2018 in Azeroth

Happy New Year!

As we enter a new, even-numbered year, we can now look forward to a new World of Warcraft expansion coming before the next time we do the whole champagne-and-fireworks routine (or in my case, driving around sick friends and siblings on a decidedly low-key New Year's.)

So what does 2018 have in store for WoW?

First off, while the Antorus raid is fully open and Argus the Unmaker has been defeated on Mythic, there's still some stuff still on the way. Tomorrow (Tuesday) the third Raid Finder wing will open, with Kin'garoth, the Coven of Shivarrah, Varimathras, and Aggramar available to fight, and in two weeks, the final wing, with Argus the Unmaker, will open up on LFR.

From that point, the big question is how long we have to wait for something else.

We are likely to start hearing about the Beta for Battle for Azeroth some time in late winter or early spring. It probably won't start until spring, unless Blizzard does truly succeed in accelerating their launch schedule (though I'm very much in favor of quality over speed.) If the pattern holds, we can then probably look forward to a fall release.

However, if you're worried about the prospect of many months without anything new to do in WoW, I think there's some reason to be optimistic: After the success of the pre-launch availability of Demon Hunters, particularly in that it allowed some players to take their Demon Hunters directly into the new expansion on launch day, I imagine that they might push for this kind of thing with all "new character incentives." And that, to me, along with the datamining that showed that more or less everything you need to allow Highmountain Tauren, Lightforged Draenei, Void Elves, and Nightborne are already in the game files for 7.3.5, suggests that they will probably allow players to create Allied Race characters well before Battle for Azeroth launches (except for Zandalari Trolls and Dark Iron Dwarves, who will probably not be unlocked before level 120.)

With the new level scaling in the old world, leveling up new characters should be a more compelling experience - you'll be able to finish out the story in certain zones without feeling you've got to move on in order to be more efficient. You'll also be able to pick and choose between certain pairs of expansions' content. I suspect that a lot of my new characters might go straight to Northrend after finishing up the 1-60 experience.

It might actually take longer to level, which I know some people will not be happy with. But I think the main intention is to make the leveling process itself feel more like an actual game than a prerequisite for getting into the "real" game. Releasing Allied Race characters during a relative lull in the main game would be a great way to incentivize more of a "stop and smell the roses" style of leveling.

One benefit of having a big lull before Battle comes out is that you'll have plenty of time to finish out certain things on alts (or mains.) I know that I'm going to try for the challenge artifact appearance on my Protection Paladin, and if I have the time and energy, I'll try for a few other specs as well (I really like the Frost Mage look too.)

Now, once Battle for Azeroth does come out (I really can't speculate that much on a release date, except that launching before September would be highly unusual,) we'll of course have tons of new stuff to explore. There are systems, stories, and environments that we've only seen brief glimpses of, and many are sure to undergo big changes. We're entering a brave new world without artifacts (not too difficult to imagine) nor tier sets (somewhat crazier.)

I'm eager to delve into the new lore of the expansion (which I feel I've been focusing on more lately on this blog,) from the shifting conflict between the factions (I'm kind of shocked/horrified that Undercity is going to be destroyed. I'm less upset about Darnassus) to the shadowy threat underneath it all (how crazy would it be if it weren't actually Old Gods?) I really want to see how the major conflicts of WoW play out in a world where we've managed to defeat even the Burning Legion. And, of course, I want to see new aspects of the lore explored.