Dual Spec Price Reduced
A recent build of the Cataclysm beta reduced the price to train a second talent specialization. While it's still unlocked at level 40, the price has been reduced to 100 gold to learn a second talent spec. This should make it more reasonable for players just starting out to purchase, and will hopefully encourage players to pick up a second, more group-friendly talent spec (like tank or healer) for dungeon finder runs as they level up a new character.
GamesCom 2010: Allvatar Interviews Tom Chilton
Allvatar.com had a chance to interview Tom Chilton at GamesCom 2010. Below is a playlist of the 3-part interview. A very interesting note is the confirmation of the "horrifying secret" beneath the Bastion of Twilight, a new raid instance being added in Cataclysm. The heroic-only encounter will be Lady Sinestra, as expected. Thanks to jinirja for the tip on the forums!
Part 1:
[spoiler] [/spoiler]
Part 2:
[spoiler] [/spoiler]
Part 3:
[spoiler] [/spoiler]
Interview Summary
Changing Talent Trees so "late" in the beta
More and more felt the talent trees were becoming overly complicated, too bloated.
Found any time players started characters, they got feedback saying the trees were totally overwhelming.
Made sense to simply the trees, but make the choices more clear, interesting and impactful.
Mastery System
First implemented with old talent trees. They found the bloated, boring talents were still in there.
Mastery system originally intended to make the talent trees more interesting, but that didn't work well during the testing process.
Pre-release patch, Cataclysm launch event
Patch 3.9 will be the pre-release patch.
Will include a lot of the game systems and changes before an expansion comes out.
New talent trees, mastery system.
3.9 will introduce the pre-release event. The event itself will take place about 2 weeks before Cataclysm releases.
Cataclysm cinematic will be tied in to the world event to link 3.9 and 4.0 together.
Creature Difficulty Increases
Found that Wrath of the Lich King creatures didn't scale in power well, which contributed to a feeling of the game becoming easier, so they've made creatures more challenging when leveling up.
Cataclysm Raids
5-6 loot drops from bosses for 25-player raids.
Progression is intended to be normal dungeons, heroic dungeons and then the first raid for most players.
Heroic mode will require defeating all of the content on normal in most cases before it's unlocked.
Sinestra is considered the "endboss" of the first tier of Cataclysm raids.
Archaeology
Nearing completion in internal builds, could be in the beta next week.
You pick up the skill and then archaeological dig sites show up on your map.
You visit the dig site and place a surveying device. It's like a triangulation mini-game.
Hints at where the location is, "far away," "close," etc. You then move to another spot and place the device to see if that's where it is.
The skill is meant to be a collection mini-game similar to achievements.
Some of the more rare archaeology finds will be actual items intended to be fun toys.
When it's pet rewards, it will make sense within the skill's theme.
Outland and Northrend
Blizzard plans to, over time, update Outland and Northrend to be more consistent with the expansion's advancement of the game lore.
Classes
No further major class changes are planned for the beta. From here out it will be primarily tuning.
Adventures of Maltrake Update
The Adventures of Maltrake are unfortunately on hold at the moment. This reason is twofold. First, I came down with the flu recently so I've been recovering from a sore throat that has prevented me from recording any audio. Second, Westfall is also in a state where it can't be completed due to the Deadmines being disabled for its revamp. Fear not, though -- I'm going to be releasing some beta short videos until I can continue leveling Maltrake, which I'll start tomorrow.
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