You may have seen a post from last week regarding @alachia‘s Old Azeroth Flickr project. Well, I’ve been at it again, running around collecting screenshots and posting them up so we can preserve the sights of Azeroth before Deathwing destroys them all. Here’s a selection:

Check out the rest of the shots in the group and add your own: Old Azeroth Project

As you should know by now…I mean really, you should…Azeroth is soon to be changed forever with the ‘rebirth’ of Deathwing causing the Cataclysm.

It would be remiss of us ‘old schoolers’  if we let the current continents fade into memory. It is now everyone’s job to preserve Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms as they are now.

“How?” I hear you cry. Good question.

Thankfully, @alachia has had the foresight to create a Flickr group in which to keep screenshots of Azeroth as it stands today. So mount up, go travelling and snap some shots.

Upload them to Flickr and add them to the Old Azeroth group here.

Here’s just a couple of the ones I did so far:

What blog even vaguely related to World of Warcraft would be complete without a post (or million) on Cataclysm? None is the answer. So here are my first impressions on the various eye-popping revelations from Blizzcon Day One.

Let’s start with what is probably the most talked about point; new races.

New Races

For the Horde, Goblins. For the Alliance, Worgen.

As a dedicated Horde player I feel a little cheated by this. Worgens are COOL. Goblins are small Orcs or green Gnomes. I HATE gnomes. Having said that, Blizzard has previewed some pretty cool things for the Goblin race, including:

• Rocket Jump – Activate your rocket belt to jump up to 20 yards, every 2 min
• Rocket Barrage – Fire your belt rockets at an enemy within 30 yards, every 2 min. (Shared cooldown with Rocket Jump)
• Time is money – Cash in on a 1% increase to attack and casting speed.
• Best Deals Anywhere – Best possible gold discount, regardless of reputation.
• Pack Hobgoblin – Calls in your personal servent, allowing you bank access every 30 min.
• Better Living Through Chemistry – Alchemy skill +15, Your potions give more health / mana
• Goblins can be all classes except Paladin or Druids

I like the gold discount, the Hobgoblin and the rocket belt ideas. I envisage a LOT of Goblin bank ALTs! I will certainly abandon my level 20 Druid for a new Goblin bank ALT.

Goblins will be able to be any class except Paladins and Druids. Which makes sense, though a caster Goblin seems very odd to me! On to the Worgen then.

The Lore states that the gates to Gilneas have been destroyed but the Humans have been transformed into Worgen and are befriended by the Night Elves. Ok then. I can buy that. I would just have liked them to have been befriended by the Blood Elves, that’s all. Seriously…they are cool. Blizzard, however, have managed to temper my annoyance. I had been under the impression that Worgen form would have given some kind of boost to the character, but no. It is cosmetic.

When not in combat you can choose to be in Worgen or Human form but when in combat you automatically enter Worgen form. Your stats remain dependent on level, talents and gear. Ok, nice. And a nice touch, I like it. So skills then?

• Darkflight – Activate your true form, increasing movement speed by 70% for 6 sec, every 3 min.
• Viciousness – Increase damage by 1%.
• Abberation – Reduced duration on Curses and Diseases used against you by 15%.
• Flayer – Skinning skill +15, you skin creature fast, and you don’t even need a knife.
• Worgens can be all classes except Paladins or Shamans

Nice skills. Not overpowered. Just nicely balanced and they make sense. The class thing I find odd. Worgen Priest seems at odds with the race to me, but maybe that’s a personal thing. It does, however, bring us onto something else in Cataclysm. New Race / Class combinations.

Race / Class Combos

Horde in brief:

• Orc Mage
• Undead Hunter
• Tauren Paladin
• Tauren Priest
• Troll Druid
• Blood Elf Warrior

Alliance in brief:

• Human Hunter
• Dwarf Mage
• Dwarf Shaman
• Night Elf Mage
• Gnome Priest

First thing to notice here is that the Dranei get no new classes to play. When you look at what they had left (Rogue, Warlock and Druid) you can see why, though I feel a Druid could have been done. The Horde now have two Druid races after all.

The coolest combination? Undead Hunter – IF when you tame a pet it becomes diseased like the animals in Felwood or skeletal like…like…skeletal mounts I guess! Awesome. I’m hoping. The Tauren Paladin has the potential to look fantastic. Size does matter to me, even though I play Undead. My Tauren Warrior exists purely becuase I wanted a BIG character! Troll Druid should be fun. I am assuming cat, bear, moonkin and tree forms will look different to the Tauren versions. Uglier, somehow…

On the Alliance side there is very little to get excited about. A Human Hunter should have been in the game from the start. A Night Elf mage might prove to look very nice. The Dwarf Shaman, however, will be really good fun to play I would think. Looking forward to seeing them running around as there are very few Dwarves on my server.

The Map

Where we will all be playing is going to change the way we view this game forever. Take a look at the trailer on the official Cataclysm website. Take a look at the map below. The world has changed. Forever. Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been torn asunder and we now have to learn it all again. How fantastic is that!

What we have here is basically World of Warcraft 2. Areas that currently exist but serve no purpose are going to open up. All new areas, starter zones (level 1-15) for the Goblin and Worgen races, new dungeons and raids and old dungeons and raids revamped…hang on.

Old dungeons and raids revamped? Which?

Dungeons & Raids

Those of us who have been playing since before the Burning Crusade remember some encounters with fondness but know we’ll never see them again, even if we reroll. Until now.

Onyxia’s Lair will be done in 3.2.2 and a lot of people are excited about this. Cataclysm will see the Deadmines revamped…but for me…oh, yes…Shadowfang Keep gets brought up to speed! One of THE best dungeons in the game and so infrequently run. I sometimes run Inoperante through there for nostalgic reasons. Can’t wait to run it at 80-85 properly.

So far we know this:

• The Firelands will be a new raid dungeon, it will let you go to the Elemental Plane of fire and visit Sulfuron’s Keep, Ragnaros will be here and he’s really pissed.
• Uldum will feature two new dungeons, the Lost City of Tol’vir and the Halls of Origination (a titan city)
• Grim Batol will have a level-up dungeon and a raid instance.
• Skywall (Air Elemental Plane) will have a level-up dungeon and a raid instance.
• The Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will be back in a brand new level 85 heroic version.
• Blackrock Caverns will be a new level-up dungeon located in Blackrock Spire. This is an entirely new dungeon, new art, new creatures, new everything.

How exciting. You’ll see on the map above where the new zones and dungeons will be. And it is fantastic see that Grim Batol has a purpose now.

Other News

There is so much in this expansion that it would be impossible to cover it all in one post and this is already getting lengthy, so a few other things that caught my eye are:

85 Level Cap

Just the right amount. Another 10 levels would prove to be a grind and a mad rush that meant you missed most of the content. Hopefully only five levels will allow people to take their time and enjoy. Except for those Guilds that simply MUST be the world/continent/realm first to complete endgame of course…

Warlock Shard Changes

• Soul Shards are no longer in your bags. The goal is to make them fun, not a hassle.
• Soul Shards will be integrated to the user interface. (Just like Death Knight runes)
• You get three shards per fight, they will regen very quickly out of combat.
• It will be possible to get more for long fights or mistakes through Drain Soul.
• Soul Burn (New Spell) : Cost 1 Shard, 30 sec cooldown, off the GCD. Empowers your next spell, many (not all spells) behave differently when empowered.
• Empowered Searing Pain : Next 3 Searing Pains crit
• Empowered Summon Demon : Instant Cast
• Empowered Soulfire : Instant Cast
• Empowered Fear : Instant Cast
• Empowered Death Coil : Longer Horror, more healing received.
• They are only used in combat, summons or demons won’t use your shards.

In theory – this will make life easier and will alter the dynamics of playing a Warlock just the right amount. It will certainly be nice to have an extra 32 bag slots…

Path of the Titans

The general idea is that while their won’t be huge changes to talent trees, you’ll just get more points and more direction in speccing your character to be more fun. We’ll see how this works out.

Conclusion

Cataclysm is going to give WoW a whole new lease of life. Stuck at 11 million(!) subscribers, Blizzard have clearly decided that this is necessary if they are to push on to 15 million+. For new players it should make the game more fun, more engaging. For existing players, even those who go back to 2004, this will be a breath of fresh air. There is nothing, so far, that I haven’t been at least interested in and at most thrilled by.

To be covered in separate posts: Professions, Itemisation, Lore, New Zones