An Unfinished Azeroth
Mount Hyjal, the Riverglades, Shen'dralas and Zephras Isle are a mix of the expected and the genuinely surprising, and the 30-to-45 drought finally gets fixed. Then there's the continent I'm personally hoping for.
What Blizzard confirmed
Four new zones: Mount Hyjal as the endgame zone (the aftermath of Archimonde's defeat, with two raids on the mountain), Shen'dralas between Mulgore and Desolace, the Riverglades as a 150-quest fix for the level 30 to 45 gap, and Zephras Isle as the Skyborne start in Skywall. Wetlands, Azshara and Desolace get filled in, with 1000+ new quests across 1 to 60 and three new ship routes.
Blizzard shared quite a lot with us at BlizzCon: Mount Hyjal, the Riverglades, Zephras Isle, and Shen'dralas between Mulgore and Desolace. These zones are either brand new, the Skyborne starting area, or fill in places that were inaccessible in Classic WoW, which covers the rest of the list.
It's going to be very interesting to find ourselves in Mount Hyjal after the attack from Warcraft (the RTS) but before the destruction Deathwing caused during Cataclysm. And having access to the Riverglades and Shen'dralas, areas that were undeveloped, or simply a mountainous border between sections with nothing in them, we can now expect to see a lot more of this. Underground zones don't seem to be off the table either. We just haven't seen anything at scale yet.
The developers were careful to say that while they intend to bring us the things we expect, like Hyjal, they also want to bring us things we don't, like Zephras Isle, in the Skywall, in the elemental plane.
Fixing the drought
The Riverglades addresses the 30-to-45 problem, where it's very difficult to find quests to do. Filling in the empty zones, Wetlands, Azshara, Desolace by name, should allow for a much smoother levelling experience. You'll still be required to move around the world and take the long way, but it should be much easier to stay inside a zone and experience it fully before leaving, instead of coming back later to finish something you weren't high enough to approach the first time.
The continent I'm expecting eventually
Something players have been pointing out: at this point in the timeline, Arthas is still on the throne. It's exciting to imagine a Northrend built for a game that does not allow flying.
If you remember Storm Peaks, if you didn't have a flying mount for some reason, you could rent one, basically free, really slow, a little helicopter from the goblins. Flying was absolutely necessary to navigate the northern half of that continent. Since we will never get flying in Forever, Northrend would have to be redesigned, new art, in the Classic style, but it is definitely not off the table. I think it would be an interesting and expected place to bring players, and a lot of people would love to experience it. Especially me, since it was my first expansion and, arguably, the best World of Warcraft has released.
What I'm reading into this
Nothing about Northrend was announced for Forever. Wrath Remix is coming to modern WoW next summer, and Blizzard's stated reason was that a lot of players have never been there. And with our story taking us back to a much different Northrend it's a way for new and old players to see the icy continent as it once was.
So we can expect new zones we never thought of, zones the player base talks about the most, and a mix of something old and something new, something expected and something unexpected. They have a lot of freedom with this version of the game, and it's good to see Tim Jones and Nora Mills taking the lead, both are very clearly passionate, and make no secret of a deep respect for Classic World of Warcraft.
The map isn't the one we remember, and the parts of it that were always blank are the interesting part. I can't wait to see what's next.