The announcement of Classic Wrath of the Lich King was made official on Tuesday April 19th, 2022 to the pleasure of many WoW enthusiasts.
Holly Longdale, who is the head of production for WoW Classic sat down with John Hight (Franchise General Manager, Warcraft) and Ion Hazzikostas (Game Director and VP of World of Warcraft) to speak about the new features, additions and changes in Classic Wrath.
Official Trailer – Wrath Classic
When is Classic Wrath Releasing?
All we know is that Classic WOTLK is releasing at some point in 2022. Since we are already in May, we know that in the next 6-7 months we will be adventuring through Northrend. As a reminder, classic TBC launched June 1st, 2021 and Classic WoW on August 27th. We are predicting that Classic Wrath will release at some point this summer. TBC seems really rushed, and players have been bleeding out at a pretty consistent rate. Shadowlands also has not been too successful so Blizzard may be counting on a very successful wrath launch to bring players back into Azeroth.
Death Knight at Level 55
In the pre-patch for Classic Wrath, you can make the new plate-wearing hero class, called a death Knight at Level 55 with no stipulations. The Death Knight is one of the most powerful classes in all of WoW throughout the expansions and we will dive into the specifics on another article.
If you played the original version WOTLK, or any retail expansion prior you know that to make a Death Knight, you used to be required to have a level 55 character. You also could only have one death knight per server.
You will be seeing a ton of DK’s running around because of Blizzard removing this barrier to entry.
Dungeon Finder Removed
During the roundtable, Holly mentioned that the Dungeon Finder feature (originally implemented during WOTLK) was not a good feature for today’s players, and would be removed.
The Dungeon Finder is not to be confused with the Looking for Group tool in Burning Crusade Classic. It’s an automated match-making tool that allows you to pick your role and choose the dungeon to which you want to go. You then get matched up with four other players from your region to complete the dungeon.
The tool was initially limited to heroic and normal dungeons. Later, you were able to do raids with it at Cataclysm’s end.
The reason why it was removed according to Blizzard is that it erodes away the social aspect of the game. You really would never have any idea of who you were going to match with.
In the end, this could completely backfire and frustrate players who are trying to level alts efficiently. It’s a big source of contention within the community at the moment. If you are on a low population server where it’s harder to find a group, this feature removal will hit you hard.
Barber Shop Upgrade
Wrath of the Lich King was the expansion that introduced the barbershop to World of Warcraft. It was very easy to use and allowed players to make simple changes to their characters appearance. The only thing you could do was to change your hairstyle, facial hair, and at most your piercings/markings.
In Wrath Classic, the team is going to add more features/customizations in the Barber Shop. What will likely happen is that skin color, face and maybe gender can be modified for free, instead of paying.
Arena Teams Removed
Arena teams made their way from The Burning Crusade to Wrath for a short period of time. This feature allowed any player to queue up for the arena of their choice. It also replaces the arena rating system by a personal rating system. This feature eliminated the need to limit your participation in matches or rotate your team members so you could all receive your arena points. Classic Wrath will take away all of this.
Level Boost
Blizzard introduced level 58 in Burning Crusade Classic. This gave you a very basic set of gear and a mount. It was only available once per account.
Blizzard will introduce a level 70 boost to Classic Wrath. As Holly Longdale explained, Blizzard wants players to be able to explore Northrend with their friends. A DK cannot be boosted.
Unfortunately, farming bots have had a hard time thriving in the past due to the level boost.
Classic Wrath Beta
You can opt-in for the Wrath Beta on the official World of Warcraft Classic section of their site. Blizzard did not even mention this for some reason but clearly you can sign up on the site.
Are you excited for Classic Wrath? Let us know in the comments!