World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Preview

25 Aug 2009 at 17:39:21 by Bill Vaughan

Blizzard made some huge announcements about the future of World of Warcraft at the BlizzCon event this weekend, and just in case you've been under a rock for the last few days, I'll go over what you can expect to see changing in the game over the coming months.

In the opening ceremony, Blizzard announced that, as heavily rumoured, Cataclysm would indeed be the next expansion. A global disaster rips the continents apart, re-shaping the globe. WoW as we know it will cease to exist, and in its place a new shiny gaming experience will surface, or so we're being led to believe. What exactly will change? Let's take a look.

My favourite part was the announcement that Worgen and Goblins would be two new playable races. The Greymane Wal, which currently serves as a highly frustrating obstacle in Silverpine Forest, will be opened and the freshly-revealed kingdom of Gilneas will be a new playable zone. It will be the starting zone for the Alliance-aligned Worgen. The Goblins, after running from the Cataclysm-stricken land of Kazan, end up on the Lost Isles and are 'forced' to join the Horde.

Worgen, the Warcraft version of werewolves, will actually start off Human at level one and will play through the process of  becoming cursed with the Worgen form. The starting Goblin quests also show how they become aligned with the Horde. Developers say that anyone who enjoyed the Death Knight starting quests will be blown away by the Worgen and Goblin starting experiences, which will make use of cinematic scenes such as the WrathGate one.

Along with these new races, players will also get access to new race/class combinations. The following will finally become available, offering much more choice to players starting new characters or wanting to change old 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

With the addition of Worgen Druids, this now means that players who want to roll a Druid now have the option of two classes per faction instead of one. Blood Elf players also finally get to try out a Warrior, a long-requested feature.

Perhaps the biggest news about Cataclysm comes from the name; Azeroth as we know it now will cease to exist. Most of the zones in Azeroth will change, some massively, others in more subtle ways. An early Horde zone, The Barrens, will be almost unrecognisable, split into two zones, one half becoming a lush oasis, the second becoming a volcanic landscape. Desolace, a largely unexplored area these days, will also be getting a make-over, becoming green and fertile. Other zones will change their recommended level, as Blizzard revealed that the path of levelling should be smoother. A new character should be able to progress through zones in a much more linear way now instead of having to 'hop' from one zone to another. This also gives Blizzard a chance to revise early quests and quest rewards (no more armor with Spirit and Agility, for example).

The great thing about Cataclysm is that it will give Blizzard a chance to revisit old content, refresh anything they didn't like or that was unpopular, while bringing new content to players at the same time.

The main antagonist this time will be an old threat to Azeroth, Deathwing. The former Earth Warder, driven insane by the Old Gods, has fully recovered and is now more powerful than formerly imaginable. His very emergence into the world from his place of recovery in Deepholm will cause the Cataclysm which will reshape Azeroth. Developers have indicated that the Lich King's presence from early on in WotLK went very well, so it's likely we'll see a lot of Deathwing during Cataclysm, perhaps in his human form as well as his dragon one.

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