They don’t need to be an either/or, with clueless or malicious as the limits, when designing the game in a way they feel would appeal to players and also cushion against the vast amount of systems added in the beginning.
The preamble of the notes - second paragraph - explicitly states that these patches include bug fixes.
I mean, season 4 of BFA was 10 months long.
This sort of thing happens because they get behind in development, which I believe they clearly are right now, thanks in part to having to produce 9.0.5 first.
That’s why they did it, it seems.
Instead they could have just pushed all these changes into 9.1, but they knew it would be very far away, so they separated it into this smaller patch instead, right?
Last patches are usually longer yes
But we have never had an 8 month mid expansion tier.
We’ll probably see ptr in the next couple of weeks. And I don’t see 9.1 any later then mid june.
Absolutely agree. The system is the best it’s been since implemented. Now they’re reverting it which forces groups to do more and more keys weekly to stay where they want to be.
Right, which is why I do not believe they would have ever implemented this in the first place.
It is just not inline with how the system has ever worked, or the goals of the system outright.
Why did you have to remove the best ability in game… 
What’s the average length a raid tier patch is tested on the PTR?
Or perhaps more important, what’s the MINIMUM?
Minimum I think we’ve ever seen is 1.5ish months, avg is around 2.
March only just started, 2 months from now is may, they could even start ptr in april and be set for june.
I see. From my recollection the average is 12 weeks.
Could be wrong though.
Dear Blizzard,
Frost Death Knight got nothing? Not even mentioned?
Buff something please!
Weekly keystone change is by far one of the dumbest changes I’ve seen y’all make. Liek y’all really chose to punish players who didn’t play during a week of awful affixes rather than rework the terrible affixes. Wild
No nerfs whatsoever to all the specs which are absolutely broken in PvP right now, in fact they received buffs through beefed up legendaries.
No buffs to underperforming specs.
Classic blizzard.
They’re really random with PTR lengths, last 2 ptrs of major BFA patches were just over 2 months though. (9ish weeks)
It’s easy for an end of expansion patch to go long, you have the next expansion to be excited for.
A mid expansion patch though? That’s a tough ask, if you don’t stick around you might end up being behind for the next patch. 9.0.5 doesn’t really offer much for longevity of 9.0, it’s mostly fixes for problems in it that are setting up for a much better season 2 (valor upgrades and 2 pieces of loot from all dungeons, timed or untimed)
Oh ya, but this wouldn’t be happening on purpose.
The expansion was delayed, so that would likely mean everything with it gets delayed a varying degree too.
I would bet on this being the longest first tier in a long while, if not ever, without any hesitation.
are you guys gonna just leave monk like that, jw so i know if i should delete my class or not?
Nah, they’ll just rush 9.1, and honestly, I’m kinda down with that, we’ll be done with CN in a week or two, and then it’s going to be a struggle to keep people around for too long, and if they burn out they probably won’t come back meaning we’d have a dead raid team
Fire mage buff???
^^^ This! I’d love to buy stuff but I’m not wasting my time on WQs that give so few.
^^^ This. I really hate going to the Maw to get seeds.
This is the best thing about this update. I can’t wait to be able to wear them all the time!
Because all they care about are bots, not the players who might like to sell the items they have collected at a decent price. 
This change, rather than the fixing the bugged talent that makes it useless, is proof to me that the “Developers” don’t actually know anything about their own game.
To explain, Animal Companion is the talent everyone chooses from the first row, because it’s far and above better than the other two choices.
Animal Companion - Your call pet additionally summons the first pet from your stable. This pet will obey your Kill Command, but cannot use pet family abilities.
The thing about that talent, which isn’t listed in the description, is that it reduces the damage our pets do by 35%. So, instead of Animal Companion doubling our pet damage, it’s 65% and 65% for 130% - a 30% boost to pet damage.
The bug of this talent is that the 35% damage reduction doesn’t just apply to those two pets. It applies to every pet we use. This include summoned or charmed pets. Possibly a contender for one of the longest bugs to exist in the game.
For example, if any Hunters decide to go Venthyr, taming those gargoyles in HoA won’t be much of a dps boost. Charm of Eternal Winter neck from Castle Nathria? Pointless. Not only does the charmed creature unsummon our normal pet, it still gets the -35% damage.
That brings us to Spitting Cobra, which is also affected by the bug in Animal Companion. For me, Spitting Cobra averages about 38 dps. It’s beyond useless. Even a 260% boost won’t make it a viable option without fixing the bug in AC.
Good job killing WW monk Blizzard. What a joke