WOW expansion to revamp old world?

By Oli Welsh Published 17 August, 2009

Huge changes to classic content rumoured.

If you thought World of Warcraft expansions had settled into a comfortable routine of ten new levels and a new continent apiece, the latest rumours about the third add-on to the monster MMO will surprise you.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, as it's believed to be called, will only raise the level cap to 85 and won't add a substantial new landmass, but will instead redraw the map of the original game, according to respected WOW fansite MMO Champion.

MMO Champion's sources propose that "a cataclysmic event", brought about by a collaboration between the Naga and the Black Dragonflight, will change the face of Azeroth. Questing in the original zones will be revamped to reflect the style and technology of the current game, flying mounts will be allowed, classic dungeons will be revamped to allow them to be played at high level, long closed-off zones like Hyjal, Gilneas and Uldum will be added, and some current zones will have their level bands changed, be split up, flooded or ruined. There are even suggestions that Horde capital Orgrimmar will be destroyed.

The rumours suggest there will be two new races - Goblins and Worgen, as previously suggested - and Worgen will have two forms, human and wolf-like. Although there will be no new classes, new race/class combinations will become available, such as Human Hunter, Tauren Priest or Troll Druid.

MMO Champion has a lot more detail on the proposed story behind the expansion, which we'll omit here - but it includes some major uphevals for the political landscape of Azeroth with implications for the relationship between the Horde and Alliance. Overall, the rumours suggest a return to the grandiose, epic storytelling of the Warcraft RTS games.

All of this is completely unsubstantiated by Blizzard and sounds quite far out - but the amount of detail, so close to the expected reveal at BlizzCon this Friday, is compelling, and overhauling the original game as it approaches its fifth birthday makes sense. We'll have more live from Los Angeles at the end of the 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 (25) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • r4z0rbl4d3 #1 3 years ago

    Graphical update maybe, new engine features? Who knows, might actually do something good.

  • dylman #2 3 years ago

    Some of the leaks regarding lore apparently came from the Goons of SA, so be warned :)

  • Venkman90 #3 3 years ago

    I think they need to do this tbh, the burnout rate is getting higher and questiong from 1-70 is painfully lonley

    They said they want to make level 1's feel part of the universe again, re-vamping Azeroth is the only way to do that imho, it's such a chore as it is.

    Only thing is, will they make it possible to go from 58-85 in "new" Azeroth? as Outlands and Northrend will be ghost towns by the time this hits.

  • GreyScale #4 3 years ago

    Sounds pretty cool, I kind of wish I hadn't given up playing a couple of years ago as I've missed out on so much cool stuff. Be awesome to go back to the old low level zones with all new things happening in them. Scarlett Monastery ho!

  • Dizzy #5 3 years ago

    TBH it is about time WoW returned to their roots... especially when it comes to the word "War" in the title.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #6 3 years ago

    what the site also states is the fact Old Races will have new 'old' classes - Dwarf Shamans, Troll Druids, GNOME PRIESTS?

    The whole thing would have sounded legit if they didn't put in those blizzare class options - basically all they've done is pull together all the rumoured ideas in the vain hopes a few are right so that they can do a 'YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!' bit..

    It's like the Goblin so horde rumour - Whats going to happen to booty bay and all those quest hubs? Wll aliience lose a ton of content? It's highly unlikly - Although with the 'phasing' revamping the old content via that is good - but that will also kill off all 80-90 characters in the old content... lvl 10 bud - 'I'm in IF' lvl 90 bud - 'I'm in NEW IF, i can't get to you'..

    I'll be sitting and waiting on blizcon before i go OMG bad/good update

  • Devange #7 3 years ago

    It would be nice if they did this minus the old class updates, but I doubt I'll return to this game Northrend was way to easy
    and blizz still listens to the biggest whiners to make it even easier.

  • Koozer #8 3 years ago

    Would a new player be forced to buy this expansion to even create a new character? Sounds a bit far fetched to me, the original continents are massive and would take much longer to redo than a new smaller continent. Unless it'll be free, or bundled with the original. And has flying pig mounts.
    Edited by 1 at 17/08/09 @ 09:39

  • Fillem #9 3 years ago

    Keep in mind that the last time they announced an expansion, it took 18 months to actually appear so they would have plenty of time to design this.

    All sounds pretty cool.

  • davisorle #10 3 years ago

    All I have to say is that I've prayed WAY before AoC comes out for Blizzard to consider a BIG and nicely done graphical upgrade of WoW. I'm currently given up all efforts and hopes for a really pleasant MMO to play since nothing is as cool as WoW's MMO neither AoC's graphics and realism but i don't feel like playing AoC neither all OVER again and again with WoW.

    IF it changes the way it looks the least I seriously am considering going back to WoW though :)

  • curtlikesmeat #11 3 years ago

    They won't update the graphics engine, they'll surely just tweak it if anything.

    I've been wanting them to update Azeroth for ages and to bring the horde alliance conflict back to the fore, so this all sounds good to me. The Azeroth zones are some of my favourites (the other thing I wanted was your own boats but maybe next time eh hehe).

  • kingcrude #12 3 years ago

    destruction of Orgrimmar? that scares me, that place feels like my second home

  • Kami #13 3 years ago

    "Some of the leaks regarding lore apparently came from the Goons of SA, so be warned :)"

    Indeed, I'm not trying to be horrid but I'd take anything coming out of SA with a copious handful of salt.

    Until it's confirmed, it's all idle speculation.

  • Eraysor #14 3 years ago

    It's probably a complete fabrication of information, but I'll drool anyway.

  • LazyDan #15 3 years ago

    If it's not true, I at least hope Blizzard's real announcement is better.

  • Apaar #16 3 years ago

    Perfect, all I can say. :)

  • FortysixterUK #17 3 years ago

    It all sounds brilliant, but then, Blizz have barely set a foot wrong with wow.
    Yet.
    ( except the silly thing they did with Wintergrasp recently of course ).

  • poopmonster #18 3 years ago

    Spot on.

    The only people who will be upset by this are those that can't play the early levels without a L80 boosting them along.

    I just mentioned it in game, and more than one person was up in arms. "Play without boosts??? HOW?" ... and I replied "well, try grouping with ppl your own level, fool".

    And there you have it. Genuine new players can't find it much fun to be playing in a world dominated by alts getting boosts. I've tried finding groups with an alt, and it's a total pain. And when you DO find one, some twat always goes and says "hey guys it's ok, guildee comin 2 boost us thru deadmines".

    FUCK OFF! I WANT TO PLAY THE FUCKING GAME YOU TWAT.

    So yea. Cut off the 80+ at least, cause nobody's gonna want to hang around just so they can boost kids.

    Also, it might make it harder for gold farmers to create high lvl players en masse.

    Good stuff if you ask me.

  • Wyrm #19 3 years ago

    I'm all for this. I was hoping for this kinda thing in the buildup to Wrath. The 'razing of Orgrimmar' should have seen the place smashed to the ground, really shake things up, seems that's exactly what this potential expansion would do. :)

  • dudefella #20 3 years ago

    This would be amazing, and imo much better than just adding a new continent. The old world feels so different from the post- BC content at this point, making it relevant again might be the smartest thing they could do.

  • AOFanboi #21 3 years ago

    Wrestling match between Elune and Kael'thas. You read it here first.

  • rogueJT #22 3 years ago

    Could work.

  • Slipstream #23 3 years ago

    Apart from the fact that Orgrimmar already looks like an eyesore, its destruction would be interesting. xD

  • Rack #24 3 years ago

    Pretty much exactly what WoW needs. If it were just level 80-90 content then that would just put new players even further from the decent content.

  • FortysixterUK #25 3 years ago

    I suppose other things that could be considered instead of extra levels are :-

    Increased talent tree?
    i.e. Reach lvl 80 and every 500,000 xp points you "earn" opens up and extra talent slot so those talents maxed out to five points can have a 6th ,7th or 8th point added in? This may make for subtle but still tangible changes and growth.

    AI driven NPCs to add to teams when you can't get the oh so often all too elusive tank or healer for a group.
    (in fact take that a step further and allow you to make up entire teams of NPC with you at the head? ala GW ? works for them and makes harder areas far more accessible to all in GW. Some kind of looting convention/ruling needs to be created for this to work however)

    A serious revamp of trade skills. Why is it that the best gear you can make in your trade skills is usually 1 -3 epic items, usually surpassed by running instances? EITHER-Make trade skills produce far more and far for effective items ( considering the cost and work trade skills currently cause ) i.e make those items ENDGAME equivalents or drastically reduce the effort and cost of getting to 450 in any skill. Why can a leatherworkers only make 2/3 of epic chain armour for example?

    Secondary skills. Why bother to learn cooking to max only to have the best item you can cook be massively surpassed in the health regen stakes by stuff the innkeeper sells ( the buffs on food are dubious at best). Same goes for all secondary skiils.
    Make trade and secondary skills more effective or drop their requirements drastically.

    I really like the idea of the apprentice idea in ( I think GW ) in that anyone higher level who teams with you instantly raises you in level to within 5 levels of them, so you can quest together. Of course this stops as soon as you disband. Experience earning during this could be capped at 50% of what you'd normally earn but would still help the apprentice to level and maybe see content they would not normally encounter until much later in the game.





    Edited by 2 at 20/08/09 @ 09:36