9.2.5 has been officially confirmed to be in the works, so I don’t see it not coming out at all. I’m assuming we’ll get an announcement of some kind in the (hopefully) near future, whether it’s a brief video if there is something major in it or we’ll suddenly seen a Wowhead article or something.
If the Microsoft buyout of Activision already went through, I might expect something in June. Even with E3 canceled entirely this year, I’m assuming Microsoft is having a presentation of some sort in June still like they’ve done without E3 before. However, I’m not expecting Blizzard to hold off any announcements for then since they’re not officially part of Microsoft yet, and I don’t think they’ve ever been part of Geoff Keighley’s Summer of Gaming event either, unless I’m mistaken.
I would like to think an announcement wouldn’t be too far away. I don’t know if it would be coupled with a WotLK Classic release date or if that would take priority over 9.2.5 info, but as frustrating as the wait is with all the rumors of at least one new allied race and questions about potential playable Darkfallen, we’re still keeping an eye out for any news or datamined info of interest in the meantime.
As I said before, I’m not really thrilled at radio silence in general. Moreso given where we’re at with the current patch since it has pretty much finished up by now, which is normally around when we would get info on what is to come in the near future. I’m wondering if this has anything to do with the talk of not showing off much in future patches, which I feel like is just going to be more annoying if we go through periods of time like Shadowlands between patches without any info whatsoever.
I suppose if Darkfallen weren’t part of the equation, it wouldn’t be as frustrating, since as I said before, a lot of races if they were hinted, you’d know what to expect and there wouldn’t be as much worry about how they’d be handled. However, if we are getting playable Darkfallen, there is still a lot of questions and worry about how they’d be handled, since they’ve been reclassified and there is a possibility of one new race that is semi-neutral. Thus for most of us, the frustration level is rising as the wait increases.
Of course, the rumor of getting at least one new race is just that: a rumor. We could end up not getting any new races. However, there is a lot of suspicious things going on like with all the encryption (including the character login splash screen), along with preorders for Dragonflight still not being available. Even then if we get at least one playable race, it is up in the air what they would even be. Who knows what is going on?
As for the Light themed Undead, I can’t rule them out completely, but I still don’t see it. In my own personal opinion, they seem like a race that would cause huge backlash as opposed to getting people excited to part with their cash for a potential early access through preorder. It’s really hard for me to imagine them getting greenlit for development compared to other races that would not only fit, but would be a lot more popular and reasonable. I can’t say they have no chance whatsoever, but it’s hard for me to see them ever becoming a reality. Even with Calia involved, who was a special case for her undead status.
Hopefully, whatever is or isn’t coming, we’ll know sooner than later. I’ll continue to keep an eye out for more info to report in the meantime.