Caverns of Time: 2008 and Beyond

The Burning Legion’s Defeat and Lich King’s Return

by: David "Xerin" Piner

Looking into the past is something that is easy to do. History has already been written and the facts are as solid as they can be. The future is always unpredictable and unknown when it comes to MMOGs like World of Warcraft (WoW). The future is much like the fog of war in RTS games like Warcraft and Starcraft. You know what has happened and you can see what’s going on now, but there is always the certain amount of mystery about what’s going on in the parts that you can’t see that are covered in the fog of war. You won’t exactly know until you explore it and you never know what to expect.

Looking in the future of WoW is both easy and difficult. We know what’s coming up but we don’t know a lot of the details nor how the reception is going to be. That is where I come in. Using what we know and what we can predict I’ll try to paint out what 2008 and beyond will bring us. Will it be a good change? A bad change? Right now it’s all up to opinion and I’m more than willing to share mine. Do you have an opinion of your own? Be sure to visit the forums after you’re done reading to share with us your thoughts on the upcoming year.

Upcoming Patches

To kick things off let’s talk about what’s coming up in the near future. Patches are always a staple of the WoW update process and they always change something in the game (usually for the better). Right now we don’t know a lot about the upcoming major patches except for one thing. That is the upcoming patch that will be bringing us the Sunwell Plateau.

Sunwell Plateau

One thing we know for sure that’s coming up and relatively soon is the Sunwell Plateau. It was originally announced during BlizzCon ’07 and has been at the forefront of discussion within the community since Zul’Aman successfully launched. It’s both a 5-man instance and a 25-man raid dungeon that’s going to be the official ending of the story setup by Warcraft III involving the Burning Legion, Kael’thas, and Kil’jaeden.

Details are out about it now and it sounds pretty cool. For instance, in the 5-man instance we’ll be seeing Prince Kael’thas returning to the spotlight from his earlier defeat. This time he’s powered by a demonic crystal within his chest and is set on summoning Kil’jaeden to Azeroth. In the 25-man dungeon we’re going to see more Eredar (two female twins apparently will act as bosses) and Kil’jaeden himself (although half summoned). We’re going to get a legendary Hunter weapon out of the instance as well.

With WotLK (Wrath of the Lich King) looming to be out sometime later in 2008 we’re bound to get a lot of time to fully enjoy the Sunwell Plateau. Those of you who remember Naxxramas remember the outcry at how much of the population wasn’t even able to set foot inside and those that did weren’t able to really touch much of the content. The reason was we had The Burning Crusade launching right after the instance released meaning that by the time many players had progressed to or through Naxxramas the expansion hit making it irrelevant. However, this time, it appears that everyone who chooses to raid the new instance will have plenty of time to progress and see all of the content before the next expansion. Something that I’m looking forward to.

Kael’thas is one of the more interesting characters in the game and I’m going to personally say he’s my favorite. I like him more so than Arthas. However, it’s unlikely he’ll escape this time unscathed. That’s the way these games play out I guess. I’m going ahead and predicting that right here and there – this will be the last time Kael’thas rides into the combat. I’ll be sad to see him go.

I’d like to comment on how cool it is that Blizzard is doing both a 5-man and 25-man instance. Even the non-hardcore will have a chance to see Kael’thas and more accessible PvE content is always good.  Then again, since seeing content is good and since the expansion is a long ways off will this be enough? Only time will tell, but with the current focus of PvP in the endgame we’ll see if any additional content is really needed.

One last thing I’d like to mention is the possible opening event that will precede the instance’s launch. From what we know right now this event may have you opening a base of operations before you assault the instance. Truly, this may be one epic ending to the story that the expansion set out to finish.

Long-Term Patches

We don’t know anything else about what Blizzard has planned in upcoming patches except for the Sunwell Plateau. I’m going to go ahead and make a good guess that we’re going to see mostly improvements to the game and various changes to align the game more towards the massive changes that’ll come with WotLK. For instance, we got many of the changes for The Burning Crusade (TBC) before it launched. I’m going to guess that this time around we’ll see the changes introduced in various chunks allowing us to digest them before we’re shocked by the new expansion.

For instance, perhaps we’ll see the new talents two patches before the launch. Then, a month or two later we get a patch that introduces a large scale series of quests and events that lead up to the return to Northrend along with various tweaks to the game. Then, I imagine on the last patch we’ll see the full inclusion of all of the changes along with the additional data needed for the expansion.

Let’s assume that the Sunwell Plateau goes live in spring. Then sometime in summer we get a patch that starts introducing some of the changes that WotLK will be bringing us. Perhaps it’ll introduce some characters talking about marching back up to Northrend and maybe even include talent changes that will be coming in WoTLK. Then, later in summer and more into fall we’ll see the next patch that’ll introduce the start of the opening event.

At Blizzcon ’07 there was mention of an event that would precede the march into Northrend and what better time to start it than the patch before the launch? This same patch could of course include the majority of data needed for WotLK along with the U.I. changes and even the full talent overhaul that WotLK will bring about. Much like “Before the Storm” patch that was launched before TBC came out. Then, of course, the next patch would be the traditional patch that brings about the expansion.

That’s four possible patches right there which would put us easily into fall which is the projected launch time for WotLK. No official date is out of course, but I’m pretty sure that fall is most than likely the time they’re going for. The Sunwell Plateau the “last instance of TBC” (Blizzcon ’07) so we have to assume that the expansion can’t be too far behind.  There is no way that Blizzard is going to let us chew on old content for too long and without new instances or major game mechanics the denizens of Azeroth will get restless.

Speaking of the expansion…

Click here to go to the next page.

1. Page One - Introduction and The Sunwell Plateau
2. Page Two - The Wrath of the Lich King
3. Page Three - Northrend and Closing

Questions or Comments? Feel free to email me at [email protected]

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