Premature Pre-BlizzCon Predictions Preview

Here's my revised list. I had written one last night and thought I had posted it, but appearantly my browser crashed before I could save it. Damn you bugs! Anyways, here it is again:

The Expansion will be announced at BlizzCon today, it will be called the Burning Crusade. Release date is unknown, but I've heard May 2006.

Visitors to BlizzCon will automatically get to join the beta test.

Level cap raised to 70! (Private Meles!) How talent trees will work with this is unknown, but I've heard that they will actually extend beyond their current size right now.

There *will* be new races. Blood Elves for Horde (*sigh*), unknown for Alliance -- hopefully not Pandaren.

No new classes. As I said earlier, it would be hard to make an additional class with a group role that isn't already taken.

There won't be a new faction. Please.

Might include upgraded graphics. There's something fishy going on this front.

New profession(s): Jewelcrafting, kinda like the gems and sockets from Diablo 2.

New content for players/characters of all levels, but mostly tilted towards end-game.

There won't be ways to learn how to speak to the other faction. "Not gonna happen!"

The new continent will be the Outlands. Apparently that's the main focus of the expansion. It will be pretty big apparently. Rumors going around that you'll get to meet Illidan as well. It's looking dim on whether the Undermine and Northrend is going to be in, seems to me like they're saving that for another expansion.

New dungeons: Caverns of Time, Medivh's Tower and much more. What might be included is the raid dungeon of Naxxramas which stores the actual book of Medivh needed to activate the portal to the Outlands.

Weather effects will be included, but it will be released for vanilla as well.

A new flying mount is available to be only used in the Outlands.

Hero classes won't be included. It will be released in vanilla in a regular content pack. Quests to take the path of becoming a hero will be available around the same time as the expansion release. Blizzard might even put it on hold longer than that because they really want things to be perfect.

Player housing looks dim. I still have my bets on it and hopefully we'll see it, but I'm not so sure anymore.

Built in voice communication software *might* happen. My crystal ball is foggy. It might be that they haven't decided yet on whether to include it or not until the last minute of the announcement (i.e. it might've been cut already, I don't know for certain).

Shady rumor: "The Black Morass" will be a new quest hub for expansion and vanilla players, but primarily expansion owners. Why this doesn't make sense is for us to learn, apparently.

Shady rumor: Explorers League and Elder Court might get a bigger role. I said shady!

Shady rumor: Gadgetzan PVP dome?

Here's the thing: seems to me a ton of stuff, such as Hero Classes, weather effects, quests and stuff is going to be released for vanilla too! I mean, how big is this expansion really going to be? Hopefully we'll get to find out, but right now -- I don't know; seems a bit dry unless the Outlands is much bigger than what I've seen of it.

Oh, and here's a generally comprehensive list of rumors on what's to come, from the Wikipedia website.