Expansion watch (Updated new info 10/24/2005)

[midorihime]

(10/24/2005)

Here is a scan of a page or two from the magazine. I had to resize the image it was almost a meg but I think I kept the quality readable,well Readable if you can read Italian...

(New info, take with a grain of salt) On a few european gaming forums, they talk about what was said in that magazine.

The whole expansion will be centered around Outland, Medivh and the Dark Portal".

"Thanks to the time distorsions of the Caverns of Time, you'll be able to see the original Dark Portal created by Medivh to allow the Orcish Horde to invade Azeroth"..

"Caverns of Time will be a raid instance that takes you to the opening of the Dark Portal, Old Hillsbrad to save Thrall and his companions, and to the Battle of Mount Hyjal where the Orcs, Humans and Elves must unite to destroy the armies of Arthas."

"Kharazan should be a 5-Man Instance"

They mention that the floating buildings would be a mini-dungeon "like the one in Stormwind, except much prettier". So I assume it's a bit like Stormwind Stockades, or Ragefire Chasm.. an instance within Quel`Thalas.




The magazine cover says world of warcraft: the burning crusade. IFif you want info on what that is lorewise, its a war across the known universe on a multitude of planets against the Burning Legion that has been raging in secret, that people from Azeroth have been part of. Also means the idea of Blood elf to Horde is much more of a idea... The big info tidbit though is in the subtitle, It says "Blizzard takes us to the 70th lvl". This is a legit gaming magazine and this checks out. So lvl 70 here we go... balancing issue talk can now be yelled about

Edit... They took down the picture and blacked out the part that says this stuff . Makes it a bit more legit...

Edit 2:
Here is the exact info on the Burning Crusade, as taken from the book Shadows & Light.

A Great War rages beyond the ken of normal mortals. The universe bhouses inumerable wolrds, and the Burning Legion currently invades a handfull of them. Most mortals are blind tot his secret conflict, but the wisest and strongest know of it- and some are heroes and leaders in this war. Champioins from Azeroth and many other worlds battle across the cosmos, attempting to drive back the Burning Legion and keep the embattled planets safe from demonic corruption. Theirs is a desperate,epic war and they welcome any who would join them. Beings of all sorts join forces- humans and draenei alongside orcs, high elves alongside night elves. Old rivalries are thrown aside in the face of the ominous Legion. All who fight this secret war know that, despite the posturing and ambition of individual demon lords, Kil'jaeden was always Sargeras's second. He is the Legions's true leader. Out in the Great Dark Beyond, Kil'jaeden waits as demons and mortals die, biding his time for his minions to grow strong once again.

Edit 3. Added the information I gleemed through bable fish from the FoH boards(european gaming forum) and I added the rumored Blood elf images

Edit 4 (10/24/2005)
Here is a scan of a page or two from the magazine. I had to resize the image it was almost a meg but I think I kept the quality readable,well Readable if you can read Italian...

oh and I will put the file up as an attachment

[Mirax]

Settantesimo livello!

[Mod]

20 man MC runs ftw?

[allicanta]

But wait........ten more levels.......seems to me like they probably STILL would want each player to have to choose a tree to specialize in, and that won't happen with the maximum talent in each tree being at the 31 talent point spot...expanded talent trees, anyone?

[Bonzo]

fongoule!

I think to raise the cap to 70 blizzard might revamp all the talent trees being how having a certain combo of 21 and 31 pt talents would be hugely overpowered for some classes and suck ass for others.

[Sagerix]

It's taking them a month to revamp each class. There's no way they're planning on redoing talent trees but not doing it while they take a close look at each class now.

[Jaesty]

I aggree with Allicanta in that this will cause some major talent issues. I'm thinking the next 10 levels are hero class levels. 31/30 builds etc. just don't seem to have the focus that was intended for characters. Not to mention how overpowered it would be for some classes. Then again the 70th level thing could have just been an expression for Blizzard taking us farther than we've been.

[Nicosha]

Blizzard has hinted that the raising of the level cap would include longer talent trees. All they would have to do is add more talents to the 31 tier, add some to the 35 talent tier, and give us a 41 talent point, and then people will still complain that some builds are better than others.

[Serenity]

61 point holy build ftw!

[Mod]

Every rogue would get Adrenaline Rush and Preparation.

[Serenity]

Every preist would get... um... hmm.


We may not even spend them.

[Psyche]

I had to register just to check in on this topic....

It's taking them a month to revamp each class. There's no way they're planning on redoing talent trees but not doing it while they take a close look at each class now.
One reason it might take so long is that they are already building out the extended talent trees right now. Entirely possible and a simple solution to the issue. No one will got 31/30 if there are compelling reasons to go 41/20 or 40/21.

My biggest question is still what happens to MC and BWL when you have a bunch of level 70's running around. The current world bosses at level 63 elite will be trivial when you have a raid full level 70's.

[allicanta]

Perhaps there INTENT is to make the current end-game instances obsolete. Keep in mind, this game is supposed to be slowly evolving, and we're supposed to be able to see the changes in the world, and the developing of our characters, as we go along. I'd love to see ZG becoming a 10 man raiding instance, and MC and BWL become 15-20 man material. It will make the content a bit more trivial, but by giving longer trees, greater powers, new spells, and better equipment, they can make even larger, more incredible encounters! Should be fun to see what they come up with the challenge a more powerful group of players. Frankly, there is only so much more challenge they can add to end-game instances without greatly improving the items you get from those instances, and allowing higher max levels will get around that problem, at least for a little while. :D

[Lokee]

I had to register just to check in on this topic....

It's taking them a month to revamp each class. There's no way they're planning on redoing talent trees but not doing it while they take a close look at each class now.
One reason it might take so long is that they are already building out the extended talent trees right now. Entirely possible and a simple solution to the issue. No one will got 31/30 if there are compelling reasons to go 41/20 or 40/21.

My biggest question is still what happens to MC and BWL when you have a bunch of level 70's running around. The current world bosses at level 63 elite will be trivial when you have a raid full level 70's.
Its going to end up like the deadmines and were gonna leech all our buddies through to get their epic sets.

I doubt this will happen, but I once played a game, (a long freaking time ago) called islands of kesmai. In this game they did an expansion and doubled the level cap. The thing was, you could only get the extra levels if you went to the advanced game, and you could not go back to the normal one once you did this. Hell, this was great in my mind. I hate to see players get power leveled up to 60 by their buddies.

[Nicosha]

Its going to end up like the deadmines and were gonna leech all our buddies through to get their epic sets.

Still going to take awhile with that 1-week reset ><

[Balthor]

Granted a lvl 70 cap is going to make MC seem almost trivial and BWL a lot easier, but you can't forget that most of these fights you need more than 20 people anyway. You still need lots of mages and warriors to fight majordomo etc etc. Not to mention that big green dragon that owned us last night. There are lots of fights like this where having only 20-25 people would be an issue. I think the great thing about lvl 70 will be that we'll more easily be able to burn through all the trash in MC in a couple hours and we'll be able to 20 man onyxia raids.

I have read that there will be new 41 point talents in the trees, and that people will have to chose between getting previously unattainable talent builds, and the new talents. Considering how sick some 31/30 builds could be, those new talents better be hot.

Why does everyone keep thinking one of the new races will be blood elves? There was a blue post basically stating that they were allied with Illidan.

It interesting that you mention this burning crusade. Just the other day my friend mentioned that it made no sense that this evil Burning Legion is always trying to cause chaos across the planes, but there is no group fighting it. Guess we were wrong. Could this be the title of the Expansion? Exp. Diablo 2: Lord of Chaos, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Hopefully we'll find out at blizzcon.

[midorihime]

I posted on the op the full text on the Burning Crusade, gives a bit more of an idea of what it is.

[Mod]

I had to register just to check in on this topic....

It's taking them a month to revamp each class. There's no way they're planning on redoing talent trees but not doing it while they take a close look at each class now.
One reason it might take so long is that they are already building out the extended talent trees right now. Entirely possible and a simple solution to the issue. No one will got 31/30 if there are compelling reasons to go 41/20 or 40/21.

My biggest question is still what happens to MC and BWL when you have a bunch of level 70's running around. The current world bosses at level 63 elite will be trivial when you have a raid full level 70's.

/wave Psyche.

Welcome to the site :).

You make a good point about why it takes so long to revamp the trees.

[Kernall]

Content won't be too trivialized.. EQ had a simple solution to this problem.. If you were too high a level for the raid mob in question, you got sent away..

What's more, the only real thing the cap affects is trash mobs in BWL/MC.. Most bosses don't have a level at all.

[Serenity]

Ex Grand Marshals will be very pissed. :(

[Telar]

I hope they don't increase the cap. Trivializing all the previous content where one could just zerg ftw wouldn't make me happy.

[Khamo]

You guys won't give a flying shit about MC/Onyxia when u get to 70. That would be like you striving to get level 50 epic gear now.

You'll be going for harder targets.

[ashla]

naw, i still think at lvl 70 you will still need some base gear in order to raid. If i was sitting at a lvl 70 and hitting the raid zones at that lvl i would require full tier 1 epic set at least. As they increase character levels, the base item level will increase as well. Just like we are seeing item lvl 83 out of lvl 60 epics, we will see item lvl 93 epics from lvl 70. I also think they need to start having legendary items drop from raid instances. Legendary will give them higher item level per item and make it more of an upgrade. Going from epic lvl 66->epic lvl 76 is trivial at best.

[Haeze]

If they did give you more talents, I guarantee they would only let you spend the 41 points you have in the current trees, and give you a seperat tree/set of trees to spend the additional 10.

[Balthor]

Khamo you make a good point, but if you could complete MC in half as much time as we do it now, why not? Not to mention some classes still need a lot of gear out of there, and the resist gear is always gonna be nice.

[Phegan]

Im sure those who didn't have the 40 for MC would then start going to MC and BWL, and we would end up doing newer content.

[midorihime]

I merged the blood elf images I found, and some new info rumored to be from within the magazine.

[Pradash]

I grabbed this off the WoW doomhammer boards... fairly detailed info but take it with a grain of salt of course...

EDIT: Yeah, this is pretty obviously fake but I'm gonna leave it cause its kinda interesting... some people have too much time on their hands.

Currently, because it is only ten or so days from the revealing of the expansion content at Blizzcon, I have decided to release what is PLANNED to be in the expansion. Enjoy. If you do not believe any of this, wait until October 29th and see most of this actually proven.

World of Warcraft - THE BURNING CRUSADE

The "Burning Crusade"

Illidan has gone insane, and already the alliance between the Draenei, Naga, and Blood Elves has began to crumble. The Naga once again wish to return to the sea, and the Blood Elves' hunger for demonic energies increases day by day... Illidan was tortured by Kil'jaeden after he failed to defeat Arthas - but finally, Kil'jaeden saw another task for Illidan. One that, if he failed, he would be sent into the twisted nether to be consumed by demons... Kil'jaeden then told him everything that had happened since his defeat.

As unexpected as it was, Illidan returned to his three allies and told them of this new plan to destroy not only the Scourge, but all other enemies that would ever oppose them.

Kael'thas and his Blood Elves were to go to the Forsaken for aid. Though they were undead, Illidan explained that their leader was a High Elf - Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, General of Quel'Thalas... or, used to be, anyways. Kael'thas saw this as a great advantage, as he had personally known her in the past. Though their hatred of the Trolls and Orcs was strong, Illidan told them of the new plague they were creating - to kill not only the Alliance, but the Horde as well.

Illidan told the Draenei of the pact with the Alliance they would have to make. He told them that this Alliance would aid in the slaying of the remaining orcs, the Draenei's most hated enemy. Reluctantly, Akama, leader of the Draenei, agreed to this, though only because they were in debt to Illidan for saving them from being destroyed by orcs years ago.

The Naga were to go into the sea of Azeroth, and cripple the Scourge of Northerend by sneaking in, killing groups of Scourge, and fleeing back to the sea before the Scourge's main forces could catch them. Eager to return to the oceans of Azeroth, Lady Vashj and the Naga agreed to this almost immediately.

Blood Elves have made an alliance with the horde by becoming Allies of Sylvanas. The Blood Elves also have claimed to the orcs to want to be rid of the demonic powers corrupting them, and that they wanted to be redeemed of the dark powers they once tried to harness. The orcs, though slowly and unsure, finally accepted the Blood Elves. In turn, the Tauren and Trolls also followed the example of the Undead and the Orcs, and accepted the Blood Elves as part of the new Horde.

Akama went to the Night Elves to plead. They told them of the demonic orcs that had forced them from their homeland, Draenor, and that they wish for an alliance against the Horde. The Alliance, though suspicious of the Draenei true intentions, has accepted the Draenei plead for an alliance.

Soon after Kael, leader of the Blood Elves, Lady Vashj, leader of the Naga, and Akama, leader of the Draenei, had left Outlands, Kil'Jaeden once again imprisoned Illidan within the Black Citadel and closed the Dark Portal to Azeroth... The Blood Elves, Naga and Draenei were meant to never return.

In the Royal Throne Room of Undercity, Sylvanas entered with many of her most powerful guards at her side. She had found out of the betrayal of Varmithras, and that the natherizim Balnazzar still lived. To her surprise, many undeads had already been slaughtered in the Throne Room... and Varmithras was nowhere to be found.

A dark Nightmare has enveloped the Emerald Dream, slowly corrupting it. Rumors have emerged that Archimonde has found his way into the Emerald Dream by using the powers of the World Tree before he died...

Max Level Increased

The max level players may now reach has been increased to 75, and many new max-level raid instances have been added to the game world.

New Races

Horde
Five races compromise the Horde, the brutal orcs, the shadowy undead, the spiritual tauren, the quick-witted trolls, and the reckless blood elves. Beset by enemies on all sides, these outcasts have forged a union tey hope will ensure their mutual survival.

Blood Elves
Serving Illidan to satiate their magical addiction, the blood elves have grown stronger than they ever imagined. But even now, with demonic magic in constant supply, many of the blood elves are hungering for even more magic.

Racial Traits:
Demonic Corruption - Due to their corrupted blood and their hunger for magic, the Blood Elves begin the game with +10 resistances to all types of magic. In Addition, all of their resistances to magical spells and effects, excluding Nature, are increased by 8%.

Available Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Priest, Warlock, Spellbreaker

Alliance
The Alliance consists of five races: the noble humans, the adventurous dwarves, the enigmatic night elves, the ingenious gnomes, and the mysterious draenei. Bound by a loathing for all things demonic, they fight to restore order in this war-torn world.

Draenei
Nearly wiped out by the Orcs during the early days of the Horde and then faced with the destruction of their entire world, the Draenei have become adept at survival and avoiding danger. Even knowing that the Burning Legion is the ultimate cause for their suffering, the Draenei survivors hope that their pact with the Alliance, and Illidan, will someday grant them a new homeland and, most importantly, help them in the eradication of their most hated enemy, the Orcs.

Racial Traits:
Unseen - Once every ten minutes, the Draenei may go invisible for fifteen seconds. This effect may not be cancelled, and the Draenei cannot attack or cast any spells, and they are also considered to be "in combat" for the entire time of this effect.

Available Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Spellbreaker

New Class: Spell Breaker

Spell Breaker - Among the Blood Elves, there are those who show such an amazing aptitude for magic that they can become almost immune to it's effects and can even twist the spells of others to benefit themselves. Called Spellbreakers, they were the elite, holding mastery over all forms of magic. Now, with demonic blood flowing through their veins, these Spellbreakers and their allies among the Naga and Draenei have begun to evolve into demons themselves, with the most powerful able to manipulate the fabric of the Twisting Nether.

Spell breakers begin the game with leather armor but are able to use mail once they reach level fourty.

Examples of Specific Abilities:

Shadow Orbs: Summons several shadowy spheres to circle the caster's body. This spell will increase the player's parry/block rate, with each parry or block causing shadow damage to the attacker. Each attack blocked/parried in this fashion will cause an orb to violently explode, causing minor arcane damage to the attacker and decreasing the number of orbs surrounding the player until all orbs are gone and the effect ends. 30 second cooldown.

Demon Fangs: Fangs are often the first demonic trait evolved by Spellbreaker characters. Using this ability will cause you to attempt to bite your enemy, causing shadow damage and causing a Damage over Time debuff on the opponent, unless resisted. 3 minute cooldown.

Fel Strike: The Spellbreaker's weapon is charged with demonic energy, causing extra shadow damage every hit. Lasts five minutes.

Dark Whispers: Has a 75% chance to temporarily lower nearby enemies' attack power by 10%, lower their hit points by 5%, or lower their mana by 5%. Has a 25% chance to buff nearby enemies' attack power by 10%, hit points by 10%, or mana by 10%. Effect is random on every target. 1 Minute Cooldown.

Fel Concentration: Has a 50% chance to either slow casting time of the target by 10%, or making it 10% faster. May be used on Party Members or enemies. Lasts 5 seconds. 15 second cooldown.

Talent Trees:

Fel Protection - Centered around defensive abilities that allow the Spellbreaker a chance to survive when up against melee classes.

Fel Combat - Talents used to improve offensive spells and abilities used by the Spellbreaker.

Spellbreaking - Talents used to attempt to increase spell the spell resistances of the Spellbreaker.

Example Talents:

Spell Alignment: The caster attempts to align his body with the next spell cast upon him. Once hit by the spell, his body 'aligns' to that spell's school, making him immune to that spell school for 20 seconds. Lasts until a hostile spell is cast on the Spellbreaker. 15 minute cooldown. LEVEL 40 TALENT - Fel Protection.

Spell Reflection: For 20 seconds, all positive and negative spells used on the Spellbreaker are reflected at the caster. 15 minute cooldown. LEVEL 40 TALENT - Fel Combat.

Spell Absorbtion: For 20 seconds, all spells used on the Spellbreaker will cause normal damage, but the mana cost of the spell is added to the Spellbreaker's mana. LEVEL 40 TALENT - Spellbreaking.

Improved Demon Fangs: Damage caused by the bite of the demon fangs does 5%/10%/15% more damage and has its cooldown reduced by 15/30/60 seconds. 3 ranks. FEL COMBAT.

Melee Specialization: Chance to cause shadow damage on hit with a melee weapon is increased by 10%/20%. 2 ranks. FEL COMBAT.Improved Shadow Orbs: Damage caused by the shadow orbs is increased by 10%/20%/30%. 3 ranks. FEL PROTECTION.

Shadow Shield: Increases your chance to block with a shield by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%. Also gives a chance to cause shadow damage equal to the amount of damage that had been blocked to the attacker by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%. 5 ranks. FEL PROTECTION.

Fire Resistance: Increases your resistance to fire spells by 2/4/6/8/10. 5 ranks. SPELLBREAKING.

Frost Resistance: Increases your resistance to frost spells by 2/4/6/8/10. 5 ranks. SPELLBREAKING.

Shadow Resistance: Increases your resistance to shadow spells by 2/4/6/8/10. 5 ranks. SPELLBREAKING.

Arcane Resistance: Increases your resistance to arcane spells by 2/4/6/8/10. 5 ranks. SPELLBREAKING.

New Areas

Undermine:
The Goblins have finally accepted to allow the other civilized races of Azeroth onto their home of Undermine.

This is a level 60-65 zone, and is now the main hub of neutral transportation.

Quel'Thalas:
With the aid of the Horde and Argent Dawn, the Blood Elves drove some of the remaining Scourge out of Quel'thalas. The Blood Elves have started to rebuild their cities, and have unexpectedly found that some cities were untouched.

Gnomeregan:
After a long struggle, the Gnomeregan Exiles were finally able to retake their home, with the aid of both, Horde and Alliance adventurers. The Clean Zone is the new starting area for gnomes. Gnomeregan can take the player to about level 12 afterwhich they have to go to other areas.

The New Echo Islands:
Farther south of the Echo Islands was a large chain of many islands, which ended up also being named the "Echo Islands".

Nothing but beasts had lived on these islands when the trolls found them. It is the new starting area for Trolls. These islands can take the player to about level 12.

Northrend:
The Horde and Alliance are now able to reach the continent of Northerend, thanks to the aid of the Goblins of Undermine. A zeppelin will take the players to the town of Valgarde in Northerend, where they will begin many quests to oppose the Scourge. Northerend is a massive level 65-75 zone, and contains many new max-level instances.

The Emerald Dream:
The Emerald Dream is the primal heart of Azeroth. It is an echo of what the world would be like if intelligent beings had not altered its surface. The ethereal layer of the Emerald Dream shares the same space of the Physical layer one on top of the other - a parallel realm overlapping the physical world like an invisible and intangible layer. It is characterized by its green hue and verdant forests. The Emerald Dream, though, is like a perpetual time-frame of creation, back when the Titans reshaped the planet to bring order to chaos. Yet both realms share the same time. Time passes normally within the Emerald Dream as in the Physical world. The Emerald Dream is ruled by Ysera the Dragon Aspect of the Dream, empowered by Eonar the Titan to watch over the Emerald Dream realm. Lately, the Emerald Dream has been affected by the Nightmare. It is not a place. It is an effect that roams the Emerald Dream randomly affecting other dreamers and attacks them during their sleep. The nightmare twists and reshape the dreams corrupting the sleeping dream-form. Those trapped within the Nightmare are known as the Unwaking. Their physical form may die of starvation, not able to wake up as the affected can't escape the Emerald Dream. There are many magical and planar ways to reach the Emerald Dream. Sometimes, Ysera can't detect intruders that enter the Emerald Dream by means of magic plane-shifting. There are rumors that somehow Archimonde was able to affect the Emerald Dream through the World Tree. Since the World Tree was bound to the Emerald Dream, Archimonde might have found a way to infiltrate the Emerald Dream before dying. Only time will tell... The Emerald Dream is a level 70-75 zone which will have players attempt to cleanse the Emerald Dream of the Nightmare - and, if the rumors that are told are true, Archimonde will once again need to be defeated by mortals...

Transportation

All boats from neutral cities, such as Ratchet, and Booty Bay now connect to Undermine. New boats have been added to Steamwheedle Port, Menethil Harbor, and Theramore which will take anyone on it to Undermine. In addition, there is a new zeppelin which will take the player to Undermine. There is also a zeppelin on Undermine which will take the player to the shores of Northerend, to a town called Valgarde. All goblin-owned transportations now have atleast four level 62 Undermine Bruisers on them. Alliance-owned and Horde-owned transportation now force any members of the opposite faction on them into PVP, and are also now guarded by atleast four level 60 guards.

New High-End Instances

Naxxaramas Necropolis:
Within Stratholme, near the Slaughterhouse of Baron Rivendare, is the Naxxaramas Necropolis. Kel'Thuzad reigns the Undead Scourge from the Naxxramas Necropolis. This new 40-player, level sixty raid instance is equal in difficulty to Blackwing Lair, and will send the player to assault the Tower of Medivh.

The Tower of Medivh:
This tower was described by Medivh as an Hourglass. As the sand particles flow slowly through the hourglass clock, time flows in different places of the glass, allowing one to see the past - and future - of Azeroth. This is a 40-player max-level raid instance, much more difficult than Naxxaramas Necropolis.

Caverns of Time:
This is the lair of Nozdormu, one of the five great dragon aspects. Nozdormu, unlike most other dragons in the game, requires the aid of mortals. To repair damage done to the timeline, Nozdormu will send players on large raids into two 40-player, level sixty raid instances, and one 40-player max-level raid instance, the first two being equal in difficulty to Naxxaramas Necropolis, and the final being equal in difficulty to The Tower of Medivh.

Outlands:
The desolate place of Outland emits flashes of light and streams of energy. Outland is currently a way station. Many portals are still active within some of the floating asteroids, leading to other worlds. This new zone is for groups of five or more max level players. Among the creatures that inhabit Outland are Felboars, Phase spiders, Draeni, Fire Elementals, Fungal Horrors, Succubi, Nether Dragons(composed of nether energy, and not related to real dragons).

THE BLACK CITADEL:
Beneath the Black Citadel, there is a very large prison. Rumors have been created that heroes from past wars are still being held within this prison, and that even now the ruler of the Black Citadel tortures these heroes. Other rumors are that Kil'jaeden, the most powerful entity of the Burning Legion, dwells withing this Citadel, plotting the destruction of Azeroth. This is a large, 50-player raid instance.

GRIM BATOL:
Rumors have emerged that Alexstrasza and her dragonflight are keeping anyone from getting near Grim Batol. They are protecting something deep within its walls, a secret power. Some say they are protecting a powerful artifact or creature.

Some have gone as far as to speculate that Deathwing has been held captive and imprisoned within Grim Batol, though, others believe in the possibility that the creature that now holds the essence of the Sunwell might be under protection of the Red Dragonflight. Anyone who dares to venture into this max level 50-player raid instance will find themselves standing against the power of the Red Dragonflight, Alexstasza, herself. This is equal in difficulty to The Black Citadel.

THE LAIR OF MALYGOS:
Malygos lives in Northrend in a deep and complex cavern. He is known to gather relics of arcane power, keeping them locked away from mortals. Frozen Orcs, Nagas, Trolls and Wendigos are many of the victims of the horror of Malygos' power, and to display what happens to those who venture into the Lair of Malygos. This is a 50-player max level raid instance, equal in difficulty to Grim Batol.


ICECROWN MOUNTAIN:
Icecrown mountain is the most difficult instance to ever be in Azeroth, and will challenge anyone to stand against the power of not only the Lich King's armies, and his most trusted lieutenant, Anub'arak, but also the Immortal Lich King himself.

This is a 100-player max level raid instance, and will challenge the Horde and Alliance to work together to defeat the Immortal Lich King. To have the full 100 players, 50 players of max level on Horde and 50 players of max level on Alliance must work together, merging both groups of 50 into one large raid party. Upon Icecrown, Horde and Alliance may not attack eachother at any time, but are instead able to aid eachother. Leaders of the Argent Dawn have also worked together to teach the Alliance and Horde to understand both, Common and Orcish, so they may communicate as they work together to defeat the Immortal Lich King.

THE EYE OF YSERA:
Deep within the Emerald Dream is the Eye of Ysera. The Eye of Ysera is a large golden dome that randomly appears in the Emerald Dream, and the dome in which Ysera dwells. No one has ever been able to enter or penetrate the golden dome. That is, until the Nightmare came... And once again, if the rumors were true, this is where Archimonde will most likely be...


Taken from a forum post on Wowguru.com, but if you go to this page the rumors about the expansion are quite different, though not totally different.

[Fenblade]

100 player raid my rear end. Interesting read, despite having read some of it before in rumours.

[Pradash]

This is supposedly a transcription from that Italian gaming magazine:


New region:
Outlands

New Instances:
Kharazan - Near Deadwind Pass (5-man)

Caverns of Time in Tanaris (unusual place where the players will be able to move back and forth in time to reenact the main events of the history of Warcraft)

Level cap raised to lvl 70 - There will be repetable quests to gain access to a flying epic mount usable only in the Outlands.

New profession: Jewelcrafting, it will be possible to create gems to apply to weapons and armors and add effects. Other professions will be able to craft objects with embedded slots for these gems.

New races:
Horde - Blood Elves with a new starting zone north of Eastern Plaguelands and a new dungeon.
Alliance - Undisclosed

Battlegrounds shared between servers.

Atmospherical effects.

Release: Not before May 2006.

--
The new region isn't Northrend but the Outlands, with the remains of the planet Dreanor, the world of the first orcs. The remains of this planet float in the air, this is why it will be formed like separated "isles". Two dungeons will be located here along with a new one near the Deadwind Pass.

Same for Tanaris. There will be a brand new instance working like a temporal breach that will allow the players to time travel (hence the name: Caverns of Time) and reenact past events. The war at mount Hyal is one.

The level 70 is real, but no hero classes.

The new race for the horde is the blood elf. The racial traits will be a "Mana Tap" to slowly leech the mana of the target (it will be applicable more than once like the Sunder Armor) and that will then directly load the second trait: "Arcane Torment (or Torrent)" which will work like an area silence. The starting zone will probably be near Quel'thalas.

The Alliance race is still not available but it seems it will be Pandarens.

The new profession will be Jewelcrafting that works in a similar way to how the gems worked in Diablo 2.

And btw, the main boss will be Illidian.

- The new Alliance race WON'T be revealed at BlizzCon and there are more than just rumors confirming it will be the Pandarens.

- Kharazan should be playable at BlizzCon but it's still undefined how it will be shaped out (could probably start as a 5-man with a second part for a raid of 20 or 40 players).

- The Blood Elves will be Mages, Warlocks and Warriors but it's undecided if either hunters or rogues

- The starting zone will be Quel'Thalas, north of the Eastern Plaguelands with a three-zones inbetween (Eversong Woods with the capital Silvermoon, Ghostland and Zul'Aman a troll's region)

- About the live content, the opening of Silithus will be introduced by a live event that will require the collaboration of everyone and that will only happen once for each server. Behind the gates there will be a open zone tailored for 20 players (defined by Blizzard "casual hardcore") with a temple at the center with an instance that will be the biggest to fate (two-three times Molten Core). The players will also get access to special mounts (insects) that will be only usable in the dungeon.

- The Outlands will be divided into fancy regions (like -rocks- Hellfire Peninsula, -forest- Zanga Marsh). Within Shadowmoon Valley there will be the Black Temple with the Illidian guy.

- The flying mount will be for level 70 players and after an epic quest chain. But only usable in the Outlands.

- No new engine changes or features. The Blood Elves models seem to use 20% more polygons. They are also sperimenting with Specular Mapping.

- The atmospherical effects should arrive soon(TM) as a live patch.

- Also by the time the expansion is out, the BGs should be finally linked between the servers to kill the queues.

[Telar]

- Also by the time the expansion is out, the BGs should be finally linked between the servers to kill the queues

Or make them worse depending on how factions playout. It would be nice to see different servers in battlegrounds but this could also make "core" teams more important if you wish to do much of anything.

[Haeze]

I love how all these people post "leaked" info about the path that directly contradicts others' "leaked" info.

I doubt I will believe any of it till Bliz says it.

[midorihime]

So much of the info is pretty much crap. It might fit in lorewise, but game balance issues are reasons why so much of the "leaked" info is useless. Screenshots and magazine covers are a bit more accurate but even then, waiting till Blizzard tips the hand on the expansion, everything is false.

[Balthor]

Well that second set of notes is a hell of a lot more believable, and is right along with what blizzard has already done, a hell of a lot of faction grinding when you're not raiding. Either way, if they do introduce a new profession or 2 I really hope that they increase the amount of professions you can learn (even tho it won't happen I can hope can't I) Oh well, I guess that's what alts are for.

[Zekintha]

I think a woodcrafting (fletching, Bowyer, maybe furniture for guild housing if they ever get around to it) and a lumberjack trade skills would be good. They had it in FFXI and it was pretty nice.

[Fenblade]

AV all day, every day. Hmm.

[cloister]

I think a woodcrafting (fletching, Bowyer, maybe furniture for guild housing if they ever get around to it) and a lumberjack trade skills would be good. They had it in FFXI and it was pretty nice.

I've still never figured out why people can't craft bows ingame. Also, I think engineers or blacksmiths should be able to make arrows as well.

It seems kinda silly that you can craft guns and bullets, but if you want a bow or arrows, you're SOL.

Then again, I'd kill to see a portable uber anvil/forge that engineers could make (but it'd have to be a multiple use item, not like the repair bot). If Blizz really wanted to help engineers turn a profit, make them useable by anyone once made.

[midorihime]

Added a scan of a page or two from the magazine. I had to resize the image it was almost a meg but I think I kept the quality readable,well Readable if you can read Italian...

[Sagerix]

AV all day, every day. Hmm.

Unpossible! You mean I might actually get my Lobotomizer some day?

Of course, I'll have the Gutgore Ripper long before then...

[Sagerix]

http://www.cesspit.net/drupal/node/953#comment-1103

Wow. Okay, I believe blood elves are one of the races.

[Mod]

http://www.wowguru.com/forums/showthread.php?p=55141

[midorihime]

Oops the magazine picture didn't upload, had to do it again. My little update didn't mean jack without it.

[midorihime]

I honestly think those "leaked" notes talking about the Dranei being added to the Alliance are false. The magazine says Blizzard hasn't decided on what Alliance will get yet. Honestly, I think for the first time a Horde area will have more pollish and be more complete then an Alliance since the Blood elf are first. This is a good thing.

Alliance Choices are at the moment, Pandarian(High)Dranei(Low),Goblin(very very unlikely),Furblog(Very unlikely),Murloc(Never), High Elf(with Horde getting Blood, no chance),Tuskanarr(With no Pandarians, no Tuskanarr),and a brand new race not ever seen before(highly unlikely).