WoW patch 1.12

I don't play a rogue. And I rarely do PvP. So I just downloaded a very small 16 MB patch 1.12 that seems to not change anything in the game for me.

Anyway, the patch reviews the last class that hasn't undergone such a talent review, the rogue, and I can only assume based on previous form that the review is for the better. But the major change in the patch is the introduction of cross-server battlegrounds, and new PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands. Besides that there are only minor bugfixes and some streamlining on how things like haste and slow or aggro reduction works.

The cross-server battlegrounds are a very positive and necessary change, which should lead to battlegrounds being open all day long and every day. Waiting queues for battlegrounds can only become shorter due to that change. Unfortunately they still won't disappear, at least not for the Alliance, as you still need as many Horde players as Alliance players to open a battleground, and Alliance still outnumbers Horde by about 1.6 to 1.

I'm less convinced about the usefulness of the new PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands. On a PvP server they must be annoying, interfering with the ability to solo quests in those zones. On my PvE server they don't bother me, but they don't excite me either. It seems that the winner is a foregone conclusion, with so many more Alliance players on each server. With no limits to the number of participants, the more numerous side will usually win every battle.

And of course there is the fundamental question whether it is a wise move to invest time in PvP now, when you know that the whole honor system and ranking system will be completely revamped in 3 months, when the expansion comes out. If you can reach some level where you get some reward, you will probably be able to keep that reward after the change. But if you are just half way there, it is unclear whether you won't lose all progress when the system changes.

Has anyone heard anything about patch 1.13? I wonder if there is going to be one. This might have been the last patch before the Burning Crusade, and I'm not sure how Blizzard is going to count version numbers after that. Is BC going to be version 2.0 and the first patch after is 2.1?