There here's a little prologue to keep people on the mobile site free from spoilers, because they's a coming!
Right, we good?
Care of MMO-Champion, as you might guess.
To sum up: Archimonde, being a raid boss, is defeated. He's a demon, of course, so this is not a permanent death, but it does have some very intriguing consequences for one particularly evil warlock. As Archimonde's body dies, he sends a burst of energy that knocks Gul'dan through the portal through which the Destroyer was summoned.
We are then treated to a moment of hope, as Grommash, Durotan, Yrel, and Khadgar stand on the steps of the Dark(er) Portal.
So yes, it appears that Grommash does survive, and not only that, he doesn't seem much the worse for wear. Now, while Grommash's crimes have been numerous, he's always been something of an anti-villain. His entire reason for fighting us was based on the lies that Garrosh had told him - that we were the demon-infested invaders who would but the orcs of Draenor in bondage. That said, I hope we don't let him off too easily - the Iron Horde did plenty of really awful things, and Grommash cannot be so easily forgiven for that, even if his motivations were relatable ones.
Amidst the celebrations, however, Khadgar remains somewhat less optimistic. Not only has Gul'dan clearly survived, but the demons who are his masters remain - Archimonde himself has merely been killed, which for a demon, is only as injurious as it is for us players to have our characters get killed. Frustrating, sure, but to quote a certain infamous blood elf, merely a setback.
The real question this raises is whether we'll be seeing more of Draenor before the next expansion. Blizzard remains very vague on just what might be coming with the rest of Warlord of Draenor.
Of course, this isn't purely just to make players antsy. Blizzard really wants to have their expansions come out faster, and they're hoping that they can get expansion six out before the content that was released today gets stale. That is... pushing it a bit, if you ask me. This is the first real new batch of content since November, which was seven months ago. I'd argue that that was a little too long - it certainly wasn't helped by the fact that 6.1 was such an anemic patch.
But if we are not going to get another major patch until the next expansion, then that gives them at maximum seven months to get 7.0 out. In other words, they're going to need to already have a lot of the work done. Assuming we don't get an announcement until Blizzcon, we will already have been five months into 6.2, meaning that we'll need to see the beta open up almost immediately to give it the four months or so that an expansion beta will need.
Honestly, I don't see a direct move from 6.2 to 7.0 as being all that feasible, at least in a way that leaves players happy with the rate of released content. And, frankly, I think that when expansion prices remain but we get shorter expansions with less content, that's also a big problem.
But setting aside logistics, what can we determine from the cinematic?
Well, first of all, there is a cinematic, which is unprecedented for raids that aren't the end-tier for an expansion. On the other hand, Draenor has had more cinematics sprinkled throughout than previous expansions (though Mists had a few as well.) Since Wrath of the Lich King, the tradition has been to have pre-rendered cinematics in the final raid as a kind of epilogue to the expansion.
And this could certainly serve as such an epilogue. It ends on a note of hope, with a bit of a sequel hook.
Does Khadgar's worry mean more drama on Draenor, though? Personally, I see his part of the cinematic as a framework for future stories, very similar to the whole "there must always be a Lich King" ending. And we know that the Burning Legion will always be a part of the Warcraft universe, so nothing Khadgar says is particularly shocking.
Gul'dan's survival does suggest that he could come back to haunt us. And if Blizzard does decide to make a third raid tier, they could certainly involve Gul'dan. But I think it's more likely that Blizzard has used this as an opportunity to resurrect one of their most iconic Warcraft villains.
Using Garrosh as a template, I could certainly see this Gul'dan attempt to raid the Tomb of Sargeras like his prime-universe doppelgänger tried to do, which would lead very naturally into a South Seas expansion. This invasion of Azshara's domain would be a great inciting incident for an expansion concept that everyone has been expecting pretty much since WoW's launch.
But honestly, I don't expect that we'll know exactly what comes next in WoW until Blizzcon.
Luckily, though, for now we have a whole new patch, and plenty of stuff to do.
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