"Change always comes bearing gifts..."

And those gifts have been mind blowing to say the least.  Blizzard has really outdone themselves this year announcement after announcement of new changes coming in the Cataclysm.  In my previous post, which if you have not read yet I would highly recommend reading now (Here), I talked about class mechanic changes and stat changes.  Well, that only scratched the surface of this expansion.  Blizzard has added a whole load of new stuff for use to play with -- we have everything from a guild leveling system to a whole new way to progress your character.

Guild Leveling and Guild Talents:

All you guild leaders out there better get ready for some HUGE changes to your guild.  Now, before you ask, no, unfortunately we still will not be receiving guild halls.  You are going to have to keep begging for those halls, because blizzard is not listening it would seem.  That being said, these changes are still amazing for guilds.  Guilds for me have always not had enough to give to their players other than a chat room and a new bank.  Enough of the small talk though, let's get into mechanics of this new guild system.

Leveling:

This is simple, as you can see from the picture above the guild experience is earned through a variety of different ways, including:

• Levels
• Rep Ranks
• Boss Kills (Note: 75% of your guild must attend in order for this to count)
• Rated BG Wins/ Arena Wins (Yes rated BGs, discussed further down)
• Profession Ranks

Also, when a guild levels up their guild experience will grant the guild currency.  This can be used to buy certain goods from a guild vendor.  The items of which you can buy will range from reagents and recipes to even vanity items such as tabards, mounts, etc.  These items will be bought by your portion or the total amount of guild currency currently held by the guild.

At this time there will be a total of 20 levels a guild can earn.  It is not know how difficult it will be to raise the level of the guild, but I would guess a level 20 guild will be the ones taking down the endgame content and or (crossing fingers) doing the best in PvP.  When a guild levels they will receive 1 talent point.  These talent points affect the entire guild and will be lost from your character if you leave the guild.

Guild Talents:



Above is an example of what the UI for guild talents will be like.  Yes, you do see a mass resurrection spell as a final talent, and yes blizzard plans to keep that in.  The guild officers and or leader will be in charge of placing these talents and the talents are meant to be a convenience and not there to take talents specific characters have or need away.  This will not be used as a substitute for character abilities as blizzard stated, "We're not going to have character talents in the guild talents. We don't want to put talents players have to have in the guild talents, ie: they have to have this talent in order to kill this boss." somewhat an obvious statement to me, but people were concerned nonetheless. 

Blizzard also announced other parts of the new guild system, which are guild vendors (mentioned before) and one that I hear got a big cheer, guild heirloom items. These items will be bound to guilds and thus leaving the guild will take the item away, forever. There will also be a Looking for Guild system similar to the current LFG system for grouping, and there will be a variety of new Guild UI options, including being able to look at other guild member's profession books and a percentage of all gold looted being sent as a bonus to the guild's bank. Can anyone say guild taxing? You'll even be able as a guild to invite other guilds to events like raids.

Those are some absolutely enormous changes coming to guilds.  I can't help but feel that this should have happened a long time ago, but it is still great to finally see guilds having more to do than make events, talk in a chat room, and check out a bank.

Cataclysm PvP: Rated BGs and The Return of PvP Titles:

An announcement that made the crowd go crazy was the introduction of rated BGs and the glorious return of the old PvP titles from the old ranking system of pre-BC. There plenty of people out there are not fond of arena but love battlegrounds (I can join that crowd), and many of them have the inability to get up-to-date PvP gear.  Blizzard will be trying to reward better battleground play without punishing people who have the bad luck and get in a group that fails.  Here's what we know so far:

• Battleground wins will award both rating and arena points. Battleground losses won't punish you with a ratings loss, but also won't award any points. It is assumed that you can continue to gain honor and a single BG token per loss. Points earned will be capped at a certain number (not yet known) per week to keep rated battlegrounds from feeling too "grindy."
• Whichever battleground is currently on its holiday weekend will also be a rated battleground for that week.
• Your battleground ratings will, like the current arena system, encompass two ratings: a personal and a match-making rating.
• Rated battleground wins will also contribute to the guild leveling system as mentioned above.
• Old PvP rankings will make their reappearance as end-of-season titles ( "Scout," "Grand Marshal," "Centurion"). No word yet on whether these are permanent or if, like the non-Gladiator arena titles, you have to earn them each season to continue displaying them.
• "Special epic ground mounts" will be made available to people playing the rated battlegrounds.

This really excites me since I have always been more partial to Battlegrounds.  I have to wonder though if the people out there with the titles already will lose them and have to regain them or if they will be allowed to keep them forever and not replenish them each season?  Only time will tell, but I can already hear the forums if people lose their old titles. 

The New Wintergrasp: Tol Barad



Blizzard is also adding a new zone that "Combines elements of Wintergrasp with the Isle of Quel'danas. During PvP battles, players will fight to take control points across the island." While the zone is out of combat and controlled by one of the two factions it will serve as a daily quest hub.  There will also be a raid instance, just like wintergrasp, that is only avaliable to the faction that currently controls the zone.
      

Mastering System and New Talent Trees:

Looking at talent trees for all classes, the Systems team felt that players were spending too many points on things like flat damage or healing boosts; talents like Malice or Arcane Focus are a bit bland but necessary for players due to the bonuses they provide. On top of that, talent trees are bloated with all kinds of talents that are trying to do three things at once, which makes for confusion among players who might not be on top of all the ways to maximize your character.

The system team really wants to see players using more of the "fun" talents -- ones like Shadowstep, Body and Soul, and Juggernaut -- and make the passive bonuses that used to be in talents your reward for investing points into a tree.

To my great delight, examples were given for the rogue class.  A Combat Rogue might see his Mastery bonuses include passive increases to melee damage, hit chance, and armor penetration as he moves down the tree, whereas a Subtlety Rogue might see increases to melee damage, melee haste, and energy regen.  Very simply, this mastery system follows what each tree is trying to accomplish overall and turns those old talents we were putting points in just to get the next talent into passive abilities, no longer requiring you to waste points.

This will be an amazing change for all of us!  I am so excited to see what blizzard will do with all my old bland talents.  I can only hope that I will be able to use shadowstep again -- it has always been my absolute favorite ability.

Path of the Titans Explained: Picking Up A Religion:

One of the most confusing announcements was the Path of the Titans System.  Many people did not understand at first what this even was.   All they knew was that it furthered their character in some way.  Well, after the systems panel explained it my jaw dropped.  This, to me, is the best announcement out of Blizzcon.  There are still questions to be answered, but here is what we know so far:

• At maximum level, you choose to align yourself with a given Titan cult - i.e., you are basically choosing to worship a titan (awesome!)
• The paths are not class- or role-specific. Players will have to figure out for themselves what path they want to take.
• Turning in artifacts found with Archeology (the new secondary profession) will cause you to progress along your chosen path.
• The main rewards are Ancient Glyphs (not part of the Inscription profession). At each rank in your Path you have two to three choices of Glyphs.
• Some examples of Ancient Glyphs are:

                    1. Physical Damage reduction
                    2. Bandage improvement
                    3. Increased damage following a crit

• Everyone is going to eventually be able to get all the glyphs for their path, and it will not be grindy (i.e. not like Sons of Hodir).

Archeology:


As mentioned above you will use Archeology to progress through your titan path. Archeology will be a secondary profession like fishing, cooking, and first aid. Archeology was explained as being sort of a mini-game within the game.  After the Cataclysm occurs ruins pop up all over the world and they hold secrets no one has ever seen.  When you go to these ruins you will be able to research specific areas which will cause a menu to pop up allowing you to decode the message.  Once the message is solved you will receive either a portion of your new path glyph or, if you are lucky, a whole glyph to add to your titan path.

That wraps it up for all the changes headed our way.  More information is always coming out so stay tuned to here and anywhere else for all the Cataclysm goodies.  I for one cannot wait for beta to be released.  Speculation is putting the release date as March '10, considering this xpac has been in productions since before wrath I would put by bets around that date as well.