Buy the new expansion once it is at the last patch because catch up mechanisms make previous contents in the expansion pointless and game is at its best in the last patch.
You will also have more than enough content untill the next expansion come out. Then you quit the game untill the latest patch of next expansion.
This way you can have best of both worlds since you can consume the whole expansions content and expansion is properly developed at this point and isn’t open beta.
I did this ever since wod and had a blast with retail.
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The start of a new expansion is usually the best time in the game imo, I always enjoy it. Wouldn’t want to miss out on that.
But otherwise I can see some truth in what you’re saying.
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Ye might do that next xpac as well, but depends if they keep with the azerite grind than i’m not bothering at all.
You’re missing out on the first month of each patch economic frenzy which is a golden age for gold making =\
From what I seen the start of expansions are like open beta atm and you only really start playing the actual game when a year passes.
And the reason for that is quite simple :
Blizzard wants money and the more expansions they release the more money they make so they rush unfinished expansions to get the cash and they use people as testers.
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sad but true
only thing wrong with this is WoD didn’t have any of this AP farming bs etc. it was a pure nice expansions just with very little content 
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It is sort of true.
I played early legion. Ended up quitting for months 'cause I couldn’t do group content and my MS was resto… Realized I couldn’t keep up my resto and balance weapons equally and felt completely shafted as I would be weak for solo content, or weak for group content if I would get a chance to heal anything(I was very limited on time), based on what weapon I decided to spend my AP on.
I took a break(solely did pet battles for a while after returning) and then came back and into raiding. The guild I then joined, was working on Gul’dan Heroic. Shortly before Tomb release iirc. Ever since that I had a blast in Legion, and I was able to maintain both my specs(resto and balance), then my two remaining specs, then a few alts. I had a blast, and could run both Tomb and Antorus on whatever spec I wanted + some alts. That was the last year of Legion, and I really had a blast. Legion is now my nr. 1 favourite expansion alongside TBC.
Hoping BFA will work like that too.
We just started the last year, and I just had a starting burnout. Picked up my alts now and trying to check if it’s become playable.
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It’s about the atmosphere, not just if the game is in “beta” or not.
I find these the hardest points in which to make money. Almost everything ends up on a very steep decline and it happens quite randomly. Spotting trends and generating enough data to make an informed decision is so much easier to do once most are level capped and doing predictable content
For filler expansion your logic is sound.But for Legion like expansions like with MoP,Wrath i did have a nice content progression feeling throughout those.
Also playing at the start for lore reason is kinda important to me.So yea for expansions like Cata,WoD,BFA start(if you dont mind having to p(l)ay for Beta like experience,or just w8 for a sale) and before NEXTexpansion prepatch is the best way to experience/play those expansions.
I usually heavely farm leather at patch launch and sell it on the AH along with whatever valuable BoE I can craft. The raiders usually need their bis crafted gear and will pay any amount to get their hand on the leather.
If you have to buy your mats from the AH it may be harder to profit from the launch economy tho
Yet some people who are just starting to play now find themselves overwhelmed and they have no idea what they should be doing.
No expansion including the original game Vanilla released everything at once.
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Depends on how avid a Gold worshipper you are… 
Apexis Shards would like a word…
Players as ‘beta testers’ may fall into the category of expectations:
How many other games have you played from a similar stage in their ‘life’ as you have with WoW (if the game in question ever got to last that long)?
Have they been created on newer core technology than WoW, leading to a higher fidelity of game-play?
The more - and newer - games you play that give higher ‘day-1’ (as a player) experiences, the higher your expectations get for day-1 experiences… therefore the relativity of your expectations would need to be tempered accordingly.
I hope that by the next expansion, they could upgrade the raids like mythic dungeons. Or at least, add an upgraded version to make them still be relevant. I mean having new raids is nice and all. but having 4 options to choose from instead of one is always better.
Or if they can somehow balance timewalking raids and add them too, then even better.
I had a blast in BFA since launch.
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I’ve often played through the initial expansion content and then taken a break until the x.2 patch came around. That meant having multiple patches worth of content to play through when coming back, and a good ride going into the final x.3 patch.
Of course, it relies on having another game you would rather play than a somewhat-fresh WoW expansion. With BfA I’m still playing and haven’t taken any long breaks - don’t really feel there have been any other attention-grabbing games.
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During Legion I decided to do all the content on mythic but soon realized for that I need bis legendaries or otherwise People with bis legendaries will get invited. that really crushed it for me and after 1 month I unsubbed and came back when legendaries were much easier to get.
A lot of the game population fluctuates like that too. People who don’t have a great interest in alts or farming old content will just play through what the current patch has to offer and then come back for the next patch.
My super-casual guild is filled with them. Lots of people with weeks or months since last login, but every once in a while they pop back in for a while, go through all the new content, and then slowly fade out until next time.
If it works for people, I think it’s a great way to play WoW. You get a lot of bang for your buck if nothing else.
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