How Many Patches to Go? Speculations on 6.2

Much of the discussion about the future of Warlords of Draenor is about how many raid tiers we'll have. Clearly the next zone that's going to open up is Tanaan Jungle, which is the headquarters of the Iron Horde.

We don't really have a solid idea of when Tanaan Jungle will open up. Right now, Blackrock Foundry is kind of settling into a raid's middle age. Mythic Blackhand has been defeated by the world first guilds, and we're seeing a few adjustments to it, but it's not at a point where we're sick of it yet - Blackhand isn't even available on LFR yet, meaning that most players likely haven't even attempted the fight at all (either that or I really need to PUG more.)

6.1 has come already, but there wasn't really a headliner in terms of content for it. Even Mists of Pandaria's in-between patches has the Krasarang quests and Battlefield Barrens, but 5.1 was almost entirely a systems update - with a few quests thrown in there, but nothing huge.

So for that reason I almost wonder if 6.2 will bring us to Tanaan but not actually open up the next raid. I could imagine getting the new zone, complete with a quest chain and possibly a new Timeless Isle-like structure (though hopefully with a bit more form than TI,) along with new story development and another chapter in the Legendary chain.

I think it's definitely too early to open up tier 18, but when it does open up is somewhat contingent on both whether the next raid tier is intended to be Warlords' last, and also how far along expansion six is coming.

So what would I like to see in 6.2?

I'm hoping Tanaan Jungle will be a compelling zone. If they could release a zone with the number of quests and content of a launch zone later in the expansion, I'd be overjoyed. One of the laments of this game is that the characters you work the hardest on sometimes find themselves without anything to do. I love powerfully wrecking bad guys on my Paladin, but at this point there's not a huge amount of motivation to do so. So to have real quest content after having gotten geared up in epics would be pretty cool.

I DESPERATELY want to see some new, compelling reason to run dungeons again. The daily quests that came with 6.1 are not remotely good enough - rewarding garrison resources that I'm already always on the cusp of capping anyway. Bringing back Valor points or just giving Apexis crystals for running dungeons would encourage us to zerg through the old ones, but what I really want is new dungeons to run. Warlords launched with the fewest 5-player dungeons of any expansion yet, and I think we can all agree that it was pretty frustrating to only have the nine we had in Mists for two years.

Additionally, I'd love to see the "Timewalker Dungeons" implemented. I know that finding a compelling reward structure will be tricky, but there's such a wealth of dungeon content in the game that we just never touch anymore. I mean, when's the last time you ran Magister's Terrace at the appropriate level? Having scaling dungeons would be very exciting, but again, they've got to hit a sweet spot where the reward is compelling without feeling mandatory (I'd err on the side of granting vanity items like transmog gear, pets, toys and mounts.)

I'd like to see new dungeons set in Tanaan - preferably two or three - that reward (on heroic) gear with new art equivalent to normal Blackrock Foundry, or possibly 5 levels lower (so 665, given the 5-level buff that's happening later today.) It's got to be exciting enough for people who have geared up through LFR, and by the time it comes out, those who wanted BRF gear from Normal will likely have gotten it.

I think they should continue adding new upgrade items for crafted gear - these upgrades have offered a fantastic solution to keeping crafting relevant throughout the expansion. Even though transmog has made it less of a problem since 4.3, I'm happy that I'm still able to wear my goggles.

Garrisons are probably ready for some new buildings, but they also might want to buff some of the existing ones. For example, other than the treasure-hunt missions from the tier 3 inn, the ability to recruit new followers or get extra daily quests that reward 630 gear is hardly exciting stuff.

Likewise, having more stuff to spend garrison resources on would be nice. Right now I burn off any extras I have on the Dwarven Bunker and buying professional materials to keep my Enchanting Study always churning.

I think opening Tanaan is also the right time to finally allow flight in Draenor. I would be fine if it required a quest chain at 100 to unlock, and even though I remain convinced that you can design compelling questing with flight, Draenor was clearly not designed that way, so it should at the very least require you to be level 100. And while, again, Tanaan could theoretically be designed to allow flight, I'd be ok with them restricting it there.

I'm sure we'll start to hear whispers of 6.2 in the coming month or so. This has been admittedly more of a wishlist than real predictions, but I'll be eager to see what we do wind up getting.