The first way to get a WoW Cataclysm beta invite is to work for Blizzard! Ok, this isn’t a joke – but the first beta invitations for Cataclysm will be given to internal Beta testers within the company, who will give it a first go through to make sure that the content is around the right level of difficulty etc.

The second wave of beta invites for Cataclism will go to previous beta and alpha testers of other versions of the game. We at WoWCataclysmInfo.com were lucky enough to be able to beta test the original World of Warcraft and the structure was strict – we provided feedback on a monthly or weekly basis to the developers who tweaked the game serveral times before wiping all of the characters from all of the servers and starting again.

Included in this wave of testers for World of Warcraft Cataclysm beta invitations will be high end raiders – the groups of players who CONSTANTLY grind away at the game with the hope that maybe, one day, if they grind hard enough they will get a world first…well their reward is to be able to test the content on Blizzard’s behalf! I think buying a Beta key might be a better or more worhtwhile idea for them!). Anyway, they will be asked to check the new dungeons for difficulty level and gameplay.

Finally, the WoW Cataclysm open beta invitations will be sent to people who register on WoW.com. The registration has not opened yet (as soon as it does, you will find information right here) so when it does you can go directly to the WoW site and register your name and email address – but be quick! There are more than 10,000,000 people waiting for a beta invite!

The final way is a little bit of a grey area, but it will be possible to buy wow cataclysm beta invitations. After the official beta begins, check Ebay for listings saying ‘WoW Cataclysm Beta’ and you will find a large number of beta invitiations for sale – but be warned, the prices will be inflated and hey – why not just wait for the real game to begin?!

wow cataclysm path of the titans

Here’s all the information you need to know about Path of the Titans before the WoW Expansion comes out later this year.
WoW Cataclysm Path of the Titans

As you will have read in our last article WoW Cataclysm Archaeology, there will be a new secondary profession in Azeroth when the new expansion comes out. This profession will allow all players to find and uncover secrets which have been unearthed after the cataclysmic event which has destroyed much of Azeroth.

The glyphs that will be created by players, as well as the discoveries that they will uncover will eventually lead to them beginning a questline which, at level 85 (max level), will mean that every player will be able to customize his player’s history and style more and more. But what are these questlines? They are the Path of the Titans!

Each quest line or Path will lead to a number of quests and tasks for players. These paths the quests in WoW Cataclysm can unlock not only items and rewards, but also changes to your skills and talents. It will be a fully fledged top-level customization process, and everyone will be able to choose to be different. It is Blizzard’s plan that there will be fewer and fewer ‘clone’ builds between the same class in WoW Cataclysm, and more and more individuality and expressionism.

Each of the paths has an interesting name, which I will list here simply for information’s sake. The path of the titans lore will be very interesting to follow, as each path will be linked to a different hero! These heroes are:

Aman’Thul: The High Father , Golganneth: The Thunderer, Eonar: The Lifebinder, , Aggramar: The Avenger, Khaz’Goroth: The Shaper and Norgannon: The Dreamweaver. We can only imagine the different possibilities which each Path of Titans will open for players of Warcraft, and each class and race will be able to analyse and choose their own story related to their strengths, racials and desires.

That’s all the Path of the Titans in WoW Cataclysm info we have right now, but keep checking back (or RSS us) for more info as it comes out!

Gamasutra has a nice interview with someone on Blizzard’s team that we haven’t heard from very much before — Alex “Furor” Afrasiabi is currently a lead world designer for Cataclysm, and while we have definitely seen him at BlizzCon a few times, he hasn’t done as much press as, say, Tom Chilton or J. Allen Brack. But here he is on Gamasutra, talking about what Blizzard is doing to the World of Warcraft in the next expansion.

And boy are they doing it. As we knew, Desolace and Azshara are getting revamped completely, while Feralas is in for some questing changes and zones like Loch Modan are seeing some “light” modification. Blizzard apparently looked at each zone and determined where it lay on the list of todos: Azshara is becoming the 10-20 Horde zone and so will get reworked extensively, but Silithus, while it may need work, probably won’t get more than a few tweaks.

Afrasiabi also talks about the surprising origin of phasing and Blizzard’s philosophy. More after the break.

Get this — phasing, the revolutionary technology that allows Blizzard to make a more transitive MMO than ever, started out as one of those 180,000 bugs. After a programmer came up with a way to fix a bug in Blade’s Edge that allowed different people to see different things happening in the world, they later decided to use that bugfix as the foundation for the death knight starting area, largely considered one of the best experiences in the game.And as usual we answered your emails (including why Gamestop claims to know Cataclysm’s release date) and chatted live with listeners, and you can listen to the show at any of the links below. Haven’t subscribed to iTunes yet? Why not? Not only do you get the show

Then again, I could be missing the fact that in Cataclysm, warrior tanking will be far different and not nearly so ’stand there and soak ridiculous amounts of damage’ oriented. Perhaps HS will become a rage generation attack, similar to how some Death Knight abilities generate runic power, which will make it something warriors use when they specifically need rage for other abilities (perhaps that Mortal Strike/Bloodthirst combo once they’re not on the same cooldown calm down and put the pitchforks away it was a joke sheesh people).

PC Gamer UK was lucky enough to get the chance to grill Blizzard about the upcoming Cataclsym expansion, and they came away with quite a bit of new information, which is available in their latest issue, as well as as in the PC Gamer Podcast.

If you don’t want to be spoiled, do not follow the break, I’m warning you now. There’s a couple major story spoilers, especially regarding the origins of the goblins and worgen.

The worgen starting zone actually begins in a flashback. Gilneas is besieged by the Forsaken and gripped with rumors of plague. You meet a dissenter, Crowley, who believes that Gilneas’ isolationism is a mistake and that they should rejoin the Alliance. When the worgen curse comes, you and Crowley lead the defensive, but are pushed back to the city cathedral, where you realize that the worgen you are fighting are your own friends and neighbors driven feral. As you realize this, the curse takes you.

Flash forward to some months later, when you’re captured in the countryside by your old friend Crowley. From here, the portion we saw at BlizzCon begins.

As for the goblins, you start on Kezan as a pretty high level (society-wise, not game mechanics) executive, successful and rich, with a hot secretary. When Kezan begins to fall apart, you give your life savings to a Trade Prince who promises you safe passage to the mainland. Instead, he captures you and tries to sell into slavery. That’s when the shipwreck happens, and again, the story picks up with the BlizzCon portion.

Apparently, the original goblin city, despite only appearing from levels 1-5, is sort of a Grand Theft Auto: Goblin City parody type of setup, full of sleaze and pollution and robot-powered American-style football. But that’s not all. Apparently the goblins’ brush with slavery and death hasn’t wiped out their unique sensibilities and philosophies, as they’ll actually reshape Azshara to look like the Horde symbol.

The goblins and worgen aren’t the only ones to get story tidbits, though. We also learn a bit more about what the Horde’s been up to. Garrosh is confirmed to be the new leader of the Horde. He’s redesigned Orgrimmar, and has actually evicted all but the orcs and tauren from the center of the city, saying that only those two races are strong enough to defend it.

The ruins of Lordaeron are being expanded, with a pit opening into the Undercity. Zoram’gar Outpost will be a Warsong Hold style base. In zone modification news, Stranglethorn will be one of the most extensively altered zones. In addition, Southshore will have succumbed to tidal waves (which is notably different from what we heard at BlizzCon, which was that the Horde had conquered it).

The lore behind the Arch Cleric would be that the Cataclysm which struck Azeroth awakened a secretive order of priests whom had been studying under the watchful guise of a master Death Knight which converted to the priestly way of life. Now that the world is in ruins, this order of Arch Clerics called the Divine March leads the fight to restore and heal the peoples of Azeroth; seeing to the ultimate destruction of Deathwing.

Do you feel that the commenters on WoW.com have become less trollish and more civil and witty in recent weeks? If so, can you please give them (us?) a well-deserved “Big ups?”

Thanks,
Me”

So what’s up with these changes? My guess is actually that Blizzard is streamlining the 1-10 experience, because in Cataclysm, it’s about to get a little crazier. We heard about just how much is going on in the starting zones the other day, and without spoiling it, there’s revolutions, wars, plagues, life, love, and death. That’s a lot to be putting into 10 levels, and

The story behind the Lich King’s big sack o’ weapons: “The main idea is that the Lich King has an inventory of weapons that he has stolen and corrupted throughout his reign. These weapons originally belonged to characters like King Terenas, Antonidas, Sylvanas, and Muradin Bronzebeard.” Awesome.

Of course, the third option is that this a test for a new character customization option in Cataclysm, namely, tattoos. RPers and more aesthetically minded players know that it seems like pulling teeth to get Blizzard to implement cosmetic non-progression oriented character customization (Seriously, just steal stuff from LoTRO, Blizzard! I won’t tell if you don’t!), so even the whiff of a possibility for new stuff is pretty exciting. Then again, we’ve seen tatooed NPCs before, such as in the Wolfcult of Grizzly Hills, so this could still just be an NPC thing.
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