When will they release chains of domination?

[Alroxas]

On or before Dec 31, 2021. Also before Diablo 4, probably before Diablo 2 Resurrected. More than likely when it's "ready" and of course the ever useful Soon^TM

[LordVargK]

One word: Legion.

Legion had the mage tower. And what else? Suramar comes to mind, which is arguably the better endgame zone if you compare it to the maw. Both were reputation grinds, but Suramar was prettier, I give you that. Legion did not have Torghast however. Content-wise that pretty much cancels out, since the Magetower was not even included in 7.0. So SL has the same or realistically more casual content than Legion at this point of the expansion.

I said it before and I say it again:
Legion 7.0 was shit. SL has much more to offer right now than 7.0 and 8.0 had.

[Randris]

Most content patches since Legion were on the PTR for about 3 months, so at this point you are looking at a July release at the earliest. However 8.2 was on the PTR for 4 months. It's not out of the realm of possibility it could take that long, given that they are all still working remotely. I think it's looking more likely that Shadowlands will only have two content patches.

[Zorachus]

Everything I've read says July / August

[infinitemeridian]

Legion had the mage tower. And what else? Suramar comes to mind, which is arguably the better endgame zone if you compare it to the maw. Both were reputation grinds, but Suramar was prettier, I give you that. Legion did not have Torghast however. Content-wise that pretty much cancels out, since the Magetower was not even included in 7.0. So SL has the same or realistically more casual content than Legion at this point of the expansion.

I said it before and I say it again:
Legion 7.0 was shit. SL has much more to offer right now than 7.0 and 8.0 had.

1) WQ weren't a slog like they are now. They were also new, so left less of a bad taste in our mouths as they do now.

2) Same with M+. Doesn't help that the dungeons were more fun in legion too.

3) 36 artifacts + class hall quests, not to mention better collectibles in terms of appearances / tints. We also had more secrets, interesting pets / mounts, etc. Plus other things like that withered army event, which had more depth put into it than most of torghast alone and it was a side feature.

4) CN is better than EN, but not by much since CN is still a pretty bad raid overall and at least 7.1 was out relatively quickly after launch. Plus you still had class sets.

It's a buzzword, but Legion had way more "soul" than SL in terms of the creativeness of basic content, and more thought and attention to the new systems it brought. SL (and BFA to an extent) lacks that because it hasn't matched up to the basic content (questing, collectibles, instances, power systems) and also barely adds new systems or refines the existing ones (WQ 2.0, don't make me laugh).

[Dch48]

Late May or early June would be my prediction.

I'm saying early July seeing as how it's not even on PTR yet.

[Soon-TM]

1) WQ weren't a slog like they are now. They were also new, so left less of a bad taste in our mouths as they do now.

2) Same with M+. Doesn't help that the dungeons were more fun in legion too.

3) 36 artifacts + class hall quests, not to mention better collectibles in terms of appearances / tints. We also had more secrets, interesting pets / mounts, etc. Plus other things like that withered army event, which had more depth put into it than most of torghast alone and it was a side feature.

4) CN is better than EN, but not by much since CN is still a pretty bad raid overall and at least 7.1 was out relatively quickly after launch. Plus you still had class sets.

It's a buzzword, but Legion had way more "soul" than SL in terms of the creativeness of basic content, and more thought and attention to the new systems it brought. SL (and BFA to an extent) lacks that because it hasn't matched up to the basic content (questing, collectibles, instances, power systems) and also barely adds new systems or refines the existing ones (WQ 2.0, don't make me laugh).

I was going to say the same, but you beat me to it. I hate you

[mr2t]

Legion still felt like Warcraft too. I cared about the Burning Legion story. I think the entire concept of SL is stupid and it trivializes death.

[pewpmeiser]

Not soon enough unfortunately. The game needs 9.1 now. April is the best launch for it and mau is realistic.

Anything past the month of may is a catastrophic failure on blizzards part and SL won’t be able to recover if it’s July/aug

That's simply not true. The game will be fine, regardless of when it releases.

[Thage]

Do we know when the new patch is out?

Mid-June is a safe assumption seeing as it's not even up on PTR yet, nor have the various 'sniffers' found vendor builds. Tangentially-related, I'd put BC Classic release around late June or early July, to give an ample beta and 9.1 time to breathe.

[LordVargK]

1) WQ weren't a slog like they are now. They were also new, so left less of a bad taste in our mouths as they do now.

Agree, still that does not mean that there was more for casuals to do in Legion. Contrary, WQs being easier means that there was less to do, because you were finished quicker.

2) Same with M+. Doesn't help that the dungeons were more fun in legion too.

Agree as well, but same argument as above. Though the SL dungeons themselves are pretty good imo. It's just the affixes that are not. Also Soon-TM argued that 9.1 will not have content for casuals. A new dungeon absolutely is content.

3) 36 artifacts + class hall quests, not to mention better collectibles in terms of appearances / tints. We also had more secrets, interesting pets / mounts, etc. Plus other things like that withered army event, which had more depth put into it than most of torghast alone and it was a side feature.

I don't think that AP grind can be considered content in itself, since it was tagged onto all sorts of content. 12 class hall questline is more content than 4 covenants, though better collectibles is a subjective view. The covenant minigames offer more rewards than class halls did, bringing the 4 covenants on par with the 12 class halls. . The withered army event was fun, yes. But Torghast is objectively more (and better) content, since everything bad about Torghast applies to the withered as well (like it being super unbalanced, having unfair fights, etc), whereas Torghast has many new things that the event did not have.

4) CN is better than EN, but not by much since CN is still a pretty bad raid overall and at least 7.1 was out relatively quickly after launch. Plus you still had class sets.

Class sets were available in the raid, so by Soon-TM's definition that would not be casual content, because it's "raid or die". And I view CN as way better than EN. Can't argue against 7.1 being quicker.

It's a buzzword, but Legion had way more "soul" than SL in terms of the creativeness of basic content, and more thought and attention to the new systems it brought. SL (and BFA to an extent) lacks that because it hasn't matched up to the basic content (questing, collectibles, instances, power systems) and also barely adds new systems or refines the existing ones (WQ 2.0, don't make me laugh).

To some extend I agree. You make valid points when bringing up (world) questing and "soul". In other points I disagree, as I laid out above. Legion's systems were not more thought out than SL's. Remember for example how m+ worked at the start: You time it, you get loot. If not, well, too bad. That's not very casual friendly. You had no catch up mechanism for your Artifact knowledge, meaning every alt was weeks behind and not only had to grind AP, but also order ressources to slowly build up AK. Until an alt was ready to play it took weeks and even with the same gear power differences between an alt and a main were large. Also you had to choose a spec. Hybrid classes were shit ouf of luck. Also absolutely not casual friendly. And in the beginning of Legion and especially in BfA, classes (at least the ones I played) felt like absolute dogshit. That is completely different in SL, where classes/spec feel complete again. Later patches fixed that in Legion and (to some extend) BfA, but to compare the .2 patches to SL's .0 patch would not be fair.
@Soon-TM since you wanted to say the same, I tag you here.

[rrayy]

of course, they will work with zero problem when dozens of their friends got fired for the amazing reason of Bobby Kodick refuse to reduce his 200 million bonus to just 180 million, i'm sure that won't effect their morals and will make them die to work for blizz

THis is completely ridiculous. This will not effect the WoW dev team at all.

[Wangming]

Most content patches since Legion were on the PTR for about 3 months, so at this point you are looking at a July release at the earliest. However 8.2 was on the PTR for 4 months. It's not out of the realm of possibility it could take that long, given that they are all still working remotely. I think it's looking more likely that Shadowlands will only have two content patches.

I've been saying this the past two weeks and people think I'm mad.

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THis is completely ridiculous. This will not effect the WoW dev team at all.

It should. People's moral is affected by the working environment.

[Soon-TM]

That's simply not true. The game will be fine, regardless of when it releases.

Yeah, I'm sure that Ion & co. would be completely fine with an August release /facepalm

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THis is completely ridiculous. This will not effect the WoW dev team at all.

Maybe you are insensitive enough as to not give a flying $&#@ when there are massive layoffs in your workplace, even if they don't happen in the specific department you're working at. But many other people do.

[Randris]

I've been saying this the past two weeks and people think I'm mad.

Not sure why. All you have to do is look at recent history of patches. Plus consider that Shadowlands was delayed as well. It makes sense that it will take a bit longer to get 9.1 and possibly even 9.2 out than we expected pre-pandemic. I think they are hoping that Classic BC will hold over as many players as possible until 9.1 is ready.

[Wangming]

Not sure why. All you have to do is look at recent history of patches. Plus consider that Shadowlands was delayed as well. It makes sense that it will take a bit longer to get 9.1 and possibly even 9.2 out than we expected pre-pandemic. I think they are hoping that Classic BC will hold over as many players as possible until 9.1 is ready.

Which is a good tactic. It will be the same subcription so it works for revenue and if 9.1 only comes out in saaay August it will still be relatively fresh during the Fall period when the competition comes.

[TheFirstOnes]

Prolly June.

Then 9.2 could be October/November, maybe even a lil later. With 9.3 and 10.0 being close in terms of announcement.

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Which is a good tactic. It will be the same subcription so it works for revenue and if 9.1 only comes out in saaay August it will still be relatively fresh during the Fall period when the competition comes.

Blizzard's stated before, especially now that their schedule is fucked, and guys like Steve Danuser have stated that, with SL especially, they want to get the best they can get done regarding the content they release, regardless of delay (Tho, they also don't want it to feel like the content release is going to take TOO long). I assume the 2 year model is gonna get fucked here a little.

[Wangming]

Prolly June.

Then 9.2 could be October/November, maybe even a lil later. With 9.3 and 10.0 being close in terms of announcement.

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Blizzard's stated before, especially now that their schedule is fucked, and guys like Steve Danuser have stated that, with SL especially, they want to get the best they can get done regarding the content they release, regardless of delay (Tho, they also don't want it to feel like the content release is going to take TOO long). I assume the 2 year model is gonna get fucked here a little.

Considering how ready 9.0.5 was, this is probably for the best. Also the content release is already behind the usual schedule so that is already a moot point.

[GreenJesus]

Honestly feel bad for the staff that were fired but the less they focus on esports in game development the better. Just make fun games and esports will naturally follow.

Kind of sad that the only new thing they added since expansion release was valor points that are basically pointless this late into the patch anyway if you reached 1800 in pvp or kept up with their vault.

[Nyel]

Prolly June.

Then 9.2 could be October/November, maybe even a lil later. With 9.3 and 10.0 being close in terms of announcement.

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Blizzard's stated before, especially now that their schedule is fucked, and guys like Steve Danuser have stated that, with SL especially, they want to get the best they can get done regarding the content they release, regardless of delay (Tho, they also don't want it to feel like the content release is going to take TOO long). I assume the 2 year model is gonna get fucked here a little.

They don’t fuck their 2 year model to give you more free content. That’s just not going to happen. 10.0 is of higher importance than 9.3 or anything in Shadowlands, because the financial impact beats everything that’s related to lore or whatever. WoW has two spikes in revenue since 2019: the Classic launch and its first months and the usual expansion launch. This means every year we will either have a Classic release or a retail expansion. TBC being the Classic release in 2021 makes 2022 the next mandatory retail expansion release.

9.2 in October or November means PTS for 9.2 basically starts in August which leaves just one or two months between 9.1 release and the announcement of 9.2. This seems way too packed especially when we consider that we don’t even have more info on 9.1 yet. I can see 9.2 in November or December, but 9.3 as a usual content patch with a raid tier mid 2022 doesn’t make much sense then.