Thoughts?

Its a game and I for one never really put thought into that....because its just a game. One thing I can see is that you won't need to do the northrend endgame content because of the new lvl 80 zones at hyjal and whatnot.

@Clarick

Of course it's just a game and it would be ridiculous to lose sleep over it. But WoW has tried to have continuity in the past (other times just ignoring it). Most of the people who read WoW.com enjoy the lore to some extent and are fans of the fiction related to the game. So just as when reading a book or watching a movie it would be appropriate to look at the lore and these issues, I think it's interesting here. People who are uninterested need not apply, but I imagine I'm not the only person here who enjoys this type of discussion.

The Cataclysm is meant to happen WHILE we're in Northrend - we just weren't paying attention. So it doesn't mess up the continuity that badly.

This is the first I've read about the talent tree changes. I have always enjoyed making decisions on spec and being rewarded or "educated" based on my choices. Now it'll just be "my new epic gives me a lot of int, so I'll transfer x points over to the tree that emphasizes spirit" and the like.

Bottom line: No more creative styles for your class/role that were not thought up by Blizz.

Example: Holy Pallys are "supposed" to stack crit and wear plate, well, I know a holy pally who out heals resto-druid, resto-shammy, holy-priest, and of course every other holy pally *by far* who stacks haste and wears a lot of non-plate. His style is supported by an unusual spec. Although not as drastic a divergence from the norm, as a holy priest I have 3 points in mental agility and do most of my effective healing via renew (normal ticks + empowered direct).

I'm positively excited about the next expansion, but it looks like talent trees' are headed for the no-brainer min-max bin.

This problem existed in every expansion, really. Why does your DK have to go to Outland? If your main killed C'Thun way back in vanilla WoW, then why will those druids in Silithus ask my alt for help when I level him through that zone in a couple weeks?

That being said, though, if you go to the new content as soon as you can (Outland at 58, Northrend at 68), any individual character shouldn't encounter too many conflicts. Quagmirran is a complete nobody in the lore, so maybe he's been killed and a new giant moved into his bog. Exarch Maladaar is a ghost, so maybe he was beaten by adventurers when BC was new and now he's back from the dead... again. The really storyline-dependent stuff in each expansion so far has been stuff that you can and probably will skip as you advance, like the Netherstorm quest chain where your character is surprised to learn that the blood elves are in league with the Burning Legion. Well, for characters created after 2.4 and WotLK, Kael'Thas and elves loyal to him have always been evil, but that quest chain is long and has parts that require a group so they'll probably skip it anyway, so where's the conflict?

For superheroes, crimefighting is a neverending battle, there's always a new villain getting paroled from prison or a new crime boss consolidating power; for RPG players, dungeon crawls are.

@Cyrus

That's the point, isn't it? From the point of view of your character, everything happens chronologically. When you're low level, it's "soon after the 3rd war" and then the events happen in order, the same for everyone.

When you arrive in Outland, the dark portal has just opened, and the quests and NPC conversations all support that. Right through establishing a base, meeting the Aldor and the Scryers, defeating Illidan, and the two factions putting aside their differences, and the Isle of Quel'Danas. The same happens in Northrend (although phasing changes the mechanic somewhat)

Now, you're going to hear about Deathwing breaking loose, see the devastation of the New Sundering, on you way to 60, reach 60, step through the Dark Portal, and the NPCs will be talking about how it just opened.

Iratio:
1. Holy paladins do not stack crit. We stack intellect because we are broken and have no real passive regen capabilities any more. Solution? Massive mana pool.
2. Because of the way our heals work, too much haste is actually bad for us.
3. Most paladins out-heal other classes on nukeable content--thank beacon for that.

There is no magic stat. We must have balance in order to be effective healers.

I was at blizzconn and asked a blizzard rep this exact question, he was rather dumbfounded and didn't have an answer at the time, but admit it is a valic concern lorewise, and will likely be the case.

@Ben F

My dear friend(fail opening)
The problem is that you have got the whole thing of continuinity wrong. When you make a new character you don't in fact where was the story and the storyline when the game had first begun but the storyline of your new character starts where the storyline is now. Whichs means: When you make now an alt the dark portal is open already and people have alreeady taken the fight to Lich King. When the cataclysm is released the storyline reason why you first decide to outland then northred then deal with deathwing is a matter of personal choic of your character. You first decided to deal with the smaller problems first then th bigger ones. And in fact cataclysm isn't what happens after artha's defeat. It's what happens a couple of years after people decide to seriously take the fight to lich king but for you they have all failed to kill him. So when cataclysm is released arthas will be still alive(it isn't mentioned otherwise anyway) and you will have to kill him. Don't forget that all the victories in all instances and raids have not happened for you before you clear them, the only things that have happened are the opening of the dark portal, taking the fight to arthas and the world suffering deathwing's devastation. But before you complete any instances or raids yourself no victory has happened for you. Arthas, Kil' Jaeden, Illidan and Deathwing are still there.

I hope this answers your question.