Phase Schedule and Rollout Plan
In World of Warcraft Classic, the game will be set at patch 1.12, known as the Drums of War, that released on August 22, 2006. Blizzard has said the reason for this specific patch in particular is because it represents the vanilla version of WoW at its most feature-complete, stable, and well balanced.
However, even though WoW Classic will launch on August 26th, 2019 at its base form, Blizzard has promised as series of rollout phases as it advanced the progression and story featured in World of Warcraft – including the additions of new dungeons, the Darkmoon Faire, the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort, and the Nazzramas Scourge Invasion.
Update: Blizzard has stated that although no hard date has been set for Phase 2, only that it will roll out before the end of the year, the developers are breaking out the Dire Maul dungeon from the rest of Phase 2, which will be available during the week of October 15th.
You can find the planned roadmap of the other content updates below to prepare for the eventual progression of WoW Classic’s story and other features. Blizzard has also stated that if players are interested, they may eventually progress new content phases into The Burning Crusade expansion, but nothing has been confirmed at this time.
Content Rollout Phases
- Phase 1 (The Launch of WoW Classic) – will include the Molten Core dungeon and raid, Onyxia’s Lair, and the Maraudon dungeon. There will also be no rewards or tracking of any kind for PvP in any circumstance.
- Dire Maul (Oct 15th 2019) – Blizzard has broken out the Dire Maul dungeon from the rest of Phase 2 to be rolled out ahead of schedule, which will include all wings of the dungeon and any relevant quests (Libram quests)
- Phase 2 (Honor and World Bosses) – will no longer include the Dire Maul dungeon, but still contain the additions of the wandering world bosses Azuregos in Azshara, and Lord Kazzak in the Blasted Lands. The Honor System will also be unveiled tracking honorable kills (and including dishonorable kills), and reward PvP Ranks and Rank Rewards.
- Phase 3 (Blackwing Lair and the Faire, PvP Instances) – will include the raid dungeon Blackwing Lair, and begin the cycle of the Darkmoon Faire appearing outside cities, with Darkmoon Faire Cards and Decks dropping around the world. In addition, the two PvP arenas known as Alterac Valley (circa version 1.12), and Warsong Gulch will become available to queue for.
- Phase 4 (Zul’Gurub and the Dragons) – will include the addition of the raid dungeon known as Zul’Gurub in Stranglethorn Vale, and the addition of wandering world bosses: the corrupted Emerald Dragons Emeriss, Lethon, Taerar, and Ysondre – located in Duskwood, the Hinterlands, Ashenvale, and Feralas respectively. This phase will also add the PvP arena known as Arathi Basin for teams to compete in.
- Phase 5 (Ahn’Qiraj) – will introduce the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort where both factions begin to build up resources to open the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj and trigger a world event, while also opening the Ahn’Qiraj raid dungeon
- Phase 6 (The Scourge Invasion) – the final announced phase will begin with the Scourge Invasion as a world event, while introducing the Argent Dawn effort and the reveal of the raid dungeon Naxxramas. This will also bring about the World PvP Objectives appearing in both Silithus and the Eastern Plaguelands
