Since I've been around for the release of all of them I'll give my thought on what could happen and why.
Class - Doubtful unless it really really fits some theme, never have we gotten a totally new class back to back in expansions.
Race - Very very likely, OR Subrace, I would be less surprised by Sub Race as coming up with a new race that fits armor models and fits the possible themes seems a stretch. I don't think Naga will end up playable, but I could easily be very wrong. I suspect Sub-Race if I'm a betting person.
Race/Class Combo - I'd put money on a decent number of these as well, as the possible themes coming (Black Army, Return of LK to a much lesser extent, Army of Light etc) sets up for expanding Priest/Paladin race/class combos for sure and maybe even Shaman.
Zones - I'd say at launch anywhere from 8 to 10...maybe more. If certain themes are addressed I could see some old world changes like Cata, but maybe a smaller extent.
BG - Maybe 1 new BG as the theme could explore some ideas for new BGs.
Arena - Doubtful, but who knows. Since Holinka has taken over PvP I'm not sure where its going nor do I keep up with it enough.
Raids - 3 tiers, spread out a lot like Legion. I think for once, we haven't seen t3 yet, they might have actually gotten their pacing right for the entire community and not just subsections ie too short so the mid level/casuals barely finish, or too long so the Top End is ultra burned out.
Those are my current guesses based on what we've gotten before. Until the theme is for sure a known it is hard to say. For certain I doubt a class, everything else is fairly up in the air. I'd like to see maybe a Witchdoctor class ranged with poisons etc, Tinker I don't much care about. But overall class wise, I'm not really seeking too much more. Race is another wall I can't figure out. Naga the models are just off to be players, especially with armor, Ogres are a little big and another one where armor becomes issue. For me personally, I'd rather see sub-races and more race class combos. But who knows where they will go. I'd also not be against a revamp of the old zones again. I enjoyed the breaking of them in cata, but would like to see them rebuilt to show time pass, it is something you either have to keep evolving over time or never do.
The by far part is debatable. WoD really pushed back sub numbers. No they didn't close it down, but jsut because they dealt with the isse differently, does not mean the problem wasn't as bad. It's pointless anyway. It started with the assumption that Blizz wouldn't care what an MMO that was relaunched does. Which is completely bogus as major content patches and expansion releases always coincided. So Blizzard will definitely release some new content late june.
Yeah, MoP though it was pretty obvious for the reason behind a race and a class, there would be no better time to introduce both Pandas and Monks. As for WoD, it felt like the most after thought expansion in conception and really a test ground for a lot of new tech ideas, expansion on interactive questing scenarios etc. And we did get the revamp of class models, which kind of pushes me towards we could see sub-race over new race.
Agree on Race/Class combos, in this day and age they might as well scrap the you can't be this or that with this race. As we've already stretched the justifications to a breaking point. Would like to see more options of Paladins, but that is just me as a horde player who isn't a fan of playing Tuaren and I loathe Elves but their animations and armor look better so if I was to take my paladin seriously he'd probably be switched to Elf.
I agree on the Zones, but I imagine we'll be visiting some old zones depending on the theme of the expansion, but maybe not actually any revamp, but some culling of invasions or something in some of the water locked areas. But again, theme dependent.
This is starting to look more and more like a possilbity.
I believe it may end up being something more like a DLC sized expansion after Legion something that goes back to the 5 level thing like Cata/MoP did but with a single patch update and thus more frequent expansions.
Ergo, its unlikley we will get many new *big* expansions after Legion, Legion feels like the last *big* expansion WoW has left in it. It also is a good option for blizzard to avoid content drought as it means more *expansions* per year keeps content fresh rather than loosing momentum over time.
If I was blizzard, the path id go is DLC-Expansions from this point on, after Legion, as it allows more realistic launch expectations and while not benig as forfilling as a full expansion, allows WoW to *slowly* ease out but keeps retention on player interest longer.
Ergo, its more likley to keep people from quitting the game because the content is more frequent.
can someone explain to me why some people are thinking that there wont be other expansions ? The game is doing much much better than it was in MoP/WoD, dafuq lol.
Revamp is totally possible, just not EK and Kalimdor. That was pretty big.
Beats me. I wouldn't mind a relaunch as all the expansions piled on each other made things a bit messy, but why now? No idea. It would make sense I guess. If we end up using the pillars of creation and somehow heal Azeroth. But Azshara might steal the Tidestone so who knows when we can do this.
It's way to soon to announce the next expansion. Legion will last considerably longer than WoD.
WHat they SHOULD do is reboot WoW.
All existing characters get moved to a mausoleum page and you start completely fresh... they turn off all the patches and release wow over another 12 years. Tweaked of course...
Yeah they most likely won't do something like that again. Of course if we ever get Naga I don't know what could satisfy the other faction. If they ever ralaunch wow, or make a wow 2 ore something, maybe they can go with a third faction. A coalition of races that band together to protect themselves from the Alliance Horde conflict.
Why? Blizzard is a multi billion dollar corporation, do you know how that works? WoW can go on forever, simply because now the company has other entities to support wow, on top of its own box sales, the sub system is nothing more than peanuts at this point and could be scrapped if desired.
It's not really about "new content", it's about content that balances reward with effort. And making ALL the content reward different thigns so as to draw you into doing it all.
Now it's all ala carte and it all gives the same rewards. SO I can just do WQs and gear decently well... why do 50 dungeons this week? Why do Mythic raiding when there is HEroic, Heroic when there is normal, normal when there is LFR? A little higher iLevel? for what? so I can run the raid AGAIN the next "difficulty"?
That is just a horrible incentive.
Now if raid gear was the sweetest looking gear in the game, and I had to do normal dungeons to gear for heroics, then heroics to gear for raids, and each level provided better looking and statted gear? That would be enticing. But it's all homogenized... the gear all looks the same, an LFR hero looks just like a mythic raider.
And stats are simply no longer desirable if it is only to run the same content again.
So which is better? Rush to endgame and then grind 500 mythic+ dungeons always dropping the same lame loot... or have a game where you have to do 100 normals dungeons to gear for 200 heroics dungeons, to gear for 200 normal raids, to gear for 200 heroic raids?
Which, over a course of 9 months has a greater feel of progression?
next expansion is defo void lords old gods, like they are not even trying to hide it anymore.
leaks should speculate the features, not the expansion, as we already know what is next
8.0 will most likely have less content than WoD. They will tell us that they focused too many resources on making Legion the best it could possibly be, and people will begin to defend 8.0 and tell everyone how much better 9.0 will be. And the cycle will continue.
I'll take that bet. Azshara and N'Zoth.
To be fair quite a few of those people only stay because of friends and/or nostalgia and never tried any MMO that isn't wow. Of course that still means millions of players that keep it alive, but maybe not for the right reasons.