Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I had seen this place when I was exploring after getting cold weather flying, and I guess I haven't progressed through the Icecrown quest lines to this point yet.

As you say, the influence of the Nerubians is not that widely felt throughout Northrend, so if they are going to open up a huge underground city to have us go there for a raid, Blizzard will have to come up with some reason for us to skip Icecrown and go there.

At the same time. like the Isle, it could be opened up after Arthas is defeated. Considering that Yogg-Saron is covering a massive area of Northrend, I can even see a possibility of multiple fights against him (one in Storm Peaks, one in Dragonblight for example).

Also, Icrcrown seems like an ideal place for many one-boss raids or open world raid bosses. I would personally prefer doing some raiding in Icecrown before going to the Citadel.

Blizzard has already said that Arthas / Icecrown will be the last raid zone of this XP.

Really? Not saying it isnt true, but from a marketing perspective, thats not too smart, as well know that the moment Icecrown Citadel opens up, the WotLK is close to being over. Its bad for Blizzard however you cut it. My guess would be that Arthas is the Illidan of WotLK.

Yogg - Saron before Lich King makes sense considering it can actually be tied in with whatever happens in Ulduar.

Lets not forget the next raid being released, as that probably would hint at the direction of lore.

Everyone new that TBC was close to being over long before anyone walked in to SWP.

I strongly suspect that by the time people are walking in to Icecrown Citadel they will have already announced the next expansion.

While I think having Arthas as the last boss of the expansion might "feel" right, it doesn't neccesarily have to be. This is especially true if around that time they announce the next expansion. Icecrown Citadel opens up, people beat Arthas, they announce the next expansion and before it comes out they release another raid to gap the two expansions. Would sort of be like ZG but on a larger scale.

I am thinking the same thing... this expansion to many people is more than just the culmination of many storylines within WoW and WoTLK but of WC3 as well... I don't recall for sure how longs its been since I finished the frozen throne but it had to be at least 5 years. So now that story arc is finally drawing to a close... it's hard to imagine what can be next.

I really hope they pull it off though.

Deathwing is one option; the Black Dragonflight have been a fairly constant part of the game since release. Between Onyxia, UBRS / BWL and parts of Dragonblight there have been some fairly "high profile" encounters with them, and it would make sense to continue that.

The other one I can think of is the speculated return of Sargeras. Varimathras and Putress were trying to summon someone powerful in Undercity, and Mal'ganis' return suggests that the Legion still has an interest in the world. Given his statements in Onslaught Harbour I wouldn't be suprised if he turned up in Icecrown Citadel as well, potentially paving the way for more Legion activity in the future.

I agree entirely, which is why I'm surprised that WotLK was the second expansion... although not as surprised as I was with TBC being the first. If they really want to make me "wtf" they'll make the inevitable "worlds beyond" expansion leading up to fights with Kil'Jaeden and Sargeras next, but I really hope they don't do that when there's stuff on Azeroth yet to be done. Azshara would probably make a decent enough major villain, though I doubt she'll be as engaging as Arthas. The Emerald Dream.. who knows, that's almost guaranteed to be a made-up villain. Deathwing of course is on the short list of major enemies as well, but I doubt he'll be given his own expansion.

If they really wanted to be evil and toy with us... they would have us fight the Lich King, and lose. Our defeat will be apparent and inevitable, Tirion and Saurfang will hold off the Lich King while sending/forcing us away. Maybe whisked away by dragons, or fallen down off a ledge or cliff. Whatever etc... what matters is we lose, the Lich King wins, evil prevails and "Oh Shit, now what do we do?"


The next expansion would be a few years 'in the future', in a world in complete and utter Armageddon. Ironforge is sealed up and under martial law, Stormwind is a burning heap, Orgrimmar is under constant siege and Thunderbluff has raised the lifts and instituted policies that make the Scarlet Crusade seem sane. Etc. Almost the entirety of the world just being razed and scourged up.

The Initial focus of the expansion would be plain old survival. Trying to protect refugees, keeping the zombies at bay. Then as we progressed, we would retake the world, piece by piece. Form new allegiances, reform the old ones, fight for every damn inch. Thanks to the phasing technology, we actually could visibly retake and rebuild things. Imagine a whole expansion that acted out like long duration 'world event'. Like the Sunwell Island invasion, but better and minus the suck

Of course no one wants to be stuck in a permanent wasteland, so you can go back to the 'past' thanks to our friends at the bronze dragonflight. Maybe make it part of the story arc, requiring heroes to go back in time to fix things that we did wrong the first time through. Leave things in the past so you can use them in the future etc.


We've basically kicked the living crap out of everything tossed at us so far, seems like we've maybe gotten too comfortable with that.