Rated Battlegrounds

This section discussed changes being made to Battlegrounds. We realize that players want a bit more out of the Battlegrounds, or don’t necessarily want to actively participate in Arenas to acquire some of the best gear in the game. We’re changing this by providing an alternate method to acquiring Arena rating. We’ve introduced rated Battlegrounds, which will allow players to acquire rating for very powerful gear without setting foot into an Arena, so each player can enjoy whichever PvP activity he or she prefers.

We plan to include featured weekly Battlegrounds for players to enjoy; coupled with the changes made, this will help keeps the gameplay changing from week to week. The way the new rated Battlegrounds work is pretty straightforward. The more games you win, the higher the rating you acquire; however, we do not plan to punish players for losing. We’re looking at setting a cap of six or more battles per week. We want players to enjoy the ability to acquire rating through Battlegrounds, but it shouldn’t become the main source of rating gains.

In order to participate in rated Battlegrounds, players will be required to join battles as full groups. However these groups do not need to be committed teams as in the Arena system; rather, the group simply needs to have the required amount of players for whichever Battleground they’re entering. As an example, one would need to join the queue as a group for Warsong Gulch with any nine additional players to qualify for a rating.

Tol Barad

We're also adding a new zone that combines elements of Wintergrasp with the Isle of Quel'danas. During PvP battles, players will fight to take control points across the island. In between PvP battles, the zone serves as a daily quest hub for both factions, while the winning faction will have access to a raid area.

Guild Advancement

We continued with the presentation discussing exciting new features that will provide guilds with avenues to further advance, both on an individual basis and as a whole that culminates into a more immersive level of guild development. With these upcoming guild advancement features, guilds will be able to acquire talents and provide guild members with leveling benefits, as well as acquire guild achievements, guild professions, and other cool features.

Guild Leveling and Talents

We’ve introduced a new guild feature that will provide options for players to earn guild experience in a variety of ways. Players can earn guild experience through leveling, reputation ranks, boss kills, Battleground and Arena wins, and profession ranks. The top twenty earners from the guild per day will contribute to the guild experience total. With every acquired level, guilds will receive talent points that they can then spend towards their guild talent tree, which affects all guild members in the guild. Additionally, guild experience is converted into guild currency that can be used to purchase a wide variety of rewards, such as guild profession plans and reagents, vanity items, and talent respecs.

Guild Professions

Guilds that use guild currency to purchase profession plans will be able to share any purchased plan with the rest of the guild via a vendor and skill trainer. Guilds are also able to create guild heirlooms; these items bind to the guild so that anyone in the guild will be able to acquire them. Just like the normal heirloom items, guild heirloom items will also scale with level and will support all armor and weapons.

Guild members will also be able to take advantage of being able to create guild-specific versions of items that require fewer or different reagents. The new reagents are purchased from guild vendors via guild currency, and there will be support for all professions.

Looking for Guild

With the Looking for Guild feature, we’re making it easier for players to find a guild. We’re also looking to provide guild leaders more options to make it easier to recruit new members. The new tool will provide filters based on various requirements and will have a simple and easy-to-use interface.

Guild Achievements

Players can earn achievements as a guild, with each requiring a minimum ratio of guild members to complete. We’ve also introduced new achievements that guilds can partake in. One example is becoming Grand Master in all professions.

Features

Guilds will receive a special guild news-feed that will show them updates on happenings within the guild such as achievements, boss kills, etc. Guilds will also have access to profession info for their members and more. In addition to these features, guilds will also be able to acquire a percentage of gold looted on boss kills that will go directly to the guild bank. Additionally, guilds will be able to invite other guilds to events.

Mastery

This segment of the panel discussed a new and exciting feature called Mastery. With this feature, we want to make class talent trees simple throughout, but we also want to make them a lot more fun. We feel that while talent trees are pretty cool, they’re becoming larger and more complicated. We see this by the talents available, as many talents try to perform three different things and passive bonuses compete against fun or utility talents.

So while we will add some new talents for Cataclysm, we also want to prune passive and mandatory talents so that you have more points available for fun or utility talents. Our goal is to have talent trees that are simpler, less cookie-cutter and more fun. Under the new plan, you’ll get passive bonuses just for spending points in the appropriate tree. Passive bonuses are things that increase stats such as damage, healing, and tanking, as well as stat-like attributes such as haste or crit. We really want to give something unique for your spec -- and the Mastery stat incorporates this.

An example of a passive bonus for Assassination rogues would be increased poison damage the more points they spend in Assassination. Likewise, a rogue specialized in Subtlety will receive an energy cost bonus, Beastmaster hunters would receive bonuses to their pet’s damage output, and Marksmanship hunters would receive focus regeneration bonuses, as well. These are just some examples of how passive bonuses bolster each spec of every class.

Path of the Titans

Path of the Titans is another great new feature we covered that encompasses rewarding progression at max level. This new feature implements a third new type of glyph called “Ancient Glyph,” and as you can see, it is themed after the titans. These special glyphs are not associated with the Inscription tradeskill, and are also not specific to any class. You’re able to unlock a path and progress within that path as you continuously engage in different aspects of the game. As you advance, you will be able to unlock special glyph sockets for your character. You can also respec your path at any time, in case you decide to change your path.
You earn these ancient glyphs by using the new Archaeology secondary profession to recover and trade in titan artifacts. Each path will have 2-3 choices per rank, and again, you can respec if you decide to go down another path.

• Path of Aman’Thul, the High Father
• Path of Eonar, the Lifebinder
• Path of Norgannon, the Dreamweaver
• Path of Khaz’Goroth, the Shaper
• Path of Aggramar, the Avenger
• Path of Golganneth, the Thunderer


You can earn progress down any of these paths by doing things such as questing, raiding, PvP, trade skills, etc., with a possible weekly cap for maximum progress. Over time, you’ll be able to unlock new ancient glyphs that will greatly benefit your character.
This new system will be accessible to all players at max level. Players will eventually be able to reach new ranks for ancient glyphs, encouraging them to further develop their characters. There is also a possibility that we will introduce whole new paths in future content patches.

That’s it for this year’s Systems panel. See you next BlizzCon!