Originally Posted by
Synthaxx
The waves are a little more than that. The "new water" they added in Cata was a shader effect, and even though it had ripples and looked like it had waves from high up, it was nothing more than a flat surface. These waves look to be dynamic mesh modification, but it could be that it's just a preset animation on that particular patch of water.
If they can add waves like this and get them working properly with their shader tech, then it's not out of the realms of possibility that we might see more dynamic seas elsewhere in the world. Of course, it'd be even better if they could make the waves split when they hit rocks, or make players and objects "float" on top of them, but that's probably asking a little too much. Again, it could just be an animation on that area of the water.