Originally Posted by
UndedoKoleda
Got my hands on info for 10.0. Don't ask how or where, I'm not going to reveal my source. Posting this on my real profile, not hiding behind a burner account.
The name of the addon is "Deep in the Dream".
The story behind the expansion goes like this- Before the Titans and the Old Gods came to Azeroth, the first inhabitants of the planet were the creatures known as Drevnae. They originated from the realm of Life, distant proto-cousins of the Drust and the Botani we've seen on Draenor. At some point they were cut from the Realm of Life and from the Dream(which is like a lobby to the Realm of Life itself) for yet unknown reasons, which made most of them dig deep under the surface of the planet, in order to get closer to the core of Azeroth and exist in symbiosis with it. The ones that remained up on the surface were the ancestors of the beings we now know as Trolls. Long time after that, the Nerubians encountered these creatures living deep inside the planet, but they didn't want to have anything to do with them, so the Nerubians build their empire Azjol-Nerub on top, sealing the tunnels that lead to the Drevnae. Ever since the Drevnae were trying to reconnect to the Dream, some of them, instead of living in symbiosis, started parasiting on the World Soul. That led to a separation in their ranks, forming two different factions. The parasitic one- much stronger and numerous, has now found a way to connect back to the Dream, which forced the other faction to start praying for help to their original creator, who they long ago renounced- Elune. Elune heard them and granted them access to the Emerald Dream, so that they could reach the champions of Azeroth and ask them for help to defeat the parasitic faction.
The major features are:
New level cap is now 70.
Six new zones, one of them is a mega-zone, part of Azjol-Nerub.
New class - Essence Seeker. Available to the new race only. Leather users. Two specs - symbiote and parasite, each has two different roles, depending on their bonding. Symbiote can be a tank or a healer. Parasite can be melee or caster dps.
New race - Drevnae. A mix of plant/tree and flesh humanoid. Available straight away, unlocked in a pre-patch quest chain. Can be druid, warrior, essence seeker, hunter, shaman, mage.
New system - Essence shaping. This is not borrowed power, the entire system will transfer into the next expansion and so on. Apart from some passive performance bonuses(some based on the essences from HoA, most are completely new), this is also the way to unlock brand new customizations for abilities and spells(similar to Warlocks' Green Fire, but with a lot more variations). This is basically meant to give players "mini-class skins". It's tied to the next group content feature-
Self exploration. Challenging content for 1 to 5 people. Set inside the Dream. Inspired by and a mix of Mage Tower, Horrific Visions and Torghast. At the start of the expansion there will be five different challenges. Two solo ones- a single boss fight, like Mage Tower, and three group ones - a medium and two large ones. The large ones are similar in size and engagement to the Horrific Visions Org or SW. More of these will be added with every .1 patch. Weekly quests that reward gear for these.
The professions are getting a complete revamp. You get FoS for your current profession skills reached. They're getting their own panel and are going to work in branching, similar to the old talent trees. Some professions are fused together, like Skinning and Leatherworking. The professions are now tied to item progression. If you want to reach the full potential of the gear that you get(no matter the source) you'll have to craft or buy some additions.
No more craftable legendaries, they are getting back to quest-chain obtainable legendaries, however there is no legendary planned for the first raid tier.
First raid is called Cradle of Life - 10 bosses.
Eight new dungeons.
New ladder for fastest clearing the current raid on heroic mode.
Players can group cross-faction now. The Hall of Fame, Gladiator R1, Hero of the Horde/Alliance, etc are no longer separated to H/A. Instead, to compensate, twice as many people/guilds will be eligible for them.
Players with WM:ON can still fight the opposite faction in the open world.
Solo queue for ranked Arenas added, with different ladder and rewards than the one we currently have.
PvP gearing is set back to the way it was in WoD. One honor and one conquest set, with the ilvl inflated while entering pvp combat/instance, that means PvP gear is nearly useless in PvE and vice versa.
One new Battlground- 20 man, 4 teams consisting of 5 people, domination type, with the areas of interest constantly changing around the zone(a mix betweed SS and towers in EotS).
Two new arenas.
New mount equipement pieces, one of them lets your ground mount climb walls while outdoor.
Warforging is back.
No world revamp as many fans imagined it, however they are starting to gradually update models and using higher resolution textures for the zones in Kalimdon and EK and Northrend.
No player housing.
The Drevnae are set on helping the Night Elves grow a new World Tree during the expansion.