Patch 4.3

I realize this is rather old news, but it just dawned on me that the end of cataclysm is near. Patch 4.3 is just around the corner and with it comes the demise of Deathwing, which I can only guess is the climax that we've all been waiting for.

There is a slim chance they will sneak in a different end boss rather than what you saw in the Cataclysm cinematic, like they did in Burning Crusade where they showed you Illidan but then BLAM - you got to kill him in the first major patch. I'm personally hoping they sneak in an Old God raid (N'Zoth anyone?) but that doesn't seem that likely. An Old God is too epic to simply tack onto the end of an expansion like an afterthought (Ruby Sanctum, for instance, which no one even cared about), and to end a whole xpac with the demise of not only an Aspect, but ALSO an Old God? I don't know, just seems a bit overkill.

Ooh, but what if when you kill DW on heroic you get to fight N'Zoth, kind of like the heroic mode Sinestra? That might be pretty cool. Although N'Zoth really does deserve his own little (or huge) raid with his own sub-bosses, numerous trash packs, etc.

Besides, Blizz has already said that they really regret not making Illidan the final boss for TBC, so my money is that patch 4.3 will be the end of Cataclysm.

Part of me is bummed that this expansion seems to have flown by so quickly with hardly any new content to show for it. Yes, I know, they revamped Azeroth but honestly, I would've been much happier to see more end game content over rehashing and updated old zones. Sure, the new quests were kind of entertaining but given that I spend 90% of my time on my main, I would've liked more raids and dungeons. It just feels like we've had so pitifully few. Those troll heroics weren't even new to begin with...

Part of me is also excited for a new expansion, albeit there is some trepidation at this rumor flying about that the new xpac will be...Mists of Pandaria? WTF? I'm really curious as to how this will play out. Are we all really going to prance around as giant fluffy pandas? Are we going to be ally pandas or horde pandas, or neutral? Are we all going to re-roll a Brewmaster, whatever that might be? So many unanswered questions!

My guess is that we will have at least one more year before we see a new xpac, and we'll know well before then what the new xpac will be, what new races/classes we get, etc etc. Ugh, which also means a whole year with little or no content updates, killing the same bosses over and over. My armory profile shows that I've killed Lord Marrowgar 39 times...