With Patch 9.2, the story of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands seemingly comes to an end. And apparently, that was even planned.
Yesterday, Blizzard announced the Patch 9.2 for World of Warcraft and introduced the new area, the rough storyline, and the raid in a nearly 10-minute video. While some fans are growing excited and looking forward to new content, there is also some concern – as Patch 9.2 will likely be the end of Shadowlands, the final major content patch of the expansion.
What was said? In an interview with GameRant magazine, Blizzard confirmed that “The End of Eternity” is planned as the climax and finale of the Shadowlands storyline. Additionally, Shadowlands is supposed to have only 3 seasons. Since the 2nd season is currently ongoing and the 3rd season begins with Patch 9.2, the conclusion is clear: The storyline of Shadowlands finds its end with Patch 9.2.
Was anything cut? After the statement that Patch 9.2 will likely be the last major content drop for Shadowlands, a question arises again: Was content scrapped, similar to Warlords of Draenor? Were plans discarded to quickly conclude and then continue “fresh” with expansion 9?
No, at least Blizzard says so. According to Steve Danuser, the story chief of WoW, Shadowlands was planned as a “story in 3 acts” before the pandemic. That would be essentially the campaign of Patch 9.0, Patch 9.1, and Patch 9.2.
Whether that is true is hard to verify, but it seems unusual at first glance. Usually, expansions have more than 2 content updates. Only Warlords of Draenor had so few – and that expansion was ended prematurely.
Will there be nothing after Patch 9.2? That is not completely clear. Although it seems unlikely that a Patch 9.3 is still on the way, there could at least be a smaller patch, about 9.2.5. That could bring an epilogue and gradually lead to the next expansion, before it goes into the next adventure with Patch 10.0.
But that is still a distant prospect.
What do you think about Patch 9.2 being the end of Shadowlands? A pity and rushed? Or the right step to quickly start something new?
