Cataclysm Classic Expansion Overview (2024)

Welcome to Icy Veins guide on everything new in the Cataclysm expansion ofWorld of Warcraft Classic. Below you can find all of the new content, changes,features, systems and even more available to players during Cataclysm.

Follow the links below for access to all class information on your favoritespec for Cataclysm. These pages will be continued to be updated through-out theentirety of Cataclysm Classic.

Cataclysm Classic is currently expected to have 4 Phases, which will includethe following content per phase.

1. Phase 1 — May 20th: Baradin Hold,Blackwing Descent, The Bastion of Twilight,Throne of the Four Winds;
2. Phase 2 — July 2024: Zul'Aman & Zul'Gurub remade as 5–man dungeons
3. Phase 3 — October 2024: Firelands
4. Phase 4 — January 2025: Dragon Soul

As with other branches of World of Warcraft, you only need one subscriptionto access all versions of the game, including Cataclysm Classic!However, for players that are interested in unique cosmetic items as well as accessto a one–time character boost to Level 80, there are two separate "upgrades" ofCataclysm Classic that can be obtained:

• Blazing Heroic Pack, which includes
  • Avatar of Flame — Flying Mount
  • Runebound Firelord — Flying Mount for Modern World of Warcraft Characters
  • Lil' Wrathion — Pet for Modern World of Warcraft Characters
  • Twilight's Hammer Regalia Transmog Set
  • Town-In-A-Box Starter Set — Toy
• Blazing Epic Upgrade, which includes everything in the Heroic Upgradein addition to:
  • One Level 80 character boost (which also comes with Expert Riding Skill unlockedand a full set of class–appropriate gear)
  • 30 days of game time

You can learn more about these optional Upgrades and purchase them in theBlizzard store, linked below.

Cataclysm brings multiple new systems to the game, adding new ways tocustomize your character and playing experience.

Reforging allows you to remove 40% of any secondary stat (such asHaste, Dodge, or Crit) into another secondary stat that is not already on theitem. You can reforge an item in any major city; simply speak with a guard andask where you can reforge your gear.

Transmogrification, commonly called transmog, is a system added in duringCataclysm that allows you to change the appearance of your gear. This allows youto use gear that you've collected throughout your adventures in Azeroth tooverwrite the appearance of your gear and give yourself a fully customizedlook.

In original Cataclysm, guilds were able to be leveled up and gainedincreasing powerful perks with each additional level. In Cataclysm Classichowever, this system has been done away with, and instead these perks willsimply be granted to players by default. This is a great improvement for smallerguilds, especially those exclusively focusing on 10-man raid content, asotherwise it would take a very long time to level a guild up with a low amountof active players. Blizzard has decided to remove Have Group, Will Traveland Cash Flow as these have been found to be unhealthy forgameplay.

The following list shows all of the previous guild perks that all players willalways have active.

• Fast Track
• Reinforce
• Mr. Popularity
• Working Overtime
• Honorable Mention
• Bountiful Bags
• Bartering
• For Great Justice

This list shows the guild perks that are only available to players after theyjoin a guild.

• Mount Up
• Hasty Hearth
• Mobile Banking
• The Quick and the Dead
• Guild Mail
• Happy Hour
• Chug-A-Lug

Priests, Paladins, Druids, andShamans will also have access to a class specific version ofMass Resurrection to help resurrect the whole raid after a wipe; therest of the classes however, do not have access to this spell anymore.

Players will still need to increase their reputation within the guild itself,similar to other factions throughout Cataclysm, by completing quests, gettinghonor kills, or completing dungeons/raids in a guild group. Improving your guildreputation will allow you to purchase powerful, unique rewards only available toplayers through the new guild reputation system. These rewards include uniqueitems such as Cloak of Coordination / Cloak of Coordination, which can port you to your factions main-city.New cloak and helmet heirlooms like Tarnished Raging Berserker's Helm and Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak to further increase your alt leveling speeds; aswell as plenty of unique pets like Lil' Tarecgosa, and mounts such as Reins of the Dark Phoenix.

One of the largest changes to ever happen in a World of Warcraft expansion,all zones on both Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor have been remadeinto entirely brand–new zones. This includes entirely new quests, NPCs,enemies, items and much more.

With the world of Azeroth being remade, Flight Master's Licensehas also been added, allowing players to ride flying mounts in Eastern Kingdoms,Kalimdor, and Deepholm.

Cataclysm brings two new playable races, Worgens forAlliance players, and Goblins for Horde players.

In addition to these two new races, many previous class–race restrictionshave been lifted in Cataclysm, allowing you to play even more classes with eachof the available races shown below.

Alliance new race and classcombos:

• Dwarves can now beplayed as Mage, Shaman and Warlock.
• Gnomes can now beplayed as Priest.
• Humans can now beplayed as Hunter.
• Night Elvescan now be played as Mage.

Horde new race and classcombos:

• Blood Elvescan now be played as Warrior.
• Orcs can now be playedas Mage.
• Taurens can nowbe played as Paladin and Priest.
• Trolls can now beplayed as Druid and Warlock.
• Undead can now beplayed as Hunter.

For a full list of available class and race combos, check our table below:

Alliance
	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Draenei
Dwarf
Gnome
Human
Night Elf
Worgen

Horde
	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Blood Elf
Goblin
Orc
Tauren
Troll
Undead

Cataclysm brings plenty of changes to the talent tree system. The first majorchange is a large overhaul to the talent trees themselves, pruning them downgreatly into more condensed versions. Many talents have been removed, combinedtogether, or added as baseline to each specialization or class. In Wrath of theLich King it takes 51 talent points to reach the bottom of a talent tree; inCataclysm it will only take 31 talent points to reach the bottom.

In addition to many talents being removed or combined, most talents have beenreduced in talent point requirements. Talents that previously took 5 points tofill now only require 3 points; talents that took 3 points to fill now onlyrequire 2 points; and lastly most talents that previously required 2 points tofill now only require 1 point.

With these smaller talent trees and lower amount of talent points required topickup all desired talents, you will receive less talent points tospend overall. Previously you would gain 1 talent point for every level–upafter level 9; in Cataclysm however, you will gain a talent point at level 10,then an additional talent point for every even level (11, 13, 15, 17, etc etc).After level 81, players will receive 1 talent point per level until reaching thelevel cap of 85 for a total of 41 talent points.

Another major change to the talent tree system is the introduction ofspecializations. This system focuses your class more intently on thetalent tree of your choice, tying certain spells and abilities to eachspecialization and preventing you from using those from a differenttalent tree. Once you have chosen a specialization, you must spend 31 talentpoints in that talent tree before you can spend points in any other talenttree. This prevents some of the previous hybrid builds that would rely onsplitting their talent points up even between 2 or 3 trees as you must now fillout your specialization tree first.

Cataclysm also removes spell ranks, no longer allowing you to down–rankspells. Spells now scale with your level rather than requiring you to train newranks every few levels.

The glyph system receives an overhaul as well in Cataclysm, greatly improvingit. Firstly, there are 3 new glyph slots called Prime glyphs, giving players 9total glyphs overall. Players will unlock 1 Minor, Major, and Prime glyph atlevels 25, 50, and 75 for a total of 3 Minor, 3 Major, and 3 Prime glyphspots.

In addition to the new Prime glyphs, you will now learn a glyph when youconsume it, saving it into the new glyph interface and teaching it to youpermanently. After learning a glyph, you can add it to your active glyphs pageat anytime by removing an old glyph with Dust of Disappearance.This will remove a glyph and allow you to add a new one in its place. With thisnew "learn and remove" glyph system, you no longer need to keep stacks ofglyphs in your bags to change out depending on the boss encounter.

Cataclysm brings a complete overhaul to the entire stat system in World ofWarcraft, entirely changing what most classes and specializations desire goingfor. Below you can find a full breakdown of each of the stat changes.

Mastery is a brand–new stat introduced in Cataclysm. This stat grants acompletely different bonus depending on which specialization you have chosen;for example: Warrior has Masteryand Priest has Mastery.Each specialization gains a different benefit from Mastery, boostingeach playstyle in a unique way.

• Death Knight
  • Mastery
• Druid
  • Mastery
• Hunter
  • Mastery
• Mage
  • Mastery
• Paladin
  • Mastery
• Priest
  • Mastery
• Rogue
  • Mastery
• Shaman
  • Mastery
• Warlock
  • Mastery
• Warrior
  • Mastery

In addition to the new Mastery stat, most of the original stats have beenreworked and improved.

• Stamina
  • Found on more gear, especially caster gear.
• Intellect
  • Main stat for casters.
  • Now grants Spell Power.
• Spirit
  • Now only found on healer gear.
  • Holy Paladin andRestoration Shaman nowuse Spirit instead of Mp5.
  • Balance Druid,Elemental Shaman,Shadow Priest havetalents to convert Spirit to Hit Rating.
• Attack Power
  • No longer found on gear.
  • Strength and Agility still grant 2 AP per 1 Stat depending on spec.
• Spell Power
  • No longer found on gear aside from weapons.
  • Intellect converts to Spell Power for casters.
• Haste
  • Gives melee increased resource & cooldown regeneration
• Armor Penetration
  • No longer available on gear, enchants & gems.
  • Still available through talents & abilities.
• Mana Per 5
  • Stat is removed entirely.
• Defense
  • Stat is removed entirely.
  • All tanks gain crit immunity through talents.
• Block Rating
  • Stat is removed entirely.
• Block Value
  • Stat is removed entirely.
  • Blocks now reduce damage taken by 30%.
• Resilience
  • Now reduces damage & crit damage done by players only.
  • No longer reduces crit chance & mana drains.

Cataclysm brings a stat bonus to each class for wearing all of their primaryarmor type. For example, a Paladin wearing all plate armor will gain Plate Specialization,granting a 5% main stat increase. Since main stats are much more powerfulin Cataclysm, this makes it so everyone will want to wear their primary armortype.

Archaeology is a brand–new profession added in Cataclysm. Archaeology isa secondary profession similar to Cookingand First Aid,allowing everyone to learn it. This profession involves Surveying the land and uncovering hidden artifacts scattered throughoutthe world. The items found vary between vendor junk that sells for a high amountof gold, collectible mounts and toys, and even account bound items such as Zin'rokh, Destroyer of Worlds.

Cataclysm brings many new features to Player versus Player content such asnew battlegrounds, currencies, Rated Battlegrounds and open world PvP areas.

Cataclysm brings two new currencies to the PvP system.

• Honor Points
  • Honor Points return as a currency similar to previous expansions,rewarded from PvP kills and battlegrounds. Honor gains are greatly reduced, aswell as the cost of PvP gear.
• Conquest Points
  • Conquest Points replace Arena Points from pastexpansions. Conquest Points are granted for winning matches in Arenasand Rated Battlegrounds. These points have a weekly cap, limiting how many canbe earned each week.

Rated Battlegrounds allow players to gain rating, similar to Arenas, in thefollowing battlegrounds.

• Warsong Gulch
• Arathi Basin
• Eye of the Storm
• Battle for Gilneas
• Twin Peaks

Groups will gain rating and matchmaking ranks depending on their performance,giving PvP players even more ways to play the game.

Cataclysm brings two new battlegrounds to the PvP scene, The Battle for Gilneasand Twin Peaks.

• The Battle for Gilneas
  • 10v10 battle similar to Arathi Basin. Involves capturing and defendinglocations them from the opposing team.
• Twin Peaks
  • 10v10 battle similar to Warsong Gulch. Involves capturing the enemies flagwhile defending your own.

Tol Barad is a new PvP zone added in Cataclysm. This zone is verysimilar to Wintergrasp from Wrath of the Lich King. Players canparticipate in battles every 2 hours and 30 minutes, completing numerous questsin the zone during and after the battle. The faction that wins Tol Baradis able to enter one of the new raids Baradin Hold. This raid isvery similar to Vault of Archavon with bosses that can drop both PvPgear pieces as well as PvE set pieces.

The first major change to raids in Cataclysm is loot. Both 10-man raids and25-man raids will drop the same gear; this is also true for 10 and 25 heroicraids. This allows 10-man guilds to acquire the best guild possible now insteadof lower item level pieces.

With this change you can only run either the 10 or 25 man version of the raidweekly, rather than both as you could during Wrath of the Lich King. You canhowever, run each boss on both raid sizes. For example, if your guild can onlyclear 1 out of 2 bosses on 10 man, you will be able to join a 25-man group toclear the 2nd boss still.