Cataclysm NDA has been lifted (some info)

[Fenz]

Source mmo-champion

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 just lifted and a couple of information have been revealed.


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)

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.

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.

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".

[Fenz]

Zonechanges video (from Wowhead):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDXb4XnP ... r_embedded

[Karura]

Finally! Cho'gall in action!

[Yaur]

Well this sucks, Path of the Titans and Archeology where two of the big new things that seemed really interesting.
I hope we will get some replacing content, those medium glyphs are kinda meh..

[Blahran]

yeah feeling the same also removal of guild talents sucks

[Fenz]

I am not too bothered, didn't like getting a profession shoved down my throat. Guild stuff is ok, otherwise you might get guilds with a 1000+ members or something

[Raniz]

I agree with fenz on path of the titans and I don't think that removing the talent spec for guilds is that bad either. It would just end up being one spec that was best for raiding and then every raiding guild would go for that. This way they've just removed the need to place the points when leveling up.

[Joujubruju]

Quite a bunch of the cool guild talent stuff will be given with teh guild levels, so every guild will have teh same at each step they went for it to "normalize" the game IMHO.

The path of Titans was very cool and would have an actual impact in playstyle of each class, I really liked the concept, but not the connection with a secondary proff, I would like it to be something more interactive through teh game and not mining farm for example but I am 99% sure that things went wild with PvP and they removed this from the game. Anyway I like the guild stuff but I don't like PotT removed :/

[Altarion]

Quite a bunch of the cool guild talent stuff will be given with teh guild levels, so every guild will have teh same at each step they went for it to "normalize" the game IMHO.

The path of Titans was very cool and would have an actual impact in playstyle of each class, I really liked the concept, but not the connection with a secondary proff, I would like it to be something more interactive through teh game and not mining farm for example but I am 99% sure that things went wild with PvP and they removed this from the game. Anyway I like the guild stuff but I don't like PotT removed :/

This! omg its like.... we... think... the same! tihitihi

[sudo]

sounded too much like trials of atlantis in daoc .. which killed daoc

[Lateralus]

just dont hope this means pvp'ers have to be in pvp guilds, to get spots in premades etc

[Fenz]

GC on the removal of guildtalents (makes sense imo):

I commented on Paths in another thread.

Guilds aren't a new feature for WoW, and we are really sensitive about imposing any kind of structure on them that might make you feel like you aren't supposed to stay with your current guildies any longer. To that end, there were flaws with guild talents that we didn't like.

Guilds are, for the most part, groups of friends. We don't want features to drive wedges between them. We don't want you to guild hop looking for the talents that suit you best; we want you to play (or in many cases keep playing) with your friends. With a talent tree, guilds would naturally have different talent trees, which creates a reason to bail or guild hop that doesn't exist today. If you didn't like the direction the guild was taking (for example, you were a PvP guy with a GM focused on raid-progression) you might feel like you should leave. That can happen today of course, but you can also stay in a PvE guild just because you like the members even if you don't participate in the same content because you're not losing out on inherent guild benefits.

Furthermore, we felt like the decision-making, for many guilds, would be up to a relatively few people, possibly as few as the guild master. Talent trees work for classes because the decision is up to you. We didn't want to create the risk of drama over choosing those talents or even not being consulted in choosing them.

Another advantage of the perks system is that it's easily expandable. If we want to add new levels and / or perks in later patches or expansions, we can, without having to rejuggle a talent tree.