Hookay. Wow. It's about midnight in california, probably even later for most people reading this. I just got back to LA and set up my computer and all, I'm trashed.


First things first- Metzen reads our site. Let me reiterate. Metzen, among other Blizzard writers, READS OUR SITE. I was able to chat with him for a bit today and well, I'm not entirely unknown to him. I'm also not entirely unknown to Richard A. Knaak, and I hope he understands I was just... playfully chiding him.

Now, I'm sure the next thing you're going to expect me to issue a big apology for the MMO-champion thing. Well, I will apologize, but it's not big. What boubouille said was "99.99% confirmed" was... not the lore. Apparently to him, and that's fine, lore only counts for 0.01% of the expansion, as most of his lore (garrosh becoming warchief, azshara working with deathwing, the goblins being slaves to the black dragons) was bunk. I WILL say that the whole "Cataclysm being a revitization of the old world" was right, and I am actually quite looking forward to it. However, it must be said that there will be NO zones removed. We're still going to have Swamp of Sorrows, et cetera, and Kalimdor will not be split into two islands.

Next up... Goblins and Worgen. I got some playtime in for both (and while playing the goblin start zone, I actually won my ass a shiny new graphics card). The most important thing, I think, is the fact that NEITHER race will have a new city. Goblins' start zone is on an island which they're shipwrecked on, whereas Gilneas City is under siege by the Forsaken and "something terrible happened" that caused a good deal of the population to turn into worgen, the city itself will be an urban combat battleground.

I was also extremely surprised to find out that Worgen COULD actually change from human to worgen at will... and now that I know that Metzen and blizzard read our site... I'm... not entirely doubting they may have gotten the idea here. The way that works is that Out of Combat, you have the option of changing from human to worgen (at the time I played, you could only customize your worgen form), and any time you enter combat you're forcibly changed into worgen form. However... something tells me this wont make it to launch. I can think of too many bugs and exploits that could arise, not to mention the fact that the alliance having a shapeshifting race and not the horde. Plus, for me, being able to change at will takes the bite and drama out of the class, to me. Worgen classes included Deathknights (and for all going "lollore", please do refer to my previous posts in my class selection thread that explains the lore behind them), mages, warlocks, hunters, rogues, druids, priests and warriors. Gilneas itself has a very victorian england theme, with monocles and tophats abound with a general air of gothic horror. Genn Greymane actually appears when you start as a Worgen and pardons you from the stocks, so... he's still alive. Calia menethil remains to be seen. Worgen racials included a sprint, a passive 1% bonus to all damage, +15 skinning and no need to use a knife, and the ability to shift forms.


The goblin starting zone, by contrast, was much more "fun". Your goblin starts near death and is revived via jumper cables, and goes around rescuing his fellow goblins from their escape pods and segues into stopping an animal populace that has become unusually smart thanks to an abundance of kaja'mite on the island. To me, while chock full of fun and humor, the starting experience reminds me too much of the Draenei- you clean up from your shipwreck, help cleanse local wildlife, and you "happen" to run into the horde who take you in under their wing while defending you from the alliance. Also, it should be noted that the goblins are part of the Bilgewater cartel, I am not sure if they exist in lore already or if they are new, but they are kind of an underdog cartel. Deathwing's eruptions in Kezan caused them to flee, where they were shipwrecked for some unclear reason (either a preemptive strike by the alliance or from some underwater beast, it wasn't clear). Goblins' classes make sense for the most part, DKs, hunters, mages, warlocks, rogues, warriors and... shaman? Yeah, that one was out of the blue. And they had a shaman trainer on the boat with them, before they met the horde so....... apparently the goblins are naturally shamanistic. Don't ask me, I can't make heads nor tails of it. I wish I had more time to read quest descriptions, but I only had 20 minutes per session and I wanted to get as far into the zone as possible.

Cataclysm itself isn't the maelstrom expansion I expected, the naga wont be playing a huge part in it. Actually, the closest I can say it is would be the elemental plane expansion. Deathwing has been hiding in Deepholm the entire time, and that will be a whole, underground zone unto itself. Skywall, Abyssal maw and Firelands will all be dungeon complexes, each with a 5man leveling dungeon and an endgame dungeon. The other zones besides deepholm (which is the dragonblight of this expansion) are Mt. Hyjal (which is under siege by a regenerated ragnaros trying to burn down the regrowing world tree, and is being defended by a reawakened Malfurion), Twilight Highlands (the area that contains Grim Batol, full of twilight's hammer cultists and twilight dragons which is defended by the red dragonflight), Uldum (an entire ZONE that was previously hidden by a titan hologram projector, kinda like egypt, home to the Tol'Vir which are kinda like "stone cat people", I'm thinking they're the obsidian destroyers) and the Lost city of Vashj'Ir, the home city of Lady Vashj (NOT Zin-Azshari). They're implementing a new kind of underwater zone where you do combat on the sea floor and swimming up is treated like flying.


All in all... I'm not entirely sure what to think about this. It's not going to be phased, this cataclysm will happen for EVERY character leveling up. I made some bold statements, some were right, some were wrong. This is the thread to ask me any questions, or sneer and jeer at me, however you think is necessary.

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