WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Realms Information -- Updated Nov. 18

UPDATED NOVEMBER 18

After working through a great deal of player feedback, we’ve decided to provide some additional changes that will be a part of Anniversary Realms.

  • Instant mail between characters on the same account
  • The removal of the buff/debuff limit
  • Dual specs

Instant mail and removal of the buff/debuff limit will be implemented at launch, and dual spec will be enabled at a later date.

Thank you very much for the lively discussion!


As part of our ongoing Warcraft 30th Anniversary celebration, we’re excited to announce that all-new, fresh WoW Classic realms will go live on November 21 at 2:00 p.m. PST.

Realm Sizes and Rulesets

Nowadays, an individual WoW Classic realm can hold many more players at a single time than ever before. For our new fresh Anniversary realms, we’re limiting the total number of realms to choose from at launch to only 1 of each ruleset (Normal (PvE), PvP, and Hardcore). This will give both new and returning players the confidence in selecting a realm with a ruleset of their choosing, knowing that it will be healthy and sustainable. We may choose to open additional realms for a given ruleset, if needed to address player demand, but it’s our intention to limit the total number of realms to as few realms as possible.

When we first launch on November 21 at 2:00 p.m. PST, we expect some queuing, as we will gradually increase realm capacity caps in real time to fit the number of players logging in. We ask for your patience and understanding if you encounter a queue right after launch time.

Burning Crusade Classic

We’re particularly excited to reveal that Normal (PvE) and PvP fresh Anniversary realms will progress to Burning Crusade Classic, after we progress through the Classic Era content phases. This will be our first visit back to the start of this beloved expansion since its launch in 2021.

Our new Hardcore Anniversary realms will not progress to Burning Crusade Classic. Hardcore has always been focused on the Classic 1-60 journey, made truly viable and approachable thanks to Classic’s original mechanics and difficulty. Burning Crusade brings with it a level of challenge (and randomness) that we feel doesn’t fit Hardcore.

#NoChanges and #Changes Philosophy at Launch

With WoW Classic Anniversary realms, our goal is to preserve the spirit of what makes Classic WoW special. While we’re not strictly following a “no changes” policy for these Anniversary realms, our intention is to closely mirror the Classic Vanilla experience, with minimal deviation from the 2019 version.

Since the launch of WoW Classic in 2019, changes have occurred for reasons primarily focused on game health and game cohesion. These changes have included: reporting system improvements, the Dethroning system for transferring guild leadership, the addition of Chronoboon Displacer (and allowing it to stack to 10), the improved PvP Honor Ranking system, and graphics improvements. On the new Anniversary realms, these changes will be in from the start.

As always, we will continue to listen to player feedback and make adjustments as necessary.

User Interface and Looking for Group

In WoW Classic, players have often used a variety of out-of-game tools and methods to group with other players. Given the limited number of Anniversary realms per region, we expect all realms to have high populations. Although we applaud players’ ingenuity to create tools outside the game to ease social connections, we recognize that not having similar functionality in the game itself has been a missed opportunity.

To support group play, we’re introducing a Looking for Group (LFG) tool, which will allow players to create, join, and browse parties manually. We’re also adding a Services chat channel that players can enable, specifically for advertising services such as portals, summons, and tribute buffs. All such advertising must be posted to the Services channel, and player chat of these kinds placed elsewhere are subject to player reports and actions taken by Blizzard.

For those who enjoy the look and feel of the Classic guild UI, we’ve implemented an option for players to choose between using the original Classic guild UI and the newer guild UI. We’re also making plans to bring these updates to all Classic Era realms and appreciate your thoughts and feedback on that.

Hardcore Rules and Progression

For the first time ever, new Anniversary Hardcore realms will progress through the Classic Era phases of content. This means that when the Molten Core unlocks on the new Normal and PvP realms, it will unlock on new Hardcore realms at the same time. We look forward to seeing how players prepare to take on this content as it unlocks with each phase! Please note that PvP battlegrounds and Battlemasters are disabled and will not unlock when non-Hardcore realms reach their battleground phases.

We expect all else to remain the same. Paladins will not be able to bubble hearth, Shamans’ Reincarnation and Warlocks’ Soulstones won’t work, Duel to the Death (Mak’gora) is back on the menu, and buff and debuff limits are removed.

You’ll have the option of creating Self-Found characters right from the start, should you wish to take on the challenge without being able to trade with other players, send and receive most mail, or use the auction house. Good luck!

Molten Core and Onyxia

On the new realms, we want to encourage as many players as possible to level characters and, most of all, feel safe doing it in their own time. WoW Classic really is all about the journey, after all, and although we see the question of “Is it too late for me to start?” asked a lot, there really is no bad time to join WoW Classic.

To further support this, we’re making a deliberate change to delay the launch of the Molten Core and Onyxia raids by a few weeks. They will open on December 12 PST.

Character Transfers

On these new Anniversary realms, transfers will be unavailable (except for transfers to a Normal realm for Hardcore characters). Normal realm characters must remain on Normal realms, and PvP realm characters will be locked to PvP realms. On Hardcore realms, should players wish to transfer either dead or living characters to a Normal realm, they will be able to do so. There is no way to transfer back to Hardcore realms.

Enforced Faction Balance on PvP Realms

In Season of Discovery, we implemented enforced faction balance on all PvP realms. This means that the population of Horde and Alliance characters on each PvP realm remains almost perfectly balanced. If the faction balance ever starts to lean too far in one direction or the other, character creation for the more populous side is temporarily paused until balance is restored.

The results have been overwhelmingly successful, and feedback on this system has been positive. Therefore, we will enforce faction balance on new Anniversary PvP realms.

GDKP Policy

In line with our policy enacted on Season of Discovery realms in NA and EU, we will not allow gold dragon kill point (GDKP) runs in Anniversary realms in the NA and EU regions.

Note: This policy will not be implemented in regions outside of NA and EU at this time, though we reserve the right to change this.

While we understand that there are some benefits for those who find this a convenient way to gain gear, we also recognize that there are concerns surrounding GDKP eroding traditional guild and social structures that are a part of the spirit of the game. Player feedback in Season of Discovery realms in NA and EU has largely been positive about this change, and it aligns with our internal findings.

We will continue to monitor feedback about this topic closely, and we may make adjustments to this policy in the future.

We’re excited for the launch of Anniversary realms. Thank you, as always, for your support, and we’ll see you in Azeroth on November 21 at 2:00 p.m. PST!

Sincerely,

The WoW Classic Team

112 Likes

This is fantastic and the right idea. We don’t want dungeon finder, but a UI update to the LFG channel is definintely needed to help filter out the spam. As long as it doesn’t automatically form groups and teleport you to the dungeon, this is a fantastic change.

Instead of encouraging advertisers to post in the Services channel though (because I doubt they will), it would be great if you could just give us filter options, which would put more direct control in our hands over what we want to see.

Also a smart change imo. I would have even liked more time, tbh.

I never thought you’d actually do it - but I applaud you! This will prevent dead realms once one faction starts to dominate and it will save many from quitting in despair. Fantastic change!

Slightly disappointed in this one. I think banning GDKP is missing the real problem, which is bots and gold buyers being allowed to run with impunity. I would much rather see Blizzard come up with solutions regarding the bots especially, and I find it hard to believe there are none, especially given how incredibly obvious they are.

The skeptic in me thinks you are allowing the problem to fester because you can profit from the bot subs, which means you’re deliberately trading in game experience for $$$. This stance continues to disappoint me.

41 Likes

Thank you for hearing us!!!
Can’t wait to run fresh with you all again!:+1:t3:

11 Likes

Any chance to select character names early as we did in 2019? :smiling_face:

10 Likes

wow thanks for the one week notice good thing wow players don’t work or something

10 Likes

So they’re carrying over the SOD honor system into Era?

You mean employed people can rank up now? Purists gon be mad!

17 Likes

Thank you for fresh and no gdkp! The advertising channel is a great addition too!

25 Likes

Will the servers go to WoTLK or Stay at TBC???

36 Likes

So excited for TBC to come back! One burning (crusade) question remains, though…will the transition to TBC mark the establishment of permanent TBC Era servers? It’s great to revisit the expansion as you say, but what really matters is that those of us dedicated to TBC will have a permanent home with our favorite expansion. <3

53 Likes

No GDKP’s is so dumb.

37 Likes

^^^Its actually great and hopefully they also ban people constantly asking for them!

56 Likes

But will the bots be banned?

28 Likes

Not a fan of the mega realms, I find the community on them to be pretty soulless, unlike Vanilla or C2019 where each realm was special, memorable and had a story, but that’s the direction that this dev team has taken so it’s expected. Not a big fan of the solo-oriented PVP changes either but that was also expected.

It is what it is though and it’s nice there is some #nochanges philosophy. It is really nice to see another “normal fresh” for the first time in 5 years.

I like the realm balance thing although with one realm of each type, the PVP one would probably be balanced anyway.

People are going to be happy about the Burning Crusade part.

The GDKP thing people won’t like.

5 Likes

hahaha aintnowaybruh

17 Likes

Question: If you die on hardcore, will you be able to transfer to a realm of your choosing (pve or pvp)?

Second question: will all three realms be on the same battle group for instances pvp content?

2 Likes

lol. no it doesnt

this is a bold faced lie due to your negligence in banning bots and gold buyers.

which btw banning gdkp in sod did not even impact botting and gold buying

lmaooo

23 Likes

No its awesome. We shouldnt be buying gear.

34 Likes

I can’t put into words in line with forum policy to explain how dumb this is. The absolute laziest possible solution to people wanting fresh vanilla servers and wanting burning crusade.

We are going to have 5 VERSIONS OF VANILLA going on at the same time. Why? Why is this necessary to get Burning Crusade era? Another year and 6 phases of Vanilla to get there? Why?

9 Likes

I hope the lfg is our server only. Cross server lets people treat each other like crap.

4 Likes

As usual, you have not mentioned Era at all. Can you comment on whether

  1. Any of the Anniversary changes apply to Era
  2. The plan is to allow Anniversary players to transfer to vanilla Classic Era realms when TBC Era starts

?

15 Likes