World of Warcraft: Cataclysm speculation thread. HUGE SPOILERS.

[Jowy]

I don't want to clutter the character information thread with twenty pages of us nerdgasming and raging over the alleged information leak that has been a hot topic of discussion over the past twenty-four hours. For those who haven't seen it yet, check the front page of MMO-Champion.

Playing an undead hunter would be pretty smurfin' awesome. Seeing as their faction leader is a Ranger Lord anyway, it just feels right. Goblin Rogue? The NPC in the Dalaran sewers decked out in Bloodfang leather is just adorable. I want to be him. I'm still on the fence about orc mages, but with Thrall allegedly being the new Guardian of Tirisfal, I'm sure him and Jaina will have some newfound knowledge to share with what will remain of the Horde after Garrosh's staggering dicketry and horrible decision making. Saurfang needs to cleave a bitch.

[Bunny]

I really don't like a lot of the rumored character-class combinations because I'm a huge lorefag and the majority of them go against the lore for that specific race. Taurens don't believe in the light, as they are specifically a nature worshiping race, and so they shouldn't be capable of hosting paladins or priests. Likewise, Night Elves being able to control fire, frost and arcane magic goes against their strict belief system and disregards a major chunk of their racial history. As far as I'm concerned, this is a giant copout by Blizzard as the only classes combinations that make sense are Human Hunter, Undead Hunter, Orc Mage and Troll Druid (sorta). Adding lore-based quests to explain their decisions is an even further cop out. Regardless, the entire revelation was so Blizzard didn't have to release another Hero Class since Death Knights are horrible. Whatever.

As far as the rest of the expansion is concerned, I'm excited to see how it turns out. I don't like the increased level cap, but I hear they're going to limit it to one level per patch, which could make it extremely annoying or decent, depending on how well they do it. Although, it's Blizzard so it'll probably end up being horrible.

Worgen joining the Alliance is amazing, especially since they are supposed to have two customizable forms. This may effect my faction decisions on whether or not I'll switch over any of my characters as having a Worgen anything will be amazing. Goblins are okay but it depends on what they are allowed to have.

The revamp to Azeroth as a whole and the revisitation is going to make the expansion amazing for a lot of people, myself included. I never got to do anything in vanilla because I started way too late and leveled through BC. Now that I actually get to participate in some of the revamped content, I'm pretty excited. I don't like the idea of flying mounts being allowed in some parts of Azeroth but a lot of people have been complaining about the lack of it so it is understandable that Blizzard would relent from their previous statements of not ever letting that happen.

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?

I started jerking off immediately when I read this.

[Madame Adequate]

I call shens on much of it. But let's speculate anyway.

The post itself is badly structured. I was raging about Goblin lore before I got to the stuff which indicated the Goblins might be totally screwed to the point that they need to seek refuge.

Dorf Mage and Shammy fgj. Shammy makes little sense but I love Dorfs so I don't really care

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

Remaking Old World is something I've been thinking should be done in patches for a long time (even two or three zones per patch would take years but it would be neat to see). I'm honestly unsure how good a business move it would be (Can you imagine the number of people saying "But we've already PAID for Vanilla WoW, we want NEW content in this $30 expac!") but I'd probably pay for it, especially if these turn out to be true:

# 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)

Utterly epic. And seeing Old World stuff change as you undergo quests would be neat as well. Still don't see how they'll sell this to the public, I guess they'd focus on the new content and say "We're also changing Old World stuff a lot so your alts will have a fresh experience?"

[Bunny]

Dwarven Shamans make sense if the Wildhammer Dwarves decide to join the Alliance, as most of those dwarves are both druids and shamans.

And yeah, I was in the same spot when I first heard that Goblins would be the new Horde race introduced. It had me raging and wondering how they were going to make that happen. Then I read some things and it made a bit of sense.

[Madame Adequate]

Dwarven Shamans make sense if the Wildhammer Dwarves decide to join the Alliance, as most of those dwarves are both druids and shamans.

Fair point. Would be pretty interesting to have new variations of races, like the Wildhammer Dwarves and such.

[Jowy]

Loken's globe in Halls of Lightning shows a reshaped Kalimdor, looking slightly different than that on the world map. Foreshadowing for quite a while that we've just assumed as LOL BLIZZ? He knows what's up. Dwarven shamans need lightning shooting out of their beards like the Stormforged ones all throughout Northrend, that would be completely badass.

Azshara being revamped to a 10-20 zone rather than the pointless mid 40s suckfest that it is now would be nice to see, Grim Batol and Uldum as possible raids? Hell yes. Present-day Hyjal? Awwww yeah.

Go hang out in Elder Rise in TB. Since the patch came out, there is a quest in Dalaran that points Horde players there to hear a conversation about the Light from the NPCs there. There's allegedly going to be one in Darnassus with the Highborne returning as well.

[McLovin']

We still haven't even gotten to fight Arthas yet

All the race to class changes are alright EXCEPT for Tauren. It is completely smurfed to have a Tauren Paladin or Priest. I mean a COW?

This old world revamp expansion is looking pretty good. Might be incentive to play the game again. Wotlk is pretty boring without being a raider.

[Madame Adequate]

Azshara being revamped to a 10-20 zone rather than the pointless mid 40s suckfest that it is now would be nice to see

Aw no son, you did not just diss Azshara. Most underrated zone ever.

I've been checking on MMOchamp and I'm gradually growing more convinced of this all.

[Markus. D]

Forsaken Hunter, I like it.

Surely they'll either revolutionize the MMORPG genre by having a non-instanced transition between location time-periods (if they're going as far as I think they are)... or absolutely blow it, making the need to buy the expansion rather pointless pretty-ness wise.

[Freya]

I think a lot of it would make sense. I've been playing since vanilla and there was a lot of azeroth I had no need to see while leveling. Hell There were a bunch of flight paths I didn't get until I tried for the explorer achievement. I think revamping azeroth will help have players experience a lot of stuff they wouldn't have before.

I've been checking on MMOchamp and I'm gradually growing more convinced of this all.

I'm thinking it's pretty valid I mean they had this before wrath was announced

I think having Garrosh take over gives them more of a reason to make more wintergrasp-ish pvp zones since WG is such a hit. Plus don't a lot of horde dislike thrall because he wont attack the alliance? Lore wise that is.

I mean alliance have varian as a d-bag ruler why can't horde have a jerkoff leader too xD

I bet they wanted to upgrade Org since that's the favorite city by many :P But they had no reason so they just said, "smurf it, let's just make a new city instead."

If you try the new coliseum there is that whole dialogue between Garrosh and Varian basically bitching each other out. They are setting it up for him to declare all out war on alliance.

ALSO I bet they just wanted to update thralls model too xD

EDIT: They had edited the article that is up now but the previous one before edited I remember seeing somehting about Ragnaros =3 I am dancing with glee at that still.

[McLovin']

They really MUST make Garrosh leader because game-wise Blizzard can't have the Alliance and Horde not at all out war with each other. In Vanilla and TBC the Horde and Alliance were getting along sorta but this meant less hate from both factions but now with Varian as King and this change they can implement a lot of faction war things which keep the game as it should be, a game.

[Freya]

I think saurfang will die with the arthas battle o.o

[Avarice-ness]

I think saurfang will die with the arthas battle o.o

You can't just KILL Saurfang.

[Serapy]

We still haven't even gotten to fight Arthas yet

All the race to class changes are alright EXCEPT for Tauren. It is completely smurfed to have a Tauren Paladin or Priest. I mean a COW?

This old world revamp expansion is looking pretty good. Might be incentive to play the game again. Wotlk is pretty boring without being a raider.

Holy cow!

Tauren Rogue would be nice.

[Freya]

Lol well if garrosh does take over I don't think saurfang would let him outright kill carine and attack the alliance. So I think something is going to happen to him :/