Overall, I liked Cataclysm, just as I did back in the days.
It did have its problems, obviously, but so has every classic re-release really.
I agree about the hands-off approach from Blizzards side. Too much things got released in an unfinished/bugged state, and for the most part only got small band-aid fixes, or no fixes at all. To me it feels like Blizzard somewhat abandoned this version of Classic after ICC patch launched, to only be kept at life support. Which is not really the expansions fault in itself.
I also agree about T11 being the best raid tier, overall (which is kinda what I expected going in to Cata). What surprised me is that DS is arguably more interesting than Firelands, I expected it to be the other way around, based on vague memories from 13-14 years ago.
The gearing process in raids also felt a bit weird at times. I believe this is a product of scrapped raids like Abyssal Maw, that was supposed to run side by side with Firelands. Another 6-7 bosses with loot would probably have made the gearing make a bit more sense during that patch. Like, our guild saw one single caster ring from Shannox during the entirety of Firelands, as an example. We did an altrun to finish our last legendary staff 1 or 2 weeks into DS and our second ring dropped, and 5/10 raiders still rolled for it, after clearing the boss for like 15-16 weeks.
I do not agree with the healer revamp being poor, though. Itâs ofc a matter of personal opinion, but I think the healer revamp made healing more interesting and rewarding across the board. Raid healing pre Cata sometimes felt a bit like playing whack-a-mole as soon as someone took the slightest amount of damage, to snipe before any other healer could get a heal off so you look better on healing parses. In Cata, it feels like you have to plan your healing more, know what spell to use when, knowing the bossâs damage profile, plan your cooldown usage, etc (especially true during the start of the expansion).
I also disagree with the dungeons being boring. Thematically, Cata dungeons contain some of my all time favourites (like Vortex Pinnacle, Halls of Origination, Stonecore). The only dungeons I actively dislike are the new DS ones, since theyâre timegated by way too much RP, slow npcâs and that you have to go slowmo and (for Hour of Twilight especially) manually talk to Thrall like 10 times to get him to move on. Deadmines with a subpar group can also be a bit of a pain sometimes.
One thing I really think is overlooked though is the Azeroth questing revamp. I understand questing is not everyones cup of tea, and that some prefer the old way of questing in Azeroth. But I took my time to finish every single zone in Azeroth this time around, and some zones are really interesting. Azshara, Stonetalon Mountains, Feralas, Thousand Needles, Western Plaguelands, Eastern Plaguelands, Silverpine Forest, Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains and Stranglethorn Vale all had enjoyable stories, imo.
All in all, I enjoyed this expansion just as much as I enjoyed WotLK, if not slightly more. Itâs a shame that Blizzard doesnât see its potential though, and has barely done anything to work on things, balance things, fix bugs, add things like previously scrapped content, etc. Unfortunately I believe that trend will continue into MoP, although MoP most likely wonât suffer as much as Cata from it since it didnât have the same amount of scrapped content (well, to my knowledge atleast).
Edit: Oh, I should also mention Vashjâir as an honourable mention here. I know the community has different opinions on it, but I believe even to this day itâs one of the best zones ever made. Itâs unique and absolutely fantastic looking in terms of design and aesthetics. I have played it through from start to finish 3 times during the last year, and enjoyed every playthrough. The only less enjoyable part of the zone is the Naga questline in Shimmering Expanse (relies bit too much of vehicle combat for my taste) and that the sense of proximity can be awkward sometimes. But that aside, I think itâs one of the best zones this far in the Classic re-releases. I really canât stress enough how unfortunate it is that the zone doesnât get the ending it deserves, since the quests just abruptly end with no continuation into Abyssal Maw, or something. It definitely feels like something else was planned for it, but was scrapped.
Edit 2: I also wanna give a shout-out to Ragnaros. Although Firelands as a raid felt a bit lacking some areas, Ragnaros as a boss encounter has probably been my favourite boss to progress on this expansion. It required actual progression and learning phase by phase (we got our first kill after like 85-90 whipes) and it felt very rewarding when he went down. Closest thing my raid team got to one of those ânerd screamsâ in voice comms.