Most of the information was released during the Blizzcon and I don't think anyone had the time to process everything during the event, the blue poster activity will calm down for a week or two and it should leave you with plenty of time to discuss each feature. I might add a Cataclysm menu when I'm done with that. (Yes, I do realize that I'm starting to have a lot of menus here. I'm sure I'll eventually figure something out)

Cataclysm Alpha/Beta Test

Let's start with a small reminder: The Alpha/Beta Test of the expansion didn't start and anything saying otherwise is a scam from people trying to steal your account. Trust me, when an Alpha version of Cataclysm is available, you'll know about it.

Cataclysm Release Date

The 2nd most popular question on my list, what's the release date of the expansion? We don't know. The only thing we know at this point is that Cataclysm should be released in 2010 but Blizzard didn't announce the exact date for the moment. Of course it never hurts to Preorder Cataclysm on Amazon.com or anywhere else.

Cataclysm - Guild Improvements

Wrath of the Lich King made guilds slightly less useful, a decent PUG can complete a lot of the raid content and finding people to run an heroic dungeon has never been so easy. Cataclysm will change that and make guilds more interesting than ever!

Guild Levels and Talents

Your guild can now gain experience and levels, the maximum level being 20. Your guild will gain experience through different ways :

• Playing with your guildmates and killing a raid boss or winning an arena match where more than 75% of the group is from your guild.
• Playing alone also helps your guild, leveling your character, your professions, or even your reputations will increase the level of your guild as well!

You won't be able to level fast just by recruiting a hundred of members, guild leveling is restricted and only the top 20 earners each week will increase the experience of the guild.
Each level will reward you with a guild talent point, they can be spent to make your life easier in the game and will give you bonuses and abilities such as :

• Remove reagent costs from raid buffs.
• Reduce the cost of repairs.
• Increased gold drops from monsters or players that reward experience or honor.
• Summon your entire raid to a place.
• Resurrect your entire raid after a wipe. (30 min cooldown)
• Reduce the amount of rare reagents needed for professions. (Like reducing the amount of Frozen Orbs to craft a weapon)
• Automatically transfer a % of the gold dropped by monsters and bosses to the guild bank.

This is only a small preview of the talents and it already looks like a good reason to stick with your guild, but wait there is more!

Guild Items and Guild Currency

Guild experience will also be converted in a guild "currency" used to buy special items. These items are bound to the guild and you will have to stay in the guild to keep them, if someone leaves with a guild item it will just be returned to the guild bank.
You can expect various item rewards from this system:

• Heirlooms
• Mounts and pets
• Professions Plans (Leaving the guild will unlearn them)
• Potions and Rare Reagents
• Guild Banners
• Guild Bank Tabs and Guild Talents Respecs

Guild Achievements

Cataclysm will also add achievements for your guild, the mechanics are the same as guild leveling you will need a minimum ratio of guild members in the group to complete them. They will be very similar to player achievements and you can expect things like :

• Completing a raid instance with your guild
• Crafting one (or more!) legendary items
• Become a Grand Master in every profession
• Become Exalted with all Northrend factions

Looking for Guild

Cataclysm will also make the management of your guild much easier. A new "Looking for Guild" interface will be added, it will give players an easy way to find a guild and give leaders an easy way to find new members. This new feature will let you recruit people based on a few filters based on various requirements.

Improved Guild Interface

Tracking what's going on in your guild will also be made easier with a new interface.

• The Guild News will let you check everything that happened in your guild: boss kills, members achievements, new item loot, profession leveling ... It will come with different filters to let you find specific information.
• A new Roster tab will give you more information on your guildmates, you can see the professions of everyone in the guild and even check the list of their recipes to see if they can craft an item.
• The calendar will also let you invite other guilds to your guild events.