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Blizzard entertainment has announced the release of its third expansion for their game “World of Warcraft” entitled: Cataclysm.

( You can view the trailer below )

Images are from Blizzcon 2009 Click pictures to view larger image.

Gamestop says pre-order’s are set to ship on 11/1/2010 ( November 1st ) however you can probably expect that date to change.

Story:
An ancient evil hidden away in the secluded sanctuary of Deepholm has
lay dormant awaiting the recovery of his previous battle with
Humankind. Deathwing the Destroyer returns to azeroth in an attempt to
rebirth the world in molten fire.

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New playable goblin race.
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New playable worgen race.
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Whats new in Cataclysm? LOTS! Blizzard is basically re-inventing the game with this new expansion, with new features ranging from new race/class combinations to completely re-vamping the talent trees and glyph systems, as well as implementing more raid content and brand new secondary professions!

New races: The Horde will gain access to a new playable race, Goblins, and the Alliance gain access to another new playable race, Worgen.

New raid content: New instances and raids will be made available to players including the the remaking of many classic instances such as Deadmines which will now be available in “Heroic” mode! Other new areas are also being made available such as Uldum, Grim Batol, and Vashj’ir.

Level 85: Players will now be able to obtain level 85, up from level 80.

Max level advancement: Previously, in the game once a player had reached the highest level, or the level “cap” the only way to better his/herself in the game was to get better gear/loot or maybe twink their enchants. With the release of Cataclysm Blizzard has announced a new system they will be implementing to allow players to continue bettering their characters long after reaching the maximum level. The system will be called “Path of the Titans” and it will essentially allow players to choose a path, and work towards rewards of their chosen path to increase the power of their character via several different ways, including opening up access to new Ancient glyph slots, and the ancient glyphs themselves. ( If you follow the lore of the game with the release of Ulduar we recently learned a little more about the titans)

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An outline of guild advancement.
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Ways to earn Guild experience.

Ancient Glyphs: Along with the new “path of the
titans” they have announced they will be implementing “Ancient glyphs”.
These are slightly different than the glyphs players are familiar with
currently, in the sense that there really is no “Class specific”
glyphs, its up to the player to mix and match what glyph will best suit
you. You can NOT obtain these, or the slots for these glyphs until
unlocking them via the Path of the Titans after reaching level 85. An
example of these glyphs would be something similar to “20% increased
damage on next attack following a critical strike”.

Archaeology:
A new secondary profession being added in the expansion which will be
used to advance in the path of the titans, aswell as other unique
rewards and treasures.

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One example of the guild talent tree.
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Another example of the new guild talent tree.
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A third example.

Guild experience/currency/advancement:
There are MANY new additions to the guild system in this expansion
ranging from talent trees, guild profession recipes and bank
options.These new features are meant to make playing as a guild more
fun, and to encourage players to enjoy the game to the fullest.

Guild recipes:
Players who own their own guild may purchase guild profession recipes
for all professions which, after being purchased, may be trained by all
guild members via their profession trainer. If a player leaves the
guild, naturally the recipe is lost and can no longer be used. These
recipes can also be used to make guild “Heirloom” items which are bound
to the guild.

Guild talents: Your guild will be able
to earn experience, by many means including leveling, pvp rank, boss
kills, however this experience can be spent in a manner very similar to
the current characters talent trees, with one major difference, and
that is this talents will effect every member of the guild. Each level
your guild earns will also earn it one talent point available for
spending in these trees. There are several different types of these new
talents , one example of which is “Mass resurrection” which is as the
name suggest a mass resurrection of all players in the guild. As you
can imagine this will be a GREAT help with raids!

Bank funds:
Guilds owning a guild bank, when killing a boss will automatically have
a percentage of the gold deposited straight into the guild bank. This
gold is NOT taken from the gold the monster would normally drop, but is
actually an ADDED percentage to his normal amount. For example, if your
guild goes and kills Ragnaros and he normally drops 100 gold, an extra
10% or so will automatically be deposited without touching the said 100
gold. This is a great addition to game. It allows guilds to fully
benefit all of their members without having to “tax” players for
everything or require constant donations.

Old features re-vamped:
Blizzard announced that one thing they really are trying to do with the
game is actually go back to the current talent trees and more or less,
simplify them. They claim that some talents are trying to “do three
things at once” and that it has kind of gotten out of hand. They intend
to cut back on talents that are “required” to do your job properly,
whether it is dealing damage, healing, tanking etc. An example of these
talents would be something like “Cruelty” which is a 1% critical hit
bonus per talent point. Who would pass that up!? Thats exactly their
point, they want players to be able to do their jobs well and still be
able to get those “fun” talents aswell.

In addition to trying to
simplify the talent trees they have announced they will be introducing
a new “Mastery” type skill which will be completely unique to every
classes talent tree. This “mastery” skill will change with your respecs
aswell. For example, if i am an arms spec warrior and my master skill
gives me +5% critical strike, and i go respec to protection, the
mastery will change to reflect that and give me the bonus intended for
that tree.

An example given by the developers at Blizzcon 2009 of
this new “mastery” would be if you have 51 points in the assassination
tree as a rogue your master would be something like an additional 5%
damage from poisons, although they also said this was not for certain
and was only an example.