When do you think we’ll see 9.1 on the PTR?

With Castle Nathria now open on Mythic difficulty and the World First race in full swing, many of us have started thinking about what the next patch has in store and even predicting its release date. Typically we would’ve expected to see a preview of the first major expansion patch at BlizzCon, but world events conspired to delay Shadowlands and cancel BlizzCon ’20. We’re getting an online BlizzCon in February 2021, but I can’t imagine Blizzard will wait that long before at least putting 9.1 on the PTR — a mid-March 2021 release of 9.1 would match the interval between release and first major patch of Battle for Azeroth, and less than a month’s planned testing seems unlikely. Obviously the same causes that resulted in delays already could strike again, but that’s more likely to delay the release of the patch on live, not on the PTR.

This doesn’t mean we should expect it within the next couple weeks, though, as the Earth-equivalent of the Feast of Winter’s Veil is next week, followed as always on both planets by the New Year celebration. While Blizzard isn’t averse to ruining your holidays, in general they do tend to consider them with the release schedule.

One final in-game aspect that may influence the release of 9.1 is that the Covenant Campaigns will not be fully unlocked until mid-January. If the content of 9.1 is largely driven by the campaigns, then it may be decided to wait until after they’re completed for symmetry or spoiler-avoision reasons.

So when do you think we’ll see 9.1 on the PTR? Will Blizzard surprise us with it landing in the next couple weeks, or are you not even considering the possibility of 9.1 until January or later? Heck, what do you think’s going to even happen in 9.1? Will we finally see Brewfest Heaven? Or maybe return to Azeroth to deal with Jailer-inspired shenanigans? And besides flying, what else do you hope to see in 9.1?