Two New Playable Races

Adventure as one of two new races - the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.

Level Cap Increased to 85

Earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to improve characters.

Classic Zones Remade

Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two.

New High-Level Zones

Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj'ir beneath the sea.

More Raid Content than Ever Before

Enjoy more high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.

New Race and Class Combinations

Explore Azeroth as a gnome priest, blood elf warrior, or one of the other never-before-available race and class combinations.

Guild Advancement

Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.

New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds

Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.

Archaeology

Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.

Flying Mounts in Azeroth

Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like never before.

Archaeology is the new secondary profession that will be joining the ranks of cooking, fishing, and first aid in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Archaeology allows the player to unlock new abilities and rewards by discovering ancient treasures throughout the world. Each archaeologist uses the profession to uncover clues hidden in the world around them, such as troll relics or map fragments, and decipher their meaning, enabling the clever archaeologist to manipulate pieces of the past, learning the location of a treasure cache or valuable artifact. Such artifacts are highly sought after by the Archaeology Society, and they pay in gold and items for their return. Those who have mastered archaeology can find Titan artifacts, earning special currency used to unlock character paths and allowing the player to further customize their character.


Archaeology provides the Ancient Glyphs used by the Path of the Titans and looks like a mix of tradeskills, gathering professions, and quests. Any character will be able to train it and people with an existing gathering profession will have the possibility to track both things at the same time.

The artifacts you find are placed in your Archaeology journal, allowing you to study it to unlock rewards. According to the screenshot of the interface you will have to complete mini-quest to eventually get a reward. (In this case, the Black Market value of the axe is 30G)

The most interesting aspect of the profession remains the Ancient Glyphs and it seems that all characters will have to train it if they want to access all the new skills.

The Path of the Titans is a new form of character leveling introduced in the next expansion. The system is an expansion of the existing Glyphs and will ultimately add 10 Ancient Glyphs slots to your character.

Ancient Glyphs are new items discovered through the new Archaeology profession.

Unlike conventional Glyphs, the Ancient Glyphs won't be tied to a class. Players will join cults dedicated to various titans and will follow its path, unlocking new glyph slots as they progress. You can earn progress down any of these paths by doing things such as questing, raiding, PvP, trade skills, etc.  with a possible weekly cap for maximum progress. Over time, you’ll be able to unlock new ancient glyphs that will greatly benefit your character.

During the Blizzcon developers made it clear that the goal will be gated and not grindy and that everyone would eventually get all their ancient glyphs. More slots might be added after the release of the expansion.

• Path of Aman’Thul, the High Father
• Path of Eonar, the Lifebinder
• Path of Norgannon, the Dreamweaver
• Path of Khaz’Goroth, the Shaper
• Path of Aggramar, the Avenger
• Path of Golganneth, the Thunderer

Reforging is an interesting addition to the existing tradeskills: Blacksmith / Leatherworker / Tailor / Jewelcrafter / Engineer. Each profession will have the possibility to modify your items to slightly modify their stats and replace them with new ones. Each profession get to reforge a type of items: cloth armor for tailors, leather for Leatherworkers, etc ...

For example, a Blacksmith should be able to reforge your staff to reduce the Spirit bonus to add Intellect instead (more spell power). Of course restrictions will apply and you can't create a +500 intellect breastplate just by removing all the other stats, the goal of this profession is to make items potentially interesting for more classes and reduce the amount of disenchanted items.

Cataclysm will improve the graphic engine of World of Warcraft once again and add a handful of new effects. The most noticeable change is the new water engine and with the Cataclysm flooding a lot of zones of Azeroth, you will probably have a lot of occasions to experience it. Below are a few screenshots to check it out.

MP5

This will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability.

Spell Power

Spell Power is being removed from items as well. Don't panic, we'll be improving Intellect so that it provides mana and Spell Power.

Attack Power

We're removing Attack Power from items as well. Instead, we're allowing Agility to provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers. Strength will provide the appropriate amount of Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers.

Defense

The Defense statistic is also being removed from items so that players no longer have to worry about juggling around "the cap." Tanks will receive the necessary anti-crit from talents, like Survival of the Fittest.

Armor Penetration

This ability is too confusing and "mathy." It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. More on that later!

Haste

Will also increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus. Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit.

Block

Block Value is being removed. Blocking will now always mitigate a percentage of damage.

Stamina

Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed.

Hunter

Also receiving a massive overall are hunters. The hunter’s need to rely upon mana is completely gone, and instead they will use focus. This means hunters will no longer care at all about Intellect, mana regen or Aspect of the Viper. Focus will regenerate continually, similar to how rogues or feral druids regenerate energy. For comparison, rogues regenerate approximately 10 energy per second, whereas hunters will regenerate 6 focus per second. However, Steady Shot can also be used to improve focus regen, and bring the rate at which hunters regenerate focus to 12 per second. The hunter will have a maximum of 100 focus, and shots might cost 30 or 60 focus, with fewer cooldowns on abilities. Another exciting and long-awaited change regards the ammunition system. Ammunition will become an equipable item, and will no longer be consumable.

Warlock

The soul shard system is receiving a massive revamp, and will now become a core feature of the warlock class. Soul shards will no longer act as an inventory item, but rather exist as a resource, and appear below the warlock's health and mana bar. A new spell, Soul Burn, will be the only warlock ability to cost a soul shard, and will empower most of your other spells to behave differently. For instance, when combined with Fear it causes the spell to become instant. Other examples include: guaranteeing your Searing Pain spell three critical hits, increased horror effect and additional healing from Death Coil, and instant summoning from your summon demon spell. Soul shards will regenerate quickly upon leaving combat, and you may also be able to use drain soul as a "soul shard evocation."