Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Blizzard has been working to get World of Warcraft Classic up and running for the past 15 months. Turning back the sands of time has proven to be a lengthy process. But there now appears to be a clearer roadmap in place for how Blizzard is going to go about issuing out the slew of Classic content that comprised the first iteration of Blizzard's long-running MMORPG.
According to the Blizzard forums, the original plan to issue out Classic content in four phases is now out the window. Blizzard will now issue out patches in pairs, meaning that WoW Classic will be doled out across six phases.
"Our focus is still primarily on player power-progression, but we're also aiming to capture what it felt like to play in a realm community in original WoW," writes Community Manager Randy "Kaivax" Jordan. "To do that, we're planning to mirror the approach taken by original WoW, with patches paired together. We’ll launch Classic with content from original WoW through patch 1.2.x, then the second update will include content that was in original WoW 1.3 and 1.4, the third Classic update will have 1.5 and 1.6 content, and so on."
Phase one will focus on launching Classic with the Onyxia and Molten Core raids intact. However, Dire Maul is going to delayed slightly, with developers reasoning that some of its loot could prove too powerful for early progression. Blizzard will similarly examine items and their power gains across later phases.
One other thing to note is that Blizzard is staying quiet regarding PvP in WoW Classic. The publisher is still determining how to go about issuing PvP rewards, given that those saw major changes over the course of WoW's first year.
Here's how the phases will be issued out and what their contents feature:
WoW Classic is still in line for a Summer 2019 release and will be free to all subscribers of the current WoW. Release windows for subsequent phases will be revealed at a later date.