Cataclysm's New Alliance Race: The Worgen

The worgen have been discussed since the days before The Burning Crusade as possible additions to either the Horde or the Alliance. They've never been considered as major contenders as races such as the naga or the ogres, however, which makes their appearance in Blizzard's upcoming WoW expansion pack Cataclysm remarkable.

There's little we can do to predict how worgen will fit into the Alliance yet, but we do know what classes will be playable for worgen characters: death knight, druid, hunter, mage, priest, rogue, warrior, and warlock.

Worgen racial abilities are intended to include "Darkflight," which will allow worgen to increase their movement speed by 70% for six seconds, "Viciousness," a passive ability which will increase damage inflicted by worgen by 1%, "Abberation," which reduces the duration of curses and diseases used against worgen by 15%, "Flayer," another passive skill, which increases worgen skinning skill by 15 points, increases the speed of the skinning process, and removes the requirement of a knife.

By far the most significant worgen racial ability, however, is the "Two Forms" ability, which allows worgen to transition between their human and their more wolflike forms. Worgen have been commonly compared to werewolves, but their wolfish abilities are clearly much more useful when transitioning is voluntary.

The faction of worgen joining the Alliance are based in Gilneas. Fearful of outside organizations who might want to use them as soldiers or exterminate them for their bestial powers, the Gilneans barricaded themselves away. Some worgen wish for a cure to their curse, while others believe that a cure is impossible or perhaps even unnecessary. In this way, worgen might be considered analagous to the Forsaken.

The starting zone for worgen player characters will be the heretofore unknown region of Duskhaven in Gilneas. Their capital city, Greymane City, will presumably also be located somewhere in Gilneas, and will also presumably serve as the headquarters of their racial leader, Genn Greymane.

Worgen will be able to speak both Common and the worgen tongue.

Many things remain unexplained about the Greymane worgen. What would drive them to leave their seclusion and join forces with the Alliance? Will their human forms be any different in appearance from Stormwind humans? What will their mounts be? Hopefully, some of these questions will be answered by Blizzard in the coming weeks.