[Theory] 5.4 is the halfway point of Mists of Pandaria.

[huth]

5.4 September. Xpac announced at Blizzcon. Xpac released no later then 6 months after. 5.5 released a month or so before xpac to unveil new talents, resource system and pre-xpac storylines.

Pretty obvious for those of us who've been around for a while!

Nah, the pre-patch will be 6.0. We may or may not get a 5.5 in between.

[Daswolfen]

5.4 September. Xpac announced at Blizzcon. Xpac released no later then 6 months after. 5.5 released a month or so before xpac to unveil new talents, resource system and pre-xpac storylines.

Pretty obvious for those of us who've been around for a while!

Except the patch that has the new base mechanic stuff of the next patch is always the X.0.X patch. 2.0.1 was TBC's Beyond the Storm, 3.0.2 was WoLK's, 4.0.1 was Catalcysm's, etc. MoP was a bit different as there was no pre-patch and the usual world even was replaced with early access to the Attack on Theramore Isle scenario , but I don't think they will repeat that. The lack of a cool world event before MoP was missed.

Like you said, pretty obvious for those that have been around for a while...

[Squeezus]

Wotlk, Cata, and MoP betas took 6~months. You're suggesting that they will release an expansion in the Summer season instead of Holiday? And that's less ridiculous than my idea?

Since when is September the holiday season? October and the beginning of November aren't even the holiday season.

It happens every time an expansion is getting close to being announced, a bunch of people get on and start coming up with crazy ideas about when the next one will come out and why it will be way off from what should be expected. Then they are miserably wrong.

The formula is simple really. Take the known facts in to account, such as known last raid tier, Blizzards statements, etc. Then add a month or two on to that for delays.

So, last raid tier of MoP being released around sep-oct.
Blizzard statement of getting content out much quicker, and proving it means the last raid tier will only last about 6 months, which brings us to March or April.
Then the last step of adding a month or two on for delays leaves us at approximately May 26, 2013 at 12:00AM.

[dezzick]

Sorry, but this is the most hilarious thing I have ever read.