So progress on the PTRs marches forward, and the next major set of updates to the PTR imply that Icecrown Citadel will be open for testing soon…which also means that Arthas’ day of reckoning is close at hand. We know that 3.3 is going to be Wrath of the Lich King’s last major content patch, with maybe a only a few other minor events between 3.3 and Cataclysm.
Between that and the reports from Blizzcon earlier this year that the next expansion looks remarkably polished, and you just have to wonder: is Cataclysm closer than we think? Admittedly, to counter that argument there’s the fact that PTR testing is taking its sweet time, and we don’t have even the slightest indication that we’ll see 3.3 live in the immediate or near future. This and the fact that we know Blizzard hasn’t announced an alpha, much less a beta of Cataclysm, so as much as it might seem that it may be closer than we think, there are other signs that it’s pretty far off.
My guess? We’ll see it around the beginning of the holiday season next year – that would be about a year from now we’ll be eagerly placing our pre-orders and wondering if Collector’s Editions are sold out at major retailers, ahead of a November 2010 release. What about you? When are you betting Cataclysm will be hitting store shelves? Am I on the money or am I way too late?
See that guy right there? If you’re Alliance, you know he’s probably been in your way as you’ve tried to raid Undercity. If you’re Horde, then you rely on him and others like him to keep the Undercity safe from invaders and to stand guard.
But over on the World of Warcraft Livejournal Community, lustyevilgnome has noticed something….different about the Undercity. Something….missing.
So, I’ve just been on the PTR…
Has anybody been to the Undercity?
If you enjoy the abominations, go and tell them “goodbye” while you can, because in 3.3 they’re apparently all going to replaced by orcs from the Kor’kron Guard. And they’re all pissed off about the whole Wrathgate thing.
Uh oh! Looks like the Orcs are still pretty peeved about what happened at the Wrathgate, even though it’s clear that Sylvanas had nothing to do with it and barely escaped with her own un-life. But that’s not enough for the new Garrosh-led Orcs – whether or not Garrosh officially takes the reins in 3.3 or in Cataclysm remains to be seen, but it’s clear that the Orcs don’t trust the forsaken one bit right now.
Combine this with the rumor that in the newly rebuilt post-Cataclysm Orgrimmar that Garrosh has kicked out all of the Horde races aside from the Orcs and the Tauren because they are the only two “strong enough” to represent the true might of the horde, and you have some serious faction in-fighting going on in the Horde.
What does it all mean? Are we seeing the breakup of the Horde, no thanks to its soon to be new Warchief? We’ll have to wait and see.
On Friday, @Warcraft posted this message on Twitter, and left a number of us scratching our heads wondering exactly what was being revealed and what Blizzard was trying to tell us.
Well, yesterday we found out that over on the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm site, a new set of pages had been added to give people eager for Cataclysm related news a preview of one of the new major zones coming in the expansion, The Abyssal Maw.
Not sure what the Abyssal Maw is? Check it:
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.
Oh snap – you know what this means: we could see an instance where we have to bring down Neptulon himself – we just don’t know. This also begs the question that if Deathwing’s cataclysmic burst from the Elemental Plane creates an opening between Azeroth and the Abyssal Maw, will there also be openings to the other elemental domains? We’ll just have to see. In any event, some preview images from the Abyssal Maw are up (like the one above), and it looks like a massive new zone that’s part temple and part underwater city.
So you’ve all probably heard the rumor that in the events leading to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Cairne Bloodhoof is framed for some wrongdoing and is subsequently killed, Thrall becomes the Guardian of Trisfal and has to leave his position as Warchief of the Horde. Stepping in for him? Garrosh Hellscream, the violent, petulent, warmongering orc that follows Thrall everywhere and complains about how everything is the Alliance’s fault.
Garrosh…is no one’s first choice, apparently. He’s certainly not my first choice, but some fine folks on the official forums have put together a list of 50 Warchiefs better than Garrosh, which has subsequently expanded to be almost 200 in game characters, models, or objects that would leave the horde better than Garrosh ever could.
Some of the superstars on the list? Sicky Gazelle. Hogger. Egbert. Lost Barrens Kodo. High-Oracle Soo-Say. The list goes on, in incredible hilarity. Oh, and as shown above, “The Login Dragon” is indeed a candidate.
Click the jump to see the rest of the top 50 list, and head over to the forums to see the entire 200 in all their glory. Do you have any favorite NPCs that would be better leaders of the Horde than Garrosh? Let us know in the comments!
Over at the World of Warcraft Livejournal Community, user Tisoi went to PAX and posted some great photo spoils from Blizzard’s presence at the convention. Among other things, Blizzard brought Diablo III, Starcraft 2, and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm in playable form and set up kiosks so visitors to the convention could get some hands-on time with their upcoming offerings.
The photos are pretty nice and pretty large (you can click the one above to embiggen), and show the Worgen and Goblin starting areas in pretty good detail. It’s clear that the Worgen and the Goblin models are different from the ones already in-game and are already much more detailed. Things look pretty polished right now, which I imagine would fool some people into thinking that the expansion is close to release, but I still think we’re looking at a November 2010 release at the earliest.
Cadistra, artist and author of WoW, Eh? and all around awesome person, put together her interpretation of what a Tauren Paladin might look like once Cataclysm comes out and we have a whole slew of additional race/class combinations to choose from. One of the more interesting race/class combos we’ll get is the Tauren Paladin – which might immediately seem contradictory to the lore but apparently already has the framework laid in quests on the PTRs – one called An Injured Colleague.
The story is essentially that the Tauren see the druidic teachings of the Night Elves as only part of the picture – not that it’s bad in any way, but the Tauren revere the Earthmother, and the moon is only one of her two eyes (well established in the lore). The other eye of the Earthmother is the Sun, and the Tauren, being a people who strive for balance in all things, have at least a few who seek to walk the path of the Sun (and in turn, of the light) as opposed to the druidic path of the moon (as in, with the Night Elves and the druids of Moonglade and the Cenarion Circle).
In An Injured Colleague, we speak to a Tauren Warrior and a Tauren Druid who share their doubts about the path they’re both on – presumably two characters we may see become the first Tauren Paladin and the first Tauren Priest, and a blue post seemed to hint that the name of the new light-following Tauren would be “Sunwalkers.”
There is a similar Alliance quest that re-introduces the Highborne to the Night Elves, thus paving the way for Night Elf mages. The quest is called “A Cautious Return,” and there are screenshots of it on the PTR in the link to “An Injured Colleague” above.
In any event though, if Cadistra’s interpretation of what a Tauren Paladin will look like is near the mark, I’m looking forward to rolling one when Cataclysm is released. And even if it’s not near the mark, I still love it: Cadistra’s work is always impressive. Check out her DeviantArt account for a larger version of this image!
One of the things we’ve been hearing a ton about for the past several days is one of the easter eggs over at the Cataclysm art site. That’s right, Deathwing the Destroyer has his hands on a keyboard, and he’s going to play us off. All of us. You think I’m kidding.
You can click the image above to get a high-res version, or you can head over to the art site and look for the tiny keyboard just underneath the page number and above the footer where the Blizzard logo is.
So, Blizzard – when are we going to see this on a t-shirt? Jinx? Anyone?
So all of the rumors, all the leaks, they all turned out to be true.
This morning, Metzen got on stage at Blizzcon and made official what Warcraft fans on the Web have been arguing about for the past week or so. The next expansion to World of Warcraft will be called Cataclysm.
The Maelstrom roars and rips Azeroth apart: all starting zones are being reworked, and as a result of the chaos and world-changing events, zones that were previously off-limits and closed to us will now be open. The Greymane wall has been shattered, and the Night Elves step up to bring the Worgen into the Alliance. The Goblins of Kazzan (one faction of Goblins, not all of them) who lives on islands out to sea have fled their homelands because of the trauma, only to become refugees in a strange land they’d never seen, fighting enemies they don’t know (like the Kul’Tiras) – and when all seems lost for them, the Orcs step up to offer a hand of friendship and bring them into the Horde.
The Cataclysm is truly cataclysmic: Darkshore is re-made, Auberdine is destroyed. Ashenvale falls and Astranaar is firebombed by the horde. Lava runs where the Barrens used to be. Desolace is now a vibrant, lush place, and ruin exists where cities once stood and vice versa. As a result, the Horde and Alliance battle even more to secure scarce resources as the world is turned upside down. Races adapt new classes to keep up the fight (also as leaked), and finally you can fly in Azeroth.
And above it all? Deathwing has returned.
From the site:
An ancient evil lies dormant within Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane.
Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire.
Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.
update: The WoW Class, Items, and Professional Panel just with the man, the myth, the legend, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, just ended, and there were HUGE announcements. Just a teaser? Armor penetration? Gone. Mana per 5-seconds? Gone. Defense? Gone. Block Value? Gone. Hunters use focus now instead of mana. Everyone gets a stamina boost. Itemization is going to change. Want more info? WoW.com was liveblogging the entire panel – read all of the announcements here!
