WoW: Cataclysm - SPOILERS WITHIN

I did! *makes a fast exit*

OT: Anyone have any info on the Titan stuff?

edit: Oh and at BC launch, you could get to your early 20's in both the blood elf and draenei newb zones in 12 hours. You'd hit 25 by about 15 hours /played. And yes, I was in the beta and the first time through didn't take more than a couple of hours more. The zones were just that much better layouts.

Blizzard wrote:

Titan's Path
Philosophically, it works like this. Leveling up is fun. You get new gear constantly, and every time you ding, you get new stats, new ranks of spells and possibly new spells. You improve every single hour you play, if not more frequently.

When you hit max level, this really slows down. If you raid or PvP you might get a new item once a week if you're lucky, and aside from gear, rewards are very infrequent.

The idea behind the paths is to offer max-level character progression over time that isn't tied to gear.

The feature is much more robust than this, but at a very conceptual level imagine that at level 85 you got a new talent point every week just for logging in. The rewards are slower than during the leveling period, but they are rewards that exist independent of gear. However on the other hand, you don't feel the need to race through them (in fact you can't) if you are focused on getting to max level and they don't bloat your spellbook with as many abilities as gaining actual whole levels (though they will add a few). Over time, the actual discussions about how to build a character will likely change and evolve in interesting ways. The new point might give you a reason to log in on non-raid nights or even if you've gotten a little burned out on raiding.

The mantra is "gated, not grindy." They will require you to do something, but they are also designed with the idea that you can't kill yourself trying to blast through them as fast as possible.

and this:

Blizzard wrote:

Path of the Titans
Path of the Titans is another great new feature we covered that encompasses rewarding progression at max level. This new feature implements a third new type of glyph called “Ancient Glyph,” and as you can see, it is themed after the titans. These special glyphs are not associated with the Inscription tradeskill, and are also not specific to any class.

You’re able to unlock a path and progress within that path as you continuously engage in different aspects of the game. As you advance, you will be able to unlock special glyph sockets for your character. You can also respec your path at any time, in case you decide to change your path.

You earn these ancient glyphs by using the new Archaeology secondary profession to recover and trade in titan artifacts. Each path will have 2-3 choices per rank, and again, you can respec if you decide to go down another path.
- Path of Aman’Thul, the High Father
- Path of Eonar, the Lifebinder
- Path of Norgannon, the Dreamweaver
- Path of Khaz’Goroth, the Shaper
- Path of Aggramar, the Avenger
- Path of Golganneth, the Thunderer

You can earn progress down any of these paths by doing things such as questing, raiding, PvP, trade skills, etc., with a possible weekly cap for maximum progress. Over time, you’ll be able to unlock new ancient glyphs that will greatly benefit your character.

This new system will be accessible to all players at max level. Players will eventually be able to reach new ranks for ancient glyphs, encouraging them to further develop their characters. There is also a possibility that we will introduce whole new paths in future content patches.

I had a similar issue with gear the other day that makes me in favor of the streamlining of different stats. Honestly, we all know I'm a very mathy person, but the choice I had to make was:

Slight Strength, Defense, Expertise, Hit Rating

vs

Slight Stamina, Dodge, Parry, Block Value

So, I ended up calculating the threat side (Str & Hit & Exp vs BV & Stam), then the avoidance side (Def vs Dodge & Parry), and finally the mitigation side (Str vs BV & Stam). The math I used in this one made my brain hurt trying to figure out which ended up being an overall better item for my toon.

After the changes, the comparison would look something like:

Strength, Expertise, Hit Rating

vs

Stamina, Dodge, Parry

Here, I'd see the threat from Expertise and Strength vs the slight amount I get from Stamina (until 3.2.2). Then, I'd see the overall mitigation I'd get from Dodge/Parry and Stamina over the slight amount of strength.

Overall, the choice is alot clearer in this case of whether I want more avoidance and mitigation, or more threat.

And moreso, the choice is still there for me to make as a mathy person and not the case of just going "ilvl 226 vs ilvl 219"

When an addon like RatingBuster almost becomes required for idiots like me (which Blizzard then incorporates into their default UI), you know some sort of stat clean-up is necessary.

I'm looking forward to the revamp.

Ibby wrote:

When an addon like RatingBuster almost becomes required for idiots like me (which Blizzard then incorporates into their default UI), you know some sort of stat clean-up is necessary.

I'm looking forward to the revamp.

Amen.

Ibby wrote:

When an addon like RatingBuster almost becomes required for idiots like me (which Blizzard then incorporates into their default UI), you know some sort of stat clean-up is necessary.

I'm looking forward to the revamp.

I tend to blame my complete and utter need for that addon to complete and utter laziness.

I played the alt game quite a bit. As of a few weeks ago, I was splitting my time between two level 80s, three level 79s, and one or two mid 70s characters depending on what I simply felt like playing that night. Not being much of raider nowadays, this is what kept the game interesting to me.

It also made me lazy when it came to keeping up with all the class changes each patch, so I would depend more on RatingBuster to remind me that "oh, spirit is GOOD now" or "feral dodge is down 15%." I just hope that my interest returns once Cataclysm does go live.

Good-ole-days-syndrome tells me I actually did enjoy healing for MC raids back in vanilla WoW with my +35 healing stats and/or fire resist gear. Or maybe I just liked watching 39 other social misfits fight struggle through the drama of the month every time we dropped a new boss.

So one of the main guys behind the leak at Something Awful just received an inside tip that the Friends and Family Alpha for Cataclysm is starting next week.

F&F for Wrath began around May 2008. The game was ready (more or less) by November. If Cataclysm F&F starts at the beginning of September, we could see Cata out as soon as March 2010. That'd be insane.
Mordiceius wrote:

So one of the main guys behind the leak at Something Awful just received an inside tip that the Friends and Family Alpha for Cataclysm is starting next week.

F&F for Wrath began around May 2008. The game was ready (more or less) by November. If Cataclysm F&F starts at the beginning of September, we could see Cata out as soon as March 2010. That'd be insane.

Well, Blizz did say they had been working on it since before WOTLK came out.

Believer in human nature that I am ... I suspect we'll hear more of a release date once SWTOR announces theirs, but if Blizz are as smart as everyone believes, I reckon it'll be wrapped up ready well before then

No new neutral city in Cataclysm, confirmed.

Mordiceius wrote:

No new neutral city in Cataclysm, confirmed.

What's interesting to me about this is that, if true in the spirit and not just the letter (meaning, say, they could do a new city for each faction, which would be functionally identical), it may add some old-school complexity to meeting up with people for enchants, trades, etc. Now everyone meets in Dalaran, and before that, Shattrath. Shatt is now a ghost town, and Dalaran seems likely to follow.

Unless the Kirin Tor suddenly decides to move Dalaran back home or some other key location after the fight with Arthas and the Cataclysm...

I have to wonder if people have got to love the portals too much. IF used to be 'home' to the alliance for most people, and if you wanted to go somewhere like AQ it was a bit of a trek. since TBC the portals to major cities have become part of the furniture because these new cities were made 'home'. I wonder if they'll add (high level?) portals to every city.

Seeing as they're rebuilding the world, and some ports (such as auberdine) have been destroyed/captured, will they take another look at the transport network of gryphons/bats/chimera things/boats/trams/zepplins.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Shatt is now a ghost town, and Dalaran seems likely to follow.

There's absolutely no reason to abandon Dalaran at this point because it has not just the portals but all of the high-level trainers. I haven't seen anything definite about where another set of all-world portals and high-level trainers (the ones who will have recipes from 450 to 525) might be. Anyone know?

It would make sense to have them in the capital cities. Then again, you can stick 'em in Dalaran, and you can get back to Ironforge et al in a heartbeat.

Enix wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Shatt is now a ghost town, and Dalaran seems likely to follow.

There's absolutely no reason to abandon Dalaran at this point because it has not just the portals but all of the high-level trainers. I haven't seen anything definite about where another set of all-world portals and high-level trainers (the ones who will have recipes from 450 to 525) might be. Anyone know?

It would make sense to have them in the capital cities. Then again, you can stick 'em in Dalaran, and you can get back to Ironforge et al in a heartbeat.

All I know is that no new capital cities are being put in the game. The Worgen will be having Stormwind as a capital and the Goblins will have Org.

Doubtful any of the racial cities will be getting portals either. But with flying in Azeroth, things shouldn't be too bad.

I for one won't miss the lag monster that is Dalaran.

I do have fond memories of the lag in IF being so bad I'd inevitably wind up in the chasm!

If there's no new place to congregate, I assume IF and (wherever horde people go) will go back to being defacto standard, with Stormwind a little higher on the low level players.

I'm fairly stoked not to see Horde and Alliance playing kissy kiss in the rear view of the same city anymore.

Seth wrote:

I'm fairly stoked not to see Horde and Alliance playing kissy kiss in the rear view of the same city anymore.

This. A thousand times this.

Seth wrote:

I'm fairly stoked not to see Horde and Alliance playing kissy kiss in the rear view of the same city anymore.

Now that you mention it, not sharing a city is the only thing that makes sense in light of bringing the antagonism and war back into Azeroth.

Mordiceius wrote:
Seth wrote:

I'm fairly stoked not to see Horde and Alliance playing kissy kiss in the rear view of the same city anymore.

This. A thousand times this.

I strongly agree.

I think it's time for Blizzard to go off the deep end. What they should do is switch every server to PvP completely unannounced. Make every place you step be open and contested.

If they were really creative they could start it with a bar fight in Dal. A sloshed dwarf spills his ale on some overly sensitive blood elf and a fist fight breaks out. The fight escalates until it turns into an all out rumble in the streets of Dalaran. From there the rest of the world is sucked in to an all out faction war!

I wouldn't mind seeing the world (old or new) used with different game modes, basically a different server with different rules, a different game entirely. How about a 'full war' server with no PvE content (besides NPC guards) and conquerable towns. I guess all sorts of ideas would be possible if every game under the sun allowed gameplay mods.

I think maybe people wishing for more open world PVP weren't around when open world PVP was the only kind. It was the opposite of fun.

Annoyed that there won't be a Worgen shaman. It's my favourite class and I was looking forward to trying WoW again with a friend that plays Alliance. (Draeni doesn't appeal.)

Mordiceius wrote:

No new neutral city in Cataclysm, confirmed.

Thank frack for that...Dalaran is a freakin' slideshow for me every time I try to login. Takes a good 10minutes before things settle down and I can get far enough away from the city for my framerate to hit double digits.

1Dgaf wrote:

Annoyed that there won't be a Worgen shaman. It's my favourite class and I was looking forward to trying WoW again with a friend that plays Alliance. (Draeni doesn't appeal.)

Dwarf?

This will probably get me back into WoW, and I will most likely be bringing friends. I agree with the press sentiment that this is basically how they are going to make a sequel.

And it answers a nagging problem I have had since I played, why no Horde Goblins? Lore be damned, if they can make the Undead Horde, I could at least be a Goblin sapper of some sort.

I like the idea of opening up more classes to the races. Let's be honest, if they can make Gnome warriors, is a Tauren Paladin any more odd?

Flying in the Azeroth, combined with the lower level flight and the revamped quests will make life a lot easiest.

But what I am most excited about is being able to get to all of those dungeons that I never could finish. I doubt you could PuG Onyxia now, but I missed so much of that. It seems like you could eather do dungeons or Arena, and I chose the latter.

stevenmack wrote:
Mordiceius wrote:

No new neutral city in Cataclysm, confirmed.

Thank frack for that...Dalaran is a freakin' slideshow for me every time I try to login. Takes a good 10minutes before things settle down and I can get far enough away from the city for my framerate to hit double digits.

Seriously? I get a bit of framerate chug for the first 5-10 seconds after I log in, but I typically hover around 15-30 FPS in Dalaran (60+ everywhere else).

Landshrk83 wrote:
stevenmack wrote:
Mordiceius wrote:

No new neutral city in Cataclysm, confirmed.

Thank frack for that...Dalaran is a freakin' slideshow for me every time I try to login. Takes a good 10minutes before things settle down and I can get far enough away from the city for my framerate to hit double digits.

Seriously? I get a bit of framerate chug for the first 5-10 seconds after I log in, but I typically hover around 15-30 FPS in Dalaran (60+ everywhere else).

Yeah same here.