What happens at the end?

[Hedake]

Hey,

I'm new to the Vanilla expansion wow experience. What happens at the end of content.. i.e. after Sunwell for TBC? Does the server reset or stay at Sunwell, etc.?

Thanks for the help!

[Evangelion]

It stays on TBC for good. WotLK realms are (well, were) up since 2009 on WotLK.

[taralej]

Icecrown is already up and running for those who want WotLK. There's no sense in upgrading Outland to WotLK. At the most, Warmane MAY allow transfers to Icecrown once all the content on Outland has been cleared, but that's still only a concept, and only a few people would use it, even if it became reality.

[Evangelion]

Icecrown is already up and running for those who want WotLK. There's no sense in upgrading Outland to WotLK. At the most, Warmane MAY allow transfers to Icecrown once all the content on Outland has been cleared, but that's still only a concept, and only a few people would use it, even if it became reality.

That's a concept for 4-5 years now, I wouldn't put much faith in it.

[taralej]

The situation is a bit different, though, as in this case we have two fully developed expansions with highly populated realms where a character transfer would be highly praised, highly used and thus will also generate high profit (a lot of players agree that it should be a coins-only service). It will be a finished service for two finished realms, an upgrade, a continuation of the journey on an already paved highway - not just random hectic transfers from realm to realm and from expansion to expansion.

The two downsides are - it will cause players to flow out from Outland (but Outland > Icecrown anyway, so that's okay), and (more importantly) players won't be pioneering into WotLK because both Icecrown and Lordaeron are already at end-game content. The interest in WotLK is not enough to fuel a new WotLK realm all by itself either. A new WotLK realm, as a continuation of Outland, would peak at no higher than 5k population, I'd say, counting Outland transfers, Icecrown queue dodgers, as well as fresh players.

The second reason would probably be the main reason why not many people would opt for the service. It's like returning to WoW after a one-expansion break, logging with your old-expansion end-game character, only to see that everyone else around you is already geared up in the newest expansion's end-game gear.