Okay so my contact within Blizzard (who must not be named as he could get in trouble) informed me that work has already begun on the expansion after BFA.
Not much has been established yet but there's some concept art and memos floating around the offices as well as a 100+ page dossier.
A few things that are pretty much set in stone though:
Name of the expansion: Vanguard
Storywise
- Location: the other side of azeroth + parts of different planets each patch (opening endless possibilities for future expansions as well as new races)
- Main Villains: the demons
Yes, we defeated the Legion but demons are still around and players will be working with Archmage Khadgar and the Illidari DHs to set up a prison world for the demons again, like Sargeras did when he was the good guy. The most dangerous demonic faction will be the Nathrezim who were powerful before the Legion existed and some are trying to rebuild the Legion.
This all starts when demons begin attacking Azeroth again (though not as coordinated as the Legion obviously, but they are a major nuisance and there will be capital invasions pre-launch at the end of BFA similar to zombie invasions) drawn once again by excessive magical uses and the tear in the fabric of reality left by the giant rift to Argus (thanks Illidan).
- About BFA Ending: The dossier redacted most parts of the BFA ending (only 4 people within Blizzard know how the expansion will end for sure for now) but it seems pretty clear our world soul will not survive (Azerite will be gone, neck artifact will get an ending similar to current artifact power), in the end, neither faction really wins the "battle for Azeroth". The other remaining titans are busy so basically we're left to our own devices in the universe and will have to face the rest of the demons and prepare for the Void Lords (future expansion maybe)
- Anduin will find his queen by the end of BFA (much of this is redacted to so we don't know yet who will be his queen, there are some hints that this will either make him the most powerful king on Azeroth or that it's a trap and his queen is not what she appears to be, again much of the text is redacted so it's not clear but it might play into the Il'gynoth prophecy)
- It is not clear Sylvanas will still be Warchief, does she die, abdicate, stay who knows but we know that Gallywix and Saurfang (working separately) will each try to become Warchief in their own way and for completely different reasons (Gallywix - money and power, Saurfang - honor), so Sylvanas faces two challenges
Gameplay:
- 130 cap
- ability to save professions in a book and sell to other players (you will lose your recipes though and have to retrain from scratch)
- 7 new bag spaces for bank storage
- new class: Tinker (who will help us travel to other worlds quicker similar to how DHs helped us defeat Legion)
Tinker features:
* DPS/Tank/Healing specs (names yet to be determined, but healing spec will almost certainly be called "Medic")
* unique leveling style (starts at level 1 but upon leveling has a chance to proc many extra levels as a quick catch up mechanic and be teleported to a different zone too if they choose so)
- storywise this will have an interesting explanation basically their equipment malfunctions frequently (up to 120 then it gets stabilized again) and they randomly travel through time and get to experience many periods of WoW history (the time Garrosh was Warchief, Northrend LK, Outland, Pandaria etc. also sort of explaining the apparent schizophrenia of normal leveling where nothing seems to be in chronological order anymore)
- starting zones will be instanced Kezan/Gnomeregan (pre-vanilla in fact, then an experiment going wrong flings them into the future around level 6) with unique storylines, only Goblin/Gnome but they will have gadgets to change appearance to another race (though not racials)
- tinkers get free engineering maxed with all schematics (as they level, minus Vanguard schematics which they have to train normally like any other player), have 3 profession slots but engineering cannot be unlearned
- class hall will be the Blingtron homeworld but class halls wont get an update post-Legion
- NEW artifact system: Artifact Trinkets
- the return of story/grind legendaries, realistically 1-3 per guild and only certain classes