Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWorld of Warcraft: Cataclysm leaked by MMO-Champion
by WoW Insider Staff 
Aug 14th 2009 at 8:51PM
Head over there and take a look. But be forewarned, there are significant spoilers in the post. So don't look if you care about such things.
After the break we'll take a look at some of the major points Boubouille has reported on.
New Races and Class Combinations:
- Goblins
- Worgens
- Human Hunter
- Orc Mage
- Night Elf Mage
- Dwarf Mage
- Blood Elf Warrior
- Dwarf Shaman
- Undead Hunter
- Tauren Paladin
- Tauren Priest
- Gnome Priest
- Troll Druid
- Level Cap raised to 85
- Azshara becomes a low level starting zone
- Barrens split up into two separate zones
Flying is allowed in parts of old Azeroth.
Unreleased zones and dungeons, including Hyjal, Gilneas, and Uldum will become part of WoW.
Deathwing and Azshara will be playing a major role in the Cataclysm that will happen.
Filed under: Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 29)
Tuuwa Aug 14th 2009 9:06PM
I'm really hoping the new class/race combinations aren't true.
bizounce Aug 15th 2009 2:06PM
Yes, because a combination of race/class would just ruin the game. Like it matters, at all....because it doesn't.
dowork Aug 14th 2009 9:00PM
Must.....roll.....dwarf shaman
and maybe convert my pally to tauren
FD Aug 14th 2009 9:01PM
This is fake. You guys know this is fake. The first sentence is "Malfurion (a druid) returns to name the new Guardian of Tirisfal (a mage), and it's THRALL (a shaman)." When the comics already have a new Guardian of Tirisfal: Med'an the quarter-orc.
It's fake.
SunwellVialist Aug 14th 2009 9:18PM
Yes, but we all hope the little Gary stu...er... valuable new cast member ... is quickly forgotten
Irem Aug 15th 2009 12:54PM
I would die of joy if every sign currently pointing to Me'dan being the messiah of Azeroth and becoming the next Guardian was just a red herring and he turns out to be a villain.
At that point I would have to view the comics with some grudging respect.
Meekrain Aug 14th 2009 9:06PM
Lollore
Zhiva Aug 14th 2009 9:01PM
#Malfurion comes back and helps activate the new Guardian of Tirisfal - Thrall. Thrall hands over leadership of Horde to Garrosh Hellscream while Thrall serves as a coordinator for both Horde and Alliance forces and players to combat the Naga and Black Dragonflight. #
I call shenaginans.
Barinthos Aug 14th 2009 9:06PM
Yeah I find it very hard to believe that Thrall would give his role up to Garrosh...He knows he's too damn hot headed to be a sensible and good leader. Especially if he wants to coordinate Horde and Alliance forces to battle the Naga and Black Dragonflight. It's counter productive to his plight.
It all sounds awesome, but still very hard to trust or believe.
RuzGofDI Aug 14th 2009 9:29PM
Shenaginans indeed. I'd rather see Garrosh get a two handed axe in the family jewels than leadership of the Horde.
If he ends up in charge, I'm rerolling Alliance, and organizing daily raids on Org. Or whatever the horde capital city becomes.
noelkytty Aug 15th 2009 4:23AM
While I call shenanigans on this as well, I don't see a problem with Garrosh becoming a leader - after all, leaders are made, not born. We saw Garrosh turn towards a leadership role in the Nagrand storyline, and now we see him standing by Thrall's side in the Coliseum. How many years have gone by in-game since BC? War can bring about leadership in people they never though they had, and over the course of a few years, there is no doubt that Garrosh, with the blood of Hellscream and tutelage of Thrall, could be a great leader.
Zhiva Aug 15th 2009 4:40AM
# tutelage of Thrall #
Tutelage?
Somehow Thrall forgot to tell Garrosh that Grommash is great not because he drank demon blood and destroyed nations and races, but because he overcame demon blood posession. Now Garrosh thinks that the only way to greatness is to destroy some other race.
Barinthos Aug 14th 2009 9:03PM
That's just...wow. I find it all pretty hard to believe, but it sounds incredible. Everything that makes WoW what it is will be changed. Can't wait to see if any of this pans out, and if it does I want to see some concept art or actual screens :P
Tom Aug 14th 2009 9:02PM
Night Elf Mages? What? The only thing more ridiculous would be Orc Warlocks! Oh wait...
And really, people, Dwarf Shamans are entirely sensible. Ever heard of the Wildhammer or the Frostborn Dwarves? What about Muradin shooting lightning out of his ass? Stoneform?!
Oh Ghostcrawler, wherever do you find these people?
kharrah02 Aug 14th 2009 9:25PM
Ner'zhul, you know the LICH KING (the non Arthas half anyway). Was an orc shaman, who became an ORC WARLOCK, before he became the LICH KING.
Tom Aug 14th 2009 9:31PM
Right. I was being sarcastic.
miko Aug 14th 2009 11:40PM
Muradin can 'shoot lightning out of his ass' because he's a Dwarven avatar ( http://www.wowwiki.com/Dwarven_avatar ) not because he's a Shamen.
The Wildhammer Dwarfs are shamanistic BUT players don't play Wildhammer Dwarfs they play Ironforge Dwarfs.
The Highborne are not Night Elves either (they are Quel'dorei) and players play Night Elves (Kaldorei).
you aren't talking about just playing new classes of existing races
you are talking about taking the existing playable races, sticking them in a blender with everything else in the game and hitting frappé.
seriously 'Holy Cow's ? you believe this ?
you probably believed the 'I've Had Worse' achivement was real last PTR too right ?
Everybody Aug 15th 2009 12:37AM
@miko
How can you make these points, when the new class of this most recent expansion was DEATH KNIGHT. Blizzard set a high bar with the new starting experience in Wrath of the Lich King. They're going to want/need to keep it up when people roll new characters in the next xpac.
miko Aug 15th 2009 1:46AM
because Death Knights are a 'hero class' playable by every race with a huge chuck of the related lore and gameplay content of the expansion.
in TBC it was exactly the same, right up until the very last moment of the very last raid they were rolling out the story of BElf Paladins.
Blizzard takes these things, the introduction of new classes and the story that backs them up (aka 'the lore') extremely seriously.
people are saying 'blizzard can retcon anything' are acting like children.
blizzard has a lore bible (their term not mine) that sits in their office.
they have a senior officer in the company who sole job is to preserve the lore.
they have conducted only one major league retcon in Warcraft history (the Eredar/Draenei)
they cannot change lore in print (novels, manga, comics) because to do makes that product worthless.
we are talking here about dozens of major lore rectons to justfy those class combinations not to mention some players apparently playing sub divisons of races they simply do not play.
now if you can't see that the how the 3 heavly lore backed class changes we have had across 2 expansions doesn't tie in with the lollore free for all thats being put forward as fact in mmo-champ post . . . well i dunno perhaps you don't actually read in game text or something, perhaps you don't think 'the lore' is important at all.
The Vice president of creative development at Blizzard would disagree tho as would most of the rest of the staff.
Suzaku Aug 15th 2009 9:39AM
Miko:
Easy solutions to that. Ironforge Dwarves are learning shamanism from Wildhammer Dwarves. Or maybe some Wildhammer Dwarves are moving into Ironforge and now people are playing as them.
And the 3.2.2 PTR already has a Highborne mage offering his aid to Tyrande. The Highborne are just a class within night elf society, and there are still Highborne in the game. They're seperate from the High Elves, which have evolved into a new race over thousands of years.
I really don't understand people like you. It's like you think the lore should STOP before World of Warcraft, and nothing new should happen.
The humans didn't know magic until the high elves taught them how to use it. If they'd set an MMORPG before that, and then an expansion after it, would you have a problem with playable human mages?
Things change and the story progresses. Tauren paladins? All it takes is someone to start teaching them. Same for the other class/race combinations. Tauren only started becoming druids again in the short time between TFT and WoW. Blood elves didn't become Paladins until M'uru was sent back to Silvermoon from Tempest Keep.
We don't even know when the expansion will be set. Wrath of the Lich King is already set two years after World of Warcraft began, they could easily make Cataclysm set five years further down the road, if they wanted. Even if it's only one year, that's enough for some Tauren to learn how to become Paladins and start teaching new players. Level 1 characters are beginners, anyway.