So, it's probably safe to assume there's not going to be any more WoW content in 2021

[Selah]

I dunno, I think "remixed" boss fights could still count as new content. Updated visuals, new added mechanics, new story ramifications -- it's not entirely dissimilar to FFXIV's "Ultimate mode" raids. I just... maybe wouldn't make them QUITE so brutal (though, maybe a notable step up in difficulty, with no LFR option).

Or hell, maybe a Mythic-only encounter actually *WOULD* be beneficial for the community! Like maybe new appearance for one of you class's Legion artifacts (which, if they did three of these over the course of an expansion, that's a new appearance for all your artifacts; Demon Hunters and Druids might differ slightly).

Anyways, I definitely think Blizzard needs to plan more frequent content, particularly given they clearly aren't being managed very well since covid. Most industries have long-since adapted by now; Gaming is kind of this strange outlier for some reason.

I actually agree that those raids would be fun, it's the context that matters here though. If Blizzard is already known for being lazy and having a weak and poor content cadence, then the last thing they should do is rehash old raids. That's another feature that really only works if the team is in good standing with the players.

That aside I'd even argue though that you can't really even do those raids until they get timewalking into a better place. A small event that happens every other week for limited dungeons just sucks. They need to find a way to encourage players to engage with the 8 expansions worth of dungeons and raids they've released over the years. Once they've solidified a way for that to work, and get it working well, then they can start doing MC Rag Ultimate or whatever.

I agree, they do need more content. End of conversation. The covid excuse is an old and tired one for an industry that's almost entirely digital these days. And they most certainly haven't been managed well since Legion. I still don't understand why Legion had so much content and everything else has sucked. Was it really just WoD being cut? Seems like there's more going on there than just that but who knows? I'm not privy to the internal workings of Blizzard.

[mysticx]

I agree with both of you. It's absolutely a fart of a patch and the most pathetic thing WoW can do, and it's absolutely stupid to try to contend with FFXIV right now given the state of the game. That's exactly why they'll do it, they find the dumbest thing thing can do and then do it instead of focusing on just making a good game. It's the MO of Blizzard.

...or Blizz are just considering this round lost and are looking ahead to the future instead of fretting about another game's expansion.

We don't know how much recent events have affected game development at Blizzard, of course, so i might be wrong...

[Selah]

...or Blizz are just considering this round lost and are looking ahead to the future instead of fretting about another game's expansion.

We don't know how much recent events have affected game development at Blizzard, of course, so i might be wrong...

I would like to believe that's what happened but truthfully I don't think they're willing to let that bad habit go yet. Regardless, the release date of 9.1.5 or 9.2 will tell us all we need to know about this.

[Empower]

...or Blizz are just considering this round lost and are looking ahead to the future instead of fretting about another game's expansion.

We don't know how much recent events have affected game development at Blizzard, of course, so i might be wrong...

I always get the feeling that blizzard has contempt towards their players. I would bet on them being startled 9.15 doesn't bring people back rather then humbled.

[Tiradon]

I seriously doubt 9.1.5 will have a new Raid, honestly. Most likely won't see a new Raid until 9.2 which I don't expect until about Spring of next year.

Well yes I was talking bout 9.2

[mysticx]

I would like to believe that's what happened but truthfully I don't think they're willing to let that bad habit go yet. Regardless, the release date of 9.1.5 or 9.2 will tell us all we need to know about this.

I'm as much in the dark as everybody else as to their real motives, but that they can't possibly come up with something in time to pull attention away from an expansion release is obvious...

[Cosmic Janitor]

I'm as much in the dark as everybody else as to their real motives, but that they can't possibly come up with something in time to pull attention away from an expansion release is obvious...

They won't get many people back but the goal is more to keep people around in the fitst place.
My guess would be TBCCP2 vs new world and .5 patch vs endwalker to at least attempt to keep some people interested in WoW.

[Elbob]

second half of 2022 is the soonest any new dungeon/raid can be expected.
perhaps even last quarter of 2022 is the soonest.

shadowlands suffers from extremely slowly developed content that is also extremely poorly designed in terms of character/expansion mechanics and atrocious story.

You honestly think the next content patch is ~1 year off? I'd much sooner guess 1st quarter 2022. 2nd quarter also a very reasonable guess but 3rd or 4th? nah

[Resheph]

another 9.1 would be a catastrophe.

Oh no, the sky is falling. WOW is failing again! Just like in 2009. And 2011. And 2014. And 2017. And 2019. The end is nigh - repent all sinners!

Seriously dude, go outside and take in some fresh air. It's not healthy to hang around fan forums if you have so much negative emotion cropped up. It's just a game.

[ohwell]

I dont know how to explain how production might slow down if you went from all working in one space, meeting and collaborating on machines designed for that work with specialized hardware and all contextual info accessible to doing all of that remotely

"Go home and do the same thing" isn't an option for say an artist who doesn't have a production level rig at home and can't just teleconference in.

Except others did just that. It should have been slowed for MAYBE a month(slowed, not stopped). While everyone else moved on, it seems they stayed still.

Also, a lot of those people probably did have high level gear at home depending on how far up the chain you were.

- - - Updated - - -

second half of 2022 is the soonest any new dungeon/raid can be expected.
perhaps even last quarter of 2022 is the soonest.

shadowlands suffers from extremely slowly developed content that is also extremely poorly designed in terms of character/expansion mechanics and atrocious story.

Really stale seeing this ongoing thing of "cool kid" trash talking the story and mechanics when it's no worse than it ever was. What streamer told you to say that? Oh right you'll insist it's an original idea.... If you hate the story now, you always did. If you didn't before, you're just being a sheep.

[Empower]

I'm as much in the dark as everybody else as to their real motives, but that they can't possibly come up with something in time to pull attention away from an expansion release is obvious...

The data mined armor males me suspect they are going to turn torghast into a rapid leveling machine and try to draw people back with a 1-60 in six hours like they did with the orginal av retro event.

[Selah]

I'm as much in the dark as everybody else as to their real motives, but that they can't possibly come up with something in time to pull attention away from an expansion release is obvious...

So is dom sockets not being the same thing as tier sets and yet here we are anyways. The problem is you're giving Blizzard too much credit, you're assuming that the can see the giant red flashing sign in front of them when we're collectively pointing to it and saying "the sign is right there" but history has shown so far that they won't listen. Like I said originally, it is the absolutely most stupid thing they could do right now and that's why I think they're going to try to do it.

[Azerate]

You have spent 3000 hours in 9 months playing a computer game and the jokes on him? You need to grow up a little.

I'm having fun for cheaper than in any other game pretty much, while he's bitching on a forum about a game he's probably not even playing anymore, yes, the joke is definitely on him

[gd8]

They need to just wrap this expansion up already and move on, no content and the overall theme is fucking stale it's the same shit over and over

[Lolites]

Come on, it was one dev :P Don't lump all of them together with that clown.

thats not even what he said...
pretty much what he said (dont remember the exact words) if peoples first reaction to those news is if the content will be delayed they are part of the problem

and lets be fair, although he could formulate it better, he is not really wrong, if you hear someone have been sexualy harrased and your first reaction is "how will it affect ME" then you should rethink your priorities a bit...

- - - Updated - - -

second half of 2022 is the soonest any new dungeon/raid can be expected.
perhaps even last quarter of 2022 is the soonest.

lol... how out of reality are you?
IF the 9.2 patch got soo "teribly" delayed as 9.1 (1-2months compared to normal raid patch), or even a bit more, we would still get it in Q12022...

[Liarparadox]

I gotta say, I was honestly digging Shadowlands at launch. Crazy how off-track everything has gotten...

This is how i feel too. I was loving SL so much at launch. I was just loving it so so much. And I know some people are still enjoying it, but I think for me this will go down as not only my least fav xpac, it will be my least fav by a very large margin.

[Lolites]

Except others did just that. It should have been slowed for MAYBE a month(slowed, not stopped). While everyone else moved on, it seems they stayed still.

there was development "calendar" for FF posted some time ago, showing they are basicaly roughly 2.5 months behind

wow raid patch normaly takes 5-6months (i think fastest was nighthold opening 4.5 months after previous raid), 9.1 took them 7m, so 1-2months behind usual, roughly 2.5 behind fastest...

seems like they are behind pretty much as much as their "competition"...

[Elias1337]

Underwhelming? Perhaps.

Still a .1 patch with a new zone (smaller than Nazjatar, bigger than Mechagon), a 10 boss raid and a mega dungeon that will turn into 2 m+s. We've had a lot worse with a lot less .1 patches, so i'm really happy with it. It's probably one of the best x.1 patches in a long, long time.

Hoping for a .2 between FEB-MAR.

Its not about how much is there is about how long that content last. In past we would get patches with less content. Like back in TBC or WOTLK but that content lastet months to beat and finish. Nowdays there is more content but everything is cleared on day 1 except story Q which are gated. Casuals just blast trough everything becouse nothing really have any sort of reasonable challenge where players would have to stop, progress their character or improve in order to continue. Players just hop into content beat it with closed eays and than wait another 6+ months for new content while not playing and by all thar by playing solo with 0 player interaction in mmorpg game.

[tikcol]

Its not about how much is there is about how long that content last. In past we would get patches with less content. Like back in TBC or WOTLK but that content lastet months to beat and finish. Nowdays there is more content but everything is cleared on day 1 except story Q which are gated. Casuals just blast trough everything becouse nothing really have any sort of reasonable challenge where players would have to stop, progress their character or improve in order to continue. Players just hop into content beat it with closed eays and than wait another 6+ months for new content while not playing and by all thar by playing solo with 0 player interaction in mmorpg game.

What content in TBC or WOTLK are you talking about exactly? If you're talking about raids, a lot of guilds don't clear mythic raids by the time the next patch is out. I'd say a large margin doesn't even beat the last boss in HC.

Is that the content you're talking about in TBC and WOTLK patches? The time it takes to clear the raids? Well, nothing changed about that. You're just not doing the hardest difficulty available.

What kind of content will last you so long in phase 2 of TBCC? Vash and Kael?? Nope they'll get killed by the majority of guilds pretty damn fast. What is there to do outside of raiding? Daily quests? Those are done in 1 hour tops everyday...

I hate to play devils advocate here but if talking about content, TBC is a raid log expansion and to a certain extent so is WOTLK.

[Elias1337]

What content in TBC or WOTLK are you talking about exactly? If you're talking about raids, a lot of guilds don't clear mythic raids by the time the next patch is out. I'd say a large margin doesn't even beat the last boss in HC.

Is that the content you're talking about in TBC and WOTLK patches? The time it takes to clear the raids? Well, nothing changed about that. You're just not doing the hardest difficulty available.

What kind of content will last you so long in phase 2 of TBCC? Vash and Kael?? Nope they'll get killed by the majority of guilds pretty damn fast. What is there to do outside of raiding? Daily quests? Those are done in 1 hour tops everyday...

I hate to play devils advocate here but if talking about content, TBC is a raid log expansion and to a certain extent so is WOTLK.

Mythic raid content = LFR content. Its same raid. If you beat LFR you beated raid content. Majority of players doesnt see any difference between difficulty levels when comes to content. Sylvanas is still Sylavanas no matter what difficulty you do. My guild have beated Lich King 3-4 weeks before Cataclysm patch was implemetend. And we were one of the best guilds on realm. Nowdays i can just press button and beat end game boss while being afk than quit becouse there is no content to beat.

Path of least resisance back in TBC was do BT and kill Illidan or you dont get to beat BT which casused content last for months and months and many people didnt even beat it before Sunnwell. Path of least reistance in Shadowlands consider pressing button and dont fall a sleep while doing LFR and you get to experience all there is with literaly 0 effort. So no *** that WoW content last only few days.