Project Lore

Incoming! The short answer is that Boubouille scored.  The data mining machine, who used some other resources for his recent discoveries, received almost a perfect score during yesterday's opening ceremony.  Nearly every World of Warcraft detail that had been disclosed by MMO-Champion.com came true.  Nearly ever one. There's absolutely no way I can take away from the sleuthing that went on to find out Cataclysm's particulars.  Sure, I didn't believe them all at first, but Blizzard confirmed that the company is simply crazy.  Crazy enough to reinvent what MMO gamers, not just World of Warcraft players, will expect in future expansions. Here's what MMO-Champion had spot on:

• Worgen & Goblins - WoW.com independently "confirmed" this before the event ever happened, but it was Boubouille and his mask discovery that sparked the rumors.  The new races' racials definitely sound OP as announced.  However it was later confirmed that all the other races will have their racials revamped.
• Level cap raised to 85 - Seems an arbitrary choice, but Blizzard wants players to focus a bit more on the content leading up to level 85.  Not just the idea of getting there.  Of course that won't stop many people from being level capped week 1.
• Azeroth revamp - The lands as we know them will indeed change drastically.  Barrens is split in two (double the Barrens Chat?!), Grim Batol is now Twilight Highlands and various other lands, coastlines and jungles will radically change.
• Flying everywhere - Yes folks, we will be able to fly everywhere in Cataclysm.  This even includes Wintergrasp.
• Class combinations - Data mining discovered the new possibilities and they've all come true, even Night Elf Mages.  Solving the 2:1 Horde to Alliance druid question is the Worgen's ability to offer a self-standing holy trinity.
• Unfinished original content done - Uldum and Mount Hyjal will both be arriving as part of Cataclysm.  Blizzard stated that Hyjal was never completed because it was impossible to do what they wanted previously.

There's really only one thing I can say Boubouille missed the mark on, and that's the main protagonist of the third expansion.  Deathwing is, without a shadow of a doubt, the bad guy in Cataclysm.  He's the force that lays waste to the lands as we know them.  Not an erupting Maelstrom as so many speculated.  QueenAzshara and her Naga buddies are definitely around, they have a new island to themselves just south of the Maelstrom, but they'll be a distraction compared to The Earth Warderer. "That is their (Goblin) mount" We've also got some additional details that no one guessed.

• New Secondary Profession - Archaeology (a word that will be often misspelled) will be added to WoW.  It'll be the first secondary profession that plays like a gathering profession.  No, fishing doesn't count.  After collecting from nodes of ruins and such, players will be able to discover rewards.  The mechanic to discovery hasn't been disclosed, but the possibility of a mini-game (Bejewled?!) was mentioned.  We will be able to track ruin nodes, and other gathering nodes at the same time.
• Mastery system - A new mode of progression.  The Mastery system is going to work alongside Talents to offer additional character customization, and it won't be class restricted.  This means a Priest can pick up the same Mastery skills (or whatever they are to be called) as a Rogue.  We are going to find out more details during the WoW Game Systems panel at 10:30 PST.  I'll be covering it via Twitter, and I expect it to be live blogged here as well.
• Heroic Deadmines & Shadowfang Keep - We heard dungeon revamps were coming, and now it's official.  These particular dungeons will use the same art and models.  To spice things up these assets will be mixed with new encounters and fights.  We'll hear more at today's Raids & Dungeons panel, which I'll be covering as well.
• Ragnaros - He's indeed back, "bigger and more pissed."  How much bigger can the developers possibly make the Lord of the Fire Elementals?
• So much more - Changes to fishing, Blackrock Spire is back, new PvP zone, rated BGs and the Alliance loses Southshore!

Consider me excited.  What do you think?  Good, bad, lore buster?  Anything that truly shocked you? For the StarCraft II players out there; I'll be sitting down for a StarCraft II interview later today. @iTZKooPA with your questions.  I'll select the best ones and work them into my own queries.

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The panel is onstage. 5:02: Goblin racials: Rocket Belt, Rocket Turret creator (on a shared cooldown), bank anywhere, 1% haste, +15 alchemy and increased effect from potions. Best discounts regardless of reputation. 5:03: Worgen Racials: +15 Skinning, no knife required, 15% less time on curses and disease. Worgen form is cosmetic only, can shift at will. Can stay as human if you want. 5:05: Announcing the class changes we already knew from the leak. Ghostcrawler comments the NE mages are the "return of the Highbourne", and the dwarves learned shamanism from Draeni. 5:06: Warlocks: Soul shard are no longer placed in bags. They are only used in combat and are integrated into the UI like DK runes. You now get 3 per fight and regenerate after combat, maybe automatically or maybe after using a spell. You can get more on long fights, perhaps with an Evocation like spell 5:08: The only spell that costs chards is Soul Burn, which is not on the GCD and gives you a buff that changes your spells. Eg, might make Searing Pain crit 3 times in a row, instant summon a demon, instant Soulfire (OMG), instant fear (OMG), longer horror on Death Coil. 5:09: Hunters: NO LONGER USE MANA. Use Focus, no longer care about intellect (GC said hunters are dumb). Regens automatically like energy. Steady Shot regens focus as well. Cap of 100 focus, regens at like 6 focus/sec and 15 with steady shot. Ammo will be an item, cooldowns on abilities will largely be removed to play more like rogues. 5:11: Itemization: Make stats easier to understand and more unified. MP5 is now gone, replaced with spirit. Spirit is now precisely mana regen. Mages and Warlocks will not use spirit. Spell Power is gone. Intellect is essientally spell power now, Hunters and Enhancement shaman don't care about it anymore. Attack Power is gone. For Rogues and Hunters, its agility, saving our gear from plate wearers. Defense is gone. Anti-crit for tanks is from talents Armor Penetration is gone. Too confusing and replaced with Mastery. Whatever you like to do, Mastery makes you better at it. 5:15 Haste = "Push more buttons". Increases the rate you get rage, runes, focus, energy. Block value goes away, block now mitigates all incoming damage. Stamina is GONE. Just kidding. There is lots more stamina on more things. Now stop complaining about dying on Thorum. 5:17 Next legendary: Shadowmourne: 2H axe! 5:18: Professions: Archaeology collects artifacts out of the world. Makes you more powerful somehow using Path of the Titans. Unique rewards, like titles, teleports to dungeons because you explored it so much, etc. Goes into a journal, quest log type thing. Reforging: Customize your gear for cheap. Done by Blackmsiths, leatherworkers, tailors, jewelcrafters, engineers. Reduces one stat for another. 5:23: Professions: Multigains: Rare and hard to make items can give you multiple skill levels. Want Gathering perks to be more compelling, useful to everyone. 5:24: Engineering: At some times its awesome, sometimes it sucks. They want it to be like what they did in patch 3.2 like teleporters, convenience like repair bots, etc. Big changes coming to Fishing, make it more fun. 5:25: Q&A starting. No Ret Pally questions allowed. Question: "Redone racials?" Yes. Want them to be cool. Tradeskills are going up by another 75 points. New title like Grand Master is "Illustrious". Q: Why Goblin and Worgen DKs? A: It sounded fun, might change. Q: Legendaries. Why no caster ones since Atiesh A: Sorry. Q: Talent builds are specific, eg Frost mages are PvP/leveling. Is this going to change? A: They are getting rid of ability ranks. It now scales with character level. Q: ?? A: Talent trees are getting redone, especially Hunter to support the new Focus model. Q: Elemental Shamans. Whats happening? A: Long term, totems are more cool, something happens when you put them down. Don't want all PvP casts instant cast to increase mobility. Q: Reforging. A: There will be some limits on how much you can change stats, probably. Works on anyone's gear (BoE essentially) 8:32: Q: Professions. Only two? A: Yes. They want it to be a hard choice. Multi-tracking will happen for gathering, gathering will be cooling Q: I'm a druid, dual specs are cool. Tri-spec? Statement: make backpacks bigger. A: Dual-spec is staying as two specs only. Backpacks may change, hush hush. Q: Corrupted Ashbringer changing? A: No. Q: Warriors and Attack power? A: Trying to consolidate gear. Attack power might still show up on like rings or necks. Q: Do mages get more raid utility? Just table-makers. A: Probably. Frost will be better in PvE later, has replenishment. Ghostcrawler wants a pony. 5:36 Q: What's up with ammo? A: Maybe you get it from vendor badges, or there are different types you carry like fire, armor penetration, etc. Q: Something weird is happening with a guy in a mask. Q: Resto shaman. You want them to be more raid or tank healers. A: They want Shamans to be one of the best AE healers, but also tank heal. Q: Spell Power Plate in leveling Blacksmithing? A: Do you level as a Holy Paladin, n00b? Q: Homogenized stat format didn't work with classes like holy pallies and elemental shamans. Are they going to get more homogenized. A: No. No solution. Do you want pallies to heal with strength and hit? Q: MP5, spirit, resto shaman, is this going to be strange? A: No, spirit will be the unified mana regeneration stat. Q: Profession mounts, any 310% ones, and any multipassenger flying mounts? A: Maybe multipassenger, probably not on professions unless you already have some sort of achievement that gave you a 310% mount. Q: Lots of classes get hit from talents, some don't. /cry A: Hit through talents sucks, it screws up itemization and isn't cool or fun. Probably will go away. 5:44 Q: Professions: Blacksmiths can't repair, Tailor's can't repair their own gear, etc. Whats going on with durability? A: Durability is a good mechanic, for the economy. Repairing own armor is covered by repair bots; reforging gives the other professions an extra thing to do. Q: Resto Shamans/Resto Druids: Why do they not have a magic dispel? A: Probably give all healers dispel magic. Poison, curse, disease will be more class specific. Q: Dwarves and treasure finding. Where is the treasure in the world? A: They found it all. Archaeology. LOOK OVER THERE! To be honest, it just wasn't cool and were farmer bait. Is going to be reworked and cooler, like chest giving you XP or other things. It will be significant to find a chest, like a rare spawn. Q: Can you scale 280% mounts to 310% if we have a 310% mount already? A: Maybe. They understand the problem. 5:49 Q: Shadow Priests and haste. Its useless. A: They want it to be better for everyone. Something might happen with their spells. 5 minutes left for Q&A. Q: Staves, bows, crossbows. Are there going to be craftable? A: Maybe woodcrafting in the future. Not enough for a whole tradeskill, may go to engineering for bows/crossbows, but probably not. Maybe found in Archaeology relics. Q: Feral Druid rotation is nuts. Change in system? A: No. People like it. Might change UI to make it easier to play, relies too heavily on mods. Or you can get a mangle-bot. Q: Dead characters spelling out spam websites. Fix coming? A: They don't condone it, don't know how to stop it yet. 5:53: Q: When are you giving mortal strike to everyone? A: Good defense and healing should not get mortal strike effects. Its up in the air, not everyone will get it. Q: With gear and stat changes, what happens with pally blessings? A: They will change accordingly. Talents that improve buffs are going to be gone. End of panels day 1! Whew!

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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.

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