Exploration and Cataclysm

The questions of a million “Player vs Environment” “Grinders” will be answered this year when Blizzard releases the World of Warcraft’s 3rd Expansion “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm”. Why is this, you ask? In this new iteration of WoW, players will be given the opportunity to rediscover the old world. The catch being, a dragon’s gone and torn the place up, opening up new areas and reshaping old ones. Players will also be able to utilize their flying mounts in these new and old areas for the first time in WoW’s history.

So, let’s cut to the chase - this article is about me letting you know where I’m going to be exploring when I hit level 85 and gain access to flight. These areas are currently either off limits or generally vacant. I hope to find Blizzard have left me new quest hubs, easter eggs or landmasses swept under the sea in an attempt to quickly cut a few corners.


Stormwind Castle
There’s one thing I dislike about Stormwind, and that’s the giant low polygon castle tower sitting behind the currently accessible portion of the castle. Much like Undercity, this area has the potential to add another layer to Stormwind, or even some fancy new castle model.

Zul’Gurub & Zul’Farrak
An instance and a raid that actually use part of the world map. It will be interesting to see if this is much like the Hellfire instances; where players can fly over, only to find there’s no actual monsters hanging around.

South Sea Isles (South of Tanaris)
South of the Tanaris area “Land’s End Beach” are two islands populated by goblin housing and an ocean rigging structure, an area known to players as the “South Sea Isles”. Currently, there are a few Tanaris animals loitering aimlessly and not much else. Let’s hope this becomes an end game daily quest hub.


Acherus
The Death Knight hang out, with flight opening up the skies, will this location lose it’s exclusivity with Death Knights? Or will there be some death ray that wards off other classes?

Unused zone between Elwynn Forest and Dun Morogh
On the western coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, sandwiched between the Elwynn Forest and Dun Morogh zones, lies an unused area roughly the size of Deadwind Pass. Will this become a new zone? Or an end game quest hub? On the coast of Dun Morogh to the north of this area lies Newman’s Landing, a deserted house & dock currently in use by 3 Booty Bay pirates; do these areas have a connection? Only time will tell.

Undercity
With the redesign of Undercity covering up Blizzard’s graphical shortcuts, players will be able to hang out on the roof. My guess is that this will add a new level or two to this Horde town, or nothing at all.


Ironforge Airstrip
As low level players travel between zones on flight paths, they currently have the pleasure of seeing an inaccessible area known as Ironforge Airstrip. Sitting above Ironforge, this scripted cosmetic location looks like the perfect place for engineers to gain access to a high level flight machine.

Wetlands Farm
Much like the Ironforge Airstrip location, the Wetlands Farm is found along a flight path. Between the highlands dividing Dun Morogh and the Wetlands sits a farm and field among the dams and reservoirs. This area is assumed to be a path to Ironforge, abandoned in early development.

Below Un’goro Crater
This area is very close to where the new Uldum zone will be, so it’s highly likely that below Un’goro Crater will become part of this area. Blizzard also mentioned in the Cataclysm panels during Blizzcon ’09 that there will be more land below southern Kalimdor; Tanaris was mis-mapped by canon, apparently.


Tirisfal Glades (West of Deathknell)
A currently inaccessible part of Tirisfal Glades, hiding right next to the Undead starting zone. Much speculation has been had about this area; did it avoid the scourge? Are there dragons hiding in this valley? Or does it house the first high elf settlement? If the latter is true, it might be the perfect place for a patched raid story arc.

These are the locations I cannot wait to fly to and check if they’ve been changed or made to house quest hubs or added a handful of monsters to battle. I look forward to revisiting these areas in a future article.