wow Patch 9.1 Release Date Speculation

[Stan 3,721]

Blizzard revealed Chains of Domination, the first major content patch of Shadowlands, at BlizzConline. But when will it hit live servers?

While we do not have any specific release dates, we know two things:

• Blizzard plans to release Patch 9.0.5 in March 2021.
• Patch 9.1 PTR will go live shortly after Patch 9.0.5 releases.

We assume Patch 9.1.0 PTR will be up the same week when Patch 9.0.5 releases.

Patch 9.0.5

This is a relatively small patch containing balance changes that could not have been hotfixed, so the testing cycle won't take too long. We've seen two 9.0.5 PTR builds so far. The first build came with Covenant Ability tuning. In the second one, Blizzard addressed underperforming Legendary Powers. It's not clear how many builds we'll see until release, but we expect the patch to go live by late March.

Patch 9.1.0

Chains of Domination is quite a big update for Shadowlands, and a regular testing cycle will be necessary to iron out all the bugs.

• For comparison, Battle for Azeroth's Patch 8.1 was made available for testing on September 21, 2018, and went live on December 11, 2018 (82 days on the PTR).
• Patch 8.2 was deployed on the Public Test Realms on April 16, 2019, and went live on June 25, 2019, so that's just 71 days of testing.
• Finally, Patch 8.3 went live on the PTR on October 7, 2019, and was released on January 14, 2020, so it went through 99 days of testing.

Based on the data, we know that it takes for a major patch approximately 84 days to release after it hits Public Test Realms.

Patch 9.0.5 / 9.1.0 Release Dates

• If 9.0.5 was supposed to go live in late March, we expect it to release on March 23 or March 30.
• If we add (the median) 84 days to the March 23 release date, we're looking at June 22, 2021, as the potential release date of Patch 9.1 (or one week later if Blizzard decides to release 9.0.5 on March 30). 

When Will Patch 9.1.0 Hit Live Servers?

We think the most plausible release dates for Chains of Domination are June 22 or June 29, 2021 under ideal circumstances. If that won’t be the case, expect a July 2021 release date.

[Boothyp 27]

That is very late for the .1 patch, guess they are super behind after all the delays to the exp launch.........

Be nice if they staggered out the major releases 6 months out, not leave such a gap at the end if possible. They can still front load a lot of the dev work to allow the majority to migrate to the next expansion. 

Of course that only works if they don't do something stoopid in development that needs a major rework..........

[Hunter467467 1]

No Patch lastet 9 Months xD.

I would say that 9.0.5 will go live in the 1-2 week of march. And Chains of Domination will go live on early April.

Edited Tuesday at 05:07 PM by Hunter467467

[Laragon 238]

"June 22 or June 29, 2021 under ideal circumstances."

Holy *filtered* that's SOOOO late. I just stopped my sub, and thought I might come back for 9.1. Still might, but now I'm VERY happy I canceled it for now.

[SidonisAntares 129]

Mid May, in order to get the most glaring hotfixes out of the way by Memorial Day weekend and most US schools being on break.

[Calysia 113]

3 hours ago, Hunter467467 said:

No Patch lastet 9 Months xD.

I would say that 9.0.5 will go live in the 1-2 week of march. And Chains of Domination will go live on early April.

Blizzard has said that 9.0.5 will drop late March...

 

[Znifler 21]

17 hours ago, Hunter467467 said:

No Patch lastet 9 Months xD.

I would say that 9.0.5 will go live in the 1-2 week of march. And Chains of Domination will go live on early April.

Umh yes, several times. Example: Siege of Orgrimmar lasted for a full year 😉

[Arcling 354]

No way they would introduce any larger patch before current maximum covenant renown could be reached. And not everyone is going to make it at the same pace (if someone is catching up for example), so we might expect that they would leave some "room" after the week when maximum renown becomes available.