Cataclysm predictions based on blue quotes

As i have been following blue quotes religiously for quite some time i feel i have a better gauge than many others that might not of what we should expect Cataclysm to change.  I wanted to share my predictions based on what i've read of blue quotes.  I'm not going to post the blue quotes but feel free to check MMO Champion to see references to what i may be speaking about.  I am going to make some predictions based on what i've gathered and i very well could be wrong so don't shoot me if you disagree. 


One of the most obvious is the new Rated BG system that will be featured as much if not more than Arena by all indications.  Blizzards track record shows a consistent emphasis on anything new or redone becoming a featured focal point and i don't expect anything different for Rated BG's when Cataclysm hits.  This has been long awaited by many players and Blizzard has been talking it up as a key selling point for this next expansion.  Unfortunately when Blizzard emphasizes one thing that is new they have a tendency to put whatever that isn't new or redone on the back burner and this will affect Arena emphasis significantly.  Blizzard up until now have emphasized balance based on Arena and the LOS basis of it at the sacrifice of any open LOS play issues.  They focused on Arena to such a degree that they arguably over-powered some classes who didn't excel in pillar play and tried to fit them into that Arena box over-compensating to make their representation equal, all the while making them silly in open LOS(hunters).  As you can see there is a clear disrespect for what Blizzard isn't focusing all of their attention on and when Cataclysm hits i expect the emphasis to flip flop.  BG's will get all of the attention while Arena will get very little.  The real question here is can you balance open LOS PvP at the same time accounting for pillar play balance?  Can you balance 10-15+ player a side at the same time of keeping 3, 5 players a side PvP balanced?  I don't think you can and Arena will suffer significantly as a result.  Reading all of the QQ and comments here of whats wrong with Arena that Blizzard has to fix for Cataclysm will likely fall on the same deaf ears many BG'ers QQ'd about since TBC.  You will have become Blizzards new red headed step children...and believe me its a frustrating pov to play this game from.



Another aspect that Cataclysm will bring that i've been reading a lot more of lately from blues is the change in the balance of the game.  Wotlk has had a burst-gib friendly state of balance.  Throughout Wotlk Arena and BG players alike have complained that they die in 3 globals without a chance to react.  Healing was also very powerful in Wotlk, less powerful than in TBC but in TBC healers were retarded.  In Wotlk every healer received short heals if not instants and mitigation type abilities like shields that made them very difficult to take down when well geared(> 1k+ resilience) unless they were being tag teamed or it was 3v1.  Blizzard is significantly changing resource management for healers and i'd assume dps'ers as well(although i've only read them talkiing about healers specifically).  They will have to worry about mana much more and choosing the heals and abilities that cost less than the heal that may be more direct and heal for more but more mana costly.  To understand how this will work you have to account for another change which is everyone's HP's will go up significantly through new itemization.  Tank classes won't be the only ones able to hit significantly higher hp figures.  Everyone will be proportional in life than the current balance with much higher hp cushions in relation to damage.  So in effect PvP will become more drawn out.  Players will die not from 2-3 shot burst so much but healers running out of resources to keep up.  In essence they will have a much larger cushion to keep players alive at the sacrifice of running oom more often as the battle drags and burst classes will have become more marginalized.


The rewards changes have already started.  Players are now able to achieve Arena points through their daily BG however ratings on items won't likely change where Rated BG's come into play to purchase those rewards if not already achieved through Arena.  Rewards will likely be streamlined between both based on ratings and the rewards will  probably share the same pool as the top PvP rewards achievable.  Depending on how you look at it this could also be another nerf to Arena where there will likely be many more players with high end PvP gear, and it won't be the status symbol we know Gladiators have with the best of PvP gearing currently.  10-20+ man teams will likely water that down although Blizzard did say achieving high ratings in BG's will be very difficult.  Its just hard to imagine there won't be significantly better geared players through PvP considering we're talking about BG's here and not 3 and 5 man Arena teams achieving those ratings.


In summary everything we know about WoW now, especially the game play will change significantly when Cataclysm hits.  All of our current QQ's mean nothing.  Arena issues won't be addressed like they are now.  Can the esport tourneys manage with less Blizzard focus towards Arena balancing when its always had a lot of issues even when they were completely focused on it?  Will Esports WoW become 10-20 PC's a side and entourages of teams battling in WSG and the like?  Can it? given the cost of travel and housing for so many players, and the cut down in prize money split between so many players per team with sponsors already having money issues in the down economy?  Will tourneys adopt a Korean-like format of combining 3v3 Arena fights with BG matches much like Koreans do with duels and 3v3 matches?  One things for sure the Esport aspect of WoW will likely have to change with the expansion since it does completely change the scope of the game.  The change in gameplay with an emphasis on resource management makes me afraid of hearkening back to TBC PvP where every PvP skirmish dragged and the nightmare and boredom of resource drain play coming back.  All in all one thing is for sure.  If you enjoy PvP at all in WoW expect a completely different game when Cataclysm hits.  Enjoy current play while it lasts!