Totally new expansion? or focus on improving what we already have?

[nickp007]

This may seem like a ridiculous idea to some but I personally would like to see Blizzard focus on the World that we already have available. Now before you dismiss this post hear me out.

99% of the game is based around max level. In theory this is fine, however because each time a new expansion is launched, its focus revolves around a new Continent. This means that literally 99% of the game is spent in 1 area of the game, a fraction of the actual world that's available to us.
Look at the zones outside of Draenor: Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Northrend, "Old" Outland and now Pandaria, this is the actual "World" of Warcraft and yet these places are all pretty much dead because the 99% is happening in Draenor.

I think the next expansion should go back to the roots of World of Warcraft and re-ignite the conflict between the Horde and the Alliance. For once lets spend just a little bit of effort promoting PvP and not just throw the community a bone to chew on like Ashran and hope it will keep everyone happy.
An idea I had for a new Battleground called "Turn of the Tide", A Team Domination map located deep within the watery depths of The Great Sea in Vashj'ir. - Underwater PvP could be fun if there was a way to balance it out.
Updates for the old BG's (new music/art etc) give players incentive to go back to Wintergrasp and Tol Barad (update rewards to max level)
-Baradin Hold and Vault of Archavon bosses and loot scaled up if queuing at lvl 100
New Rewards for defeating the opposing faction Leaders:

• The death of a leader will reward all players involved with 500 conquest and a chance at a piece of conquest gear. Defeating all 4 leaders in a single week will award an additional 500 conquest and the title <Sacker of Cities> which will last for 7 days. Those who successfully defend their leaders by defeating more than 20 players in a given attack will be awarded with 300 conquest and the title <The Last Wall of Defense> also lasting for 7 days.
• If one of your cities is under attack, an icon will light up under the PvP menu. If you accept the plea for help you will be teleported to the city gates and an automatic raid invite will pop up on screen for you to join the other players taking part.
• Players who choose to attack a city will no longer be able to use flying mounts once inside the city gates. Guards will also try much harder to slow you down to allow for the cities defenses to muster.
• All important npc's that are not guards (bankers/professions etc) will be immune to damage and will not attack players. This is so players who do not wish to partake in the action can still go about their business without having the Auctioneer killed in front of them.

I would also love to see a complete overhaul of Azeroth and for Blizzard to implement proper scaling to go with it. Remember events such as the Scourge Invasion all those years ago? There hasn't been anything similar to that to date. Patch 5.3.0 was a step in the right direction introducing the Battlefield Barrens event because it brought people back to what is usually a dead zone. Think about how much time you actually spend in Azeroth these days. Besides lvling alts (which takes a few hours) or doing archaeology I'd say probably none.

An idea I had recently was for an event called
"The Battle of Hillsbrad" -

• The Alliance full of resentment towards the Forsaken Horde have begun a new campaign to take back the lands that were stolen from them in the Hillsbrad Foothills. Their goal to take back Southshore and restore it, creating an everlasting foothold against the Horde. Durnholde Keep has been taken by the Alliance and is now a bustling defensive hub supplying weapons and soldiers for the oncoming war.
• Players from both sides will fight an ongoing battle based around Tarren Mill (H) and The Ruins of Southshore (A). Daily PvP quests will be available which will see players either defending or attacking the opposing factions defenses.
• This will be much like the events that took place in the Northern Barrens, but much more PvP oriented and offer much better rewards. Players will be able to find and create supplies and materials used to build great defensive structures or weapons used to attack.

A new scenario has also been added for those who are not interested in PvP.
Alliance players, accompanied by the Stormpike and Worgen attempt to stamp out the plague ridden abominations and aberrations and reclaim the Eastpoint Tower, Azurelode Mine, the Sludge Fields and Sludgeguard Tower.
Horde players with the help of the Forsaken will defend an encroaching force of Stormpike who have set up strong points in Corrahn's Dagger, The Headland and Gavin's Naze.

This is just an idea for 1 area, imagine dozens of events like this spread across the world.

If players have a good reason to actually leave Draenor then the whole flying debate would be solved. People are only against it because they are stuck in 1 zone that doesn't allow it.

Lets also:

• Fix Professions and make gathering materials actually require effort again.
• Overhaul Secondary Professions to make them fun:
• Allow players to mix different ingredients of their choosing to create their own unique recipes
• Archaeologists will now see Bran Bronzebeard accompany them on treasure hunts and missions to find rare artifacts and loot. As players search for hidden fragments they will have to solve tricky riddles, fight fierce ancient monsters and explore secret caves and buildings hidden from plain site.
• Update the World Bosses across Pandaria to be relevant at max lvl
• Add lvl and gear scaling to all zones and dungeons
• Update spells and attack visuals (look at FFXIV compared to WoW -_- )

So to reiterate, I would prefer all the amazing zones that we have available to us to be reborn. Lets put the "World" back in World of Warcraft.

[terenix]

If we do stick with WoD, I think it would be necessary to add in all of those patch content island that were around the continent, and farahlon to keep the game interesting.

[Deleted]

PvP, PvP, PvP, PvP, some more PvP and maybe let's stick some excuse for PvE content on the end.
Yay!

[Dvaldin]

It feels like Cata, MoP and WoD all were "We're going back to the roots of World of Warcraft" -- TBC furthered plot lines in world-torn Outland. It introduced new ideas. It doesn't feel to me like any expansion since then has introduced concepts like TBC did. At this point, I'm ready for WoW to delve beyond its roots. That's not saying the roots are bad. Perhaps a better way to express it would be to say the I'm ready for the roots to expand and introduce new lore.

Wouldn't mind seeing a brand new enemy crop up as long as it was sufficiently developed as a character. Think they've done a great job developing Yrel's character. A new enemy that's developed as well as they did her (or better) could be interesting and a lot of fun.

[Deleted]

I would like to see Blizzard stop trying to add new continents (they're clearly running out of ideas) and instead just add content to the existing ones. It would be great if I could "live" in a specific continent, progressing in content added there (world bosses, dungeons, quests), which would give my character unique abilities, give access to unique gathering materials and recipes, etc. A rogue from Northrend would have different specializations than one from the Outland, or one from Kalimdor.

They could also pace it so that the time and effort it takes to specialize in a continent would be so huge that you could only do it on one character, but you could alternatively choose to be a "traveler" and move between continents. I.e., essentially it would give you a choice between deep but narrow, and broad but shallow specialization.

[Moonstream]

This is something I posted in another topic awhile back. I agree, and had some of the same ideas in there. :

I'm sure I'll get stomped for this but here it goes. Instead of there being some big end of the world threat right off the bat, I think it would be interesting to have say a moment of peace. For leveling up past level 100, you got back to a phased version of your races starting zone and start rebuilding your races area after the cataclysm (appropriate challenges and what not). All the while you are leveling, you are starting to become aware of *the major end of the world scenario or big bad person*.

If blizz decides garrison isn't a total fail (would like some changes personally) your new *home (garrison* could be in your races starting territory, which is of course, phased for a level 110 or w/e we would be at that point.

So you go through all your race's zones, the shared, and then end in the lvl 40-50 ish contested zones. (ALL PHASED, from the lower levels in that area)

It just seems such a shame that all these great zones people fell in love with, are basically irrelevant now. Since blizz is also "returning to their roots" or w/e they called it for WoD, it would be an interesting step. Once you pick your race, and after lvl 20, it doesn't really matter anymore. You for the most part never become part of your races culture.

Once you get to the max level, then you can head off to the high new high level zones based on w/e threat is now on the horizon (business as usual). Depending on what ever theme that is going, azhara, forsaken, magatha, w/e (don't have an opinion here, but would like something azeroth based).

Another idea that I personally liked, was the raid not to become available until the server progessed AQ/sunwell style.

This expansion there would actually be things to do throughout the world. That was a cataclysm fail imo, they re-did the whole world but there was no reason to go out into it (sounds like a recurring theme)

I guess the big idea is to make it seem like we are actually in a huge world. Not just some slab of land in the middle of the universe, where we hang out for awhile then fly home.

[Echo of Soul]

Not a bad idea actually. Instead of new zones we'd unlock new versions of existing ones. I'd love to quest through familiar zones like Feralas and see it change as I do, maybe dig up a whole raid underneath the Master's Glaive in Darkshore. Could be fun!

[Anjerith]

As great as I think an idea like this would be for me personally, Cata proved that players are not interested in going to old zones even when they look different and are presented from entirely new perspectives. Increasing the item level for things in them would only be a bandaid.

Also, most players in the vocal minority would be all over this bitching about things they cannot have a hope of understanding.

[Moonstream]

Unfortunetly probably . Wonder, if even with all new quests and mobs of the appropriate lvl. Basically remade zones scaled to a questing zone of your level with new updated stories. But I guess that's asking a lot and the outcry would be reused content.

[nickp007]

It's better to do the upcoming content in a proper way rather than revamping current content. I don't think many would be interested in old/current content. Humans ae forward looking.

The problem is that if Blizzard stick with the same approach that they take in expansions these days, all current & old content that is either completely unused/wasted or broken will be ignored. They will put on their tunnel vision goggles and only focus on what they had planned for future content. Everything that they destroy along the way (professions/flying etc) will just be swept under the carpet.

As great as I think an idea like this would be for me personally, Cata proved that players are not interested in going to old zones even when they look different and are presented from entirely new perspectives. Increasing the item level for things in them would only be a bandaid.

Also, most players in the vocal minority would be all over this bitching about things they cannot have a hope of understanding.

I didn't know that was part of Cata that people didn't like? I didn't mind it, I mean I preferred the zones before they changed them but I certainly didn't hate it.

[rda]

I support the idea of no big revamps - well, except adding the final quest line to the garrison campaign which will end with us turning our garrisons over to the natives of Draenor, packing up and leaving for Azeroth.

Small incremental changes are much better than revamps - for class balance, for professions, for everything, really.

That said, it is important to note that this is NOT a call to do less content - yes, the changes should be small, but there should be hundreds of them, and the amount of incremental content should be huge. We need something like a new zone every month (sometimes replaced with a raid, sometimes with a hundreds of pets plus a hundred of rares plus a hundred of treasures plus a mini-game, etc). For no additional charge on top of a sub. With two-year expansions being developed in parallel.

[Moonstream]

I support the idea of no big revamps - well, except adding the final quest line to the garrison campaign which will end with us turning our garrisons over to the natives of Draenor, packing up and leaving for Azeroth.

Yes! I can't wait to leave that place behind. The questing (the first time for both factions) was great, but after that......

[FuxieDK]

As long as Northrend, Pandaria and Draenor is NEVER EVER reused in future expansions, then Blizzard have frees hands..

Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland... Go right ahead...

[Anth]

We just need completely new characters and lore. Blizzard is running out of previously established big bads it can use for upcoming expansion. You have Azshara, Sargeras, and some Old Gods. Characters like Onyxia, Bolvar, and even Garrosh were all characters conceived in WoW, and had for the most part good character development and storylines.

Argus and Draenor/Outland can't be the only planets out there. A new planet/continent with entirely new races, new villian, etc would be great. The hardest part would be providing a reason for us to be there.

[Deleted]

What should be done would be a rollback back to level 85 and remove all of Pandaria and WoD from existence. Replace them with new content and continue from a clean table as if those abominations never happened.

[Vulcanix]

As long as Northrend, Pandaria and Draenor is NEVER EVER reused in future expansions, then Blizzard have frees hands..

Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland... Go right ahead...

I'm confused, so do you love or hate Northrend, Pandaria and Draenor?

[Azrile]

Not that I necessarily agree with them. But after Cata, they mentioned that ´not leaving´ the old world did not feel right. That the zones were located on the old continents made them feel less significant.

[Apexis]

I think instead of making more worlds to explore they should scrap the whole expansion concepts and go to a patch content design and going back through and finishing content they seem to keep showing at Blizzcon that does not end up ever in the game or is so watered down to the point where it no longer has it original feeling or intent. Every expansion has to revolve around class changes, leveling content, etc, etc, etc. That time could be more well spent actually making content, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every couple years.

They waste so much time on classes that they could of more than filled in all the gaps they left behind and it does not matter if different teams work on different thing. If you shift the focus on to developing content and having more for people to do. You are going to have less and less people leaving after 3 to 6 months in. Problem with this game we are already past the point of no return, it is on the back side looking in now and Blizzard has new babies to take the lead where WoW can no longer sustain. The idea that they are going to plow a massive amount of resources back into this game is a fallacy at best. We are seem the type of content they are going to be developing in the future for this game, right now. We are not getting anymore than what we are currently receiving.

They would be far better to start over from scratch now than to redo most of the current and older content. They need a new engine that can truly open up far more possibilities for them to develop content. Unfortunate that does not look like Blizzard interested in developing another MMO, so they are just going to limp WoW forward until people can't stand what they are largely playing and milk out every possible cent while doing so.

[Tart]

I dont know to be fair. If you say a new expansion in going back to basics then yes. I dont trust blizzard to try and improve, as trying to improve is what has brought us this monstrosity.

[donjn]

As great as I think an idea like this would be for me personally, Cata proved that players are not interested in going to old zones even when they look different and are presented from entirely new perspectives. Increasing the item level for things in them would only be a bandaid.

Also, most players in the vocal minority would be all over this bitching about things they cannot have a hope of understanding.

100% wrong, people didn't like going into old zones to quest because they turned it into questing on rails. Each zone was one long quest chain, and exploration became meaningless. Also, those zones were converted to attract new players, which was an odd decision considering WoW had 12 million at the time. A lot of us already had max level characters too.