When is "The Shattering" coming?

Q u o t e:
My friends and I were thinking about leveling up new toons on a different server. However, we were wanting to experience the "changed world". In the underdevelopment section, it says "shortly" before Cataclysm, the land will change.

Could you elaborate more on this? A day before? Two weeks? Please?

Even though we have a set December 7 release date for Cataclysm, we still want to avoid giving out specific dates for upcoming events and patches in the event we need to shift our scheduling around at all to meet production needs.

I'll try my best here to give you useful information without it feeling like a non-answer. :)

Be patient! If you're really hoping to roll brand new characters once the shattering of Azeroth takes place, I'd strongly recommend just waiting. You'll get a sense soon enough for how events will unfold from now until December 7. I suggest you stick to your main characters for now. Very soon the pre-Cataclysm events will begin and they'll continually ramp up in severity and things to do over time, leading up to the shattering (patch 4.0.3a). You're going to want to participate in these events, as they'll only be around for a short time and will not return once Deathwing is unleashed.

Q u o t e:
I would put money on 4.0.3 and the Shattering happening on November 23rd, leaving a full 2 weeks before Cata itself. I'd also bet that the Elemental Invasion itself will start on or around the 9th.

One thing we'll be clarifying a bit better next week is the distinction between what is in patch 4.0.3 versus when the shattering takes place.

Patch 4.0.3 will implement virtually all of the content necessary to make the changes to Azeroth, but those changes will actually take place in patch 4.0.3a, which is scheduled to be released shortly after patch 4.0.3.

Q u o t e:


So the shat is going to hit the fan and then deathwing will appear 1-2 weeks later?

I thought him exploding through the ground caused the shattering?

Deathwing emerges with the shattering, it just happens before the release of the expansion. In a nutshell, the December 7 release will unlock the two new races, new 80-85 content, level cap increase, and the Flight Master's License to fly in Azeroth.

So as soon as the shattering happens (before December 7), Deathwing will take to the skies as laid out here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27387876560&sid=1

Q u o t e:


The cinematic shows Deathwing bursting out and destroying everything in 2 minutes.

Ingame, the shattering is going to go a little differently.

Right now it looks like there's going to be a period before the shattering where elementals invade cities, the Twilight Hammer cult does evil things, and Deathwing soars around setting entire zones on fire.

Then, after the world has taking enough of a beating, the shattering itself will occur.

Almost correct, except for the Deathwing part. The pre-Cataclysm events will start getting a little crazy leading up to Deathwing's return. His return marks the shattering and subsequent random strafing of zones. :)

Q u o t e:


This is something that alot of people are very interested in. There's more than a few people that were upset to hear that the Insane in the Membrane feat of strength was going to be broken- even more so when we don't have a clear date that it will be broken, or even which specific factions will be broken.

Most of those changes are specific to when the world actually changes (mounts, feats, quests, etc). That's technically patch 4.0.3a. We'll have more information on the distinctions between patches 4.0.3 and 4.0.3a to announce next week. :)