The word "rehash" may very well be the most hated word ever by the WoW community. or maybe it's "soon"re·hash [v. ree-hash; n. ree-hash]
1. to work up (old material) in a new form.
There are 2 types of rehashs IMO: good rehashs and bad rehashs. The good ones are those with new trash and mechanics, and only the place is reused. The bad ones are a mere copy of the original place, maybe changing some trash (naxx) or a boss model (zul'aman).
But guess what? The bad rehashs can only be done to raids, because old dungeons don't have nearly enough trash and boss mechanics to compete with the new dungeons. So it's 140% certain that the new scholomance and scarlet monastery are gonna have new mechanics (SM even has a new boss!)
anyway, here are the most common arguments against rehashs:
- I'm sick and tired of that place!
- Blizz is too lazy!
- It's not the expansion's main focus!
So let's work on it:
I'm sick and tired of that place!: Yeah, maybe you are. But guess what? there are people who never went in there!
And truth be told, after the 10th time or so you go into the same heroic you stop noticing the enviroment and only pay attention at how bad the rest of the group is performing anyway.
With new bosses, new mechanics and new phat lewts after the second week or so there won't be any difference between the rehashs and the new dungeons
Plus unless you are into twiking or you wanted the scarlet mail set or one of the scholomance sets, chances are you haven't been to those places in a long time.
So, give it a chance. what does it matter if it's in the same place? You know, in real life different things can happen in the same place as time passes. why can't the same thing happen in the game?
Blizz is too lazy!: You see, back in BC it was much easier to make anything new. models were not that great, textures were low res, many many many pieces of gear were reskinned vanilla gear, et cetera.
Nowadays everything is much more detailed, and all gear is all new.
Still, the community is merciless. "ok, this took twice as much time to make as BC raids. let's consume it twice as fast!". If they don't reuse some places, there just won't be enough dungeon content for the expansion. and even with the rehashs people will still say there should be more dungeons
Blizzard isn't being lazy. They are probably having more work now than ever, because the spectations are so high and they have to live up to them on both quantity and quality.
It's not the expansion's main focus!: No, it's not! But Zul'aman wasn't nearly at the main focus on BC either.
Even if there is a "main story" every expansion, the other stories must continue. If I were to bet, I'd say Scarlet Monastery will continue from Lilian Voss' storyline while Scholomance will tie the loose ends of the "Thassarian-Koltira" story.
Cataclysm seeded many new stories, and I bet every expansion from now on will take a couple of zones with dungeons and finish their storylines.
- Cata: Silverpine and Westfall;
- MoP: Tirisfal and Western Plaguelands;
- Next Expansion: Who knows?
Basically the world must continue alive!
In tirisfall the questline ends with Lilian Voss going to unleash her revenge on the Scarlet Crusade. Did you expect her to do it in pandaria? Or would you rather we had a new expansion set in the old world?
Conclusion: Rehashs are not the men-eater monsters like people want to imagine they are. They help save development time, tie old loose ends without needing a new "cataclysm" (which contributes to storytelling), they help newbies to experience the place for the first time and give veterans something to talk about the "good old days". Plus, they give us some variety in enemies: "only elementals and dragons in cata? no! we have zombies in SFK!"
Anyway, I expect a Stratholme rehash after MoP with Fiona and her Caravan all in there