Impressions of Cataclysm Leveling

Manick here, intrepid level 85 tauren warrior from the Ministry of Truth guild on Winterhoof. I just wanted to post my impressions of the new leveling in Cataclysm. I’ve been working on leveling my pally and I’ve got her up to level 51. I’ve also been leveling my bank alt, named Vaults, through Silverpine and Hillsbrad.

Here are my impressions:

• Variety of quests: The variety of types of quests to me is different. You have the usual “Get x number of y items”, but there’s also the “bombing run” type quests and other quest variations that make it interesting.
  
• Story: Since I am running through the Forsaken quests, I am finding the story and lore behind the quests very compelling. The whole Forsaken against Gilneas story is very cool. You actually get to walk side-by-side with Sylvanas as you become a valued member of the fight in Silverpine.
  
• Smaller quest hubs: The smaller quest hubs seem to make the questing quicker. You go from one hub to the next, doing smaller number of quests at a time. I seems to make the questing much quicker.
  
• Blue items: At the end of each group of quests, you get a cool epic quest to get through, usually against a boss, with help from NPCs or some sort of mechanic that allows you to weaken that boss. Result? A nice new shiny rare item with decent stats (blue=good).
  
  

The leveling process in Cataclysm has been revamped, and I think its for the better.