World of Warcraft classic launches on 26/27 august.
Blizzard once said it would never happen. Because so much demand has arisen for the old servers, Blizzard has finally drawn attention to the development and realization of the World of Warcraft Classic Servers.
WoW Classic will launch on August 26 (North America) and August 27 in Europe. To play the game you will need an active subscription to the current game.
How does WoW Classic work?
WoW Classic is built using patch 1.12, titled Drums of War, that released on August 22, 2006. The reason for this specific patch, Blizzard has said, is because this patch represents the vanilla version of WoW at its most feature-complete, stable, and well balanced. But, like modern World of Warcraft, WoW Classic won't be a static game that never changes. Blizzard wants to recreate the experience of playing WoW between 2004 and 2006 by releasing updates in Classic on roughly the same schedule as the original. The idea is that these updates will introduce new dungeons and core features but won't tinker with specifics like item or ability balance—which will stay the same over the course of WoW Classic's life, rooted in patch 1.12.
Once WoW Classic launches this summer, Blizzard has plans to roll out six phases of updates that will each introduce new raids, dungeons, items and equipment, and PvP features. These six phases are as follows:
Phase One:
- Molten Core
- Onyxia
- Maraudon
- You can PvP one another in the world, but there is no tracking, and no formal rewards for doing so.
Phase Two:
- Dire Maul
- Azuregos
- Kazzak
- Honor System (including Dishonorable Kills)
- PvP Rank Rewards
Phase Three:
- Blackwing Lair
- Darkmoon Faire
- Darkmoon deck drops begin
- Alterac Valley (version 1.12 869)
- Warsong Gulch
Phase Four:
- Zul'Gurub
- Green Dragons
- Arathi Basin
Phase Five:
- Ahn'Qiraj War Effort begins
- Ahn'Qiraj raid opens when the war effort dictates
- Dungeon loot reconfiguration: Tier 0.5 Dungeon gear, Relics, drop rates and location changes
Phase Six:
- Naxxramas
- Scourge Invasion
- World PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands
The world events associated with these dungeons and raids, like the Opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, will also happen. So your dreams of being a fabled Scarab Lord can still be realized.
What comes after is anyone's guess, but I'm personally hoping Blizzard announces plans to also add The Burning Crusade and the other expansions that followed, similar to EverQuest progression servers.
One thing to keep in mind is that while WoW Classic will roll out updates in similar pattern to its original release, all equipment, items, and abilities will mirror their final 1.12 versions. For example, the Tier 2 Helm of Wrath won't undergo constant stat revisions like it did between patches 1.5 and 1.9. Instead, no matter what phase you finally get the helmet, its stats will always be derived from its 1.12 patch version.
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