What We Know About 8.2 So Far [A Compilation of Data]

Community General Discussion
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Alright. I thought I’d compile a list of what we know about 8.2 before the big info drop that’s inevitably arriving in what might be a few days! Sources will be listed at the bottom. These are all official and trustworthy.

General:

  1. Biggest Patch: “Rise of Azshara” is supposedly the biggest World of Warcraft content patch to date.
  2. Release Date: The release date of this patch is most likely Tuesday, May 28th, 2018. This is because of M.O.T.H.E.R.'s 77 cycle prediction, which she says upon the launch of 8.1.5. 77 days from then is the date above.
  3. Commitment to BFA: Instead of abandoning the expansion, Blizzard wants to continue to build upon their mistakes early in the expansion and make the rest of it great.
  4. PTR Hint: On April 4th, the first hints of an 8.2 PTR were dropped, with WoW’s vendor CDN hinting at the PTR’s appearance.
  5. Info Dump Coming Soon: Ion said an info dump was coming very soon, and that it was “so close to being on the PTR.”

The Zone Design of 8.2

  1. Zones: We’ll be getting two new zones: Nazjatar and Mechagon!
  2. General Size: Nazjatar will be a gigantic open-world zone, and Mechagon will be slightly smaller than the Timeless Isle.
  3. Overview of Zones: Nazjatar will be a bit more typical from what we’d expect from an end-game zone, while Mechagon will be a “gnomish paradise” that is sandboxy.
  4. We’ll be able to fly in Kul Tiras, Zandalar, Mechagon and Nazjatar.
  5. Nazjatar Design: Nazjatar will NOT be underwater, and may have at least 5 sub-zones. We’ll see PvP towers like in Terokkar Forest, as well as FFA PvP quests maybe making a return. You can recruit assistants akin to the Tillers in MoP, and will have a very oceany feel overall, obviously.
  6. Mechagon Design: Mechagon, as I said before, is a bit smaller. This zone will have different crafting materials that you can turn in to craft pets and different items. Probably even some mounts.
  7. World Quests: They’re planning on evolving the World Quest system in Nazjatar to make it better.
  8. Azshara’s Eternal Palace: A new 8-boss raid known as Azshara’s Eternal Palace (with a possible underwater boss) will be coming in Nazjatar.
  9. Mechagon Megadungeon: We’ll face off against 8 bosses in a RtK-like dungeon in Mechagon.

Azerite Changes:

  1. No More Armor Trait Grind: You no longer need to grind to unlock Azerite traits in 8.2, so they’ll be fully unlockable upon attaining the armor.
  2. HoA Abilities: New choices and powers will be available on the actual Heart of Azeroth as your neck levels up. These abilities can be upgraded as you level it, too. (An example given by Ion was blasting things with “massive Azerite energy.”)
  3. In Your Hands for Testing ASAP: Ion said he wants to get the new Azerite system for 8.2 out for testing as soon as possible so they can make the needed fixes.

The Story:

  1. Sylvanas: Sylvanas’s rise to power is a key to how we get to Nazjatar and what goes on in Nazjatar. There’ll be links to what happens in BFA and the people we encounter in Nazjatar.
  2. Zone Impact Changes: We’ll impact the zones. Most likely like we did in Mount Hyjal or similar phasing instances. It’s also mentioned that we’ll help some groups fight the naga.
  3. The Battle for Azeroth, not Nazjatar: The actions that impact the major story will take place around the world, not just in the new zones.
  4. Azshara = Fire: When shown a picture of Azshara and told to describe it, Jeremy Feasel says “fire.”
  5. Black Empire = Uncertainty: When shown a picture of the Black Empire and told to describe it, Jeremy Feasel says “uncertainty.”
  6. Saurfang = Sad Ohhh: When shown a picture of Saurfang and told to describe it, Jeremy Feasel says “sad ohhh.” Is this hinting at a death?
  7. Island Stories Will Be Reflected in Battle for Azeroth: Jeremy Feasel confirmed that some of the Island quests will have events that take place in BFA. This is interesting, as we have quests about the Dragon Isles, Helya being alive, and perhaps even the destruction of Azeroth.
  8. Garrosh/Sylvanas Parallels: Ion says they’re aware of the parallels, and that there’s references coming. Members of the Horde leadership will “remember going down dark paths before.” He says that Sylvanas, unlike Garrosh, has motives we don’t know of, and she isn’t the character who’ll be in chains like Garrosh was.
  9. The War Continues: The War Campaign will continue in 8.2, and the conflict is more noticeable than before with the heavy losses in Dazar’alor.
  10. The Azshara “Twist”: The Nazjatar story and Queen Azshara will have a HUGE “twist” that we aren’t expecting.
  11. Major Story Characters: Sylvanas is shown with Xal’atath, and Saurfang, Jaina and Anduin are also shown to be major characters for 8.2.
  12. B-Plot Comes to the Forefront: The B-Plot of healing Azeroth becomes much more dire.

Warfronts:

  1. No More Warfronts in 8.2: There’s no new Warfronts coming in 8.2, which people see as Blizzard putting this system to rest. This is probably for the best, because Ion mentioned in an interview for 8.1 that the Warfronts took up almost all of their resources for the patch.
  2. Heroic Warfronts: Players will be able to join up with their guilds and do Heroic Warfronts, which provide a challenge equivalent to normal raids. There’ll be better rewards, and will be flexible between 10 and 20 players.

Other Things (Island Expeditions, PvP, Miscellaneous):

  1. New Island Expeditions: We’ll be going to Crestfall and Snowblossom, two new island expeditions in 8.2.
  2. PvP Mounts: New PvP mounts are Basilisks (Viscious Saddle Mounts).
  3. Season 3: PvP/PvE Season 3 will start a few months into 8.2, and it’ll have a Nazjatar-themed affix.
  4. No New Allied Races: No new allied races are coming in 8.2, but more are planned for the future.
  5. Gnome and Tauren Heritage Armor: Gnomes and Tauren will be getting their own heritage armor!

Sources:

How do you guys feel about this? There’s obviously a TON that we need to find out.

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I want to remain hopeful, but I also don’t want my expectations to be thwarted. Certainly seems interesting!

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Most of it sounds hopefully positive. Except this:

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“biggest content patch” is bringing up bad memories of 7.2

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Player Speculation. Yes, it is going to be a BIG patch. And yes, it likely will be the Biggest Patch, as it has 2 full zones, a mega dungeon, AND a raid. But there’s been no official statement it is the biggest patch, and they will likely not make that claim after the Broken Shore Fiasco.

And no, it is not coming out in May. It is not on the PTR yet. For a patch this size, with not only 2 zones to test (which include new mechanics such as the bodyguard system) but also the Megadungeon bosses to test AND raid bosses, there’s AT LEAST 3 months of testing that needs to occur. This places the patch earliest in mid July. My guess would be July 23rd earliest.

Ion stated that Mechagon is slightly larger than the Timeless Isle, not smaller.

Half-right. At Blizzcon, they stated that parts of Nazjatar will be underwater. So although the majority of the zone is indeed above water, as Azshara raises it, parts of it remain underwater.

You may want to clarify this: EXISTING armor we have will still need to be unlocked. However, any new armor you obtain will be fully unlocked.

They recently gave more examples, of the passive abilities, such as shields or movement speed boosts.

Almost Everything in your “The Story” section is irrelevant and just small comments by the devs to fan questions about dropped plot points.

For instance, we don’t need to know that Muffinus thinks Azshara is “Fire” and the Black Empire is “Uncertainty” or Saurfang is “Sad Ohhh” this means literally nothing.

Azshara’s “Twist” is likely not to end any different than when Ion told us to “Wait to watch the cinematic before judging” when he told us that about Teldrassil burning, because it “might be more than just Sylvanas burning the Tree.” Then shocker, it was Sylvanas burning the tree.

No. They’ve outright said there’s more warfronts coming, but they will add them when it seems right. They said that no warfronts fit the theme of 8.2, and as such, they did not feel the need to add one for the patch. They are not “Putting them to Rest.” Stop putting words in people’s mouths.

Jeez, half of your post is speculation and half of it is putting words into player’s mouths.

Yes, a good portion of it is indeed accurate and I cut that out, but I eye rolled at a good portion of your post as well. (I didn’t quote every issue I had with it cause I don’t have time to correct every thing)

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You forgot the confirmed Goblin and Worgen model update that was announced at Blizzcon to put under the “Other Things” category TC.

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That’s 8.2.5, not 8.2.

Now it’s possible they finished early and will roll it out early, but I imagine it’s meant to be the “big” part of 8.2.5, like how the Allied Races were in 8.1.5, so I doubt it.

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what was wrong with 7.2?

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They promised it was the “Biggest Patch they’ve ever released.”

Then when they released it, all they had was the Broken Shore, which came with like, 3 or 4 quests and that was it.

Everything else was timegated behind like 11 weeks, released one week at a time.

And even then, the quests they DID have were stupid “Go kill 50 Demons,” “Go loot 10 Treasure Chests,” and “Go kill 50 More Demons” quests.

Yes, it released class mounts, but in the end, they revealed the Broken Shore quests were NOT account wide, so we had to do them on every single class, which meant we had to do every single broken shore quest on 12 characters, which had rep requirements (which were nerfed after we complained), as well as insane follower ilvl requirements (which were also nerfed after complaining).

And then Tomb of Sargeras released and it was… not received well at all. I’m pretty sure it still remains one of the least completed raids in the game?

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oh i enjoyed the content from that patch invasions broken shore flying class mounts. etc. though yes the way the story released made it uninteresting. the story itself i mean. the 5 man was my favorite from legion

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You left out Pathfinder II.

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I want to be hopeful, Ionteam. I really do.

But I’ve been hurt before.

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Dear god no.

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Been down this road before. Let’s see how many lies he told this time.

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Lmao that’s what I’m saying

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No new warfronts? That’s too bad, they’re the best part of BFA, save for the RNG.

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CONFIRMED Gnomes will be like cat poop in the kitty litter that is BFA!

Early screenshots of Mechagon…

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That 77 days is not a direct reference to the upcoming 8.2 patch. And you’re fooling yourself if you think the “largest content patch to date” is coming that quickly. It’s already April. And the PTR hasn’t even launched. No way it comes out before June. I’d say late June at the earliest. But really the MOTHER statement is not a clear declaration of when 8.2 launches.

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6.2 was also the biggest patch ever, so what now snap chat integration?