite Zones

From the moment you create your character to the last time you logged in you've always been in a zone of some sort, the zone is the area or environment your character is in. Zones are all throughout the continents of Azeroth and serve as a variation to the landscape and providing new places for players to explore.

In my many years levelling, questing and everything in between I've narrowed it down to my 5 favorite zones of all time.


1. Grizzly Hills: Grizzly Hills is a zone released in the WoTLK expansion pack, its for players 74-75ish so its mid range, its located in the snowy land of Northrend. On every single character I've levelled I've never missed Grizzly Hills. Its just beautiful and for some reason is what I hope Canada would look like, big wood forests and snow.

2. Zangarmarsh: Zangarmarsh was released in The Burning Crusade expansion pack, its a zone west of Hellfire Peninsula and very different in environment. Zangarmarsh is a lush swamp with giant mushrooms poking out of the ground, pools and puddles are scattered everywhere and there are plenty of creatures to find here too. Its very blue/purple which I seem to like in a zone, if the Night Elves had a zone in The Outlands, Zangarmarsh would be it.

3. The Ghostlands: The Ghostlands were added in The Burning Crusade expansion, like Zangarmarsh. The Ghostlands serves as an extended zone (12-20) for the Blood Elf race and is located in Northern Eastern Kingdoms. Its been tainted by evil and is very dark and doomy, however I kind of like it, its beautiful in a goth kinda way. Its also by far the best zone for 12-20 levelling in the game and has some awesome chain quests for you too complete, complete with awesome rewards.

4. Ironforge: Ironforge is the capital city of the Alliance races, the Dwarves and the Gnome. Its in snowy Dun Morough and is my favorite capital city in all of the World of Warcraft. It's a shame I mainly play Horde, because whenever I play my Alliance characters I always hang out in Ironforge (Screw Stormwind) and wish it was included to the Horde instead. Its got a circular design and is split into various quarters, it can be confusing at first but is easy to get around once you know what your doing. It feels very warm and homely and I wouldn't mind living there if WoW was real life.

5. Ashenvale: Ashenvale is a classic zone introduced in vanilla WoW. Its there for levelling 18-30 and has quest hubs for the Alliance and Horde.
Most Alliance players will go from Teldrassil > Darkshore > Ashenvale and most horde players will go Mulgore/Durotar > The Barrens > Ashenvale on their levelling journey throughout Kalimdor. Ashenvale is more like Teldrassil and is a lush rainforest with plenty of tall trees and vegetation, there are a few rivers and lakes flowing through and more to discover than meets the eye, there is a ton of content in this place. Its probably more a zone for Alliance players, in particular Night Elves and Draenei but provides for anyone who wants to level in a truly beautiful zone.
I take all my characters to Ashenvale, I'm not a fan of how they changed it up in Cataclysm and I miss the old Ashenvale but I'll learn to live with it.

Aux's Top 5 Favourite Flying Mounts!

Flying Mounts were introduced in Burning Crusade, these days Ground Mounts are almost non-existent, flying mounts are faster, in most cases look cooler and are a lot more convenient. The only places they can't be used is in Battlegrounds, dungeons and a few zones.

1. Reins of the Onyxian Drake: The Reins of the Onyxian Drake is an extremely rare flying mount that drops from Onyxia, despite what others think I believe this is the rarest mount in the game. It is relatively unknown and I'd say most people don't even know it exists.
Sadly it does share the same model as the other Drakes but does have some defining features. But seriously whats more awesome than riding a mini-Onyxia around WoW?

2. Reins of the Phosphorescent Stone Drake drop from Aeonaxx in Deepholm. Aeonaxx is like the Time-Lost Protodrake an extremely rare spawn that circles an area. Aeonaxx can be found flying around the central area of Deepholm but can be easy to miss, if you manage to find him you must kite him to the ground and then once he gets weak enough there will be an option to ride him. This is identical to when you tame the Seahorse in Vashjir, it stands out from the other Stone Drakes and is pretty god dam awesome. Definitely a mount that will get you a bit of attention!

3. Ashes of Al'ar is a flying mount from Burning Crusade. It drops from Kael Thas Sunstrider in the Eye. This mount is a golden/red phoenix and is EXTREMELY bright, it leaves a trail of ribbons behind it whenever you fly and is guaranteed to get you a lot of /whispers in game. Due to its flashy appearance it is quite well known and not as rare as the two more subtle mounts I have previously listed. This mount has an interesting story behind it actually, There was a young boy called Ezra Chatterton who through the Make-A-Wish foundation got to visit the Blizzard HQ in 2007, the WoW Dev.'s created the mount and he was the first one to ever obtain it. 

4. Mimiron's Head is a drop from Yogg-Saron in the 25-man Ulduar (ONLY if none of the watchers are helping). It was a guaranteed drop but I believe now its at 1% drop chance, and even then you'll have to roll with 25 other players. Regardless its very unique and unlike anything else in the game. It also gives you an excuse for running the most awesome raid in the game (Ulduar!)

5. Reins of the Plague Proto-Drake is a reward for completing "Glory of the Raider (10 player). All Proto-Drakes are awesome and for some reason I really like this guy, especially his neon-purple mouth. It was introduced in WoTLK and removed in 2009 as getting it became too easy for players.

So there you go, there are my top 5 favorite flying mounts and if you see my previous post you'll find out my top 5 favorite ground mounts too!
Sadly I don't have all of them and in some cases I never will be able to, but I'm working on it!

Aux's Top 5 Favourite Ground Mounts

Mounts are essential to World of Warcraft, without them you can't go anywhere (quickly at least). There are literally hundreds of mounts in World of Warcraft but here are my favorites!

1. Grand Ice Mammoth: Yes, I chose the Grand Ice Mammoth as my favorite mount in the game! I have a thing for Mammoths and I have many great memories riding this thing around Northrend and around Dalaran, its a huge mount and gets you lots of attention, has a gorgeous character model and an awesome running animation.
Its quite a common mount and is often confused with its smaller War Mammoth cousin but this is the real deal.

2. Riding Turtle: I choose the Riding Turtle just for its rarity, in all of my years of playing World of Warcraft I have only seen a handful of these, at least from my experience they are the rarest mount in WoW. You get the Riding Turtle from Fishing it has an extremely low drop rate. It actually has a 0% speed increase which defeats the point of it being a mount but its awesome and a real great one to brag about!

3. The Kon'Kron Annihilator is a reward for when you hit Exalted with your level 25 guild. It was released in Cataclysm and is basically a huge scorpion you get to ride and it even comes with enough room for 2 players, need I say more?

4. Is it a bird? Is it a raptor? No.. its the Reins of the Raven Lord, its a 1% drop from Heroic: Sethekk Halls in Terrokar Forest. Sethekk Halls is a level 70 dungeon and at level 85 even the Heroic mode is easily solo able. Once you get Honored rep you can go to Shattrath and get a key that will unlock the Heroic version, from there you just keep farming until you get the mount which as I said only has a 1% drop rate from the second last boss.

5. The Fossilized Raptor was introduced in Cataclysm as a high-end reward from the profession Archeology. It allows Alliance players to ride a raptor. But not just your run of the mill raptor, this raptor is a skeleton held together by .. something, it doesn't look very safe to ride but its so god dam awesome you want to anyway. The Fossilized Raptor is again quite a rare drop so don't expect to get it anything soon, but that's the thing, if it wasn't rare everyone would have it and then it wouldn't be so special!