World of Warcraft Cataclysm Press Tour

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
Published on 2010-06-13 07:04 AM
415 Comments
Comments 410 Comments
  1. cool_freezer's Avatar
    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".

    sounds to me like c'thun is comming back and will be available after cho'gall dies, like the mechanic for bosses like algalon they hinted in a blue post a few days ago...
  1. XemnasXD's Avatar
    im starting to lose my faith in their ability to do things properly. Maybe i can see why they got rid of path of the titans, it sounded clunky to begin with, an optional profession that you needed to have that would give you things like extra health? Kinda weird but if they can't get heroic deadmines/SFK out for launch im starting to think we won't see alot of the launch things they promised...
  1. azrielen's Avatar
    Hmmmm. This really smacks of them running short on time. Bleh.

    I think the removal of guild talents is a good thing. That sounded overly-complicated. I hope thew rewards are fun.

    Will "medium glyphs" be something scribes craft, you think?

    However, the removal of Path of the Titans is crappy. How will our characters advance at 85? Same old boring gearing? Just five more levels, without path of the titans to provide endgame enhancement, sounds crap. I hope the devs spend some time tomorrow answering why it was removed.
  1. Stings's Avatar
    I were really looking forward to Guild Talents, sad to see it scrapped. On the other hand, i find it good that Archaelogy ain't that important, so i can allow myself to be lazy, but i'm probably gonna train it up anyway.
  1. KandyCane's Avatar
    Guys I don't think you read it. The guild bonuses are not gone, just the talents. You'll still get all those awesome bonuses that you'd otherwise have gotten through talents, but instead you don't have to gather any currency to spend on them, they become available automatically once your guild dings.

    Personally I'm a little disappointed in the Path of the Titans removal, I was reaally looking forward to it, but to be honest, it was insanely complicated, and made a secondary profession mandatory, which isn't what those are for.

    I think the Medium Glyphs sounds like fun. I can't wait to see Cho'gall in heroic mode, though I doubt my guild will have time to down him before the next content patch... Bah, I might actually have to sneak peak since it's only from heroic mode.
  1. mmoc2cfe61b4f1's Avatar
    with SFK and DM not being ready for the release there's hope they are actually gonna boost those dungeons with some new shit.

    or this:
    Heroic Deadmines / Shadowfang Keep - Must be so hard to just use old content maybe you should get more practice with it....it shouldnt be that difficuilt you could always just remove all mobs then add new level 85's in their places rather than tweaking the current ones....seems like blizzard just wanted some extra content in future patches and rather than actually providing future content they decided just to withhold on sfk and deadmines....
  1. mmocde26664bcf's Avatar
    If they really introduce Medium Glyphs, I hope that they will make them as much balanced as possible. Will Breakthrough stack with abilities that increases damage done by 10% like Enrage?
  1. Frozenbeef's Avatar
    Path of the Titans is gone- FU, what happened to be able to progress at level 85?...

    Guild Talents are gone - Ah well

    Archeology will be less important - FU, hai guys lets introduce a pointless new proffesion that no one will use just for lolz


    Raids & Dungeons Split - Ah well

    Rated Battlegrounds- FUFUFUFUFUFUFU , I hope they don't seriously screw up the 5man random bg or even the random heroic tool by doing this....


    Grim Batol Raid - Thats nice....for raiders....


    Skywall Raid - Yay again with the raiders


    Deepholm - Yay that sounds great.....at least we arn't going to kill her like everyother person we have come across...


    Heroic Deadmines / Shadowfang Keep - Must be so hard to just use old content maybe you should get more practice with it....it shouldnt be that difficuilt you could always just remove all mobs then add new level 85's in their places rather than tweaking the current ones....seems like blizzard just wanted some extra content in future patches and rather than actually providing future content they decided just to withhold on sfk and deadmines....



    Cataclysm Zone Changes - Yay loks really nice
  1. pallypower's Avatar
    I Just Don't Understand That they are changing alot of the stuff that was cool about this expansion....

    i understand About the Path of the titans because that would have made it way to confusing, and i wouldn't be able to understand it :} But it really bad if they are just doing glyphes again i hope they come out with something better then that!

    The guild talnet tree was cool!!! Sucks they are getting rid of it

    Overall glad they are lifting the NDA soon......
  1. Worgoblin's Avatar
    If this means a fall release, that's cool. Honestly, I'd rather have Cataclysm sooner and let them work on certain things to be part of patch 4.1 or whatever.
  1. mmocadda1d7289's Avatar
    Kai boub, start firing pictures on the front page
  1. Shorteh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Worgoblin View Post
    If this means a fall release, that's cool. Honestly, I'd rather have Cataclysm sooner and let them work on certain things to be part of patch 4.1 or whatever.
    Hate to burst your bubble, but "dance studio" was one of the main features named in the WOTLK introduction and was moved to "content patch" and oh look, it was moved out of this expansion.
  1. mmoc6af618f320's Avatar
    Not sure what to make outta this. They are removing quite a lot of things that were one of the main features of the expansion, delaying sfk/dm hc is silly too, I would think that its easier than making some new 5man. As far as I remmember we had 12 5mans after WotLK launch, so now they will bring us lets say 10 of them and after x months they will bring hc version of something we already know? Why not bring sfk+dm in the start and later add in something completely new...

    Also from wowhead
    Quote Originally Posted by ; View Post
    #
    Wrath of the Lich King had about 1000 new quests. Cataclysm has over 3000.
    Gief, me liekz!
  1. Scubasteve's Avatar
    I look forward to playing my character the exact same way I do now, with nothing new added whatsoever.
  1. Worgoblin's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shorteh View Post
    Hate to burst your bubble, but "dance studio" was one of the main features named in the WOTLK introduction and was moved to "content patch" and oh look, it was moved out of this expansion.
    These things happen. Something might look good on paper and just not work out. We're not in the WOW design meetings, I'm pretty sure they're not all like "lawl guys let's just get high this weekend instead of working on cataclysm"
  1. zarbus's Avatar
    Unless something happened since Bou leaked, them saying Stormwind has been "completely redesigned" is salt in the goddamn wound.
  1. Hinalover's Avatar
    IGN just posted a new preview for Cataclysm based on their visit.

    http://pc.ign.com/articles/109/1096848p1.html
  1. Thomasorosz84's Avatar
    I was kind of bummed on the changed they removed. But I licked on the Wowhead link. And there is a lot more info the press tour. just one info I saw was Two trade district in Orgrimmar and Stormwind that's kinda cool.
  1. Hinalover's Avatar
    Archaeologists will be able to assemble a skeletal raptor mount, and grant raid buffs by deciphering runes in dungeons, lead system designer Greg Street told Eurogamer.
    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ov...-wow-cataclysm
  1. Meebo's Avatar
    Disappointed about the removal of PoT and Guild Talents/Currency. I just hope they work Guild Rep/Exp so it makes being in a Guild just that bit more important. I'm hoping that they work it so there are fewer pug raids asking for ridiculous GS numbers and people actually form or join Guilds so they can progress in raids more.
    One of the things I hated most about WotLK was being able to purchase Tier items with badges, imo it diminished the need for a guild and is what helped make pugs get so out of control to this date.
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