New World of Warcraft Expansion: Cataclysm

Worgen and Goblin Races: New playable races ! Worgen for the Alliance and Goblin for the Horde.

New Starting Areas for both Races: Worgen will start out in Gilneas, which was sealed off behind the Greymane Wall. Goblin players will start on the Isle of Kezan.

New Race and Class Combinations: You can now be an Orc Mage, or a Human Hunter or lots more different class and race combinations that were never available before !

Classic Zones Remade: The two continents of Azeroth will be severely and permanently changed by this cataclysmic event. Many of the cities and regions will be remade or disappear forever !

Level Cap Increased to 85: Five more levels will be available as well as new abilities and talents.

New "Path System" for Character Improvement: Instead of earning talent points per level, points will be earned by completing objectives, such as quests, raid encounters, etc. More than one class can share the same path.

New Stat: Mastery: Mastery will be an integral part of your characters existing talents and gives a different ability to each class.

Flying in the Old World: Flying will be available in Azeroth, at last ! Now you can check out all those areas you could never get to before !

More Raid Content than Ever Before: Many new raid level instances, as well as some updated versions of older encounters, are coming ! As well as more extensive use of "hard modes" for many more dungeons. The four new dungeons of Cataclysm will offer both 10 and 25 man versions, each with a regular and a hard mode.

New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds: Another awesome battle zone, like Wintergrasp will be introduced as well as a new "Rated" battleground system which will allow players to earn Arena points through doing battlegrounds !

New High-Level Zones: New areas of both continest will be made available for exploration, such as Grim Batol and Uldum. There will also be a new underwater city, called Vashj'ir.

Guild Advancement: All new was to imporove your guild via leveling and group achievements.

New Achievements: Many never-seen-before achievements will be added in many categories.

Archaeology: A new secondary profession that everyone can learn ! Dig up cool artifacts with unique uses. This profession will be important to the new Path System.

Profession Changes: A new method for gaining skill points by completing tasks, will be introduced.

Re-evaluatiion of Lower Level Gear: Lower Level gear stats will be examined and adjusted to be more useful.

History

The Worgen were used by the evil Archmage Arugal as a weapon against the Scourge in the Third War. Unbeknownst to him, a side effect of humans and worgen fighting together was a strange curse that caused the humans to transform into worgens ! The curse spread like wildfire thought the countryside, even to the infamous walled city of Gilneas. Now the inhabitants of Gilneas have decided it is time to come out from behind their walls after years of self imposed isolation. What will happen, is anyone's guess !

Classes

The classes available to the new Worgen race are:

Druid, Death Knight, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.

The two classes not available are Shaman and Paladin.

Character Customization

So far we know that the available customizations for Male Worgen are:

Fur Color, Face, Mane, Mane Color. There will probably be one more they have not decided on yet.

Character models for Female Worgen have not been released yet.

Racial Traits

There are four racials for the Worgen race:

Two forms: instant cast, 1.5 second cool down. Turns you into your currently inactive form.
Darkflight: instant, 3 minute cooldown, activates your true form, increasing movement speed by 70% for 10 seconds.
Viciousness: passive, increases all damage done by 1%.
Flayer: passive, skinning skill increased by 15, and increases the speed of skinning.

History

Goblins were once the mining slaves of the jungle trolls of the Isle of Kezan. Unfortunately for the trolls, they did not know that the Kaja'mite ore that the goblins were forced to mine had magical properties that made the little green guys much smarter and more cunning. Over time, they developed the technology to overthrow the slave masters and take the island for their own.
Putting their new found intelligence to good use, they quickly became renown for their keen business sense and trade savy and now their mercantile associations dominate most of the trade across the the face of Azeroth.

Classes

The classes available to the Goblin Race are:

Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Death Knight, Shaman, Mage, Warlock.

The two classes not available are Druid and Paladin.

Character Customization

Skin tone (shades of green), Face, Hair, Hair Color, and one more to become available later.

Only male character models are currently available.

Racials Traits

There are six racials for the Goblin Race:

Best Deals Anywhere: always receive the best possible gold discount, regardless of faction.
Better Living Through Chemistry: Alchemy skill increased by 15.
Pack Hobgoblin: Instant, 30 minute cooldown, Calls in your personal servant, allowing you bank access for 1 min.
Rocket Barrage: 30 yd range, Instant, 2 min cooldown, Launches your belt rockets at an enemy, dealing 30 fire damage.
Rocket Jump: instant, 2 min cooldown, activates your rocket belt to jump forward.
Time is Money: cash in on a 1% increase to attack and casting speed.

With the new expansion, they are expanding the classes available for each race. The new classes are:

Horde:

Orc Mage
Undead Hunter
Tauren Paladin
Tauren Priest
Troll Druid
Blood Elf Warrior

Alliance:

Human Hunter
Dwarf Mage
Dwarf Shaman
Night Elf Mage
Gnome Priest

Poor Draenei....no new classes for them.