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World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic
- Platform:
- PC
- Developer:
- Blizzard
- Publisher:
- Activision
- Genre:
- MMORPG
- Multiplayer:
- Online Multiplayer
- ESRB:
- Teen
- Released:
- 2022-09-26
- Franchise:
- Warcraft
The Classic Wrath of the Lich King prepatch is finally here. With it comes several new features before the full launch of Classic Wrath.
There's much to see and do from the all-new Death Knight class, Inscription profession, and special once-in-a-lifetime events. We've got you covered with a list of everything you can do once the prepatch goes live on Classic World of Warcraft servers. Currently, the launch is set for Tuesday, August 30th, at approximately 3:00 PM Pacific time once servers go live after maintenance. Once realms are online, here are some of the things you'll be able to do.
1. Level up your Death Knight
One of the headlining features for Wrath of the Lich King is World of Warcraft's first ever hero class, the Death Knight. Previously, players had to wait until the original WotLK launch on November 13th to get their hands on the game's new class. That's so 2008, though.
The Classic Wrath prepatch will include Death Knights from the start, similar to how Burning Crusade offered Blood Elves and Draenei during its prepatch. This change allows players to get some experience with Death Knights during their final runs of Burning Crusade raids. In addition, people won't fall behind starting from 55 as others make the jump into Northrend at level 70.
2. Enjoy your new talent specs
Death Knights aren't the only new thing on the block for Classic Wrath of the Lich King. With the 3.0 prepatch comes new talent trees. Specs that were previously underperforming in The Burning Crusade will now have their time to shine. The new capstone talents from Wrath of the Lich King mean that players can still obtain them despite not having 10 additional talent points to spend. Combined with some talent revamps and reworks, there's plenty of reason to try new things beyond the fact that other specs may perform better than what you're used to.
If you can't make up your mind, then fret not; dual spec is finally here in World of Warcraft Classic. After three agonizing years of waiting, players can finally switch specs on the fly without having to spend gold while at a specific trainer. This means that you can try your personal favorite or pet spec to see if it can hang with everybody else before relenting to the "default best spec." Or maybe you can finally have a PVE and PVP-centric spec loadouts available to switch at will.
3. Level up the new profession, Inscription
Another new World of Warcraft expansion, another new profession for players. Inscription is a very convenient profession for players of all types.
Crafted Glyphs add special buffs and enhancements to core class abilities and skills. In addition, scribes can create cards that can be turned into a full Darkmoon deck, which can be exchanged for trinkets. These trinkets rank among some of the best equipment players can get as they begin their raiding adventure in Classic Wrath of the Lich King. Beyond that, enchanters can cast their enhancements on scrolls, which can be sold on the Auction House or traded among players. This is a pretty underrated and undeniably awesome quality-of-life update from the new profession.
As a result of all of this, Inscription will be a very in-demand profession. If you're looking for a quick and easy way to level up this profession, our Inscription 1 to 450 guide will help you out.
4. Enjoy the Zombie Plague event
From Tuesday, September 6th through Tuesday, September 13th, the Zombie Plague event will return for Classic Wrath of the Lich King. As part of the prepatch hype leading into the full release of Wrath of the Lich King, the Zombie Plague event is part of the overall Scourge Invasion. Originally, the event was supposed to last longer than it did. However, the event was cut short due to the nature of the event turning players into zombies and preventing them from playing the game on their own terms.
The premise of the event is simple: mysterious crates start appearing throughout the world before ultimately turning the citizens of Azeroth into members of the undead. This event kickstarts the storylines that will be developed during Wrath of the Lich King. Even at the start of the Zombie Plague event, players will be able to complete several quests, leading into the proper Scourge Invasion event.
Now, it's important to note that the Zombie Plague event elicits strong opinions from World of Warcraft players. People will undoubtedly troll and interrupt people as they attempt to play the game. It happened to me on the PTR several times while testing things out; you better believe it will happen on a larger scale on proper servers. Sometimes it's best to glow with the flow and have fun. Round up your friends and unleash terror as a zombie and invade cities in Azeroth! It's what I'll be doing.
5. Get the Arcanite Ripper and Vampiric Batling pets
Undoubtedly one of the coolest items in World of Warcraft, the Arcanite Ripper drops from Prince Tenris Mirkblood during the Scourge Invasion. He is located in Karazhan, in the kitchen above Attumen the Huntsman, and will only be available during the two week event. As a result, two of his highly coveted drops, the Arcanite Ripper and Vampiric Batling pet, will only be obtainable in those two weeks.
The boss fight is pretty simple, especially if you're clearing Sunwell Plateau weekly. The hard part to obtain these items will be winning the roll, not killing the boss.
Why is the Arcanite Ripper so highly sought after? Its on-use effect turns you into a guitarist that shreds a solo for a limited time. As an owner of one during the original Wrath of the Lich King run, this was one of the most prized and coveted items I ever acquired.
Good luck in your rolls!
6. Level up alts and enjoy new classes
In addition to the currently live Joyous Journeys buff, Classic Wrath of the Lich King prepatch is the perfect time to level up those alts. The experience points required to level will be reduced, helping to make the journey even more efficient than it currently is. The adventure from 1-70 is intimidating and, as enjoyable as it can be, can get old quickly. The XP buff and leveling reworks make the journey infinitely more tolerable.
Furthermore, if you've been neglecting alts during Burning Crusade, the class tuning, reworks, and balance changes are very convenient excuses to raid on a new character. Wrath of the Lich King is when Blizzard started to fully understand class design and balancing. If you leveled a certain class to 70 only to realize it didn't feel like much fun, now's the time to give it a second chance.
7. Decide, and learn, your new main character
While working on the alts, it's also a good idea to figure out which character will be your main for Classic Wrath. In addition to being able to level new characters, both continued raid nerfs, and the class reworks allow players to get in some legitimate time to practice on new classes. Whether it's learning the new specs and rotations of your old main or discovering the ins and outs of your new class, Wrath prepatch is the best chance to prepare for the upcoming raids in Classic WotLK.
It's better to mess around and try new things during heavily nerfed content versus trial by fire. Plus, you'll feel awful if you level a character to 80, send all the time getting preraid best in slot, and then find out you hate the class you're playing. It's better to find out now before it's too late.
8. Stock up consumables and gold for the leveling journey in Northrend
Prepatch marks the official countdown to Classic Wrath of the Lich King launch on September 26th. It's never too late to stock up for the journey through Northrend. Even in this short amount of time, you can easily gain approximately 2,500 gold doing your daily quests on the Island of Quel'Danas or Netherwing reputation. In addition, you can take advantage of the lower price of raid consumables and use them as you level through Northrend.
If you question whether or not it's worth it, just remember that every bit of added power helps. Plus, if you're leveling up professions such as inscription or alchemy, you can take full advantage of the beneficial buffs and consumes you'll craft along the way.