Meanwhile, the 8.2.5 PTR has barely even started yet. This gives me reason to believe one of the following scenarios to be true:
- 8.3 will launch in January and it’ll be small, so it lines up well with an August expansion release or…
- 8.3 doesn’t exist and 8.2.5 will simply carry us over until the next expansion. That would mean roughly a year of Queen Azshara’s Eternal Palace which isn’t uncommon by any means, or…
- Blizzard surprises us and announces the next expansion at a press event at the same time as Gamescom, like they did with Legion.
I’d love for them to do this, but I can’t see it somehow. I think the reason why they did it with Legion was because WoD hadn’t even been out a year and it was failing…miserably. (I’d already quit by that point in 2015)
At this stage, despite BfA not being everyone’s favourite expansion, Classic is just around the corner…
I think any talk regarding the next expansion will either be at Blizzcon or in the new year.
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Well the development cycle is far behind Legion’s due to the additional time they took to work on 8.2. Remember with 8.2 they have had to create an entire new gearing system with the Benthic gear.
I think we will get 8.3 but we will not get it until next year with 8.3.5 probably being the patch that includes the rumored level squish, as they did with the stats squish in 7.3.5.
there is not much coming anymore. bfa is pretty much done, i mean technically it was never done if you know waht i mean lol. they will be trying to live off of classic subs for a couple months before drought hits there aswell
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Patch 7.3 was actually released on August 29th 2017. I guess it doesn’t change your main point but just for the sake of being accurate I mention this.
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I’d love for them to do this, but I can’t see it somehow. I think the reason why they did it with Legion was because WoD hadn’t even been out a year and it was failing…miserably. (I’d already quit by that point in 2015)
I agree it’s a long shot. Since they’re bundled in the same subscription, Classic really does make up for a lot of their losses.
On the other hand, you could argue that BlizzCon is so packed this year with (presumably) a Diablo 4 announcement, Overwatch “2”, a new Hearthstone expansion and so on, that announcing the next WoW expansion prior to the event might be good to spread out media coverage and not dilute the messaging.
We’re also facing a situation for the first time in a decade or so, where we don’t actually know anything about the hypothetical final patch of the expansion, prior to the next expansion’s announcement. It is virtually always the case that we know the final big bad before we learn of the next expansion.
As things stand, given that 8.2.5 won’t be released until October, they would have to do some kind of convoluted double-reveal at BlizzCon of both 8.3 and the new expansion. Not only would that take so much of the ‘oomph’ away from 8.3, but it would also create a rather weird opening ceremony. “Here’s 8.3, and oh wait here’s also 9.0!”
In my view, it’s not entirely implausible for 8.2.5 to be the final patch and for 9.0 to be announced soon. But it’s certainly not a given, either.
I mean Nzoth is kinda the big bad of this expansion currently, if anything it will be a raid where we try to contain him? But i’m pretty sure we won’t kill him.
there is not much coming anymore. bfa is pretty much done, i mean technically it was never done if you know waht i mean lol. they will be trying to live off of classic subs for a couple months before drought hits there aswell
The thing is, also, that each expansion pretty much has one significant piece of content added (new zones, land masses, etc.). For WoD, that was Tanaan Jungle in 6.2 (final major patch). For Legion, that was Argus in 7.3 (final major patch). For BfA, it might have been Nazjatar and Mechagon with 8.2. Given how 8.2 was released in June, it also lined up pretty well with those older patches in terms of how far into an expansion’s life cycle they are released. Roughly a year of the Eternal Palace seems pretty standard.
I think 8.2.5 will finish the sylvanas/baine story and 8.3 will be Nzoth raid! Remember MOTHER saying there is another titan research and quarantine facility.
Quite sure there will be more to BFA then what we already have.
The dragon aspects are making a return as indicated with the current Essence of Flame quest line.
Wrathion and Thrall were going to have a big role in BFA as indicated by Blizzard. Still, they merely just returned or barely foreshadowed. There is still quite a bit of story to be told this expansion.
Patch 7.3 was actually released on August 29th 2017. I guess it doesn’t change your main point but just for the sake of being accurate I mention this.
I’m counting the time from the release of the expansion, not the actual calendar date. 
The new expansion will evolve around Nzoth. We are not touching him in BFA.
i mean we won’t fight him or something like Kil’Jaiden in TBC but he will have more influence.
I have bad news for you. Blizzard is not attending gamescon. You wont get any updates till Blizzcon.
I doubt 8.2.5 will be final patch it’s only opening up the war campaign and the lead up to wrathion and the dragon isles
I suspect the dragon isles is probably 8.3.
my guestimates are 8.2.5 in time for Brewfest
and 8.3 will probably go up for Winterveil.
so I reckon surprise unveil stream prior to Blizzcon of 8.3 so Blizzcon can have the new expansion at front and centre.
Nzoth raid he escapes and 9.0 is his expansion and the realm of the dead.
Meh - it was predicted.
With Classic coming anyway, they didn’t really have any need for a platform at Gamescon anyway.
8.2.5 around blizzcon release ? what about 8.3 i suppose like BoD january ?
Looking at how barren BfA development has been after the initial launch I’d say they’re actively developing something big for 9.0 already.
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Brewfest the beginning of October (Oktoberfest is)
so I expect just before Brewfest.
2019/09/20 - 2019/10/06 wowhead date for Brewfest
I’d say 8.3 xmas/January
great so my plan is to take a break (got 19 days left gametime) go play COD Modern Warfare October/December usually is enough for me and comeback for final raid. January release date is perfect!