The reveal is close enough now that I can leak this without my friend getting in trouble, and this thread is unlikely to get much attention anyway. The only proof I have is the validation my thread will have when all the stuff I leak gets confirmed by the actual announcement in 10 hours. I understand if people will think I'm full of shit, but take it or leave it, determining how likely a leak is the fun part anyway.
The Setting:
The expansion packs begin with Sargeras creating a huge wound in Silithus as culmination of Antorus right before he gets impriosned, mentioning how we are blind to the real enemy, the old gods and the void.
C'thun gets empowered and awakened, and the first signs of N'zoth starts appearing. Silithus and sorounding areas (aka the south seas) gets a heavy infestations of minions of the old gods, faceless ones and stuff lie that. This is where the zones will be
The south sea zones are:
The scouting map remains in the game, you get to chose which order you want to do the zones in
Kul Tiras (Alliance hub, with Forsaken Areas) Also a leveling zone for both factions
Zandalar (Horde Hub, all though not all the trolls are happy about this arangement, some alliance presence as well) Also a leveling zone for both factions
Kezan, now as a fully fleshed out zone. Two Neutral factions, The Venture Company and Bloodsail Raiders (an off shoot of Bloodsail Buccaneers) While leveing you get introduced tho both factions, in the end you pick one, similar Sholazar Basin back in WotLK. There will be a free for all pvp areas as well.
Tel'Abim, the island that is the most infested with the old gods, you wouldn't want to eat the bananas from here anymore, pretty much an old god stronghold now.
Revamped corrupted Silthus, first raid tier takes place here. There's a huge wound from Sargeras. C'thun is the final boss of the first raid tier.
One underwater zone, heavy naga presence, Queen Azhara will be a part of this of course, she got some affiliation with the old gods.
Gilneas will be a PvP zone, similar to Ashran, all though hopefully better executed.
New Features
The main thing is subraces, as it has already been figured out through data mining. Every race gets 1 subrace, you dont choose it in the character creation screen, but get it through a long quest line at max level. So in order for Taurens to get their moose horn they have to earn the nature gods favour. Orcs find a method to cleanse themselves from demon corruption, and stuff like that.
It wouldn't really be subraces if everyone became it, so there will be an alternatives quest line, orcs can chose to embrace their demonic corruption, Taurens can become champions of Thunder bluff instead of the nature gods and so on. Your choice will only make a cosmetic difference, and change some NPC interactions and such. I been told there's some pretty cool cosmetic bling for those who chose to stay as their original race.
Mythic+ gets expanded upon. You get some in-game recognition for having the best weekly run on your realm on any of the dungeons. The group that had the realms best time in the dungeon located in Kezan will have a monument in that zone for the entire next week. for example. In this case it's a statue of your in-game character.
No new boat shenanigans you don't get to have your own custom boat or anything like that as some have speculated, sorry to disappoint.
Another profession overhaul, rank 3 recipes will be acquired through solo quests now intended to be fairly challenging, think Mage Tower, but with a lower gear requirement. A lot of flavor recipes will be very very rare. Fishing gets a lot of love this expansion.
This is all I know, I personally think it's fairly promising. Hope to see you guys come back to my thread after the expansion is announced