Okay so my contact within Blizzard (who must not be named as he could get in trouble) informed me that work has already begun on the expansion after BFA.
Not much has been established yet but there’s some concept art and memos floating around the offices as well as a 100+ page dossier.
A few things that are pretty much set in stone though:
Name of the expansion: Vanguard
Storywise
Location: the other side of azeroth + parts of different planets each patch (opening endless possibilities for future expansions as well as new races)
Main Villains: the demons
Yes, we defeated the Legion but demons are still around and players will be working with Archmage Khadgar and the Illidari DHs to set up a prison world for the demons again, like Sargeras did when he was the good guy. The most dangerous demonic faction will be the Nathrezim who were powerful before the Legion existed and some are trying to rebuild the Legion.
This all starts when demons begin attacking Azeroth again (though not as coordinated as the Legion obviously, but they are a major nuisance and there will be capital invasions pre-launch at the end of BFA similar to zombie invasions) drawn once again by excessive magical uses and the tear in the fabric of reality left by the giant rift to Argus (thanks Illidan).
About BFA Ending: The dossier redacted most parts of the BFA ending (only 4 people within Blizzard know how the expansion will end for sure for now) but it seems pretty clear our world soul will not survive (Azerite will be gone, neck artifact will get an ending similar to current artifact power), in the end, neither faction really wins the “battle for Azeroth”. The other remaining titans are busy so basically we’re left to our own devices in the universe and will have to face the rest of the demons and prepare for the Void Lords (future expansion maybe)
Anduin will find his queen by the end of BFA (much of this is redacted to so we don’t know yet who will be his queen, there are some hints that this will either make him the most powerful king on Azeroth or that it’s a trap and his queen is not what she appears to be, again much of the text is redacted so it’s not clear but it might play into the Il’gynoth prophecy)
It is not clear Sylvanas will still be Warchief, does she die, abdicate, stay who knows but we know that Gallywix and Saurfang (working separately) will each try to become Warchief in their own way and for completely different reasons (Gallywix - money and power, Saurfang - honor), so Sylvanas faces two challenges
Gameplay:
130 cap
ability to save professions in a book and sell to other players (you will lose your recipes though and have to retrain from scratch)
7 new bag spaces for bank storage
new class: Tinker (who will help us travel to other worlds quicker similar to how DHs helped us defeat Legion)
Tinker features:
DPS/Tank/Healing specs (names yet to be determined, but healing spec will almost certainly be called “Medic”)
unique leveling style (starts at level 1 but upon leveling has a chance to proc many extra levels as a quick catch up mechanic and be teleported to a different zone too if they choose so)
storywise this will have an interesting explanation basically their equipment malfunctions frequently (up to 120 then it gets stabilized again) and they randomly travel through time and get to experience many periods of WoW history (the time Garrosh was Warchief, Northrend LK, Outland, Pandaria etc. also sort of explaining the apparent schizophrenia of normal leveling where nothing seems to be in chronological order anymore)
starting zones will be instanced Kezan/Gnomeregan (pre-vanilla in fact, then an experiment going wrong flings them into the future around level 6) with unique storylines, only Goblin/Gnome but they will have gadgets to change appearance to another race (though not racials)
tinkers get free engineering maxed with all schematics (as they level, minus Vanguard schematics which they have to train normally like any other player), have 3 profession slots but engineering cannot be unlearned
class hall will be the Blingtron homeworld but class halls wont get an update post-Legion
NEW artifact system: Artifact Trinkets
the return of story/grind legendaries, realistically 1-3 per guild and only certain classes
Obviously not at all true, but just to imagine it is for a second, another demon expansion would be the final nail in the coffin for this game. I can’t even play my lock because WoD and Legion made me sick and tired of staring at demons.
It’s not a secret that Blizzard works on expansions far in advance. Usually by the time an expansion launches, development has already started on all major patches and the next expansion.
There have been countless claims that this is the next expansion troughout WoW’s history… Why should i believe it this time?
We HAVE prison worlds… Argus, Mardum and Tarratus.
The rift has already been closed.
Dream on. Never gonna happen. What would be next? selling your character levels and being reset to level 1?
It’s really obvious you’re trolling, but I’ll bite…
That doesn’t exist, as is clear from the globes we can find in Ulduar for example.
I don’t want to suggest anything about Blizzard’s current storywriting, but they are not that terrible.
It’s at this point clear to me that you are not only making this up, but that you also know little about the lore. I mean, come on, there are thousands of unused characters and you decide to choose the a character who has been active for two expansions and a faction that already had their spotlight?
From Argus? It’s destroyed, we literally killed the Titan. Unless Titans are not the planets themselves, contradicting Chronicle I.
He already is…
Uh yeah, as if Tinkers have technology to travel beyond worlds like that…
Oh my god, how is that even possible? Are the Bronze Dragons involved?
You know what Gnomeregan’s state pre-Vanilla, right?
