Mount Hyjal has been a key part of Warcraft lore; fans know it as site of the climactic battle of Warcraft 3. Enterprising players in the original World of Warcraft found ways to sneak into the restricted area but found nothing but under-construction signs. The Burning Crusade expansion gave some high level players a taste of the zone in the Battle for Mount Hyjal encounter.

Now Blizzard have revealed details of the opening of Mount Hyjal as a zone for level 78-82 characters in the Cataclysm expansion:

In the wake of Deathwing’s cataclysmic return, a simple shielding of dense foliage will no longer do the trick. Mount Hyjal now lies exposed to the Elemental Plane of fire,where a very angry Ragnaros plots his revenge against all life on Azeroth.

In other news, all of the class previews are complete now that the Paladin preview has been revealed.

Finally, two developers from the class design team are holding a chat session on twitter, with live questions being accepted. Details on how to participate are available on the World of Warcraft official forums. thanks Malthius for the write-up!