Of course, it's just a very obvious* mismatch of inside and outside. While you could argue the fall down is way longer, below the ground level of the sea, it would've been very easy to just extend the cave into another direction.

* or let's say harsh, for the other instances it's "just" a lack of reference of "instance" parts on the "outside".

Forgive me if this has been mentioned already (and going off-topic somewhat from current discussion), but with us getting a new Aspect of Magic, would it be a far stretch to think that we'd get a new Aspect of Earth once Deathwing is killed (way in the future of course)? Perhaps a certain Shaman...

Well the possibility certainly exists, but killing Deathwing will be the end of Cataclysm (hopefully, I don't really want another Illidan-KJ thingy, altough with DW one or more Old God is a given). By the time we arrive there I think we will have an Aspect of Magic, and a new Guiardian of Tirisfal, and I'm pretty sure, that one of them will be Med'an, and we have another position to fill. If MMO-Champ.-s infos are correct, and Thrall is one of these, he well be hanging his new "Under new management" sign to one of the positions listed above, before the events of Cata, or at the beginning. My reasoning is that the Nexus war is a WotLK story, and Blizz will (hopefully) finish it, within WotLK, as to fight Deathwing we could probably use a player friendly Aspect and/or Guardian.

Technically the Nexus War is already over. Such a great and exciting war against the Blue Dragonflight wasn't it? :p

You're referring to the stupid mess of an attack on the southermost gate of Icecrown, right? The pleasure in those berserkers' voice is just disturbing. I never actually did that quest on my main - although I've accidentaly whirwinded my fair share of dying Alliance soldiers when fighting other NPC's.

I'd like to see Blizzard implement something alike in Icecrown. Either by orders of Garrosh, Varian or some "misunderstanding", we could get to a room - arguably in the first tier - in which a Scourge boss had just crashed a "slug party" between Alliance and Horde troops and basically made all the IC campaign depend on us, the airships' crews and the two commanders. It would make things a little different from the usual "Don't worry, you'll progress" kind of instance lore.

As to the 5-man, I'm guessing Jaina and Sylvannas team up to help us. Initial references to the instances said we'd be fighting alongside champions from the other faction. Sylvannas does seem to have cooled down a bit. And Thrall has definitely tighted her leash.

As I said, Saurfang is intelligent and knows warfare - just look at the lecture he gives Garrosh in Warsong Hold. The Horde jumping the Alliance mid-assault is all around stupid and he wouldn't (didn't, and won't) support it. But if the Alliance have just succeeded in defeating the Lich King and are exhausted and underpowered, that would be a phenomenal time to attack.

However, Saurfang seems to be pretty ambivalent towards the Alliance, at least from what we've seen. If he harbours a hatred (or a liking) for them, he has kept it hidden. He seems to want to be solely military, not political. It's a political decision to engage the Alliance right now as there is no formal declaration of war.

Saurfang isn't looking to do anything except implement his given orders effectively, whatever said orders may be. Kill the Lich King - if the Alliance wants to do it, they're another tool in his kit to do so, not something on which to expend manpower prior to the main event.

So if attacked by Alliance in Icecrown Citadel it is tactically and strategically sound to temporarily withdraw, wait, and watch. IF the Alliance then defeated the Lich King and were weak, and IF he had direct authorization (most likely from Thrall) to "crush the Alliance", he'd jump them. Without that confluence of events, he'd be perfectly happy direct military effort elsewhere and entirely ignore the Alliance.

If Cataclysm sees an open declaration of war, Saurfang will be all over the Alliance in the most effective methods possible. Most definitely including feeding them (Alliance) to the thresher of a third party (Deathwing, etc) to weaken themselves so he could invade territory uncontested. He doesn't have to personally kill the enemy, he just wants the most dead enemy with the least dead friendlies possible.

While Garrosh continues to be unable to see beyond his nose. If Arthas is across the room sitting in some contraption from a silly Saw movie that will kill on press of a button but otherwise release him in 30 seconds, and standing right in front of Garrosh is a gnome eating Tigole and Furor Ice Cream, Garrosh would spend 15 minutes painting the wall with gnome blood, then start attacking Arthas. His priority seems 1: "Hit something in melee range", 2: "Close to melee range on something new."

To me it continues to boil down to:
Blizzard has spent quite a bit of time producing excellent characterization of some NPCs (while ignoring others or barely making them 1 dimensional (which is worse than your normal 2 dimensional cut-out character)). Saurfang and Garrosh are amongst these. So when such development has been spent, you get a feeling for the character, and then they suddenly act entirely out of character it's a stab in the gut. If you need something strictly for gameplay reasons - find an appropriate NPC. Garrosh and Varian leading airships and stupidly attacking each other works (both are meatheads). Saurfang and Varian does not (Saurfang is not a meathead).

Since we're talking about lands et all, it's a real shame Deathwing's uppity up doesn't cause some major icecap melting throughout Northrend. I know, them leveling people, Northrend being a new zone, etc. But the kind of effect the Cataclysm could have on Northrend just seems too good to pass up. Sholazar going out in flames, Borean becoming an ashtray, storm peaks melting, and Dragonblight showing a true dragon cemetery. Reality-wise, I'm sure all these zones would be affected by the event, even if not as drastically as I argue.

Maybe not all these zones need to be changed, but Dragonblight, at least, shows potential, with the shrines. Also, here's to hoping Deathwing experimentos on proto-drakes.

With his past history of such things, I think it's a possibility that we'e see this and have a mount for it.

The only bar to this might be Blizzard's desire to keep each expansions drakes/drake mounts as distinctive as possible. TBC had the netherdrake flavor for PvE/PvE and while some drakes in WotLK had similar models to those, the majority of the drakes have been proto (PvE) and frostwyrm (PvP). I can see Cataclysm having a new type of drake/model for just that reason.

Those would be the "final" twilight drakes, I would think. Which, if I'm interpreting correctly, would be that purplish, shady drake with a red "core" we see in the trailer. Blizzard is know to show some awesome (and unexpected) final models, but if that is a twilight drake - and a possible mount - I'll be severely dissappointed as to that matter. True, though, that the protos are everywhere in WotLK and, awesome as they are, should know a replacement.

Something about Deathwing's ubiquity throughout the expansion (so speaketh Metzen): the Lich King's everpresence served, for the most part, to leave the impression that beating him and his plans is a walk in the park. Apart from the Wrathgate incident, we suffered no setbacks - and even then, the Lich King was left coughing and licking his wounds. I'm thinking that, instead of the typical "We're hard pressed to hold this chokepoint/zone/base - Oh, wait, you cleared those 400 enemies already, thanks, we'll be storming the place now.", we could actually be put in a retreating situation. Or several of them, something that would aggravate the sense of despair among troops and leaders, hence opening doors for more inter-faction aggression as well as "crazy" strategies against Deathwing. It's something that makes sense lorewise: we're fighting dragons here and, evolution-wise, even a drake is more than capable of clearing a few foot soldiers, flying advantage and all.

Imagine Hyjal: is it really correct for us to - even with Malfurion's help - just cleave through an army of blazing elementals? And even if a few heroes can do it against the first waves, a full invasion should prove too much of a numbers advantage.

Come on, men...let's lose this war.

Expanding on that a bit, with the exception of the Wrathgate area, every time we've seen phasing used we've "cleared out" something and made it better. And specifically to Wrathgate it's more of a draw with both sides retreating and any conflict there abruptly halted.

I'd like to see phasing used to show us losing ground, buildings being destroyed and other bad stuff. There's some hint that this may occur in the Goblin starting zone but I'd like to see it more full scale. An entire zone that transforms from a relatively peaceful area into an all-out warzone that has no end seems exciting and would be perfectly in line with the Cataclysm theme.

This is why I was really hoping Orgrimmar would get devastated. I thought it would fit the Cataclysmic theme quite nicely if the city we've all been used to for the past five years turned into ashes and debris with some sort of memorial in the center. I'm actually pretty dissappointed that this actually isn't going to be the case come to think about it.

I was thinking we'd enter through the Nerubian tunnels found underneath the Coliseum. That would make the whole Coliseum much less filler-like, and instead an accidental prerequisite (plot-wise) to the Citadel.

True. And make the the Lich King's macho man show-off at the Coliseum end up being a spit against the wind.

i sure do hope its something cooler then walking into the front door. would be fun to get trapped in Icecrown and have to fight your way out. or through the nerubian tunnels. hopefully not just some big raid door.

Abyssal Maw

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - Features - Abyssal Maw

Azeroth's native elementals wreaked havoc across the world while they were under the influence of the Old Gods.
To keep Azeroth safe from these threats, the titans imprisoned the Old Gods underground and banished the savage elementals to the titan-constructed Elemental Plane, a secure dominion where the elementals could dwell without harming Azeroth.

Four domains were created within this primordial realm to serve as ideal environments for each type of elemental. For ages since, the elementals of air, water, earth, and fire have engaged in endless strife with each other, waging titanic battles in the confines of their realm. One of the Elemental Plane's domains, a vast ocean known as the Abyssal Maw, is home to the water elementals. Legend says that Neptulon the Tidehunter, the powerful being who rules over the aquatic realm, possesses a potent weapon that allows its owner to control the very seas of Azeroth. Thus far, the artifact has remained secure inside the water elementals' domain... but that will soon change.

Within Deepholm, the domain of the earth elementals, the malefic Dragon Aspect Deathwing is on the verge of executing a catastrophic act: to burst forth from the Elemental Plane into Azeroth. Doing so will ravage the surface of the world and breach the barrier that separates Azeroth from the elementals' realm. Whether Neptulon and his subjects have entered into an alliance with Deathwing remains unknown. Regardless, if Deathwing's actions create an opening into the Abyssal Maw, nefarious and honorable factions alike will seek out the fabled weapon carried by Neptulon. Whoever secures the artifact will have control over the world's seas, a power that perhaps no one, not even members of the Horde or the Alliance, should possess.

The new page does seem to hint that we will be seeing Neptulon in the raid instance.

I keep thinking that the altar below the Citadel (where the Faceless ones roam- part of the Mathias quests) will have something to do with the entrance.

Perhaps; although the altar's original use was to create ebonweave (changed in 3.0.8 to the Obsidian Dragonshrine), if that's what you're referring to.

Ahh, that must be it. My tailor wasn't making Ebonweave until sometime in 3.1, so I wasn't aware that it was originally used for that. It just seemed so out of place.

Actually, it does seem like this weapon might just go the Ashbringer/Frostmourne path, and be given to some NPC. But regardless of what happens to it, the bigger question is what will our first encounter with Neptulon look like? And if he'll be hostile, how will that tie in with Ragnaros, who is already his enemy, and whom we know we're going to be fighting again.

Are they just random forces bent on escaping from the Elemental plane through whatever breach occurs, or are they now working together for something far more sinister?

These elementals do seem highly erratic and constantly raging, either by seeming always full of themselves or it being their true nature - perhaps the Old Gods designed them to be fully incompatible among themselves, save in the defense of their masters. But with the latter now in the offensive, through Deathwhine, they may be ordering the elemental lords to move out and provide the Blackwing Greatfather (I love how Gruul calls him) all the support he needs). This seems probable so, all in all, I don't think Ragnaros would let his hate interfere with his masters' plan.

However, like the article says, we don't know if the elementals have entered an allegiance with Deathwing, although he's the general of the Old Gods' forces. At Blizzcon, Metzen (methinks) said the elementals were pretty pissed (Ragnaros is always pissed, but think "extra layer of raging qq") about having their planes shattered and/or put out of place. Pissed at Neltharion, that is. And we're not sure if Ye' Old Scaly One didn't use the elemental planes to just get himself not only to full power but to new heights (although I'm a bit skeptical on Metzen's "tenfold" expression, an Aspect's power times ten will get close to Old God-level, but then again, Arthas is theoretically as or more powerful than Yogg, meh - or maybe that's just game progression). He can be working on his own, as we don't know how powerful his Twilight creations will be, added to the original Black Flight. It might prove enough but, even then, if Deathwing has made an enemy out of the elemental planes, he could be in for another "All on the dragon!" situation.

Actually, the Elemental Lords are pissed at being in the Elemental Plane since that is in a way their prison. Ragnaros tried to break free once and we banished him back which makes him "super pissed™" according to Metzen/Stockton. If anything, I think Ragnaros would have welcomed Deathwing's explosion into the physical plane of Azeroth since it provided him with a window to enter it as well.