Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsThe problem of Outland in Cataclysm
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 15th 2009 at 4:00PM
Bornakk's reply hints that Blizzard will probably just gloss over it as best they can -- they're not going to build a whole new 1-85 experience involving Deathwing. When you constantly update a five-year-old persistent world game like this with new stories and content, something's got to give somewhere. My guess is that Blizzard, being the perfectionists they are, will probably come up with a quest or two that gives a lore reason to go out there ("Hmm, you're too green to face the power of Deathwing, but our companions in Outland need help holding what's left of the Burning Legion at bay!"), and leave it at that. They may increase the XP and get you out of there even quicker, but going to Outland at 58 is still a gameplay necessity (Northrend shares the problem at 70, but of course we don't actually know what's going to happen with the Lich King quite yet). It's likely the lore will just have to deal.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgen to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Instances, Expansions, The Burning Crusade, Leveling, Alts, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 6)
xaospro Sep 15th 2009 8:36PM
Outland doesnt need to be changed really. The burning legion will always be a main threat, its just that they are primarily focusing on taking control of Outland. Deathwing is just another threat to deal with that hits closer to home. So no need to worry. Level 1-60ish in Azeroth, then go to Outland after you finish Silthius/Winterspring, and then come back to Azeroth around 70ish.
Continuty is only a problem for players that actually do all the dungeons and raids, 1-60, 61-70 and 71-80. But so many players just rush through all the content anyways, not even stepping in Shadowmoon, most will barely notice that the legion is even in outland, they will be so concerned with getting to 85 with their special little worgen.
Ahh Blizzard, how you give me headaches lol
Nice one Mikey
Nagi Sep 15th 2009 8:43PM
The problem of Outland really isn't THAT MUCH of a problem, in all honesty. Think about it: the Burning Legion are the single biggest force of villainy in the Warcraft universe. They consist of every demonic race in the entirety of the Great Dark, and conscript many, many more. There are billions of them, and I highly doubt we put much of a dent in those ranks the first time through. We might have caused their grip on Draenor to slip, and we might have put their highest-ranking leader in a temporarily disabling position, but they're still out there in MASSIVE numbers. Surely they're going to replace the numbers lost on Draenor with even greater numbers in an effort to hammer that problem area down.
In short? Tweak the flavor text a little bit, and the Outland content becomes "the continued effort to suppress the Legion," as opposed to "we've just opened the gate, move forward!" There will still be imperfections, like the Maghar storyline and the Shattered Sun Offensive, but no worse than what currently exists in the fact that people like Illidan and Onyxia and Baron Rivendare are canonically dead, but we can still march up and faceroll them at any time at our leisure.
WoWie Zowie Sep 15th 2009 8:50PM
make no mistake about it, outlands is just as relevant as ever. the battle rages on and heroes are needed to fend off the burning legion who are directly or indirectly responsible for a sizeable part of azeroth's woes including but not limited to the orginal rift between orcs and humans, the creation of frostmourne, and the corruption of deathwing.
if arthas hadn't kicked illidan's butt we would surely have played northrend before going to outlands from a lore perspective. i would expect a great more things to come from outlands; we haven't defeated kil'jaeden, only stayed his entry from the sunwell. to say that BC doesn't fit in with the current game lore is beyond me.
Mortalcoil Sep 15th 2009 9:19PM
argent tournament like, test yourself on the burning legion before you face off against deathwing etc?
Shima Sep 15th 2009 9:51PM
im still wondering around the same...
what if Im a new player, and I bought wow classic for a start...what will I get? what if I cant, just, buy TBC or Wrath or Cata?¿ Will I get the same content? what Azeroth Will I see?
if the answer its a comercial one, or pesimist for us...then I dont get HOW this will get new players.
(and again, excuse my english)
Shima Sep 15th 2009 9:52PM
by the way, I HATE outlands D:
Stravo Sep 16th 2009 12:45PM
I thought of the same problem. It would suck to install vanilla WoW and then be stuck waiting hours while it patches Azeroth to Cataclysm (since everyone will see cataclysm Azeroth one the xpac comes out). The easy solution (in my opinion) is to just stop selling Vanilla WoW altogether. Cataclysm becomes the new "Vanilla" WoW that new people can just buy, start playing immediately and reach a level cap of 60. They'll still have to buy BC and WOTLK to move forward.
If current players qq (they will qq) about newbies getting to pay less to get access to the current game than they did (WoW+BC+WOTLK+Cat > Cat+BC+WOTLK) then Blizzard can just throw in a free month of play for existing players who bought the expansion.
Or heck, maybe they could just sell two versions of Cataclysm. A cheaper version for current players who already have all the other expansions and the original game and a more expensive version for new players getting into WoW.
Trent Sep 15th 2009 10:27PM
Obviously you can't do much with Outland. One of the reasons this Cataclysm expansion is happening this way is because the old world leveling experience was so dated and...well, flawed. The Outland leveling experience isn't perfect; however with flight, a overriding narrative and relatively straightforward quests, it is still a relatively enjoyable experience while it lasts.
What I would like to see though is some...hell, any new content in Outland. A new instance or a new zone, anything would be welcome. Blackwing has some ties to Outland, it would be nice for level 85 players to be sent to Outland to check out Blackwing's work. Sure, you could add a zone for level 60-70 players...but it would be pointless, as people will simply power-level through Outlands unless it was completely revamped, which won't happen. Don't want it entirely forgotten however.
Goodk4t Sep 15th 2009 10:46PM
Maybe they add some sort of pahsing to Azeroth, to make it seems as if you, a lvl 1, are still in the past (vanilla) while at lvl 80 you're in Cataclysm. Heroic Deadmines is a proof that not everything changes: VanCleef is dead, but Deadmines is not going anywhere.
Leveling is a part of the game, an important one. Not everyone is leveling alts, a lot of people are starting fresh new and have not yet seen anything in the game. I started to play in December 2008, when WotLK came out.
A lot of people complain they should be able to skip leveling, but leveling is so fast nowadays a lot of people reach lvl 80 and don't know how to play their toons yet. Maybe if they spent more time leveling, learning the basic of their own class, I wouldn't have to kick them out of my raids.
Picviewer Sep 16th 2009 1:12AM
Funny but all through all the info presented the other elephant in the room besides how will Outlands factor in is why won't Northrend be touched in Cataclysm? Silly to just revamp the original landmass while leaving the newest area untouched. Better question is why not revamp it also, really make it a game change.
Could never see the problem with Outlands besides the size of it, just seemed too small and always liked it.
David(Postal) Sep 16th 2009 1:28AM
Need more Netherwing out there. Come on you have to tie it all in together! You have to tie the Dragonmaw clan into this expansion, please!
WootZoot Sep 16th 2009 4:40AM
Quest text:
! Thanks again for all the help at Wyrmrest... What do you mean "What do I mean?"? Oh, right... well that will make sense to you later. We have much more pressing matters to attend to now! I'm sure you've seen the havoc caused across the world by Azshara and Deathwing *Chromi spits on the ground at the mention of the Black Dragon's name* But what you may not have seen is their presence in Outland.
While the Alliance and The Horde were busy with Illidan and Keal'thas in that world, the naga and black dragons attended to their own nefarious operations mostly under the radar. We need you to go back before the naga Lady Vash was killed and investigate that world to find out what they were up to. I've added a chrono-port to the Dark Portal here, so simply stepping through it will put you where in time you need to be.
You'll have to spend quite some time in the past, but you won't be cut off. Simply coming back to Azeroth will put you in the right place in time, and you can return to when you need to be in Outland whenever you visit.
And after you're done investigating that world for the Black Dragon's hidden influences, come visit me and my flight in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris.
end quest text.
There, problem solved.
Bossy Sep 16th 2009 5:24AM
Concerning CAT:
I don't think anyone realizes yet just how powerful this new expansion is going to be.
It is - after 5 years - nothing short of WOW2, without the disadvantages of having the #2 tag on it.
Not only in lore btw Blizzard will have a few problems.
Because the game servers will be extremely put on stress when everyone AND his cat will be joining again ... and the usual new players will come aboard.
I forsee gigantic problems with this relaunch of WOW. Server problems, log in queues of around 30 minutes.
Those should be the REAL problems with CAT. The above poster already said it: Write 2 quests and Outland has a meaning, problem solved.
But I will want to play this new Azeroth and so will everybody else and Blizzard better be prepared this time ... server wise.
Bob Sep 16th 2009 8:45AM
Perhaps it is just me thinking like this, but I feel the whole topic is silly.
This is an expansion. Its not a new game. It expand on the current world, it doesn't remove the current world!
Now just because Blizzard realised that vanilla wow didn't have the same scope and effective questhubs as outland/northrend, and decided to remake large parts of it, doesn't mean that their taking something away from us, or making us able to skip an earlier expansion.
At least you may have had something right when mentioning that they'll perhaps add one or two quests that now would take you to Outland, but your whole premise of the article seems just wrong.
styopa Sep 16th 2009 10:45AM
"Blizzard, being the perfectionists they are...."
LOL, so much LOL there.
In case you missed it, the wowwiki has TWO PAGES of retcons (they couldn't fit them all onto one)!
Perfectionists....I don't think that word means what you think it means.
Olicon Sep 17th 2009 7:41AM
I think they could very well put lower level players in zones that doesn't have much change. Then the experience will pretty much play out like before.
Daryl Sep 23rd 2009 5:35AM
Yeah,
I have 2 level 80 characters and I recently levelled 2 alts from 60-68 and I was in Outland until Nagrand plus a little in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley before I dinged level 68 and was able to go to Northrend.
Lore notwithstanding, it could be feasible to abolish Outland as irrelevant and just develop a 60-68 zone as part of the cataclysmic Azeroth. This may release a few servers.
These days, Outland is just a (big) stepping stone on the way to level 80. You're not stuck there as a level 70 and don't really have to go to any instances to progress beyond 70. These days because you level so fast, what guild would raid outland instances except for level 80s running some lowbies for the experience? (true for any L60-74 dungeons).
Daryl.
Mephet Jun 18th 2010 6:18AM
This is especially tricky for RP realms - everyone has a slightly different timeline. While others are talking about the fall of the Lich King, my main hasn't even faced Illidan yet. And what's this talk about the New Lich King? When Cataclysm comes out, the confusion as to what has already happened will be even greater.
Wikingr Nov 30th 2010 2:32PM
Late post on an old article. But for anyone who happens to breeze by it, and check the comments, here's some good news for you.
As of Blizzcon 2010, Blizzard has stated (During the WoW Q&A panel if I remember correctly) that they plan to update both Outland and Northrend to conform with the current time period of Azeroth. They didn't make any estimates on a release for such an update, and did not say whether we'd see any updated Outland or Northrend during Cataclysm's reign, but they did say they were planning on doing it at some point. I think it was actually Metzen who responded to the question, and said that the time inconsistancy of both zones with new content was presenting a thorn in their side lore-wise.
I'd estimate seeing the changes with the fourth expansion, after Cataclysm. After all, Blizzard has more than enough on their plate with Cataclysm, and they most likely just didn't have the time to get around to updating either zone at the present time.