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Blizz axes most Cataclysm features
hobo9766
Member UncommonPosts: 457
Blizz has decided to remove all the promised new features of cataclysm. Why should I buy this now?
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
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)
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. (Details on Wowhead)
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.
Information gathered from other sites:
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. (Details on Wowhead)
There will be more Algalon-style encounters—ultra-hard optional bosses for hardcore players only. (Details on Wowhead)
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.
Information gathered from other sites:
The classic Honor titles will be coming back and rewarded to the top teams each season. (Details on WoR)
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. (Details on WoR)
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".
Information gathered from other sites:
This is an entry-level raid, just like Naxxramas in WotLK. (Details on Wowhead)
It will feature 5 bosses, and an Algalon-style optional and ultra-hard boss. (The "horrific" secret?) (Details on Wowhead)
Skywall Raid
As expected, Al'akir will be the end boss of the Skywall raid instance.
Information gathered from other sites:
Bosses will include a djinn, a storm dragon, and a lesser elemental lord. (Details on Wowhead)
You will be able to use regular flying mounts to fly from platform to platform. (Details on Wowhead)
It looks really good. Really. (Details on Wowhead)
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.
Information gathered from other sites:
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. (Details on Wowhead)
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.
Information gathered from other sites:
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. (Details on Wowhead)
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. (Details on Wowhead)
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. (Details on Wowhead)
Comments
It looks like 2 things are gone, not most. Although it sucks path of the titans is gone, that was the coolest thing about Cataclysm.
I see Activision is hard at work pushing for a faster release. They pretty much scrapped 2 of the things I was looking forward to and the fact that you cant do rated BGs with randoms sucks. POTT was one of the biggest things about advancing you toon and they just scrapped it. Haven't played in months was hoping Cata would be a good change now it just sounds like more of the same.
The other thread about this was easier to read, though less detailed - provided more info. I can understand the possibility of threads being created at the same time, but when they are created after periods of time - it would be so much easier if we could keep things together instead of having to run around in a bunch of threads on the same thing to see what people think or posting what we think over and over wondering if anybody cares about our opinions.
And to the person that said it only looked like they dropped two things no - lol, they dropped more than just two. Some people are wondering just what will actually make it into the game by the time this finishes getting butchered - they may not even have enough left for it to be considered a full 3.4.x patch...it may end up being a 3.3.4 type of thing, lol... so sad, but so expected.
A shame too, cause I might have been able to talk people into returning to WoW with what Cata looked to be offering.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
I'm not so sure about why they decided to scrap off some features people were looking forward to.It may have to do with the new competitors releases, but Blizzard is not particularly known for delivering products just for the sake of it.
Maybe they didn't feel satisfied with them and decided to focus instead on some solid ground. New features can make or break a game. Look where they are now, I believe they can only go downwards from there.
It's almost unconceivable for them to gather even more subscribers. I mean how many MMO's are due to release in 2010-2011? I'd say 5 at least. I'm only counting the big fish.
Maybe it's time they moved on towards another MMO. I didn't start playing WoW for graphics, but WoW2 with an updated gfx engine would have worked much better for me.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
If I recall correctly, you were going to never be able to do rated battlegrounds with randoms, as it's supposed to be an alternative to arena it makes sense you'd need a pre-made.
The removal of Path of the Titans does suck. However, it probably would have just become another way for the elite minority to disparage you if you selected the wrong path choices. I really hope they add cosmetic glyphs like they were supposed to for WotLK, such as green fire for warlocks, or Glyph of the Red Lynx for Druids that changed their cat form into a red lynx.
I hope archaeology still retains some nice purpose, such as Cooking/Fishing do with things like stat food and feasts.
I'm not entirely sure if it's Activision pushing for a fast release or if Blizzard is scrapping elements that just aren't working properly and would only delay the release until next year. After 3.3.5 there isn't going to be any new content until the 3.9/4.0 patch. 3.3.5 isn't going to keep people occupied for that long, especially considering that it's a singular raid boss who is a side-step from ICC.
They also axed the Dance studio from Wotlk.. but millions still bought, features get axed all the time in all games.
But as pointed out they axed two features.
Maybe PoT was not as fun as blizzard planned and in true blizzard style it gets axed, not saying an alternate leveling system would not be fun but maybe in play tests PoT was not fun.
And guild talents meh! it would be cookie cutter before long anyway plus it would be hard to add talents that were usful yet did not upset the balance of raids etc.
seems like a big expensive patch now.
I would say.. reworked, not axed.
For example- your guild will still earn "things" as it levels up - you just won't have to click in talents anymore (you'd get the same ones anyway).
"If all you can say is... "It's awful, it's not innovative, it's ugly, it's blah.." Then you're an unimaginative and unpolished excuse for human life" -eburn
I could just feel the bias in the title of the thread. How are most gone, when they just removed path of the titans and changing guild talents? like lets ignore the fact that this expansion for example brings in 3000 quests when wrath brought in 1000.
All? Did you actually think PoT was the flagship feature of Cata? lol
Lets focus on what we do get;
5 new levels - 80 to 85
7 (i think) new level 80-85 zones (including an underwater zone)
Rated battlegrounds that get players access to the same PvP gear as arenas
New 1-60 zonecity revamp
3000 new quests
2 new races plus starting zones and cities
1 new battle ground - 10v10 CTF
1 new PvP Zone (wintergrasp 2.0)
2 New secondary professions Archeology and Reforging
New Race/Class combos - gnome priest anyone?
Flying in azeroth (something I DONT look forward to)
2 new raids
A bunch of dungeons (I don't think they have said how many)
Guild leveling & some new guild features and managment
Some old 1-60 dungeons get Heroic modes
Changes to Hunter and warlock resource mechanics
10man raids get the same quality of gear as 25mans (only 25man's get more)
Reworked raid lockout mechanics - not all of your 25man online to continue from last night? ok lets roll with 2x10man and each raid starts off where the 25man left off.
RealID and cross server chat (if ya into that)
All new gear, items, mounts etc etc
Attunements are coming back - yay!
I forget
New stat mastery system
Reworked talent tree's - more usful talents than required talants
Some states being removed or merged - streamlined
And some comments make by various blues that make me very happy, they want to reduce AOE in tanking and DPS, and bring the focus back to CC.
Additions to the glyph system with "medium" glyphs that change the effects of your abilities rather then just improve them as current glyphs do.
If this patch costs $40 then so be it
I agree on the guild talents. The purpose of the guild play is to create a "competitive" guild progression In PvE and PvP. As such they create a strong guild play with common goals. Keep it simple in mechanics.
The PvP BG competition (with the guild play behind it) is one of those possible "winners" they came up with in the last years. This form of competitive PvP is so much easier to implement and support than the usual PVE hunger of players.
I think PoT was perhaps too "heavy" to be implemented in an already 6 year old game in which a lot of players already have several "maxed out characters". Following this end game leveling for 3-4 characters would simply be too much work.
Also PoT was probably too risky to be implemented in WOW as it would change its core end game.
There is a big chance that this kind of end game leveling system will surface in their new MMo. It's simply the kind of things you would implement from scratch in a new game.
Its embarrassing when an NPC compliments you in an MMo, the only relevant, cool and epic things come from players whispering you Grtz, mate, we did it. copyright Pilnkplonk
Not a good thing to cut two features that players were excited about. Especially with the competition the game will have soon.
The change to raid lock outs to be similar to LotRO (IE you can join another run as long as no bosses you killed in your first run are up) is pretty huge. This allows people on their alts, who get locked into a terrible raid instance with baddies, to still be able to join another.
Or if your guild isn't progressing all that much, you can still go with your guild, and finish with someone else, if need be.
The information about that competition is not exactly "overwhelming" either.
A very slow combat paced PVE-only Asian game, a single player liniair adventure game with NPC talkies on line and a promised open world version of GW1 which was already postponed 3 times in the last 2 years, is even less impressive than what was promised back in 2007 and 2008..
The problem is that Blizzard now has to decide which new mechanics to save for their next MMO project and which new technology to implement in the game that will run for the next 5 years succesfully - even on complete auto mode (see China).
Its embarrassing when an NPC compliments you in an MMo, the only relevant, cool and epic things come from players whispering you Grtz, mate, we did it. copyright Pilnkplonk
I wish they would delete these heroic versions of DM and SK. These dungeons are already rerun massively since the new LFG tool.
The idea behind it was great back in the summer of 2009, but since the introduction of the new grouping tool, these dungeons are already actively played in their proper format.
Its embarrassing when an NPC compliments you in an MMo, the only relevant, cool and epic things come from players whispering you Grtz, mate, we did it. copyright Pilnkplonk
I would prefer an heroic UBR or ZG
As I said in the other thread, I'm more disappointed in the fact that I thought there was going to be an alternate advancement in the xpac. I was actually looking forward to it for that reason. Now the end game will be raids, just like it is now. If you enjoy that type of thing then this xpac will be great for you. The rated battlegrounds seemed cool except that its for premades only. That's understandable to impliment it that way but I feel they are just raids but for pvp.
If the new content (80-85) lasts a month or so I might buy this just for that and cancel my account. Otherwise I'll probably pass on it.
I think those PvP fights need not be made by premades only. To be counted as guild PvP I believe I read they need a 2/3 participation of the same guild. The rest is done with a LFG tool (I think).
You could still enter rated BG's on an individual basis or with some friends and apply with the LFG tool.
You do need to like PvP of course, but IF well implemented it would give a great boost to competitive PvP play (certainly between guilds) and the rankings and titles will have a very long lasting appeal.
Much more lasting value than any PVE content. I could run a WSG for a 1000 times, I can hardly stand a raid run for 10 times.
Its embarrassing when an NPC compliments you in an MMo, the only relevant, cool and epic things come from players whispering you Grtz, mate, we did it. copyright Pilnkplonk
I love how people just don't read and then run there mouths. These 2 features are now just implemented in a different way.
Path of the titans is implemented in the form of medium glyphs and the guild talent tree is all that was removed. There are still guild talebts, u just get them in a different way at different levels. Read people read.
If its how you say then that's much better. The AA and the rated BG's were the two features I was most excited about to be honest.
We promised you cake, but here is a stale bagel. Don't complain, we promised you food - it is still food.
These changes (which are more than just two if you actually read) - have chased away folks that I had hoped would return.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
Lol, talk about bias and so called "sensible".
The other MMO's arriving on the scene within the next 1, 2 years tops: Star Wars The Old Republic , Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV, The Secret World, TERA, DC Universe, Rift, Blade & Soul - maybe even World of Darkness?
I can see how CATA could be way more interesting than all of those, especially now some of the more refreshing features were scrapped, sure. Keep dreaming.
But on topic: with the rework that CATA will do for WoW's world, it is already much that's on the plate of the dev & designer teams. Trying to balance up to polish new innovative features can be a nightmare when you want to reach a deadline and not having to postpone it too much. For CATA it would be better to be released end of the year/first quarter next year instead of later. I'd expect those features or sortlike features to be released after CATA, unless the designers fear it'll upset the balance too much for the bonus it has to offer.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
That has always been one of my base arguments for PvP over PvE. The AIs for PVE could be so much better than they are, but the PvE crowd does not want them to be. They want scripted PvE elements that are easy and repetitive. They do not want bosses with a brain (though how did the guy become a boss you know?) that will think about the fact that if he ignores the tank, kills the healer, takes out the DPS, and then kills the tank...tada, profit. But that would do away with the simplistic nature of PvE.
PvP though - unscripted, never know what another play is going to do - have an idea of what they might do, some are cookie cutter - but some (even though they may kill you) pull off some interesting and new things. There is an actual challenge. It is not just a case of watching some video on how to do a PvE encounter or reading some walkthrough.
So for some, PvP encounters are far more repeatable than PvE encounters...
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%