Right after the live blog that we did (which again I apologize for being late for haha) I rushed my way down from the press room to go and attend the WoW panel about the next expansion, Cataclysm. In this expansion, Deathwing has escaped from the plane of Earth elements and destroyed Azeroth as we know it. Many areas have changed, and they showed shots of familiar sights to us which have changed drastically. The Barrens has been torn in half with a river of lava flowing down the center.Desolace, having had water restored, has blossomed into a lush green area. Auberdine has been destroyed and a new base established. I can only imagine what the other areas are going to look like. We will also finally be able to use flying mounts inAzeroth instead of just relying on gryphons for our travelling needs.

We will also have access to two new races, that due to the destruction Deathwing causes, have re-emerged from their homelands and joined up with the Alliance or the Horde. The Horde will be receiving their first smaller race: Goblins. To those worried about the lore, I wouldn’t as

Greymane Town Concept

Blizzard has done a wonderful job with it. As it was explained, the Goblins have different factions run as cartel’s by various princes. The faction that joins up with the Horde is exiled from their home island after the Cataclysm hitsAzeroth, and they land in a new area that will be on the isles north of Durotar . The Goblins are for the most part forced into an alliance with the Horde out of pure necessity as they are the first to meet them. On the Alliance side, they will receive their first monster class:Worgen. After Greymane builds the wall to close off his kingdom from the threat of the scourge, they have disappeared from the knowledge of the rest of Alliance. But with Deathwing’s re-emergence, the Greymane wall is broken open and we finally come to learn what has transpired in Gilneas during their seclusion. The scourge does make their way into Gilneas, and as a last effort to protect the people, a Dalaran wizard who stayed in Gilneas summons creatures that would help to fight against the scourge. This works, but in the end the creatures prove to be too powerful, and they begin to infect the citizens, turning them intoWorgen.

Each of these starting areas will make use of Blizzard’s new phasing technology that we have already seen in the Death Knight starting areas, as well as other parts of Northrend. Through this we will be able to learn things like the history of Gilneas and the struggle that this new faction of Goblins have undertaken to get where they are after the Cataclysm. Blizzard has also said that they will be making use of Wrathgate-like cinematics in these areas as well. But these new starting areas are just the beginning of changes that we will be seeing. Leveling characters in this new world will be completely different. From levels 1-60 there will be all new quests and questlines that will match this changed world. All the while, we will still have been fighting in Northrend to take down Arthas, and even though he will “get what he deserves,” both the Horde and the Alliance will have been caught off guard with Deathwing returning. Lore wise, this seems to be shaping up to be one heck of an expansion.

Abyssal Maw - one of the new areas

Aside from the lore there’s a lot of other new features. The new level cap will be 85, there will be five new zones for levels 78-85, and six new dungeon and raids. One of these new areas for levels 78-85 is the underwater city of Vashj’ir which will introduce not only some interesting underwater fighting mechanics, but underwater mounts. Blizzard is also revamping Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep as heroic instances. PvPers will also get something new with Tol Barad off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms. This area will be a melding of the ideas of Wintergrasp and Isle of Conquest where the Alliance and the Horde will battle it out over who will control the prison on this island. When not in combat, you will be able to do daily quests in this zone, and while in battle other daily quests will be available for you to do.

Blizzard will also be instituting a new secondary profession: Archaeology. This profession will tie into the new Path of the Titans storyline, which unfortunately they are keeping hush hush for the time being. The last interesting tidbit from the Cataclysm announcement that I found interesting was that there will be a new guild leveling system. With this system, guilds can level up based on daily quests that members do, as well as raids that they complete. This will lead to various rewards like lower repair costs and even a mass resurrection if a guild wipes on a raid run.

All in all today has been one heck of a day for WoW fans. So many announcements and information has come to life regarding the next expansion that it’s a bit mind boggling. I’m sure that this is just the beginning for a slew of new changes and information for this expansion.