Every old WOW zone to be revamped

By Oli Welsh Published 21 August, 2009

And more endgame than ever before.

Following World of Warcraft: Cataclysm's unveiling at the BlizzCon opening ceremony, Blizzard unveiled plans for the third expansion in detail at a packed developer panel.

As well as the raised level cap of 85 and the two new races – Goblin for Horde, and Worgen for Alliance – the classic game's old world of Azeroth will be completely changed. Every single zone on the levelling path from 1 to 60 will be revamped with updated quests, art and items.

Some zones will change more than others, and other zones will have their level bands dramatically shifted, changing the flow of levelling in the classic game. A current level 20 zone might end up as a level 40-45 zone.

Some will be destroyed by the events of the Cataclysm, while desert areas like Desolace and the Barrens will become green. Cities will be redesigned to allow flying – now possible across the entire game - the Undercity in particular. Terrain phasing will allow zones to change significantly as you play through them, for example a coastline getting flooded.

All changes to the classic areas will be freely availble to all players, whether they buy Cataclysm expansion or not.

Alongside all this, Blizzard promised 7 new zones – starting zones for the two new races, and five zones to take players from level 78 to 85. The new high-level zones are Uldum, Mount Hyjal, the Sunken City (an undersea zone, with new underwater mounts and underwater exploration and combat mechanics), Twilight Highlands (containing the city of Grim Batol – headquarters of ultimate villain Deathwing) and a vast underground cavern called Deepholm.

Blizzard promised more endgame content than in any previous expansion. Among many new raids and dungeons, there will be level 85 Heroic versions of the classic low-level dungeons, Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep.

The new Archaeology profession will feed into a new advancement system – Path of the Titans – which will be a way to specialise your character and gain new abilities and skills that are completely independent of your class. Guilds will be able to advance over 20 levels and even select talents in a guild talent tree, such as cheaper repairs or mass resurrection when you wipe on a boss.

Finally, PVP will be embellished with not one but three new Battlegrounds, a new PVP zone called Tol Barad (which will combine ideas from Lich King's Wintergrasp with a daily quest hub like Burning Crusade's Quel'Danas), and a rating system giving access to the same kind of high-level gear as Arenas.

Goblin and Worgen staring areas are available to play here at BlizzCon, so look out for hands-one impressions of those and a ton more detail on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm in a comprehensive feature preview next week.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Gaol #1 3 years ago

    That's quite a list.

  • Optyk #2 3 years ago

    Can't wait.

  • Markusdragon #3 3 years ago

    Nice to see an expansion focusing on something other than endgame content.

  • Jay-ITFC #4 3 years ago

    What's WOW?

  • wellzy4eva #5 3 years ago

    Is there any whim that WOW fans have requested that Blizzard haven't given into? other MMO's (Nintendo dig not required) should take notice and realise that fanboy desire fills pockets more than casual gamers ever will...

  • Mr_Brown #6 3 years ago

    Personally I think they should make levelling in the lower levels easier everytime they raise the level cap. Surely this would encourage new players instead of focusing on end game stuff.

  • Gaol #7 3 years ago

    They have done quite a few things to speed up levelling; reduced xp required to level and increased quest rewards in the 20-50 bracket; and also you get mounts quicker and cheaper to reduce travel time.

  • Wildsleven #8 3 years ago

    zzzzzzzzzz......

  • LetsGo #9 3 years ago

    whens it due out then?

  • rogueJT #10 3 years ago

    2 new races is just costmetic.
    We want new classes, who cares about playing a Goblin warrior or Worgen rogue.
    It's a joke that this is the 3rd expansion and we've had one new class.
    Also why not increase the level cap to 90?
    Edited by 1 at 22/08/09 @ 09:51

  • outy #11 3 years ago

    I recently levelled an alt to 60 and it still took 6 days of play time.. they could do more to shave off some of the dreary and lonely low level grind.

  • Devange #12 3 years ago

    ...what they're gonna change it for everybody just use a phasing buff or something don't take away the old world.

  • OnlyMe #13 3 years ago

    I hope they don't ruin Duskwood too much though, and I certainly hope it doesn't turn into a green and lush paradise, like some otherwise dark areas seems to become. I absolutely love the atmosphere in Duskwood.

    And to be honest, this is a pretty risky move, isn't it? The world could potentially be changed so drastically, that a lot of people are bound to miss the old world and stop playing because of it. That said, I'm the opposite, I lost interest because of the tired old world. I may revisit Azeroth sometime in the future, if it turns out well.

  • LetsGo #14 3 years ago

    "Also why not increase the level cap to 90? "

    Well... if they do stop at 100, surely they can sell more exp. packs?
    - One for 80-85
    - One for 85-90
    - One for 90-95
    - One for 95-100

    Instead of;
    - One for 80-90
    - One for 90-100!

  • Spindle #15 3 years ago

    Levels do not equal content. Whats important is how much there is to do. Personally I think fewer levels is better. All levels really do is make it harder to play with your friends. When I was 72 I couldn't quest with someone who was 76. If I'm 81 and they are 83 then hopefully I can.

  • hiddenranbir #16 3 years ago

    I'm wondering what impact this has on some new player starting the story from the main game. Won't it clash?

  • AphoticCosmos #17 3 years ago

    Interesting stuff, even as someone who is firmly anti-WoW it's interesting to see where the industry leader [at least in market terms, I think CCP and Turbine are doing more to better the genre, and Bioware if they pull off TOR] is going.

  • EmiliasHorse #18 3 years ago

    I want this so badly. Flying around in old Azeroth, pure sex.

    /Needs

  • butler` #19 3 years ago

    they are annoyingly apt at knowing what they need to do to their games.

    even going as far as changing vanilla content so dramatically... let the dollars of re-subs roll in eh blizz?

  • djcool3005 #20 3 years ago

    Hmmm disappointed with only 5 level increase on the level cap. Will be interesting to see how they change Azeroth. I can imagine there will be a lot moaning about it being changed.

  • Collymilad #21 3 years ago

    Moaning on the internet? Silly talk.

  • levitate #22 3 years ago

    This expansion is inevitable, Blizzard HAD to revamp the Old World and make the level cap 85 instead of 80. People have been asking for the ability to fly in Azeroth ever since TBC came out and here it finally comes. I look forward to see how they pull things off, but the guild leveling for instance has been around in Lotr and Warhammer Online now for a good while so it's not really any news.

  • TheBoyChris #23 3 years ago

    Wow. No pun intended.

  • Nephirion #24 3 years ago

    Clearly Blizzard are not following any particular direction but randomly changing WoW to lure back subscriptions. What's next whore houses in Ironforge?