While we recently unearthed the official release date for the World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King Classic expansion, the appearance of the PrePatch on the PTR gives hope to players who have been waiting for a release date for too long.
The weeks-anticipated pre-patch should introduce players to the classic Wrath of the Lich King expansion of World of Warcraft over the coming weeks, before that official deployment mysteriously goes public on the evening of August 4th and 5th, 2022 Test range (PTR) appears. So what could that mean?
WotLK Classic PrePatch: what's available on the PTR
To get straight to the point: the content of this patch 3.4.0 is simply not complete in the beta realm. While we previewed the most anticipated new features such as a new talent tree, calligraphy, death knights or a reduction in the experience required for upgrades, as well as many other minor elements, the rest was always mysteriously awaited.
This is also an opportunity for Blizzard to integrate the new features in Shadowlands Patch 9.2.5 into the game: the Social Contract and certain additional content designed to make the game more inclusive (meaning Morphology 1 and Morphology 2)" like "male" and "female" on the character creation page).
Wrath of the Lich King: Classic
Originally, the Wrath of the Lich King PrePatch added these and other more "classic" elements, including the arrival of the Cataclysmic Invasion of Azeroth and the new temporary boss of Karazhan: Prince Tenris Murkblood (if you get the mascot he's holding, force him please). These wlk classic gold are currently unavailable and may be reserved for later bulk testing to test the stability of the domain under high-traffic conditions when this update is released.
This is your chance to try out the new generic types introduced in patch 3.4.0. If you're interested in the campaign itself, you'll have to wait a few more days for Blizzard to add it to the game! But don't miss the announcement: this might be a very limited time test!
Hints at the upcoming WotLK PrePatch release?
The arrival of PrePatch is a very good thing for the PTR, that's true. But what's really interesting for the average gamer is knowing what that means for the release date. While we can't say exactly when this update will be released, we can make a few guesses based on the information we have so far.
If we believe these few official numbers and assume that content is being delivered at a similar pace to Burning Expedition Classic at the start of the expansion, the Wrath of the Lich King Classic pre-patch for Wednesday 31st August 2022 could be in Europe to be planned, so in just over 3 weeks.
Such a launch would give the death knights and stragglers 4 weeks (a month actually) to complete any quests they need to complete before the sourcebook's official launch on September 27th, and fits in perfectly with Patrick Dawson's stated framework for the PrePatch.
Wrath of the Lich King: Classic
However, if that date is wrong, and assuming plans haven't changed since Wowhead interviewed the World of Warcraft Classic production manager, then we can be sure of one thing: the World of Warcraft Classic PrePatch will not happen . Be in game by Wednesday August 17, 2022 and deployed by Wednesday September 13, 2022.
Blizzard's timeline for this will become clearer once the Cataclysmic Invasion event is tested in beta. Until then we have to be patient with our problems......