When Warlords of Draenor was announced, I speculated a bit on what might be the "middle tier" of the expansion, and where we might go in the patch cycle. Warlords, of course, has been pretty underwhelming in that regard. The only serious patch after the expansion launched gave us a zone that, frankly, should have been in-game from the beginning. Certainly Hellfire Citadel was always going to be a later addition, but most of 6.2 felt less like exciting new content and more like a long overdue completion of what we should have had to start with.
One need only go back to Warlords' predecessor to see a fantastic model for how to build patches. Certainly they should have spaced out Mists' patch releases a bit more to soften the blow of the long final stretch of Siege of Orgrimmar, but that was less a flaw in Mists' design and more a flaw in Warlords' development (indeed, the lack of content in Warlords makes this long delay even more puzzling.)
Mists of Pandaria brought us meaningful outdoor content with every single patch - not only did we get in-between patches that focused entirely on this outdoor solo content, but we also got new zones with both raid patches, replete with their own set of daily quests or stuff to do.
Blizzard is kind of famous for over-correcting, and just as the absurd number of daily quests one had to do in 5.0 was a correction for complaints about spending Cataclysm stuck in Stromwind/Orgrimmar queueing for dungeons, the removal of this kind of content in Warlords went too far (something that was remedied in Tanaan Jungle.)
Anyway, Warlords is not without its merits, but it largely exists as a demonstration of how not to do a World of Warcraft expansion.
"Faster" expansion cycles are not attractive to players unless one gets a full expansion's worth of content, only at a faster pace. Indeed, there's every possibility that we'll see the same kind of super-long gap between the end of Warlords and the beginning of Legion.
So what should we see?
In-Between Patches:
Mists' in-between patches, particularly 5.1, were great bits of content. These patches gave the raid designers time to work on their next big thing while players were given some cool story development. Yes, even if the Divine Bell kind of wound up a shaggy dog story, the consequences of it were profound - giving us a clear sign that Garrosh was descending into villainy and showing that this conflict was turning even the most stalwart advocates of peace toward war. Daily quests have never been done so well as they were in Krasarang - not because of the quests themselves, but because of this cool little motivator.
Middle Tiers
Middle tiers have been a thing basically in every expansion other than Warlords of Draenor. Often, they're a way to approach a different threat than the main headlining villain. It's a great opportunity to flesh out the world and make it feel bigger and also give us a break if we're feeling tired of fighting the same kind of enemy. Given that each expansion is typically built around a location primarily, there should be multiple threats to make that location feel impressively big.
The most popular Middle Tier was Ulduar - we took a break from fighting the Undead Scourge in order to have a Titan-themed raid that ended with a battle against an Old God. The Scourge was nowhere to be seen here, but that was fine. Between Naxxramas and Icecrown Citadel, there was no worry that we wouldn't have enough undead to kill.
Sometimes this is more subtle. Ragnaros was working alongside Deathwing, and Kael'thas and Vashj were working for Illidan (well, Kael'thas claimed to be) but their raids had their own very distinct themes. Throne of Thunder gave us a break from the Sha to look at the other very clear threat in Pandaria.
The key to these Middle Tiers is to show that there are other things than your main villain to deal with, and thus make the world seem more complex and interesting.
Dungeons:
I can't say it enough. Release brand-new dungeons with your raid tiers. Two to three per raid tier.
Story Development for All:
Warlords had one major plot development after the leveling experience was over. Gul'dan took advantage of the defeats the Iron Horde had suffered to usurp it from Grom Hellscream and got them to drink the Blood of Mannoroth, becoming a fel Horde.
The problem is that this scene only happened for people who had completed most of the Legendary quest chain.
Likewise, I had to look up online what had happened to Cho'gall after we invaded Highmaul. His death only came after the Mythic version of the Imperator Mar'gok fight. It is a terrible, terrible idea to have major plot developments hidden behind content that only a fraction of players will actually see. Smaller things, sure. Little insights or cool moments that give those players a little extra is fine, but if anyone who hasn't done the fairly lengthy legendary quest chain is walking into your next patch going "wait, why the hell is the Iron Horde all demon-y now?" you have a problem.
And More:
There's more to say about the schedule of releases and how many patches we should get. Considering how big this expansion should be - this is the Burning Legion expansion we've been anticipating for so long - I'll be very disappointed if we wind up with another two raid-tier expansion. If any subject matter should have us getting four raid tiers like Wrath of the Lich King, it's the invasion of the Burning Legion.
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