World of Warcraft Tier Armor Raid Sets - Part IV, Cataclysm

Submitted by Rolf - Tue, 4 Oct 2011

Cataclysm, no new classes, but two new races (goblin and worgen) and a total redesign of the old world, including all the quests. A great joy to start a new alt. Raid-wise, not so appealing to me.

First they removed 40-man raiding and now there was no reason to raid with 25 people, same loot being dropped and all. Raiding had always been about defeating a tall boss in an epic setting with a big gathering of divers people. But 10-man, that's just a double heroic dungeon. Stratholme used to be 10-man.

Tier 11 - Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, Throne of the Four Winds, Baradin Hold

I leveled to 85 (odd number for a level cap, one would think that Blizzard stores character level in 2 digits) and collected all heroic dungeon loot, craftables and bind-on-equip epics. I joined a few raids to Bastion and Blackwing, but I didn't manage to get excited about raiding anymore.

My girlfriend couldn't afford to spend the time and had quit the game again when Cataclysm launched, and I traded raid nights for social nights with her. It doesn't get me epic loot, yet it is satisfying.

Tier 12 - Firelands, Baradin Hold

Again, convinced by my friend Mario, I leveled my alliance hunter to 85 and joined an old 'casual raiding' guild on our alliance server. I made clear I didn't want to raid, only the occasional casual activities. I did all the Firelands dailies, got all my reputation up to exalted and got all loot that I wanted, except for the endless farming of heroics for valor points.

I joined them once to Firelands to help out, but didn't enjoy raiding on my hunter in this 'new' guild either. I guess raiding for over five years is enough. I still think it's a great game, best I've ever played and I miss it. I just don't want to play it anymore. Does that make sense?

Tier 13 - Dragon Soul

And now they've announced the fourth expansion while the latest raid instance, Dragon Soul, is still on the public test realms, with another new set of raid tier armor. Tier 13 looks like a very well designed, but incoherent collection of epic gear sets. I almost wish I still played my shaman on this level.

ť Part I - Vanilla
ť Part II - The Burning Crusade
ť Part III - Wrath of the Lich King
ť Part IV - Cataclysm