As many of you know from panels at last year’s BlizzCon and posts here on the forums since then, Cataclysm will bring about major changes to familiar character stats such as Intellect, Armor Penetration, Defense, and others, ultimately designed to make the effects of stats more easily understandable and make gear choices more interesting. As these changes will have a significant impact on how stats work and relate to one another, today we wanted to offer you a closer look at exactly what’s in store and explain some of the rationale before Cataclysm arrives.

The most obvious question these changes raise is “Why are stats being changed, and why now?” As the game has matured, we’ve run into increasingly complex issues with the current stat system. Many stats are inherently confusing, and the way they interrelate can feel convoluted. Attack Power, for example, currently translates to damage, but so does Armor Penetration. Defense provides five different statistical benefits of varying utility. Mana regeneration involves understanding multiple stats and rules and often ends up being irrelevant anyway. In addition, the difference between a “good stat” for a class and a “bad stat” can be extreme. Some casters want Haste but not Crit; hunters want Armor Penetration but not Haste. There are other overarching issues, as well, such as Intellect not being very exciting for casters despite it being a core stat — and these are just a few examples.

Our ultimate goal is make gear a more interesting (and less confusing) choice by making each stat valuable to more players. While the reasoning behind some of the following changes may be clear, we understand that you may have questions about some of the less obvious alterations, and we’ll do our best to answer any questions you may have here on the forums.
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Archaeology

• New Secondary Profession: Archaeology – lets you collect and use artifacts unearthed from the ancient races
• No longer linked to Path of the Titans; Geared more towards exploring the lore of the game.
• Each archaeologist uses the profession to uncover clues hidden in the world around them, such as troll relics or map fragments, and decipher their meaning, enabling the clever archaeologist to manipulate pieces of the past, learning the location of a treasure cache or valuable artifact. Such artifacts are highly sought after by the Archaeology Society, and they pay in gold and items for their return.
• Interacting with an artifact you find is similar to other gathering professions. It has been specifically stated that you will be able to track both Artifacts and your regular “tracking” for gathering professions.
• Recovered artifacts will be placed in a Journal, not in bags
• Rewards from Archaeology will be something “like”: a skeletal T-Rex non-combat pet or the ability to teleport to a dungeon you’ve been to before
• Two types of artifacts: Common – more lore-oriented; and Rare – when combined will create usable items, sometimes even weapons

Reforging

• allows Tailor to modify cloth gear, Leatherworkers to modify leather, etc.; Specifically, they can reduce a single statistic on applicable items and convert 50% of the lost points into another stat not already on the item; this service can also be provided to other players if you see fit
• it appears this will be enacted using scrolls, and some stats may not be permissible to swap over, like stamina —> strength – see link for more info

Herbalism

• All Cataclysm herbs have the chance of containing Volatile Life.
• There won’t be a new Lotus equivalent in Cataclysm.
• “Heartblossom — Named for its deep red color, this delicate flower grows close to the ground, and always in pairs. If one blossom is taken, the other flower begins to wilt immediately and dies soon after. It is considered very unlucky to disturb a Heartblossom without blessing it first.”

Mining

• Obsidian is the new common mineral found when mining in Cataclysm, and can contain gems, Volatile Fire, and Volatile Shadow.
• Elementium is the new uncommon mineral found when mining in Cataclysm, and can contain gems, Volatile Fire, Volatile Water, or Volatile Earth.
• Pyrite is the new rare mineral found when mining in Cataclysm, and can contain gems and Volatile Fire.
• Previous Elementium Ore and Bar used for classic quests will be renamed to Elementium Ingot and Hardened Elementium Bar.

Skinning

• Savage Leather, the basic Cataclysm leather, can be gathered from most creatures found in the expansion areas and can be converted to Heavy Savage Leather at a 6:1 rate.
• Pristine Hide, the rare Cataclysm hide, can be found when skinning creatures in the expansion areas, or be converted from Heavy Savage Leather.

Alchemy

• New elixirs will be about 75% as strong as flasks. So you can get more total stat points with two elixirs, but flasks will still be the best at giving you a single offensive or defensive stat.
• New unique material used by nearly all high-level recipes will be created by alchemists on a one-day cooldown.
• New Mysterious Potion created with common materials restores health and mana in a massively random range, as well as sometimes granting the benefit of another potion. The health and mana range is from 1-20,000 and is able to crit. The minimum amount restored, however, is scaled upwards by the Alchemy skill, making it a great choice for alchemists to keep for themselves.
• All potions and elixirs now use the same basic vial type. Flasks still use a fancy vial.
• New Alchemist Stone.

Enchanting

• may be able to finally enchant gear with resilience
• In general, material component costs for most recipes are more moderate in how much they require, while the highest-end recipes will still require large quantities. The goal of this change is to make the leveling recipes more consistent and not create unintended roadblocks in getting to the higher skill levels.
• An enchanter vanity pet is being added.

Weapon Enchantments

• Avalanche — Chance to deal Nature damage on melee hit/spell hit.
• Elemental Slayer — As expected, this enchantment helps players deal devastating damage to elemental creatures.
• Hurricane — A stacking haste proc.
• Heartsong — Mana regeneration through increased Spirit when chain-casting spells.
• Many more maximum-level enchantments are still in progress.

Engineering

• Engineering is still being designed, but expect new unpredictable gadgets to use on yourself or enemies. Toys, explosives, and even a new vanity pet or two. Oh, and powerful mechanical bows and crossbows in addition to guns.
• In general, we want Engineering to remain a tradeskill mainly focused on creating fun or useful gadgets for the engineer, but we are exploring options for items that can be sold to other players for profit.

Inscription

• With the large number of class changes coming with Cataclysm, many existing glyphs will see new functionality.
• Minor glyphs are woefully uneven from one class to the next right now, so they’re a focus for us to clean them up and try to ensure that everyone has minor glyphs they’re excited about.
• New Darkmoon Cards will be added, with hopes they’ll all be as awesome as the Greatness card.
• We’ll be adding more major glyphs as well, but in the hopes of making them as balanced as possible, we’ll likely wait until after the expansion ships to add any for the new abilities in Cataclysm.
• New and more desirable off-hand and relic recipes will be added.
• Addition of ‘Medium Glyphs’ that may focus more on ‘fun’ alterations to abilities. Idea is to have 3 of each type of Glyph (Minor, Medium, and Major) at level 85
• Possibility of making Glyphs permanent and swappable
• Glyph UI will now show all Glyphs that are available to your class

Jewelcrafting

• Some gem colors have changed! Hit is now blue. Mastery and Dodge are yellow. Intellect is now red. These simple changes have created a much more diverse matrix of gem cuts.
• New Jewelcrafting dailies will be introduced.
• Many cuts are being added to support the new Mastery stat.
• Some new Cataclysm jewelry recipes have completely random properties, and can sometimes create superior and epic versions.
• Jewelcrafters will have some fun new (and potentially lucrative) vanity items, including fist weapons, rhinestone sunglasses, monocles, and stardust (sprinkle on players for entertainment).

Cooking

• Cooking is still in the early stages, but we plan on continuing with daily quests, feasts, and some fun new recipes.
• We liked the cooking dailies that had players picking up items that spawned in the world near the quest giver, so most if not all new cooking dailies will work similarly.

First Aid

• Bandages will have a short cast time and put a heal over time effect on the target for 8 seconds. This effect is broken by damage.
• Three new bandages! That’s right: THREE!
• “Dense Embersilk Bandage” Heals for 34,800 over 8 seconds. Requires 3 Embersilk to create.

Fishing

• Lots of new fish and other fun items to catch! Fish are still used to make premium food.
• New fishing dailies.

Other

• New Recipes
• Skill Cap raised to 525 – “Illustrious”
• Skill Points: allow the gaining of multiple points for some tasks; while intended for Crafting profs, this has been mentioned for Gathering as well
• Profession Specialization removed

Reforging is an ability currently being developed in Cataclysm for Jewelcrafters, Engineers, Tailors, Blacksmiths and Leatherworkers that will allow for some customization of stats on Items.

The idea is to allow a Blacksmith to take a Mail or Plate item which contains (for example) 50 Stamina and 50 Agility and remove half of one of these stats for another. Stats already on the piece can not be augmented. A new stat can be created using the “points” available. (Swapping 25 Agility points and creating a 25 Spirit augment using this example.)

Other professions will be able to do the same for their own lines; Tailors will deal with Cloth Augments, Leatherworkers will deal with Leather Augments, Engineers with Trinkets and Ranged, Jewelcrafters with Rings and Necklaces.

Reforging will have no affect for “on use” or passive effects on Trinkets and Ranged, but will be able to change Stats all the same.

Reforging is a method by which people can easily change their gear or the gear of other players by removing skill points from one area and placing them in another. This is an interesting feature for a few reasons. It is going to allow there to be infinitely more gear options in the game. And because the reforging will not allow anyone to shift all the numbers into a single stat, there will be no “uber” gear crafted either.

Second, it will create an entirely different market of individuals in capital cities who can offer their reforging services for fellow players. Instead of just crafting new items, all of the gear crafters – blacksmiths, engineers, tailors, and leatherworkers, will be able to take the gear their fellow players gather from raids and PvP and then start tacking on different stats where needed.

New Levels of Customization

This will allow players who may find certain pieces of gear slightly inferior due to their focus on the wrong stats much more willing to utilize those pieces. It might also create a higher degree of argument in instance parties over who gets what pieces of loot due to their different stats and how those stats can be shifted around now that any piece of gear can easily be changed.

Whatever ends up happening though, the simple truth is that reforging is a major new addition to the game and one that will prove to be incredibly popular when World of Warcraft Cataclysm finally launches in 2010.

New Cataclysm expansion, recently announced by Blizzard will bring brand new items, abilities, races and the 2 new professions. Each expansion in World of Warcraft introduced new professions- Burning Crusade Jewelcrafting, WotLK Inscription, while Cataclysm will introduce Archaeology and Reforging latest crafting improvement.

Archaeology profession

Archaeology will be the last of the secondary professions, allowing further customizations to be performed on the characters. New Archaeologists will have an option to search through various ruins situated all over the map for the different items of interest, just like Archaeologists in real life.

Through their research of the ruins, Archaeologists will be able to gather various unique artifacts and make notes. These artifacts will enable Archaeologists to further customize their characters, while handing these artifacts in to a Titan cult will bring them all different kinds of rewards, such as Teleportation, Vanity pets and new items of interest. Depending on the path they choose, Archeologists will be able to make new discoveries which will bring new passive skills and new abilities.

How unique is Archaeology?

All World of Warcraft professions are made to follow the progressive pattern, which consists of player’s learning the skill and leveling it up to the certain skill level in order to be able to use it for the specific craft. Archaeology will be different. It will not have the cap skill level after which the progress will no longer be possible. It will allow continuous advancing in profession, which will ensure the constant interest of players for this profession.

Reforging profession

Reforging will be introduced as a crafting addition, a skill which will allow further gear customization. Only the gear statistics will be subject to customization, unfortunately not the appearance as well. It will maybe be possible in the further expansions.

Reforging will be available to Engineers, Blacksmiths, Letherworkers, Tailors and Jewelcrafters. Those players who have one or more of these crafting professions will be able to re-customize the piece of gear originating from it. For example a Jewelcrafter will be able to take one stat from the ring. After altering it to the desired statistics, he will be able to return it back to the ring.

What is so unique about this?

The changeable statistics will not be limited to those that are already given on the item. If you for example have a necklace with stamina and intellect, you will be able to change stamina for the equivalent amount of the spell power instead.

This customization of the statistics will be available for all the items and not only those crafted by you. It will be of particular help to players who do not have the required professions. They will also be able to re-customize wanted statistics by seeking assistance from other players who do have desired Reforging skill.

Expansion Cataclysm will bring new dimension to World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft will certainly not disappoint the players, as it has been the most amazing and popular MMORPGs for quite some time now. The population of the World of Warcraft players is ever-growing despite the new MMORPGs that are constantly emerging. The quality of this amazing game has made sure of it.

Originally the slaves of jungle trolls on the Isle of Kezan, the goblin race was forced to mine kaja’mite ore out of the volcanic bowels of Mount Kajaro.

The trolls used this potent mineral for their voodoo rituals, but it had an unexpected effect on the slaves who were in constant contact with it: kaja’mite generated a startling new cunning and intelligence in the goblins. Crafting their own powerful artifacts of engineering and alchemy in secret, the goblins soon overthrew their oppressors and claimed Kezan for their homeland. The mines that had been their prison, their slave camp, and the base of their rebellion now became the city of Undermine. Weaving through the heart of the island in a dizzying network of tunnels, vaults, and lava tubes, Undermine epitomizes the goblins’ complex, unpredictable mindset.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Goblins

The goblins’ natural greed soon lifted them to prominence as masters of mercantilism. Trade princes arose during the First War as the cleverest goblins learned to take advantage of the strife. Great fortunes were amassed, and the Isle of Kezan became a hub for fleets of goblin trading ships. One of the trade princes agreed to lend his faction’s services to the Horde in the Second War. Following the Horde’s defeat, the goblins learned from their colleague’s failed example, and soon they realized that their profits could double if they weren’t stuck in such a restrictive relationship. By the end of the Third War, goblins were providing weaponry, vehicles, and devious services to both the Horde and the Alliance. This wouldn’t last forever…

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Goblins

Recently, the goblins of Kezan have found a new enemy in the Alliance – unexpected and unprofitable encounters with this faction have driven certain trade princes from their comfortable neutrality.  Reforging old pacts with their one-time allies, the goblins have been welcomed into the Horde with open arms.