[Theory] 5.4 is the halfway point of Mists of Pandaria.

[laughtrey]

5.4 is already on the PTR, and if it takes as long as 5.2 it'll be live in about 2-3 months. Just about September and almost a year to the day since the release of MoP.

Now, they finally managed to pace themselves and almost perfectly released patches in such a timely manner that it is now down to a science. Every minor patch has been released after a similar amount of days, with the larger 5.2 being released almost 1 1/2 times as long. This roughly leads to a patch every 3 months, and a major raid tier/pvp season being released every other patch.

So while the very punctual and timely patches have finally started to happen, it would be a bad time to start and a bad way to do it if they are still releasing expansions once every 2~ years.

The dead zone of time between the last patch WotLK and Cataclysm was almost exactly a year, and they heavily implied they regretted it. Patches in Wotlk were few and far between, and the Argent Tournament lasted entirely too long. The last patch of Cataclysm lasted almost as long, but since MoP released in september instead of November it was 9 months of dead air instead of 12.

Blizzard has heavily suggested switching to one expansion a year instead of two years, but I still don't believe it's going to happen.

Instead, I'd like you guys to take a look at this:

Final season of Burning Crusade: Brutal Gladiator.

Final season of Wrath of the Lich King: Wrathful Gladiator.

Final season of Cataclysm: Cataclysmic Gladiator

Final season of Mists of Pandaria: Grievous Gladiator?

Disregarding the obvious fact that Burning Crusade was the first expansion to feature Arenas and they missed the "Burning Gladiator" oppurtonity, Grievous Gladiator being the last season of MoP doesn't sit right with me when the theme of this expansion (and the name) lead to the obvious "Mystical Gladiator" title that many people assumed would be the final season of MoP.

tldr: Garrosh escapes in 5.4 and leads a Sha empowered army or another threat emerges from him dying, MoP goes on until 5.8 next year when he is truly defeated, and the final PVP season "Mystical".

Either Blizzard does that, or we have another long year of no new content. You decide what is more likely.

[-ex-]

Or they are actually delivering on the promise to release expansions faster.

[Lord Pebbleton]

I don't think it will go until 5.8, simply because gear would get to horrendous stats.
The difference between a 5.8 raider and a freshly leveled 90 would be in millions.

[solvexx]

Or perhaps it will actually be faster content like they started promising 4 or so years ago.

[laughtrey]

I don't think it will go until 5.8, simply because gear would get to horrendous stats.
The difference between a 5.8 raider and a freshly leveled 90 would be in millions.

Fair point. An item squish or two more raids wouldn't bring the ilevels up that much. Beginning at 450 and now going up to 566 is already an insane difference, whats a few more ilevels?

Or perhaps it will actually be faster content like they started promising 4 or so years ago.

So you think they'll announce the next expansion soon? Whens the beta going to be? Even if they started right now, they'd (historically) get it released at the end of the year.

If the next content after 5.4 is an expansion, it'll be going from a patch every 2-3 months, to a dry spell lasting at least 6 months. How many subscribers do you think they'd lose then?

[Mawnix]

........No.

Where would the story even go and make logical sense?

Also, the content for this Xpack will start to get stale after 5.4.

That's why they're getting content out faster and faster and creating the expansions with more haste.

[Daswolfen]

*facepalm* No... just no.

With patches coming out faster than ever and the stated goal of faster xpacks, they are right on track for an 18 month release schedule. Plus there is the whole thing where they have stated that SoO is the end of the expansion...

Theories are fine, but it helps when they are ground in reality.

[laughtrey]

*facepalm* No... just no.

With patches coming out faster than ever and the stated goal of faster xpacks, they are right on track for an 18 month release schedule. Plus there is the whole thing where they have stated that SoO is the end of the expansion...

Theories are fine, but it helps when they are ground in reality.

Blizzcon is in November. Are you saying they're going to announce and release the Expansion at Blizzcon? Or announce it at 5.4 launch and release it at Blizzcon?


Whens the Beta?

[Deleted]

Blizzcon is in November. Are you saying they're going to announce and release the Expansion at Blizzcon? Or announce it at 5.4 launch and release it at Blizzcon?


Whens the Beta?

Release 5.4 in september.

Show spoilers on 6.0 (new expansion) during BlizzCon.

[Tobywongg]

An 18 month release schedule would mean a March release, which they certainly could announce at Blizzcon, and as long as the beta is fast it could work.

[laughtrey]

Release 5.4 in september.

Show spoilers on 6.0 (new expansion) during BlizzCon.

When does it release then? New content every 3 months to nothing? Previous expansions had their patches spread out erratically. It was a crapshoot trying to predict when patches would come out. MoP is clearly different and way better managed. But does that mean they managed to get out patches on an almost perfect schedule to leave 12 months of nothing at the end of it?

[Deleted]

No, please no! I just want the Burning Legion expansion, so I can play my Demon hunter alt!

[Daswolfen]

Blizzcon is in November. Are you saying they're going to announce and release the Expansion at Blizzcon? Or announce it at 5.4 launch and release it at Blizzcon?


Whens the Beta?

We will know the name this summer when they file the trademark. While I think they might have some sort of announcement at Pax Prime, even if they do not, and have the big reveal at Blizzcon, there is still plenty of time for the beta soon after(or more than likely AT Blizzcon). They realistically only need 4 or 5 months (Cata took 7, but they rebuilt the entire world. you won't have that this time). That would still put it on target for a late April/early-mid May release.

[ablib]

Blizzcon is in November. Are you saying they're going to announce and release the Expansion at Blizzcon? Or announce it at 5.4 launch and release it at Blizzcon?


Whens the Beta?

Blizzard has said they want expansions (in a perfect world), on an 18 month lifecycle. This puts 5.4 out at the end of September, with 6 months of Siege of Orgrimmar. Expansion will be announced in November at Blizzcon, with the beta being released a week later.

Next expansion (in a perfect world) will be released at the end of March, but knowing Blizzard it will be April, May or June of 2014.

/end thread

[Daswolfen]

An 18 month release schedule would mean a March release, which they certainly could announce at Blizzcon, and as long as the beta is fast it could work.

No. 18 months would be about April 25th 2014, but you are right. Plenty of time for a beta.

[ablib]

No. 18 months would be about April 25th 2014, but you are right. Plenty of time for a beta.

18 months after September 25, 2012, would be March 25, 2014.

[Daswolfen]

Blizzard has said they want expansions (in a perfect world), on an 18 month lifecycle. This puts 5.4 out at the end of September, with 6 months of Siege of Orgrimmar. Expansion will be announced in November at Blizzcon, with the beta being released a week later.

Next expansion (in a perfect world) will be released at the end of March, but knowing Blizzard it will be April, May or June of 2014.

/end thread

Not exactly. MoP released at the END of September 2012 (the 25th). The 1 year anniversary of MoP would be September 25th 2013. Six months after that is April 25th, 2014. (November, December, January, February, March, April - 6 months). That puts the 18 months at the end of April.

[Ericanibus]

My thoughts:
- Release of 5.4 in mid to late September (as stated by someone else).
- Revealing of next expansion at Blizzcon this year, and another form of "Annual Pass" to get more beta testers.
- Release of patch 5.5 (build-up patch for the next expansion) in late December, early January.
- Next expansion release in mid to late summer of 2014.

Yep, there's going to be a bit of a lull in the action as there usually is. It won't be as prolonged I feel, as I think they're already well into the production of the next Expac (no sources, just going on gut feeling and putting some belief in what they've told us they'd like to accomplish).

[ablib]

Not exactly. MoP released at the END of September 2012 (the 25th). The 1 year anniversary of MoP would be September 25th 2013. Six months after that is April 25th, 2014. (November, December, January, February, March, April - 6 months). That puts the 18 months at the end of April.

You forgot the whole month of October.

[laughtrey]

Blizzard has said they want expansions (in a perfect world), on an 18 month lifecycle. This puts 5.4 out at the end of September, with 6 months of Siege of Orgrimmar. Expansion will be announced in November at Blizzcon, with the beta being released a week later.

Next expansion (in a perfect world) will be released at the end of March, but knowing Blizzard it will be April, May or June of 2014.

/end thread

No. 18 months would be about April 25th 2014, but you are right. Plenty of time for a beta.

Wotlk, Cata, and MoP betas took 6~months. You're suggesting that they will release an expansion in the Summer season instead of Holiday? And that's less ridiculous than my idea?

Alright.