Cata Press Event

[Fiddlesticks]

So, it looks like guild talents are no longer "optional". You won't spec your guild as fit, you will earn rewards as your guild levels up. Mounts w/ TabardBanners.. Heirlooms, etc.

http://www.wow.com/2010/06/13/catacl...ency-scrapped/

Raid Lockouts are becoming more forgiving, and there will be more Algalon style encounters unlockable only by defeating the final boss on hard mode.

http://www.wow.com/2010/06/13/catacl...ics-announced/

Minor Cata Lore information
http://www.wow.com/2010/06/13/catacl...ails-revealed/

Overall information
http://www.wow.com/2010/06/13/catacl...nsion-details/

[Fiddlesticks]

The 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)

Archaeology is less important with it being gone

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:[list][*]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.

Heroic VC/SFK

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

Heirlooms

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.

[daviddoran]

Wow, friggin awesome. With the diverse kind of stuff our guild does, we're gonna have it made in terms of guild advancement. Stuff like 10k, quests completed, shit with the sheer amount of toons we all have im sure we already have that done... I am excited for cata! Maybe even excited enough to finish lvling my other teams.....

[Souca]

The Path of the Titans is gone
Archaeology is less important with it being gone
Heroic VC/SFK
Heirlooms

Looks like the powers that be didn't like the possibility of launch slipping past this November.

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.

Think it's a real shame on the guild stuff, since they took it from being something you could tailor to your needs to making it just another grind. New members in the guild have earn the right to guild perks by getting rep? Fuck that. If it's my guild, I should decide if/when people get a perk of being in it. Now there is just another thing for you to miss out on if you don't play enough to earn it. While it does promote loyalty since you won't get something better by jumping to a higher level guild, it seems a little crappy to make you earn rep.

- Souca -

[Kang]

the current heirlooms will stop growing after level 80.

boooooo

there will be a whole new crop of heirlooms for cataclysm. Goblins and worgen will be able to start using heirlooms immediately at launch.

yay

[daviddoran]

Should be interesting to see how the new heirlooms work. I hope that you can buy upgraded versions of the items at lvl 85 similarly to how you buy upgrades to T10 gear now. If its all new gear, i'd hope that it would be like a helm, or legs, or gloves, so you can stack them for more exp to lvl 80 then just use the new stuff to get you to 85.

[alcattle]

Not sure how it will work out, I doubt they will give more than 25% extra, unless it does not stack with RAF, then maybe 35%. Trying to get some Heirlooms now to start some new toons. Right now only have one set on one account

[daviddoran]

I'm also interested in the "downshift" idea. It might mean that if raids are similar in difficulty to ICC, that we could start out a raid, all of us boxing in 25 man mode, help get more loot, higher chance of that item we really need, and gear for our slaves, then as difficulty increases, drop down to 10 man to finish it. And the flexible raid lockouts mean that boxers can experiment with killing the first boss in a raid without worrying about getting a raid main saved, you just wont get loot when you do it again with your raiding guild. Awesome!

[Fiddlesticks]

You won't be able to do it again with you raiding guild.

If you kill a boss, you can no longer kill him that week. You will have to wait till your raid guild finishes killing said boss, and then join the group.

[Fiddlesticks]

Think it's a real shame on the guild stuff, since they took it from being something you could tailor to your needs to making it just another grind. New members in the guild have earn the right to guild perks by getting rep? Fuck that. If it's my guild, I should decide if/when people get a perk of being in it. Now there is just another thing for you to miss out on if you don't play enough to earn it. While it does promote loyalty since you won't get something better by jumping to a higher level guild, it seems a little crappy to make you earn rep.

- Souca -

Guild Perks / Leveling
Guild Talents "removal"
The only difference in the way we are handling the guild talents is it will be possible to get all of them instead of having one person in your guild pick and choose which ones you got. The feature has always focused on leveling your guild to unlock new perks. In fact, you're getting more perks this way than you would have if the decisions had been exclusive.

I understand not giving the GM all the power, but having a group customization would be fun.
But why would that be fun? Let's walk through it for a bit. Do you think it would be fun to try and recruit new members because you chose the "right" talent build? Do you think it would be fun to try and argue with your members about what the right talents were to take? Do you think it would be fun to feel like you should leave your guild because they took a lot of talents that didn't affect your play style? Those were all the problems we ran into as we started implementing things. Instead of the feature being exciting, it was causing a lot of anxiety for everyone here who was in a guild. Guilds are supposed to be about friends -- not min maxxing guild benefits. There are plenty other aspects of the game where you can min-max.

Guild Perks and Items rewards
There are two categories of rewards. The perks are things earned by the guild. If you join a high-level guild, you get those benefits immediately and you lose them if you bail on the guild. They are passive bonuses and a couple of spells, not items. Separately, there are also items you can purchase. The items are yours to keep even if you leave the guild. In order to discourage guild hopping, you have to make some kind of investment in the guild. But you can still choose to leave if in the future you just find that you'd rather be with someone else.

Guild Leveling
There are many ways to earn guild levels. We want to make sure nearly every existing guild has a shot at them all. The only question will be how fast you level.

I think it has merit. If I spent my whole time in a guild, I wouldn't want some douchebag hopping in.. buying the cool stuff we JUST unlocked.. and then leaving.. it would detract from the meaning of the experience.