WoW: Cataclysm Beta watch

Path of the Titans – MIA!

Recently, a few gaming sites were invited in for a press tour, and for this tour the NDA on Cataclysm was lifted. This revealed some rather startling information including the removal of Path of the Titans and Guild Talents.

Note: For all of you who might have been saving and trying to buy heirlooms, to level 80-85, Stop Right Now.  Read the following in it’s entirety, before you continue.

A sad day for Cataclysm, with the removal of the Path of the Titans now official it leaves a lot of people wondering what exactly is going to make Cataclysm worthwhile for those at max level. I for one think this is somewhat disappointing, the Path of the Titans was one of the biggest things I was looking forward to in Cataclysm. Along with this change Archaeology has now been reduced to a secondary profession akin to cooking. It makes me wonder what I’m going to be spending a lot of my World of Warcraft time on now, I guess it’s back to the alts and the 3000+ quests Cataclysm has added.

Rumor has it “Their main team leads are off working on the new MMO”, I guess it wouldn’t entirely be that bad if they took their main team leads to the new MMO, it’s just a fact that old MMO’s start to become repetitive, so let Blizzard do what they do best and bring on bigger and better games! However, if you read the Blizz post, regarding the removal of the Path of the Titans, they do clearly state, it’s not true.

Guild Tree Gone Too!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems unavoidable in this weeks World of Warcraft news. In addition to the removal of Path of the Titans, Guild talent tree has been removed to be replaced by extra bonuses depending on the guild’s level.

I guess the biggest thing we have to look forward to in Cataclysm is the starting zones with a million Wargens and Goblins and the new Barrens . Hey there’s always Archaeology, now we get to dig things (that could have been used for Path of the Titans *sniff*) !.

Cataclysm Talent Calculators

Thanks to MMO-Champion for their fast and great work with their talent calculators, they’ve managed to get the Priest, Rogue, Druid, and Shaman tree “complete”. I say “complete” in quotes because the talents will probably be changing a few hundred times before Cataclysm comes out. That doesn’t stop me from planning out my druids new specs! Check it out!

So whats the good news?

Not all the latest press news is bad though, some more detailed information is summed up below (source)

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.

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.

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. 
There will be more Algalon-style encounters—ultra-hard optional bosses for hardcore players only.

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.

The classic Honor titles will be coming back and rewarded to the top teams each season. 
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.

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”.

This is an entry-level raid, just like Naxxramas in WotLK. 
It will feature 5 bosses, and an Algalon-style optional and ultra-hard boss. (The “horrific” secret?)

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

Bosses will include a djinn, a storm dragon, and a lesser elemental lord. 
You will be able to use regular flying mounts to fly from platform to platform. 
It looks really good. Really.

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.

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.

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.

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. 
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.

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.

At the top I told you not to farm heirlooms, if you plan to use them to level 80-85… instead, continue to sport them, if you plan to level a Worgen or Goblin or both!

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