TBC is shorter than Classic vanilla, with five phases instead of six. I think Wrath will probably be released by the end of 2022.
Also, I don’t think it takes much to make these Classic servers profitable for them. They are likely very, very cheap to make (compared to retail content). All of the creative development is already done.
but herding you orcs and keeping you from saying mean and hurtful things to each other has to take a lot…
I’m thinking g January of 2023.
I think they release WotLK after both SoM and TBC wraps up. SoM was released in November and it was a 12 month release cycle. I would say WotLK releases around March 2023, which would bring the entire classic player base together for a massive WotLK launch.
Arena was dead as soon as they changed the format and ruined it. It was called in many threads when they announced the rating changes, they ruined it.
Wrath will be more popular bc the dungeons are easier, it’s easier to queue up for them for more casual players and their are multiple difficulty levels. It’s also way more alt friendly. It doesn’t suffer from the same grind…casual players always are the majority and Classic/BC aren’t as casual.
My guess is January 2023. REALLY depends how long they keep Sunwell out after its release. Naxx was out for like 7 months.
P3 - Late Jan-Early Feb
P4 - Since its filler 10m raid probably April
P5 - July
Wrath - January
Naxx was out 6 months when TBCC launched. I expect Sunwell to be out probably even shorter as Blizz grows more desperate. I’m be very surprised if Wrath wasn’t out already a year from now.
Really can’t do another 6 month last patch. I barely made it through the last 6 months of classic waiting for TBC drop. It was brutal and boring.
TBC doesn’t have enough content to drag out for so long. 6 months was brutal on Classic but I get why they did that but not sure how many want 6 months of Sunwell. With Wrath you can make the phases last longer on some parts than TBC as there’s more content.
I still to this day think making Illidian killable so soon and not the boss of TBC was a mistake.
I feel like most people playing tbc at this point are just waiting it out/preping for wotlk. So i sure hope that we speed it up and get wotlk asap.
When som ends.
Som is a year event.
Yeah we got a few with pally farmers with 20k-30k+ gold waiting for Wrath so they can insta gear dks and level up professions. I would be too if pally play wasn’t such a drag of epic proportions.
If they were smart… For Wrath they should re-release game boxes with Digital keys and random items and such at stores. You could still buy the digital copies of course but the boxes would include other stuff that collectors eat up… Was a popular item because of them special collector editions back in the day and a marketing genius could make a fortune off the nostalgia alone…
This is pure propaganda. Many people won’t bother with WOTLK if they don’t get to bring their characters over. People need to get over ‘fresh’. SoM should show you that only a vocal minority wanted fresh servers.
Being behind is only a mindset. There are plenty of catch up mechanics in both TBC and WOTLK. Professions and BoE gear is enough to get you to current tier. Badges in WOTLK are easily farmed even as a fresh 80 and will net you the ilevel needed to clear raids.
This is the smartest thing they can do. Making people play the same patch for 6+ months while waiting for the next expansion is brutal on the playerbase. Smartest thing they could do is 3 months of P6 with 2 weeks of prepatch, then release WOTLK.
2023 for sure
wow had a steady incline until BoA, so stop lying
I didn’t lie, you misread what I said.
I will explain it for you. The growth trend was way flatter than it was during vanilla and TBC. A lot of people were quitting in WotLK, so they were being replaced with new people to keep the numbers similar. There were slightly more people coming into the game than quitting, therefore there was a slight up tick in players throughout WotLK. This was because of the hype, advertising blitz and word of mouth WoW had going for it during that time period. However instead of having the numbers continuing to go up. it flattened off, only to spike during Cataclysm then fall off a cliff a few months into Cataclysm.
Blizzard tried to hand wave this away by saying “all expansions have this spike and drop on release” Even though good games constantly prove them wrong. Bad games have spikes and massive drops.
I see no harm in offering both. Let the existing servers carry over as expected and have a few new ones for those that want fresh. More options are always a good thing.
They should absolutely have a fresh OPTION. They should have done that with TBC. Even if it’s literally one server. Well…two. One pvp and one pve.
I know it seems a bit counterintuitive since a lot of servers are low pop, but there is a huge draw in bringing in players who get the opportunity to begin on the same level playing field as everyone else. Right now you’re at a huge disadvantage if you start playing the game. And boosts are not the answer. Sure, they make Blizzard some quick cash. But ultimately it’s self-defeating, and players quickly quit. We knew it was going to happen, and it happened.