[Speculation] There Won't Be 9.3 Patch

[Swnem]

You see cutting the patch still won’t do much because it’s two teams and you’d be pushing one into the other while also leaving the subs to bleed

Whereas with 9.3 they can keep the players and shareholders happy a bit more

That's not how it works. Each developer is a resource. The ones that are working on a patch can be alocated to work on the expansion and they end up doing it regardless, as we can see with the latest patch, they are only developed after the expansion comes out. This is fairly obvious as last patches tend to last nearly a year. They do put the whole team to work when they are about to launch an expansion. If they did they would've had this next patch ready to launch before they had to move to working from home.

As for pleasing shareholders or players, it's a finer line to cross.
What will shareholders and execs be ok with as far as a delay goes? What kind of a delay are we talking about? Delaying would also desynch the release of WoW expansions on the fall, which tends to be the time of the year that sees more sales.
Players, what kind of delay are we talking about? Players are already upset with the current delay, so i don't know.

My personal opinion is that they should indeed cut the patch IF indeed it means the next xpac will come out in the regular cadence.
If we are looking at a 5-6month delay like FFXIV, i think that rivers will flow with bile.
Honestly, i think FF is gonna hurt too, but the team on that game communicates a lot better and listens to the fans, so that earned them goodwill.

With all this said, given the delay of Blizzcon this year, it's a given that all projects are already delayed and they are gonna go with that. AKA, for better or worse it sounds like SL might become the longest WoW expansion ever, barring drastic measures.

[genegerbread]

I definitely enjoy being rewarded for more than a "one and done." Big improvement.

Though it can be a little frustrating that there's no real option to grind anything to catch up. It's basically several months of GV and not much else.

(still a huge improvement over 8.3, where there was no real point in playing a character who hadn't didn't have full gems and corruption, so alts were a truly massive investment. I recall my priest being close to mythic ilvl and simming ~50% of the damage of my fully-gemmed paladin with +2ilvls)

I totally agree there. I'm probably in the minority here, but I honestly enjoyed Challenge mode back in MoP a bit more. I'm not a huge fan of pushing keys (although the return of Valor is a very welcome addition).

[Wangming]

My personal opinion is that they should indeed cut the patch IF indeed it means the next xpac will come out in the regular cadence.
If we are looking at a 5-6month delay like FFXIV, i think that rivers will flow with bile.
Honestly, i think FF is gonna hurt too, but the team on that game communicates a lot better and listens to the fans, so that earned them goodwill.

Oh yeah. A lot of people are pissed and/or worried 6.0 will come 6 months instead of 3 months after 5.55. I mean that is still better than the quickest WoW has been (7 months) but still there isn't much beside Bozja. Personally I am glad because I can do some more alt leveling. Although now I am hooked on fishing.

[Swnem]

Oh yeah. A lot of people are pissed and/or worried 6.0 will come 6 months instead of 3 months after 5.55. I mean that is still better than the quickest WoW has been (7 months) but still there isn't much beside Bozja. Personally I am glad because I can do some more alt leveling. Although now I am hooked on fishing.

Yes, i did forget to bring up but the patch cadence that WoW uses is different from FFXIV, which has smaller patches every 3 months rather than a big one every 5/6 months, which makes for smaller draughts.

[Nerovar]

I totally agree there. I'm probably in the minority here, but I honestly enjoyed Challenge mode back in MoP a bit more. I'm not a huge fan of pushing keys (although the return of Valor is a very welcome addition).

Yeah, Challenge modes were actually interesting and you didn't need uber gear to do them. I remember doing all of them on my Blood DK on the last day before they got removed. The reward was also really unique. Those are still some of the coolest sets with their unique special effects. It was a real motivator to do challenge modes because most other forms of content only give you mounts (which I don't really care about).

MoP really did have a lot of cool shit and fun content.

[Wangming]

Yes, i did forget to bring up but the patch cadence that WoW uses is different from FFXIV, which has smaller patches every 3 months rather than a big one every 5/6 months, which makes for smaller draughts.

I wouldn't call patches smaller really. The bare minimum for major patches is more story content, a dungeon and a raid. More often than not a trial as well. The raids are smaller and since alliance raids and normal raids alternate we get 8 raid bosses every 7-8 months. That much is definitely true. But it is harder to quantify patch content when each game has things the other does not. Like pretty much every patch gives new housing items and triple triad cards. But we never get new artifact weapon appearances or Torghast levels or whatever.

[Swnem]

I wouldn't call patches smaller really. The bare minimum for major patches is more story content, a dungeon and a raid. More often than not a trial as well. The raids are smaller and since alliance raids and normal raids alternate we get 8 raid bosses every 7-8 months. That much is definitely true. But it is harder to quantify patch content when each game has things the other does not. Like pretty much every patch gives new housing items and triple triad cards. But we never get new artifact weapon appearances or Torghast levels or whatever.

That is a fair assessment. Not all patches are the same on both games.

[Nyel]

Yes, i did forget to bring up but the patch cadence that WoW uses is different from FFXIV, which has smaller patches every 3 months rather than a big one every 5/6 months, which makes for smaller draughts.

I mean look at 9.0.5, was that even worth to be called a patch? I don't know. At least .0.5 patches in Legion unlocked raids, but they even scrapped that (hands down, Legion had by far the best patch cadence).

[Revamp Man]

I mean look at 9.0.5, was that even worth to be called a patch? I don't know. At least .0.5 patches in Legion unlocked raids, but they even scrapped that (hands down, Legion had by far the best patch cadence).

The staggered raid unlocks felt so weird to me

[Nyel]

The staggered raid unlocks felt so weird to me

I mean sure, it was weird to have Broken Shore, but wait 1.5 months for the raid opening, but due to the very exact timing it worked really well. And it's not like they're giving us raids on patch release nowadays, it's delayed as well (but not that much, that's true).

[Revamp Man]

I mean sure, it was weird to have Broken Shore, but wait 1.5 months for the raid opening, but due to the very exact timing it worked really well. And it's not like they're giving us raids on patch release nowadays, it's delayed as well (but not that much, that's true).

My big thing though mainly in 7.3 was the story staggering

[Nyel]

My big thing though mainly in 7.3 was the story staggering

Yeah, that absolutely shouldn't be a thing or at least not as extensive. I mean Shadowlands at launch was basically the same with getting drip-fed pieces of the Covenant campaign. It was a really awful experience in my opinion.

[genegerbread]

Yeah, Challenge modes were actually interesting and you didn't need uber gear to do them. I remember doing all of them on my Blood DK on the last day before they got removed. The reward was also really unique. Those are still some of the coolest sets with their unique special effects. It was a real motivator to do challenge modes because most other forms of content only give you mounts (which I don't really care about).

MoP really did have a lot of cool shit and fun content.

100%! I personally thought the phoenix mounts were neat, but yeah. The sets you got were so awesome. I'd much prefer they go back to that if I'm being honest. I haven't even done M+ this expansion (though I've barely played this expansion). I think the fact that they found something like that which can have a lot of repetition is awesome, but there's a certain point where I just wanna stop pushing content haha

[PrairieChicken]

Judging from the classic/SL timelines, which look like:

Classic launch - Aug 2019
BWL - Feb 2020
AQ - Jul 2020
Naxx - Dec 2020
TBC - Jun 2021

SL Launch - Nov 2020

And given a two year alternating expansion cycle with 6 month raid tier on average, and no 1 year Black Temple this time, I would assume something like this:

9.1 - Jul 2021
SS/TK - Aug~Sep 2021
BT - Jan 2022
9.2 - Mar 2022
SWP - Jun~Aug 2022
10.0 - Nov~Dec 2022
Wrath Classic - April~May 2023

Adding 9.3 would make Shadowlands close to 3 year, and it would likely coincide with or be very close to Wrath Classic launch, both of which are to be avoided. So I would call no to 9.3 - Maaybe a mini stopgap patch but I don't see a full raid tier coming.

[Nyel]

Adding 9.3 would make Shadowlands close to 3 year, and it would likely coincide with or be very close to Wrath Classic launch, both of which are to be avoided. So I would call no to 9.3 - Maaybe a mini stopgap patch but I don't see a full raid tier coming.

This is pretty much the biggest factor speaking against a 9.3 patch. WotLK Classic and the next retail expansion would not only release in the same year, but most likely in the same quarter and I'm absolutely sure that's something Blizzard doesn't want to do.

[ashblond]

Under current situation, SL’s systems are no better than BFA in any way with this pace.

It will be an even worse version of World of Systems.

[Garymorilix]

I remember when people came up with this exact same idea during 8.2.

Sigh...

[ashblond]

I remember when people came up with this exact same idea during 8.2.

Sigh...

It is extremely unlikely to have a 9.3

[Garymorilix]

It is extremely unlikely to have a 9.3

Yea, sure, whatever you say.

See you in a year.

[EyelessCrow]

Yea, sure, whatever you say.

See you in a year.

When 9.2 comes out?