Cataclysm Press Event: Path of Titans scrapped, Inscription overhauled

At BlizzCon 2009, we learned of the Path of the Titans, a new alternate advancement system that would see PCs allying with various titan cults in order to gain various character bonuses apart from simply leveling up. At the recent Cataclysm press event, Blizzard announced that they'll be completely scrapping the system.

To offset this, they've chosen instead to work on an overhaul of the glyph system, as they noted they didn't quite get it to where they wanted with Wrath. Here are the basics:

• There will be a new tier of glyphs, currently called "Medium" glyphs, that will provide "fun alterations" to abilities. Major and minor glyphs will act much as they currently do. You'll have 3 of each glyph type at level 85.

• You will no longer have to re-buy glyphs when you respec or rearrange them. Rather, you will will learn each glyph like a skill and be able to swap them at will from a list.

• This list will show all glyphs available to your class, but will only allow you to use the ones you've purchased.

There's definitely a lot of interesting speculation to be done here. What "fun alterations" can we expect? Will warlocks finally get their green fire? Will death knights be able to turn their ghoul into a geist? It's not exactly a replacement to the genuine character advancement and improvements we would have expected in Path of the Titans, but it means a bit less min-maxing and analysis when deciding how to build your characters, and perhaps a little more fun for those of us who like visually oriented character customization.

The other issue, of course, is for the Inscription profession. With glyphs becoming one-time learned "abilities," scribes may find their profits down in the dumps as even people who respec often or swap glyphs on a per-fight basis can simply swap at will from their spell books. Still, we may also see a leap in the amount of required reagents for glyphs or some other change to help scribes justify a price leap on their wares, or Blizzard may have just decided that Inscription was just getting a bit too lucrative.