Cataclysm Beta has Begun!

That's right folks, Cataclysm is officially in Beta. Now we can openly discuss the new goodies that are going into the expansion :) I wish I had exciting news to share like other sites, but sadly I was not involved in the Alpha. I did take the opportunity yesterday to look over some of the tradeskill content that's been published so far, and there's some pretty exciting stuff!

So far the biggest news for me has got to be Blacksmithing. Have you seen the iLevel on these items?? The uncommon (green) crafted gear equippable by level 80 players is Item Level 298. Let me say that again: the starter crafted gear is more powerful than anything dropping in ICC. Gear drops from the Lich King in Heroic ICC-25 are iLevel 284. Right out of the gate in Cataclysm, we'll be making more powerful items. Our crafted gear will also be better itemized thanks to the new stat changes. This means we might actually have a market for some of our crafted goods, even the entry level pieces.

I hate to say it, but in my secret heart I'm also harboring an unseemly level of unbridled glee at the elitist GearScore pimping creeps who've been lording their shinies over our heads for the last year. No matter how much purple they've draped themselves in, our crafted goodies will likely be superior. SQUEEEEE!!!!

Ok, I'm done . Let's just overlook the fact that most of my toons are wearing a bunch of purple shinies. I still hate the elitism.

Back on topic, if Blacksmithing is any indication of the other gear oriented professions, it looks like we're seeing a pretty strong gear reset in Cataclysm. Combine this with the ability to create rare quality items for more skill points and it looks like we might actually be able to level our tradeskills and sell the results without much in the way of painful skill point grinding.

A quick look at Jewelcrafting shows us that the new uncommon (green) gems in Cataclysm will be DOUBLE the stats of the current epic gems. Right now you can get a Delicate Cardinal Ruby with +20 Agility, the Cataclysm greenie gem has +40 Agility. I think we can safely say that all of our current gems will be worthless in the next expansion, so start cleaning house now if you haven't already done so.

I'm sure you guys can pop over to MMO-Champion or WoWHead for yourselves and peruse the individual recipes for items of personal interest, so I'm not going to try and discuss every item of unique value. However, I would be remiss if I didn't give special attention to Alchemy, which I think exemplifies the sort of creativity and fun factor that I hope every profession receives for Cataclysm.

The first item that caught my eye was the Potion of Deepholme, a potion that acts as a teleport! There's also a Potion of Treasure Finding, a potion that allows you to find "special" treasure :) Another new goodie is the Potion of Illusion which purports to transform the imbiber to look like someone else. Neat!! A mysterious new item is Deepstone Oil which "may cause stiffness". I wonder what that means... should be fun to find out eh? Of course there are the usual flasks, buff potions and transmute recipes. I just wanted to point out the more interesting items.

From what we've seen so far, I'm really excited to see what else they have in store for us. I really hope all the professions get the same level of attention and creativity that Alchemy got. I'm still waiting for news on the Developer beta keys, as soon as I know something I'll share :)
Posted by Kaliope at Thursday, July 01, 2010
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9 comments:

  1. Thanks Kaliope! Really enjoy this site...
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  2. So - start to reduce the Northrend mats stash and build up the cash, eh? In that case I'm going to not worry about primordial saronite and ICC recipes, then. I have a few toons that could use some leveling love anyways. Thanks!
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  3. Just to emphasize my point here about the power gap from WotLK raid gear to Cata craftables, here's a quote from a Blue Post that went out yesterday:

    " ...with that comes more substantial scaling of items and character power with each level gained. A level-82 character should feel significantly more powerful than a level-80 character..."

    Meaning they want us to feel as if our character actually got stronger after gaining five more levels. Which probably won't happen if we're still wearing our epics from ICC at 85. Hence, the new gear is beefed up to make it more attractive than hanging on to older pieces. For me this just confirms that the jump was intentional and we will likely see this carried through other profession gear.

    To read the full blue post, you can pop over to
    MMO-Champion
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  4. AND there has been mention of an alchemy crafted mount that has some people on other forums wondering what it could be....any guesses?
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  5. Honestly, I find the whole idea of an Alchemy mount to be a bit far-fetched, not that I blame any group for wanting a cool new mount. Alchemists work with potions and chemicals, so from that standpoint I'm not seeing where a mount fits into the picture. However, if you were really set on coming up with a mount for Alchemists, it should be some sort of Ether-Beast (like a spirit beast) made of shadow or air. Another possibility would be an elemental creation (aka transmuting elements into an elemental beast).
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  6. I think Blacksmiths are due for a mount before Alchemists. Where's my metal dragon?
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  7. hmm....wish i could find the post about the alchemist mount, but dont know where i saw it....
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  8. About item levels:

    One thing to keep in mind about iLevels is that points are budgeted diffrently within a "rarity" category. That is to say that an iLvl 200 blue item is pretty inferior to a 200 purple.

    So a Cata green 288 item may or may not be as good as a LK purple 264 item in power.

    It all kind of reamains to be seen at this point, but I suspect that even green items for level 85 will be superior to ICC gear, since the whole point would be to start gearing again.
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  9. That is very true Anon, however the itemization of Cataclysm gear is also quite different from WotLK gear. Unfortunately for the epics, their item budget is going to include stats that are now useless in Cata (mp5, attack pwr, etc). No one knows yet whether they get converted or are just ignored.

    As you say, the whole point is to start gearing again. Hopefully people will keep an open mind when new gear comes along instead of clinging to their shinies just because. I know I'll probably equip some of the newer items and see how my stats are affected before I blindly vendor a quest reward.
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