Back in the pre-Cataclysm days of WoW, questing was somewhat lacking. Being a player who was always playing catch up through the last two expansions I never really noticed however until the time Cataclysm was released. When it was announced, I was still questing in the "old world". For those who don't know that's Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. I was level 47 or so and questing really wasn't my thing. There was a lot of the "go 40 miles out of your way to do this and when you get back I'm going to send you back there again" going on in the old world. It didn't feel streamlined at all. It all felt chaotic really. Immersion was also a problem. I never really felt I was included in what was going on.
I wanted to be 80 so bad and see the end game content, but lack of immersion and structure in the questing kept me thinking it was a tedious grind. After the announcement however, I vowed I would be 80 before Cataclysm hit and I would force myself if I had to. Fast forward a few months and I was finishing up Outland questing in 3 of the 7 available zones, thinking that it was going by so fast and that questing had gotten better. I then found out that the Outland questing experience limit had been lowered to get players out of Outland and in to Northrend faster. I was so happy. I was getting to where I wanted to be and approaching 80 much faster. I was also digging questing a lot more than in the old world. With the addition of flying everywhere, I never wanted to go back.
Then I was done with Outland. I hit 68 and got out of there as fast as I could. The icy continent of Northrend awaited me and so did the Lich King, but when I got there, BAM! Questing was slow again, my motivation to level hit an all time low. It wasn't that the actual questing content was bad. It was the fact that so much experience was needed to level up.
As I got about halfway through Borean Tundra however, I was motivated again. The content and immersion of the quests I was doing started to get better and better. The experience I gained got higher. I thought to myself "How can this get better?".
Closer and closer to the launch of Cataclysm, and I still wasn't level 80. Starting to get anxious, I found myself using the random dungeon finder to boost my experience gains. Then it hit! Patch 4.0.3. Once again I found that questing experience limit was lowered. Northrend leveling got faster and I grew closer to 80. I felt bad that I didn't make it before that patch, but I had finally started to see myself hitting the cap, reaching my goal.
I made it to 80 shortly after that patch and was awaiting the release of Cataclysm eagerly. I couldn't wait to get into the new zones and get to 85 with everyone else. On release day, I headed straight to the new zone of Hyjal and started questing right away. What awaited me was magnificent. Questing felt epic. It immersed you into what was happening around you so much better than anything previously released.
It didn't seem to take ages to progress and actually get places. The new use of phasing made the world move along with you in questing, making it feel as if you were a part of everything happening there. I reached 85 without feeling the game took away from the experience. WoW is better than it ever has been.
Now I'm going through the old world zones, revamped from the Cataclysm. I have found that the questing and leveling have greatly improved. They are much more immersive and don't drag a player down.
Blizzard has learned what it is to make questing and leveling content great. I can only look forward from here and think "How can this get better?".
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