BlizzCon 2009: Q&A with Cory Stockton

The DirecTV stream has been of questionable stability today, but it has brought us an excellent interview with Cory Stockton, WoW's lead world designer. Here's what we learned:

• Development on Cataclysm was started before Wrath of the Lich King was done.

• Deathwing is the main boss of Cataclysm, as Arthas was for Wrath.

• You will not be able to go back to the old world content at all post-Cataclysm.

• Faction transfer will let you choose any race that can play your class.

• Archaeology is a secondary skill, like cooking, so anyone can get it. It ties in very closely with Path of the Titans, the new advancement system. It's all about traveling through Azeroth finding ancient artifacts, with a mini-game to decipher what the artifact is, and then you get rewards for it. Rewards will include profession recipes, items, and money, and the big reward will be new glyph slots for Path of the Titans (hopefully more on this later).

• The Worgen will have their own district in Stormwind.

Odds and ends, sure, but some darn interesting ones.

BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!