Seeing as they haven't said how characters will change from 70-80 there could indeed be some interesting changes. I mean aside form the obvious BC brought 3 summonable elementals to Mages and Shamans. A new demon for Warlocks and a big change for hunters was Misdirect which changed a lot of how we pulled.

Then there will be bound to be new mounts. Hell you might even see a faster land mount than the current epic one. Remember our beloved space-goats?

Death Knights will be huge and they will hold off Warhammer. Both Warhammer and Warcraft were Tolkien derivatives when they began ad since then they have gone their own way. Around the time of WH 2nd edition it was a very cartoony game but GW ditched that, whereas Blizz and warcraft carried on with it. There are so many models that have very similar looks to Citadel and Marauder miniatures.

WotLK also has one very important factor, we already have characters at max level who can look Uber with less effort than starting a new game at level one. What WH will gain from is the impending exploding payers who will no doubt get frustrated by the next 10 levels and beginning to raid again. Many people burnt out last time and if there is a good alternative they may try it. But also bear in mind that Wow has 2 factions so it is very easy to burn out on one faction and begin again on the other.

I don't think WoW has anything to worry about. And due to it's being around at such a high level for so long it would take a lot for people to jump ship. In sufficient numbers. If WoW dropped a million players that would seem significant but even then they'd still have 9 million. To start a game on WoW's level would take a massive outlay.

The best thing any company could do for a new MMO would be to keep it simple and keep it bug free. If a company can say "we didn't shrink your shoulder pads/weapon/ head/butt with our new patch" then they will be doing well.

The big thing WoW needs to avoid is becoming overly complicated. If they were to add a big surprise beyond skills and talents it should be a pay service for starting your character at 50 like the DKs so if your buddy is rolling a DK you can start a new alt with him at the same level at the same time.

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