MMO-Champion is reporting that they've got the skinny on the next World of Warcraft expansion largely speculated to be entitled "Cataclysm". Many of us expected to hear the expansion announced at this year's BlizzCon, but it's no surprise to us that loose lips may have stolen Blizzard's thunder. Do keep in mind that nothing has been officially announced, and while the information seems credible, we still must classify this report as a rumor.

Below are the allegedly leaked details of Blizzard's upcoming expansion, "Cataclysm":

Level Cap: The level cap will be raised to Level 85.

"New" Classes: No new classes per se, but some classes previously unavailable to some races will now be playable, and they include:

• Human Hunter
• Orc Mage
• Night Elf Mage
• Dwarf Mage
• Blood Elf Warrior
• Dwarf Shaman
• Undead Hunter
• Tauren Paladin
• Tauren Priest
• Gnome Priest
• Troll Druid

New Races: The previously speculated Goblins and Worgen are confirmed, with the Goblins being on the Horde, and the Worgen on the Alliance. Worgen will also have both a Human and Worgen form which they can shapeshift between. Both forms will be customizable.

Old Azeroth, Meet New Azeroth: Keeping with the theme of the expansions name, a cataclysmic event set in motion by the characters Deathwing and Azshara will dramatically shift the landscape of Azeroth, and this will result in a number of gameplay changes. For one, Azeroth will make use of some of the more recently introduced features like the phasing system from Wrath of the Lich King, and daily quests.

Other details on Azeroth changes from the MMO-Champion report:

• The Barrens will be split into two separate zones of two different level bands.
• Azshara will become a low level (~10-20) zone.
• Some of the zones like the Thousand Needles will be flooded.
• Durotar is wrecked and apparently Orgrimmar could be destroyed. A new Orc city is rebuilt over the course of the expansion.
• Gnomeregan will be part of the expansion as well and gnomes might be able to reclaim their capital. (The last part is still unconfirmed)
• Wailing Caverns will be become a lush tropical area as a result of the druid's magic.
• The Blackrock Spire will erupt and a new version of Blackrock Mountains will be available, apparently Ragnaros will be back too.

A host of new characters and events will also be introduced with the Cataclysm, find out about them and more at MMO-Champion!

Haha, sounds interesting. Really does. If it turns out this way, or close to it, I'll eat my hat.

I played WoW about six months before I decided it was more chore than game...to put it short, professions ruin the game as they are. Considering this "rumor" I'd said it's gotten worse.  Seriously Blood Elf Warrior? Tauren Paladin!? And worst Worgen on Alliance, not like it'd be better as Horde. If profs were better and I hadn't quit earlier I'd quit as soon as this crap is confirmed.

Sounds like interesting news about the changes in old-azeroth..... but in the other hand, there are things that breaks the lore (beyond the cataclysm itself)

Tauren paladin...... WTF

Tauren priest...... sounds very strange

Orc mage......???? did the BE teach magic to the orcs? are they enough smart?..... well, if there can be warlocks..... na, this is a stupid change trying to regain players from other games

Gnome priest..... they don't believe in any religion, just in technology, but i expect this from blizzard, they want that every race could be healer

Dwarf shaman.... ridiculous

Dwarf mage.... hardly believable, but it could be possible

Human hunter.... truly necessary, it was demanded from long time ago, and it fits with the lore

Undead hunter.... the same as the human hunter, Lordaeron should have had hunters

Good revamp for Azshara and many zones, well thought about flooding the thousand needles (and the salt lake i suppose)

Gnomereggan..... so many years to recover your city ? even your king could have solo-ed it. At least, it's a good change

I still don't believe in this "dramatical" changes.... sounds like a market probe

PS Undead paladins are more reasonable than tauren paladins, after all, undead was lordaeron's people, the silver hand was from Lordaeron

I have the feeling that blizzard is finishing the grave of WoW, even after such demanded changes.... Everything feels very disconnected from the lore

This is a great troll post, it really is. They have taken all of the wild rumors going around and gathered them together, put them in with the years old document that stated the next expansion would be about Azshara and the Maelstrom, and called them "leaked". I especially loved the comment on how this will be stealing the thunder of Blizzcon. Wrath isn't even a year old and Blizz is now gonna announce an expansion with incredibly radical changes to the game (in the worse way possible). Weird new races, arbitrary removal of race/class restrictions, the need to completely re-do all of Old World, and (for no reason at all) burning down Orgrimmar while giving the Gnomes back their capital. Why, after five years, would the WoW dev team suddenly decide "Hey, let's just kill this game."? I give a salute to the monster who came up with this stuff, for this is a troll worthy of the evil and depravity that the internet has come to be feared for.

interesting  still no human druid :(

 wiah they would make the game play wider   ship battles  

undersea zones

guild castles and sieges 

I honestly see this as the last expansion for WoW if it's even true at all, considering Blizz is currently making another MMO.

This sounds kinda dumb tbh and unfortunately I don't think it will be nearly as successful as past expansions.

Originally posted by AtrusV

Sounds like interesting news about the changes in old-azeroth..... but in the other hand, there are things that breaks the lore (beyond the cataclysm itself)

 

Tauren paladin...... WTF

Tauren priest...... sounds very strange

Orc mage......???? did the BE teach magic to the orcs? are they enough smart?..... well, if there can be warlocks..... na, this is a stupid change trying to regain players from other games

Gnome priest..... they don't believe in any religion, just in technology, but i expect this from blizzard, they want that every race could be healer

Dwarf shaman.... ridiculous

Dwarf mage.... hardly believable, but it could be possible

 

 

Human hunter.... truly necessary, it was demanded from long time ago, and it fits with the lore

Undead hunter.... the same as the human hunter, Lordaeron should have had hunters

 

 

 

Good revamp for Azshara and many zones, well thought about flooding the thousand needles (and the salt lake i suppose)

 

 

 

Gnomereggan..... so many years to recover your city ? even your king could have solo-ed it. At least, it's a good change

Tauren Paladin&Priest-In a quest added in 3.2.2, Horde players will get to witness a discussion between 2 tauren: at some point, one of the taurens realise that they've always worshipped the moon part, but they never worship the "Sun" part,which could be Holy Light. While this also may be the introduction of a new hero class, it also makes sense as Tauren Paladin&Priest.

Orc Mage-It makes plenty of sense,since orcs can be pretty efficient with manipulating arcane magic aka warlock magic and necromatic magic(NPCs) so why they can't manipulate arcane magic in form of elements, like a mage?

Gnome Priest-Well, this doesn't make any sense.

Dwarf Shaman-Makes a lot of sense. Dwarfves, before affected by Curse of Flesh, were Earthen. Most Earthen NPCs use elemental spells like Lava Burst to kill their enemies. Wildhammer dwarves are also the proof that modern dwarves can use shamanistic magic.

Dwarf Mage-Well, this was in beta, there's also a NPC in Dalaran so if he could do it, why can't we?

Some of this sounds great, some sounds, wow are they really doing that...

But, the WoW lovers will eat it all up.  Having more classes for each race is not something for someone who has not played. It is for someone who is thinking about quitting, starting as something new.

I will say, I expected them to open ALL classes to ALL races with this xpac.  But, they might wait till the next one.

Good to see some of the classes going to races that made sense to have them (Night elf mages, Human/undead hunters). And sad to see some races get classes that make no sense what so ever.

Originally posted by Swanea

Some of this sounds great, some sounds, wow are they really doing that...

But, the WoW lovers will eat it all up.  Having more classes for each race is not something for someone who has not played. It is for someone who is thinking about quitting, starting as something new.

I will say, I expected them to open ALL classes to ALL races with this xpac.  But, they might wait till the next one.

Good to see some of the classes going to races that made sense to have them (Night elf mages, Human/undead hunters). And sad to see some races get classes that make no sense what so ever.

Actually, Undead Hunters are probably the race/class that makes almost no sense, together with Gnome Priests. Hunters in WoW aren't Dark Rangers or Rangers, they're a combination of a Beastmaster, a Primalist and a Ranger aka someone who has a certain affinity to the nature and its various beasts, using minor shamanistic misticism between these, blending themselves in nature while stalking their prey.

Undeads are simply not like that.

Originally posted by the14th

This is a great troll post, it really is. They have taken all of the wild rumors going around and gathered them together, put them in with the years old document that stated the next expansion would be about Azshara and the Maelstrom, and called them "leaked". I especially loved the comment on how this will be stealing the thunder of Blizzcon. Wrath isn't even a year old and Blizz is now gonna announce an expansion with incredibly radical changes to the game (in the worse way possible). Weird new races, arbitrary removal of race/class restrictions, the need to completely re-do all of Old World, and (for no reason at all) burning down Orgrimmar while giving the Gnomes back their capital. Why, after five years, would the WoW dev team suddenly decide "Hey, let's just kill this game."? I give a salute to the monster who came up with this stuff, for this is a troll worthy of the evil and depravity that the internet has come to be feared for.

I agree with the14th. Blizzard would never go out of their way to completely piss off their fanbase, when there would be a lot to lose in the process, especially with Aion and other games on the horizon.

If this was a stand-alone expansion, maybe. But, this all sounds like a bunch of compiled rumors, as the14th stated. They've tried hard enough to keep things a bit true to the lore. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the classes were brought to other races. I mean, there are Blood Elf warrior NPCs, and more hunters would be quite nice, but there are some things that don't make much sense.

I mean, there has never been an orc mage, in the history of Warcraft. Orc warlocks are different, since they're just shamans who delved into Shadow magic, which means it's a natural progression from shaman to warlock. Orcs don't have the brainpower to become mages.

Also, it's quite correct to laugh at the idea of Dwarf shamans. Dwarves aren't one with nature, they're one with cold, heartless machinery. Same as with Gnome priests.

All in all, I won't believe any of this until Blizzcon confirms it.

Originally posted by KenTsurugi

Originally posted by the14th

This is a great troll post, it really is. They have taken all of the wild rumors going around and gathered them together, put them in with the years old document that stated the next expansion would be about Azshara and the Maelstrom, and called them "leaked". I especially loved the comment on how this will be stealing the thunder of Blizzcon. Wrath isn't even a year old and Blizz is now gonna announce an expansion with incredibly radical changes to the game (in the worse way possible). Weird new races, arbitrary removal of race/class restrictions, the need to completely re-do all of Old World, and (for no reason at all) burning down Orgrimmar while giving the Gnomes back their capital. Why, after five years, would the WoW dev team suddenly decide "Hey, let's just kill this game."? I give a salute to the monster who came up with this stuff, for this is a troll worthy of the evil and depravity that the internet has come to be feared for.

 

I agree with the14th. Blizzard would never go out of their way to completely piss off their fanbase, when there would be a lot to lose in the process, especially with Aion and other games on the horizon.

If this was a stand-alone expansion, maybe. But, this all sounds like a bunch of compiled rumors, as the14th stated. They've tried hard enough to keep things a bit true to the lore. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the classes were brought to other races. I mean, there are Blood Elf warrior NPCs, and more hunters would be quite nice, but there are some things that don't make much sense.

I mean, there has never been an orc mage, in the history of Warcraft. Orc warlocks are different, since they're just shamans who delved into Shadow magic, which means it's a natural progression from shaman to warlock. Orcs don't have the brainpower to become mages.

Also, it's quite correct to laugh at the idea of Dwarf shamans. Dwarves aren't one with nature, they're one with cold, heartless machinery. Same as with Gnome priests.

All in all, I won't believe any of this until Blizzcon confirms it.

So Gul'dan didn't have the brainpower to become a mage if he wanted to, and was just carried away by his shamanistic powers? I doubt it. And dwarf shamans are perfectly possible, read what I said a few posts earlier.

Although my bet is sadly going on the side of "this is real," I still find a great distaste for this information - at least the way it's being reported. I mean, one of the sources MMO-Champion cites is Something Awful - which is, to me, as good as citing 4chan as a news source. Sure, some stuff may be true, but how can you call it a reliable source?

But there MMO-Champion is, putting its journalistic reputation on the line by laying out all of this information and saying while it may not be accurate, it's not speculation (a wordy contradiction if you ask me.)

If it were fact, it's a very interesting change in terms of lore - but eh, not so sure about the mechanics of it.

People arguing that these class combination's don't fit into lore need only to look at the supposed name of this expansion. They (Blizzard) can explain anything away with the idea of Cataclysm.

I'm sure WoW fanatics will be rejoicing if this is true. Well aleast most will I'm sure.

Isn't this lovely?

Originally posted by Krilster

I honestly see this as the last expansion for WoW if it's even true at all, considering Blizz is currently making another MMO.

Why? SOE is still putting out expansions for EQ1, why do you think Bliz would be stopping with WoW expansions after only 3?

Originally posted by Thenarius

Originally posted by Swanea

Some of this sounds great, some sounds, wow are they really doing that...

But, the WoW lovers will eat it all up.  Having more classes for each race is not something for someone who has not played. It is for someone who is thinking about quitting, starting as something new.

I will say, I expected them to open ALL classes to ALL races with this xpac.  But, they might wait till the next one.

Good to see some of the classes going to races that made sense to have them (Night elf mages, Human/undead hunters). And sad to see some races get classes that make no sense what so ever.

Actually, Undead Hunters are probably the race/class that makes almost no sense, together with Gnome Priests. Hunters in WoW aren't Dark Rangers or Rangers, they're a combination of a Beastmaster, a Primalist and a Ranger aka someone who has a certain affinity to the nature and its various beasts, using minor shamanistic misticism between these, blending themselves in nature while stalking their prey.

Undeads are simply not like that.

This is all I have to say to you and your idea of Forsaken not being Hunters.

Nathanos Blightcaller

Eh, I'm kind of half and half.

While I like how they are redoing the starting areas so they feel "new" again, the story sounds cool, and besides the 2 new races, everything else just seems like more of the same. And some more of the same, but worse. Who's going to play a Tauren Paladin or a Dwarf Mage?! Why do they feel like the current races need more of the old classes instead of giving them whole new ones?

I love WoW, or I did. But I left WoW a few months back, because I was getting tired of the same old stuff all the time. Wrath was fun, but still not much of "new" was there for and allot of what was had lots of bugs and lag. This new expansion, if confirmed, doesn't to make me want to come back at all. Not even the new races intrigue me. I was hoping for a whole new 3rd faction, or a new unique game play style for some new way of questing or instancing, or a huge over haul of the professions.A new hero class or 2, like Blade Master and Demon Hunter, or Warden, that would be awesome. Or at least 1 or 2 new regular classes, like Monk, Bard, or Troll Berserker.

So this is basically just a huge filler expansion and making the starting areas kind of fun again? It's even less of a worthy expansion to me then Burning Crusade was. I'm going to have to pass. Maybe this is a set up expansion for the one after that that might actually be pretty freaking awesome. Which will come out in what, 2 years? I'll wait until then to see if it will be any good and this new "filler" expansion will be much cheaper by then.

That is if BioWare hasn't won me over with SW: The Old Republic by then, or something else even better comes along by then, which is becoming a safe bet for me.

Is Blizzard ever going to finish StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3???