Announced about an hour ago at Blizzcon, copied from MMO-Champion.


World of Warcraft Cataclysm is now CONFIRMED

Additions from my leak

* Guild Achievements will be added to the game.
* Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will be revamped and heroic versions will be added
* Rated Battlegrounds will be added to the game.
* Archeology will be a new profession


Everything else below is confirmed Wink

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the next expansion for World of Warcraft. Dark and forgotten threats that have long stayed out of sight have finally arrived on our shores, unleashing a cataclysmic event upon Azeroth and now preparing more nefarius plans to take it back.

Level Cap
The level cap in the next expansion will be slightly lower than expected this time around; 85.

This suggests Blizzard wants more room for expansions before hitting the level 100 cap. With less leveling to do (along with the revamped leveling listed below likely to increase the speed and ease of leveling), leveling a new race remains appealing for new and existing players alike.

Leveling from 80-85 should be a much bigger deal, the idea is to make sure that gaining a level really means something and doesn't make you feel like you just have 4 more levels to go.

New Classes
Cataclysm doesn't introduce any new classes to the game. Instead, Blizzard have offered more race and classes combinations to players. The Some of these have alreadly been datamined from the 3.2.2 Test Realms. The An Injured Colleague quest and it's new Night Elf counter-part help to introduce the lore for these new race and class combinations, so we can probably expect to see more of these for some of the less traditional ones.

* Human Hunter
* Orc Mage
* Night Elf Mage
* Dwarf Mage
* Blood Elf Warrior
* Dwarf Shaman
* Undead Hunter
* Tauren Paladin
* Tauren Priest
* Gnome Priest
* Troll Druid



New Races
The events of the cataclysm has caused two new races to seek new allies. The Goblins for the Horde and the Worgen for the Alliance.

Goblins
Deathwing once again sought the services of the goblins, as slaves. Unable to refuse such an offer, the goblins were enslaved by him. A large group have resisted however. With their previous homes devastated by the cataclysm, they escaping to an island off the coast of The Barrens. As they strive to recover, they come across an Orc captured on an Alliance ship and rescue him. The Orc turns out to be none other than Thrall himself, and in return offers the Goblins a place within the Horde. These events are carried out in a quest line, allowing players to experience first-hand the reasons behind the Goblins' shift from neutrality.

Worgen
The cataclysm has cracked open the Greymane Wall, finally revealing what has happened to the kingdom of Gilneas and its citizens. With the Worgen curse taken hold, they have found a partial cure, allowing thme to retain their Human minds even when transformed. Venturing forth from Gilneas and seeking help from the Alliance, they have decided to join them, to combat the new threats of Cataclysm.

Gilneas will make extensive use of the phasing system (much like the Death Knight starting area), to show what happened while the kingdom was cut off from the rest of the world and lead up to present day.

Worgens will have two forms, a Worgen form and a Human form. Players will be able to customise the look of both forms.

New Content
Cataclysm will be the first expansion not to introduce a new continent, instead making use of previously unreleased zones and revamping existing ones.

Classic Azeroth Revamp
A cataclysmic event caused by Deathwing and Azshara will change the face of Azeroth as we know it. Most of the new content for Cataclysm will take the form of a revamped Azeroth, taking advantage of newer additions to WoW such as phasing and daily quests. Most of the quests and mobs in the classic zones will also be redesigned to make leveling less painful. With the revamp, a greater narritive and sense progression will be offered to players. Some zones and dungeons will change drastically to fit this, e.g.,

* The Barrens will be split into two separate zones of two different level bands.
* Azshara will become a low level (~10-20) zone.
* Some of the zones like the Thousand Needles will be flooded.
* Durotar is wrecked and apparently Orgrimmar could be destroyed. A new Orc city is rebuilt over the course of the expansion.
* Gnomeregan will be part of the expansion as well and gnomes might be able to reclaim their capital. (The last part is still unconfirmed)
* Wailing Caverns will be become a lush tropical area as a result of the druid's magic.
* The Blackrock Spire will erupt and a new version of Blackrock Mountains will be available, apparently Ragnaros will be back too.


In the aftermath of the cataclysm, and the new conflicts on the horizon relief efforts can be found in many zones and new open PvP areas similar to Lake Wintergrasp.

Flying in Azeroth
Part of the redesign of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor is the introduction of flying to the two continents, allowing access to many new areas and quicker travelling across the large continents.

Classic Dungeon Revamp
Redesigning Onyxia's Lair in Patch 3.2.2 was just the first step. As most of the leveling will take place in revamped areas of Azeroth, so too will the dungeons, allowing players to use them to level from 80 to 85.

Unreleased Zones & Dungeons
With the addition of flying mounts to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms and the redesign of many zones, most of the previously unreachable or incomplete zones will now be made available to players. This is where most of the new content from 80 to 85 will take place. Some of these are,

* Hyjal (present)
* Gilneas - The Worgen starting Zone.
* Uldum


It is unclear if the old Goblin locations such as Kezan and Undermine will be included in Cataclyms with the revelation of the goblins' plight, but several new islands have also been risen from the seas by the events of Cataclysm, some on the backs of giant sea turtles and whales, with the addition of several underwater zones.

Characters and Events

Deathwing
Deathwing the Destroyer / Neltharion the Earth-Warder will play a major role in Cataclysm. Having been driven mad by Old God whisperings and turning against his own kind only to be fail in his attempts, Deathwing has sunk into the shadows. While the Horde and the Alliance were busy fighting back the Burning Legion only to then be beset with the Scourge, he has been lurking and moving things into place. After Lady Sinestra's failed attempts to create a Twilight Dragonflight, he again retreated to Grim Batol and succeeded where she failed. With his results seen in the Obsidian Sanctum, he has finally created the supreme Dragonflight he sought and plans to unleash it upon the world. But what of the Old Gods' sway over him?

Azshara
Queen Azshara will also play a major part in Cataclysm. Unknown to many mortal races, long forgotten by others, and believe to be dead by her own kind, she has not been dormant in depths of the Maelstrom. Having those around her transformed by the Old Gods into Naga after her failure in the War of the Ancients, she has become far more powerful and a greater threat than she once was. Not content with just Nazjatar and the depths of the sea, Azshara seeks to reclaim power and reign once again. With the true plan behind Lady Vashj's support of Illidan remaining a mystery we do not know what hand Azshara has yet played. The big question remains, is she now serving her "saviors", the Old Gods?

The Cataclysm
I'm still not sure who is the true end boss of Cataclysm is, but the cataclysm appears to have been caused by attempts to incantation to summon extremely powerful beings using an ancient incantation by Deathwing and Azshara. They're both very powerful, but the cataclysm itself suggests something more powerful is behind it, perhaps their shared past of Old God influence?

The Guardian of Tirisfal
Malfurion Stormrage will be returning to Azeroth to aid in the creation of the new Guardian of Tirisfal - Thrall! Med'an's role in these events is currently unknown.

The New (New) Horde
Thrall will hand over the leadership of the Horde to Garrosh Hellscream, while he serves as a coordinator for both the Horde and Alliance forces in and effort to combat the new threat of the Naga and Black Dragonflight. Without Thrall to keep Garrosh in check, he declares open war on the Alliance. In the political upheaval Cairne Bloodhoof is implicated as a traitor to the Horde and murdered by Garrosh. Cairne's son Baine takes over as the new Tauren chieftan. This could explain why Baine was removed from the game in Patch 3.2.2, you can find more information about this in Ahmo Thunderhorn - replacement for Baine Bloodhoof?



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"If what you're seeing is an open book...Thats great. Well, I'm an open book. But I'm real shy." ~Blue October, "The Answer"

Trailer: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/media/?autoplay=true#video

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"If what you're seeing is an open book...Thats great. Well, I'm an open book. But I'm real shy." ~Blue October, "The Answer"

Well the cat is out of the bag. The new World of Warcraft expansion has been announced. The game takes place during and right after the events of the current expansion "Wrath of the Lich King", with the heroes of Azeroth distracted in Icecrown, the evil dragon of Earth, Deathwing, whose goal it is to enslave all of Azeroth under dragon rule with him at the head, awakes from a deep slumber and begins to wreck havoc on the world. Old zone from the original World of Warcraft, such as Barrens, Hillsbrad, and Darkshore have been fundamentally changed as lands are split and old outposts are taken over by opposing faction or moved after being destroyed by natural disasters. These changes in landscape have not only changed gameplay for level 78 and up players, but also have changed gameplay for new characters who will see new quests and lands open up for their leveling pleasure.

New versions of old landscapes are not the only new addition to Azeroth, the series of natural disasters have also uncovered new lands, such as the Lost City of Gilneas and the Lost Isles, the starting locations for the two new races, Worgen and Goblins. Other new high level lands have been unlocked featuring a pathing structure like Wrath, where players have a choice of two starting areas leading to middle zone where the majority of leveling will take place and also where the areas will change as you complete quest chains. Another big addition is the inclusion of water mounts, that will help you navigate new underwater lands.

But enough about the world. Let's touch on some of the new features announced at the Panel. World of Warcraft Cataclysm will increase the level cap to 85 instead of the expected level 90, when asked about this is developers replied that they had done this strategically so that they could focus on adding new content for lower levels and have more in-depth, thought out content for those players who are, or are close to, level cap.

The inclusion of more content for lower levels should spark players interest in the new races, Worgen, who have an apperant apptitude for most class paths in the game, and Goblins, who have a special racial, called a rocket which allows them to dash forward. Developers also speculated that it could be used to maybe allow Goblins to float for a short period of time also.

Not only are World of Warcraft players getting two new races, but the existing races will be able to play more classes. The new released combinations include Tauren Palidin, Troll Druid, Gnome Mage, and Dwarf Shaman.

Characters will not only be able to have new class combinations but two new character advancement systems have been added, even thoughthe existing talent trees will not be expanded upon. Developers commented that they did not want to spread player's talent points to thin so now fun bonuses will be added to you character from the talent tree and the power behind those talents will come from your characters new Mastery System. Blizzard has also added the new skill advancement "Path of the Titans" which is not class exclusive, meaning that a rouge could follow the same path as a warrior in this paticular skill tree although details were not released about what that would entail, other than that the "Path of the Titan" could be helped along by the new secondary profession, Archeology. At the same time, very little was released about Archeology also, other than that the profession would focus on researching and discovering artifacts that you help you and your friends with your "Path of the Titan."

The Panel wound down to the last two big announcements, Guild Advancement and the new PvP system. In World of Warcraft Cataclysm, Guilds can level from 1 to 20 based on how active their members are in game. PvP, quests, daily quests, dungeons, and raids will all contribute points to your guild's experiance pool. As guild level they can spend points in their respective talent trees. Although the talent trees have not been released, developers hinted at talents for cheaper repair bills, less durability loss when you die, and a mass revive skill for when your raid group wipes in an instance.

The final section of the Panel was a discussion of the new expansions pvp options. World of Warcraft Cataclysm will include a new Wintergrasp-esque zone called Tol Barad which will also be the main place to do dailies in the new Azeroth, so who ever controls the zone gets to do the dalies. Developers also announced that three new battlegrounds would be added along with new Arena maps. Finally, for all you players who just can't take the difficulty of the Arena, Blizzard is releasing rated Battlegrounds where players can earn points for top of the line PvP gear through Battlegrounds instead of Arena.



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Funny, I thought I remembered some blueish post before WOTLK that most players interviewed didnt really care about the races and they would be introducing hero classes with expansions - enter death knights & then this time might be Arch Druids & Blade masters... I guess the reality of their sacred cow of class balancing with 11 classes finally sunk in I don't care too much either way just funny to watch the development pendulum swing back & forth.

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From what im reading, the path of the titans will allow all the classes to have a hero class thru self customization.



As an Archaeologist, you will be able to visit these ruins and study them. In doing so, you will formulate Archaeology Notes, which allows you to research and make new discoveries. This leads to the new character progression, Path of the Titans.

We don't have all the details yet, but it seems that there will be multiple paths to choose from. These paths will not be limited by race or class. There's a possibility that we may be able to travel down more than one. By traveling down a Path, you will learn passive bonuses and new abilities, depending on which Path you choose.

This is a new dimension to character customization. Rather than being practically a clone of every other character out there of your class and race combination, you will be able to differentiate yourself in new and unexpected ways.

I mentioned before that our talent trees will be different too. While we will be gaining five levels, and thus five talent points in order to reach the new level cap, 85, there will be no new talents added.

Instead, we will be using the Paths of the Titans and a new Mastery system to customize our characters. The Mastery system is set to simplify the talent trees. Mastery passive talents will then be available based on the talent tree you choose, and offer some of the core talents like "+10 damage" or "+ Heal." Regular talents will offer a greater variety, and more interesting choices, but will lack some of the functionality of Mastery abilities. The more points you invest in a given talent tree, the more Mastery abilities you will be able to receive.

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Renwick...glad to see you are in the guild now. hope everyone is treating you well and welcome.

Well anyway...I gotta say Blizz is keeping this game interesting. Cataclysm looks better than all the other expansions so far. Specially now that we can use Worgens. I bet the hordies are pissed. All they get is the Goblins.



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I plan on making a worgen warror just for kicks, got the heirloom gear for my dk already.

The guilds great, loving it, very welcoming, Sams a little odd but oh well, cant win them all...



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Just some of the effects people are suffering from the next xpac



redvsblue.com

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"Were it so easy." - Arbiter
If someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back. -Malcom Reynolds
You know what the chain of command is here? It's the chain I go get and beat you with till you know who's in ruttin command. ~Jayne Cobb