A keen-eyed World of Warcraft player noticed that the game's anniversary event changed its starting date, this time to something far more logical when accounting for Dragonflight's launch. Released on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has since enjoyed nearly two decades of success, accolades, and popularity on an unprecedented level. It now stands on the verge of its 18th Anniversary, as well as the premiere of its ninth expansion pack that takes the players to the Dragon Isles.
Past Anniversary events have provided mounts and companions to its participants, but for the most part the event has largely been the same since its 13th Anniversary iteration, offering World of Warcraft players daily quests, and a chance to experience the old vanilla bosses. This year's event also comes with an 18% increase to experience gain, but the date being pushed up also causes it to align with other experience bonuses for a full week of incredibly speedy leveling.
The new World of Warcraft Anniversary event start date is November 6, and will last all the way to November 27, a day before the release of Dragonflight. Furthermore, the Shadowlands Winds of Wisdom event that gives players a 50% boost to experience gain is still ongoing, and will only end on November 15. Lastly, the Darkmoon Faire from November 6 to November 12 can also provide players with a 10% additional experience buff, allowing players to theoretically enjoy a whopping 78% increase to experience gain (88% in War Mode).
Stealth change: WoW's 18th Anniversary event starts this Sunday, November 6 allowing for mega-fast leveling! from wow
This change was pointed out by Tyrsenus on World of Warcraft's subreddit, who also put together a handy guide on how players might make the most out of the upcoming week to level up their alts or bring their old characters up to speed for Dragonflight. Though World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is reshaping reputations into something more modern, this period will also offer players a chance to reach Exalted on quite a few of the old ones thanks to Mists of Pandaria's timewalking event. A popular choice would be the Order of the Cloud Serpent, offering players a chance to raise, train, and earn their very own Cloud Serpent mount.
With the announcement of the 12-Month Subscription reward for World of Warcraft, coupled with the experience buffs leading up to Dragonflight's launch, it's safe that say that the developers at Blizzard Entertainment seek to bring back and keep as many of their players as possible for the start of this new Warcraft chapter. All that's left is to stick the landing.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC. Dragonflight launches on November 28.