One of the funny things about WoW is that the final boss of any given expansion tends to have a stunning array of awesome weapons. The Lich King and Deathwing both had loot tables entirely made up of weapons, and in both cases, defeating that final boss was necessary to complete the final legendary quest of the expansion - creating Shadowmourne or the Fangs of the Father.
This is all the best loot for the most significant slots, but there's a problem: Once you have defeated the final boss of an expansion, what more is there to do?
Now sure, you can go up in difficulty, start working on heroic modes, but if you're one of the seriously hardcore who beats the final boss on heroic, that amazing new weapon is useful for precisely... what? Leveling in the next expansion, basically. Not really that exciting, especially given that the way new expansions work is that they need to have massive gear inflation to reset everyone's progress and level the playing field.
The solution, it would seem, is to turn such awesome drops into scaling heirlooms that will take your character up through the next expansion's leveling content - giving those weapons at least some time to shine, rather than getting replaced by a green piece one or two levels in. So, for that reason, the Hellscream weapons (at least on normal/heroic mode) will be heirlooms that scale from level 90 to level 100.
100.
Wait.
What?
Oh, did you think this was going to be an article about heirlooms?
Nope! It looks like this is the first hint that the next expansion will break from the more recent mold of Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, and bring back a full ten levels of content to go through.
Caveats: This is on the PTR, and for all we know it could be a typo. It could change in development. These heirlooms may never actually be part of the game. I am building my argument on the head of a pin here. As the title of this post suggests, I'm taking this one, tiny detail to extrapolate some seriously huge conclusions, many of which I'm almost certain will be refuted (Blizzcon is in November. We will know then.)
So if the next expansion is ten levels, that indicates a few things. First, the more straightforward things:
There will be a smoother leveling experience. Instead of gaining 100k health (or whatever equivalent that will be if they do the item squish) every level, and watching our crit chance drop from 35% to 20% when we hit level 91, we'll probably see a more gradual shift.
Beyond that, the numbers are maybe arbitrary, but if I had my druthers I would hope that a ten-level expansion would bring about a new continent with the scope of Northrend. Pandaria has six relevant leveling zones, with only one pair that overlaps in range. Northrend had eight, with two such overlaps, which doesn't sound like much more, but if you ask me, it felt like a much more fleshed out continent because of this. I would also hope that a longer leveling process would mean more dungeons - compare BC's 14 dungeons at launch and Wrath's 12 to Cataclysm and Mists, which both had 9 (and only ever 9 in Mists' case.)
Now let's take greater intuitive leaps:
A ten-level expansion means two big things: If they are choosing to go back to ten levels instead of five, we might imagine that they want this expansion to feel somehow more epic than the previous ones. Cataclysm was always more about the familiar, low-level world changing than the threats at the highest levels, and we entered Pandaria not as naive recruits who would become battle-hardened veterans, but as battle-hardned veterans who find their own vicious history catching up with them and subjecting a mostly peaceful land to the consequences.
In both cases, we haven't really grown much stronger. Perhaps we have grown a bit wiser, but that's a more subtle thing.
And thus, the ten levels could reflect the fact that we are truly facing a more dangerous and cunning threat than we ever have before, and we need the time to truly prepare ourselves to face it.
The other big thing is that, since we are level 90 now, ten levels puts us at level 100. That's a pretty big milestone for the game. We're breaking into triple-digits. Combine this with the fact that if the next expansion is released within 2014 (which it probably will,) it will be coming at the tenth anniversary of World of Warcraft.
Milestones everywhere. Sounds like the right time to do something big. And I mean BIG.
Ok, you're ready for my big conclusion?
We're taking the fight to the Legion. No small distractions like Illidan, and we're going to let the Old Gods sit tight. Kil'jaeden, and indeed, maybe Sargeras himself, are in our sights now, and at least he former is going to truly die by our hands. In the wake of the Siege of Orgrimmar, Alliance and Horde may be as united as they ever have been. We've had Wrathion working to prepare the world's champions, and Velen's been slowly working on his "Army of the Light," and damn it, it's about time we kicked some demonic ass.
I know that this isn't exactly the most surprising conclusion to draw, but this tiny, minuscule, potentially-completely-irrelevant detail feels a lot like the last piece in the puzzle. I think we're going to get the real, for-serious Burning Legion expansion you knew was coming as soon as WoW first began.
And all from a single number of some heirloom weapons that aren't live yet.
If I'm wrong, then whatever. But man, if I'm right... Blizzcon can't come soon enough.
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