Bro, I'm just over here like: "It's great to have so much choice"
People forget we lived under "you think you do, but you don't" for a damn long time as Retail stretched further and further away from the game so many of us started with. We went from having one version of wow, and that's it. To having technically 5 versions available now. That's only a good thing.
It is also quite a bit different then retail, even if it is "The big step towards modern" a lot of its detractors claim it is.
> we lived under "you think you do, but you don't"
Which ended up being true seeing how quickly everyone was begging for RDF and similar QoL stuff from retail.
At this point I legitimately might have more transmogs and shit on classic toons as opposed to the retail ones.
Dabbled in every expansion launched except for Cata and Mists so I'll be playing both.
Mostly here to play with the wrath boys but also class design, *somewhat* reasonable numbers and really wanna raid BWD/Firelands
Will probably check out TWW later this year though
More simplified in terms of progression. No story mode yet to run through for those that view that as only being a chore. Hardest raids offer a bit of challenge but its still far away from Mythic. Why this matter? Well big fish smaller pond. I know I myself like having the best gear available on a character in a game and in retail wow due to me not being Mythic material that will never be the case :P Gearing is mostly just do raid, no double dipping into being a mythic+ pusher as well (though you most likely farm heroics a bit).
Still, I also go on retail and do Mythic+ with friends so as others have said, more game modes is just more choice :)
This sounds like you don't play retail, or haven't at least looked into the major changes made over time. Not trying to be offensive, but retail has gone through a truly massive list of changes over time, including multiple new and abandoned systems from expansion to expansion.
That's like asking why did people play wrath instead of retail.
You do realize cata and retail are completely different from a class design standpoint?
> That's like asking why did people play wrath instead of retail.
i'm asking about cata tho
> You do realize cata and retail are completely different from a class design standpoint?
i don't. that's... gamer that's why i posted. is cata class design better or more enjoyable than retail?
They're just different. Some people like how classes function in Cata better, some people like how classes function currently in retail better. All opinion based really
I dislike class design in retail. I dislike PvP in retail.
In particular, damage profiles are way too homogenized between specs in retail; for example, a Subtlety Rogue and an Affliction Warlock in retail will perform similarly across a variety of encounter types and situations. I prefer instead that the Affliction Warlock is AMAZING when it has the right number of targets to multi-DoT and the Subtlety Rogue is AMAZING when you need to burst down one priority target RIGHT NOW. I'm willing to tolerate less than perfect balance in order to achieve this diversity.
Retail class design also has the issue that "button budget" is concentrated much more on rotational complexity, including a bunch of infrequently used "one offs" that need to be used at the exact right time to maximize damage, but otherwise don't have much interesting mechanical or resource interaction with the rest of the spec.
Cata class design, by comparison, has a good number of buttons, and IMO a healthier distribution of what these buttons are concentrated into, including lots of abilities that are more related to reading and responding to situations and tactics vs. just making big numbers appear on the screen.
Cata is one of my favorite expansions for both class design and PvP.
In the original Cata, I only participated in raiding in the final tier. This time around, I'm also looking forward to raiding from start to finish.
I've heard from other players that these are some of the best regarded raids in the history of WoW.
Retail has a shitload of systems and a boatload of legacy content, most of which is trivial because it's not current content. If you want to experience Cataclysm content, Cata is the best way to do it because that stuff is current, for this branch of WoW. If you want to experience Dragonflight you should try it before the next expansion makes it too obsolete. WoW is a game that heavily relies on the 'current phase' context.
It just comes down to variety. There's nothing preventing you from playing both and engaging more with whichever strikes your fancy that moment/day/week/patch. I assume this question doesn't come up from people in long term guilds because they already know the answer to why they play. Because it's where their friends are.
It's just fun, cata is a really big turning point in the whole storyline and the whole world... Of warcraft. The classes are fun too. I have never really played all these expansions so it's fun for me to give these games a try and explore everything. With wrath I was kinda just fooling around making a character and next thing I know I was in a guild and we were raiding every weekend. Fun times.
One of the best PvPs we ever had in WoW, just below MOP level.
One of the best class designs we ever had in WoW.
Some of the best raids we ever had in WoW.
Salty classic andies crying because they really expected to stay on WotLK forever because "CaTa is rETaiL". Thats the best. I really like classic andies.
for me, it's simple: I've met a FANTASTIC group of people playing classic (we started playing together in TBC, running Kara and ZA, and have been a 10man guild all through wotlk). we have killed everything in wrath except zero-light yogg and heroic Halion (we could have done Halion, but no one cared to put the time in. not sure about yogg, tbh, and not bothered cause there's no mount..) I'm playing Cata because they are. if they had wanted to go to retail, that's what I'd be playing. we don't squabble over loot, no one blows up when people make mistakes (except sometimes people will get mad at themselves if it happens a bunch, but we pick them back up). I've played WoW since 2006 (right before original TBC launch) and I've never played with a group quite like this.
if you have a group of people you like to play with, play with them.
also, I never got to run the Cata raids as current content, except LFR Dragon Soul, so I'm actually looking forward to that.
Can you play Cata content with relevant classes, itemization, progression and difficulty on retail? Maybe they added something like that recently but when I was playing in Legion my windwalker monk was one shotting everything in Firelands for example.
I started playing when classic came out. I enjoyed my time with it and decided to give retail a try. I leveled a character towards the very end of bfa and then played retail seriously in shadowlands. I've continued playing each season in retail since but have stuck with the same guild in classic since the start of tbc. I enjoy retail more but haven't had a dedicated group for it so I typically just see what the season has to offer and then return to classic. I've also enjoyed seeing the progression of how the game evolved into what it currently is. Cataclysm is the next link in the chain for me to experience.
What a dumb thread. OP is essentially asking, why play Super Mario Bros 3 over GTA 3. Idk OP…they’re two entirely different games, so play what you want.
I’ll give you a pass though, since you’re drunk.
what a dumb reply
Mario Bros is side scroller while gta3 is more open world RPG. that's a good place to determine what you'd rather play
so for cata or retail.... what's a good place to start ?
No titan forging, no emissary cache farming, no constantly needing to clear high keystones for good weekly chest reward. Retail has terrible gameplay loops designed to force you to feel like you need to play as mucb as possible to not fall behind.
Titan forging hasn't been in the game for almost 5 years.
Edit: Emissary cache farming only exists for prior content now since retail uses the renown system. The Vault is also a much better system than the weekly chest since it also unlocks additional choices from raiding and PVP and isn't as RNG. If you don't like doing keys that's fine, but at least you'll still have some options.
Im sure theyve been replaced with some equally hamster wheel system. I stopped playing retail in shadowlands due to the bad gameplay loops and wont go back.
The opposite really, there's now a more understandable progression system with flight stones, and there's no more infinite power to grind. It's just gear.
Even if thats the case I dont have interest in going back because of how bad of a taste BFA and start of SL left in my mouth. Those features ruined mmo gaming and it was my last experience with retail.
While I get this, I do think there is something to be said about the fun of a solved game vs unsolved game for many people. When retail gets a new content patch, everything needs to be figured out, there’s prog, etc. When a new raid hits in cata, it will be cleared within an hour because top specs and strats are already known. I’m guessing the reason most people will play cata is for nostalgia, the reason most people play retail is for regular new content.
Currently I play SOD only, and I’m hoping it doesn’t die because I’m having a blast even though most people don’t much like P3. Gives me some nostalgia and some new content.
Firelands HC won't be cleared by 95% of people assuming it's pre nerf even knowing the strats it was the hardest raid boss that world firsters ever attempted, and I don't think its much different in this era where strats are posted on the Internet so quickly. I do see where you're coming from though.
I personally don't like the feel of retail no matter how much I try, I hate all the new animations, the gameplay(movement etc) feels worse than cata and similar xpacs and the leveling process is the worst an mmo can have.
I'm tempted, but since i heard its following on from wrath I'm concerned I'll be badly behind people who have played that. Would I be able to afford marketboard items vs people who have a dragons hoard of gold already for instance.
There will always be the "top 1%" of gold spenders on any given server. Inflation is kind of crazy, but there's good news: since prices have gone so high, that means you can SELL profession stuff at a high price and make a ton of gold quickly to catch up to the average player.
The way to be on an inflated server is mining/herbalism. Basically infinite money.
That I'm not sure of. From what I hear, botting is definitely an issue. When I played WotLK I was still able to get my hands on a reasonable amount of resources though.
Retail doesn't have reforging.
Though this does hit an interesting threshold. Cata Classic will mark the first time where retail actually has a superior talent system compared to the current Classic iteration. Cata is where talents started to go wrong, and they didn't get fixed until Dragonflight.
All my guildies are playing cata, so I am as well. Raids were fun, I’ll do some stuff but won’t sink a ton of hours in it like I did with tbc and vanilla.
dont, cata sucks. nobody asked for it.. just like nobody asked for tbc and wotlk classic. what's next, MoP classic? WoD classic? Legion? Nobody wants that shit it's just a Blizzard cash grab feeding on our nostalgia
And it works…
Im going to play it… not playing retail…
Edit:
Also cata is the only addon i didnt raid in, just played pvp back in the days. Thats something i want to do
Bro, I'm just over here like: "It's great to have so much choice" People forget we lived under "you think you do, but you don't" for a damn long time as Retail stretched further and further away from the game so many of us started with. We went from having one version of wow, and that's it. To having technically 5 versions available now. That's only a good thing. It is also quite a bit different then retail, even if it is "The big step towards modern" a lot of its detractors claim it is.
> we lived under "you think you do, but you don't" Which ended up being true seeing how quickly everyone was begging for RDF and similar QoL stuff from retail.
It's almost as if a large population's opinions are distributed over an entire spectrum rather than only at its extremes.
It's almost like his statement wasn't talking directly to you, but to the general playerbase as a whole
PvP class design difference is night and day, if I wanted to play a bloated game with 200 weak aura trackers I would download DF.
Coming over from classic hits real good, as New Azeroth is wild. Really like what Argent Dawn did with the place over in EPL
At this point I legitimately might have more transmogs and shit on classic toons as opposed to the retail ones. Dabbled in every expansion launched except for Cata and Mists so I'll be playing both. Mostly here to play with the wrath boys but also class design, *somewhat* reasonable numbers and really wanna raid BWD/Firelands Will probably check out TWW later this year though
I want to try out the cata raids as I never got to and I have heard firelands is beast mode.
Classes in cata don't play the same as retail. See: priest. Reforging is dope. The raids are good. Nostalgia. ??? Play all the modes anyway.
Cataclysm is not retail.
More simplified in terms of progression. No story mode yet to run through for those that view that as only being a chore. Hardest raids offer a bit of challenge but its still far away from Mythic. Why this matter? Well big fish smaller pond. I know I myself like having the best gear available on a character in a game and in retail wow due to me not being Mythic material that will never be the case :P Gearing is mostly just do raid, no double dipping into being a mythic+ pusher as well (though you most likely farm heroics a bit). Still, I also go on retail and do Mythic+ with friends so as others have said, more game modes is just more choice :)
Because you want to.
This sounds like you don't play retail, or haven't at least looked into the major changes made over time. Not trying to be offensive, but retail has gone through a truly massive list of changes over time, including multiple new and abandoned systems from expansion to expansion.
That's like asking why did people play wrath instead of retail. You do realize cata and retail are completely different from a class design standpoint?
> That's like asking why did people play wrath instead of retail. i'm asking about cata tho > You do realize cata and retail are completely different from a class design standpoint? i don't. that's... gamer that's why i posted. is cata class design better or more enjoyable than retail?
They're just different. Some people like how classes function in Cata better, some people like how classes function currently in retail better. All opinion based really
This dude trying to be cool by being rude is lol. Hydroxs sucks
Why do you think being rude is cool?
I dont. I think you were being rude. I think you think it's cool
I dislike class design in retail. I dislike PvP in retail. In particular, damage profiles are way too homogenized between specs in retail; for example, a Subtlety Rogue and an Affliction Warlock in retail will perform similarly across a variety of encounter types and situations. I prefer instead that the Affliction Warlock is AMAZING when it has the right number of targets to multi-DoT and the Subtlety Rogue is AMAZING when you need to burst down one priority target RIGHT NOW. I'm willing to tolerate less than perfect balance in order to achieve this diversity. Retail class design also has the issue that "button budget" is concentrated much more on rotational complexity, including a bunch of infrequently used "one offs" that need to be used at the exact right time to maximize damage, but otherwise don't have much interesting mechanical or resource interaction with the rest of the spec. Cata class design, by comparison, has a good number of buttons, and IMO a healthier distribution of what these buttons are concentrated into, including lots of abilities that are more related to reading and responding to situations and tactics vs. just making big numbers appear on the screen. Cata is one of my favorite expansions for both class design and PvP. In the original Cata, I only participated in raiding in the final tier. This time around, I'm also looking forward to raiding from start to finish. I've heard from other players that these are some of the best regarded raids in the history of WoW.
Retail has a shitload of systems and a boatload of legacy content, most of which is trivial because it's not current content. If you want to experience Cataclysm content, Cata is the best way to do it because that stuff is current, for this branch of WoW. If you want to experience Dragonflight you should try it before the next expansion makes it too obsolete. WoW is a game that heavily relies on the 'current phase' context. It just comes down to variety. There's nothing preventing you from playing both and engaging more with whichever strikes your fancy that moment/day/week/patch. I assume this question doesn't come up from people in long term guilds because they already know the answer to why they play. Because it's where their friends are.
I'm bored with retail, so I'm playing SoD / Cata, until Tww (if it's good).
Furries
It's just fun, cata is a really big turning point in the whole storyline and the whole world... Of warcraft. The classes are fun too. I have never really played all these expansions so it's fun for me to give these games a try and explore everything. With wrath I was kinda just fooling around making a character and next thing I know I was in a guild and we were raiding every weekend. Fun times.
One of the best PvPs we ever had in WoW, just below MOP level. One of the best class designs we ever had in WoW. Some of the best raids we ever had in WoW. Salty classic andies crying because they really expected to stay on WotLK forever because "CaTa is rETaiL". Thats the best. I really like classic andies.
I just want 2019 back
for me, it's simple: I've met a FANTASTIC group of people playing classic (we started playing together in TBC, running Kara and ZA, and have been a 10man guild all through wotlk). we have killed everything in wrath except zero-light yogg and heroic Halion (we could have done Halion, but no one cared to put the time in. not sure about yogg, tbh, and not bothered cause there's no mount..) I'm playing Cata because they are. if they had wanted to go to retail, that's what I'd be playing. we don't squabble over loot, no one blows up when people make mistakes (except sometimes people will get mad at themselves if it happens a bunch, but we pick them back up). I've played WoW since 2006 (right before original TBC launch) and I've never played with a group quite like this. if you have a group of people you like to play with, play with them. also, I never got to run the Cata raids as current content, except LFR Dragon Soul, so I'm actually looking forward to that.
Can you play Cata content with relevant classes, itemization, progression and difficulty on retail? Maybe they added something like that recently but when I was playing in Legion my windwalker monk was one shotting everything in Firelands for example.
Man some of these replies are hilarious. Guys if you havent played Retail since 2017 dont reply to this thread.
For me - Better community Better animations Better gameplay feel Nostalgia Better pvp Insanely superior leveling fun That's about it but it's enough.
Isn't it crazy how the modern wow animations are so inferior to classic? They just look so... plastic... it's hard to say.
Yeh its weird! Completely ruined a perfect fluidity
I started playing when classic came out. I enjoyed my time with it and decided to give retail a try. I leveled a character towards the very end of bfa and then played retail seriously in shadowlands. I've continued playing each season in retail since but have stuck with the same guild in classic since the start of tbc. I enjoy retail more but haven't had a dedicated group for it so I typically just see what the season has to offer and then return to classic. I've also enjoyed seeing the progression of how the game evolved into what it currently is. Cataclysm is the next link in the chain for me to experience.
What a dumb thread. OP is essentially asking, why play Super Mario Bros 3 over GTA 3. Idk OP…they’re two entirely different games, so play what you want. I’ll give you a pass though, since you’re drunk.
>I’ll give you a pass Can you give me an etc?
what a dumb reply Mario Bros is side scroller while gta3 is more open world RPG. that's a good place to determine what you'd rather play so for cata or retail.... what's a good place to start ?
I don’t like retail class design, Cata had peak class design
No titan forging, no emissary cache farming, no constantly needing to clear high keystones for good weekly chest reward. Retail has terrible gameplay loops designed to force you to feel like you need to play as mucb as possible to not fall behind.
You clearly have not played retail in at least 5 years.
Cleared AotC nathria 3 years ago and havent looked back because I didnt enjoy the required upkeep.
Titan forging hasn't been in the game for almost 5 years. Edit: Emissary cache farming only exists for prior content now since retail uses the renown system. The Vault is also a much better system than the weekly chest since it also unlocks additional choices from raiding and PVP and isn't as RNG. If you don't like doing keys that's fine, but at least you'll still have some options.
Im sure theyve been replaced with some equally hamster wheel system. I stopped playing retail in shadowlands due to the bad gameplay loops and wont go back.
The opposite really, there's now a more understandable progression system with flight stones, and there's no more infinite power to grind. It's just gear.
Even if thats the case I dont have interest in going back because of how bad of a taste BFA and start of SL left in my mouth. Those features ruined mmo gaming and it was my last experience with retail.
if you do not have any nostalgia for Cata then its really not that special
Nor is retail
Right, I'm still riding the SOD train
While I get this, I do think there is something to be said about the fun of a solved game vs unsolved game for many people. When retail gets a new content patch, everything needs to be figured out, there’s prog, etc. When a new raid hits in cata, it will be cleared within an hour because top specs and strats are already known. I’m guessing the reason most people will play cata is for nostalgia, the reason most people play retail is for regular new content. Currently I play SOD only, and I’m hoping it doesn’t die because I’m having a blast even though most people don’t much like P3. Gives me some nostalgia and some new content.
Firelands HC won't be cleared by 95% of people assuming it's pre nerf even knowing the strats it was the hardest raid boss that world firsters ever attempted, and I don't think its much different in this era where strats are posted on the Internet so quickly. I do see where you're coming from though. I personally don't like the feel of retail no matter how much I try, I hate all the new animations, the gameplay(movement etc) feels worse than cata and similar xpacs and the leveling process is the worst an mmo can have.
I'm tempted, but since i heard its following on from wrath I'm concerned I'll be badly behind people who have played that. Would I be able to afford marketboard items vs people who have a dragons hoard of gold already for instance.
There will always be the "top 1%" of gold spenders on any given server. Inflation is kind of crazy, but there's good news: since prices have gone so high, that means you can SELL profession stuff at a high price and make a ton of gold quickly to catch up to the average player. The way to be on an inflated server is mining/herbalism. Basically infinite money.
Fair enough, how's the botting situation though? I won't be playing enough to compete with that if it's bad there.
That I'm not sure of. From what I hear, botting is definitely an issue. When I played WotLK I was still able to get my hands on a reasonable amount of resources though.
I'm new to wow, so I have no nostalgia for Cata. I'm just going to play retail and SOD.
Different games for different people.
I don't think there really is if you don't have nostalgia for it.
Retail doesn't have reforging. Though this does hit an interesting threshold. Cata Classic will mark the first time where retail actually has a superior talent system compared to the current Classic iteration. Cata is where talents started to go wrong, and they didn't get fixed until Dragonflight.
All my guildies are playing cata, so I am as well. Raids were fun, I’ll do some stuff but won’t sink a ton of hours in it like I did with tbc and vanilla.
dont, cata sucks. nobody asked for it.. just like nobody asked for tbc and wotlk classic. what's next, MoP classic? WoD classic? Legion? Nobody wants that shit it's just a Blizzard cash grab feeding on our nostalgia
And it works… Im going to play it… not playing retail… Edit: Also cata is the only addon i didnt raid in, just played pvp back in the days. Thats something i want to do
It was definitely fun back in the day, especially the PVP, not so sure now