Just to get something straight

[Jainzar]

I have been playing Warlords of Draenor for about 3 weeks, right after the expansion launched. I thought it was good story wise, I really liked the going back to the "original" warcraft theme and re-visiting the Burning Crusade, being able to go to Draenor and experience what it was like, I liked that they introduced mythic raids and made the end-game raiding a bit more challenging again. I stopped playing because I didnt really have much time and there were just more important things to do and didnt really follow WoW much after.

I come here every now and then to check up on WoW news and I am looking forward to seeing what the next expansion might be.

Is the current raid and patch really the last content update in WoD? Have there really only been 2 raid tiers? Or is blizzard going to release another tier and raid before the next xpac?

I cant believe they would do this, I mean one major content patch for an entire expansion. Seems like a complete joke, even for blizzard.

And then they expect people to raid hellfire citadel for 1+ year again. Yea...

[Servasus]

What an insightful and useful thread.

Yes. There are only 2 raid tiers. Remember when Blizzard said they planned Warlords to only have 2 raid tiers before it launched? Turns out they weren't lying. Having 2 raid tiers doesn't make it a bad expansion. What makes it a bad expansion to many people is the lack of endgame content OUTSIDE of raiding.

No. That does NOT mean we will be in HFC for a year. They are already announcing 7.0 in 2 days. It's very possible they are very far ahead with the expansion and that it may be one of the shortest Betas we have EVER seen. Not saying there isn't a possibility of a year long HFC, but it's looking less and less likely at this point.

But seriously. There are so many threads you could have posted this in. Why did you feel so inclined to make this its own super-special snowflake thread?

[shoc]

Also, Blizzard has said that 6.2 is the last raid but not the end of WoD. So we'll probably get some story content, maybe a half-assed Farahlon and a lead in to the next expansion before now and whenever X6 drops.

[Lochton]

Also, Blizzard has said that 6.2 is the last raid but not the end of WoD. So we'll probably get some story content, maybe a half-assed Farahlon and a lead in to the next expansion before now and whenever X6 drops.

Farahlon is a no go, they've already said they aren't going to give that to us.

[FuxieDK]

What an insightful and useful thread.

Yes. There are only 2 raid tiers. Remember when Blizzard said they planned Warlords to only have 2 raid tiers before it launched? Turns out they weren't lying. Having 2 raid tiers doesn't make it a bad expansion. What makes it a bad expansion to many people is the lack of endgame content OUTSIDE of raiding.

No. That does NOT mean we will be in HFC for a year. They are already announcing 7.0 in 2 days. It's very possible they are very far ahead with the expansion and that it may be one of the shortest Betas we have EVER seen. Not saying there isn't a possibility of a year long HFC, but it's looking less and less likely at this point.

But seriously. There are so many threads you could have posted this in. Why did you feel so inclined to make this its own super-special snowflake thread?

Didn't people say EXACTLY the same about SoO, v6.0 and WoD-beta?

[Jainzar]

Didn't people say EXACTLY the same about SoO, v6.0 and WoD-beta?

yea, they did. and not one of the promises have been kept (shorter time between xpacs, no 1 year raid content yada yada yada). its the same old, same old. the new xpac wont be available until late 2016 either, and ppl will be raiding hellfire citadel for 1 year+ guaranteed!

[Algoma0]

Can I quote you on that when they release 7.0 early 2016?

[TickTickTick]

yea, they did. and not one of the promises have been kept (shorter time between xpacs, no 1 year raid content yada yada yada). its the same old, same old. the new xpac wont be available until late 2016 either, and ppl will be raiding hellfire citadel for 1 year+ guaranteed!

Well, in that time they had this excuse that big part of the team are new people who need to be trained etc etc. Now they don't have this excuse (you're not gonna convince me it needs 2+ years to train someone to be propper at developing WoW).

[Zimakai]

Hasn't played the entire expansion, still manages to complain about it.

Yes, and that is why every expansion 'sucks'. Even people that don't play complain about it. Since you missed so much, there is more than enough content to discover for you at the moment.

[Cracked]

What an insightful and useful thread.

Yes. There are only 2 raid tiers. Remember when Blizzard said they planned Warlords to only have 2 raid tiers before it launched? Turns out they weren't lying. Having 2 raid tiers doesn't make it a bad expansion. What makes it a bad expansion to many people is the lack of endgame content OUTSIDE of raiding.

No. That does NOT mean we will be in HFC for a year. They are already announcing 7.0 in 2 days. It's very possible they are very far ahead with the expansion and that it may be one of the shortest Betas we have EVER seen. Not saying there isn't a possibility of a year long HFC, but it's looking less and less likely at this point.

But seriously. There are so many threads you could have posted this in. Why did you feel so inclined to make this its own super-special snowflake thread?

TBC Announcement to release: 445 days
WotLK Announcement to release: 408 days
Cata Announcement to release: 474 days
MoP Announcement to release: 341 days
WoD Announcement to release: 371 days

Just saying. Based on known data, we WILL have HFC for more than a year. Realistic data of release for the next expansion is anywhere between June - September/October next year

[Cassidin]

yea, they did. and not one of the promises have been kept (shorter time between xpacs, no 1 year raid content yada yada yada). its the same old, same old. the new xpac wont be available until late 2016 either, and ppl will be raiding hellfire citadel for 1 year+ guaranteed!

We had Hellfire early July anyway - so its only got to be a july release for the next xpac and its been a year of hellfire. I cant imagine any possibility of them getting it out before middle of next year - so I would be VERY surprised if its much shorter than a year of hellfire either way.

[Deleted]

That reads like a blog post. Or a diary. Same thing.

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Hasn't played the entire expansion, still manages to complain about it.

Yes, and that is why every expansion 'sucks'. Even people that don't play complain about it. Since you missed so much, there is more than enough content to discover for you at the moment.

> implying.

I saw the expansion for about 2 months and right now it takes about 5 days to see most of the rest. Most of the "not seeing" is being forced to be gated from the legendary quests. Or not wiping countless of times on progression on previous raids, as if that's fun for most of us.

[Vanessa VanCleef]

TBC Announcement to release: 445 days
WotLK Announcement to release: 408 days
Cata Announcement to release: 474 days
MoP Announcement to release: 341 days
WoD Announcement to release: 371 days

Just saying. Based on known data, we WILL have HFC for more than a year. Realistic data of release for the next expansion is anywhere between June - September/October next year

That's a good point, but for all we know, they intentionally held the announcement back. A lot of people thought they would announce the expansion last year at Blizzcon, but that would mean announcing it before WoD even launched.

Thing is, if they really wanna do yearly expansions, it's tricky. Either they would have to announce the expansion the same time the previous expansion releases, which could spoil things, or they would have to reduce the time between announcement and release.

[shoc]

And the 'days between announcement and release' statistics are pointless now because they are in a completely different development cycle of two different teams developing two different expansion simultaneously. In the past, with only 1 development team they would have only been able to really start the development of the next expansion when the previous expansion was shipped, and even then you would have to continue developing the 2nd, 3rd tier before really committing to the next expansion. That's why there were those brutal content droughts after Sunwell, ICC, Dragon Soul, and SoO.

But this time is different, because the X6 team has been working on X6 since MoP, so who knows how far along they are. Considering that the WoD team have probably all started development on X7 the moment they launched 6.2, I think we might be seeing this expansion sooner than we think.

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That's a good point, but for all we know, they intentionally held the announcement back. A lot of people thought they would announce the expansion last year at Blizzcon, but that would mean announcing it before WoD even launched.

Thing is, if they really wanna do yearly expansions, it's tricky. Either they would have to announce the expansion the same time the previous expansion releases, which could spoil things, or they would have to reduce the time between announcement and release.

Assuming around a March-ish release date (if Blizzard IS really serious about making sure the last tier doesn't last any longer than the first), then they could announce X7 at Blizzcon 7 months later in November, and release the expansion 6 months later the following March. It kind of sets a comfortable precedent where Blizzard could announce an expansion at every Blizzcon, start a Beta in like December, and launch with a comfortably long beta.

[Vanessa VanCleef]

And the 'days between announcement and release' statistics are pointless now because they are in a completely different development cycle of two different teams developing two different expansion simultaneously. In the past, with only 1 development team they would have only been able to really start the development of the next expansion when the previous expansion was shipped, and even then you would have to continue developing the 2nd, 3rd tier before really committing to the next expansion. That's why there were those brutal content droughts after Sunwell, ICC, Dragon Soul, and SoO.

But this time is different, because the X6 team has been working on X6 since MoP, so who knows how far along they are. Considering that the WoD team have probably all started development on X7 the moment they launched 6.2, I think we might be seeing this expansion sooner than we think.

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Assuming around a March-ish release date (if Blizzard IS really serious about making sure the last tier doesn't last any longer than the first), then they could announce X7 at Blizzcon 7 months later in November, and release the expansion 6 months later the following March. It kind of sets a comfortable precedent where Blizzard could announce an expansion at every Blizzcon, start a Beta in like December, and launch with a comfortably long beta.

I think their ultimate plan is to announce and release a new expansion always about a year apart from each other. That could mean this expansion released November, next expansion announced next year in August at Gamescom, etc.

[shoc]

I think their ultimate plan is to announce and release a new expansion always about a year apart from each other. That could mean this expansion released November, next expansion announced next year in August at Gamescom, etc.

I don't think Gamescon will be a regular occurrence, Blizzard has their own convention which sells out every single year. They would want to announce their flagship product there where it will get the most attention. WoW expansions don't need an introduction to non-Blizzard conventions, WoW is a household name already, as opposed to Overwatch or Hearthstone which Blizzard is going to want to impress non-Blizzard fans with.

I think the reason why they are at Gamescon this year is because if Blizzard wants to launch this expansion as early as possible, they are going to need to Beta test as early as possible, which means announcing it as early as possible. If choosing Blizzcon over Gamescon meant adding 2 months to the WoD content drought, Blizzard probably knew that would be bad news.

[Vanessa VanCleef]

I don't think Gamescon will be a regular occurrence, Blizzard has their own convention which sells out every single year. They would want to announce their flagship product there where it will get the most attention. WoW expansions don't need an introduction to non-Blizzard conventions, WoW is a household name already, as opposed to Overwatch or Hearthstone which Blizzard is going to want to impress non-Blizzard fans with.

I think the reason why they are at Gamescon this year is because if Blizzard wants to launch this expansion as early as possible, they are going to need to Beta test as early as possible, which means announcing it as early as possible. If choosing Blizzcon over Gamescon meant adding 2 months to the WoD content drought, Blizzard probably knew that would be bad news.

Yeah but their own convention is usually around the same time, usually in November. That pins them down when it comes to announcing the expansion. It's really not good to announce the expansion in November when it's planned to come out in November.

[shoc]

Yeah but their own convention is usually around the same time, usually in November. That pins them down when it comes to announcing the expansion. It's really not good to announce the expansion in November when it's planned to come out in November.

The 2 development teams simultaneously developing expansions development cycle (mouthful sorry) that they are currently running wouldn't have the same 1 year post-announcement release date that we have today. WoD would have been released 6 months after announcement if not for them having to train all the new hires.

They could announce, release 6 months later, and announce again 6 months after that. On repeat.

[Vanessa VanCleef]

The 2 development teams simultaneously developing expansions development cycle (mouthful sorry) that they are currently running wouldn't have the same 1 year post-announcement release date that we have today. WoD would have been released 6 months after announcement if not for them having to train all the new hires.

They could announce, release 6 months later, and announce again 6 months after that. On repeat.

Yeah but that would still mean that they announce and release the game around the same time each year. Otherwise, it doesn't really work out being a yearly expansion.

[Gaidax]

I, personally, am very happy with WoD pace - we got 3 big raids in a span of just half a year and with them pushing next expansion announcement in 2 days, I am very hopeful we will see it in half a year from now (optimistic, but that would be perfect).

I do think fast paced smaller expansion are much more exciting, because they push story faster and prevent stagnation on top of keeping up introducing new features and expanding world.

If WoD will last 1 year - it would be a very good job on Blizzard part - WoD is actually a very kickass expansion, it's just they failed a bit with whole open world part by making Garrisons so self sufficient.