Here is some Info about the new expansion

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the next expansion for World of Warcraft. Dark and forgotten threats that have long stayed out of sight have finally arrived on our shores, unleashing a cataclysmic event upon Azeroth and now preparing more nefarius plans to take it back.

Level Cap

The level cap in the next expansion will be slightly lower than expected this time around; 85.

This suggests Blizzard wants more room for expansions before hitting the level 100 cap. With less leveling to do (along with the revamped leveling listed below likely to increase the speed and ease of leveling), leveling a new race remains appealing for new and existing players alike.

Leveling from 80-85 should be a much bigger deal, the idea is to make sure that gaining a level really means something and doesn't make you feel like you just have 4 more levels to go.

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[/li]
  
• Orc Mage[/li]
  
• Night Elf Mage[/li]
  
• Dwarf Mage[/li]
  
• Blood Elf Warrior[/li]
  
• Dwarf Shaman[/li]
  
• Undead Hunter[/li]
  
• Tauren Paladin[/li]
  
• Tauren Priest[/li]
  
• Gnome Priest[/li]
  
• Troll Druid[/li]

New Races

The events of the cataclysm has caused two new races to seek new allies. The Goblins for the Horde and the Worgen for the Alliance.


• Goblins
  Deathwing once again sought the services of the goblins, as slaves. Unable to refuse such an offer, the goblins were enslaved by him. A large group have resisted however. With their previous homes devastated by the cataclysm, they escaping to an island off the coast of The Barrens. As they strive to recover, they come across an Orc captured on an Alliance ship and rescue him. The Orc turns out to be none other than Thrall himself, and in return offers the Goblins a place within the Horde. These events are carried out in a quest line, allowing players to experience first-hand the reasons behind the Goblins' shift from neutrality.[/li]
  
  
• Worgen
  The cataclysm has cracked open the Greymane Wall, finally revealing what has happened to the kingdom of Gilneas and its citizens. With the Worgen curse taken hold, they have found a partial cure, allowing thme to retain their Human minds even when transformed. Venturing forth from Gilneas and seeking help from the Alliance, they have decided to join them, to combat the new threats of Cataclysm.
  
  Gilneas will make extensive use of the phasing system (much like the Death Knight starting area), to show what happened while the kingdom was cut off from the rest of the world and lead up to present day.
  
  Worgens will have two forms, a Worgen form and a Human form. Players will be able to customise the look of both forms.[/li]

New Content

Cataclysm will be the first expansion not to introduce a new continent, instead making use of previously unreleased zones and revamping existing ones.


• Classic Azeroth Revamp
  A 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.[/li]
  
• Azshara will become a low level (~10-20) zone.[/li]
  
• Some of the zones like the Thousand Needles will be flooded.[/li]
  
• Durotar is wrecked and apparently Orgrimmar could be destroyed. A new Orc city is rebuilt over the course of the expansion.[/li]
  
• Gnomeregan will be part of the expansion as well and gnomes might be able to reclaim their capital. (The last part is still unconfirmed)[/li]
  
• Wailing Caverns will be become a lush tropical area as a result of the druid's magic.[/li]
  
• The Blackrock Spire will erupt and a new version of Blackrock Mountains will be available, apparently Ragnaros will be back too.[/li]
  
  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 Azeroth

Part 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 Revamp

Redesigning 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 & Dungeons

With 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.[/li]
  
• Uldum[/li]
  
  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.

Characters and Events

• Deathwing
  Deathwing 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 Alliance 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?[/li]
  
  
• Azshara
  Queen 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?[/li]
  
  
• The Cataclysm
  I'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 Tirisfal
  Malfurion 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.[/li]

The New Horde

Thrall 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?

Attributes

• Attack Power on gear is gone. Instead, some classes will get 2 AP from each point of Agi (Rogues, Hunters, Shamans, Druids), and other classes (presumably Warriors, Paladins, and Death Knights) will get 2 AP per point of Strength. Side effect: no more plate wearers stealing your gear[/li]
  
  
• Spell Power is gone. It comes from Int now.[/li]
  
  
• MP5 is gone. Spirit is the mana regen stat, and all classes that need it will get some form of Meditation. (Hunters, never fear - you don't use mana any more. More on this in a separate post.)[/li]
  
  
• Armor Penetration is gone. That one was just confusing.[/li]
  
  
• Defense is gone. Tanks are now defense-capped from talents, like Druid tanks.[/li]
  
  
• Haste now increases your rate of resource regeneration (mana, energy, rage, runes, focus).[/li]
  
  
• Block Value is gone, but blocks now mitigate a percentage of damage.[/li]
  
  
• Stamina is going to be more equal across different armor types - no more "plate HP envy."[/li]

Wow! Some big spoilers in there, if they are true.

Some of the changes to gear and stats are weird.
And hunters will no longer have mana? This kinda makes sense but they have had mana for so long I kinda find it hard to believe.

What like 1 in 100 people agree with this statement?  It's more like going up with the new expansion.  This means more material for the old regions and overall Warcraft progression for the game which is long overdue. 

If you cherry pick a handful of  things out of a batch of a million things, surely there will always be 'bad' things about it. 

Nobody saw that /wipes the double post under the rug

W00T

Hmm .. Kind of dissapointed he's only level 85 content though ;P Sargeras will undoubtedly be level 100 content (I didn't realise they plan to stop at 100), actually killing Kil'Jaeden will be 90 or 95, probably for 90 it will be the corrupted Emerald Dream:


Awesome looking expansion though.

So are we really gonna have to buy one more disk? What about the new people who want to play and have to pay for four disks for one game? I understand their plea, I played with only the first and second disc for a while (I got it free from a friend who quit).

It's probably gonna be in a Battle Chest thing, which one of the people I got playing went out and bought. It would be cheaper than buying all four games stand alone, but still be more expensive than buying it all on one disk.

And what about patches? It's already at a point where you have to sit around about 5 hours after spending money on the disks. I think with the new disk they should have all the past patches from WotLK and below.

I also wonder how much more power the video enchancements will require.

Blizzard releases cumulative patches for WoW every now and then. Eg: if you have v3.0 of WoW aka WotLK, you can download a cumulative patch file that allows it to patch all the way to the latest major patch, then a bunch of tiny ones for the minor patches.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_Mirrors

What I do is save the cumulative patch onto my hard drive, so any time I need to repair or reinstall, I just patch my game with the patch I already have.  Makes it MUCH faster than re-downloading.

As for Battle Chest WoW, that's bound to happen. 

does any1 know when its estimated to come out

actualy, i dont know, but i guess it will be around january like WotLK

what is up with the "new horde"? so thrall leaves, but what does he do? sounds like the goblin's will save from allies in their starting area, but why was he captured in the first place?and how will Garrosh's actions affect the game really? cairne is killed and full out war with the alliance,and sounds like org might be trashed, can any one clarify the whole new horde thing? it just doesn't seem to really connect for me right now, and it probally won't till it comes out and i play it, but any clarification would be great

well, it seems very strange...

Not sure if this is exactly right, but thrall goes to help allies with the black dragonflight or whatever. How ever his brother is corrupt witch is why he attacks allies. Don't know about cairne bloodhooh but there's a chance a new orgrimar will be built

First of all, Garrosh isn't his brother.  Grom Hellscream and Thrall aren't even related.  Thrall honoured Grom by referring him as "big brother". 

Second, he hates the Alliance, humans in particular.  This doesn't mean he is corrupt. The Horde does not have a peace treaty with the Alliance.  They have an uneasy truce.

GS is right, The horde and alliance arent the best friends type. hmm le tme find some examples...ahh I think ive found one. you and your GFS ex (if you have one) your not friends but your not trying to beat the crap out of each other. But at the slightest thing he does wrong you will pound his face in....am I right?

Jakelong,(the first commment on this page) it seeems like u got this from some website. The least lyou could do is give it credit or at least edit it like the following-



FOR THE ALLIANCE!!!!11!(cause of garrosh being the new leader i quit horde)

Also garrosh will only allow orcs and tauren into the capital's center because he says and i quote from wowinsider.com- "Only the orcs and tauren are tough enough to defend the horde"
Hope that inspired others to switch to alliance and kill garrosh. Good luck

Well, if I have to RP for a moment, I think the Forsaken are up to no good.  The Trolls reflect the Gnomes whom barely have a home.  Most of my toons are Tauren and my primary choice is also Tauren. I may not agree with Garrosh and I think Thrall makes a much better leader, but I won't leave the Horde unless it was necessary. 

I feel strange RPing over the net.

now this is mainly due to GS comment, about leaveing the horde due to garrosh, and i must say i have been horde since the begining and i feel like garrosh *almost* has a point, after all the orcs are the founders of the horde to my understanding, and the tauren are blood debted or something to them for saving their race, while darkspear trolls are still mostly the cruel race they were before they enterd the horde, and forsaken just have the same goal to kill the alliance as the horde, and not really sure why the blood elves are in the horde, i think it is because the allies didnt want them because they embraced demonic energies or something,

But that being said i think that each race it in its own way great, orcs are a shammanistic people and have made great advance since their ensalvement, and trolls have seem to gotten better  still pretty cruel though, and the forsaken is really a melting pot, some are very bitter and will do anything to kill the living, others view is more of a destroy the scourge for making them the monsters they are, and yet other just want to "live" thier new lives, and taurens are such a peaceful race, it is almost painful to see them is such a warlike situation.

However i really do not like garrosh much, i think thrall is so much more level headed and a much better leader, and sicne i have not played a alliance char beyond lvl 10 i can not comment on them

sorry if this makes little or no sense at all, i wrote this when i was very tired, and i am horrible at making a point after about 5 minutes of thinking, because i end up with my ideas all mixed up, so i really hope you can get my point from all this

So if the horde and allies are going to war does that mean that npcs will like group and fight the town? ex.( like in OL you have the 2 oppsising factions) will the allies send a small force of knights to try and take out the horde and visv versa