Originally Posted by
Samhayne
That is correct, no elite zones will be accessable. The button on the map to access elites will be replaced with a button that says coming soon.
We know that people will be bummed by the elites not being there. We totally understand the desire to slam straight to that content and chase the best that the expansion has to offer. We felt that putting some breathing room between leveling up to 40 (or 41) and the elites was a good thing for the game.
Edit: I also wanted to mention the Gladiator Arena. It won't be changed at the launch of the expansion or with the elite upgrade. We plan to change the Gladiator arena sometime after the elite zones have been farmed and people are looking for "the new hotness."
Holding the elite zone content also allows us to really hammer all the bugs out of the normal version of the bosses. For those who recall, we had some pretty nasty bugs with the elite version of Shuyal bosses when the Realm of Shadows expansion launched. While we were able to patch those issues pretty quickly, the damage was done. Quills for everyone! :) This is something we're doing to help ensure an awesome elite zone experience. It's only 2 weekends; we think it'll be ok.