Well, with Yogg-Saron and Lich King out of the picture, saronite may be less terrible. Also, we're already wearing it as armor and making weapons out of it, without too much trouble.

It doesn't seem like there are going to be new cities, right? Probably not even a new neutral city. Deepholm will be a travel hub, but it seems like Ironforge and Orgrimmar might become the major cities again.

Regarding the whole "Paths of the Titans" progression... The panel mentioned that there will be seven different "trees" you can choose from. There just so happens to be exactly seven major Titans in the Pantheon... and one of them is Sargeras. Perhaps each "tree" will draw inspiration from its "host Titan"? I.e. Path of Eonar being Nature-oriented, Path of Norgannon Arcane, etc.

Well the mount is named Kajaros or so. I would assume the "Kaja" refers to the volcano.

Ya, so I just watched the whole preview panel. It looks like the raid content is going to focus around the Elemental Planes and Lords.

Few things they confirmed.

Sulfuron Keep within the Firelands is going to be a raid dungeon with a bigger mean and much more powerful Ragnaros. I'm guessing this is going to be the first raid tier.

They also mentioned that the Abyssal Maw is going to be located within the new underwater zone, with dungeon and raid instance. So I'm guessing we are going to fight Neptulon down there, even though he wasnt specifically mentioned by name.

They also mentioned that Skyhome would be a raid. No mention of Al’Akir, but I'm sure he will be a raid boss.

No mention of Therazane, but I'm willing to bet she shows up in Deephome the zone somewhere. Maybe as a possible ally against the other Elemental Lords and Deathwing.

They also mentioned two new titan dungeons in Uldum the zone. They didnt say if they would be a raid or not though.

Grim Batol is mentioned as Deathwings headquarters. Willing to bet Grim Batol will be the Icecrown of this xpack.

No mention of Azshara anywhere. Like others have stated, looks like she is the next expansion with a Maelstrom proper themed xpack.

They said the 2 dungeons in Uldum will be 1 raid and 1 dungeon.

She was mentioned in the lore section of the official site as one of the six faces of this expansion. I'd be really surprised if she didn't have a relatively large part in this expansion. Possibly leading up to the next.

I can see her playing a big part in the underwater zone but not being someone we will fight.

The first 1 is the new Horde camp in Darkshore the second is Desolace (that's the tauren camp in the pic) and the last one is Stonetalon.

7 is the new Desolace, I think 5 may be Hyjal, 13 I believe is Stonetalon

Delete please, redundant (people post fast).

Can we now finally put to rest that fake list that people have been dragging up since 2007 and claiming was real? :-)

I suppose. The flipside is that we now have to believe everything that MMO-C posts.

I wonder what the Cataclysm means for Northrend. Logically speaking it should be as badly damaged by it as the rest of the world, but gameplay wise there's no particular reason to fundamentally change such new content. Maybe a few token lava streams, but this is probably one of those things that will remain unclear for a while.

Another interesting thing from the Cataclysm FAQ is that the destruction of Azeroth will obviously affect everyone, not just expansion buyers. That actually means that a LOT of the changes could happen in the patch(es) before the actual launch. which opens up interesting storytelling possibilities.

This is precisely right. When the Cataclysm rumors came out, I was among those who doubted them, because of the amount of art rework needed to bring the old world up to "flight spec".

However, looking at the new world map, it is clear that, for many zones, all Blizzard did was simply flood the unfinished/mountainous areas, and add a flavor lava river here or there.

Clearly, given the complete leveling path overhauls, Blizzard has done significant quest work, but geographically, most of the zone changes are essentially cosmetic. As noted above, the zones with the complete rewrites tend to be the long and thin zones, because their geography forced back and forth quest design.

Personally, I am still looking for a firm answer on the Steamwheedle Cartel. Can Alliance still interact with them come 4.0? If not, Alliance players will need to work on things like insane in the Membrane in a hurry.

I think it's safe to assume that a lot of existing achievements will have to be reworked... it'll be interesting to see if they'll say something about that.

Someone also needs to ask whether there's any truth to the Thrall/Garrosh/Cairne rumors.

I'm guessing that in 4.0 a lot of the old neutral factions will be removed. I'd guess that Insane in the Membrane will become a feat of strength due to this, and we'll see a new post-Cataclysm equivalent.

And I really doubt that Blizzard would directly respond to specific plot rumors.

It was stated somewhere that it's not all goblins, only a particular faction of them.

I think a lot of the story 'leak' was assumption from the people who got the info and that's why none of it came true. Cairne for example always wanted to hand leadership over to his son so he could roam Kalimdor. The story could end up being that after the Cataclysm he is roaming the land aiding it where it needs it (since you know there will be a lot of druidic/shamanistic storylines going on).

*EDIT* Name posted above, please ignore

So the Alliance loses Southshore, and apparently the Horde razes Astranaar.



Somehow I don't think the Night Elves will have any issues backing the War effort with Varian.

Please delete this.

Hmm

This class layout screenshot lists Worgen as playable as Priests but not Shamans.

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/...n_US_small.jpg

During the panel, they specifically stated Worgens would NOT be able to play Priests or Paladins but everything else. Somebody made a mistake somewhere.

Also, one thing is still unclear to me. As it appears now, when you start a level one toon you are starting in a post Cataclysm world. In such a timeline, Arthas "presumably pending 3.3" and Illidan are already dead. So...what happens when you reach level 60 and need to level to 80? Are you going to go "back in time" to level in zones and do quests revolving characters and events that have already happened in the past? I mean whats the point of going to Northrend now if the Lich King is already dead?

Deepholm *is* the Earth Elemental Plane, and it's the "Dragonblight" of this xpac, so I'd say it's rather heavily feature, and that it's likely the one and only time we'll see the Elemental Planes. There's plenty of content to spread around still after this, including the Caverns of Time, Twisting Nether, Outland Portals, Emerald Dream, and completely new stuff.

Something of interest. Ogrimmar is being rebuilt with "Black Iron". It was commented this was sort of a bone to the lore-monkeys. So what is this "Black Iron"?

First thing that comes to my mind is "Dark Iron Ore", because you know it's kind of black. But that by itself seems way to random, what would the Dark Iron Dwarves do with Horde... On second thought, "an enemy of an enemy is a friend" comes to play.

And while "Dark Iron" doesn't necessarily mean "Black", it is smelted and forged in the "Black Anvil" and "Black Forge".

Upon further thought, it occurred to me there are Goblins in current Burning Steppes. Maybe Ogrimmar is being rebuilt with Dark Iron. Or perhaps a Dark Iron alloy. (Dark Iron mixed with Elementium? but that's pure speculation, but hey Elementium is found in Blackrock Mountain, where Dark Iron is also conveniently found...)