Blizzcon (Day 2) – Breakdown

Another very informative day at Blizzcon with lots of new information concerning PvP and revolutionary Guild improvements and (surprisingly) a tiny bit of Rogue information! PvP has been generally streamlined and guilds have become very important towards individual player experiences. I was disappointed with the lack of rogue questions during QA and amazed at the vast amount of Shaman questions but in the end we have much to hope for in terms of Rogues getting more diversified and getting more fun abilities as Blizzard has promised for every class.

Rogues

• Rogue passive bonuses: Damage, Hit Chance, Armor Pen will go up for the combat tree. Sub tree will see Damage, Haste and Energy Regen go up.

Rated Battlegrounds

• Alternative way to get arena points.
• HONOR TITLES HAVE RETURNED. Rewarded based on end of season rating.
  
• Epic ground mounts and guild achievements included for rated BGs.
• Two Ratings (Personal and Match Making). There will be a point cap per week to avoid a grindfest.
• When you win a BG you gain Rating+Arena Points but if you lose you will not lose points or rating.

Tol’Barad (new pvp zone)

• Almost the same as WG. Players will capture control points. Team who captures all control points win.

Guild Improvements

• Guild leveling – Each level gives a Guild Talent Point.
• Guild Talents – Gives members of a guild certain perks (ex: summon your entire raid). These can be reset like regular talents.
• Guild Experience – Translates into currency after guild reaches max level (20).  Used to buy guild only items (can’t bring them with you if you leave the Guild so encouraging guild dedication)
  
• Guild Achievements – Specific achievements for collective efforts.
• Guild Profession Search – Search through your guild member’s recipes in-game using the new Guild UI.
• Guild News Feed – A feed on the new Guild UI showing boss kills, etc
• Cross-Guild Event Invitations – Invite other guilds to your events using the calendar.

Races

• Race changes will be available shortly after Faction changes
• All races will have updated racial abilities which should be somewhat similar to what the Goblins will have (so don’t go screaming about Goblins being overpowered just yet!)
• Blizzard also plans to beaf up the existing profession racials somewhat.

Stats

• Mastery improves unique passive talents from the tree with the most points in it. I’ll leave that up for your interpretation for the moment.