Neirai the Forgiven
Christian Guilds List Manager
1. New Old World. One of WoW's biggest failings (imho) is that the old world experience pales in comparison to even the worst parts of Outland or Cataclysm. How do you tell one of your friends that WoW is "the most fun game you've ever played" when you know that the first 60 levels aren't? I'm actually looking forward to leveling new alts -- instead of dreading the idea -- come Cataclysm.
2. New Guild System. And that means... Guild Currency. Our guild is big, quite big. And the new guild system will allow our guild to get experience and achievements that will allow us to support our members better. While what this means is yet to be discovered, the new "guild currency" and "guild talents" should allow us some added abilities in this area. No more hoping for gold donations so that we can get stuff -- we'll use currency!
Guild Heirlooms. This is much more important than the currency in my mind is the Guild heirlooms. As it looks so far, Guild heirlooms will be able to be crafted by highest-level crafters from the guild, made from recipes that combine with Rare and Epic BOEs. Those BOEs become BOAs, which will allow us to send them to guild members of any level. Why is this important?
It really hurts gold hackers. Heirlooms have no value at all, except to the player wearing them. You can't sell them, you can't d/e them, you can't even repair them! And, they can't leave the guild -- so the hacker can't touch them. One of the big sources of gold hacker income is hacking your guild bank or a guild member, and stealing the blues and purples from the bank. Well, in Cataclysm, we'll have beiges, not blues.
We can afford to be silly with them. Guild heirlooms can't leave the guild. If the character wearing them leaves the guild, they show up in the bank. If they're "sold," "auctioned," or "d/ed," they probably generate error messages, but they might just show up in the guild bank. If the character is deleted, they show up in the guild bank. This means that we'll be able to throw them around like pies at a clown convention, even if we have our doubts that the character receiving them will last until the end of the weekend.
They will help our members level -- a lot. Imagine that you join TF, and instead of being given 4 bags and a tabard, you are given a full complement of gear that levels with you? That's probably idealistic, but it might happen -- and even if it doesn't, we might be able to supply a few items. We don't mind -- we'll get them back eventually!
They will give members a chance to contribute to the success of other members. All guild heirlooms will be crafted or combined. I'm personally hoping to create a volunteer team of elite guild crafters who will spend some of their time creating guild heirlooms just for the joy of mailing them off to lower-level members. I can't wait.
3. New Talent & Gear System. In Cataclysm, talents and gear are getting an overhaul! Blizzard is aiming to reduce the boredom and single-mindedness of talents and increase the flexibility of gearing up in endgame. How?
More mechanic talents, less math talents. "Mechanic talents" are talents that enable you to do new things, like Bestial Wrath or Chimera Shot. Math talents are talents that you can't actually see working, but that you have to take anyway -- like that +hit that lets you get cap, or the reduced mana cast that lets you stay in the battle.
Blizzard is eliminating the math talents while giving you more mechanic talents, and you will have to decide which mechanics you want. Do you want to have Silencing Shot or Ricochet Shot or Scouring Sting? You will have to choose one, but Blizzard wants it so that all three are competitive choices in raiding.
But how are you going to get that hit cap? Keep reading!
Simpler gear choices. Blizzard is eliminating a lot of the harder gear stats and giving you a lot less choices to juggle. But they're still going to be difficult choices:
Your core stat. You're a hunter. You want agility, you'll get agility. Agility will increase your damage, your crit, all that good stuff. Do you just want to hit really hard? Or:
Haste. Do you want to hit faster? Haste will effect your attack speed. It will also increase your focus generation. Or:
Mastery. This one is new. It makes you better at a special statistic, one that you chose when you took your talent tree. Let's say for a Marksman hunter, it increases your sting effectiveness. So your Serpent Sting hurts more, your Scorpid Sting nerfs more, and your Viper Sting sucks up more mana. Which of the three stats do you want? Blizzard wants them to be roughly balanced (on gear of the same Item Level) so that you actually get to decide, based on your playing style.
But wait -- if they eliminate my +hit, how do I get hit capped?
Talent Bonuses. Whenever you put talent points into a talent tree in Cataclysm, you're going to get talent bonuses. The first talent bonus you will get will be a bonus to your role. What I mean is that a DPS tree will give you a DPS bonus, a Healing tree will give you a healing bonus, and a tanking tree will give you a health bonus. On the top, for free, just for spending talent points. A hunter at level 85 will do double DPS compared to one who just respecced.
The second bonus will be stuff like a hit cap. You'll just get hit capped for spending your talent points in a raiding spec.
The third bonus is Mastery. What it does will be different for each class and spec, and whatever spec you put the most talent points in will determine which bonus you get from the "Mastery" stat on your gear.
Talent bonuses will enable you to not worry about whether or not you're hit capped, allowing you to spend those points on new mechanics with impunity.
As an added bonus, Blizzard will be able to tweak the power of talents by messing with the bonuses, without nerfing once-cool mechanic talents into the ground.
And that's what I'm looking forward to.
2. New Guild System. And that means... Guild Currency. Our guild is big, quite big. And the new guild system will allow our guild to get experience and achievements that will allow us to support our members better. While what this means is yet to be discovered, the new "guild currency" and "guild talents" should allow us some added abilities in this area. No more hoping for gold donations so that we can get stuff -- we'll use currency!
Guild Heirlooms. This is much more important than the currency in my mind is the Guild heirlooms. As it looks so far, Guild heirlooms will be able to be crafted by highest-level crafters from the guild, made from recipes that combine with Rare and Epic BOEs. Those BOEs become BOAs, which will allow us to send them to guild members of any level. Why is this important?
It really hurts gold hackers. Heirlooms have no value at all, except to the player wearing them. You can't sell them, you can't d/e them, you can't even repair them! And, they can't leave the guild -- so the hacker can't touch them. One of the big sources of gold hacker income is hacking your guild bank or a guild member, and stealing the blues and purples from the bank. Well, in Cataclysm, we'll have beiges, not blues.
We can afford to be silly with them. Guild heirlooms can't leave the guild. If the character wearing them leaves the guild, they show up in the bank. If they're "sold," "auctioned," or "d/ed," they probably generate error messages, but they might just show up in the guild bank. If the character is deleted, they show up in the guild bank. This means that we'll be able to throw them around like pies at a clown convention, even if we have our doubts that the character receiving them will last until the end of the weekend.
They will help our members level -- a lot. Imagine that you join TF, and instead of being given 4 bags and a tabard, you are given a full complement of gear that levels with you? That's probably idealistic, but it might happen -- and even if it doesn't, we might be able to supply a few items. We don't mind -- we'll get them back eventually!
They will give members a chance to contribute to the success of other members. All guild heirlooms will be crafted or combined. I'm personally hoping to create a volunteer team of elite guild crafters who will spend some of their time creating guild heirlooms just for the joy of mailing them off to lower-level members. I can't wait.
3. New Talent & Gear System. In Cataclysm, talents and gear are getting an overhaul! Blizzard is aiming to reduce the boredom and single-mindedness of talents and increase the flexibility of gearing up in endgame. How?
More mechanic talents, less math talents. "Mechanic talents" are talents that enable you to do new things, like Bestial Wrath or Chimera Shot. Math talents are talents that you can't actually see working, but that you have to take anyway -- like that +hit that lets you get cap, or the reduced mana cast that lets you stay in the battle.
Blizzard is eliminating the math talents while giving you more mechanic talents, and you will have to decide which mechanics you want. Do you want to have Silencing Shot or Ricochet Shot or Scouring Sting? You will have to choose one, but Blizzard wants it so that all three are competitive choices in raiding.
But how are you going to get that hit cap? Keep reading!
Simpler gear choices. Blizzard is eliminating a lot of the harder gear stats and giving you a lot less choices to juggle. But they're still going to be difficult choices:
Your core stat. You're a hunter. You want agility, you'll get agility. Agility will increase your damage, your crit, all that good stuff. Do you just want to hit really hard? Or:
Haste. Do you want to hit faster? Haste will effect your attack speed. It will also increase your focus generation. Or:
Mastery. This one is new. It makes you better at a special statistic, one that you chose when you took your talent tree. Let's say for a Marksman hunter, it increases your sting effectiveness. So your Serpent Sting hurts more, your Scorpid Sting nerfs more, and your Viper Sting sucks up more mana. Which of the three stats do you want? Blizzard wants them to be roughly balanced (on gear of the same Item Level) so that you actually get to decide, based on your playing style.
But wait -- if they eliminate my +hit, how do I get hit capped?
Talent Bonuses. Whenever you put talent points into a talent tree in Cataclysm, you're going to get talent bonuses. The first talent bonus you will get will be a bonus to your role. What I mean is that a DPS tree will give you a DPS bonus, a Healing tree will give you a healing bonus, and a tanking tree will give you a health bonus. On the top, for free, just for spending talent points. A hunter at level 85 will do double DPS compared to one who just respecced.
The second bonus will be stuff like a hit cap. You'll just get hit capped for spending your talent points in a raiding spec.
The third bonus is Mastery. What it does will be different for each class and spec, and whatever spec you put the most talent points in will determine which bonus you get from the "Mastery" stat on your gear.
Talent bonuses will enable you to not worry about whether or not you're hit capped, allowing you to spend those points on new mechanics with impunity.
As an added bonus, Blizzard will be able to tweak the power of talents by messing with the bonuses, without nerfing once-cool mechanic talents into the ground.
And that's what I'm looking forward to.
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