Look at our damn sparklies!

Cataclysm is well on the way, with the class change previews showing up around the internet last week. From complete class overhauls to little design tweaks; every class has had something to fill their time with. Yet there is a pattern showing, a pattern that has been forming through out every expansion. Blizzards ‘Flavour of the Expansion’.

During The Burning Crusade, Blizzard showed off their skill at making everything sparkle, glow or float. It was pretty cool to start, but wore thin when every armour set had something crackling off of it or little rocks orbiting it. When Wrath of the Lich King hit our game we were barraged with vehicles. Battlegrounds using siege vehicles, dailies on annoying ponies (damn those ponies) and even raid encounters using this technique. It’s like the designers found something new and wanted to see just how many times they could plug it into the expansion. Sure did get old quick didn’t it?

And now what is on the horizon? Water, water, water. It appears that the developers found a box containing ‘New Water Effects’ and want to show off their shiny sparkly new toy. Flooding Thousand Needles, opening up zones to the coast and making a whole underwater zone. What better way to flaunt the new look of…. water. But wait, there’s more!

Hunters; along with a complete overhaul, get an interesting new ability. Camouflage! Making the caster immune to ranged attack and giving them a ‘predator style’ cloaked look using the… wait for it… new water ripple effects! Ok Blizzard we get it, you have learned how to make water look cool. Do you have to see just how many places you can put it to show off your skill?

Not only is the suffocation on the new water look a bit overwhelming already, but they seem to have found a new way to do spells. Shaman’s get a new AoE heal, expect unlike current AoE heals, it works more like Blizzard or Rain of Fire do. Drop the spell on an area and anyone who is in the area, or walks through the area gets healed. Cool a new mechanic, but will we see an influx of this new spell type? Only time will tell.