I think there is signifigant pressure to release WoTLK at such a time to be ahead of the release of Warhammer, or compete direct against it. One issue with TBC release was almost no raid boss in the game for 25 players was tuned at all.

Gruul, Magtheridon, and TK Attunement were signifigantly overtuned. Hydross could crush, making the fight impossible for Paladin tanks, and lots of encounters bugging out, like Lurker below.

However, these were all new bosses. Blizzard has an excellent chance to release the two Naxx raids and have them tuned well from the get go, since the mechanics are similar, and numbers are adjusted. Looks like for a fresh level 70 entering the expansion, there will be 4-6months of content ready for them, giving Blizzard ample time to release another tier of raids.

In one of the many interviews lately, it was stated that none of the raid bosses had been designed yet. While the Naxx bosses will obviously be quite similar in design to the previous version, from a development standpoint the main benefit there is that the artwork and dungeon design is being reused; that's what takes a lot of man-hours, when making entirely new content. The boss design and tweaking will still need a lot of work, to get balanced to a usable standpoint.

Of course, having both 10 and 25 man versions of each dungeon will add some extra work as well, although certainly it's a great bang for the development buck, when it comes to giving the players more to do.

It's nice to see the official thinking for the expansion is a release date of this year; hopefully it won't need to be pushed back like TBC. As for AoC or Warhammer, there's certainly been no reason to believe in any pressure on Blizzard regarding those games. Everybody made such a brouhaha before Vanguard was released, and how Blizzard needed to "respond", and it came and went and sank like a rock. Even if both AoC and Warhammer do well, they are minor blips on the screen, compared to the overall numbers in WoW. Whenever WotLK is released, you can safely bet it will sell more copies in the first month than both AoC and Warhmmer combined will sell, during the first year (or possibly even the entire lifetime) of their respective releases.

An early december release date is probably what they're shooting for, in order to get holiday shoppers and college students on winter break. That's when they released the 2.0.1 patch that gave us the extended talent trees and too-early Pally/Shammy drops, among other things.

I think everyone is forgetting that this is Blizzard we're talking about. I don't think they've ever released a game without pushing back the release date at least once. I'd hope we see a November/December launch, but I won't be heartbroken if its not for a few months after that.

I find that very hard to believe, sure they probaly dont have anything ready for actually testing (I believe what was said in the interview was that they couldnt test theDeathKnigh as raid tank yet as they had no bosses done), but they must have some designed etc. Unless we are to believe the raid team has been wanking off since they stopped working on Sunwell?
As I see it its more of 1) we dont want to talk about more raid stuff yet 2) Being misunderstood.

For the release date I was assuming it would be september/november back when it was first announced, but its fair to say it will be pretty difficult for them to get it out so soon, when we arent even getting into beta yet.
They probably learned something from TBC release, about what has to be done and what can wait hen getting the expansion out (like not rushing out raid instances which are not tested anyway). Maybe they will just throw the next raid instances after Naxx up on test server shortly after Wotlk is released. Judging from the info (or lack of) we have so far, it surely seems like the PvP stuff (outdoor zone, arenas, BG) is what is lacking most to get ready, but who really knows, maybe its due to PR rather than actual progress.
It was more or less stated in interviews that we could expect to see talent trees at WWI, if thats ends up being true, it doesnt seem so far off the time schedule back in TBC alpha/beta leaks.
Getting it out around December is probably still doable, but its going to require some smooth progress until then, if we can trust earlier releases and what we know so far, which isnt much.

Well, first we don't know when the interviews happened. They did say that the raid bosses have not been designed yet. The entry level raid is Naxx, where they probably don't have as much design thinking to do as the new raids in WoLTK.

That's somewhat interesting to hear. I won't lie, the new leveling content is always my favorite part of the game.. if they're really going to make it more interesting, power to them.

To me, though, this is the most interesting part. It's always disappointed me that so much of the old world is left unfinished, and I can understand why it's low on Blizzard's priority list to revamp.. so I was somewhat surprised by the Dustwallow changes, and I'll be surprised (but happy!) if they revisit other zones. Obviously there are undeveloped instances such as Grim Batol, Uldum, and Timbermaw Hold which are probably too much work to sneak in as mid-level content, but there are also a lot of zones that could stand to be fleshed out right now:

- Azshara (maybe to tie it into the Maelstrom expansion)
- Blasted Lands (probably not going to happen.. they should've redone it for TBC, but they didn't.)
- Deadwind Pass (same as Blasted Lands)
- Burning Steppes (the entire west side of the zone only has a a couple quests. There should've been a lot more stuff against the Dark Horde leading into BRS.)
- Winterspring (Darkwhisper Gorge needs some love, although I imagine that maybe they'll do so when/if they add present-day Hyjal?)

Maybe a couple other places that slip my mind too. The most likely candidates imo for a revamp would be Azshara and Burning Steppes, but I wouldn't expect it until one of the post-release content patches.

One thing that also comes to mind that makes me sad is that WotLK almost surely will not have a creepy graveyard~y forest~y zone like Duskwood in it. I love Duskwood's feel, and the Scourge content has tended to lack its subtlety.

Azshara stands as the ideal zone to revamp, as you mentioned, once the Maelstorm/Undermine get implemented.

They haven't even fleshed out all of the class abilities and talents. I don't see them designing raid content around things that are likely to be drastically changed or even removed before going live.

Thats balancing. They dont have to know all that for designing the bosses in the first place.
Class changes is being made in patches too, while they are working at new instances. Would be pretty impossible to ever make any raid stuff if that team had to wait for the class team.

Plenty of sites have mentioned they were going to Blizz a week or so before all this information was released, it seems like a fair bet that most of the interviews and new info is from that visit, but of course you are right, we dont know it for every single interview.

WotLK Friend & Family Alpha Starting

According to mmochampion (link above) and other similar sites, friends and family alpha testing has begun. Source is supposed to be leaked "leaked" patch notes.

Those locations seem to suggest Horde will use a zeppelin to get to Northrend while Alliance will use a boat. Not really that surprising I guess. Though I do agree Horde will have it a bit easier than Alliance (unless they decide to make a portal from Shatt to Theramore, which is a possibility now that Mages can teleport there and make portals to it).

And interesting to see how Mages and Warriors were apparently the first two classes to have their 70+ skills and talents. I wonder if that was pure coincidence or because they're probably the two most straight-forward classes in WoW atm.

WoW Wiki mentions that Burning Legion has come to Northrend, I was under the impression that Northrend was an exclusive Scourge arealike Outlands is BL area.

If the legion has come to Northrend, who do you think we will see there?

Where's it say that? You'll probably see some Legion holdouts up there from when the Lich King was controlled by Dreadlords, but nothing major.

Nexus - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

We know that the Legion is attracted to the use of Magic, to the things Malygos is doing would attract them technically. Dunno, just wondering out aloud, I don't know much about Northrend in terms of traditional Warcraft lore.

That speculation seems to be wholly based on the Nexus clip, which looks like it might show a Fel Orc along with what should otherwise be assumed to be the ex-Kirin Tor who joined the Blue Dragonflight (and who understandably use anti-Mage Felstalkers). It doesn't make much sense lore-wise for the Blue Dragons to ally with the Legion.

That said, I'm sure you'll run into Legion forces here and there, it just won't be a major part of the plot.

Actually, looking back over the video, it's clear that it depicts a human with brown hair rather than a Fel Orc. See the SS here. I'm going to edit the Wowwiki page.

How does the FF alpha prove anything? Does it mean we will finally see a public beta soon? Yes. Does it mean everything is nicely packaged and ready to ship after a bit of testing in beta? Hell no.

I sincerely hope Blizzard takes their time on the beta to really test all the content so we don't have a repeat of Gruul/Mag to kill raiding again.

Well, it doesnt directly prove anything else than wotlk is progressing. However, when comparing to TBC alpha/beta schedule it does give some idea when release date might be. While things are never the same, I doubt there is much more or much less testing to be done than it was TBC.

I'm really interested in seeing the new talents and how they will "balance" the Death Knight.
Maybe it might even give a slight indication of the FotM class although any such claims would be best taken with a grain of salt (remember the kinds of criticisms the Felguard generated in the BC beta?)

When did the F&F alpha start for TBC?

something like July/august. I remember visiting a friend for barbecue that could show me a very early version of Hellfire Peninsula, and it was pretty warm outside

The only thing that is frustrating about WotLK is how the hell im going to pass the next few months without any WoW and alot of free time and getting all this info makes the wait take so much longer.