His hand's over all of Khaz'Modan, though. I'm sure Steppes, Gorge and Redridge will be heavily effected by BRM asploding.

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there is no asplosion in BRM. that part of the leak - along with about half the stuff there - was fake. the only thing changing in brm is a new dungeon in BRS and a new raid at nefa's lair.

Stranglethorn Vale and Blasted Lands?

It seems Neptulon took his final revenge against jungle trolls...

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Metzen: They are one of the ancient races of Northrend that we haven't spoken of before... because we hadn't made them up before. (laughter)

~Main: Expansion theorycrafting, Expansions list, The Age of Nightmare, Empire of the Tides (coming soon)~
~Fan ficton: Anachronos Journey: The Timeless Heir~ ~Geography of continents series: Old Kalimdor (original), Pandaria~
~Locations as zones series: Azjol-Nerub, Barrow Deeps, Zul'Aman, Demon Hunter zone, Caverns of Time~

Did they announce anything about a new dungeon in 1k needles area?


There's a yellow dot there, and according to the map key that's a dungeon.

I start to suspect Uldum housed C'Thun's body. It's too near from Ahn'Qiraj to just be a coincidence.

And yeah, if they ain't revamping Razorfen Downs/Kraul, what the heck is doing that yellow dot there?

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Metzen: They are one of the ancient races of Northrend that we haven't spoken of before... because we hadn't made them up before. (laughter)

~Main: Expansion theorycrafting, Expansions list, The Age of Nightmare, Empire of the Tides (coming soon)~
~Fan ficton: Anachronos Journey: The Timeless Heir~ ~Geography of continents series: Old Kalimdor (original), Pandaria~
~Locations as zones series: Azjol-Nerub, Barrow Deeps, Zul'Aman, Demon Hunter zone, Caverns of Time~

Actually, the Uldum zone kind of already exists in-game.

Last night, I was going behind Ahn'qiraj and I noticed this HUGE hole/unused zone south of Un'goro. Which is the location of the Uldum zone.
It even had some dots and markings in it when I explored it with Eagle Eye.
Actually, I didnt reach AQ because I forgot to buy noggenfogger elixir (-.-) but I will go there again today and take screenshots
The zone is empty, but behind AQ is cool and I think you should all get there before they remove it with Cataclysm.

I will also post it on a certain site (I dont know if im allowed to link it) so dont accuse me of copy pasting another thread when xerox95 is my user on that site.

However. Whats interesting is that STV, Feralas, Felwood and Blasted Lands will change so much.
STV -> Partly flooded?
Feralas -> ??? It will have a major change. Maybe it will be hit very hard by the Cataclysm. I think Dire Maul will be changed with the new Highborne stuff.
Felwood -> Has it been restored now?
Blasted Lands -> I dont think its a swamp, as SoS is north of it. Maybe its even more devastated or very verdant.

The numbers on the zones are photoshopped unfortunatelly. This picture was posted in another forum and the zone levels were guesses and shopped on from a forum user. I believe it came from the Elitest Jerks Lore Thread.

Well, I wanted to make a list based on the pic above, but since it's shopped I deleted it.

Anyway, here are some HQ pics of what really was confirmed.

Kalimdor:
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/...wpanel_046.jpg

Eastern Kingdoms:
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/...wpanel_045.jpg

Don't know if additionals pics exist.

Its a shame there are so many green areas on the map. I guess I'd have liked more significant changes across the board. Also its unfortunate that khaz modan is being covered. I would have liked to have seen how changed some of those zones were.

Btw, some of the level ranges on the map (like Felwood and Winterspring) are speculation. It originated from the Elitist Jerks forum http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t30118-w...0/#post1361191

Green doesn't mean no changes...

Actually, we have no idea what any of these colours mean. It's probably degree of change, but we don't know that for sure.

Anyway -- they have to change every zone that wasn't added in TBC or WOTLK. Only way to make the whole thing flyable, so most likely even though there won't be too many terrain changes in those green areas, there's probably going to be some major NPC changes and what not to those areas. (They're completely redoing Lordaeron City and Tirisfal is Green.)

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My father was killed by a coward's poison and the wrath of Hellscream...! WHAT CHANCE HAVE YOU!!?

My impression is that:

Green: Minor changes like quest texts and objectives etc. Perhaps a new flight path or camp in zones with weird layout.

Yellow: Medium changes. Medium terrain change. Like Northern Barrens and Desolace. New quests etc.

Red: Completly changed with much new terrain, quests, settlements and mobs etc.

One question just comes into my mind after seeing the new leveling progression...

Let us assume that I start a new lvl.1 character AFTER the cataclysm.

The cataclysm affects anyone and it is said to be happening WHILE Alliance and Horde are fighting in Northrend (presumably during the final battle with Arthas or just a little bit after...).

Therefore for all the way from lvl.1 to lvl.60 I will be doing quests and everything in the time period of the cataclysm, that is AFTER Illidan's death and (perhaps?) Arthas death: all the npc folks I will talk to will complain about the cataclysm and the lost friends in Northrend and no more forest for Elves in Ashenvale and how hard was to defeat Illidan blablablabla...

Now I reach lvl.60 and decide that is time to move to new adventures and just go beyond the Dark Portal. Suddenly all the people seem to have forgotten all the things that te folks in Khalimdor and Eastern Kingdom would tell me until a day before: all the quests will be set up in the time period of TBC, where Illidan is still alive and no one even imagine Northrend or the cataclysm...

Same when I am 70 and move to northrend: all the npc keep telling me that they want me to do stuff because of the war against the Lich King (who in my childhood mind was already dead!)...

Then I reach lvl.80 and go back in the Old Kingdoms, where again people are living in the cataclysm era...

Therefore, in my opinion, for a new player it would be a lore-nightmare to level up from 1 to 85. Unless, obviously, they are going to change the ENTIRE quests and events playable in Outland and Northrend...

Let me know your opinions

Yes, as far as I can tell the timeline will out of sync. Chronologically Outland and Northrend will take place before post-cata Azeroth. Also, I guess the DK starting zone will take place before post-cata Azeroth So:

55-58 DK > 60-70 Outland > 70-80 Northrend > 1-60 + 80-85 Azeroth.

I can't really see them updating Outland and Northrend to be post-Cata as that'd require quite a lot of changes. I guess ret-conning the current events of Outland and Northrend to occur post-catacylsm would be the only other way to make the timeline flow.

Frankly, I think they'll just ignore the issue...

Uldum is supposed to hold a super weapon (the one everyone speculated about for years). Could be a reason for it to be near AQ.

The Blasted Lands were so horribly warped and twisted by magic that I doubt the land could suddenly recover and bloom. Maybe the Legion remnants left? With Azeroth going down the crapper, they might have packed their bags for good.

Yes, I guess ret-conning would be the only solution. But there is still the problem of TBC: is Illidan already dead when everybody moves to Northrend? If you think about that, a positive answer would involve a lot of temporal incongruence in the normal progression of a character from 1 to 80 after the cataclysm even with the ret-con.

A possible solution would be as follows:

Vanilla WOW was set in the period just after the third war. The people killed Onyxya and defeated both Ragnaros and Nefarian.
THEN the Draenei came into Azeroth, the Dark Portal was re-opened and people moved to Outland.
WHILE everybody was in Outland, before Illidan's fall, some of the Alliance and Horde forces moved to Northrend, to fight against the Lich King.
MEANWHILE (that is while the wars against both Illidan (in Outland) and Arthas (in Northrend) are still on), in the Old Kingdoms the cataclysm happens.

Therefore this expansion would be set not AFTER Illidan's and the Lich King's death, but DURING the same period. It's more or less a question of space, not time. It would be something like: "while you guys are in Outland and Northrend, this is what is happening in Khalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms".

Something like that would obviously change the way we all look at the most recent lore...

I think it may have something to do with time going slower in Outland maybe? for example everysecond in Outland is 180 hours in Azeroth

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Vegeta what does the scouter say about this threads powerlevel?
ITS OVER 9000!

I wonder what the heck blue means. Half of Un'Goro, Hyjal, and a couple of spots on EK are blue too (I think that's Gilneas, and there's one next to the Wetlands/Loch Modan). I would have thought it meant "New Zone" but that doesn't explain why half of Un'Goro is blue. Unless that's a new zone under Un'Goro?

Went behind AQ today with a friend on our lowbie shamans. There's a sand waterfall and a TON of leftover stuff from when they did aq and silithus. interestingly enough there is also a fully fleshed out hive, just needs mobs. Stuff like this frustrates me to no end. That could have easily been more content that wasn't put in.

Yes, there is a new zone under Un'goro. That's the Uldum zone. Blue is the only color that we really know the meaning of (new zone)



And I almost lol'ed: East Eastern Plaguelands and West Eastern Plaguelands.

Uh... so I don't get this, though.

You can't level up to 60 just in Lordaeron anymore...? Bah. I don't really feel like journeying to Silithus or Burning Steppes...

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My father was killed by a coward's poison and the wrath of Hellscream...! WHAT CHANCE HAVE YOU!!?

I remember doing that, it's a really cool place. I was able to travel all the way to behind the entrance to AQ20, right in front of the portal. Pretty awesome. Unfortunately, my brother deleted the pictures about a month ago.

They'll just be coy and elastic about time in the way MMOs are. The only things they'll refer to as having been changed is the stuff that's been changed. Remember, post-Cataclysm we'll still be going for the head of Van Cleef - in heroics, no less - so why should lowbie questgivers insist on the notion Illidan and Arthas are dead? One didn't get that hint in the DK starter campaign, leaving those freshly minted minions of Arthas free to fight the good fight in Outland.

So I'd expect any references to the cataclysm in various lowbie quests will refer to the earth being sundered, Deathwing's responsiblity, and so on.

Changes I can see happen would be stuff like moving Garrosh out of Outland.

Hmm, from the looks of it, they're going to add something in those mountains south of BL and east of stv. They have a red spot there.

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The colors aren't definitely related with the forces invading those zones, so it must be the degree of changes after the cataclysm.

Changes, not additions. Undercity isn't a change, because we couldn't see that place before.

If we compare what we have seen with the colours, I have 2 theories:

1-The most logic one: red > yellow > green in degree of changes.

2-Affected by the Cataclysm and story progression: Red zones would be cataclysm zones, while yellow zones will be zones where the story has progressed, and there's no elemental presence at all. Green zones are untouched, of course. Red zones could have elements of the yellow zones, too.

I think the 2nd one is the right one, since I haven't seen anything related to cataclysm at the Desolace and Ashenvale zones. Of course, then we have Wetlands, which is said to have been destroyed (or not) and is yellow.

__________________


Metzen: They are one of the ancient races of Northrend that we haven't spoken of before... because we hadn't made them up before. (laughter)

~Main: Expansion theorycrafting, Expansions list, The Age of Nightmare, Empire of the Tides (coming soon)~
~Fan ficton: Anachronos Journey: The Timeless Heir~ ~Geography of continents series: Old Kalimdor (original), Pandaria~
~Locations as zones series: Azjol-Nerub, Barrow Deeps, Zul'Aman, Demon Hunter zone, Caverns of Time~