Cataclysm

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Things posted here are those announced at Blizzcon or on the forums. Items not confirmed by Blizz will be noted.


Contents

Updates Since Blizzcon 09

  • Tom Chilton stated that they are definitely looking at additional old dungeons to offer heroic versions like they are doing with SFK and Deadmines.
  • SFK will be updated to work with the new Worgen story lines.

Lore/Storyline

While the attention of the Horde and Alliance remained fixed upon Northrend, an ancient evil has been lying dormant within Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane. Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth, nursing his hatred for the inferior creatures that infest the surface realm...and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire.

Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.

The face of Azeroth is altered forever as the destruction left in Deathwing's wake reshapes the land and reveals secrets long sealed away. Players will be able to re-experience familiar zones across Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, rewrought by the cataclysm and filled with new opportunities for adventure.[1]

New Zones

World Changes

  • Every zone in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms will be impacted by the Cataclysm.
  • Outland will have little change except for quests being redone to line up with new events. Currently no plan to make any other changes to Outland.
  • Northrend will have some changes, but not nearly as much as Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms

Kalimdor Changes

Eastern Kingdoms Changes

Races/Classes

Non-Specific (or Broad) Changes

  • Every healer class can now dispell magic, the niches will other debuffs.
  • Hybrid DPS is satisfactory for now, but are watching Pure DPS classes.
  • All old racials are being looked at to bring them up to par with new classes.

Game Features/UI

  • Dance Studio is still being worked hard on. Several dances are now done.
  • Guild Advancement system announced.
  • Guild Achievements
  • Path of the Titans - new character skill system.
  • No plan to allow more than 10 characters per realm.
  • New Looking for Guild system.
  • Guild UI is being totally redone - allows guild members to view other's profession books.
  • Guild Bonus will now allow a certain percentage of gold from boss kills to go into guild bank.
  • Able to invite other guilds to events.
  • No plans for Guild Alliance or merger system. Guild alliances will not be able to take any benefit of the new guild systems unless they are in the same guild.
  • Guild bank slots may be purchased with guild currency.
  • Paid guild realm transfer service is being looked at.
  • No guild housing or halls.
  • Potential to allow all "alts" to be linked to a certain person in the UI for easy identification.
  • Some integration with he mobile armory with guild features.

Game Play/Questing Changes

  • Phasing can now add and remove terrain based on your progress. Coasts will be progressively more flooded depending on how far you are in a storyline for example.
  • Phases will now be sharable with people helping on quests.
  • Level 85 will be new max.
  • Each class will receive a new ability at Level 81, 83 and 85.
  • Classes will not receive any new talents. Current 51-point talent will remain, though players will still get 5 more talent points.
  • Outland questing will be re-tuned to fit new content and help leveling time.
  • May add mentoring system to let people of different levels play together without power leveling - maybe "downleveling" but not for sure.

Talents/Spells

  • Introduction of Mastery.
  • Talents will be redone dramatically. Some changes include removing passive bonuses such as "hit" bonuses.
  • Spell Ranks will be removed and spells will now scale with level.
  • No intention to allow more than 2 specs right now.
  • Passive talents removed from trees - will automatically be awarded once a point is placed in a certain tree.
  • Spell Power, Cruelty, Fire and Brimstone talents for example are eliminated.
  • More talents like Body and Soul, Juggernaut, and Lightning Overload.
  • Passive bonuses will increase damage, healing, and tanking.

Flying Mounts

  • Looking at the option of people with a 310% flying mount already, to allow all other 280% mounts to automatically default to 310%.
  • Flying will be permitted in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms at level 85.
  • Multi-passenger flying mounts are being looked at.
  • Craftable 310% mounts are not likely right now, but may be considered if the player already has completed an achievement awarding one.

Gear/Item Changes

Gear Changes

  • All low level gear will be updated and revamped. Gear like that which award agility & spirit are gone.
  • Shadowmourne - You won't get Frostmourne in Icecrown but Death Knights and Hunters will get a Legendary Axe named Shadowmourne. Potential plan for Frostmourne hinted at down the road.
  • New DPS Caster legendary will be added in one of the first raids.
  • Feral Druids will eventually get legendary, but not anytime soon.
  • Corrupted Ashbringer will never be cleanse-able.
  • Reviewing option to increase bag size, including the current 16-slot back pack.
  • Spirit will be removed from Shadow Priest and Moonkin gear.
  • Not sure on whether heirlooms will scale to 85.
  • Guilds will be able to craft heirloom items for any slot.

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, there are plans to streamline the statistics found on items. We want to remove all unnecessary stats, make all existing stats understandable, and make all "core" stats more appealing. Here are some examples of such plans.

Stat Changes

  • MP5: This will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability.
  • Spell Power: Spell Power is being removed from items as well. Don't panic, we'll be improving Intellect so that it provides mana and Spell Power.
  • Attack Power: We're removing Attack Power from items as well. Instead, we're allowing Agility to provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers. Strength will provide the appropriate amount of Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers.
  • Defense: The Defense statistic is also being removed from items so that players no longer have to worry about juggling around "the cap." Tanks will receive the necessary anti-crit from talents, like Survival of the Fittest.
  • Armor Penetration: This ability is too confusing and "mathy." It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. More on that later!
  • Haste: Will also increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus. Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit.
  • Block: Block Value is being removed. Blocking will now always mitigate a percentage of damage.

Stamina: Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed.

Professions

  • Archaeology announced. New secondary profession.
  • Reforging - will allow crafters to customize gear.
  • Multi-gains will be added, while you level up your trade skills, rare items will give you more points as you skill up. (Rare items will give you 5 points for example, while green bracers will only give one).
  • Gathering should be a little more fun.
  • Profession limits will remain at 2 primary.
  • Engineering is a very fun tradeskill, but it's either amazing or it sucks and everybody drops it. More convenient items like Jeeves or Wormhole Generator will be added to the profession in the future to get back to the roots of Engineering.
  • Fishing will also have some big changes, no details yet but it's going to be more fun.
  • All professions will be improved to help leveling skills easier.

Known Bosses/Key Players

Dungeons/Instances

Raids - 4 will open at launch.

New Dungeons - 8 new and 2 old world heroics at launch.

New Heroic Versions

Unconfirmed or Launched After Patch 4.0

  • Tol Barad Prison - Similar to Wintergrasp Fortress. Raid available to controlling faction.
  • Gnomeregan - unconfirmed
  • Unknown [16]

PVP

General

  • Season rank and honor titles returning.
  • Access to epic ground mounts through rated BGs.

Battlegrounds

  • New battlegrounds (up to 3) will be added including Battle of Gilneas.
  • Tol Barad Island will be a Wintergrasp style zone with battles every few hours for control of the Tol Barad Prison.
  • Rated Battlegrounds will allow players to get arena points and access the same gear as Arena players. If a BG is lost, you don't drop in rating.New UI
  • Battleground XP will be revisited to increase values, but concerned about XP leeching in AV and similar zones.
  • Weekly featured Rated Battleground.
  • Two ratings for BGs, personal and match making rating.
  • Guild Achievements & Level points will come from rated BGs.

Arenas

  • New arena maps, undetermined number, will be rolled out as well.

Sources

Sources for this information is from Blizzard through Blizzcon DirecTV feed, WOW Forums, WOW Website; also WOW.com, MMO-Champion.com, and Twitter feeds.

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