Good lord how long has it been since the last ATD? Far too long if you ask me.

The loudmouthed, witty dwarf whom you’ve all come to love or hate, has once again found time to drop his sword and pick up his pen to give you his uncensored opinion about various subjects and events of the moment.

Cataclysm, too short?

An opinion I’ve heard a lot over the past few days, but is it really?

Let’s take good look at what Blizzard served us up ever since we logged in for the first time with the nasty drake taking a poop on Stormwind Gate:

-         5 new areas to quest in, Vash’jir (huuuuge), Mount Hiyal, Deepholm, Uldum & Twilight Highlands.

-         1 complete dailies zone, Tol Barad with a PvP battle smack dab in the middle of it.

-         9 new 5-man dungeons on normal/heroic mode

-         3 raids available from the start (Blackrock Caverns, Throne of the Four Winds & Bastion of Twilight).

This is just looking at the stuff we get when you start at lvl 80, the whole old Azeroth got a huge paint job, with entire regions changed, thousands of new quests.

Now to keep it as objective as possible let’s just keep it with the 80-85 stuff as that is the content most of us have experienced first.

Statement: The levelling just goes too fast

Alaunus says: Agreed.

It’s basically a breeze through from 80 to 84, it is only during the last level that players truly experience that it involves a whole deal more of quests and killing mobs to level up than ever before. A missed opportunity in my eyes, the new areas are beautiful, for the most part interesting but not required to clean them up in order to get to 85.

Statement: I’m 85, there’s nothing to do for me anymore. Cataclysm bores me.

Alaunus says: Nein, nein, nein!

Gathering gear has gotten harder, so requires more focus to do so. More steps are now needed again to be able to be gear ready for a raid. Which means more stuff to do.

Don’t start the “more time investment needed to get the better/best gear. I’m a casual, I don’t have the time.” You sir/madam, are not a casual, you are a lazy couch potato.

As a matter of fact this dwarf is casual, plays approx 3 hours a night and manages perfectly to gather item pieces to get raid ready.

There’s normal dungeons, heroic dungeons, levelling your professions, cleaning up all remaining quests you left behind whilst levelling, the new and old battlegrounds, a PvP Island for dailies. You name it, it’s there.

Statement: “Heroics are too long and too hard. I want quick, easy heroics so I can grind my gear like in Wrath. The longevity of each heroic is just to fill up the voids of not enough content.”

Alaunus says: Nein, nein, nein!

Heroics are engaging, most come with a good back story (that is if you done the quests in their respective areas) and challenge the entire group (instead of just the tank and healer did in Wrath and even there it was a joke) to play their best.

Coordination and teamwork say “hi, we’re back, folks!”

Statement: “The guild achievement and levelling was something I looked forward to, they destroyed it.”

Alaunus says: Agreed, though only just.

It looked a whole lot more promising beforehand than what the system is now. However it is a great addition that makes guilds actually do more stuff together. Once more keeping you, the player busy.

Statement: ‘I just idle in Stormwind these days, just like in Wrath I sat in Dalaran.”

Alaunus: Nein, nein, nein!

With the huge amount of stuff there is to do, there is no valid excuse to say this at this moment in time of the expansion. If you find yourself idling in Stormwind, the reason is not the game, but must be found within yourself.

Not everybody likes the same, but in my honest opinion Cataclysm serves enough of everything to keep everyone busy for quite some time.

Conclusion: Cataclysm has, in some ways, changed the way we play this game, and for some this change has come as a complete surprise. More time needs to be invested to get our toons their shinies, something not everyone is willing to do.

The psychological difference with “only 5 levels” instead of 10 isn’t to be underestimated. We know 5 is less than 10 numerical, so we automatically put one and one together and all too easily claim that Cataclysm is “too short”, whilst the amount of xp needed is faaar larger than anything we encountered before. The speed by which we gain it however, especially in our early ‘80s is too high. A slower pace would have been better but on the other hand would have given us more whining like “omg it’s too slow, I don’t liekz levelinz!”.

To rest my case, Cataclysm is perhaps not the best expansion ever, which to this day for me, remains The Burning Crusade, but it has given the game I have come to love a much needed overhaul and paint job.

And I am sure it will keep me busy for many more months to come, until finally I too shall state “omg Cataclysm…is too short!”