Cataclysm in Warcraft. The Changes to WoW Guilds
Blizzard have gradually been announcing more information on the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. The latest tidbit is to do with the changes we can expect to guilds.
WoW progression in other areas such as levelling and instance runs has had a lot of love from the developers over the years. It’s about time the social aspect of guilds was overhauled.
It’s pretty fundamental. It’s a massive overhaul in the way guilds work and the whole dynamic of social play. Though it’s too early to be certain, it looks like very good news indeed.
On logging in after patch 4.0, the first thing you might notice is the new guild GUI. The old style guild communication is gone; this is a whole new system. A screen showing your guild achievements through the various instances is displayed, along with the new achievement point total. Yes guilds now have guild achievement points.
Guilds such as WoW Relentless and WoW Defiance will start to see the legendaries that they have managed to achieve are now displayed prominently in their guild tab, along with a guild news ticker (an in guild CSS feed) that will show all member the results of raids and events. Right down to individual loots and level ups.
One contentious issue has always been the paying of a tariff or tax into the guild bank. This may well end with a guild talent that increases the loot for all members while in an instance – and pays it directly into the guild bank. In other words you loot the gold you would normally loot, but an extra percentage ends up being deposited invisibly into your guild bank.
The way guilds deal with professions is also due to change. Every member will have a permanent link to their profession in the guild tab for all other members to see (and link to if needed). No more shouts and whispers “Can someone link me …” It will all be there.
There are achievements for having all professions maxxed. It is thought that these achievements will tally up and earn you the new “guild talents” All this adds up to good news for the player. It means Blizzard is taking social gaming seriously, and looking to make sure professions stay relevant. Both important issues if WoW’s ascent is to be maintained.
So love all round for guilds here.
We have the Blizzcon 2009 video on this topic at The Warcraft Blog. For the best gold guide currently available visit The Warcraft Advanced Gold Guide
