I didn't get Cataclysm when it came out, because it wouldn't run on Tiger and I couldn't afford to upgrade my system. But I was hoping that when I sold my house I'd have enough left over to buy a new Mac, and this turned out to be the case. However, even without Cataclysm installed, I enjoyed playing from December to April, because I could still explore the new Azeroth. And I had a great time doing lots of low-level quests on my two level 80s at the time (Iolanthe - night elf druid - and MadMargaret - blood elf rogue). There are some great new quest chains that include lots of lore, and as a bonus they include lots of quests that are just fun.
(I did discover, by the way, that you don't have to have Cataclysm installed in order to get the "killed by Deathwing" achievement - I had wondered! Iolanthe hasn't managed it yet, but MadMargaret did.)
The only thing that I'm really quite annoyed about in the post-Cataclysm world is that Lord Valthalak has gone from the game, before I managed to kill him! You may not have heard of him, but he was the end boss in the reeeeeeeeeeally long Tier 0.5 armour chain. I know that armour was irrelevant by the time I was at level 80, but I'd done the whole of the chain on both my mains, and in each case the only bit I found I couldn't solo was Valthalak, so I never completed the armour set. Not that I needed the gear (I don't pay much attention to gear anyway), but it really rankled that I did the whole chain apart from the very last step. If I'd realised he was vanishing (because he was in UBRS) I would have begged for help! Oh well.
But I was talking about quest changes that I did like. I was very impressed with the low-level Horde chain starting in Tirisfal Glades and progressing through most of the zones near there. Very dramatic, with some unexpected twists and turns, particularly from Sylvanas. There's also an epic chain in the Stonetalon Mountains, which features Kromgar and has a very moving ending.
On the Alliance side, there wasn't a chain that was as good as that one, but I did find the new Darkshore stuff memorable because I've levelled quite a few characters through that zone, so it was really sad to see the corpses of lots of NPCs I'd interacted with! The new Alliance-only low-level achievement is also a disappointment - it involves being sucked into a whirlpool in Darkshore, but that's about it... whereas the Horde-only one is amazingly good fun - you have to ride a rocket along a track the full length of Azshara. If you can do it without going "wheeeeeee!" you're better than me!
Talking of Azshara, there are three new quests there that I can NOT do, even though they're very low-level. (Well, I managed to complete them, but not well enough to get the associated achievements!) They're Horde-only (there are no Alliance quests in Azshara any more, I think) and take place on top of a pinnacle in the north of the zone (well, actually they don't, but there are portals up there to get to them) and involve magical trials of various types, and I was terrible at them. Maybe I'll try again now I'm level 85! *hangs head in shame*
My two very favourite new quests (of the low-level ones I did before I bought the expansion) are both in the Badlands. There's one that involves pushing goats off the side of a mountain, which just amused me greatly. But even better are the ones given by Theldurin the Lost and his two friends, who are all a bit drunk and want you to sort Deathwing out. I seem to remember Theldurin wants you to punch him in the face, and the others are similarly amusing. But the whole mini-chain is hilarious.
Another new feature that I was delighted to be able to access without buying the expansion is the fact that the flightpaths to the Exodar are now linked to the rest of the continent, so you don't have to wait for a boat any more - that used to drive me up the wall. (Not that I often have to go to the Exodar, but still!) And I'm similarly pleased that Darnassus finally has a flight point inside the city itself (although flying from there really brings home to you how far up the tree it is from Rut'theran Village - I'd never really realised that before).
Even better than the new flight paths, though, is this: now, when I target something, it shows up as a red dot on my minimap. This is GREAT! Often, before, I'd have something targeted but not be able to actually see it. Now I can just glance at the minimap and say "ah, he's behind me!"
(The only new feature that's better even than that is one that was added in a recent patch, which is that you can now put your characters on the login screen in any order you like! This has bugged me for YEARS - I'm unbelievably pleased they've fixed it.)
Anyway, in April I finally got both a new computer and Cataclysm, and have played just about every day since then. I still only play solo - I don't raid or do dungeons (apart from soloing low-level dungeons) - and the only time I've even played in a group in the last few years has been when
Iolanthe has done all the quests in all the Cataclysm zones, and MadMargaret almost has - she just has about 15 quests left in Twilight Highlands. They're both currently doing the Firelands dailies in Hyjal, as well as the cooking and fishing dailies. (I only realised the other day that there are cooking and fishing dailies in other cities as well as Stormwind and Ironforge, so I'm now trying to do all of them to get all the achievements.) My favourite thing about the Firelands dailies is that one of the quests causes a group of druids to spawn to help you, and there is usually a random extra character too, which can be any one of a huge range of NPCs from elsewhere in the game. There's an achievement to wave to certain specified NPCs during this quest, so I've paid more attention than I might have - but it's just really nice to see these characters again, especially if they're not normally fighters! e.g. Linken is one, and so is Nat Pagle. But there are loads of them, and they make me smile when I see them!
There are two fairly equal starting zones for Cataclysm - Hyjal and Vash'jir - and I made both my mains do them both, although one started in one and one started in the other. Iolanthe got a Medusoid Staff from somewhere in Vash'jir (which is the underwater zone) which I found quite creepy, and she had it for ages before she got a better one - it was just a staff with waving tentacles on the end. *shudder* Actually, my favourite thing about Vash'jir was the quest leading up to the one where you learn how to summon a seahorse mount. It asks you to try riding a sea turtle, and when you do, the only command you have (other than just moving forwards) is a 'speed' button that does something like 'with the utmost effort, the turtle manages to increase its speed by 5% for a couple of seconds'. But what amused me was this: almost as soon as I got on the sea turtle, it got eaten by a shark. I assumed that was just my usual incompetence and tried again. Same result. So I went back to the questgiver to see if I'd missed something, and she said 'ah, I was afraid that might happen!' and the quest completed :-)
(Talking of incompetence, I've noticed that there are a lot of new quests - particularly among the cooking and fishing dailies - that involve catching things that are running around all over the place, and I'm really bad at that. For example, there are some canal crabs you have to catch in Stormwind, and I hate it when that's the daily - they skitter, in a tricksy manner, damn them. And the other day I found myself chasing a goblin called Smoot, in Azshara, and it took me ten minutes to catch him. Argh.)
Actually, now I think about it, there was another bit of Vash'jir that really made me giggle, which was right at the beginning: the behaviour of an NPC called Budd, when confronted with a sea monster :-)
The next zone was Deepholm, which is the underground one with lots of rocks, and it was OK, but there isn't a bit that stands out as memorable. But then comes Uldum, and this was GREAT. A large part of the quest chain throughout the zone involves an NPC called Harrison Jones, and the whole chain is basically a reenactment of the entire plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark, except that Deathwing is Hitler! Everything Harrison Jones does is fabulous, but the highlight was when Iolanthe was about to be executed by firing squad and he came swooping in ON A ROPE to save her. I had no idea this was going to happen, and it put a grin on my face for hours, but I enjoyed it just as much when MadMargaret did the same quest.
But the best quest IN THE WHOLE GAME EVER is also in Uldum, and it doesn't involve Harrison Jones at all. It's called Gnomebliteration, and I suspect they'll make it into a daily eventually, just for the sheer fun of it. Here's what happens: you are given control of a giant ball of fire, and you have to roll it around the area and kill a thousand gnomes with it. I guarantee you won't want to stop once you've started!
The final new zone is Twilight Highlands, which is a bit of a letdown after Uldum (IMHO) but does have some really good bits. Unlike the other zones, in this one there are separate quest chains for Alliance and Horde until halfway through. I think the Alliance have the better end of the deal, because a lot of their chain is based around a dwarven wedding, and there is lots of amusing stuff, but my favourite was that at the wedding (which of course doesn't go according to plan) I spotted a monster called "Uninvited Tentacle". *giggle*
The other memorable quest in Twilight Highlands is common to both factions, and is called Devoured. You're fighting inside the belly of some huge tentacled monster, and you're almost dead, and you end up having a nightmare in which Thrall is shouting at Deathwing and taunting him, saying that you're going to save the world... then you find you can't actually attack anything, or even move, and Thrall starts yelling at you, saying that his friends are dying because you're useless, and then the world ends due (he says) to your failure... then you wake up. This is really unsettling the first time it happens to you, if you don't know what's going on, let me tell you!
Talking of Thrall, there's a quest chain (for both sides) that was added with the Firelands dailies (i.e. very recently) that involves saving Thrall after his body is disintegrated and scattered to the elements. It's an epic (but fairly short) chain, but the end of it made me actually cry! Was that just me?
Anyway, I will continue. Yet to do in Cataclysm: start a goblin and a worgen; work on archaeology (I've started it, but have been concentrating on quests); progress with Firelands; do some achievable achievements; level the rest of my alts. Hours of fun :-)
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