[spoilers possible] Is it possible Nighthold will be gated by questing in 7.1?

[Krazzorx]

So after doing the Suramar questline in 7.1, I came up with a possible theory on how they will "time gate" the opening of Nighthold. And that would be requiring at least 1 person* in the raid to have finished that storyline (which likely will be time gated).

The finale of the questline, the last 2-3 chapters, involve you disabling the barrier to the sewer entrance to the Nighthold. To me that makes it seem likely they won't arbitrarily one day open the Nighthold, but actually require that questline finished.

The reason I think this is different than ToT and IoT (which had a side entrance so you could enter the raid asap before unlocking the full island) is this questline they actually have the sewer line blocked. Not like there's a separate entrance somewhere.

*there is not a chance they'd make this a requirement for everyone because to even get to the 7.1 questline requires exalted with Nightfallen.

- - - Updated - - -

A 9 or so week time gate on a theoretical mid November 7.1 launch would bring us to January to fit in with a suspected launch date.

(Should be noted that while it's heavily implied there will be time gating, you can do the whole questline in 1 day theoretically on ptr. I think that's just for testing purposes though as many end of chapter quests have npcs commenting "this will take awhile". Even though you can jump right to next quest)

[ChronoSul]

Honestly I thought about that at first especially since people have been wanting attunements back into the game

[Krazzorx]

I think, obviously I'm no psychologist, if it's "gated" like that with a relatively easy gate (they can even do something like it opens for everyone but only when someone on server finishes the storyline) it makes it "feel" more normal and less "waiting" because it's not as apparently arbitrary.

[Farabee]

Yes, it's a 9 week time gate with story quest chapters leading up to the opening of Nighthold. On PTR it's all unlocked for the purposes of testing, but when it hits Live you'll be fed the storyline in weekly episodes. Basically Game of Thrones: Suramar Edition. I don't think that you'll be required to complete the quests to open the raid, but the raid won't open until the last chapter is available.

[Krazzorx]

Which I assume then basically indicates mid November 7.1 launch.