Blizzard, aside from dealing with the PR fallout from the whole Hearthstone/Blitzchung/China debacle, will also almost certainly be announcing the next World of Warcraft expansion at Blizzcon at the start of November.
This time every odd-numbered year is always a fun time for speculation and to put down the predictions we've got. It's fun to see how much we get right and how much we get wrong. For prior examples, here are posts I made previous times: Here's the one where I predicted N'zoth and Azshara as major bosses in this expansion. Here's the previous one in which I... um... also predicted Azshara, but instead we got Legion. And here's me way back in 2013 getting Warlords of Draenor mostly right except somehow thinking Anduin would have helped Garrosh escape Pandaria (and also thinking Warlords would be a much cooler expansion.
Now, these were generally from the day before the announcement, so I might make a more official one of these around Halloween (except I'll be pretty busy as I have two friends whose birthdays are October 30th) but for now, let me outline what I see as the three major possibilities for the expansion:
Also, a caveat: these three options are not mutually exclusive. While I'd like to see an expansion set entirely in the Shadowlands, we could have one that is mostly set in the real world, with forays into the Shadowlands, and that would need some larger land mass. But let's begin:
The Black Empire:
This is the one I think is least likely given the nature of 8.3. While Ny'alotha looks freaking awesome, and I'd love for it to be a whole continent for us to explore, it looks like they're mostly doing it as this sort of nightmare overlay of the world. It's not unthinkable that we could have an Old God-based expansion next, given how Warlords ended with a very Legion-themed raid that led into... Legion. If Ny'alotha ends with N'zoth somehow using his death or defeat to revive C'thun and Yogg-Saron, this could happen, but there are a couple questions to be asked if this were to be the case: where would it be? And who would be the big bad? Granted, the last few expansions haven't been very forthcoming on big bads - I'll give BFA a pass given that N'zoth's whole M.O. is to work behind the scenes - but my guess is that 8.3 is going to be the last we see of major Old God influence for a little bit.
The Dragon Isles:
Dragons have come back to play a somewhat larger part in a few quests lately, and of the three options, the Dragon Isles present the most obvious land mass for us to visit - you can easily have five zones, each dedicated to a different Dragonflight. We also know that the dragons have been struggling post-Deathwing with their fates and their ability to reproduce. I honestly think we might see this as a setting, but with the dragons holding more of a B-plot position in the narrative, and instead focusing on some other grave threat that happens to take us to the Dragon Isles. (Basically, this is the expansion-concept I can most easily see being mixed with the other two.)
The Shadowlands:
Death magic and undead. A realm of shadow, with villains like Mueh'zalla, Helya, and even Sylvanas. We could see the Scourge restored to prominence (given how they're maybe the most popular Warcraft villains, that would be fun) and have a super-spooky expansion. Frankly, this is the one I want the most. It's also the one I think has the most foreshadowing in its favor. Obviously, I've been wrong many times before, but this expansion could answer things like: where is Sylvanas going to make her next move? Who did Odyn make his deal with to create the first Val'kyr? What is Thros? What is, even, Ny'alotha? Who is Bwonsamdi's Boss? What is Bolvar up to?
So those are my three guesses. It could, of course, be none of those things, though I'd be surprised at that, as I usually get at least some detail right.
In terms of mechanics?
Well, historically we've gotten a new class with every other expansion, so in theory we should be getting one here. Tinkers are a common request, though I don't know how well they'd fit (on the other hand, with Mechgnomes and Vulpera becoming playable, you have two very obvious races for them if they want to go the limited options route like they did with Demon Hunters.) Necromancers would obviously step on some conceptual toes of Death Knights and Warlocks (poor Warlocks, who have lost things to DKs, DHs, and now potentially Necros) but would also fit very well in a Shadowlands expansion. Beyond those two, I can't really think of any obvious classes to add.
I do feel like we need to see some radical change to how factions work. I don't think we're going to eliminate factions altogether, but I imagine we'll see some ability for players to opt to either stay hardliners and fight the other side or to opt to embrace peace and maybe form groups to run dungeons or other instanced content with the other faction. I expect this to be one of the big features of the new expansion.
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