Cataclysm'd!

[Aelina]

Blizzard has officially released the next expansion pack as World of Warcraft: Cataclysm-- including screenshots, art, and a trailer (http://tinyurl.com/lfnfre)-- this weekend at BlizzCon in Anaheim, CA.

I was not one of the more fortunate 26,000 Blizzard fans to attend this awesome event, but I am keeping all my focus on the WoW related panels and contests this weekend.

Friday, August 21, 2009:

• Horde Race: Goblin
• Alliance Race: Worgen
• Seven New Zones
• Flying in Azeroth!
• Complete re-vamping of Old World terrain/cities to be totally flyable
• New PvP & Battlegrounds
• Guild Advancement System
• New Race/Class Combos!

And much, much more! Personally, I follow WoW.com (WoWIsnider on Twitter) & a couple other geeks on Twitter too. I'll be pulling all of my information from WoW.com and putting it into this thread.

http://tinyurl.com/l4hgcd - This is was a live blog done during this morning/afternoon's WoW Content Preview Panel. It has pictures, comments, and time stamps.. so to read it in order start from the bottom and scroll up!

The lore and storyline is a big part of this expansion, since the max level will only be 85. Talent trees won't expand, we'll just get 5 more points to play around with. Deathwing (Black Dragonflight, Onyxia's Dad) is the big baddie this time around, banished to the elemental plane of Azeroth a long time ago. The creators of WoW visualize the Cataclysm to come as a surprise to the denizens of Azeroth, while the rest of us are still in Northrend fighting other baddies (Scourge & Lich King). Deathwing is brought back to this plane by the bigger and badder Twilight Hammer cultists (think back to Silithus and Ahn'Qiraj), and the massive event of Deathwing breaking back into our Azeroth causes zones to be split in two, land masses rising from the ocean depths, volcanic eruptions in the middle of continents, and familiar coastlines to be washed away.

What does everyone think about the Cataclysm, and what do you think will be the most fun when the xpac is released?

EDIT: I'm going to miss the Class Discussion streaming tonight at 5pm/8pm PST, but hopefully not the Contests at 6pm/9pm. I'll update later if WoW.com does a live blog of the earlier panel

[Aelina]

Just finished watching BlizzCon online, caught the tail end of the costume contest, and bits of the sound-alike and dancing portions too.

I have to say, in the 15 mins I watched people parading across the stage I had a few favorites:
-- human warrior n00b
-- argent gruntling
-- grobbulus
-- bank alt in green winter clothes
-- blood elf on purple hawkstrider
-- Tier 8 paladin
-- Restoration druid (he danced, cowered, and ate)
-- warlock and her Voidwalker
-- "Accidental" Ashbringer
-- Tauren hunter (no gear, but great paper mache head and hooves)

3 Runners-Up were:
~ Lady Shazra (sp?)
~ Valeera the blood elf rogue
~ Shaman in Tier gear
3rd Place: Tier 8 paladin (Same one I liked earlier!)
2nd Place: Kel'Thuzad and Mr. Bigglesworth
1st Place: Mistress of Pain

I personally thought that Kel'Thuzad was gonna take it cause the guy in the whole costume only came up to KT's crotch area. He controlled the arms like humongous puppets and had to have 3 helpers follow him to make sure he got on and off the stage in one piece. Very excellent costumes!

The sound alikes were great, lots of orc peons from early Warcraft, and some great boss fights like one from Sethekk Halls, Tempest Keep, and Ulduar (Mimiron hard mode, and XT-002 Deconstructor).

The dances were.. well, a bit disgusting, at times.. but then very drool worthy when girls actually danced the female dances. I found out that I don't like the draenei male dance, but the night elf female ones are very.. pleasing to mine eyes

Cannot wait until tomorrow.. Lvl 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain opens for Ozzy at the end of the day!! Goodnight guildies & friends!