What after WotLK classic

[Kralljin]

I think you mean past WotLK. They've never confirmed there will be a Cataclysm Classic. And quite honestly, Cataclysm without the revamped leveling experience would illustrate the major flaws with that expansion. I think it would be a bad idea anyway.

Yeah i meant Wotlk.

The leveling experience will obviously be changed if Cata is happening, you can't have all the dungeons and shit without the cata zones, that's just not happening.
Whether they're actually going to put in the effort to redesign those is debatable.

The point is, they heavily implied there will be something post Wotlk, whether it will be Cata or they just double down on the seasonal route remains to be seen.
They are however not going to skip Cata if they keep releasing old expansions, even if it's relatively unpopular, it's just three raid tiers and the average Classic phase only lasted like 3 months, so Cata Classic, if it actually happens, is only like a 9 months affair.

[irdsyd]

My guess is they will try cataclysm and it will flop. I'd love to replay MoP as I liked the original design of monks and enjoyed the long legendary quest chain. I also liked class design in MoP - after then many classes I liked had design problems. I also thought it was a great expansion in general. However I don't see a MoP replay happening.

[Synapse12]

Ion hinted that with Cata they're open to changing a lot of things. They're prepping us already with Wrath and #SomeChanges. I think Cata will be #majorchanges.

The main things people hated about Cata can be easily fixed. Dungeons too hard? Make them easy. Last raid sucked? Make it last 2 months before we go straight into MoP. Other than that, Cata was a solid expansion.

If I’m thinking about what you’re talking about he didn’t even mention cata. There was one question about what will happen after cata and he said “we are open to ideas we will listen to the community to see what direction they want to take classic wow”. I don’t think he even suggested cata.

[Relapses]

Cata isn’t happening I could see some different SoM styles for sure. And who knows let’s cross our fingers maybe for some new content.

Cata is a no tho

Cata Classic is happening no matter how hard you put your fingers in your ears and pretend that it won't. Don't worry, though, I'm sure Blizzard will be fine constructing an adult daycare center SoM version of WotLK so everybody who dislikes the unstoppable march of time can slay Arthas for ever and ever and ever.

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Yeah i meant Wotlk.

The leveling experience will obviously be changed if Cata is happening, you can't have all the dungeons and shit without the cata zones, that's just not happening.
Whether they're actually going to put in the effort to redesign those is debatable.

If there's a SoM version of Classic available then there's no need to undo any of Cataclysm's cataclysming. They can just release the expansion minus the LFD/LFR.

[arkanon]

Knowing Blizzard - WoW Classic CLASSIC - just wow classic again.

[Triceron]

WoW Classic HD

or just a totally new spin-off that follows the WarCraft II timeline instead

As much as I'd love that, I think they'd just fuck up WC2 by modernizing the lore. I mean, look at what the movie did with 'Insert Lothar love triangle with Garona'.

[Khaza-R]

Yeah i meant Wotlk.

The leveling experience will obviously be changed if Cata is happening, you can't have all the dungeons and shit without the cata zones, that's just not happening.
Whether they're actually going to put in the effort to redesign those is debatable.

The point is, they heavily implied there will be something post Wotlk, whether it will be Cata or they just double down on the seasonal route remains to be seen.
They are however not going to skip Cata if they keep releasing old expansions, even if it's relatively unpopular, it's just three raid tiers and the average Classic phase only lasted like 3 months, so Cata Classic, if it actually happens, is only like a 9 months affair.

Sorry to be more clear, I meant without the hype of the revamped leveling experience. Back in 2010 or whenever Cataclysm came out everyone was excited to see the old world and story update. But now that would be a massive chunk of that expansion that wouldn't be touched and nothing but old news to modern players. Which would present the glaring problem that too much of Cataclysm's development time went into the revamp. Hence why Cataclysm Classic will never have any hype to it.

I would agree though. Its either they move forward with the concept of sequential Classic expansions or not. There won't be any cherry picking like only doing MoP and Legion Classic in the future.

[Synapse12]

Cata Classic is happening no matter how hard you put your fingers in your ears and pretend that it won't. Don't worry, though, I'm sure Blizzard will be fine constructing an adult daycare center SoM version of WotLK so everybody who dislikes the unstoppable march of time can slay Arthas for ever and ever and ever.

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If there's a SoM version of Classic available then there's no need to undo any of Cataclysm's cataclysming. They can just release the expansion minus the LFD/LFR.

Putting my fingers in my ears? Why are you making it sound like I don’t want them to do cata? I truly don’t care. But that’s the issue. Most people just simply don’t care about cata. I don’t have any personal beef with it like you’re making it sound. Kinda weird you took that approach to it. You must really like bad expansions lol

[Relapses]

As much as I'd love that, I think they'd just fuck up WC2 by modernizing the lore. I mean, look at what the movie did with 'Insert Lothar love triangle with Garona'.

"Look at the movie" is a terrible way to redirect an argument on WoW's lore.

1.) It was written by Duncan Jones (the director) and Charles Leavitt (who wrote K-PAX) who have never had anything to do with the writing in the game.
2.) It was released 6 years ago. And most importantly,
3.) Nobody "looked at the movie" when it came out which is precisely why it failed so miserably.

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Putting my fingers in my ears? Why are you making it sound like I don’t want them to do cata? I truly don’t care. But that’s the issue. Most people just simply don’t care about cata. I don’t have any personal beef with it like you’re making it sound. Kinda weird you took that approach to it. You must really like bad expansions lol

Yeah, you "don't care" but you have to go out of your way to let everybody know you think it's a "bad expansion." Lots of "not caring" going on here, yep.

[Triceron]

"Look at the movie" is a terrible way to redirect an argument on WoW's lore.

1.) It was written by Duncan Jones (the director) and Charles Leavitt (who wrote K-PAX) who have never had anything to do with the writing in the game.
2.) It was released 6 years ago. And most importantly,
3.) Nobody "looked at the movie" when it came out which is precisely why it failed so miserably.

And I'm supposed to have confidence in WC2 lore in the hands of who, Danuser and Golden? Guess that means Sylvanas will be a POV character :P

[Relapses]

And I'm supposed to have confidence in WC2 lore in the hands of who, Danuser and Golden? Guess that means Sylvanas will be a POV character :P

To be fair, the focus on Sylvanas had more to do with Asfarabararabarabi than it did Danuser and crew. I don't think Danuser did a great job but he got tee'd up with a shit sandwich and did the best he could with it.

[Kralljin]

Hence why Cataclysm Classic will never have any hype to it.

Eh, it wouldn't have the hype because Cata is generally seen as the point where WoW went terrible, even if viewed from a general perspective, the endgame (which most people care about) isn't that much different to that of Wotlk.
Cata still has solid dungeons and raids, it would be interesting to see how the Playerbase "that has gotten so much better" interacts with pre nerf heroics.

I'd play Classic Cata, not as much as Classic, TBC or Wotlk but as said earlier, it's not going to last nearly as long because it doesn't have the same amount of content to begin with.

And I'm supposed to have confidence in WC2 lore in the hands of who, Danuser and Golden? Guess that means Sylvanas will be a POV character :P

Such a movie would basically be a extended edition of the flashbacks in "A dark Mirror" with Sylvanas staying at Nathanos' house.

[Triceron]

To be fair, the focus on Sylvanas had more to do with Asfarabararabarabi than it did Danuser and crew. I don't think Danuser did a great job but he got tee'd up with a shit sandwich and did the best he could with it.

We're talking about the same Danuser who wrote the short story about Nathanos simping for Sylvanas, right?

[Synapse12]

"Look at the movie" is a terrible way to redirect an argument on WoW's lore.

1.) It was written by Duncan Jones (the director) and Charles Leavitt (who wrote K-PAX) who have never had anything to do with the writing in the game.
2.) It was released 6 years ago. And most importantly,
3.) Nobody "looked at the movie" when it came out which is precisely why it failed so miserably.

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Yeah, you "don't care" but you have to go out of your way to let everybody know you think it's a "bad expansion." Lots of "not caring" going on here, yep.

I mean I truly don’t care if they released it. I don’t care if blizzard makes another bad expansion for retail either. That doesn’t mean I’m going to not call it bad?

You seem very connected to cata, and I’m very sorry that you probably aren’t going to see it live again. My condolences.

[Hablelol]

Cata beta? I think we see where this is going.

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I mean I truly don’t care if they released it. I don’t care if blizzard makes another bad expansion for retail either. That doesn’t mean I’m going to not call it bad?

You seem very connected to cata, and I’m very sorry that you probably aren’t going to see it live again. My condolences.

Wait why wouldn't they? Did I miss the whole topic?

[ResentfulUK]

There won't be anymore classic launches after Wrath. TBC classic servers fell after the initial wave of interest. Wrath will have even less interest in it. Interest in Cata classic? Laughable.

Wrath is going to be immensely more popular than TBC.

Equally I'd love for Blizzard to go ahead with everything from Wrath all the way through to Legion at least. I'm playing because I love the game and I'm hoping enough people do too to stick around and make something of it.

Cataclysm from a PvE perspective was awesome. Tier 11 & 12 were some of the best they've ever done. Dragonsoul certainly left a sour taste at the end of the expansion but this was exacerbated by the sheer length of time it was around.

I'd be surprised if by the time they come around to do Cataclysm Classic - and yes I genuinely believe they will - they'll have taken even more steps in the right direction.

Aside from Cataclysm they're very clearly going to do a new Season of Mastery for Wrath. I imagine they'll be trying out a ton of differences in these game modes.

I genuinely think after Wrath is done they could probably immediately announce Wrath SoM and just throw out a fairly generic series of significant buffs to all PvE content.

[Khaza-R]

Eh, it wouldn't have the hype because Cata is generally seen as the point where WoW went terrible, even if viewed from a general perspective, the endgame (which most people care about) isn't that much different to that of Wotlk.
Cata still has solid dungeons and raids, it would be interesting to see how the Playerbase "that has gotten so much better" interacts with pre nerf heroics.

I'd play Classic Cata, not as much as Classic, TBC or Wotlk but as said earlier, it's not going to last nearly as long because it doesn't have the same amount of content to begin with.

Personally, I loved Cata heroics. Especially revamped ZG & ZA. But it still probably wouldn't compel me enough to play it without some changes.

As much as I'd love that, I think they'd just fuck up WC2 by modernizing the lore. I mean, look at what the movie did with 'Insert Lothar love triangle with Garona'.

Fair point. I think they would struggle with the darker tones for both the Horde and the Alliance. But if they were willing, it could be an interesting experiment into a more grim version of WoW.

[Djaye]

i expect them to release and eventually have version of every expansion. they are keeping private servers dead. they will keep at least a handful of servers for each expansion going and also im sure have more iterations of SoM.
they have learned alot about players and their classic roll outs, and how profitable they are.

nostalgia sells

[ArenaDk]

Cata or perhaps some kind of spin on classic with bigger changes that SoM?

Cata with not nerfed dungeons would probably be the most popular version of classic with the most stuff to do. It introduced RBG for pvp and brought some raids people can progress more then a day on.

[Nerovar]

I was one of those people, too. I still have a thousand or so posts in the old Classic megathread. My opposition to Classic was that it'd fragment the playerbase and make them actively antagonistic toward one another. I felt like Classic would be better served as a parting gift once they shuttered the retail game because the last thing the game needs is more reasons for its players to hate one another. But... Blizzard clearly disagreed and now that what I predicted has happened, I'm fairly ambivalent towards the effects of fragmenting the playerbase further. (This time it'll be between REAL Classic fans who only play on WotLK and the "casual" Classic fans who dare to want their characters to progress to the next expansion.)

Is there any statement from Blizzard on this? How big is the overlap between long term Classic/retail players these days? They seem to be very different groups that aren't interested in the other game version.

On topic: Cata seems like the logical route from Blizzard's POV but I don't really see the point. The only people who have a lot of Cata nostalgia are high end PvPers and the whole "Classic" thing kinda dies with the world revamp. Cata also started to trim down on a lot of the RPG elements that make Classic so appealing to begin with.
If I recall correctly Blizzard have said that they will look at player feedback to determine how they will proceed after WotLK. Something like Classic+ would be great but I can't really see the current team pull it off in a way that upholds the spirit of Classic WoW.