State of the Beta

Tomorrow, we will learn when Warlords of Draenor is released, finally ending the huge stretch of 5.4. I'm not going to make a prediction for the release date here, but clearly, what they will need before they can release is a Beta that's complete and mostly bug-free.

I'll break the expansion down by features, and talk about how far each feature has come.

Quests/Draenor:

The quests while leveling up are pretty much all there, and largely functional. We're missing a handful of cutscenes (some of them will clearly be pre-rendered,) but a lot of others have been implemented. There are some bugs that still remain, and unfortunately these often crop up in very important quests. I imagine part of this is due to the way that Scenarios are being used for questing.

Quest rewards might get tweaked a little, but they largely seem to be in place. XP could also do with a little adjustment, as one can run out of quests in the early levels - though there are bonus objectives and such that they might be encouraging us to try out, not to mention the usual non-quest XP sources like dungeons.

Dungeons:

All eight of the Draenor dungeons have been implemented, with Iron Docks having come in the latest patch. I have not personally run these, but they look to be mostly complete, with perhaps a few mechanical tweaks on the way. Dungeon gear, however, has not been assigned to the bosses yet.

Raids:

Raid testing is continuing, and it appears they are now testing Blackhand, who is the capstone boss of Tier 17. So while I'm sure this will continue for a bit, it's looking good.

Garrisons:

Garrisons have come a long way, with a lot of buildings getting their mechanics figured out. I don't know if the garrison invasions are totally working as intended yet, but the overall system looks mostly there, with just some things to fill in.

Followers:

So far, the one thing about Followers that still remains unclear to me is how they get equipment. It appears that you won't worry about follower gear until they hit 100.

Character Models:

Everyone we're expecting for 6.0 is implemented except for Female Tauren, Male Humans, or any Trolls. The models still need a few adjustments, but they are mostly in-game at this point. Also, the Draenei shoulder pads are fixed!

Ashran:

I have not explored this all that much, but it appears to be making solid progress. Aside from each base, there are several areas with their own NPCs to attack, which appears to be the way that one gains Artifact Fragments, which can be looted off of you if someone kills you.

Reputations:

Still no rewards for the various reputations. It also appears that there are only a small number of reputations to work on. Horde has the Frostwolves and Warspear, Alliance has the Council of Exarchs and Stormshield, and both have the Arrakoa Outcasts.

Outdoor Endgame:

There are weekly story quests that I have only scratched the surface of. Additionally, there is a daily quest that sends you to a level 100 region of any given zone, where there will be an area to attack. This seems to be a source for Apexis Shards, which will allow players to purchase gear, creating a kind of unstructured endgame if you're not into hardcore PvP or PvE.

Perks and Class Balance:

Most class mechanics are nearly finalized (still holding out hope for Arms Warriors,) and most of the upcoming work will be tuning.

In Conclusion:

The expansion is taking shape, and we're definitely a lot farther along than we were when the beta began. There's still work to be done, and there could very well be a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that will take some time. But at this point, it really seems as if all the relevant systems and features are in place - they just need to fill them out and make adjustments.

Especially given that they're giving out Beta keys at tomorrow's event, it's clear that the expansion will still be at least another month. But I'm somewhat confident that we can see it before December, and possibly as early as October.