Originally Posted by
Rucati
It'll start next week. They've never ended a season and started one in the same patch, and there's a couple reasons for it. First it gives them time to make sure titles are all going out properly. And secondly it gives players time to farm honor for full PvP gear so everyone will be equal at the start of the season.
As for your second question, nobody really knows. Ret Paladin burst is really strong, and it'll get much stronger with 550 gear, so it depends on how damage/healing turns out to be in full 550 gear with the resilience increase. But Ret is viable in certain comps, so I'd probably still play it if I had one. Though I don't, so I guess it's largely irrelevant.