Update #3 - Just to make it clear, the NDA on the Alpha isn't lifted, you can still get your ass banned for posting that kind of stuff. Also, Blizzquote layout added now that it's official.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm Press Tour
Earlier this week, general gaming sites and a couple of official fansites were invited to the Blizzard HQ for a press tour of Cataclysm. The NDA (on the press tour, don't get too excited) just lifted and a couple of information have been revealed.

This post will probably be updated multiple times during the night, so far this is what I gathered before the NDA lift:

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Path of the Titans is gone
The whole Path of the Titans idea has been removed from the game. It will no longer rely on Archeology or on any kind of PvE/PvP progression and instead Blizzard will just introduce a new type of glyphs: Medium Glyphs.

Medium Glyphs will add a "fun factor" to abilities, and it wouldn't be surprising to see something similar to the Fortification or Breakthrough glyphs first previewed during Blizzcon 2009. (But probably not these exact glyphs, a lot of stuff happened since last year)

Guild Talents are gone
The guild talents are gone and your guild now gets extra bonuses depending on its level. There are 25 levels and each level will automatically reward with more cool stuff. The leveling process remains unchanged and your guild will gain experience through PvP, Dungeon and Raid progression, questing, etc ...

Guild currency has also been removed and rewards will just be "unlocked" after you reach a specific level or complete a guild achievement. Once a reward is unlocked, members will be able to purchase it with gold. Some of the rewards include guild tabards, mounts, heirlooms, and it looks like you will finally be able to have a guild tabard on your mount. (Just like the Argent Tournament banners)

New members of a guild won't be able to buy everything directly, they will have to contribute to the progression of the guild before they can access the top rewards. Each time a player helps towards the leveling he will gain reputation with the guild, the best rewards will require players to be exalted with their guild before they can buy it.

Archeology will be less important
With the Path of the Titans gone, Archeology will become a "true" secondary profession and you won't really have to level it anymore. However it will still be used to let you get cosmetic/optional items, get more information on the game's lore, and ultimately it looks like we can expect rewards similar to fishing. (Nothing mandatory, but you'll be happy when you actually find something)

Information gathered from other sites:
  • You will find two types of items: Common Artifacts will give you more information on the lore of a race, and might be used in some kind of collection game. Rare items will give you usable items, most of them will be cosmetic but some of them will have actual effects. (Details on Wowhead)

Raids & Dungeons Split
Raid leaders will be able to split an ongoing 25-man raid into up to three 10-man raids. Those 10-man raids will be able to continue from that point on, with bosses already down.

So far it looks like it won't be possible to merge 10-man raids into 25-man raids, for obvious reasons.

Information gathered from other sites:
  • Raid IDs should be much more flexible. You will be able to join any raid as long as it doesn't have any bosses up that you have already killed. (Details on Wowhead)
  • There will be more Algalon-style encounters—ultra-hard optional bosses for hardcore players only. (Details on Wowhead)

Rated Battlegrounds
Rated battlegrounds will be available for pre-mades of 10, 15 and 25-player sizes. The amount of Conquest points rewarded will be capped so that players who enjoy both arenas and rated battlegrounds don't feel they have to prioritize one over the other.

Information gathered from other sites:
  • The classic Honor titles will be coming back and rewarded to the top teams each season. (Details on WoR)
  • The "Gladiator" equivalent teams will also receive epic ground mounts. Ground mounts because they want to reward something you can ride in the battleground and be proud of / show off. (Details on WoR)

Grim Batol Raid
The Grim Batol raid instance will be called the Bastion of Twilight, and you get to fight Cho'gall as the end boss! If you manage to defeat him in Heroic Mode, an "horrific secret will be revealed when he dies".

Information gathered from other sites:
  • This is an entry-level raid, just like Naxxramas in WotLK. (Details on Wowhead)
  • It will feature 5 bosses, and an Algalon-style optional and ultra-hard boss. (The "horrific" secret?) (Details on Wowhead)

Skywall Raid
As expected, Al'akir will be the end boss of the Skywall raid instance.

Information gathered from other sites:

Deepholm
Princess Therazane (yes, that's her) will be a questgiver in Deepholm, in a similar experience to the Sons of Hodir's questline in Storm Peaks.

Information gathered from other sites:
  • The Ogrim's Hammer has crashed in the zone and the Skybreaker is still in the air. One of the questline will require you to find out what happened. (Details on Wowhead)

Heroic Deadmines / Shadowfang Keep
Heroic versions of classic instances might not be ready for the release of Cataclysm and will be shipped in content patch instead.

Old world changes
There are a more details on old world changes, especially capital cities.

Information gathered from other sites:
  • Stormwind has been completely redesigned to accomodate flying mounts. The Park of Stormwind has been destroyed by Deathwing and the Dwarven District now hosts a Bank and an Auction House. (Details on Wowhead)
  • Orgrimmar has been redesigned as well: Garrosh is the new Warchief and is located in the center of Orgrimmar, not in the Valley of Wisdom. Goblins have their own area, the Valley of Wisdom becomes a Tauren district, and there is now a back gate leading directly into Azshara. (Details on Wowhead)

Miscellaneous Changes/Information
  • Wrath of the Lich King had 1000 Quests, Cataclysm has over 3000.
  • The current heirlooms will stop growing after level 80. There will be a whole new crop of heirlooms for Cataclysm. Goblins and Worgen will be able to start using heirlooms immediately at launch. (Details on Wowhead)
Cataclysm Zone Changes
A new video of zone changes in Cataclysm was released. Stole this one from Wowhead.



Cataclysm Screenshots
A few high resolution screenshots have been released. Courtesy of World of Raids.



This article was originally published in forum thread: World of Warcraft Cataclysm Press Tour started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 410 Comments
  1. Seraph's Avatar
    Screen shot looks like they even "removed" Dancing Troll Village
  1. greyghost's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Metallikiddd View Post
    Garrosh the new warchief?!.....i puked when i read that.
    Man, it's like Blizzcon 2009, all over again. :P

    I think the people complaining about people voicing their concerns/disdain about the scrapped game systems need to remember that the people who didn't like the ideas of PotT / Guild Talents are not the same people who are upset about their removal from the game. Also, expansions are defined by new features that are introduced that are different from what's come before; new races/dungeons/quests/professions are just SSDD -- none of these are 'new' new features that Blizzard has added to the game. The list of genuinely new features to the game has been shortened by this announcement. In fact, Cataclysm really is looking less and less like a genuine expansion but more like a "renewal" patch where a few zones added and the level cap raised a little.
  1. Lancer's Avatar
    Boub,wowhead seems a angry at you.
    I'm just sayin.
  1. stillnotking's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ramis View Post
    I just hope they don't scrap reforging too...:/
    I've been saying for a while that reforging either will not be implemented, or will be very different than it has been presented so far. It has two problems: it gives too much power to LW/BS/Tailoring as professions, and it reduces the demand for specific item drops (thereby lowering the incentive to raid).

    I'm not surprised to see Path of the Titans go away. It would be a huge departure from Blizzard's general philosophy on professions. I'm not troubled by it, though, and I'm sure I'll still do Archaeology on at least one toon. It sounds interesting.

    On the 3000 quests thing, I wonder how many of those are pre-80 quests, possibly even just minor alterations to existing quests. Obviously the Barrens, for example, is going to have some of its questlines altered.
  1. Lumocolor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Brittany View Post
    How is cataclysm a content patch? There is 3000 quests compared to 1000 in Wotlk. There is more new zones than in Wotlk. There is revamped of most of the old zones. There are several instances with more to come in content patches. There is new spells and abilities.

    I don't mind people QQ'ing at all, but how can you call this a content patch just because they removed 2 things that were always subject to change.

    Even without them Cataclysm is shaping up to be the biggest expansion so far.
    Have fun taking your level 85 to the level 1 to 60 zones to see 2000 of those new quests.
  1. Omgnumbers's Avatar
    Did i just see a naga & a dragonskin in front of Garrosh'es hold
  1. mmoc8eb592856e's Avatar
    PotT would be a great thing for mmo game, but it's no big secret they have been turning the game to just a multiplayer game. Log in do some stuff, log off and no depth to it. That kind of game attracts the stupid crowd, same crowd who pays to see those horible hollywood movies like twilight, but that crowd also pays most dollars to blizzard via faction changes, celestial steeds etc. all kind of stuff an intelligent person dont pay. It's same thing happening to blizzard what happened to Square when they merged with Enix. Many good and original projects dumped down. The new http://www.gamerankings.com/ps3/9287...iii/index.html cant get to 9/10 because it's too mainstream bullshit.

    For me Blizzard always was a cool company with their unique products, but since the merge with all the changes made and with cancelling most interesting features of expansion has shattered my Blizzard image, atleast for me Blizzard is just a big sell-out. I always thought that with these faction changes, celestial steeds etc. they would really dedicate the cash for making cataclysm the bext expansion, but thats not the case apparrently. Cutting jobs, cutting everything, way to go.
  1. Bucky Mclachlan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by greyghost View Post
    Man, it's like Blizzcon 2009, all over again. :P

    I think the people complaining about people voicing their concerns/disdain about the scrapped game systems need to remember that the people who didn't like the ideas of PotT / Guild Talents are not the same people who are upset about their removal from the game. Also, expansions are defined by new features that are introduced that are different from what's come before; new races/dungeons/quests/professions are just SSDD -- none of these are 'new' new features that Blizzard has added to the game. The list of genuinely new features to the game has been shortened by this announcement. In fact, Cataclysm really is looking less and less like a genuine expansion but more like a "renewal" patch where a few zones added and the level cap raised a little.
    I'm sorry can you be more misinformed?

    In what previous expansion did we have guild perks and guild reputation? It's not removed in case you did not notice. If anything those perks are just going to be more widely accessible to every guild that can simply come up with the gold required to level up their guild. In what previous expansion did they completely revamp the entire world, replace all quest hubs, replace and add all new battlegrounds with a brand new rated system? In what previous expansion did a previously neutral faction finally pick sides and decide to join forces with one or the other? What previous expansion completely changed the way classes work in the way they're changing say...hunters?

    Oh and finally which expansion was it exactly that remade old world dungeons not only to fit more with the current level cap, but to fit into the new lore they're weaving? I seem to recall not one but TWO FULL EXPANSIONS with ten whole levels more of simply ignoring all old world content so you can enjoy sitting in a lag-infested sanctuary city spamming trade for crafters and people to join your raid groups. Not a lot of fun.

    I'm going to be frank with you. Alot of the things they added in BC and WOTLK weren't really that great. BC introduced us to a WOW with incredibly boring and utterly impersonal PVP albeit with better rewards, WOTLK introduced us to a gimmick hero class that's now kind of become a joke. WOTLK introduced us to the utterly horrible idea that is vehicles.

    One of the only things they really did right was removing a lot of grinding and helping to get players right into the middle of the action.

    WOTLK also did one other great thing which has been so hard to balance. It gave us more incentive to pvp on our realm with the introduction of Wintergrasp. THAT is the kind of content we need to be seeing in WOW. PVP has been a real bore since they changed everything to cross server. As they implement more of these kind of changes (i.e. pvp being required rather than optional) the result is going to be more balanced populations on servers and an overall better community. Not to mention a better gaming experience.

    If you honestly think the hand-holding horde vs. alliance crap they have going on now and forcing us to play cookie cutter specs is just great I'm going to be as nice as I can be when I say this but you don't have the slightest clue what made this game great to begin with.

    I don't know what you're smoking homey Cataclysm looks like the best thing since Vanilla WoW.

    But I'll give you this you're absolutely right Cata isn't really an expansion, it's more like World of Warcraft 2.
  1. mmocbfaacb1cad's Avatar
    Riiiiight, so, 3 features going away.. and what the fuck is this thing with rated battlegrounds? Seriously, screw Cataclysm.
  1. Telle's Avatar
    I trust Blizz, in a way. They have high standards, and if stuff is being scrapped, it's because it wasn't working (Frankly, the guild talent system just spelled drama ahead). Still, I'm curious -- what are we paying for with this? Five new levels, and eight instances (versus the twelve that were available upon the initial release of WotLK). Thinking about this on the consumer end, I really hope Blizz doesn't plan on slapping the full price tag on this expansion, because I'm not really feeling up to paying that much for five new levels, and...what after that? I'm sure everything will turn out fine in the end, but right, things are looking pretty iffy. (My money's on them dropping gear reforging next. Any takers?)
  1. Lemons's Avatar
    So...where's our worgen district? I was really looking forward to having a london-y area in Stormwind. Perhaps they'll build it on the ruins of the park in an upcoming patch? I'll be really REALLY disapointed if that idea got scrapped.
  1. Vasz's Avatar
    It really can't come fast enough now.

    Looks like they bit off mmore than they could chew with this expantion. I hope its worth the wait. I dont like how they have removed a lot of the things we saw at Blizzcon.
  1. Matthew's Avatar
    rofl...

    Blizzard is rushing to try getting Cata out, so they make all these cool promises and then shoot the ideas down. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if they cancelled Worgens and Goblins and said "instead, players may purchase Worgen and Goblin masks for a mere 1000g each!"
  1. mmoc08f8e652d4's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sixpac View Post
    PotT has been praised as the big feature for advancing characters after you've hit 85. The accompanying archaelogy is now just a "fun" profession. That sounds like some of the best features have been dumped, and we're back to good ol' instance grinding. Too complex? I dunno. Maybe the true answer is: Sorry, but we're running out of time.
    I think you hit the nail on the head at the end there.

    Smells to me like they are rushing it out now, It's June, so when can we expect Cata? not for at least 3-4 months, that means we'll have had wotlk for 2 years, which in it's self is pretty grim given Blizzards 'we aim to have one expansion out per year'(paraphrasing)

    Can I see myself grinding ICC for another 4 months?.... not bloody likely.
  1. Greyce's Avatar
    F'n weak, Blizzard. F'n weak. Have already discontinued my subscription. I'll check back in 5-6 months.
  1. kappesante's Avatar
    1. vanilla - good, i loved it
    2. outland stuff - bad, it was boring
    3. lk - quite good, i had a lot of fun
    4. cata - seems bad


    i'll wait since #5. even numbers < odd numbers.
  1. Edlarel's Avatar
    Having cheered on Cata since we first learned about it, I find myself almost saddened that we're losing so much promised to us. I understand that they don't want to put out an incomplete expac, and that they don't want to make us wait (much) longer; but at this point, I feel kinda used. I mean, the hype behind guild talents, archaeology, and path of the titans have ended up being just that.

    Is this a precedent we can expect from Blizzard now that we've seen it done twice? When they announce their next expansion, will we hear about 3-5 more things that will be parked by release in their idea scrapyard along with custom dances and the three I mentioned above?
  1. Unleashed01's Avatar
    I already cancelled my subscription 2 months back due to my partner giving birth to our first child, i still check mmo for news updates on cata as i was planning to renew my scubcription when it was released but after reading the news there removing half the stuff they got us hyped about and that i paid money to watch at blizzcon its a joke, no other word for it but a complete joke. How can you advertise an event and show off all your plans for a game and then lateron say nahhh sorry guys we'r not doing that, surely there is something very wrong and immoral about that. Can you imagine at E3 a company saying we'r making this game etc etc and then Ooops that was just a joke. Personally i now see cata as the same old wow with 5 extra levels, 2 new classes and a facelift BORING!!! I think this game has finally run its course
  1. ItachiZaku's Avatar
    I don't like the guild changes. That's a bummer.
  1. rantus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Viertel View Post
    Of course not. People kept hyping this expansion to be more than it really is. The old world revamp is nothing more than changes to the game world that have been needed and they've simply been putting off until they could make some money with it. Now you're not even getting *MAJOR* key features that were promised on the expansion launch, nor are you getting anywhere near as many new areas to travel in compared to WotLK or even Outlands.

    Fail expansion is shaping up to be pretty fail right now.
    You're right, theres so much new things in cataclysm that BC and WotLK look like minor content patches in comparison, its no where near, its mile ahead. If a grindy glyph system was the major selling point of the exapnsino for you then yeah, it looks bad, but to me this expansion looks awesome.

    We're hardly losing anything they announced, the ability to choose guild talents and a flawed system that would act as another gs.

    How would PotT work? It was supposed to be a choice, with many different options so your guy could be unique. It would just boil down to another best thing per class with most options unused. To make nothing be OP most things would be crap. Pretty pointless

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