Unsolicited World of Warcraft Predictions for 2009

Even though nobody asked, here are five things that I think will happen in the coming year. I’ll check back in a year and see how I do.

1. World of Warcraft: The Emerald Dream is announced at Blizzcon ‘09.

I mean, come on, this is the biggest chunk of lore that Ensidia hasn’t killed yet. It’s coming. In 2011, but it’s coming.

2. Ulduar (and later Icecrown Citadel) are PTR’d and beaten the day they are patched into the live game.

The only way I don’t see this happening is if one of those raids features about 10 bosses. The only reason Naxxramas took 3 days to clear was people had to get 10 additional levels first. Now, your top guilds (or really, everyone) is going to hit each of the yet-to-be-implemented raids day one and bring it down ridiculously fast. Blizzard has the capability of testing these things internally and I’d like to see them do that to give your bleeding edge guilds a challenge. Don’t let it get farmed to death on the PTR. There should not be detailed strategies for Arthas on day one. But there will be.

3. Emblems of Heroism will be redeemable for Emblems of Valor.

I don’t know if the exchange rate will be 3-for-1, 5-for-1 or 10-for-1, but this will be implemented some point next year. I know I could gear other specs (yeah, right), but I’m just about out of a need for badges emblems on this character, and that’s after buying the Tier 7 chest token which got replaced the next day when Sartharion dropped his on heroic. I know I won’t be the only one in the same boat and I’ve only been doing Naxxramas for a month. Meanwhile, we’ve only dabbled in 25 man content due to not having the consistent numbers and I could use, oh, about 150 more of those things.

Enter the Heroism for Valor exchange. This keeps people interested in running heroics and Naxxramas long after they’ve run out of things to purchase with Emblems of Heroism. And keeps your entitled casuals who can do Naxx 10 and Sartharion but can’t get 25 man raids going happy.

4. Dual specs solve little.

I know it will help certain classes greatly, but whenever this is finally implemented (3.1?), I forsee there still inexplicably seeing a need for tanks and healers when trying to get together for an instance.

Me: “Can you tank or heal?”
Nub: “im a ret dps paladin”
Me: “What’s your other spec?”
Nub: “pvp ret”
Me: /facepalm

Also, doesn’t the whole idea of dual specs seem too…easy? I’m waiting for a catch. The ability to flip back and forth between two specs with no penalty whatsoever just seems like cheating to me. Also I’m going to have a holy spec, and another holy spec. I’m just going to rearrange a talent point or two.

5. Refer A Friend is reintroduced later in the year with benefits extending up to level 70.

The levelling nerf from 60 to 70 is already in effect and this is a logical extension. Compared to the Lich King content, questing in the Burning Crusade sure is painful, and of course they want you to experience the newest expansion, so they might as well have you blow through this content as well so you can head on over to Northrend

What do you think, sirs?

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Tags: 2009, predictions, warcraft

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