World-of-Warcraft-Cataclysm posts (Subscribe to this feed)

The best of WoW.com: December 1-8, 2009

by Mike Schramm { Dec 9th 2009 at 3:00AM }

It's patch day again in the World of Warcraft, and that means there's a whole bunch of upgrades and updates and brand new challenges, quests and things to do in the most successful MMO ever made. Joystiq's sister site WoW.com has all the patch 3.3 info you'd ever need, from the new Dungeon Finder system to class changes, to all of the various UI tweaks and tips for getting your add-ons ready. Find ten of our most popular posts of the past week after the break, and head over to WoW.com for the latest on the game's newest update.

Continued →

The best of WoW.com: August 18-26, 2009

by Mike Schramm { Aug 27th 2009 at 2:00AM }

What a week it has been in the World of Warcraft. Last weekend in Anaheim, Blizzard held BlizzCon, a convention of over 20,000 people, and announced the third expansion of the world's biggest MMO: Cataclysm. New races, new levels, new systems and instances, and oh yeah: the entire world will explode thanks to the return of a very evil and very angry dragon.

Here's our most popular posts from the past seven days to catch you up.

News

BlizzCon 2009: Opening Ceremony liveblog
Straight from the convention floor, here's the announcement in all of its live glory.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm announced
After all of the leaks and speculation, it's official. The game is getting another expansion.
BlizzCon 2009: Archaeology and Path of the Titans
A new secondary profession, and a brand new way for characters to grow even beyond the new level cap of 85.
Patch 3.2.0a being deployed today
Right in the midst of BlizzCon madness, Blizzard dropped a bugfix patch on the live servers.
BlizzCon 2009: Guild leveling and talents
Guilds will earn points for ingame success, and be able to spend those points on all kinds of fun rewards.

Features

BlizzCon 2009: The costumes
What is a convention without fans crazy enough to dress up (or dress down) as their favorite characters? Feast your eyes on these.
BlizzCon 2009: Worgen animation
Here's what the change everyone wants to see looks like.
Know Your Lore: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Worgen
A special KYL for the new Alliance race.
BlizzCon 2009: Cataclysm, the story so far
What we know about the story behind the new expansion.
BlizzCon 2009: Stats vastly simplified
It's all back to core stats when Deathwing takes over.

Round-up: The Cataclysmic changes coming to World of Warcraft

by Griffin McElroy { Aug 23rd 2009 at 6:30PM }

The recent announcement of World of Warcraft's next expansion, Cataclysm, brought with it a whole slew of drastic changes to the game. You're probably familiar with them all by now -- but if you stopped paying attention to BlizzCon 2009 coverage after the welcome ceremony, you may have missed out on a ton of additional changes that will make their way into the almighty MMO around the time Cataclysm launches.

We've done our best to round these changes up into a single post -- as always, however, we have to defer to the experts over at Joystiq's Azeroth-obsessed sister site, WoW.com, for the super in-depth coverage. You'll find a bunch of links to their BlizzCon coverage embedded in our post after the jump -- curious parties are just one click away from total Cataclysmic enlightenment.

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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm targeted for 2010 release

by Griffin McElroy { Aug 23rd 2009 at 3:30PM }

We know, we know -- 2010 is an entire year, and doesn't provide much information as to when we'll be perusing the ruined landscape of Azeroth when World of Warcraft's next expansion, Cataclysm, is released. Still, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the only piece of information yet to surface about the release schedule of the recently announced expansion, via a WoW.com interview with Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. Thus, here it is: It's targeted for a 2010 release.

Here's the two observations we can cull from that ambiguous launch announcement -- first, it's not coming out this year. Second, it's not coming out in two years. It's coming out somewhere between January 1 and December 31 of next year, it seems. That is, unless it takes Blizzard longer to develop than Morhaime initially thought, in which case, we'll hastily revoke our second observation.

BlizzCon 2009: Day one round-up

by Elizabeth Harper { Aug 22nd 2009 at 8:30AM }

The news coming from BlizzCon has been fast and furious -- and we can hardly blame you if you haven't been able to keep up with the announcements coming from Anaheim so far.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: A little expansion by the name of Cataclysm was officially announced, with a world of pain now on its way to classic Azeroth and two new races. So what's new in Azeroth? Two new races, Goblins and Worgen (Horde and Alliance respectively), the reordering and rezoning of much of Azeroth, an array of new race/class possibilities, a brand-new secondary skill, and some shake-ups in class mechanics and character/guild advancement.
DIABLO 3: Meet the Monk, the game's latest class and -- so the trailer suggests -- a kick-ass martial artist. Also, surprise surprise, the game may still be coming to a console near you.
BATTLE.NET: Battle.net will gain new features in the expansion, including an Xbox-Livesque ability to see what your friends are playing and which servers they're on, in addition to sending messages to them.
PICTURES: Here's a map of the reordered post-Cataclysm Azeroth, a gallery of the art display at BlizzCon (containing some Cataclysm art, employee-decorated noobz, and StarCraft and Diablo universe pieces), a dedicated gallery for Cataclysm concept art, and a gallery of the costumes at BlizzCon.
VIDEOS: We have video for you of the Cataclysm trailer, what Azeroth zones will look like post-Cataclysm, and the animation for Human-to-Worgen transformation.
THE GUILD: The entire cast showed up and brought the funny at their live panel and at our reader meet-up. Gallery here!

Gallery: BlizzCon 2009

Blizzcon 2009: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm trailer

by Richard Mitchell { Aug 21st 2009 at 5:45PM }

So, you already know everything you need to know about this World of Warcraft: Cataclysm trailer. It introduces the newly ruined realm of Azeroth, two new playable races, new race / class combinations and new monsters. The level cap is higher, there are more skills to learn and more dungeons to explore. Basically, it's got all that wonderful stuff you want to see in an expansion.

All that you have to do now is watch.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion confirmed; new races, level cap, quests

by Christopher Grant { Aug 21st 2009 at 3:15PM }

As expected, Blizzard just announced the latest expansion to the World of Warcraft universe: Cataclysm. Instead of adding a fancy new continent to the mix, this expansion will change (think: destruction) the Azeroth you now know. As leaked earlier, Goblins and Wolvar join the cast of playable races; the level cap has been raised to 85; and of course bunches of new raids, dungeons, and quests to sink your free time into.

We've got a press disc that we'll upload just as soon as this opening ceremony is over. Cataclysm is playable on the floor, so as soon as we can shove some people out of the way, we'll get you our hands-on impressions.

[Via WoW.com]

Rumor: complete details leaked on WoW expansion 'Cataclysm'

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Aug 14th 2009 at 9:30PM }

And you'll never guess what happens in it. Author "Boubouille" of MMO-Champion claims to have assembled detailed information on World of Warcraft's next expansion, which reportedly tears the landscape of Azeroth asunder in some sort of ... huge ... disaster ... event ... thing. There's probably a word for that -- might be smart to trademark it.

As pointed out by our sister site WoW.com, this expansion would be the first to skip over the expected addition of a new continent, instead presenting altered versions of familiar lands. Two new (and previously rumored) races, the Worgen and Goblins, are expected to join the social slayfest, along with more race/class combinations and an 85 level cap.

None of the information has been confirmed by Blizzard, though the supposed premise and additions certainly sound intriguing. Indeed, this Cataclysm sounds quite a bit more fun than the one that recently befell The Matrix Online.

[Via WoW.com]

Rumor: Two new playable races in next World of Warcraft expansion

by JC Fletcher { Aug 10th 2009 at 2:58PM }

What's Blizzard up to, besides not finishing StarCraft 2? According to a leak from an anonymous source to our bunkmates at WoW.com, the developer is working on the next World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, which will include two new playable races! Both of these have been previously hinted to via in-game Halloween masks.

On the Horde (Citrus Cherry Red, in terms of Mountain Dew Game Fuel) side, players will be able to create Goblin characters. On the Alliance (Wild Fruit Blue) side, the new playable race is the Worgen (which is like a werewolf, but with a more Swedish-sounding name). We'd love to see how Blizzard reconciles the "good guy" Alliance with a creature that is "thoroughly evil, delighting in torturing and devouring intelligent creatures."

Blizzard files trademark for 'Cataclysm'

by Griffin McElroy { Jul 1st 2009 at 4:00PM }

The identity of Blizzard's unannounced MMO project may have just been revealed. Anonymous gaming news bloodhound superannuation recently uncovered a trio of trademarks from the MMO juggernaut, reserving the name "Cataclysm" for use in the fields of computer games, online games and paper-based products. We assume that last one doesn't mean Blizzard's dealing in Cataclysm-branded stationary.

Our acronym-infused sister site WoW.com reminded us of a very important point -- not all Blizzard trademarks turn into actual games (isn't that right, StarCraft: Ghost?). However, they also noticed that the domain name wowcataclysm.com recently expired and is now held by GoDaddy -- who handles all of Blizzard's domains. It looks like Big Blizz is up to something -- but we might have to wait till BlizzCon to find out what that something is.

[Via WoW.com]