Will there be another raid between Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar?

[Shampro]

Nah I dont think so...Remember in Cata we got fireland...than Hour of twilight....that will pretty much be this....OR a really small raid and thats it.

Nope, you are 100% incorrect, this is not Cata because of 2 reasons, 1. We get smaller patches in between Tiers, 2. Raid Patches are also coming out faster than cataclysm. The only thing that I could agree in your statement is that we get a small Raid AFTER Orgrimmar (Similar to Ruby Sanctum).

[Deleted]

So I was thinking about this after making the thread about how there won't be a raiding tier in 5.3.

Is there enough content left after ToT for Blizz to make T16 the tier before Siege of Orgrimmar?

Probably not.

I bet 5.2 ends most ties in Pandaria, 5.3 will be some more Alliance/Horde story as buildup for 5.4, which is Siege of Orgrimmar along with ending the Sha once and for all. And then you can have 5.5 as some filler raid before the next expansion.

If you're expecting more, you honestly didn't get the hint from Blizzard's past two expansions.

[Golden Yak]

Are we in any real need of one? If patches come out regularly, Siege should be out sometime in October, just in time for Blizzcon to tell us about the next expansion.

[Deleted]

Are we in any real need of one? If patches come out regularly, Siege should be out sometime in October, just in time for Blizzcon to tell us about the next expansion.

We need Y'Shaarj raid! Everyone needs and wants Y'Shaarj raid, even if no loot is dropped there.

[Shampro]

Are we in any real need of one? If patches come out regularly, Siege should be out sometime in October, just in time for Blizzcon to tell us about the next expansion.

Exacly, I actually think the Patch may be out just a bit after Blizzcon, so they talk about both the patch AND the next expac, similar to 2011, where they talked about Dragon Soul AND announced Mists.

[Mawnix]

We need Y'Shaarj raid! Everyone needs and wants Y'Shaarj raid, even if no loot dropped there.

But he's dead.

How can we kill something that's dead.

And don't respond with some Undead joke like ICC @_@.

[Deleted]

Are we in any real need of one? If patches come out regularly, Siege should be out sometime in October, just in time for Blizzcon to tell us about the next expansion.

And then a single raid for a whole year, again. Meh. I just hope they keep their promise about releasing expansions faster.

[Deleted]

But he's dead.

How can we kill something that's dead.

And don't respond with some Undead joke like ICC @_@.

We will raid in his body, filled with festering blood, some strange and disgusting ancient body fluids and other delicate things like that. At the end is Shaohao with 7th Sha inside him, after we kill him, Sha escapes and find a new home in our favourite son of Hellscream.

[nine3cubed]

Are we in any real need of one? If patches come out regularly, Siege should be out sometime in October, just in time for Blizzcon to tell us about the next expansion.

Because t13 for 9 months wasn't enough. Let's do t16 for a full year.

[McFrotton]

Even better, after the siege we've killed Garrosh and a lot of our people have been lost. Even faction leaders are dead, and then everyone snaps to and it was all just an illusion created by Archmage Jaina to show us what would have happened if we had fought trying to keep us from actually doing it.

- Stephanie Meyer

I fixed it in bold makes more sense in WoW :P

[Golden Yak]

We need Y'Shaarj raid! Everyone needs and wants Y'Shaarj raid, even if no loot is dropped there.

I suspect we'll see some Sha-related horribleness during the Siege of Orgrimmar. Y'Shaarj himself is ancient history, but he did have seven heads, and we've only dealt with six Sha. It's so obvious it'll actually be disappointing if we don't have a seventh now.

Because t13 for 9 months wasn't enough. Let's do t16 for a full year.

Where are you getting a year between Siege of Orgrimmar and the next expansion from?

***

I'm hoping that the 5.3 questline involves Garrosh hauling a mogu-repurposed titan machine out of Pandaria somewhere and installing it in the volcanic caverns underneath Orgrimmar, using the geothermal and elemental energy there to power it. Then the Sha corrupt it. So you have Sha-infested orc-crafted titan constructs powered by elemental flame instead of thunder.

Kick-ass.

[Deleted]

Nope, you are 100% incorrect, this is not Cata because of 2 reasons, 1. We get smaller patches in between Tiers

What about the revamp of Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman? It's the equivalent of the non raid patches in MoP.

Cataclysm only had 2 raid patches. I think MoP will be the same. Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar. That's it.

Yes, I'm that cynical. If you compare the amount of raid patches per expansion, who wouldn't be?

Vanilla: Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub, Ahn'Qiraj, Naxxramas - total: 4
TBC: Black Temple, Zul'Aman, Sunwell - total: 3
WotLK: Ulduar, Crusade, Icecrown - total: 3
Cata: Firelands, Hour of Twilight - total: 2

So is it honestly weird that I'm expecting only 2?

Blizzard have said multiple times that they focus on rolling out expansions faster. They prioritize expansions over content patches. So it makes sense that we get less big content patches, but relatively fast expansions because they've also constantly reminded us that they don't want to hire extra people.

[Mawnix]

We will raid in his body, filled with festering blood, some strange and disgusting ancient body fluids and other delicate things like that. At the end is Shaohao with 7th Sha inside him, after we kill him, Sha escapes and find a new home in our favourite son of Hellscream.

If there's even a body to uncover.

He may have simply become the Sha energy.

Or maybe he's the Mist surrounding Pandaria.

Who knows.

But this is..insanely far fetched man.

[Chief Brouhaha]

they already said 5.3 was going to be another non raid patch, so unless they feel like changing things up, no.

[Kissme]

You know guys its been months since MoP came and we are currently getting a new patch in the next month 5.2... There will be at least 2 more Patches before Siege of Orgrimmar.

They already confirmed that 5.3 won't have a raid. And based on previous design models and the balancing preferences of the design team so far, you're probably looking at a 3 tier expansion (they've already said the 4 tier in WotLK was a mistake and led to overinflated stats and balancing problems). This means that your next raid tier will be Seige of Orgrimmar and that 5.3 is probably a daily hub/storyline patch that will do the lead up to the Seige. If you're incredibly lucky you'll get a fun side tier raid similar to ZG in vanilla or ZA in TBC where it's an alternate gearing route of non tier gear that's equivalent to the second tier - but since Throne of Thunder is already a troll raid that's a slim chance at best.

[Deleted]

If there's even a body to uncover.

He may have simply become the Sha energy.

Or maybe he's the Mist surrounding Pandaria.

Who knows.

But this is..insanely far fetched man.

I know it may sound weird (after i read it few times it sounds weird even to me) but it's actually pretty good in my imagination. The Sha won't just escape to Garrosh, Garrosh summons it and tries to weaponize it in Lore patch before SoO. And also one of the Blizzard employees said in one interview that we can get some Old God stuff in MoP, so i still think (and hope) that there is something with Y'Shaarj, i don't want another N'Zoth. I know that he is dead, but at least let us see his body or something. Heck, i would be pleased even if we get some lore like Lorewalkers cinematic for him, i just hope that they won't totally forget him.

[Curanhadin]

IIRC blizz said 5.3 probably wont have a raid, and at the rate the patches are going id expect we reach 5.6 or 5.7 maybe higher before the SoO patch so Id say atleast one more or maybe even two smalller raids before then.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

We have a whole war between the Horde and Alliance that hasn't been covered in 5-mans or raids yet, we have the mysterious 7th Sha, we know there was Titan activity on Pandaria, we have yet to see Zul (Rastakan is assumed dead), the Mantid mention they have every intention to betray us down the line, and Blizz had given some vague mention of Naga plots in the past.

Plenty of content to make a T16 that isn't SoO. Question is time.

Cata lasted about 22 months, with 6 months for T11/12, and 10 months for T13. Now if we take 6 months off of T13, we're left with the leftover 4 months. In theory that's too short for a raid.

But if Blizz decides to make MoP last 23 to a full 24 months, there would be enough time for a fourth tier in MoP while still getting the next expansion Aug/Sept 2014.

[nine3cubed]

Where are you getting a year between Siege of Orgrimmar and the next expansion from?

***

October to the end of the following September, at the earliest (Release dates range from late Q3 to early Q1 so far, which is a logical timeframe to release an expansion). So you're right. Upon further evaluation, it could actually be 16 months of 1 tier.

[Kissme]

What about the revamp of Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman? It's the equivalent of the non raid patches in MoP.

Cataclysm only had 2 raid patches. I think MoP will be the same. Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar. That's it.

Yes, I'm that cynical. If you compare the amount of raid patches per expansion, who wouldn't be?

Vanilla: Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub, Ahn'Qiraj, Naxxramas - total: 4
TBC: Black Temple, Zul'Aman, Sunwell - total: 3
WotLK: Ulduar, Crusade, Icecrown - total: 3
Cata: Firelands, Hour of Twilight - total: 2

So is it honestly weird that I'm expecting only 2?

Blizzard have said multiple times that they focus on rolling out expansions faster. They prioritize expansions over content patches. So it makes sense that we get less big content patches, but relatively fast expansions because they've also constantly reminded us that they don't want to hire extra people.

I tend to look at it from a tier perspective rather than a raid patch perspective and since they've steadily homogenized and shrunk the itemization tables, the technical need for extra raids within a tier has shrunk as well.

Vanilla had 4 raid tiers if you count 2.5 as seperate and include ZG as part of the MC raid tier.
TBC had 3 raid tiers with ZA being part of the TK/SSC raid tier and Sunwell being part of T6.
Wrath had 4 raid tiers and they admitted this was a mistake from a design standpoint (item inflation and endgame balancing)
Cata had 3 raid tiers (small raid tiers, but 3 none the less)
It isn't unreasonable to suppose MoP will only have 3 tiers as well.

So I totally agree with you, but for different reasons.

The funny thing is that based on current timelines this may be the first expansion Blizzard manages to deliver on their idea of faster expansions. Prior to this TBC was their shortest expansion, but assuming 5-7 months per tier MoP might actually only last 18 months.