Confirmed information, our own reaction, what the community is saying, and what nobody knows yet, kept separate on purpose.
The second act of the Worldsoul Saga is ending, Xal'atath has torn the Mantle Vault open, and Blizzard says 12.1 was the last slow patch. Plus spec-relative M+ rankings, and a plea about the Race to World First.
Beta to launch to raids in seven weeks, a PvP season on every patch, and a Hardcore ruleset arriving into a world that never stops growing. That last part is the one that matters.
A new elven race that actually fits the world, a starting zone in the Skywall, Druids who aren't Night Elves, and the first race Blizzard has ever charged for outside an expansion. I think that's the right call, and I'll say why.
Blizzard never lost the ability to build a world worth walking through. What it lost was the walking. Forever's no-flying, no-boost, campfire-and-600-recipes design is a bet that friction is what made the world matter.
Mount Hyjal, the Riverglades, Shen'dralas and Zephras Isle are a mix of the expected and the genuinely surprising, and the 30-to-45 drought finally gets fixed. Then there's the continent I'm personally hoping for.
