World of Warcraft patch 10.2.6 launches March 19, and nobody knows what's in it

It’s not often we get to have surprises in World of Warcraft. Datamining is so common that it’s hard to avoid knowing everything about an event before it starts. That’s handy for having guides ready, but there aren’t many surprises left for players to discover. However, that’s not the case for patch 10.2.6 — for now, no one aside from Blizzard has any details beyond the pirate flag teaser.

This could mean anything. Maybe it’s a storyline about major pirate factions going to war with each other. Perhaps the Bloodsails are going to try and take over Stormwind. It could just be “Talk Like a Pirate Day 2: Buccaneer Boogaloo.” There really are no clues as to what’s happening, and that’s incredibly refreshing.

If we’re looking for connections, there is a vague one. Dragonflight had no real pirate activity in any of the storylines, despite having a treasure-rich island. But there have been a lot of dragons, including the Infinite Dragonflight. The expansion prior, Shadowlands, featured a dungeon that had a surprise appearance by a time traveling pirate dragon.

In Tazavesh, the Veiled Market, we run into some extra-dimensional bandits who end up stealing something from pirates in Boralus Harbor. The leader of said pirates turns out to be Timecap’n Hooktail, a new character invented for the dungeon. It seemed like a waste of one of the best character designs ever made by human hands that Hooktail died in that fight. But, with time being all wibbly-wobbly, and dragons being the current focus of the expansion, perhaps Blizzard is bringing back Hooktail for another adventure.

Whatever it is, it’s coming next Tuesday, March 19, arriving just in time to deliver some fresh new pirate threads to wear to the Trial of Style next Wednesday, March 20.