Flying in Azeroth

I’m sure you have all heard that in the upcoming X-PAC Blizzard is allowing us to fly in Azeroth! Although they haven’t worked all the kinks out yet, it sounds like it’s a definite thing.

About a week ago I got bored with the current professions of my Shaman, so I decided to drop them (skinning and leather working). Both of these were maxed and the ability to enchant my own bracers will be missed. I set out to acquire skills that would enhance my income and in the end chose mining and herbalism.

In case you don’t know, these 2 gathering professions can really bring in the gold. Several other professions (alchemy, engineering, blacksmithing, inscription) depend solely on these materials.

Well, as I started out in Goldshire, one thing hit me: This is going to take a while. I mounted up, set up a macro to quickly switch between my tracking methods, and began running around a circle. *Yawn*

As I picked every peacebloom and mined every copper node I came upon I passed several other toons who seemed to be doing the same thing. As soon as I saw a rogue sprint past me and “steal” my copper node I was mad. I realized this guy was going to follow me around and take my goodies.

I wasn’t going to give up on my professions, so I humbly moved on to a different path. Soon I was Westfall ready, and moved on from there with seemingly little followers.

When I got to Western Plaguelands is when I really started getting bored. Although I was 80 with the ability to 1 shot any NPC that go in my way, it was tiresome to have to stop and fight anything I happened to run through.

This, my friends, is where flying in Azeroth would make the big difference. Not only will you be able to bypass the low level bears and spiders on your trek to that mithril node, you can beat those farmers on their little horses and tigers!! Mua ha
ha ha.

This may not seem fair for anyone who hasn’t made it to Outland yet, but for those of us who are in Northrend content, it’s long overdue. It just doesn’t seem fair to limit us to where we can fly, after all, we’ve spent a lot on these flying abilities, LET US USE THEM ALREADY!

And blizzard has heard our pleas, they are bestowing on us a wonderful gift, the gift of flight in Azeroth. FOR THE ALLIANCE (sorry hordies).

The Path of the Titans in Cataclysm

The Path of the Titans is an interesting addition to the game that is still a bit vague. But, it’s looking to be one of the more interesting and interactive character buff systems yet added to the game. Thus far we have Enchants, Gems, and Glyphs – all produced by crafting professions. With the Path of the Titans however, we’ll be able to build our own buffs and get something much more out of the process.

How it Works

When you hit the max level, you will be able to choose a Titan Cult to follow – that will be your path. The paths are not related at all to classes or roles, so anyone can choose any path. When you turn in the artifacts you will dig up with Archaeology, you will be able to progress down your path and unlock new Ancient Glyphs.

Ancient Glyphs are glyphs you will gain at each step along the path that will give you certain boosts. They are not at all related to the Glyphs that Inscription makes possible and may include things like Bandaging boosts or bleeding reductions. There will be a number of glyphs at launch and more added afterward.

The system is supposed not going to be much of a grind, so we’ll see how it turns out, but for now it seems like an interesting new way to get us new buffs.

Upcoming Cataclysm Profession Changes

The announcement of Cataclysm has been met with a lot of praise, a little bit of worry, and a whole lot of questions. As usual, the biggest question on everyone’s mind is how the professions system will breakdown now that a completely new set of skill points and recipes are being added to the game. So, here’s our breakdown of everything we learned at Blizzcon about how the professions will evolve in the new expansion pack.

Basic Changes

The obvious first thing is the new 75 skill points that will push all professions up to 525 total skill points and a new title of “Illustrious”. They’re probably going to start running out of titles soon – wonder where they’ll head after Illustrious.

However, while the skill point change is the same, the way in which you gain those points will be different. Instead of the random number of skill points you may have gotten in the past, the point gains will scale to the item and recipe rarity this time. So, if you craft an epic quality item, you may gain more than one skill point, whereas if you craft a white or green quality item, expect to need a few to gain just one skill point. The actual item level will affect your gains rather than the recipe level.

Archaeology Added

The biggest news on day one was the addition of Archaeology to the game – a new secondary profession. The current details about how it will work are still sparse as it is under heavy construction at the moment, but here are some details that we do know thus far:

Archaeologists will work to visit the ruin sites throughout the world to do research and gather Archaeological Notes. You will also collect artifacts which will eventually open up the Path of the Titans – the new talent skill system that everyone is talking about. This new path will allow you to customize your character and turning in Artifacts to your Titan cult will allow you to obtain new Vanity Pets, Titles, Teleportation and Rare Items from the dig sites.

There are also passive bonuses and new abilities that you can gain that are not related to your class through the Path of the Titans.

Reforging

In terms of the existing professions, the big change this time out is that you’ll be able to make customizations to your gear stats – allowing existing gear forgers in the form of Engineers, Jewelcrafters, Blacksmiths, Tailors and Leatherworkers to reforge their gear. They will be able to take pieces of gear that match up to their profession and reduce one stat from it then add those stat points back in the form of another stat. Of course, the new stats have to be new to the item – you can’t take an item with Stamina and Intellect and move all the Stamina into intellect to create one uber Intellect piece. You can use this new skill on all items now however, not just crafted ones.

Other Changes

Engineering

Engineering is always changing and we’re probably going to see more along the lines of what we saw in 3.2 such as convenience items, vanity pets, and toys. This means a whole lot of new things will be coming along the way that we don’t know about yet. However, expect a profession more similar to what we saw in the original game back five years ago (hopefully with more gold making options).

Fishing

We know nothing about the fishing changes but we do know that the fishing profession is set for some “big” changes. What that actually means, no one really knows, but we’ll keep an eye out for the upcoming changes as they become known.

Gathering Professions

There are no details here either, but the word is that they want to make gathering more fun to do. That would be a nice, welcome surprise for just about anyone, so let’s hope they come up with something good. However, keep in mind that some reagents are probably going to lose some value with the advent of the new Guild Talent Trees  - so watch for ways to negate the downward effects this will have on Herbalism and Alchemy.

The Disappointments

It’s another expansion, and we still don’t have woodcrafting. It’s not surprising really, but it seemed like a no brainer, and now it appears that it may never come. Instead, Blizzard has said they will soon integrate the likes of bows and staves into Engineering where they can be crafted like guns. Where the wood will come from, who knows…

There will be no crafted 310% mounts either. Though there may be some rare mount recipes coming still as Blizzard seems to have left a door open for more options later on.