Since the first tease of WoW patch 7.3 back at BlizzCon 2016, there’s been a question as to whether it was the finalé of Legion. It seems an appropriate place to end it, but that hasn’t stopped Blizzard from putting a bonus raid at the end of an expansion before. Speaking to game director Ion Hazzikostas today at Gamescom, we confirmed that it is the last major content patch, but that doesn’t mean everything ties up nicely.
Here’s everything we know about WoW patch 7.3.
“It’s the last major patch, yes. In terms of large outdoor zones to explore, big raid tier, dungeon, that sort of thing,” he explains. “It’s not the end of the story of Legion, though. I think something that we’ve been very happy with over the course of the year and in last year was the way we’ve told a story that’s unfolding through a continuous series of content updates.”
For context, this has involved things like raids and patches being split off, so big ten-week campaigns like the one that lead up to the opening of the Nighthold were possible. Even before that, Legion has been one of the more story-focused WoW expansions, with lots of new tech to enable it.
“Some big, some small, some not even patches,” Hazzikostas continues. “Just a couple of weeks ago, when Argus suddenly appeared in the skies over the world, or Doomsayers filled the streets of Dalaran and a new quest became available. We like to be able to deliver content and advance the story through a variety of means and ideally not have any seeming gap or lull in that content flow.”
To read between the lines a little here, that likely means we won’t see the large gap between expansions as has been the case every time up until now. The hints and teases for what is assumed to be an Old God-based follow-up have already begun – we can probably assume things will get more purple and tentacley between now and 8.0.
It also doesn’t rule out a 7.3.5, the small(er) patches Blizzard have been using to pepper in rebalancing and mini-features, from questlines to three-boss raids. Expect some news on that – or the expansion, or both – at BlizzCon in a few months.