The end of TBC is near

I am sure even the most wow-news unconcious amongst us know it. They feel it in the air. With the extensive buzz over the leaked alpha trees for Wrath of the Lich king, more and more info coming out of big blue's corner and the first trailers flooding in of what's to come it has become fairly obvious:

The end of TBC is in sight.

Leaked financial statements indicate that the whole thing will probably hit the shelves at the end of this year, possibly the beginning of the next.

The expansion will undoubtedly bring a whole new set of crafting recipes, skills, new talents, new lands and even a new class. What it will also bring is a great equalizer for gear.

With the advent of TBC the old lands were lost, the old item sets became useless and only those decked out in top of the line azerothian epics could compete with the flood of new 'ueber-greens'.

Wrath of the Lich king will be no different. Big blue has always strived to give their players and equal playing field and WotLK will be no different.

Realistically that means if you have any intention of still playing wow next year (you addict!) then gear goals should become less and less important to you.

What will be important is currency of all shapes and flavors. Honor, Arena points, Badges, trade goods like ores and similar.

With the crafting skills being extended and the continual whining over how bad they really are most crafting skills will most likely be getting a little love and levelling beyond 375 will be an expensive and resource intensive task.

Items even epics will become worthless beyond their disenchant value and the market for trade goods of higher qualities will most likely inflate like crazy.

Now is the time to ask yourself the question... what do I want to do in WotLK and is what I am doing right now in any way shape or form useful for when the expansion hits?