In less than two days (it's the night of November 1st as I type this,) we're very likely to see the announcement of the next World of Warcraft expansion. This is a bi-annual event that's pretty fun, and I think part of the fun is predicting what is to come.
Given that all is to be revealed very soon, I thought we should put things on the record so that we can compare it with what actually gets announced. Obviously, there's nothing official about this general consensus, and it's possible that in other circles, people have very different ideas of what is coming next. But my sense is that there's a pretty clear indication as to what expansion seven is likely to be like and that most people agree on that version:
The Consensus:
Through datamining, we know that the Antorus raid ends with Sargeras stabbing Azeroth with his massive sword just before he's locked away in the Seat of the Pantheon. The result is an enormous wound that takes up most of Silithus, with Azeroth's blood leaking out over the desert.
While this actually wrinkles the main idea people have, the general thought is that we're going to finally be getting our "South Seas" expansion, with Azshara as a major villain (possibly the final boss) as well as N'zoth finally showing its tentacles (more likely as the final boss if the Old God makes a direct appearance.)
One thought that seems pretty popular is that the Vindicaar system - having a mobile base of operations that follows us from zone to zone - could work very well for an island-hopping expansion, and might help with immersion rather than the somewhat perfunctory Cataclysm portals did for us in expansion three.
Thanks to some other datamining and Jaina's conspicuous absence during most of Legion, it's also generally thought that we'll be heading to Kul Tiras. Whether Kul Tiras is a zone or an entire new continent is unknown.
Extrapolations:
Given a South Seas expansion, a few other potential zones seem likely. We've never been to Zandalar, nor have we encountered King Rastakhan or the Prophet Zul in person. Both seem like interesting figures who would probably work as dungeon or raid bosses (though a more complex interaction with them might be cool.)
The existence of the Wound in Silithus suggests that we might actually not be bound entirely to islands - perhaps exploring parts of the Old World continents in a similar manner to many of the Cataclysm zones.
If N'zoth plays a major role, we could explore the Void and Shadow in greater depth, especially considering Alleria's studies with Locus Walker. It seems that Alleria would be likely to have a big role.
With the Legion defeated, we might find ourselves in a situation like in Mists of Pandaria, where the lack of a world-ending threat (not to say that N'zoth and Azeroth's wound aren't huge threats) could allow the Alliance/Horde conflict to boil over.
Wild Guesses:
With the Deaths of Chromie scenario, we might see the Infinite Dragonflight make a return, and perhaps we'll check in with the various dragonflights to see how they're doing in general.
Given that we only got a brief taste of Sylvanas versus Genn in Legion, we might see that conflict on a larger scale.
The Lich King's actions during Legion (only really seen by Death Knights and perhaps Mages while getting Felo'melorn) suggest that the Scourge is amassing greater power, potentially setting the stage for a new undead threat (though I'd still like to see a Scourge 2.0 led by Kel'thuzad, whose phylactery we notably did not find in Naxxramas during Wrath.)
It's also possible we might get some post-Antorus Legion content. It's very unlikely it would be a raid (how do you do another raid in an expansion where you've literally fought multiple Titans?) but I could imagine some plot-resolving or a Ruby Sanctum-like prologue content (which yes, was a raid. Shut up.)
Datamined Stuff:
The main thing that's getting people excited is datamining that suggested we could get subraces. I caution a big old hunk of salt with this, though, as it requires several steps of logic. In short: assuming that giving Lightforged Draenei, Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, and "Void Elves" a character-select screen background texture was not just some error, we could get those four as playable in the next expansion. My main reason for skepticism is that generally, they give new playable races or classes a pretty strong connection to the expansion where the feature is introduced, and I really doubt that, for example, Highmountain Tauren are going to be a big thing in expansion seven. The exception here would be if they do these for every race, in which case they'd pull from many different parts of WoW history to come up with the options.
Conclusion:
I've never really seen so many people this confident about the general gist of an expansion, which makes me pretty confident that the South Seas expansion is coming next. On the other hand, I've been expecting this for the last three expansion announcements (even when I heard the name "Mists of Pandaria" I somehow assumed Pandaria would be one of many islands we visited.)
I'm highly confident that we won't see a new class this time around, as they've never done two new classes in a row. I could imagine new races or these subraces being a thing (probably not both, but it's not unthinkable.) If there are new races, I could see Naga (if they can figure out the whole pants, boots, and mounts thing,) or Ethereals.
We've gotten accurate leaks of at least the last two expansions (ones that I saw ahead of time) but this time it's been pretty confusing. I think a big part of that is, because so many people feel confident about the South Seas setting and the resultant major characters, there is an unusual consistency between the many entirely fabricated false leaks. So it's possible that I have actually read a legitimate leak, but it's very hard to know which one is legitimate.
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