What will the new mechanic be for 4e DS?
Two possibilities immediately come to mind: Defiling or Wild Talent
Which is more likely and why?
I could see either, but I'm leaning toward defiling. Wild Talents could just be handed out and work with the existing mechanics for Psionics that will be in PH3. I think defiling would need a new mechanic unless they demote it to strictly a fluff choice.
Wild Talents are much more minor and easily handled. That said, I'm putting down money that a lot of die-hard Dark Sun fans are going to be disappointed in whatever mechanic they come up with.
I agree that defiling is more exciting, but it only deals with Arcane casters. It would be more interesting to have something affect all characters is DS. And no, I do not think Defiling should affect all classes.
Wild Talents are less sexy, but all classes can have them, and you can add them to all NPCs and monsters.
Yeah the DMG2 is supposed to have rules for alternative rewards for characters. This will probably be used heavily in DS because of the lack of resources.
It would be nice to have several mechanics introduced in the DSPG, but I think (could be wrong) the james wyatt interview said no new classes but a new mechanic. If there's only one I think it has to be defiling. I know this only affects arcane classes, but it is a major part of what makes Dark Sun unique.
I would like a Wild Talent mechanic, but I think they could introduce Wild Talents without coming up with a new mechanic. The PH3 will include all the mechanics for running psionics. For DS, WotC could just include a list of psionic powers available to characters or something similar in order to account for Wild Talents.
It's impossible to make everyone happy, but I'm confident that WotC will do a good job and that 4e DS will appeal to a broad range of players. Personally, I'm not crazy about all the Far Realms business in the core setting, but it fits really well and they have done a good job fleshinging it out. It's just not to my taste.
You know i would love to see the variations over divine magic turned to elemental magic. Like it was in 2nd when you had a cleric of the different elements, you could actually do the same with every divine power class.
For example having a Fire Avenger would be different than a Water Avenger, of course not only in role playing, but in some mechanics. Would like to see the options of paladins like this too ( Like an elemental warrior or something).
Well, Defiling is in, and it will hurt, apparently:
Well, Defiling is in, and it will hurt, apparently:
twitter.com/wotc_rodney/status/461691924...
need... more... information...
Hmm, that is one way to curb the beneficial effects or modifiers. It somehow hurts your allies if they are too close to you when you do it. Do it too often or at the wrong time and your allies may have to stomp you. Possibilties.
I saw that tweet, as well as the images (which show printed power sheets, but not enough resolution to be read).
Glad to hear defiling isn't being glossed over. I'm so eager to get my hands on that content when it hits Insider! (I wonder how soon it will show up?)
I'm still leaning towards defiling being a radius effect that drains healing surges. Taking away a healing surge demonstrates that life is being sucked out of you without taking away actual hit points. Do this enough times and your party is no longer able to heal. It would also affect monsters (they are allowed one healing surge per tier) but to a lesser degree.
Originally, getting caught in a defiler's radius imposed an initiative penalty. WotC could stick with this, but I think that healing surges is a better mechanic to reflect what is actually happening.
I saw that tweet, as well as the images (which show printed power sheets, but not enough resolution to be read).
images??? where???
I saw that tweet, as well as the images (which show printed power sheets, but not enough resolution to be read).
images??? where???
Here. If someone can get the boys at NSA or somesuch to deduce what is printed, that would be great. :-)
You can see other pictures off of the same linked site, but nothing is revealed.
I read in some other post that defiling is a new mechanic and that it does have the ability to harm your allies.
(If someone can find and post the link that would be AWESOME!)
So it appears they have upped the power of defiling for 4e. In 2e, defiling just delayed your initiative, but now it really packs a whallop. This should really make for some interesting interparty conflict with arcane casters. "Should I defile to amp my spells and take out that threat?" "If I like amping my spells all the time, how long will my party put up with it?"
Can't wait to see more!
Found a few posts down! 
I would like to see a more detailed mechanic centered around low-magic campaigns (such as Dark Sun). The idea being to balance out the 4e math by giving characters natural bonuses to attacks and defenses. In other words really flesh out the 'rewards based game' section of the DMG2 and make it Dark Sun specific. That should be the default for the setting.
That way DS characters dont have to be on the magic item/wishlist treadmill, constantly upgrading magic weapons and armor. They shouldnt be, it goes against the whole concept of DS. Instead at high enough levels they could pick up a standard bone sword and use it as if it were a +3 weapon. Other bonuses could be to critical damage or to add item properties to a base character.