6.2 and Imagining Tanaan

One feature originally expected to be added to 6.1 was a quest chain in and around the Iron Docks (presumably the non-instanced version of it.) As it turns out, this chain is actually more of an intro to Tanaan Jungle, and so it was delayed until 6.2, which is when we'll be entering that zone.

My takeaway from this is that this has more or less confirmed that Tanaan Jungle will open up with 6.2. With 6.1 less than a week away, I thought I'd take a moment to speculate on what the subsequent patch might bring.

The confirmed part is Tanaan Jungle - the zone we all kind of figured was going to ship with the game at launch. Indeed, we do spend a bit of time in Tanaan, but only during the Dark Portal intro to the expansion.

But it should open up with 6.2. Tanaan is a large zone - much larger than other later additions like the Timeless Isle or Quel'danas. In fact, the thing that's exciting about Tanaan Jungle is that it's a later-addition zone that is a very clear, existing presence in the continent already. Not only that, but Tanaan has a lot of history we're already aware of, as it's the Draenor equivalent of the very first zone we experienced in Outland.

It seems inevitable that 6.2 will bring our second raid tier, though given its focus on Tanaan Jungle, it's hard to imagine that there would be a raid other than the Iron Horde's headquarters. That could mean one of two things - either Blizzard is sticking to the "two raid tier" model for Warlords (and as excited I am for the possibility of a new class or at least races in expansion six, I hope they don't) or we might see the Iron Horde dispatched, only for someone like Gul'dan to come in and become the biggest threat that we need to deal with.

If we take out Grommash in 6.2, and it's not the final raid tier, it'd be a perfect opportunity to introduce Farahlon and a Gul'dan raid (though I'd be a little annoyed that four raid tiers in a row have Orcs as final bosses.)

But beyond a raid, I think there's a lot of possibilities for the environment of Tanaan Jungle. Consider Hellfire Peninsula. Now, Hellfire's basically the opposite of a jungle - I don't know if there's any area with any kind of plant life there. But Hellfire was Tanaan, and that means that some of that stuff must be there. I'd guess that Zeth'gor is still a thing. We never got much backstory on the place in BC, but I'd assume it's the capital of the Bleeding Hollow clan. In fact, there's even that cave underneath that could be the eponymous Bleeding Hollow.

Obviously Thrallmar and Honor Hold would not have existed yet in this past-Tanaan, but there could be things in their place. It's also notable that the Iron Gates at the western edge of Tanaan are clearly built over an existing Draenei structure. Thus, the Temple of Telhamat could very well exist already at this point. Likewise, there could be a Draenei town called Sha'naar that becomes ruins in Outland. Additionally, the Arrakoa seem to have some presence there at the Den of Haal'esh, and we know they were in that area pre-Outland because of Kilrogg's Lords of War episode.

Hellfire Citadel is a big question mark, though my money's on its being the final Iron Horde raid, though obviously not called "Hellfire" Citadel.

Obviously, Blizzard has taken some license of shifting the geography of their old zones to accommodate Draenor. For example, Shattrath is far larger in Draenor than it was in Outland. Some of this is excused by the fact that the planet blew up, and there was bound to be some shifting and also some architectural damage, but then you have things like the fact that the Ruins of Baa'ri in Outland's Shadowmoon Valley are much farther east than Embaari Village in Draenor's Shadowmoon (not to mention their similar, yet different names.)

So it's possible that we'll see some big shifts in the layout of the zone. And it's certainly going to look different, filled with dense foliage. I'd expect to see some Botani there as well.

Once 6.1 is underway, I'd expect to start hearing rumblings and maybe even a PTR build going up in the coming weeks. The next real question is whether this will be it for Draenor, and if so, how quickly we'll hear about/get to experience the next expansion.