Sunwell Plateau and Patch 2.4 news
The Swedish magazine Level has published an interview with Jepp Kaplan (Tigole) on the upcoming patch 2.4 and its main content: the Sunwell Plateau. In an earlier interview we learned the patch might arrive in 2007 on the PTR! The most important bits from the article are (thanks to WoWinsider for the translation):
* Sunwell Isle is a new zone, north of Silvermoon City
* The 5-man wing of the instances is called Magister's Terrace featuring normal and heroic difficulty
* The raid wing is called Sunwell Plateau, players can fight 6 raidbosses here and the one of the main stories of Burning Crusade continues here
* Outside the instances there will be lots of quests (daily quests too), wrapping up the story of Tempest Keep
* The questhub of the zone will be interactive, as players complete quests, the activity in the town will increase more and more, eventually growing into a big town, similar to how Silithus prepared for the Qiraji war, on a smaller scale though
* The quests and instances introduce a new faction called "Shattered Sun Offensive", the Aldors and Scryers unite under this name to stop Kael'thas from summoning Kil'Jaeden (upd)
* One of the bosses in the Magister's Terrace will be Kael'thas, whose story continues the Verdant Sphere quest. He'll have a large green crystal attached to his chest ^^
* Kil'jaeden will be featured in the 25-man instance, and the EPICness of the fight will be on par with Illidan's. There are 5 more bosses: Brutalicus, a pit lord; Kalecgos, the blue dragon from the Sunwell Trilogy (who is enslaved by Kil'jaeden); a Fel Dragon; female Eredar twins; and a Dark Naaru!
* The raidinstance is designed for players with Tier 6 equipment and it will be slightly more difficulty than Black Temple (upd)
* There won't be a Tier 7 raidset, however there are sets in the loottables (upd)
* The raidinstance doesn't have an attunement requirement, but players of the entire realm must complete a certain amount of daily quests on the Sunwell Isle, to unlock the last 3 bosses (upd)
* Patch 2.4 will raise the limit of daily quests from 10 to 25, to encourage more players to visit them regularly
* Lots of PVP balancing to come in the patch
* Blizzard has big plans to increase the e-sport acceptance of the Arena games
Source: mmo champion, worldofraids, etc...