Of course any sensible person would agree that there is a difference between the two expansions (wotlk and cata), like any sensible person would agree there is a vast difference between cata and retail.
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Cata questing is, by and large, an inferior experience to that of vanilla or TBC due to itâs increased linearity, but it still feels fundamentally different to Retail.
Cata zones donât, for the most part, consist of endless clashing battles between hordes of NPCs that your actions cannot affect. There are some exceptions, but these are rare.
Cata zones, for the most part are open and lend themselves to exploration.
Cata quests still encourage travel between zones, youâre not instantly teleported between zones after completing a quest, save in a few very specific circumstances.
Cata zones still feature quests that you have to hand in, youâre not given them instantly via a âradioâ.
Cata still features elite quests. Sure some of them arenât that hard, but theyâre still elite quests.
Cata quests have you as just one small soldier, solving local small-scale problems, youâre not the âChosen Oneâ.
Cata quests are, for the most part, thematically appropriate to the zone and generally take themselves seriously. You are not re-acting stupid pop culture scenarios, or doing the cartoony crap we saw in retail.
The Cata questing experience is reasonably well balanced. You are not catapaulted through it at breakneck speed. The experience still takes time.
But none of the above is whatâs truly relevant. Cata zones have always been Cata zones.
If it were to follow the Retail model then Azeroth would be rent open by a huge spaceship, towns trashed, gaping portals opened in the earth and the zone would become a swarming chaotic battlefield with mobs forever pouring from the ground, and youâd be playing with the knowledge that it never used to be like that.
Thatâs the real point. I grew to love the old Cata zones.
They were ruined.
I just want to play the original zones. I donât think itâs a huge amount to ask.
The other point is of course that you are basically comparing apples with oranges.
Cata zones are not changed with Retail, VANILLA zones are changed.
So even if what you say is true and Cata zones are similar to Retail zones it wouldnât matted as itâs not the Cata zones that I care about.
Right now youâre thinking: âThen play Wrath era.â But thatâs a poor solution. I want the whole experience from one to 85.
Changed a few words but the message is exactly the same.
I already said that nuts and bolts spell mechanics etc. were different.
Cata zones donât, for the most part, consist of endless clashing battles between hordes of NPCs that your actions cannot affect. There are some exceptions, but these are rare.
Wrong. Westfall, Darkshore, Redridge, Ashenvale, Felwood â and thatâs just from memory, there are many, many more.
Cata zones, for the most part are open and lend themselves to exploration.
Wrong. Cata zones are compact, and filled with swarms of rapidly respawning trivial mobs, and exploration is unnecessary as locations are typically right next to quest NPCs, and/or travel is radically reduced.
Cata quests still encourage travel between zones, youâre not instantly teleported between zones after completing a quest
Name me a single Cata quests that takes in multiple zones?
Cata zones still feature quests that you have to hand in, youâre not given them instantly via a âradioâ.
Some do. Probably the only accurate thing you typed here.
Cata still features elite quests
Examples?
Cata quests are, for the most part, thematically appropriate to the zone and generally take themselves seriously. You are not re-acting stupid pop culture scenarios, or doing the cartoony crap we saw in retail.
Redridge and Uldum, Searing Gorge etc. say Hi.
The Cata questing experience is reasonably well balanced. You are not catapaulted through it at breakneck speed. The experience still takes time.
Wrong. XP gain is greatly increased and many quests turn grey before the zone is completed.
Thatâs the real point. I grew to love the old Cata zones.
They were ruined.
I just want to play the original zones. I donât think itâs a huge amount to ask.
When were Cata zones âruined?â Whatâs stopping you from playing them?
So even if what you say is true and Cata zones are similar to Retail zones it wouldnât matted as itâs not the Cata zones that I care about .
A total contradiction of what you wrote above where you said you âlove Cata zonesâ and âjust want to play themâ. Which is it?
Right now youâre thinking: âThen play Wrath era.â But thatâs a poor solution. I want the whole experience from one to 85.
Show me the Blizzard announcement for Wrath servers?
Right now Iâm doubting you ever actually played Cataclysm given your woeful lack of knowledge about the quest hubs.
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ROFL!! seriousy dude jhust give it up 
Anyone who levelled in cata azeroth zones knows that its different to wrath and more like retail if u love retail questing then huzzah for u go knock urself out but dont diss others who dont wanna play ur retail shizz
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Okay, took me long enough to realize you are outright trolling. Good job! You had me there for a good week or more. Off to the trash bin you go.
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Eh? How am I trolling?
Spell mechanics in Cata and retail actually are different, thatâs not trolling, thatâs just how it is.
Yeah like Wotlk and Cata are just nuts and bolts spell mechanics too.
Do you actions affect anything that happens in these zones from Vanilla to Wotlk? No.
So is every single wotlk zone.
You do the same about wotlk please.
Crucible of Carnage
Order Among Chaos
Heralds of the hive
Champions of the Amathet
Uncommon Core
Getting Ahead
Sholazar Basin, Argent Tournament Icecrown, Storm Peaks, say Hi.
Disagree that this is correct. Donât see why its important either. You can level to 80 without setting foot in Icecrown, storm peaks and sholazar.
When were Wotlk zones âruinedâ? Whatâs stopping you from playing them?
These are your words you are arguing with.
I hope they announce it at their upcoming event where they announce things.
Funny because I think the same of you.
Yeah like Wotlk and Cata are just nuts and bolts spell mechanics too.
Point?
Do you actions affect anything that happens in these zones from Vanilla to Wotlk? No.
Fails to address the point. The point was endlessly-battling NPCs. No MMO is permanently changed by player actions, not even SWtOR.
So is every single wotlk zone.
Which WotLK zones are like that?
You do the same about wotlk please.
Teldressil, Darkshore, Elwynn Forest, Ashenvale, The Barrens, Dun Morough, Loch Modan, Westfall, Redridge Mountains, Stonetalon Peaks, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills⌠and on it goes up to Winterspring and Plaguelands.
Crucible of Carnage
Order Among Chaos
Heralds of the hive
Champions of the Amathet
Uncommon Core
Getting Ahead
Most of those are dungeon quests.
Sholazar Basin, Argent Tournament Icecrown, Storm Peaks, say Hi.
None of those have a main story based around pop culture references.
Disagree that this is correct. Donât see why its important either. You can level to 80 without setting foot in Icecrown, storm peaks and sholazar.
You disagree that Cata has faster levelling in Azeroth zones when compared to their vanilla couterparts? Sure, whateverâŚ
These are your words you are arguing with.
You typed them.
I hope they announce it at their upcoming event where they announce things .
So you donât actually know.
same as yours.
so there is no difference between cata to vanilla in this regard.
every single wotlk zone.
none of these are wotlk zones
None of these are dungeon quests.
have you ever been introduced to THORIM or LOKEN, Hemet Nesingwary?
Weâre comparing wotlk to cata and it was never about vanilla vs cata.
I literally copy+pasted your words, you typed them.
Nobody knows about this obviously.
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My point was that Cataclysm levelling zones and retail levelling zones that took place in Cataclysm zones were different in that players had a different spell set and mechanics to play with. No idea what your point is.
so there is no difference between cata to vanilla in this regard.
Which vanilla zones features hordes of endlessly-battling NPCs?
every single wotlk zone.
Which old world zones are compact, filled with swarms of rapidly respawning trivial mobs, and exploration is unnecessary as locations are typically right next to quest NPCs. List them.
none of these are wotlk zones
Weâre not talking about WotLK zones, we nave have been talking about WotK zones, I donât care about WotLK zones, Iâm talking about the revamped old world zones.
None of these are dungeon quests.
OK you got me, how many of these are elite quests with elite mobs that are impossible to complete solo?
have you ever been introduced to THORIM or LOKEN, Hemet Nesingwary?
Yes, which popular movie do you re-enact while playing there? Theyâre NPC names based loosely on famous or mythological characters not pop culture references, unless you class Nordic mythology and Hemmingwayâs novels as âpop cultureâ,
Weâre comparing wotlk to cata and it was never about vanilla vs cata.
It is all about revamped old world zones compared to Cata zones.
Iâm bored with this circular argument, itâs getting us nowhere. Youâre never going to loose your evangelical fervour for Cataclysm and Iâm never going to lose my hatred of it no matter what you or anyone says, so Iâm officially giving up. Feel free to have the last word.
Every single zone.
Nothing you do changes anything, the enemies respawn, and you endlessly battle them.
All of them.
Apples and Oranges.
Youâre never going to loose your evangelical fervour for Vanilla.
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Name a better combo, World of Warcraft players hating the game they play 
and arguing that they donât.
I wouldnât mind but youâre fighting a battle you already won ages ago. You got your boosts, you got your buyable gold, you got your account-wide stuff, youâll get your Cataclysm, and youâll probably get it without Wrath-era servers.
You won. Total, 100%, absolute victory. I lose, absolute defeat.
So honestly I have no idea why youâre continuing to fight for your Cataclysm against all detractors. Youâll get it, itâs all but guaranteed. Just try to accept that there might be some people out there who donât share your joy, get back to farming your GDKPs, or whatever it is you do in the meantime and get on with your life. This circular arguing is pointless.
I wouldnât mind but youâre fighting a battle you already lost ages ago. we got our boosts, we got our buyable gold, we got our account-wide stuff, weâll get our Cataclysm, and weâll probably get it without Wrath-era servers.
We won. Total, 100%, absolute victory. You lose, absolute defeat.
So honestly I have no idea why youâre continuing to fight for your Wrath-era against all detractors. Youâll not get it, itâs all but guaranteed. Just try to accept that there might be some people out there who donât share your joy, get back to farming your GDKPs, or whatever it is you do in the meantime and get on with your life. This circular arguing is pointless.
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Trolllololololololol
are u relic hunter on an alt??
Itâs really not. The only difference is that you donât need 1.5 million exp per level and thereâs slightly less annoying vehicle combat.
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The second part is not really true, at least for the reworked old world (assuming these are treated as Cata zones). The reworked zones are built around quests, and there is nothing in them apart from quest landmarks. It is almost impossible to get lost as all places on the map have a purpose. The old zones, on the other hand, had quests placed into them. The terrain had priority. There were many areas that had no use at all but, to not be too monotonous, needed to have some doodads placed in them to create the illusion of naturality.
The only time you travel between zones in Cata is when you finished all quests in a zone and are ready to move on to the next.
Itâs amazing that they sometimes still do, huh?
Donât remember a single one. Maybe I just didnât notice since everything is equally easy and forgettable.
This is a lie.
This is a lie. Both parts, because Cata quests are not thematically approriate to the zones. Itâs the zones that are thematically made to match Cata quests.
Playing 4 or so hours a day it takes around 4 days to reach level 60. Iâd say thatâs at least really fast.
You should take more care. You are contradicting yourself a lot in that last block. You could have changed it better.
Iâd rate it 3/10, could and should do better than that. If you are attempting to troll, hitting accurately will produce better reactions so you should work on that.
Subjective, exploring zones is based on oneâs opinion of exploration and the desire for it.
Just like wotlk
Chosen one fluff didnât enter yet during the levelling zones of cata. you can disagree, its subjective.
this is the same thing, again, subjective.
that happens when the content moves up in level, in comparison, it takes roughly the same amount of time to hit 85 from 80 as it did to hit 80 from 70, again subjective, levelling speed is gonna vary.
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Well, I suppose if making a straight line from quest giver to quest area is your idea of exploration, then you are absolutely right.
Also, the Heroâs Call! quests (breadcrumbs from capital cities to zones you donât have natural breadcrumbs to) exist since level 10 in Cataclysm. They call you (the hero) to action.
are we pretending that most people dont use questie, have already played the game before or are about to be in recipient of blizzardâs own questhelper?
Is there any bonus to exploring Northrend? Are there hidden quests, fun things to interact with?
Nope.
You enter zone, jump on the rails, and do the quest.
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