World of Warcraft 20th Anniversary Classic Server Refresh
With World of Warcraft celebrating its 20th anniversary fresh Classic realms are upon us! Check out our write up below to keep in the loop with what changes are coming to these brand new Classic servers.
What to Expect WoW's 20th Classic Anniversary
The World of Warcraft 20th Anniversary will include a set of fresh WoW Classic Vanilla servers meaning new servers that will start everyone over from level 1 and progress through the phases of Classic WoW, starting with Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair and will eventually progress into the Burning Crusade expansion. In addition to Normal and PvP fresh servers there will also be fresh Hardcore servers launching. The Hardcore servers are not set to progress past Vanilla. These new servers are all set to launch on November 21st at 2PM Pacific Standard Time.
Listed below are the new servers and their respective types.
North America
- Dreamscythe (Normal)
- Nightslayer (PvP)
- Doomhowl (Hardcore)
- Maladath (OCE/PVP)
Europe
- Thunderstrike (Normal)
- Spineshatter (PvP)
- Soulseeker (Hardcore)
Changes to the Classic Experience
The Anniversary servers will launch with many of the quality of life changes found at the end of original Vanilla classic's life span, as well as some new changes made to improve the experience of playing through one of WoW's most iconic versions.
Molten Core and Onyxia are set to launch three weeks after the launch of the Anniversary servers on December 12th.
- The addition of Chronoboon Displacers allowing you to safeguard your world buffs both from death and hostile players.
- Dual Specialization that will allow you to easily swap Specializations at a moments notice anywhere in the world.
- The removal of Buff and Debuff limits allowing you to stack as many Buffs as you would like on your character and removing the 16 debuff limit from enemy targets allowing for many specializations to perform considerably better in group content.
- Instant mail across characters on the same account allowing for you to much more easily manage your inventory across your account.
- A new group finder interface allowing a much simpler experience when trying to form a group. Not to be confused with the automated Looking For Group system added in late Wrath of the Lich King this interface will allow you to either search or list a group for a specific activity and players will be able to apply to join your party.
- Ability to toggle between the modernized and the Classic guild UI.
- Factions are also likely to be considerably more balanced on the Anniversary servers due to a new system implemented by Blizzard limiting the ability to create characters on a server if the faction imbalance skews too heavily in either direction.
- GDKP runs are entirely banned from the Anniversary servers on both NA and EU regions.
What to Play in WoW's 20th Classic Anniversary
If you find yourself unsure what to play or how to optimize your experience playing feel free to check out our revamped Classic guides. Head over to our Overview Section to better familiarize yourself with all of the different classes of Vanilla World of Warcraft and how they fit into the world of Azeroth.
Hardcore Servers
While the Hardcore servers will remain relatively the same to their original iteration the single largest change will be Hardcore servers progressing through phases inline with the fresh Anniversary PvP and PvE servers meaning the servers will receive new content updates as the Anniversary event progresses through its phases. If your character dies on the Hardcore realm you will be able to transfer it to the Normal Anniversary server at no cost.
The new Self Found option will also be in from the launch of these new Hardcore servers allowing you to challenge yourself by removing the ability to Trade with other players, send or receive mail and use the Auction House making the gearing process almost entirely a solo experience.
Changelog
- 18 Nov. 2024: Guide added.
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This guide has been written by Sellin, a former top 10 US raider and current season and several time Gladiator, long time WoW Player and passionate about all things Warcraft and Theorycrafting. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him on Twitch.
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