When is the Wrath of the Lich King Classic release date? It’s the question on every WoW player’s mind.
Within the next couple of months, Classic WoW players will return to Northrend when Wrath of the Lich King Classic releases. Considered one of the best WoW expansions of all time, featuring one of the greatest World of Warcraft villains, it’s ready to launch once again.
Despite being a fifteen-year-old video game, there are many out there that are not familiar with Wrath. Beyond that, returning players have surely forgotten some of the ins and outs of what to expect.
So let’s go over everything we know about the next adventure of Classic WoW, including raids, phases, features, and the Wrath of the Lich King Classic’s release date.
What Exactly Is Classic Wrath?
The third WoW expansion takes players to the island of Northrend. With a new level cap of 80, you’ll experience the climactic finale chapter in the story of Arthas Menethil, former Prince of Lordaeron and titular Lich King. His journey, started back in the days of the Warcraft RTS titles, reaches its climax in World of Warcraft.
It introduces Death Knights as the World of Warcraft’s first hero class, sixteen dungeons, nine raids, and new PvP features as well.
When Is the Wrath of the Lich King Classic Release Date?
Update: Blizzard has finally announced the Wrath release date – September 26th.
There’s no official release date at this time, but we have an idea. Recent arena seasons in Classic WoW have lasted 3-4 months. The most recent phase launch/arena season began on May 10th. Four months from then would be September.
Other clues for the Wrath of the Lich King Classic release date include the launch of an XP buff for players, consolidation of low-population servers on August 9th, and a pre-patch that will be longer than the two weeks we had for Classic The Burning Crusade.
There’s a “my uncle works at Nintendo” style leak for the Classic Wrath release date targeted for mid-September. While a typical response to that might be “sure, Jan,” it does have merit.
Don’t be surprised if we see the XP buff go live soon and the pre-patch near August 9th.
What Are the New Dungeons?
Sixteen seems like a lot (and it is), but not all are available at launch. Some are added later on in Wrath of the Lich King.
We talk more in detail about these dungeons in our ranking of every Wrath of the Lich King dungeon. The full list is available below:
- Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom
- Azjol-Nerub
- Drak’Tharon Keep
- Gundrak
- Halls of Lightning
- Halls of Stone
- The Culling of Stratholme
- The Nexus
- The Oculus
- Utgarde Keep
- Utgarde Pinnacle
- Trial of the Champion (Introduced in Patch 3.2)
- The Forge of Souls (Introduced in Patch 3.3)
- Pit of Saron (Introduced in Patch 3.3)
- Halls of Reflection (Introduced in Patch 3.3)
And What Are the Raids in Classic Wrath?
Like the dungeons, Wrath of the Lich King’s raids were introduced throughout the entire expansion. Some are trivial, featuring easy to obtain gear and offer little challenge. Others are incredibly memorable and some of the best raids in World of Warcraft history. Here’s the full list, including when they were introduced:
- Naxxramas, introduced at launch, serves as an entry into raiding as a remade version of the Vanilla WoW raid.
- The Eye of Eternity is a one boss raid featuring a fight against Malygos. Players ride dragons during the fight, which is a controversial design choice due to having to utilize vehicle combat.
- Obsidian Sanctum is another one boss raid, albeit with mini-bosses. You have the option to leave the mini-bosses up for a higher difficulty challenge. If you do, you’ll get better loot and even a mount!
- Vault of Archavon is a “bonus” raid, in that you must control Wintergrasp to enter it. Bosses are added in each patch with relevant gear. In all honestly, everyone in here is a loot pinata, offering a mix of PvE and PvP gear.
- Ulduar is the major raid for Patch 3.1 and one of the greatest raids of all time. Taking place in a Titan facility, you encounter a mix of enemies, ranging from the facility keepers to the old god Yogg-Saron. It also introduces the heroic difficulty, as well as the heroic-only Algalon the Observer.
- Trial of the Crusader, introduced in Patch 3.2 is a raid without trash, which seems cool! The entire raid takes place in the same room, which is less cool. The “best” way to get gear during this patch was to run this raid on four difficult lockouts: 10, 25, 10 Heroic, and 25 Heroic.
- Icecrown Citadel, introduced in Patch 3.3, is the stronghold of the Lich King. Players bring the fight to Arthas in the climactic finale of not just Wrath of the Lich King, but the Arthas storyline as well.
- Ruby Sanctum, introduced at the end of the expansion, offers some of the highest item level gear in the expansion. Due to the timing of its release, it’s not often looked upon fondly, if people can even remember it.
- Onyxia’s Lair was re-introduced to celebrate the anniversary of World of Warcraft. It’s the same Onyxia’s Lair you remember from vanilla
Wait, What’s Wintergrasp?
Wintergrasp is an open-world PvP zone in Northrend. If you’re in Wintergrasp, you’ll be auto-flagged and eligible for PvP combat.
There’s also a scenario that takes place throughout the day, where the faction that controls the base has to defend from the attacking opposing faction. Players who win the battle of Wintergrasp are eligible to enter the Vault of Archavon.
One thing to keep in mind is that in the original Wrath, Wintergrasp battles took place exclusively with people on the same server. In Classic Wrath, server populations are incredibly imbalanced. Blizzard hasn’t said if they’ll do cross-realm Wintergrasp, but don’t be surprised if it’s a thing.
What Patch Release Will Classic Wrath of the Lich King Take Place On?
Patch 3.3.5 will be the build for Classic Wrath. This includes various Death Knight nerfs throughout the expansion, as well as other various balance and quality of life changes.
Hey, Death Knights! Can I play them on the Classic Wrath of the Lich King release?
You can play them before during the pre-patch, actually!
Does One Quality of Life Change Include the Random Dungeon Finder?
No, the random dungeon finder will not be available in Classic Wrath. It should be, though.
This All Sounds Great! So Again, When Is That Classic Wrath of the Lich King Release Date Again?
Hopefully September; I’m pretty impatient waiting to play too.
Editor’s note: The Wrath release date is indeed in September. The 26th to be exact!
