Gnome leader becomes new high king? (Most senior leader in the alliance). anduin becomes (incapacitated?) by unknown causes. gelbin will be temporary high king as he is the most senior member of the modern alliance. Being around since at least the second war. gnomes/mechagnomes will be getting considerable more lore.
humans/orcs are going to not be quite as prominent in the next expansion. they’ll be there but other oft ignored or underrepresented races will be taking priority.
saurfang may be raised as a death knight.
horde and alliance more or less remain at peace. the governments themselves are officially at peace however there are still skirmishes of those who hold onto resentment. thus pvp will still be around in the format you’ve grown to know. gameplay wise nothing will change when it comes to pvp. however blizzard is considering some more stark contrasts between war mode on and off. War mode off may allow you to enter opposite faction cities and talk to them (they will be neutral and you can’t attack them, and can’t gain rep with them).
The language barrier may be removed as well but only with war mode off. harassment is never tolerated but over-all blizzard thinks the playerbase is more mature than in the beta and new systems allow it to be moderated easier.
A group of “forsaken” become a hostile faction.
elune is confirmed to be prime/first naaru created by the light lords counter part to the void lords.
Velen becomes one with the light and “dies”.
the lich king becomes more active. hes an ally but doing sketchy things, next gen of death knights.
Vol’jin ascends to become a loa and patron loa of the darkspear. the zandalari also add him to their pantheon.
bwonsamdi doing some shady business. bwonsamdi and lich king don’t get along.
no level squish, the idea was scrapt. 130 is new level cap.
another set of new race/class combos. under the idealogy of learning from your neighbors. demon hunters exempt.
old world update, but not as drastic as in cata.
gilneas and goblin island are slated to be made fully functional cities but not in 9.0. likely 9.1 or 9.2
the current system for flying will remain but be obtainable earlier. should be 9.1 or maybe in 9.0.5
new class0
no more allied races at least not for 9.x
2 more allied races planned after vulpera/mechagnome.
all druid races are getting unique travel forms the stag will be obtainable via a glyph_
the new philosphy of classes are if it’s possible for the race to learn it or use it without cost to sanity they will be able to be playable. so no undead paladins and such. each race will have a minimum of 1 class they can’t be.
talk of a portal that takes you to pre cata azeroth. perhaps through caverns of time portals. all the quests and such will be there. for those who miss the old quests but don’t want to play classic. this is only on the table it isn’t fully planned. just something being considered as they have the technology to do it.
flying in azuremyst and eversong. also these zones will be brought into the actual kalimador/eastern kingdoms map instead of being far flung reaches of outland (coding wise). all cities still standing will be getting modern amendities such as transmog.
there are currently no plans for an end to world of warcraft. they already are working on super early stuff for the expansion after next and pitching the expansion after that. thus 3 more expansions are on the docket but this is how it usually is. no end in site. wow will die when it can no longer afford to keep itself alive. blizzard seems convinced it could thrive for another 15 years.
WoW is warcraft 4, no warcraft 4 is planned.
there may be a game mode available in the future that has RTS aspects to it. Initially warfronts were supposed to be this but fell through and became something completely different. You became the peon rather than the commander.
the new level sync is being watched and is likely to get some reiterations. a possible change is being able to level sync to the zone you’re in (including dungeons/raids) not level sync to the lowest level in the party. Thus also do it without a party. the chance of getting actual loot from doing the low level quests will be increased but they don’t want it to be more optimal way to level or gear than doing your level content.
increased customization to core races and refinements to allied races are planned. nightborn were specifically called out on needing refinement and face options that more closes resemble the npcs.
worgen probably aren’t getting a tail option, anything is possible but it isn’t currently planned in the increased customisation.
humans will be getting a few shades of darker skin tone.
tauren also will be getting some TLC.
chen may return and join the horde council, as he was a founder of ogrimmar originally.
the idea of a mega server, removing traditional server system has been brought up. Or only 2 mega servers per region. Normal and RP. However there is also talk of RP being a flag like war mode and make all server options of the past because flags that can change what shards you are sent too on a new megaserver system. We’ve seen early examples of the megaserver in org/sw that has way more than just your connected realms sitting together. It shards until full then created a new shard.
there is no plans on a wow 2, arguably tbc was wow 2, and wrath was wow 3. wow is an ever evolving game. wow 2 would just split the community and would require a lot of work and ultimately be a smaller game at least initially to how wow is currently. the only real benefit to a wow 2 would be a completely new engine as the one WoW currently runs on was originally made in 2000 for Wc3. but they’ve modified it to make to decent looking in todays market. Certainly good for a 15 year old game.
classic wow was extremely popular however many players stopped playing once they got to 60. this may change when raids are added. many players never made it past level 20. there is currently no plans for classic tbc but anything is possible.
more playstyle options when playing different specs.
lots of new cosmetic glyphs are on the docket.
the new dk scenario will include old and new races. the old one will be archived. however it is being considered that it may be able to be accessed somehow just so you can experience it.
new death knight customisation options. including what looks like red/green options for eyecolour.
sylvanas isn’t as simple as she appears. she still has things up her sleeve. she isn’t garrosh, not even close.
plans for radical changes to hunter pet storage system. it will be much more like the pet battle system. up to 3 with the same appearance. It is still being discussed whether it will be character bound or shared to all of your hunters on your account. You will finally be able to catch every single tamable appearance in the game.
a paragon level system such as the one from D3 is being considered to apply to WoW. similiar to honor level but it applies to everything not just pvp. The levels won’t give any sort of combat benefit. It will give toys, titles, battle pets, mounts. It is shared upon your account, all of your characters.
the future is looking bright.