It's technically the first day of Blizzcon (though it's about 1 in the morning here in California.) We're in an even year, so we're not going to get anything crazy like a new expansion announcement. BFA is still in its first patch, so any WoW content we get is going to be about the future of the expansion. Next Blizzcon will be telling us about expansion eight (assuming that the pattern that has more or less held for the past fourteen years remains in effect,) so this is the last opportunity for them to talk to us about BFA on their home turf at their own company's convention.
Blizzard has explicitly said that 8.1 will not be a major focus on the convention, which is both expected and welcome news - 8.1 has been on the PTR for a good while now, and talking about it at Blizzcon would feel like a retread of a lot of stuff that is already announced and even available for testing.
So let's get predictions going:
Note: there are SPOILERS for 8.1 in this post.
The main focus will be 8.2. Possibility: 9/10
The only reason they wouldn't focus on 8.2 is if they were going to put more focus on 8.3, but that seems unlikely given that 8.3 would (if patterns hold) likely be the last big patch of the expansion and thus coming out next summer or later. 8.2 is almost certainly going to be the primary focus of their WoW announcements. It's only a question of what those announcements contain.
8.2 will see a shift of focus to Azshara and the Naga. Possibility: 7/10
Initially Azshara was meant to be the boss of BFA's first major raid, but instead Jaina will be filling that role (the Alliance fighting her as a reenactment-flashback of the Horde's attack on her.) If she isn't the expansion's final boss, it seems only logical that she would be coming after Dazar'alor.
Such a shift in the narrative would open up what many of us have believed about the expansion - that the faction conflict is not the true Battle for Azeroth, but that the fight to prevent N'zoth from corrupting Azeroth is what it's going to really be about. It's a narrative direction a lot of us expect and would prefer over fighting the other faction, but it's also possible that we'll instead see the expansion continue to focus on the factions and maybe push us toward dealing with Sylvanas' descent into (worse) villainy, which to me seems less likely only because of how closely it would seem to mirror the plot of Mists of Pandaria.
New Allied Race: Vulpera. Possibility: 6/10
The Vulpera have proven quite popular and their animations would seem to allow for a playable race quite easily. They have a decent story introduction to serve as members of the Horde after their appearance in Vol'dun.
The big question is whether we are actually getting any more allied races this expansion. If we are, Vulpera are a high-likelihood possibility.
The only reasons I have to hesitate here are A: that we've already got 8 announced/released Allied Races this expansion (assuming you count the ones that came out before 8.0) and I worry that it might be a bit of an overload, and B: there's less of an obvious choice for the Alliance. Kul Tiras is far more homogeneous in its population than Zandalar, and the only Drust not corrupted by death magic that we meet there is permanently in Druidic bear form, so we don't even have a Drust model, and that's the only really reasonable other playable race one finds on Kul Tiras.
New Allied Race: "Redeemed" Undead. Possibility: 4/10
Calia Menethil's fate in Before the Storm does present the possibility for an Alliance-aligned Undead allied race, but we've seen nothing of it in-game so far, and we also don't know whether this state can be conferred upon others with ease. Still, given that it would most likely use the existing Forsaken model, it would be relatively easy to implement.
New Allied Race: Undead Elves. Possibility: 2/10
Undead player characters are undead humans, but with certain plot developments and of course Sylvanas herself along with her Dark Rangers, we know that the Forsaken do have some non-human members. I find this less likely primarily because we already have four playable elf races.
New Allied Race: Junker/Mechagnomes. Possibility: 3/10
I don't know where the "Junker Gnome" name started getting tossed around, but if we've got Allied Race variants on Draenei, Tauren, Night Elves, Blood Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Orcs, and Trolls, that leaves Undead, Gnomes, Goblins, and Worgen to get their own variants. If not Leper Gnomes (likely joining the Horde through the Forsaken,) Mechagnomes appears to be a popular idea. I wouldn't mind seeing mechanical gnomes updated, especially if we get a rustier, scrappier look for them.
New Allied Race: Sethrakk. Possibility: 3/10
I hear a lot of people talking about the Vulpera and then suggesting that the Alliance could get the Sethrakk. The reason I don't think this works as well is that while the Horde gets to know both the Vulpera and the Sethrakk quite well in Vol'dun, the Alliance really does not interact with either very much. The good Sethrakk would make more natural Horde allies.
Additional Heritage Armor to Show Off: Possibility 8/10
We know that Dwarves and Blood Elves will be the first non-Allied races to get heritage armor. I suspect we'll see other races getting some as well. I would assume we are not getting human, orc, Night Elf, or Forsaken next, given that the Warfront gear is heavily themed after their aesthetics.
Some Longterm Quest-based Storytelling Like Suramar: Possibility: 7/10
I loved Suramar and the way that the story was told there, and the lack of such an involved and ongoing story in 8.0 has been a bit of a disappointment for me. I hope we can get something big out of 8.2.
New Allied Race: Naga. Possibility: 7/10.
I realize I'm almost certainly skewing far too much in favor of this for the "possibility" guess, but I think playable Naga would mean so many cool things for the game - for one, it would give us far better insight into their culture, and knowing that some could break away from Azshara would suggest their corruption is more cultural than physical, allowing us a more nuanced fight with them.
A New Landmass: Possibility: 8/10
While Zandalar and Kul Tiras are both big, I think that if the narrative turns to the Naga, we've got to see Nazjatar.
Saurfang's Plot Gets More Complicated: Possibility 9/10
There are enough (reasonably subtle) hints (SPOILERS) in 8.1 that Saurfang's resistance to Sylvanas is not entirely independent. While the plot feints toward being a total retread of Vol'jin's rebellion against Garrosh, I believe this is an intention misdirection, and it will allow the Alliance to play a bigger role (and one that might complicate matters) in this conflict between a Warchief and one of the Horde's greatest heroes.
A Major Azerite System Rework: Possibility: 5/10
As a replacement for tier sets, artifact weapons, and legendaries, Azerite armor has clearly been underwhelming. But it is so tied to the nature of the expansion that it's clearly something we'll be working with until 9.0 (though I guarantee you, 10/10, that we won't have it past then.) That being said, the actual way it works is something I could see changing quite a bit. The question is if they are planning to do gradual iteration for the rest of the expansion or if they'll be doing a massive sea change in 7.2.
Badges/Emblems/Currency Vendors: Possibility: 8/10
This is a bit of a cheat as 8.1 will be bringing new vendors for at least Mythic+ and Island Expeditions where currencies can be used to pick up pieces of gear.
Having played in Wrath and Cataclysm, I find the gradual abandonment of currency vendors that sort of started in Mists and completed in Warlords to be completely absurd - a popular system that worked well and served its purpose was removed for reasons that I can most charitably imagine were impractical philosophical reasons and at worst believe were done out of a cynical desire to extend the skinner-box carrot on a stick of gearing.
Anyway, bringing back Justice and Valor Points (for all of Cataclysm's flaws, I think they got "badge gear" right better than any other expansion) would, I think, be a great move for the game.
A Mic-Drop Moment: Possibility: 8/10
At the end of 2016's Blizzcon, Ion Hazzikostas ended his 7.2 announcements with a post-script that faux-off-handedly mentions that we'd be going to Argus in 7.3. It was a great moment that filled players with hype, and I think such a move would be a good PR move and also just a lot of fun.
The mic-drop moment is of course contingent on where the expansion goes. If this really is going to be about Naga and Old Gods, telling us we'll see Ny'alotha before the expansion is over would be sufficiently big news.
If the expansion continues to focus on the conflict, telling us one side wins and the other loses would be as well.
Either way, they'll want to wow us (no pun intended,) so a tease of what is to come after the stuff they go into a lot of detail about should help keep the hype train rolling.
So there you have it: we'll find out how accurate these are over this weekend. I'll keep up with it as I finally put my nose to the grindstone and do my research on the more obscure ballot issues to vote on before Tuesday.
Obviously there will be other games to watch for, but I'm primarily concerned with WoW these days.
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