From the WoW EU Boards

[Watto44]

Linky!

Looking at the game itself, we’re currently in the process of testing patch 1.10 which is scheduled for release in the beginning of March. This patch includes the much awaited weather effects and more content for small-group players. We’re also continuing the talent improvements with a look at the Priest.

Looking further into the future, here are some of our major goals for 2006:
# In patch 1.11: Naxxramas! – the massive necropolis floating above Stratholme, home to Kel’Thuzad
# More content tailored for casual level 60 players
# Greater focus on outdoor PvP
# Talent improvements for the remaining classes; Shaman, Rogue and Mage
# More world events and holidays
# Fee-based character transfers
# Improved forums and web sites, including more interactive content such as the PvP Honor rankings and the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort pages
# A new data centre and continual upgrading of the existing ones to accommodate for the tremendous growth in Europe

That's a lot of stuff to cram into one patch. It could just be some bad formatting, but I can't see them cramming all that stuff into one patch.

[Raven Vale]

Yeah it says Major goals for 2006 , expect them to be thinly spread , rather like Marmite :P

[Dozer]

Yeah it says Major goals for 2006 , expect them to be thinly spread , rather like Marmite :P
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That implies that WoW is fermented and smells like death.

Which probably isn't too far off from the truth :P

[Jarulf]

Linky!
That's a lot of stuff to cram into one patch. It could just be some bad formatting, but I can't see them cramming all that stuff into one patch.
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The only thing on the list that is scheduled for 1.11 though is that city, the rest can be in 1.12, 1.13 and so on, no idea how many patches they can fit into this year.

[jhartelt]

# Fee-based character transfers

Well, they have been talking about this for what, 6 months now? Does this mean it will take 10 more months before I can FINALLY move my shaman off of his pvp server?

[JustAGuy]

Well, they have been talking about this for what, 6 months now? Does this mean it will take 10 more months before I can FINALLY move my shaman off of his pvp server?
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I'm in a similar situation to yours. My poor Paladin can't get off of the crappy server he's on. It's full of awful players. The decent players are actually all in the same guild, and they're, predictably, not recruiting. I've spent so much time with my Shaman (he's in a great guild) that my Pally is out of luck on his server. I've had so much success with my Shaman that I'm very interested in seeing how a Paladin would do in the same situations. I'm especially interested in how an epic geared Pally, similar to my Shaman, would do.

I've been meaning to play alliance again, but I can't bare to play with those awful pickup groups, and all the guilds are closed. How hard could it be to move a character file from one server to another, and then modify his character name if necessary. I mean, come on!

WTB [Fee-based character transfers] PST!

[Brista]

I think there's some very interesting developments

# In patch 1.11: Naxxramas! – the massive necropolis floating above Stratholme, home to Kel’Thuzad

OK sounds like more undead. Nice for Priests and Pallies. I would guess that if faction is involved it will be Argent Dawn faction with better Argent Dawn rewards coming although it could be a new faction entirely

# More content tailored for casual level 60 players

Very welcome. It's a clear flaw in the product that although the game is very playable solo/small group until 60 it suddenly hits a brick wall unless you raid both in PvE and in pre-made battleground groups.

# Greater focus on outdoor PvP

I play on RPPvP now and outdoor world raids are a major part of the player-driven content. Our ability to create the type of realm we want is severely hampered by the DK system, all of us have had DKs from some random player making a mistake or being careless and nothing kills immersion faster than a big argument over this

# Talent improvements for the remaining classes; Shaman, Rogue and Mage

I'm sure it will be one in 1.11 one in 1.12 and one in 1.13. The talent revamps are getting more and more inflated it seems to me. First there was the Warrior one which wasn't much of a buff. Then Warlocks a class that had so many little things wrong with it that it's taken several patches with lots of Warlock fixes to address most of the problems. Now we've come to the Priest it's more or less a "have lots of free candy" patch, not a fixing of problems at all. I mean come on, what sensible Priest felt that not being able to pvp with Smite was a game-breaking problem? I expect the last 3 to be this type, big power-ups to the 3 remaining classes. Ultimately game balance all gets reset by the Expansion at approximately the year end so they can afford to dole out candy

# More world events and holidays
They do these very well. I love the fishing tournament and the Christmas and Halloween festivals particularly

# Fee-based character transfers
I view this with distaste as I don't especially want all the people who have awful reputations or over-powered gear jumping onto my Realm. There's speculation that the RP realms might not permit this but I can't see that being the case

# Improved forums and web sites, including more interactive content such as the PvP Honor rankings and the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort pages
Well good, it's a nice website. I think interactive content such as the devs commenting on class issues would be preferable though

# A new data centre and continual upgrading of the existing ones to accommodate for the tremendous growth in Europe
Now this is interesting. Is the game still growing? Most MMOs peak after a couple of months, this game is amazingly popular


Overall the thing I would have liked to see and don't see here is some attempt to deal with servers where the battleground queueing has problems. Mongojerry's idea about cross-server battlegrounds was a nice one. On my newish server it's possible to spend hours in all 3 queues without getting more than a couple of games

[vor_lord]

Now we've come to the Priest it's more or less a "have lots of free candy" patch, not a fixing of problems at all. I mean come on, what sensible Priest felt that not being able to pvp with Smite was a game-breaking problem? 
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Talent revamps are not for "game-breaking" problems. The game isn't broken.

The fact is, PvP is a pretty miserable experience for most healing priests. Not sure the solutions are what I would have chosen for that, but they are addressing a real problem.

At any rate I'm hoping the damage improvements in the Holy tree will mean I can actually do solo work without clawing my eyes out.

[MongoJerry]

Overall the thing I would have liked to see and don't see here is some attempt to deal with servers where the battleground queueing has problems. Mongojerry's idea about cross-server battlegrounds was a nice one. On my newish server it's possible to spend hours in all 3 queues without getting more than a couple of games

It was announced at Blizcon that the expansion will include cross-server battlegrounds along with a long-needed revamp to the whole honor system. I'm sad that it'll take that long to address these issues but glad that they will be addressed.

At any rate I'm hoping the damage improvements in the Holy tree will mean I can actually do solo work without clawing my eyes out.

Yeah, tell me about it. The difference between farming while holy/disc spec'd and shadow spec'd is currently night and day. At least farming won't be too bad anymore while holy/disc spec'd. I really wanted one more escape option, though -- my preference was to have Fade act like a four second Vanish ability in PvP, causing the player to become invisible and breaking snares and roots. Oh, well.

[oldmandennis]

It was announced at Blizcon that the expansion will include cross-server battlegrounds along with a long-needed revamp to the whole honor system.  I'm sad that it'll take that long to address these issues but glad that they will be addressed.
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Ouch. I must have missed that. Given that they haven't even started a lottery for closed beta spots, I'd assume they are a year or so from releasing the expansion. With the PVP population on most servers streached so thin as is, I'd be suprised to see another battle ground before then. The current 3 will be pretty stale by then.

[MongoJerry]

Ouch.  I must have missed that.  Given that they haven't even started a lottery for closed beta spots, I'd assume they are a year or so from releasing the expansion.  With the PVP population on most servers streached so thin as is, I'd be suprised to see another battle ground before then.  The current 3 will be pretty stale by then.

Since the general comments have been summer 2006, I'm guessing it'll really come out in the fall -- I'm guessing late October, just in time for Christmas. I think the new instance in EPL will be the last piece of major content before the expansion comes out. Look for a couple more patches to revamp classes and then the expansion will come out.

[oldmandennis]

I have heard pretty consistantly that Nerimaxxas was the last raid content. Assuming its out in a couple of months, that makes 6 months between major content. It was also about 6 months between BWL and AQ (though ZG was inbetween).

Unless there is a crack team of programmers hidden away toiling on the expansion and not assisting the current group, they would be _very_ hard pressed to come up with at lest 2 dungeons and probably more like 4, several new outdoor areas both 1-10 and 60-70, all the quests that go into those in 6 months.

Then add in the complications of trying to rebalance the game at 70. I know they are going to get it right the first time, but they need to have at least some time with people beating on it, and finding any overpowered talent synergies or imbalanced items.

Maybe such a group exists, but I don't think so.