What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a server option that rebuilds the original "vanilla" game as it was before The Burning Crusade. It was announced at BlizzCon 2017 and launched worldwide on August 26/27, 2019.
Blizzard found a way to run the old game on its modern server technology. A small engineering team led by Brian Birmingham worked on it for about two years from 2017, and in June 2018 chose patch 1.12 as the base. Launch was so busy that some realms had very long login queues and new realms had to be opened quickly in every region.
Content phases
To feel like the original, the content of 2019 Classic was released in six phases:
| Phase | Date | Main content |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 26/27, 2019 | Molten Core, Onyxia and Maraudon |
| 2 | November 12, 2019 | Dire Maul, world bosses Azuregos and Kazzak, honor system and PvP ranks |
| 3 | February 12, 2020 | Blackwing Lair, Darkmoon Faire, Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch |
| 4 | March 10, 2020 | Zul'Gurub, the Green Dragons, Arathi Basin |
| 5 | July 7, 2020 | The Ahn'Qiraj War Effort and the Ahn'Qiraj raids, updated dungeon loot |
| 6 | December 1, 2020 | Naxxramas, the Scourge Invasion, world PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands |
Classic Era and other realm sets
With the Burning Crusade Classic pre-patch on May 18, 2021, Classic split in two. Classic Era realms stay locked to the original game for good, while the progression line moves on through the later expansions. Players chose where each character would go.
- Classic Era (2019): the original realms, left unchanged after running from 2019 to 2021.
- Hardcore: death is permanent. It focuses mainly on fighting monsters, with optional Duel to the Death fights; characters that die can move to some 2019 Classic Era realms.
- Season of Discovery: big changes to the old game, starting with a level cap of 25, the rune system, some dungeons turned into low-level raids, and new events.
- Season of Mastery: a harder fresh start built around raiding; it closed in February 2023.
- 20th Anniversary: fresh realms with quality-of-life changes plus a Hardcore realm; the normal realms later moved on to Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary.
The progression line
The progression realms have re-released the old expansions in order. The full list of dates, together with the retail expansions, is in the Timeline.
| Release | Date |
|---|---|
| Burning Crusade Classic | June 1, 2021 |
| Wrath of the Lich King Classic | September 26, 2022 |
| Cataclysm Classic | May 20, 2024 |
| Mists of Pandaria Classic | July 21, 2025 |
| Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary Edition | February 5, 2026 |
Keeping it authentic
During development many players asked for an exact copy of the old game under the slogan #NoChanges, while others wanted small fixes. Blizzard mostly kept the original design, even adding a deliberate 400 ms delay called spell batching (removed in patch 1.13.7). Later patches brought a few modern touches, such as the current guild window in patch 1.15.3 and Edit Mode in patch 1.15.9.
Sources
Game pictures: © Blizzard Entertainment · worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com
