How was it in Cataclysm

[Kisdan-auberdine]

Hello everyone. I think this is a good place to ask this big question but if it isn’t then i apologize.

Currently in WoW Classic we are trying to face the many threats that can be found in Northrend and one day we will face the Lich King himself.
We know that at some point Catalclysm classic has a high chance of happening so i was wondering if in that expansion in terms of lore, quests, zone hubs and so on the expansion was more focused on the Horde than the Alliance? So people seem to think so but since i never experienced that content i don’t have a clue.

I know that Horde has big figures like Thrall, Sylvanas and others but it would be nice that Alliance got some love in Cataclysm as well.

[Valos-ravencrest]

Well thralls the earth warder and is a major part, but iirc in cataclysm he left to be the world shaman leaving garrosh in charge.

So im not sure u would call it a horde expansion

[Wimbert-die-aldor]

@Kisdan-auberdine

We know that at some point Catalclysm classic has a high chance of happening

I’m actually not so sure about that. Cataclysm was the end of an era of WoW design in many respects, and the design principles became closer to what they are in retail now. So they might as well leave it at Wrath, and look for some ways to stretch out that experience further.

@Kisdan-auberdine

i was wondering if in that expansion in terms of lore, quests, zone hubs and so on the expansion was more focused on the Horde than the Alliance?

More or less. The Alliance had more areas than the Horde before Cata, and Blizz decided to cut them out of zones like Hillsbrad rather than add Horde content to former Alliance zones. Then there was the fact that the story in these zones often ended in clear Horde victories, with quite a few Alliance hubs or keeps razed in the process, while persistence against the Horde was pretty much as good as it got for the Alliance, and small victories like Camp Taurajo were regrettable accidents that were viciously avenged by the Horde.

And most importantly… the Alliance only content in the leveling zones was partially ridiculous parody, with references to things like CSI or Rambo taking up a lot of the new quest content, while Horde content didn’t have the same problem. Even worse, some zones were just obviously unfinished, like Arathi, which was left with a smattering of its old quests and not much else.

The endgame zones were less uneven, though not necessarily better. Well… to a point at least. Thrall was very much the focus character of most of the patch story, so even though vicious war was raging, Alliance players had the pleasure of helping Thrall save the world.

I guess the Firelands patch was more druid and night elf focused, though… Which is why we got to raid a Night Elf racial leader. But that was facilitated through the Cenarion Circle, so the Tauren druids had their role in the story as well, so I don’t think it was particularly bad for them. (Oh, and on the topic of raiding racial leaders, we also got to kill Stormwind’s Archbishop in some dungeon, while the plot behind his fall was largely cut. Not exactly uplifting, either.)

All in all… I would indeed assume that the Horde had the better experience there. By some margin. Now, I guess as someone who mostly played Alliance back then I might have some biases, but there really was a lot of imbalance in moments you were made to feel proud of on either side.

[Rivenscar-argent-dawn]

@Wimbert-die-aldor

Oh, and on the topic of raiding racial leaders, we also got to kill Stormwind’s Archbishop in some dungeon, while the plot behind his fall was largely cut. Not exactly uplifting, either.)

I will add in here - if it’s anything relevant - that the Horde equivalent was the Farseer/Advisor to the Warchief going a bit bananas with whispers and then having to be killed as a quest mob in one of the local airship ports.

About as equal as being assassinated behind a bus shelter, if anything.

EDIT: To add, there was no particular build-up to this either. The Advisor just felt chaotic one day after being quietly hazed or whatever.

[Wimbert-die-aldor]

Fair enough, and I won’t deny that the Horde is probably the clear record-holder on characters having to be culled for going bad. On that note, Cata also randomly and uselessly killed Baine in a duel, and petrified Magni. And as I said, I mostly got the Alliance experience, so I probably missed some bad stuff on the Horde side like the Farseer I still don’t remember. And considering the faction conflict was only build up in Cata, but escalated in MoP, it’s probably not totally fair to treat the parts as if they were fully independent. Whatever victories the Horde had, they still ended with Alliance in OGs throne room deciding the future (though that didn’t lead to the Horde giving anything hey took back, mind you).

Still… story-wise Cata was a pretty miserable time for Alliance-players.

[Rivenscar-argent-dawn]

Eh, i’ve gone and looked past looking at the story as some kinda coincounter’s game as to who’s lost what and who got which. Better to picture what the overall image was and as far as it went, it had good bits and awful bits in general.

What is frustrating is less the loss and more the loss of -impact- that these moments are meant to incur. With the current example, you would think losing the Archbishop and the Advisor would have been a great way of doing some kind of sleuthing or on-going investigation that could have easily concluded with the discovery of the Bastion of Twilight and how it has been drawing in worshippers from all around Azeroth.

I know i’m mixing it up with the Advisor being early and the Archbishop being much much later, but yeah, still! Potential: Ruined.

You know, like the pre-event that led to Cata’s release where the player had to investigate the rise of ‘purple-robed groups’.

[Wimbert-die-aldor]

@Rivenscar-argent-dawn

Eh, i’ve gone and looked past looking at the story as some kinda coincounter’s game as to who’s lost what and who got which.

Is it? Seems pretty clear to me. Horde has to suffer the villain-bat all the time and loses the major scapegoat characters behind it and some sacrifical additional characters. Alliance loses territory and strongholds, and gets blue-balled on revenge, once they win.

Cata doesn’t really have the Alliance-win, though, since that came in MoP, which is why I think it felt worse than other addons for the Alliance.

But I’ll certainly agree that the faction war formula they used was a disservice to both sides. Which is why they killed it now, instead of actually changing the conflict formula…

@Rivenscar-argent-dawn

What is frustrating is less the loss and more the loss of -impact- that these moments are meant to incur.

Oh, talking about wasted potential in WoW is really a bottomless barrel, I feel…

[Erevien-die-aldor (Erevien)]

It was the best time to be Horde. Sylvanas carried us to victory and we finally got the resources we needed to survive. Sadly our current leaders are alliance yes men who betrayed the faction and made us slaves of Stormwind.