Ill admit i was hopping to see this sorta thing a bit latter into the expansion but it wont push out the raids, they offer 352 epics while raids offer 359 so its not as good, its probably gonna be statwise equvelent to the current blue pvp gear, soo id say look to that to see its stats (replacing the res of course)

Before I start let me say I am not anything more than a casual raider.

In my opinion I think Blizzard released ToC too quickly while people were still working on Ulduar. Yet while ToC was out, Ulduar was still considered, at least in my circle, "harder" content because it was much longer and the fights were more complicated. Even though the gear level was lower it felt more prestigious to kill Yogg-Saron and Agalon than to kill Anoobarak a second time.

So, again my opinion, no it isn't "too soon" to release a new raid even if it is a higher tier level because people will still being doing the raids that are out right now in patch 4.1. Especially since you can't jump into the newest raid like you could in Wrath, there's a still a progression one has to follow with gear.

It would be too soon though if patch 4.2 is Deathwing's raid. But then again, maybe if that were true we'd believe Blizzard when they said they wanted to release an expansion every year.

This PTR could very well last for many weeks before it goes live.

The reason it was rushed is because rift came out. Like the article said, it will be there for a while (it being the patch on ptr).

While people may disagree with my reasoning, I have fount that when a new MMO with some hype is about to come put they always release information on a new patch with these little goodies.

With all that said, I will keep waiting for the next article to come out on wow insider (and I will be enjoying rift too).

P.s. I already know you are going to downvote me but I don't care. Any mention of another game on here seems to be merged with seething hatred for the person. Well, here is to hoping.

P.s.s. Minecraft is awesome

Like Alex said, the PTR is basically a very small handful of unfinished content right now, meaning there is still a lot to be released and tested. We haven't even gotten any actual, solid, official information on the new raids yet, let alone them being up and testable on the PTR.

Full patches spend a couple weeks on the PTR at least, this one isn't even near complete yet, so I'm guessing you will still have at least a month, I'd expect to see this go live sometime in mid-late April.

@Epius

I will disagree with that reasoning and suggest that WoW isn't worried about RIFT in the slightest. If there's a game WoW is worried about, it would be the new Star Wars MMO.

I still see LFM spam for ICC raids pretty much every Friday and Saturday night. I have no doubt that some people will be only just venturing into BWD the moment the new raid tier comes out. Some groups like less challenge to their instances, and that's OK.

WoW doesn't have to be "concerned" about Rift or any other, it's still a smart business move to "remind" players that WoW is an evolving game. "Hey, look what's coming... " will get some of the folks that might dabble in Rift for a month or two to just stay. It's not automatically a "we're going to lose membership!" response to say "we notice that other game and we'll react".

"We're not in Azeroth anymore!"
"Hey, Azeroth has Zul Gurub again, get back here!"
::sound of digital feet running::

And here I thought they were rushing out the new tier because people were complaining that heroics were too hard with the current gear level.

@Epius: "I have fount that when a new MMO with some hype is about to come put they always release information on a new patch with these little goodies."

I love crackpot theories like this. Given that there's always a new MMO with some hype about to come out, they cannot possibly be falsified, and a great theory is one that cannot possibly be proven wrong, right? ;)