World of Warcraft Dragonflight’s next patch, Patch 10.2.6, is set to be released next week—and the player base knows absolutely nothing about it.
Blizzard has kept every detail regarding the patch’s actual content a secret, and the WoW community has done everything in its power to come up with some theories regarding what the update actually could be about. The only description Blizzard gave of the patch is that it will contain a “bold, new, limited-time event.” This is extremely vague, obviously, but the theming of the patch may have been zeroed in on by the WoW devs.
Ever since Patch 10.2.6 was first teased late last year, Blizzard has used pirate flags, an eyepatch, and skull-and-bones logos whenever speaking on the patch. This has led players to believe that there will be some kind of pirate connections to make during the event that’s attached to Patch 10.2.6.
With little information regarding the patch out in the public, players will likely be discovering its contents in real-time, similar to the way Classic WoW players have found secrets and pieces of content in each of the new phases of the recently released Season of Discovery. That community-oriented way to play WoW revolutionized the Classic scene, and it could happen for modern WoW, too, albeit on a likely smaller scale.
Still, with no official details about Patch 10.2.6 out in the open, the patch could theoretically be about anything. Here are three loose theories we have regarding what WoW Dragonflight Patch 10.2.6 might contain.
Theory No. 1: It’s actually pirates
The most popular theory surrounding Dragonflight Patch 10.2.6 is that it’s going to be a pirate-themed mini-patch. Much of the imagery that’s been used to tease the patch has revolved around pirates, dating back to the first tease of the patch back on last December’s WoW roadmap. From a skull-and-bones flag on that roadmap to a one-eyed pirate flag and sword slicing through the WoW logo on yesterday’s announcement, it’s easy to guess that there’s probably going to be some kind of swashbuckling theme present in Patch 10.2.6.
What we’d exactly be doing with the pirates is still unknown, but the most reasonable guess would be a treasure hunt of some kind. Considering that none of the details of the patch have been revealed and there’s likely going to be a discovery element to the patch, uncovering some buried treasure as part of a quest line of some sort would be our best bet.
We’d wager that a potential pirate event in Patch 10.2.6 would cover multiple zones and continents, with pirate strongholds like Booty Bay and Freehold playing major roles. The ultimate goal of the event would likely remain a secret until members of the WoW community put their minds together to unlock its top rewards.
Theory No. 2: It’s a complete misdirection
It would be an incredible move on Blizzard’s part to set up a patch completely shrouded in mystery that seemingly revolves around a pirate theme, only to pull the rug out from under the players on patch day with an entirely new, unforeseen setting. If things go sideways and the pirate hype amounts to nothing, we could be looking at a mini-patch that takes us out into Azeroth at large, with the event spanning the whole world, similar to the way the Secrets of Azeroth event did last September.
Where exactly we’d be going is a mystery, and anything is on the table, especially considering almost every continent has been revisited in some form during Dragonflight.
Pandaria? Northrend? Your guess is as good as ours if this pirate theory goes belly-up.
Theory No. 3: It sets up The War Within
This is a complete and total longshot, as we expect Patch 10.2.6 to be completely self-contained. But even though there’s more Dragonflight content down the pipeline after Patch 10.2.6, it’s never too early to start laying the seeds for the next expansion.
The only tin-foil connection we can make to The War Within at this time would be that Blizzard has been using images from Freehold and Hook Point in its promotion of the patch, both of which were zones first introduced in the Battle for Azeroth expansion, which was also the last expansion to heavily feature the Sword of Sargeras in Silithus. With the sword making a comeback in War Within, a throwback to BfA could mean something, but this would admittedly be a wild 5D chess move that Blizzard likely doesn’t have up its sleeves.
All questions will be answered when Patch 10.2.6 goes live on March 19.
