Rise of Azshara

Patch 8.2 (assuming labels that it was 8.3 were typos) will be Rise of Azshara.

The primary focus of the patch will be the new landmass: Nazjatar. It's here that the Alliance and Horde will help out different locals and fight against Azshara, leading up to the raid with her as its final boss. New mounts here including a really majestic looking literal seahorse and a crab mount that walks sideways (you know, like a crab.) Also looks like the Alliance will be allying with a previously unseen underwater race that looks a lot like Naga with legs, so... can we say potential allied (or just straight up new) race?

Additionally, the massive vault in Tiragarde Sound where all the robots are is going to open up and we will find Mechagon, the lost city of the Mechagnomes. It's here that we'll assist the junker gnome-like locals in fighting against their mad king, who wants to turn everyone into robots. This will be a Mega-Dungeon like Return to Karazhan, and will be Mythic-only at least initially. There will be new armor and mounts to find in here.

Worgen and Goblins will be getting model updates - not quite as dramatic as the Warlords-era ones given that these races already look pretty good, but they'll now be capable of better facial expressions and get somewhat nicer textures.

Tauren and Gnomes will be getting their own heritage armor sets - Tauren get a big old totem on their backs while Gnomes have a gear-and-goggle ensemble that I think somehow involves a spaceship?

Warfronts are getting a Heroic mode that will allow 10+ players to engage in these battles at a higher difficulty for better rewards.

Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin are getting visual updates - no mechanical changes, but they'll look a lot more modern.

Flying! Flying will be available in 8.2.

We're getting two new islands for Expeditions: Crestfall and Snowblossom Village.

Warlords of Draenor Timewalking is coming, along with two new mounts - an Elekk and a Wolf mount.

We'll be getting a continuing story for Sylvanas, Saurfang, Jaina, and Anduin (I guess spoiler alert that Jaina survives the raid.) Notably, Sylvanas is shown holding Xal'atath, which cannot bode well.

We're also going to check in with Magni to see how Azeroth is doing (mostly bad!)

The Brawler's Guild is coming with a transmog armor set to earn.

Lots of holiday updates including Zandalari and Kul Tiran orphans for Children's Week.

A Mechagon Arena for PvP.

New sort of consolidated portal rooms are going to appear in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.

In 8.1.5, the Darkmoon Fair is getting a roller coaster!

8.1 releases December 11th (just over a month.) The Battle for Dazar'alor will come after the holidays. Kul Tirans and Zandalari will be available to unlock and play after the raid comes out.

Professions are getting new quests for new recipes.

And that seems to be it for now!

Obviously the journey to Nazjatar does seem to be pushing the narrative in a different direction, though dividing the story there continues BFA's Red vs Blue theme. I can't say I'm terribly shocked by anything in the announcements, though I did not expect Mechagon (in retrospect, though, why would that scrapyard be there in the first place if they weren't going to do something with it?)

This was very much a content-focused panel rather than systems, which is fine, as I think that whatever they're working on with, say, Azerite armor will probably always be in a state of iteration and experimentation.

Though I think we're in a pretty healthy place in terms of Allied Races, I did wonder if we'd get new announcements. On the other hand, I think that the introduction of this new race in Nazjatar might give them the perfect opportunity to balance Vulpera for the Horde with something for the Alliance.

I'm deeply hopeful that we get a Suramar-style epic quest line in Nazjatar, which would, again, be a great way to build up the unnamed aquatic race for full membership in the Alliance, much as Suramar prepared us for playable Nightborne (and then broke Alliance hearts.)

I'll also note that the 8.1 cinematic, which focuses primarily on Darkshore, did something I've been waiting a long time for - giving us a story, even if it's brief, of Horde members feeling terrorized by the Alliance. Malfurion is utterly vicious in his destruction of a Horde convoy - the creepiest moment being as he buries a living orc using constricting roots. While he's still the good guy in this moment, avenging his fallen brethren, it's nice to give Horde players a reason to feel threatened and have something worthy of fighting.

I was hoping for a tease of 8.3 - and it seemed as if there was going to be one, but as of yet I haven't seen anything. I'm pretty stoked for Nazjatar, though.

EDIT: The final slide of the presentation showed the words "The End?" which was what seemed like a tease. But upon closer inspection, the slide also had N'zoth's super creepy fish from the Azshara Warbringers short, so... I'm feeling way more confident in N'zoth as the final boss of BFA now.