Preparation of the Shattering – Part 1

With less than 20 days left before Deathwing the Destroyer stretches his broad wings and bursts from the crusts of Deepholm, changing the world of Azeroth as we know it, it goes without saying that you just can’t be prepared enough for such a cataclysmic event.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Opening Cinematic

I aim to inform you all, Alliance and Horde alike, of what we can expect when this chaotic evil hits the 12 million strong world. I’m going to be covering content that will be unfolded in Cataclysm, prerequisites to the event, my own opinions on certain things that I have forged over the year and a bit more that we have known about Cataclysm, and just generally how I see the World of Warcraft to be affected by the third expansion pack’s release date, on the 7^th of December this year.

This article will be split up into multiple parts (as to give you, the reader, less content per release but give it to you quicker) and in this volume I am going to be covering some of the basic things we already know and can expect, and also talk about the classes and more specifically the races of Cataclysm.

It was back at Blizzcon 2009, August 21^st. There was already a lot of speculation flying around, thanks to websites such as MMOChampion, but Blizzard had no qualms in announcing Cataclysm for all the world (or of which was watching / attending) to see. Roars from the crowd and many homes (mine not being excluded) all over the globe were heard. Blizzard did there thing and rolled the trailer after the announcement, documenting a lot of the new features – many of which were spot on from the rumours that MMOChampion had announced a few weeks prior to the event.

I don’t want to dwell on all the unquestionable and concrete statements the game is making, as they have been known for a long time now and there is really no here nor there standpoint on them. However, the first thing that really struck me as different was the level cap interval being raised only by 5 levels, as opposed to the standard 10, resulting in the max level now being level 85. I’m sure a great deal of players expected the possibility of level 90 to be introduced, and I want to go over a few reasons that I believe helped contribute to Blizzard’s decision.

Firstly, Blizzard’s reason for doing it; end game content focus. They have stood by a statement since the announcement of this game that they want more players doing more endgame content, and as a result they just generally want more endgame content. So on the surface it seems that Blizzard have thrown out five levels of questing and grinding for experience points, and awarded players with even more raiding content when the game goes live.

More players spending more time raiding is a direct result of spending less time levelling, and the time it would of taken to forge 5 levels of content that Blizzard would have been required to include as levelling zones, can now be replaced with the creation of more endgame content – such as raids.

As well as this, Blizzard are completely revamping the majority of the ‘vanilla’ (1-60 levelling zones) areas to bring them more up to scratch with their Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content – not to mention the whole point of the Cataclysm expansion pack is that the world is being invaded by the Titan empowered Dragonkin.

It’s evident now that Blizzard focusing on endgame and raiding content for the PvE sides of things, and that’s not to say that levelling will be lacking in that Blizzard ingenuity and satirical comedy we have all come to know and love – there just won’t be as much of it. Azeroth revamped is enough reason alone for me to create a new character and get him to max level, and with the new race and class combinations, what better time is there to do it?

For those who don’t know, here is the list of race / class combinations. Classes with green ticks are only playable as that race since Cataclysm:

Race and Class Matrix for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

As a Dwarf player, I am far from unappreciative of the love we seem to be getting now – as Dwarves receive the most new classes to their race. Not surprisingly Draenei are completely left out of the loop, as the only race that received no new playable classes. As it stands now, every race can now be a Warrior (accompanying the globally available Death Knight). Additionally, every Alliance race can now be a Mage and Priest, and every Horde race can now be a Hunter.

Dwarves and Worgens are now the most versatile races in the game, with a whopping nine classes available to them. The Gnomes see a flashback of Gnomeregan as they are left behind with a measly 6 available classes. The rest of the races have a choice of 7 or 8 possible classes, the majority being 8.

What race and class (not necessarily combination) is your favourite? Are there any new race/class combinations you are specifically psyched for? Let me know with a comment below, I personally am looking forward to levelling my Dwarf Mage!

The introductory races to Cataclysm, Goblin for Horde and Worgen for Alliance, will be getting a strong number of 8 classes for players to mess around with. From a lore point of view, I am quite curious as to how certain encampments are now going to react to a players presence depending on his faction choice.

For example, Gadgetzan of Tanaris and Booty Bay of Stranglethorn Vale are both heavily armed by Goblins – are these Goblins going to be non-affiliated with the Horde? Is it just the Goblins that were taken as slaves by the trade princes and survived that are Horde affiliated? The whole Cataclysm event could easily permit Blizzard to reintroduce different races guarding aforementioned locations, so it’s a definite possibility that they won’t be where we expect them anymore.

I’m very excited to see how the Worgen’s operate, as they receive both their Darkflight active ability and Running Wild ability (that, if you do not know, places you on all fours in Worgen form (if this can be activated as a Human I will be comically impressed but very surprised) and increases your running speed. It is the Worgen’s mount.) and as a result should work very well as rogues in coherence with the sprint ability. They also get the (purely cosmetic) ability of transforming between your Human form and Worgen form – which looks VERY cool, I might add.

Footage of the Human into Worgen Transformation and vice-versa

Make sure to note that when you enter combat you will always be forced into your Worgen form, should you be in Human form at the time. You will experience the same graphical effect that you can see when transforming back into a Worgen when in Human form (the fiery poof).

This concludes part 1 of my Cataclysm Preparation – I hope you have enjoyed reading this and I thank you for stopping by. Be sure to check out some other articles while you are here at EnvisionGaming.net, as our other authors have some very interesting content for your eyes only!

Check back soon for the second part, where I will be covering both PvE content and PvP content. Also, don’t forget to pre-order your copy of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm now! The game is scheduled for release on December 7^th 2010 for PC and MAC.