11.13.08

[Lissa]

Yeah, 6 million subscribers. This is likely the last X-pac. If it comes out buggy they'll fix it with the live team and still make money hand over fist. Even if they piss off a bunch of the subscribers they should be confident that D3 and SC2 will calm some of those ruffled feathers and still bring them in a ton of money while they work on their next cash cow. And based on what I've done in beta, even with the bugs it won't be any worse than any other major patch that has bugs in it anyway.

They can easily afford whatever hit they'll take. And since even with the bugs, from what I've seen every class and every spec will get buffed in whatever gear they wear so people won't care as much. Even with WF not procing on the MH and even with only rank 5 procing at the right right on the off hand my enh shaman still got a DPS boost and more flexibility in being able to off heal in a pinch.

If any classes is weaker than what they are now I'd like to see it. That is not to say that the rankings of relative strength between classes/spec didn't change (marks hunters got quite the boost and beast may now be the weakest raiding spec believe it or not, but beast in beta is still stronger than beast on live).

IMO, this will be the last expansion pack done this way for WoW. Wrath will tidy up all the story lines from WC3 which makes it possible to setup WC4 and then WoW2. They still haven't announce their 4th project and that's either going to be something along the revitalization of Ghost or it's going to be WC4. While they may throw a bone later on that will open level 90 and maybe 100, I don't think that expansion will be sold like tBC and Wrath. WoW is coming on to the typical end of life cycle that MMOs go through (about 5 to 6 years).