Project Lore

Archaeology is, in fact, not a primary profession, but a secondary skill, like fishing, first aid, and cooking. All characters can learn it, and use it to advance down the "Path of the Titans", which is a new type of character progression, like talent trees.

There are nodes in the world that players gather from in order to write "Archaeology Notes". Once you gather enough of certain types of these, you can use them to perform "research", which allows them to choose different "paths" to go down. These paths are not class-specific, so players of the same class can theoretically go down the same path. The research is described as a "mini-game" that allows you to pick from different paths. The rewards include more glyph slots, profession plans, and more. These paths are designed to be an additional way to progress your character after you reach level 85.

It's unclear how this is related to the physical Path of the Titans in Northrend.

Mastery is a concept that borrows heavily from Warhammer. Players will gain 5 new talent points to spend as they level from 80 to 85, but there will not be 5 new talents added to each tree. You will invest these into existing talents, which will likely be reworked going into Cataclysm. However, with the advent of Mastery, players who invest heavily into one tree will gain special abilities, regardless of where they are placed in the trees. Blizzard hopes this adds to character customization and adds flexibility to the trees. For example, if you are a Shaman and you have 51 points in Restoration, you might get a bunch of bonuses to your healing. However, if you go back and put 55 points in Restoration, you might get a large buff to your healing. This could include visual effects, buffs to your stats, or other benefits. A lot of mystery still surrounds this feature, so we will see how it unfolds.

Professions will likely gain more levels. While traditionally 75 skill points correspond to 10 levels, we still might see an additional 75 skill points.