Under the Wire Expansion Prediction

I very much enjoyed the memes that came out of this “leak” an expansion or two ago

As you probably already know if you follow me on Twitter and as you could likely infer from a lack of posts regarding it, Yotaan and I did not make the trip out to Blizzcon this year. Due to a number of factors, it just wasn’t in the cards. However, I still eagerly await all the news from the convention. I have a network of informants on the ground, instructed to bring me all information as it comes (read: I’m going to be nerding out in Discord with all of my guildies who were able to attend). I also may or may not sneak out of class to watch the opening ceremony. Most likely not. But I’ll definitely be checking my phone often.

The piece of news I’m most looking forward to? New expansion stuff, of course! I’ve heard little bits of rumors and supposed leaks floating about, but I suspect Blizzard has something even more wild than any of us could imagine planned.

That being said, I also know there is no greater honor than guessing new expansion details before they’re released. So, why not throw my hat into the ring in these last few hours before we know for certain?

PANTS EXPANSION PREDICTIONS!

My Best Guess: Old Gods on top of Old Gods with more Old Gods inside
I’m positive I’m not the only one thinking this, given the number of hints within Legion questing, but I’m thinking our next expansion is going to deal with the Old Gods. While I haven’t actually read about Antorus at all yet, it’s feeling a lot like we’ll be either defeating the Legion for good this expansion or severely reducing their ability to be a threat. That leaves the next logical and very large danger to be the Old Gods.

The boss Il’gynoth from the Emerald Nightmare is the biggest tip off. Many of the increasingly cryptic quotes uttered by that mound of flesh haven’t panned out to much yet, which makes me suspect that more is coming. Key on my mind is the quote “Your coming was foretold in the rings. The long circle is nearly complete.” That hints to something a lot bigger than just one raid instance. Tying that in with some of the Magni quests and we start seeing an Azeroth that is about to be overcome by corruption.

If it turns out that we go into Azeroth herself, I would be so down for that! Puns aside! I’ve always found caves to be one of the coolest things ever, and would absolutely love a super atmospheric underground expansion. There’s so much stuff buried underneath Azeroth’s surface that I don’t think Blizzard would have to stretch very far. And with the improvements to multi-floored maps, I think the player base might be more accepting. Who knows, maybe World of Warcraft: The Dark Below could be similar to Legion in that we only spend a portion of the expansion in one area before leaving to explore another.

Stuff I want to see, but I suspect I may not

Race Alternatives
Ever since the Lightforged and the Nightborne were introduced this expansion, I’ve spent all of my time wishing that I could make my characters look as wicked cool as those sub-factions. I know players have been asking for this for a long time, and the developers themselves have been cagey at best in their answers, but I’d absolutely love to have race alternatives. Give me those Wildhammer dwarves and Highmountain tauren!

However, I’m not convinced that this will happen. That’s a lot of model rigging, with comparatively low content pay-off. I’d be much less surprised if we got a new race (although, I have no clue what that could be as of right now). Not to say that I don’t want it, but I definitely wouldn’t be shocked if it didn’t happen.

A Jaina who is Not Crazy, Just Angry
I am legitimately worried about this one. I’ve always loved Jaina Proudmoore’s character for a lot of the same reasons why I like Anduin; she is brave, she is (was) an idealist, and she is underprepared but willing to give it her all. Jaina’s got spunk, and especially now that she’s all riled up, she’s no longer quite so passive. I’d absolutely love to see an active Jaina who decisively changes the course of events because she is just so gosh darn angry at the way the world is going. Not blinded by her rage, but focused.

Unfortunately, I’m not so hopeful on this one. Blizzard isn’t so great at writing nuanced female characters – let’s be fair here, they’re not the best at writing nuanced characters at all in the World of Warcraft. However, the writing has been improving a great deal in this most recent expansion (I think the treatment of Xe’ra can attest to that) so I do have hope that, should Blizzard choose not to go all Evil-Jaina, they could write a really compelling character.

 

I could probably just keep writing and writing about new expansion stuff, but I’ll go ahead and wrap it up here. If it turns out that I’ve called any of this, someone owes me a soda! And internet notoriety!

Tomorrow can’t get here fast enough!