A recent interview with Blizzard designers about changes to Azshara in the upcoming Cataclysm.

Recently Blizzard gave us more information on changes in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion; Game designers Craig Amai and Dave Kosak give us some inside views on the overall design and  revamping  of Azshara.

It's great to see that no zone is safe. In other interviews we saw that quests and pieces of a zone change, a typhoon or vortex here, new quests sprinkled about, or new story lines.  But here, we see Blizzard isn't afraid to completely wipe the zone and start fresh. They've choosen to keep a few things familiar so it still feels like the old zone, using the same color palette and a few choice landmarks. The familiarity is comforting amidst the massive amount of new content.

Changing the zone's level is a huge difference, both for the zone, and the continent. It gives us, the players,  many more options with our leveling experience. Azshara is now 10-20, and being connected to Orgrimmar, competes with Northern Barrens. After Cataclysm launches, everyone that creates a new character, young or veteran players players alike, will have many more choices to make their play experience much more enjoyable. This was fantastic for leveling in Northrend and I'm  realy happy they carried it over.

The inclusion of instanced parts of the zone, where we get to feel that each one of us makes a difference. The fact that a goal can be visibly and permanently achieved through our trials and tribulations in questing is very exciting. I foresee many new players, and  80s, coming here to check out the new quests, story line, and the freshly reimagined zone.

Also stop in and drop by our forums, to discuss, or read about, any of the great upcoming changes in the World of Warcraft, or see if any of our great posters, that are in the Beta, could shed a few more snippets of info on the zone.

-Beanx