Deathwing coming to a raid near you in Patch 4.3!

[Leucifer]

So..the last raid of the xpac 9 months into the expansion? Does that mean we'll have 1.5 years of raiding it? 9 Months?

WotLK saw at least 9 months of ICC. Yes, they had the Halion encounter added in which was not a "major" raid piece (multiple bosses in a larger-scale raid and he dropped trinks and rings.... ooooo).

And even if there's 9 months of the "Deathwing Raid", minus the top 1-2% of guilds like Paragon or such that clear new content in a month or less on normal, what is that 9 months like for the AVERAGE player? Plus, you still have other raid content still available.

It would be reasonable to expect Blizzard to release 4.3 around the holidays (about 1 month after Blizzcon). Then, I would expect to see a "transition" raid much like Halion, a lead-in to the upcoming xpac that would serve as a 3-4 month buffer between August and November 2012, with the new xpac being released in mid-November.

Yes. Speculation. History to support this speculation exists.

(Side note: Quinafoi is dead on. No one has said "definitively" that 4.3 is "the last". Watch for the lawyer-speak from Blizzard.)

[Airowird]

Also, there is a quest in Twilight Highlands with the Alexstraza vs Neltharion chain where Queen Al speaks of the Titans gifts and Neltharion (AKA Deathwing AKA Chinwing) responds with telling her about "the gifts of the new masters of Azeroth", clearly signifying he's but the grand puppet of an even larger force. And there is only one enemy that fits the anti-Titans superior force roll, especially considering the Cho'Gall & Deathwing lore.


Side-note: I roughly assume that while the air elementals help with DW, Ragnaros is mostly an opportunist & made a good "Molten Core was merely a setback" kinda boss, which would leave the water plain left (now scratched/delayed, maybe end-xpac bonus raid?) as all the elemental plains got imbalanced by Neltharion's actions. BWD was also a semi-revisit, although an attempt to tie it to the black/twilight drake stuff was made. One internet cookie to the first person to guess which boss it is

[Reev]

I assumed it was an Old God, since the only other known big baddy I'm aware of is Sargeras, and I doubt Blizzard wants to blow their load on the biggest bad guy in all of WoW at the end of this expansion.

[leethaxor]

We will see Sargeras in CoT, and we will get to fight his leg.

Edit 1: Or we will get to watch broxigar fight him while we fight off waves of adds.

[Airowird]

Definately an Old God yes, as the Twilight Hammer, that was being created by Cho'Gall in Twilight Highlands (doing quests for the 3rd time FTW, now I can actually slack a bit & read the quest text!) & 'you' prevented from being completed required the power of an Old God, so most likely a link there. Also the fact that "AQ isn't completely gone" as Tom Chilton put it helps to point towards an Old God instance.

Personally I assume we'll see an AQ 5-man and the 4.4 raid will be in Tirisfal Glades, at the west part, where pre-WoW (and think even pre-Warcraft III) lore said Lordearon was originally founded, but people started going crazy, so they moved the town. It's supposed to be the burial site of an ancient evil (read: Old God) and speculation indicates it's either the other half of C'thun (to revisit about every classic boss not yet visisted in WotLK) or another Old God that is imprisoned there (which would be the 5th one, as 2 are dead, we killed/subdued Yoggy & C'Thun is #4, but one of the 3 alive is tore in pieces & spread over Azeroth, we just don't know which one)

[Reev]

Well we killed Irylath in the TH quests, so that could account for the Old God talk. (I assume Irylath was an Old God?)

Seeing C'thun come back would make a lot of sense considering how the rest of this expansion has been so far.

[leethaxor]

Seeing C'thun come back would make a lot of sense considering how the rest of this expansion has been so far.

I thought C'thun was the old god that corrupted cho'gall because his corruption occurred in AQ as he was attempting to bring back C'thun when he was interrupted by the current guardian of Trisifal and he was 'defeated'.
And this took place after we 'killed' C'thun in AQ40.

Also the technical challenges of placing raid in TG would be very difficult as its the starting zone for UD's and to suddenly have alliance travelling all over your starting zone. What would make sense is to place it over the northern part of WPL as the area is currently blocked by an invisible wall.

[Quinafoi]

C'thun was just a set back, and only the left eye. Now you face D'thun, the more powerful right eye.

[Airowird]

Dunno about Irylath, killing it's brain may not necessarily mean you killed the Old God entirely (remember how you used to hit Yoggy's brain, but still had a phase afterwards?), but you're right, it's definately the last OG for the lore, just not sure which of 'em is torn to pieces. C'thun would make sense in that way, as Tirisfal Glades is literally on the other side of the world, thus making the old lore of the Old God "cut in pieces, it's various parts buried in the corners of the world" kinda work.

Also, remember that the Old gods are so infused with Azeroth, that the Titans could not kill them without destroying the world, they only imprisoned/weakened them. It would certainly make sense that if they give us an AQ5 heroic, as a prequel of what to come.

[Tengenstein]

by Irylath do you mean Iso'rath? the thing in the maw of madness in TH?

Assuming i'm not talking about something totally differnet the Quest text for Unbroken seems to indicate his pruple tentacledness whom keeps his brain in his stomach is not an old God:

"We are preparing a ritual that may be of use in destroying Iso'rath, the old god bred abomination that the Twilight's Hammer have brought up from the depths. We are delayed though, for one of our strongest was captured during an assault on their encampment. "

Also what of N'zoth? didn't they metion something about him/it at blizzcon last year and him being the dude responsible for corrupting the emerald dream? Some of the whisper's form Yogg-Saron's Puzzle box indicate a place under the sea where there's only sleep which have been specualted to mean that the old god the naga are working with and whom Ozumat's working for is N'zoth

[Aggathon]

My ears were burning so I clicked on this thread, what about killing me? I mean I know I'm a god but I'm not THAT old.

(my current character's name is Irylath, and the name is from a vampire in some random book no one's ever read. This girl I liked at the time gave it to me... good lord that was almost 7 years ago... okay maybe I am old).

[Tengenstein]

I wish i knew where my name came from.

[Airowird]

Also what of N'zoth? didn't they metion something about him/it at blizzcon last year and him being the dude responsible for corrupting the emerald dream? Some of the whisper's form Yogg-Saron's Puzzle box indicate a place under the sea where there's only sleep which have been specualted to mean that the old god the naga are working with and whom Ozumat's working for is N'zoth

The Arcrapology box would most likely reference to the now delayed/scrathced Abyssal Maw raid instance (Abyssal Maw meaning the Old God's nomnom-hole I assume). Not o mention half the whispers from that box have a reference to a Vashj'ir/Abyssal Maw -like theme.

I wish i knew where my name came from.

Ah, the dangers of Account buying .... or just creating alts when you're smashed/high

[Griff]

WotLK saw at least 9 months of ICC.

Yes, and who wanted to vomit when they set foot in the front door of ICC after 9 months of it.