BlizzCon 2009: Class, Items, and Professions Panel Live Blog

We'll be live blogging the Class, Items, and Professions panel at 5:00 p.m. PDT / 8:00 p.m. EDT. This is the panel with Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, so you'll want to pay attention.

Take a look after the break for the live blog.

5:56PM And that's the end, ladies and gentlemen! The contests are up next, which are always fun. Keep an eye on the site, because we have great stuff coming all night long.

5:55PM Talents that improve buffs? All going away.

5:54PM This is why people hate Ret Paladins. "I'm a Ret Pally and I want to know when we're getting Mortal Strike." Ghostcrawler basically says, "You're not getting it... yet. We don't know who's getting it... yet." Note, not an exact quote.

5:53PM They don't want to get rid of trial accounts, for one. And it's not really his area of expertise to make rules on that.

5:52PM Any plans to get rid of gold farmers in Cataclysm? Ghostcrawler smiles. Scary.

5:52PM They don't want to mess with the cat rotation because a lot of people really like it, but they want the UI to make it more clear what you do next. "Or you can be a Manglebot."

5:51PM "I think the Feral Druid rotation is the #1 cause of carpal tunnel in the WoW community." "JOHN MADDEN"

5:51PM Questions about crafting bows. "That was our last vestige of hope for Woodworking" but they'll probably be rolled into other professions. Bows for Engineers perhaps.

5:50PM Shadow Priest not pleased with Haste. Will it improve? "Maybe." Ghostcrawler makes it clear we don't know about the new Cataclysm spells yet. Shadow Priests will probably get a no cooldown direct nuke in Cataclysm to use as filler. Hooray.

5:49PM "What if we just gave you back your riding crop instead?" "No." "Aw, worth a shot."

5:48PM Any chance that, if you have a 310% mount, you could let the 280% ones move as fast to let you use whatever you prefer? They're considering it, just for that reason.

5:47PM They pulled chests due to exploits, but they're working on a way to bring them back in a cooler way. Making treasure chests more 'epic' or at least better than finding cheese.

5:47PM "Dwarves have this racial called find treasure... what happened to all the treasure?" "They found it all."

5:46PM They originally set up a matrix to let some people dispel some things, but not everyone for everything. Now? Every healer class can dispel magic, the niches will come from other debuffs.

5:45PM "Why don't Resto Shaman or Resto Druid have magic dispel yet?" GC: "Should we tell him?" Uh oh.

5:45PM Asking why crafters can't repair the gear they make. Any plans to let that happen? Something they thought about but ended up backing off of. Repair costs are good for the game, and Reforging is what they decided to do instead.

5:44PM Some classes have more hit through talents than others, will that be fixed? Ghostcrawler says its likely Cataclysm will get rid of those talents entirely.

5:43PM Any multi-passenger flying mounts? Any 310% profession mounts? Yes on the former, probably not on the latter, unless it was tied to an achievement that let everyone acquire one anyways. "You got this achievement that gives you a 310% mount? Now you can ALSO craft this one..."

5:42PM Someone leveling a Resto Shaman, depended on MP5. Wants to know if everyone will have equivalent mana regen with Cataclysm dropping the stat. They say, yes. Everyone with equivalent gear will have equivalent regen.

5:40PM Holy crap, one of these guys touched their bottles of Mountain Dew. It's amazing. First one today.

5:39PM "In the future will we be able to make spell plate through Blacksmithing?" "You level as a healer?" "I just tried today." "Do you... heal them to death?"

5:38PM Resto Shaman asking about direction of Chain Heal change. GC says they still want Shaman to be great AE healers, and they let Priests and Druids butt in too much. Might even buff Chain Heal more.

5:37PM Guy in a Ghostcrawler mask. Ghostcrawler can't see the guy and asked the crowd what it was. Everyone yells, "You."

5:37PM Hunter asking about ammo as an item instead of consumable. How will you get it? They aren't entirely sure they want to drop it off of bosses, but it might happen. Potentially badge vendors, potentially drops. They haven't gotten to it yet, but they will.

5:36PM "Anymore utility for Mages in a raid? If Warlocks could make biscuits, you wouldn't need mages anymore." Scorch provides utility, but it has problems. Frost has Replenishment, but their DPS needs work. Ghostcrawler smiled. "I want a pony."

5:35PM Anything for Warriors since everyone else has AP changes in Cataclysm? Warriors will largely remain unaffected by the attack power changes. Everyone will look more like Warriors in the end.

5:34PM "Will you let us cleanse Ashbringer?" "No." "Okay."

5:34PM Question from a Druid. Any chance to go beyond dual spec? 3 or 4? Also, make bigger bags. Ghostcrawler says dual spec has worked out so far, but they don't want to go too far on it yet. Maybe eventually. About the bags, they'll look at it for Cataclysm.

5:33PM "Any possibility of one gathering profession, and two crafting professions?" No. They discussed it, but it's not going to happen. It'll give more room to make gathering professions awesome.

5:32PM "Is Onyxia going to Deep Breath more?" "Yes."

5:31PM Question about Runeforging limits. Anybody can do it for you, you don't need BSing as a Plate wearer. There probably will be limits, but they aren't sure what they are yet.

5:31PM Sums it up: Totems should do cool things to mix it up, and when it's time to be a turret it should be worth it.

5:30PM Elemental Shaman are too much like turrets in the arena, what could change? GC says freedom wolf was one thing. Possibly bringing the totems more into gameplay. Less buffs, more "putting a totem down and something cool happens." Doesn't want to go into too much detail yet.

5:29PM With Hunters not using mana, how will talents be changed to match it? GC days they're changing the talent trees dramatically. Systems panel plug again.

5:29PM Will there be an effort to make other Mage specs for viable other than Frost? GC says yes, Cataclysm will be revisiting what level you learn what ability. Also getting rid of spell ranks. Every level will scale your spells, no needing to train every 8 levels or whatever.

5:28PM There will be a caster legendary in Cataclysm's first raid. Wasn't a good place for it in Wrath.

5:27PM "Casters had Atiesh for about a day, and now we're going straight to Shadowmourne and well... darn!"

5:27PM "With Arthas dying in Wrath, why are we doing Worgen and Goblin DKS?" GC: "First of all, SPOILER! Ultimately we decided it would just be fun to let them do it."

5:26PM Yes, it will be going up by another 75 points. New title will be "Illustrious."

5:26PM "Are all professions going up by another 75 points? And what will it be called? Supermaster?"

5:26PM Racials will be made more interesting.

5:25PM As a note: Mountain Dew product placement is ongoing. Those full bottles remain untouched.

5:25PM Q&A starting. Slide says, "No Ret Pally questions." Everyone laughs.

5:25PM "Big changes coming to Fishing... that we can't talk about yet. It'll be more fun."

5:24PM No, it's not gone. They're talking about Engineering balance and what a pain it's been. The things from Patch 3.2 are what they'll be doing more of. The roots of Engineering, convenience items and pets and toys and catastrophic failures that get you horrible murdered in the middle of a barren wasteland.

5:23PM Engineering! Ghostcrawler sticks his nose in, "Gone!"

5:23PM They're looking into ways of making gathering skills more fun and interesting.

5:23PM Multi-gains incoming. You can make 5 green bracers, or one blue chestplate. You can get 1 skillup each from the greens, or 5 skillups from the blue.

5:22PM No, not dyes. You reduce one stat and put it into another, new stat. Must be a stat not on the item yet.

5:21PM Blacksmiths, LWers, Tailors, JCers, and Engineers all get Reforging for their sort of thing. Blacksmiths, plate. LWers, leather. Etc.

5:20PM Reforging is being shown. First mention of it. "Increased customization of gear." Dyes? Please?

5:20PM Archaeology UI being shown. It's going to be a journal-esque format. It has sa checklist of things you've done/need to do. "Gilneas Cursed War-Axe" shown.

5:19PM It'll open rewards. Vanity pets, titles, "maybe instant teleportation to places you've discovered." Random stuff you might find digging up ruins.

5:19PM They're getting into archaeology, the new secondary profession. Still heavily in development. You collect artifacts from all over the world, and it will open Paths of the Titans. "It's very cool!" They're not saying much right now.

5:17PM Professions are up now.

5:17PM No stats shown, but there is an amazing picture. "Hunter weapon obviously" for Shadowmourne.

5:17PM Shadowmourne. 2Handed axe.

5:17PM New Legendary!

5:16PM "Stamina? It's gone!" No, he was kidding.

5:16PM Block value going away, but block mitigates a % of damage. Won't be terrible on raid bosses anybody.

5:16PM Casters speeds up casting. Melee, regens your energy/rage/etc faster. No attack speed increase.

5:15PM Haste?

5:15PM Basically, Mastery makes you suck less. My words.

5:14PM Mastery will take its place, which we learn about in tomorrow's system panel.

5:14PM Armor Penetration = Gone. Thank god.

5:14PM Tanks will receive the needed anti-crit from talents like Survival of the Fittest.

5:14PM Defense is gone.

5:14PM Agility now provices 2 AP for rogues, hunters, shaman, druids. "No more plate-wearers stealing your gear."

5:13PM Attack Power? Gone. "Now you can panic."

5:13PM However! Intellect now scales your mana and your damage.

5:13PM Spellpower is going away completely.

5:13PM Says mana regen isn't fun for anybody but Healers, so Healers will get Meditation-like abilities. DPS casters won't need it at all. Really.

5:12PM MP5 changing. "I know most of you hate it and I keep shoving it down your throat. So... it's gone!" Everyone cheers. "It's replaced with Spirit." Everyone roars in anger.

5:11PM Someone not-Ghostcrawler is talking now. I fail and didn't catch his name.

5:11PM Rest of the classes will be... not today, apparently. Tomorrow's panel? Talking itemization instead.

5:11PM Fewer cooldowns on abilities for Hunters. Again, no more Aspect of the Viper, maybe it'll do something else. Maybe. Ammo will become an item, not a consumable.

5:10PM Max of 100 focus. Will regen like Rogue energy, but a bit slower (or faster if using Steady Shot)

5:10PM Hunters now use Focus. No longer care about Int or Mana Regen or Aspect of the Viper. "GC said hunters are dumb!'

5:09PM Hunters are up. Mana = Gone!

5:09PM Death coil, longer horror/more healing. Expect many of these to change, but it's an idea of how Soul Burnw ill work.

5:09PM Soulfire = Instant. Fear = Instant. Crowd is pissed.

5:09PM Searing Pain = Next 3 will crit with this buff. Summon Demon = Instant

5:08PM No spells themselves will use soul shards.

5:08PM New spell for Warlocks: Soul Burn. Costs 1 shard, 30 sec cooldown, off GCD. Empowers your next spell (Amp Curse-ish), Many (not all) spells behave differently.

5:08PM Possible to get more for long fights or mistakes. "Drain Soul = shard Evocation?"

5:07PM Will likely use ~3 shards per fight and regen quickly out of combat.

5:07PM They want shards to be a core feature of the class, not something you push aside. If you don't like shards, you should play a Mage and not a Warlock.

5:07PM Using a shard = Burning a cooldown. Only used in combat. No shards needed for demons.

5:06PM Soul shards will show up on your UI. Looks like you can have up to three.

5:06PM Soul shards: Dont take up bag space!

5:06PM Warlocks are up first for the classes.

5:06PM He threw "Return of the Highborne" in there, so there you go.

5:05PM "Now you get to see the new race/class combos, which you've clearly never seen before."

5:04PM Worgen: No Paladins or Shaman, but can do everything else.

5:04PM Goblins can be DKs, rogues... Ghostcrawler flipped that way too fast. No Paladins or Druids.

5:04PM Worgen form: Cosmetic only, no bonuses. Out of combat, you choose human or worgen. In combat you're always a worgen.

5:03PM Darkflight is a sprint. Aberration: Reduced duration against curses and diseases. Flayer: Skinning bonus, no need for a skinning knife.

5:03PM "Worgen have no racials, but you get to be a Worgen. good enough." He was kidding.

5:03PM Better Living Through Chemistry - Alchemy +15, your own potions give you more health/mana

5:02PM Pack Hobgoblin: Calls in your personal servant, allowing you to bank access every 30 min

5:02PM 1% incease to attack and casting speed. Best possible discount no matter reputation

5:02PM Classes are up first. Goblin racials! Rocket Jump - Activate your rocket belt to jump 20 yards, every 2 min

5:01PM And right on time, they crew is coming out on stage. Greg Street is at the helm. "You might know me as Ghostcrawler, or that asshole that nerfed your class."

5:00PM Hello, ladies and gentlemen! This party should be starting in just a few minutes. MC Frontalot moved off stage about ten minutes ago. He ended his lineup with Goth Girls, in case you were curious.