In the deluge of Blizzard interviews in the run-up to 5.2 (which I am pretty confident we'll see on Tuesday) there was a little talk about the remaining patches for Mists of Pandaria.
It's not like we're deep into the expansion at this point, but typically the final patch cycle tends to last a very long time - it was practically half the expansion's life cycle for the past two, after all.
5.2 will be bringing the final major threat discovered on Pandaria to a close. With the fall of Lei Shen and the Mogu, the story will turn more dramatically toward the Alliance and the Horde.
5.3 will be somewhat similar to 5.1 - a patch focusing on story, presumably with a new daily quest faction. There has not been talk about new 5-man dungeons, but it seems as if Blizzard is cutting down on 5-mans as a way to gear up. Grumble grumble, etc., but let's see where they go with the concept.
I have not yet done the Dominance Offensive grind (at least not the whole thing) but I do know that there's some serious stuff going down with the Horde at the moment. Garrosh has been using more and more brutal tactics against his enemies and in order to keep his people in line. Even Thrall, who held so much faith in the younger Hellscream, has realized he's gone too far. Vol'jin barely escaped an assassination attempt with his life, and Lor'themar was nearly ready to leave the Horde in favor of the Alliance, if it had not been for the affair with the Sunreavers and Dalaran.
As of yet, though, the Horde is still pretty much operating under Garrosh's direction. Some are too frightened to disobey, some are still inspired by his brash, might-makes-right philosophy. We don't know exactly how the Sunreaver Onslaught is going to go down (and it appears it will not have quite the same storytelling style as the 5.1 factions, which is a shame.) It's clear that the Horde is near a tipping point, and if there's one place for the Resistance to start up, it's 5.3. I expect we're going to see a lot of Vol'jin and Lor'themar, and hopefully see Baine get in on it too. Sylvanas even might play a role, though she's always acted somewhat independent of the Horde anyway.
The Alliance is not without its problems, either, even if the external Horde threat far overshadows the problems from within. The biggest new concern is that Jaina is off the chain. It's true that Jaina always had a little independence from the Alliance during her reign in Theramore. But in the past, she used that independence to seek some degree of peace with the Horde. Now, it's Varian who wants to deal with the Horde in a careful manner, to fight them in such a way that the war might end one day. Just as Varian is finally coming around, Jaina's gotten tired of waiting for a lasting peace that never seems to come, and she has become dedicated to devastating the Horde.
I don't know what is going to happen to Jaina, ultimately. While I doubt that she's going to sink to the depths that Garrosh has, I do think she needs to go take a trip to the Caverns of Time and see how horrified she was when Arthas started to go crazy.
The internal politics of the Alliance have not been touched on nearly as much this expansion, but I think 5.3 is an opportunity to get a good luck at all of it. Varian is attempting to become the High King of the Alliance, but I've got to imagine that would ruffle a few feathers. Tyrande's been leading her people for ten thousand years, and Genn Greymane is king of an entirely different nation (albeit one in exile.) Jaina could prove a rallying point for the more frustrated and angry leaders of the Alliance, and I could definitely see a political crisis if Varian is not able to rally the whole of the Alliance to his way of doing things.
Still, I'm not entirely sure what this will mean for the Alliance from a player's perspective. Horde players might have content where they work on an underground movement within Orgrimmar or the other capitals. If that's how the Horde goes down, I could see Alliance players trying to convince the various leaders of the Alliance to stand behind Varian and let him bring the hammer down.
These "story patches" could be a great tradition to continue for the rest of the game, coming out in between raid patches, to bring more variety to the game at a faster pace. I would love to see some big story moments covered in patches like this. Let me liberate Gilneas over the course of a faction grind, or let me help Sylvanas purge the Kor'kron from the Undercity. Engaging in the game is far more fun when you can feel part of the story.
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