Cataclysm Leveling: Vash'jir (80-82)

So there I was.  At the release of Cataclysm.  Wetting my little gamer pants at the prospect of the fantastic wonders in store for me.  Now, because I wasn't in the beta, I actually made a serious effort to avoid all spoilers related to Cataclysm.  As a result, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when the expansion popped.

I did have a rough inkling that I wanted to head to Mount Hyjal, because I wasn't huge on the idea of a zone totally underwater.  After all, who wants to swim everywhere?  That's just silly.  However, after being unable to find "The Big Board" in Orgrimmar which a guildy kindly informed me was the path to Hyjal, I decided to go to the other way, after all a conveniently timed vision of Thrall as I entered Orgrimmar directed me to Vash'jir.  And there would be less people there.  So why not give it a shot?

Onike's Disclaimer:  This is NOT a "real" leveling guide.  It's just a rough outline of the zone, and my initial thoughts on Cataclysm questing.  If you want a step-by-step for the 80-85 zones, look elsewhere. 

Vash'jir

 Vash'jir is actually really easy to find your way into.  Just get into Orgrimmar, and after witnessing Thrall's message to you from the Maelstrom (more on that later), you receive a quest which will lead you to a member of the Earthen Ring, who sends you off to a boat bound for Vash'jir.

Before you leave...

Train your professions!  This is really important.  Don't be like me, and forget that to get to 525 skill, you actually need to visit a trainer.  Especially if you're packing mining, which is  now worth experience (presumably herbalism is as well... but I don't have an herbalist, so I can't be 100% sure).  That way as you're travelling around, you don't have to worry about getting skill ups for your effort.  First Aid is also handy to carry around, especially if your class is lacking in self-heals.

Level 80s, bound for Vash'jir

Kelp'thar Forest

After an exceedingly awesome cut scene, you'll find yourself at the bottom of the ocean.  Now this is the part where I want to stress something.  You know those old quests that would have you swim to the bottom of lakes and kill mobs, etc. etc.?  And how boring they were?  Vash'jir is nothing like this.  You get a zone wide buff which allows you to breathe under water, and swim faster, and about halfway through the first zone, you're given a seahorse mount to swim around on.  The seahorse increases your swim speed by a ridiculous 450% while in Vash'jir, and it makes it so that you often forget you're actually under water.

A wake-up call

If you're like me, and used to being all epic-ed out at level 80, running about 2-shotting mobs on your dailies, you're in for a wake-up call.  Mobs hit hard now.  Really hard.  You'll find yourself frequently stopping to rest, and actually blowing cooldowns on pulls of more than one mob.  In fact, I'd advise against pulling more than one mob, if you can avoid it.  They've got around twice as much health as Northrend mobs, and a few fights with even the entry-level 80s, will take you down pretty low on health.


Also, a friendly warning.  If you use a lot of AoE spells (read: Howling Blast) regularly in your rotation, make sure you're not in range of other mobs, which it's all too easy to accidentally pull.  In Vash'jir, there are a huge number of non-agressive wildlife mobs, which hit as hard as the aggressive ones, and it's easy to pull them by mistake, turning a simple fight into a very difficult one.

Release the Kraken.

Quest Progression

It's not a term you're probably used to hearing.  But the way zones in Cataclysm are structured, it really feels as though you're progressing through a story.  Vash'jir has a plot, and so do all the zones which follow.  I HIGHLY recommend reading quest text, at the very least for the main quests.  You'll feel like you're really a part of the story, and it makes leveling way less of a drag than it has been in years past.

Anyways, after pushing your way through the Kelp'thar forest you'll eventually be told (literally- there's a lot less guess work in terms of where to go next than we're used to), to go to the Shimmering Expanse.

The Shimmering Expanse

Not quite Atlantis.  But close.

The Shimmering Expanse is the second zone in Vash'jir, and a lot more fun than the Kelp'thar forest.  If you felt like you were getting bored in Kelp'thar, of the same-old quests, Shimmering Expanse really pushes the story along.  This was especially true for me, since I was dealing with huge crowds in Kelp'thar and having to compete for every inch of questing.  Shimmering Expanse introduces a lot more phasing to cut population problems down.

In general, this zone is GOOD.  Not amazing, but a lonnnggg way from the grind that vanilla content was.  I think it was about halfway through this zone that I stopped counting the experience points until I leveled and finally started really enjoying the process.

The Abyssal Depths

When a goblin says "surface", he means it.  Now where's my parachute?

This zone is awesome.  It's a lot of fun.  About a quarter of the way through the zone, I dinged 82, which means I could have easily dropped out of Vash'jir and headed off to Deepholm.  My friends who were in the thick of their Realm First <Class> achievements races, while I was poking around in Vash'jirVash'jir out to the very end, baring dungeon quests, since I didn't want to tank and couldn't stomach the 30 minute dps queue.

Trust me, if you stick it out to The Abyssal Depths, if you aren't already in love with the zone, you will be.

Final Thoughts on Vash'jir

Although a lot of people will probably go into Vash'jir just because it's less crowded, if they actually allow themselves to get caught up in the story, like I did, I guarantee it's worth what some min-maxers are already dubbing "the long way from 80-82".  It's absolutely, 100% worth it.  So grab a bathing suit, and go swimming.  You'll have a blast.

Vash'jir aside, leveling in Cataclysm is a whole 'nother animal than vanilla, BC, or even Wrath content.  If you though leveling in Wrath was fun (and I honestly didn't- I found it got old very quickly), you will LOVE Cataclysm content.  And if you hated leveling in Wrath... you'll LOVE Cataclysm content.  It's amazing all around, and from what I've been told by my min-maxing friends, the content only gets better from here. 

It's kind of like being a little kid at Christmas.  You want to play with everything at once, take it all in in a few seconds.  But don't worry, those quests aren't going anywhere.  So enjoy the ride.  Trust me, it's not hard.

The Shattering, and the Eve of Cataclysm

Well, it's here.  The moment everyone has been waiting for since Cataclysm was first announced over a year ago.  Besides the actual release of the expansion, this is by far the most exciting cataclysm-related change we've seen to date.  Elementals?  Cool.  Doomsday cult?  Also cool.  Blizzard has done a great job, though, of leading up to what is beyond a doubt the most exciting, world-breaking, jaw-dropping event predating the launch of Cataclysm.

Org got quite a facelift.

The Shattering.

Unless you've been living under a rock... actually wait.  If you've been living under a rock you're probably dead because said rock is now a few hundred feet underwater, or it melted, or it's now underneath a volcano... etc., etc.  Let's just say I'm assuming you know what the Shattering is.

And it's pretty freakin' amazing.

I have a couple regrets, sure.  I'm a little sad I never saw Azshara before the Shattering.  It was on my list to-explore before my computer died, and now I'm back online, it seems that I missed out.  But those regrets are minor.  The coolest thing is that the world as we knew it will never be the same.  And if that means the Plaguelands from which my blog got their header get a little greener... I'm okay with that.

Due to a combination of lag and installing WoW troubles, I haven't seen much of the new content.  Just Orgrimmar, Durotar, and the Northern Barrens (yes, if you didn't know the barrens is now TWO zones, not one).  But I intend to begin exploring the new world as soon as time permits.  It's an extremely exciting prospect.

I guess Thrall finally got tired of talking.

What now?

With the biggest pre-cata experience now behind us, the question is now- what do we do with ourselves?  We've got two weeks to kill before we can really jump into content and start leveling to the new endgame, but the endgame as we know it now is basically at a standstill.  Sure, I'll run around and do my Pilgrim's Bounty meta (because I'm cheap and don't want to pay for 310% flying), and yeah, I'll probably run some dailies and a few random BGs... but that's about it.

So, what can a player do?  The answer is, really, not much.  You can raid, of course.  Instances are still open.  But most titles and achievements worth chasing have been removed.  You're probably not too concerned with gear now, either.  After all, it won't matter in 13 very short days.  And unless you really like that content, I don't see raiding, or much PvP, on the horizon right now.

But if the endgame is stale, there's something calling to you that isn't.  The world.  Of Warcraft.  Remember it?

My recommendation?  Explore.  Take some time and smell the roses.  Roll a new alt, experience some of the early content.  Or, if you're like me and HATE leveling with a passion (I'll check out the new quests... just very slowly, and in my own time)- just run around.  Your level 80 might not be able to fly in the Old World for a fortnight, but you've still got that land mount.  Take a look around.

When I first logged in after 4.0.3 dropped, I saw someone ask something in trade chat which was oddly insightful.  "Does anyone else feel like a noob again?"  And I realized that was exactly what I felt like.  And you know what?  I liked it.

The Magic is Back.

The fact is, people have been saying for a long time that Cataclysm is make or break time for Blizzard.  They have an MMO that has outlived all life-expectancies normally tied into such a game.  WoW was slowly fading.  The only way to stop this trend was to create something so amazing, it made players at home again.

And by making me feel like a noob again, that's exactly what they did. 

Don't misunderstand me here.  That's not a bad thing, in my opinion.  In fact, it's a very, very good thing.  Sure, what got me 'hooked' on WoW was the people.  What kept me coming back was the incredible end-game Blizzard has to offer.  But what was the coolest thing about the game?  That magical feeling where you discover something for the first time.

Nuking the world has brought that back for me.  I can go somewhere, and have absolutely no idea what to expect.  In a way, I feel kinda sorry for people in the beat.  Because they've already seen all this, and some of that magic won't be there for them.

There's a whole world waiting out there, guys.  Go grab it.

Water in Durotar.  Yeah.  Didn't see that one coming.

Conclusion?

Well, what was meant to be a quick little update regarding my thoughts on the Shattering has turned into something pretty huge.  I guess in retrospect, it is a pretty huge topic.  But let me wrap this one up for you guys.

We're in a weird period of transition.  People have been blogging about it really for several months now, often saying things like "This is the twilight of Wrath" (no reference to vampires intended.  I'm actually talking about time of day).  But if we've been in the twilight of the current expansion for months, I think it's safe to say we've left twilight behind and we're into the dawn of a new day.  It's still dark out, but you can just barely see the sun starting to poke its head over the horizon.  And somehow you just know.

It's going to be a good day.