Wrath rush?

I've been trying to avoid most of the information floating around about the upcoming expansion (aside from pet-related stuff and a few talent tree items I couldn't resist). I did not apply for a beta invite, and if someone offered me one, I wouldn't take it (like that'd ever happen, but still).

The way I see it, I've been playing the game for less than a year. There's still so much I've never seen in Azeroth; I first stepped into Shadowmoon Valley last week (that's right, aside from getting Ide her flying mount, I had never been there — I was slowly working my way through Netherstorm and hanging out in Azeroth, leveling trade skills and exploring).

With so much still to do and see, I'm in no rush to see the expansion.

And I think that will continue even after it's released. Oh, sure, I have it on order and will be doing the install pretty immediately when I get it. But I won't hop that boat to Northrend immediately (or whatever the Horde equivalent is, as I've managed to remain tainted only by Alliance news of WotLK), and I won't immediately roll a death knight (okay, I will, but I'm not going to play her right away).

What I plan to do instead is hit the Isle with Ahami each day — she won't have been 70 long enough to be exalted with the SSO, and I will wager that it will be virtually empty. I'll probably keep doing Skyguard quests with Ideale (or perhaps Netherwing, though I'd have to group for the intro quests, ew). And I'll complete the quests I have not yet done in Outland — I haven't done a single quest in Terokkar Forest yet in addition to SMV. And with the extra pet slots I will buy with the money from those quests, I will go tame myself a couple of somethings with Ideale (probably a firefly and who knows what else ... I want another cat, honestly, but that's kind of silly). I'll probably do some instances if my guild goes in, but I'm not really planning that much.

And if that gets boring, I will play Daj and Onashne with my best buds in the world, or power-level their professions, or work on my two twinks — I need to research which professions they will eventually take, decide which levels I want to take them to, plot out gear, etc. Since research is my favorite part of the game (honest, I'm that much of a geek), this would fill the hours nicely.

And I always have Alliance toons to fall back on — poor Tshaya hasn't been played since about June, and the others have waited longer.

Or I could roll a few new classes on another server and play around — I don't think I'll ever like another class the way I do hunters or shamans (honestly, if I wasn't playing as part of a team, I'd have quit my druid by now — the class is very boring to solo for me, to the extent that when I've gone off on my own to do the druid quests, I've been like, "Meh," although when I eventually go balance I think it'll be more fun), but it might be fun to mess around a bit.

And then, after a few weeks, when the starting zones are mostly clear, I will venture forth into Northrend and avoid much of the lag, resource and mob competition, and ganking that is sure to immediately follow the release. I figure that by then, most people will be in the mid-to-high 70s range or be working on tradeskills and gear at 80, but not yet be ready to drag another toon through, and I will be unbothered in the early zones. And the hardcore players will have their second toon already past the start zones, too.

That's the plan, anyway. Whether it actually happens or not, I don't know.