You do realise that most of the new class/race combinations are being implemented to make races "fit" into the faction change service?

Orcs <-> Humans
Trolls <-> Nightelves
Tauren <-> Draenei
etc
etc

Personally I really dislike the addition of new druid races. That was a very special thing for us and gave me a sense of belonging (Moonglade, Cenarion Circle, etc.) and a sense of comeradery with druids of the oposing faction. Something I never noticed with any other class I played.

Yay for Lore nerds!!! ((like me)) and when I was first poo-pooing the thought of night elf mages given their culture for the last 10,000 years, then my husband showed me the link to the quest that was listed… and DUH, oh, yah….. there are still some night elf mages squirreled away in hiding all these millenia…

I never did much with Dire Maul on Kay, so I'd forgotten about them completely…

as for Tauren priests and paladins… well, that's the Light, and could that be linked to the sun discussion among the druids in Thunder Bluff? ((My hubby LOVES the idea of a Tauren Paladin))

And if Azeroth is going to be whopped by another Cataclysm, well, technically, it's not the old Azeroth they are revamping, it's a new one, although I'm sure they used a lot of old data in 'building' of a post-2nd-Cataclysm Azeroth…

This could be a place where they use the phased content to bring in the post-Cataclysmic maps…

As we noted, it is all speculation, but speculating is FUN… hopefully we'll have some answers by next week.

The dust that all of the lore implications has stirred up has been VERY entertaining. I've genuinely enjoyed reading all of the reasoning why it can't possibly be true because of (XYZ) and then maybe it is true because of (XYZ).

I love the lore. I can't say I am any kind of expert on it, but I really do enjoy it.

I think a lot of people consider it to be a really cheap plot device though – I get the feeling they think Blizzard is pulling a "oh, big nasty events are happening, the world is changed forever.. so all kinds of things can happen… like, um.. Night Elf mages!" Extreme times call for extreme measures, and what have you.

True or not, I have to say I've really enjoyed seeing so many passionate responses. Many people would be quite ignorant to the lore and backstory of these continents, races, and why (for example) you don't see Tauren paladins running around (..yet?).

Stirring this kind of thing up brings the lore to the surface, and maybe educates people a little.

It might all turn out to be phony – but for the time being, the lore nerd in me is absolutely revelling in all of the passionate debates that this "leak" has sparked!

Leadership changes to me seem a little half arse (scuse my language), personally I don't think for a second Thrall would just hand leadership willingly over to Garrosh, the guy is just too unstable the only way I think this would happen is if Garrosh took it by force.

I noticed a new /cutscene of sorts at the Argent Touranment area that involves Thrall and Garrosh, was very interesting and also shed more light on the obvious contempt Garrosh has towards Thrall (Along with ovbious behavoral issues) it seems that Thrall can no longer really control Garrosh's outbursts as seen in this scene, he has no problem telling Tiron where to go and his hatred for humans almost matches that of Varian.

Then again, maybe it's the Horde's turn to get a new 'Douche Bag Leader'

I believe worgen will be the 2nd alliance race to be druids, and will balance out the horde having trolls as an option. I think I would be happy not to be a nelf anymore for sure, if only they allowed race transfers after they allow faction ones.

The status of key characters is whats causing my personal double take at the info. I don't want the Horde to be assholes, and with two changes in leadership, I'm going feel bad about being a Tauren who didn't work to overthrow Garrosh after he kills Cairne. Besides, that's Magatha's job.

Then again, a lot of this may just be half-truths. Remember that during Wrath's beta, some quests led people to believe Org was trashed by the Scourge. In the end, that was just the Scourge Invasion 2.0 event.

What!? Durotar and Orgrimmar are being destroyed?!

:O

This is very exciting, I hope some of it is true, at least!

But… I hate to admit… the idea of a troll druid just disturbs me….

Maybe because Kay has run into far too many trolls who want to kill and/or eat her to be able to think of them as brothers and sisters in the Circle like she does the Tauren…

Sounds really really exciting to me. Now I can't wait for Blizzcon to get confirmation.

Also, if it's true that some of the 80-85 content is going to be in Azeroth, then I suppose flying would make sense.

It's just that they have always been very adamant that it was a lot of work wasted on something old, when they could be devoting that time to brand new content.

We'll see!