Today I want to take a few minutes to gather up all the information about the newly announced Expansion WoW: Cataclysm. We'll start out with official sources and then more from there. First up is the Cataclysm panel at Blizzcon:

Two New Playable Races: Goblins and Worgen
From the chaos arise new heroes. The mysteries which lie beyond the gates of Gilneas are finally revealed, as are its cursed worgen inhabitants, a new playable Alliance race. Meanwhile, escaping from a crumbling Isle of Kezan, the resourceful goblins find themselves under the protection and safety of the Horde as its new playable race.

New Classes
Cataclysm doesn't introduce any new classes to the game. Instead, Blizzard have offered more race and classes combinations to players. The Some of these have alreadly been datamined from the 3.2.2 Test Realms. The An Injured Colleague quest and it's new Night Elf counter-part help to introduce the lore for these new race and class combinations, so we can probably expect to see more of these for some of the less traditional ones.

• Human Hunter
  
• Orc Mage
  
• Night Elf Mage
  
• Dwarf Mage
  
• Blood Elf Warrior
  
• Dwarf Shaman
  
• Undead Hunter
  
• Tauren Paladin
  
• Tauren Priest
  
• Gnome Priest
  
• Troll Druid
  

DeathwingDeathwing the Destroyer / Neltharion the Earth-Warder will play a major role in Cataclysm. Having been driven mad by Old God whisperings and turning against his own kind only to be fail in his attempts, Deathwing has sunk into the shadows. While the Horde and the Allianc

e were busy fighting back the Burning Legion only to then be beset with the Scourge, he has been lurking and moving things into place. After Lady Sinestra's failed attempts to create a Twilight Dragonflight, he again retreated to Grim Batol and succeeded where she failed. With his results seen in the Obsidian Sanctum, he has finally created the supreme Dragonflight he sought and plans to unleash it upon the world. But what of the Old Gods' sway over him?AzsharaQueen Azshara will also play a major part in Cataclysm. Unknown to many mortal races, long forgotten by others, and believe to be dead by her own kind, she has not been dormant in depths of the Maelstrom. Having those around her transformed by the Old Gods into Naga after her failure in the War of the Ancients, she has become far more powerful and a greater threat than she once was. Not content with just Nazjatar and the depths of the sea, Azshara seeks to reclaim power and reign once again. With the true plan behind Lady Vashj's support of Illidan remaining a mystery we do not know what hand Azshara has yet played. The big question remains, is she now serving her "saviors", the Old Gods?The CataclysmI'm still not sure who is the true end boss of Cataclysm is, but the cataclysm appears to have been caused by attempts to incantation to summon extremely powerful beings using an ancient incantation by Deathwing and Azshara. They're both very powerful, but the cataclysm itself suggests something more powerful is behind it, perhaps their shared past of Old God influence?The Guardian of TirisfalMalfurion Stormrage will be returning to Azeroth to aid in the creation of the new Guardian of Tirisfal - Thrall! Med'an's role in these events is currently unknown.The New (New) HordeThrall will hand over the leadership of the Horde to Garrosh Hellscream, while he serves as a coordinator for both the Horde and Alliance forces in and effort to combat the new threat of the Naga and Black Dragonflight. Without Thrall to keep Garrosh in check, he declares open war on the Alliance. In the political upheaval Cairne Bloodhoof is implicated as a traitor to the Horde and murdered by Garrosh. Cairne's son Baine takes over as the new Tauren chieftan. This could explain why Baine was removed from the game in Patch 3.2.2, you can find more information about this in Ahmo Thunderhorn - replacement for Baine Bloodhoof?

New ContentCataclysm will be the first expansion not to introduce a new continent, instead making use of previously unreleased zones and revamping existing ones.Classic Azeroth RevampA cataclysmic event caused by Deathwing and Azshara will change the face of Azeroth as we know it. Most of the new content for Cataclysm will take the form of a revamped Azeroth, taking advantage of newer additions to WoW such as phasing and daily quests. Most of the quests and mobs in the classic zones will also be redesigned to make leveling less painful. With the revamp, a greater narritive and sense progression will be offered to players. Some zones and dungeons will change drastically to fit this, e.g.,The Barrens will be split into two separate zones of two different level bands.Azshara will become a low level (~10-20) zone.Some of the zones like the Thousand Needles will be flooded.Durotar is wrecked and apparently Orgrimmar could be destroyed. A new Orc city is rebuilt over the course of the expansion.Gnomeregan will be part of the expansion as well and gnomes might be able to reclaim their capital. (The last part is still unconfirmed)Wailing Caverns will be become a lush tropical area as a result of the druid's magic.The Blackrock Spire will erupt and a new version of Blackrock Mountains will be available, apparently Ragnaros will be back too.In the aftermath of the cataclysm, and the new conflicts on the horizon relief efforts can be found in many zones and new open PvP areas similar to Lake Wintergrasp.Flying in AzerothPart of the redesign of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor is the introduction of flying to the two continents, allowing access to many new areas and quicker travelling across the large continents.Classic Dungeon RevampRedesigning Onyxia's Lair in Patch 3.2.2 was just the first step. As most of the leveling will take place in revamped areas of Azeroth, so too will the dungeons, allowing players to use them to level from 80 to 85.Unreleased Zones & DungeonsWith the addition of flying mounts to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms and the redesign of many zones, most of the previously unreachable or incomplete zones will now be made available to players. This is where most of the new content from 80 to 85 will take place. Some of these are,

• Hyjal (present)
  
• Gilneas - The Worgen starting Zone.
  
• Uldum
  

It is unclear if the old Goblin locations such as Kezan and Undermine will be included in Cataclyms with the revelation of the goblins' plight, but several new islands have also been risen from the seas by the events of Cataclysm, some on the backs of giant sea turtles and whales, with the addition of several underwater zones.

• WoW.com high Quality Map
  
• Official WoW: Cataclysm Website
  
• Gilneas Feature Update
  
• Lost Isles Feature Update
  

After all this time, we are still tied to the basic guild UI that launched with the game. Nearly five years after WoW first hit shelves, guilds have very few in-game ways to distinguish themselves, to tout their victories, or to reap rewards for their survival and success. Leaving a guild (or getting kicked out) has virtually no cost. Disbanding and reforming can be done at the drop of a hat with practically zero consequences outside of a few pricey bank slots. Guild-hopping for personal gain has ruled the day. Now, all that is changing.Three months before WotLK launched, I wrote up a wish list for improvements I wanted to see Blizzard make to the guild experience. Foremost among them was to add guild-wide achievements. Another request I made was for a recruiting interface. Now, in Cataclysm, we're getting both! Another item I wished for, a way to identify which characters were all tied to the same account, was noted as a possibility at the BlizzCon WoW Systems panel.I'm not trying to take credit for these ideas. I'm just extremely excited to be able to check two or three items off my list of wishes! Blizzard has finally announced a way to make guilds -- and belonging to a guild -- more meaningful and more dynamic. When the developers of Warhammer Online announced their "living guild" system and its associated perks, I admit I was quite jealous. I wanted my WoW guild to be able to grow and develop, and eventually offer its members some substantial in-game benefits beyond access to group content. I tried WAR briefly, but I didn't stick around long enough to see if their promises about guilds came to fruition the way that Mythic envisioned. Blizzard as a softwa

re developer is more of a "perfecter" than an innovator. If they can take what other games have done with guilds and make those good ideas shine with Blizzard's unique brand of polish, then officers and members alike will truly benefit from all the hard work of operating a guild. Needless to say, it's about time they spent some serious development resources on guilds. Cataclysm is shaping up to be the expansion that officers always hoped for, but never got. It's a great time to be in a great guild!In a perfect system, talents and achievements would help long-standing, highly successful guilds of any size or inclination to stand out from the crowd. Guilds would have ways to prove that they have achieved their goals. The benefits of achieving those goals should be numerous and significant. They should be better for long-term members than for new recruits, rewarding guild loyalty with improved perks.

One small bit of rumor has been floating around the BlizzCon floor the last couple days: that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be released in 2010. We hear these kind of rumors all the time, and don't give them very much credence. Whatever date is up on Game Stop (November 1st, 2010) or Amazon or wherever are just placeholder dates until they start to change or we hear from trusted sources that the dates are correct.But this time, things are a little bit different.WoW.com has been able to confirm that during a DirecTV interview, Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard, revealed that Cataclysm is targeted for a 2010 release date.Now a targeted release date should be clearly understood for what it is. It is a date that Blizzard wants to ship their game, nothing more, nothing less. It means that they have a plan and schedule to get the game ready by then. But as everyone knows, long term schedules can and do change. Please limit the QQ if we don't see Cataclysm next year.