Woah! Everything looks different now! The Cataclysm is coming and with it has come the long awaited patch 4.0.3.  What happened here?  With this patch comes a abundance of changes to prepare for us for the Cataclysm launch event in two weeks.  In order to help you prepare for the Cataclysm, we are going to focus on some of the changes you have seen, or can expect to see in the near future.  Already we can see some major changes in Azeroth as of the latest patch. Each of the factions main Capitol City has been overhauled.  The new cities are a bit larger then their Wrath of the Lich King counterparts, but that shouldn’t be a problem since we will soon be able to fly in Northrend!

The first new game mechanic are going to talk about is the new Guild Leveling system.  This feature allows guilds to level in a similar fashion to Players, and gain passive abilities as they go.  There are 25 levels that a guild can achieve yielding rewards that vary from a passive XP bonus to Mass Resurrection. See the table below for a complete list of guild perks.

Here’s how the Guild Leveling system works.  A guild has a running tally of Experience Points, just like a player that curves as your guild progresses.  Guild Experience Points can be earned a variety of ways.

• Guild Boss Kills in a Raid in which 75% or more of the party is from the same guild.
• Earning Guild Achievements.
• Winning a Rated Battleground or Arena in which 75% or more of the party is from the same guild.
• (Individual) Earning a Faction advancement.
• (Individual) Earning a Trade Skill Profession advancement.

Completing any of these tasks will garner your guild a chunk of XP towards your guild advancement.  When your guild has acquired enough XP you’ll gain a level and get a new Perk.  One of the things that I like about this system, is that there are a mix of activities for players to perform to advance their guild.  There are some individual tasks that can be achieved, which should give people something to strive after when they aren’t slicing down bosses.  Blizzard also showed some amazing forethought and added a cap into the system so that larger guilds didn’t get too much of an advantage on their smaller brethren.  Each day, the top 20 XP Producers from the guild will have their XP “Counted” towards the guilds collective XP pool.  Everyone else that banked XP points for their guild will not count. While I see that this will help the guilds compete with each other to be the highest level, and have the most perks.  However, the fact that someones work can be ignored, if they are part of a larger guild is saddening.  I can just imagine the Emo Kid that works to support his guild, only to have it “not count”.   Can we say Rage Quit?  I suspect that there will be some revamping of the system in the days to come, but for now we can expect that we will have to deal with this double edged sword.  The list of Guild Perk’s is very diverse and should some exciting group rewards for guilds to strive after even if the system has it’s downfalls.

Guild Items

There are rumors of Guild Items that are to be Bound to the Guild, but we can find no supporting post from Blizzard confirming this.  Guild bound items are purported to be ranging from Heirloom Items that can be given to any character, Crafting patterns (that will be returned to the Guild Bank if the player leaves the guild), to Vanity Pets, an Extra Guild Bank tab, or even a Guild Standard to show your Awesomeness!  These items are meant to be physical tokens of a guilds advancement through the leveling system, so let’s hope that they are as cool as they sound!

Guild User Interface Changes

With the updates to the Guild options, a user interface update was as inevitable as the rising of the sun.  Blizzard has given us some much needed improvements to the Guild Interface.  Already we can see that the general layout allows a Guild MotD as well as a Generic Guild Information section.  These aren’t new features, but the redesigned layout makes it easier to communicate with your online adventuring pals. When Cataclysm goes live, we can expect even more changes that are sure to help players find other like minded individuals to venture into the depths of the Cataclysm with.  Blizzard has announced a Looking for Guild feature that they plan to unveil during the Cataclysm.  This new system will work almost exactly like the Looking for Group feature, and will allow players an in-game avenue in which to find a new guild, or new guild member.  Also, we can expect to see new data displayed on the Guild tab that gives us information like Guild Member’s Professions, Guild Achievements, Guild Stats like Boss Kills and more.

Here’s the Official information from Blizzard as explained at Blizzcon.

(***Warning Long Boring Video Alert***)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNeMIfyGfmo&feature=related[/youtube]

The Complete list of Guild Perks

Guild Level		Name	Guild Bonus
1		Fast Track (Rank 1)	Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 5%.
2		Mount Up	Increases speed while mounted by 5%. Not active in Battlegrounds or Arenas.
3		Mr. Popularity (Rank 1)	Reputation gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 5%.
4		Cash Flow (Rank 1)	Each time you loot money from an enemy, an extra 5% money is generated and deposited directly into your guild bank.
5		Fast Track (Rank 2)	Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 10%.
6		Reinforce (Rank 1)	Items take 5% less durability loss when you die.
7		Hasty Hearth	Reduces the cooldown on your Hearthstone by 15 minutes.
8		Reinforce (Rank 2)	Items take 10% less durability loss when you die.
9		Chug-A-Lug (Rank 1)	The duration of buffs from all guild cauldrons and feasts is increased by 50%.
10		Mobile Banking	Summons your guild bank.
11		Mr. Popularity (Rank 2)	Reputation gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 10%.
12		Honorable Mention (Rank 1)	Increases Honor points gained by 5%.
13		Working Overtime	Increases the chance to gain a skill increase on tradeskills by 10%.
14		The Quick and the Dead	Increases health and mana gained when resurrected by a guild member by 50% and increases movement speed while dead by 100%. Does not function in combat or while in a Battleground or Arena.
15		Cash Flow (Rank 2)	Each time you loot money from an enemy, an extra 10% money is generated and deposited directly into your guild bank.
16		Guild Mail	In-game mail sent between guild members now arrives instantly.
17		Everyone's a hero (Rank 1)	Increases Heroism points gained by 5%.
18		Honorable Mention (Rank 2)	Increases Honor points gained by 10%.
19		Happy Hour	Increases the number of flasks gained from using a flask cauldron by 100%.
20		Have Group, Will Travel	Summons all raid or party members to the caster's current location.
21		Chug-A-Lug (Rank 2)	The duration of buffs from all guild cauldrons and feasts is increased by 100%.
22		Bountiful Bags	Increases the quantity of materials gained from Mining, Skinning, Herbalism, and Disenchanting by 15%.
23		Bartering	Reduces the price of items from all vendors by 5%.
24		Everyone's a Hero (Rank 2)	Increases Heroism points gained by 10%.
25		Mass Resurrection (Rank 1)	Brings all dead party and raid members back to life with 35 health and 35 mana. Cannot be cast when in combat.