WoW: Cataclysm – State of the Beta – Sept. 1st
The Cataclysm beta has been out for about two months currently and we have already seen sweeping changes from its start. I wanted to take a moment to talk about my thoughts on where the beta is and where it needs to be before launch.
Last night, the level cap finally got raised from 83 to 85, the expansion's max. Uldum and Twilight Highlands were finally released for testing even though the devs said the zones are not 100% complete. As for classic zones, there are only four or five zones not implemented in the beta currently (Winterspring, Silithus, and a few others).
Currently, the revamped zones are amazing. Leveling has been a completely new adventure and I have been loving every minute of it. The new 80-85 zones are absolutely breathtaking and the revamped 1-60 zones are now the best questing content in the game. Not is all perfect in paradise, currently.
About two or so weeks ago, the damage of generic enemies was greatly increased:
Creature damage output has been increased from roughly level 65 and up. These increases scale upward with level. Creatures in exterior zones at level 80 now have 2.5 times the damage output they did previously in beta, 3.2 times at level 81, and 4 times at level 82 and up.
We’d like to get your feedback about how combat feels with creatures in level 80-85 exterior zones, including spawn rates and numbers of creatures in specific locations in each zone. Please let us know if this feels adequately challenging, or if there is a little too much face rocking going on.
Now only this but the health of level 80+ enemies was doubled. While some tweaking was needing done, I hope they tone it down considerably before launch. I transferred my paladin into beta from live servers and on live I have really good healing gear but my ret gear is all a mixture of blues and random epics I picked up. By level 82 and the end of the 2nd Vashj'ir subzone, I have long since replaced every ret item and am using a mixture of quest greens and blues. Premade characters come with full sets of 25man ICC gear and are not likely to have replaced everything yet.
When beta started, even with quest greens I was completely wrecking everything in my path. Enemies died fast and rarely did any significant damage. The doubling of health was completely necessary. The damage buff, however, is too much. I think a x2 damage buff would have been more adequate. With the damage at x4 for level 82+ I am getting completely wrecked. Level 82 spellcasters are hitting me for 8-10k damage every cast. That's about 15-20% of my health. Every cast. Many times, they come with an additional enemy as well. Miners in twill and with a pick axe are swinging for 5k damage. With level 82 enemies, 1 is manageable, 2 is tricking, 3 is death. This gets even worse when you get to Deepholm and find the troggs that give themselves a 400% haste buff (so they end up doing x16 damage instead of the pre-buff x4).
At the current time, I have logged into the beta for maybe an hour or two since the change went in. This is a beta, so I do expect it to be fixed before launch or else more casual players are just going to be completely wrecked in leveling.
Overall, beta is progressing nicely. More and more of the art assets are being implemented every patch, almost every zone is complete and in the game as well as almost all 5 man instances. At the current rate, I see Cataclysm hitting stores late October or early November. Either way, we will not see Cataclysm in stores before Blizzcon.
WoW: Cataclysm Zones – Vashj’ir’s Kelp Forest
Most of the time when you hear about the Sunken City of Vashj'ir, it is described as one zone. That is not true. The area is actually three zones: the Kelp Forest, the Shimmering Expanse, and the Abyssal Depths. This play-through of Vashj'ir was done on a Horde character.
Outside Orgrimmar, a mercenary recruiter is waiting. He explains that a landmass has risen of the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms and Garrosh is hiring mercenaries to go claim the land for the Horde. You board a boat with some of the Horde's finest soldiers and set sale. Budd, Mack, and the others from Zul'aman are also along for the ride, although Budd falls overboard at one point.
When you finally reach the landmass, Legionnaire Nazgrim gives a rousing speech:
Here my words, brothers! We sail to a virgin island, a gift from Azeroth to the Horde! Securing this land will win us our war! The enemy has fought well, for Alliance... but they grow weary. We shall crush what remains of them and lay claim to this land. From its shorts, we shall conquer Stormwind, and with it any hope the enemy clings to. Azeroth will be reforced under a single banner! This banner!!
The ship soon comes across a ship graveyard and before anyone can react, giant tentacles come up from the water and destroy the ship pick you up and throw you overboard. Before you drown, a Draenei of the Earthen Ring comes up and saves you. Once you have made it to safety, you work on saving the other soldiers from the ship.
It is not long before naga attack the ship and start carrying soldiers off to be slaves. You get carried off as well, but are once again saved by the Earthen Ring. From here you do some various tasks for the Earthen Ring trying to fight off the Naga.
You also meet up with Budd and crew again. Budd is sick, but you help him and the rest of them get to an underwater cave. Mack sends you to steal some gunpowder from a camp he saw to start a fire. You return to the camp after doing Mack's quest to find Harrison Jones there and he is not too happy you stole his gunpowder. He sends you to do some tasks for him as repayment, including killing a giant shark, Gnaws. At one point, Harrison Jones gets turned into a skeleton because he stole some cursed pirate gold. You help him in returning the gold to break the curse.
The Earthen Ring then sends you to another underground cave where they think an orc is hiding, near death. When you reach him, he explains that he is a slave that escaped. The Earthen Ring shows up in time to save his life. From here, they send you to attack the naga. You thin their forces, destroy their weapons, rescue the slaves, and collect some of the magical pearls that were being used as prisons. Riding a hungry shark to eat naga is awesome.
The last quest in the zone deals with getting an underwater mount. When I initially played through at the start of beta, it was just a manta ray but I believe it has been changed to a seahorse since then. You lasso it and then have to hold on as it pulls you around the zone. You have to also dodge to the right and left to avoid obstacles. You are then sent to the next zone to try to uncover what the naga are planning.
I have uploaded some screenshots from The Sunken City of Vashj'ir's Kelp Forest here.
Cataclysm Starting Zones: Goblin vs Worgen Impressions
I find the starting zones for the two new races in Cataclysm to be completely fascinating because they could not be more different from each other.
If you look back to the Burning Crusade, the tone of both of the starting zones were somewhat similar. For the Blood Elves, they were fighting to retake their land from the Scourge and to find new allies in the world. The quests were cold and grim. It was kill or be killed. The tone was very serious. For the Draenei, they were an alien race new to Azeroth. They were fighting against infiltrators and betrayers. They wanted to gain a foothold in the land and find new allies in the world. The quests were cold and grim. It was kill or be killed. The tone was very serious.
In Cataclysm, the Worgen starting area is the closest thing to the Burning Crusade starting areas. With the new questing styles and phasing technology, however, it is the next evolution of what we saw before. The world is a dark place. Your people are getting ripped apart by invading Worgen. Eventually about half of the Gilnean people succumb to the curse. Many are put down because they are so feral but eventually the Night Elves arrive and save the remainder. While that gets rid of one problem, you still have the problem of the invading Forsaken army. Brutal and efficient, the Forsaken are steamrolling everything. Sylvanas is even using the plague, betraying a direct order from Garrosh. It is a cold and hopeless world. You see some great storytelling here.
The Goblins could not be more different in tone. Their situation never seems quite as dire as that of the Worgen. They have to abandon their initial city due to you making the volcano explode. When arriving a new island, they find the Horde and Alliance fighting. They assist the Orcs since it was the Alliance warship that sunk the Goblin ship. While the situation gets somewhat serious with you having to rescue your people from getting turned to zombies, having to kill the island's turtle god, and eventually rescuing the goblins from slavery, everything is played for laughs. The Goblins were always somewhat of a comic relief in WoW, but this takes it to eleven. Everything with the Goblins is ridiculous, from killing a large shark by using a shark with laser beams to driving your hot rod around the Goblin city to rescuing slaves by attaching rockets to their cages to "fly" them free (even though the pirates have keys).
I think it is a good thing that the starting zones are so different. With most starting zones, they are fairly interchangeable with each other in my mind. Sure, the actually quest setup my differ but most of the time the tone is very much the same. I think that people who play WoW heavily for the lore will end up enjoying the Worgen starting area more. People who do not take the game so serious will enjoy the Goblin area more.
While both zones are fantastic in their own way, I personally like the Goblin area more. The Worgen area felt like the next evolution of the Burning Crusade-style starting zones due to the tone. The Goblin area just feels different. There is no other race like the Goblin race and any time through the entirety of your leveling you see a Goblin quest giver, you know you are in for a wild ride.
Who else would you expect to tell you "This bling is phat like your momma"?
WoW: Cataclysm Zones – Gilneas Present
Now in the present day, you awake as a worgen locked in stocks in a town. Lord Godfrey wants to just put a bullet in your head, but King Genn Greymane stops him, giving the apothecary the chance to cure you temporarily. The apothecary the sends you out to get some vials hid outside of town, hoping they will be able to cure you further. When you get to vials they have been destroyed. What is worse, however, is that Forsaken ships have docks on the nearby shore. You are sent to meet with Prince Liam to help repel the attack.
One of the quest Liam gives you is quite unique. He has you place powder kegs on the head of abominations. When you do this, the camera shifts all the way back to him where you see him line up a shot and blow up the powder keg. You can see it in action here.
From here, you are sent to take out the captains of the ships by launching yourself aboard the ships via Forsaken catapult. You take out the leadership and when you return to the quest giver, an earthquake hits. You return outside to see that the entire shoreline has been swallowed up, including the Forsaken ships as well as many Gilneas. The Prince sends you to save a few from drowning.
Not much more can be done about the Forsaken now because the water is still rising. It becomes a priority to evacuate Gilnean citizens. You are sent to meet up with three different households to give them the evacuation order. You meet up with the daughter of Crowley (the previously imprisoned rebel and friend of the king that you met in the 1-6 starting area). She has been mourning the loss of her father and sends you to rescue some of her horses from a rampaging ettin. You meet with a group of brothers and help them repair their boat. Lastly you meet up with a crazy old lady who is secretly a worgen.
After delivering the evacuation order, everyone escapes to Greymane Manor. In the manor's observatory, you meet with the king. He shows you what looms on the horizon: a Forsaken fleet and a Horde airship. Another earthquake hits. The rest of the lower ground, the entire town you just came from is destroyed. A cinematic plays that shows the damage as well as the incoming threat.
The Gileans start heading out in carriages but are attacked by ogres on the roads. The ogres are all serving the ettin from earlier. You turn the ettin against the Forsaken that have been following you.
In the next town, you eventually are sent into the woods (very Sleepy Hollow-esque woods) where you meet a Night Elf. She sends you to meet with some other Night Elves as well as a large group of feral worgen lead by none other than the very much alive Crowley. After doing some quests in the area, you are given the ability to shapeshift from human to worgen at will.
Crowley's daughter shows up along with the King Greymane and Lord Godfrey. The King asks for the support of Crowley's worgen, which Crowley initially refuses. The King then reveals that he too is a worgen now and understands their plight. Lord Godfrey is shocked, unable to believe that the King had been turned, but Crowley pledges loyalty to the King.
When you return to town, you find out that the king has been kidnapped by Godfrey and some rebel lords. You assassinate the rebel lords but the king stops you from slaying Godfrey. Godfrey runs off in shame. The king then sends you to a forward post where Crowley's daughter is taking the fight to the Forsaken.
She sends you into the mines to rescue some prisoners as well as sends you to assassinate the local general and mad scientist. When you return, she informs you that the prince is about to lead the army into the city and you are to join them. The prince gives a rousing speech and you fight your way through the city. It is a bit like the battle for the Undercity in WotLK but with more variety. While fighting through the city, you at one point man a cannon to take out abominations and at another steal a Forsaken catapult to take out a Festergut lookalike.
The prince's forces meet up with the king's and together they charge straight to Sylvanas. Just as it looks like there may be victory in sight, she lays waste to the army. Just as she is about to strike a killing blow on the king, his son jumps in front of him and takes takes the arrow meant for this father.
While the king mourns the loss of his son, you are sent to the cathedral to spy on Sylvanas. After being instructed by one of Garrosh's generals that the plague is forbidden, she orders her High Executioner to deploy the plague anyway.
Using a captured bat, you blow up some of the plague wagons and part of the army but the city is still lost. The Forsaken are just too numerous. Escaping through an underground tunnel, you make it to a coastal town where Night Elf ships and troops await. There is another threat though. The airship is still on the horizon and orcs are invading by the coast. Using a Night Elven Glaivethrower, you take out some of the invading orcs.
Crowley's daughter sends you onto the airship via hippogryph and along with her and some Gilnean troops, explosives are planted and it is blown out of the sky.
At this point, the questline stops. I can only assume the rest is not yet implemented. There is talk of how the king had not make it to the town yet so I can only assume Godfrey captured him again and the final quest of the area will be slaying Godfrey.
I have uploaded some screenshots from Gilneas - Present here.
WoW: Cataclysm Zones – Gilneas Past
I am back. I was heavily distracted last week. Coming home from my trip, I got completely distracted by Starcraft 2 as well as a beta for an upcoming MMO that I recently got accepted into (that is not Cataclysm). Currently you cannot train skills in the beta if you have two professions learned (yes, a weird bug) and since I do not plan on dropping my engineering or chanting on my paladin I transferred (since I plan on testing out those professions when implemented), I will be focusing more on the low level content for now.
I am about 50% complete with Hyjal and I finished two of the three Vashj'ir subzones. I will probably do the first to Vashj'ir write ups first and then move on to places like Azshara. Blizzard has recently locked worgen creation and unlocked it again with a patch last Thursday so it is time for a look at the other side.
Unlike the light hearted and hilarious journey of the Goblins on Kezen, Gilneas is extremely dark in tone and setting.
Level 1-6 for new Worgen will start out as somewhat of a flashback into the what happened leading up to the events of present day. The nation of Gilneas is under siege by the wild feral worgen. They climb the walls and roam the rooftops. This is the worse possible time since the nation just recently finished a civil war.
You start by meeting with the prince, Liam Greymane. He is leading part of the army in attempting to evacuate citizens. When he sees that you are about, he sends you to check on a guard near the gate though. You are two late. The guard is dead and slashed with claw marks. When you return to the prince, the area is under attack. You assist in helping citizens evacuate and you slay some worgen while you are at it.
You are sent to meet with the king, Genn Greymane as well as one of the nobility Lord Godfrey on the other side of town, near the prison. The king sends you to rescue his old friend, who later became a rebel fighter and terrorist, Darius Crowley, from the prison. On top of the prison, Crowley stands on top of a pile of worgen corpses. He has been fighting off hundreds of worgen barehanded. You assist him in holding the area and then return to the king. Crowley has smuggled many massive cannons into the city and he is turning them over to the king for use in the city's defense.
Shocked but grateful, the king sends you to retreive the cannons. you meet man in charge of the cannons but he warns you to stay back. He had been tainted. He changes into a worgen and lunges at you. Crowley's daughter shows up and kills him, but not before he has a chance to bite you. While the troops are setting up the cannons, you are sent on horseback to retrieve a brilliant alchemist who had climbed a tree to try to escape the worgen.
The city is essentially lost, so you volunteer to join Darius Crowley on a suicide mission to help give time for the king to finish the evacuation. The two of you ride on horseback getting the attention of as many worgen as you can before leading them to the doors of the cathedral where massive cannons wait. When you get there, you man the cannons and take out a hundred worgen yourself.
The bite is getting worse.
Tobias Mistmantle (yes, brother of Stalvan) orders you to fall back into the cathedral and meet with Crowley once more. The worgen just keep coming and are overrunning the cathedral. It is here you are going to make your last stand.
That is when everything goes wrong.
The following is not implemented, but Crowley just says "This is where we play a movie of you turning into a worgen! We also flash-forward into the present!"
While the 1-6 experience for worgen characters was fun, I still did not enjoy it as much as the goblin experience. I know many will like it more as it will be there style. The look is great with the old gothic style but I guess I always have a hard time taking story-lines in WoW super seriously. I much prefer the tongue-in-cheek area of the goblins. I have not yet done the 6-13 area so my opinion could still change.
I have uploaded some screenshots from Gilneas - Past here.
WoW: Cataclysm Zones – The Lost Isles
Sorry for taking so long to post the followup, I have been enjoying my vacation.
As a Goblin, you left Kezen on Trade Prince Gallywix's ship. I do not know if there is going to be a cutscene implemented but, but you wake up dead in the water... literally. It turns out the ship had been piloted between a Horde and Alliance ship and your ship was fired upon and destroyed. Once brought back to health, your first order of business is rescuing other survivors in the water. From here you return to shore to find part of the ship and your former secretary. The area is besieged by intelligent bomb throwing monkeys. You dispatch of them and then head into the mines to collect some kajamite. Through the mines you find cave paintings and eventually a pygmy hut where an orc scout lies dead after being tortured.
One of the interesting things about the mine is the second you walk in, you are automatically given a quest to photograph the cave paintings. There is no quest giver, just entering the cave gives you the quest. Furthermore, taking the photograph actually takes the camera away from behind your goblin and focuses on the paintings.
You eventually meet up with some orc survivors who claim that the Alliance stole some precious cargo from them and that the Alliance attacked them and attacked you. Using your utility belt you start doing various tasks for the orcs, like mowing down hundreds of plants and using infrared to hunt down SI:7 agents. This leads you to an orc that is about to assault an Alliance camp to steal their gyrocopter. You steal it and fly it to the Alliance ships docked nearby. After fighting down into the hold, you find that they have captured none other than Thrall. He was on his way to the Maelstrom when attacked by the Alliance. He turns you into a tornado and has you fire lightning bolts on the fleeing Alliance crews to stop them from becoming a problem later.
You return to the goblin survivors, who at this point have built a rocket sling shot to fling people to the bigger of the two islands. Once there, you deploy the Town-in-a-Box as a base camp. Once the town is deployed, it turns out Gallywix stole the docks and the oil rig from the town-in-a-box. The first order of business is collecting some food for the survivors. You are sent to collect chicken eggs so that they can make chicken nuggets. Eventually you bring them back a large egg that causes havoc when put in the machine. The next order of business is dealing with the giant hammer head shark nearby. A shark robot is make that has FREAKIN LASER BEAMS on its head so you can kill the giant shark.
From here, you are sent to meet up with another goblin who has been scouting the nearby naga encampment. After slaying some of the nagas, you reveal their leader as a faceless one. In the time that you were killing the nagas, it turns out that pygmies attacked the Town-in-a-box and have been kidnapping goblins. You return to the town and attack the invaders and are sent to their camp to kill their leader. You rescue some goblins and kill their leader but it is too late for many. A multitude of goblins have been turned into zombies as a sacrifice to the island god. After dispatching some pygmy shamans, you are sent into the heart of the volcano.
One of the next quests is actually what I think is the most interesting quest in the zone. You deal with what I would call a single-person raid boss. You are sent to kill the island's turtle god with a rocket launcher. The rocker launcher does about 15% of the giant turtle's health every shot, but has about a 6 second cast time. The turtle god does a fire breath that will kill you but has a 10 second cast time. You have to hit it with the rocket launcher and then hide behind a wall (it says in the center of a cave and does not move) to avoid the fire breath. They are essentially teaching raid mechanics to players at a low level now.
After killing the turtle god, the island erupts. Lava has taken out the town but it was too late. Gallywix has already captured all the goblins and turned them to slaves in his mine. You work with Thrall to kill the last of the SI:7 leaders on the island and then you go rescue your friends from the mines. You then go assault Gallywix directly. You burn down his oil rig and free prisoners from cages. In the end, you build a shredder and attack Gallywix along side Thrall. The Trade Prince begs for mercy and Thrall is content with allowing him to be the faction leader for now. Everyone gets on a new boat and leaves the island before it is destroyed. You are sent to Garrosh with an emblem from SI:7 to inform him of the attack on Thrall.
I have uploaded some screenshots from the Lost Isles here.
WoW: Cataclysm Zones – Kezen
Kezen is the home city of the Bilgewater Cartel and the level 1-6 starting area for goblins. Yes, that is right. They get a whole zone just for 1-6. You start as the head of the Kaja-Cola company. Kaja-Cola is made from the mineral Kajamite, from which the initial exposure to gave the goblins their intelligence. The Bilgewater goblins turn Kajamite in to the Kaja-Cola smart drinks. The city is essentially run by Trade Prince Gallywix. You can think of him as the worse boss you have ever had. He is demanding, overbearing, and likes to stiff people on pay.
At level 1, you start out by using a taser on some rebellious troll slaves in the mines to "adjust their attitudes." It isn't long before you're given keys to your hotrod and asked to go pick up all your friends around town. One can even be found out the gas station where some local models are having a gasoline fight.
From here you beat down some locals in the slums for their protection money and help rebuild a shredder for a game of Footbomb. The coach tells you that the team is down so he has you jump in the suit to take out the opposing team. To win the game, you're told to kick a footbomb between the smokestakes behind the opposing team for a goal. Your kick is a little too good and the footbomb actually sails into the dormant volcano behind the smokestacks, causing it to erupt. Luckily, the coach and you are the only ones that really noticed this.
You return back to your headquarters and are told that you need to pick up a snazzy outfit for a party you are throwing. After going to the bank to get some money, you get some snazzy clothes, sunglasses, and some bling. You then have to entertain your guests by shooting off fireworks, serving food, sharing drinks, and throwing water on them if they get too drunk. After entertaining guests for a while, pirates attack the party and start killing party guests. You fend of the attack and return to your secretary, she tells you that the Trade Prince has arrived and wants to speak to you. Apparently he was not invited to this corporate party and so he hired the party crashers. He knows that the island is crashing and he has the only boat off it. He plans to sail to Azshara but if you want to join him, you must pay him a bazillion macaroons.
You and your secretary hatch a plan to make the money. You steal some Kajamite, break into your own bank (which had been shut down due to the crisis), dress up as a mook and steal artifacts from Gallywix's mansion, and use your hotrod to rundown looters to steal their loot for yourself. While you were out doing this, your secretary prepared your headquarters for the final step. It has been loaded with explosives. You go turn on the furnace and drop a lit cigar on the bed before sending a gasoline robot in to blow the place up. The insurance adjuster arrives and the insurance payout finally brings you to the amount of money you need.
The sky is raining down and island is shaking, ready to blow. Your secretary takes the wheel of your hotrod and drives you right on to Gallywix's yacht. You pay him the money and get ready to leave. It is only then that he reveals to you that he is taking your money and plans to just sell you into slavery instead.
Kezen is completely incredible. The first time I played through it, the zone took me about an hour and a half but the second time it took me about 40 minutes, which is on par with most 1-6 starting areas. The area is filled with phasing and is a riot from the start to the end.
I have uploaded some screenshots from Kezen here.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm – Initial Impressions
The nice long weekend allowed me a great deal of time to play Cataclysm. So far I have completed the Goblin starting zone (twice), two thirds of the Sunken City of Vashj'ir, and both of the starting instances (Throne of Tides and Blackrock Caverns). I have been completely blown away by this experience. Starting tomorrow, I plan on posting detailed descriptions of each zone.
The Goblin experience is amazing. It is incredibly fun the entire way through. Goblins are just as crazy as you would imagine they are. The Sunken City is massive. It is hard to properly describe it. When you hear that it is a zone, you assume it is probably just about the size of something like Borean Tundra. The thing I did not know though is that the zone is actually three subzones with their own maps and channels. Each of these subzones is the size of Borean Tundra. Needless to say, the entire area is MASSIVE. It is incredibly beautiful too.
The new instances seem like they are overtuned right now. Compared to Wrath of the Lich King instances, these ones are brutal. It took about five different groups before I ever got past the second boss of Throne of Tides. Overall, I think Blackrock Caverns is an easier instance than Throne of Tides but they are both no joke. Crowd control is useful, but not required. The instance will go faster if you use crowd control. Yes, I just said that an instance will go faster if you use crowd control. I completed Blackrock Caverns but not the Throne of Tides due to the last boss being bugged.
The amount of phasing in the new zones is incredible. It is often times very subtle as well. At the same time though, you do not feel like you are being removed from other players. There are very very very few people in the beta and yet I still saw people all the time while questing in phased areas. Also if you are in a party, the party leader can bring everyone into their phase so you can work together.
One thing of note is that comparing this beta to the WotLK beta, this one does not feel so far along as the WotLK one did. All of the geography changes are in but only about half of the classic zones have been populated with enemies and quests. A myriad of abilities and talents just do not work right now and the level cap is only 82.
While this expansion is not as far along as WotLK was when beta started, it is shaping up to be the best expansion yet. To be honest, this is not an expansion though. This is WoW2.
My Cataclysm Beta Plans
I have not been able to log into the beta servers yet. I spent Tuesday night and last night downloading and patching the game. The initial game download went fairly quickly but the patching was incredibly slow through the Blizzard download tool. Today officially starts the closed beta and the size of the downloads is roughly 4gigs when you combine the main download and the patches. In comparison, on day one of the Wrath of the Lich King beta the amount needed to download was less than 2gigs. Needless to say, this expansion is massive.
This weekend is going to be a four day weekend for me so I expect to spend almost my entire weekend playing the expansion. I am guessing that the beta will run about 3 months in total. In that time, I plan on leveling four characters from 1-60 and 2 characters from 80-85. From everything I have gathered, you can level a character from 1-60 just on Kalimdor or just on Eastern Kingdoms. So I plan on going 1-60 on Alliance and Horde for both continents to see the changes. I also plan on leveling both a Horde and Alliance paladin from 80-85 to see what that brings for each side.
I will blog about each zone for each side for those interested in the changes. As of right now, less than 50% of classic zones have been revamped and the level cap is only level 82. I hope to get through quite a bit of content this weekend so that I can provide you all with about three weeks of blog posts as I am going on vacation for two weeks mid-July and will be playing no video games in that time.
Cataclysm Beta Starting
Blizzard dropped the NDA for Cataclysm and officially kicked off the beta today. I actually got my invite yesterday and have been downloading and patching the client ever since. The initially client download is currently about 2.5gigs with an additional 1.5 gigs of patches.
My goal is to transfer my paladin to the beta to play through the level 80-85 content as well as play 1-60 on a Goblin and a Worgen so that I can hit up all of the changed zones. Expect a lot more posting from me over the coming months.