20 years later, World of Warcraft is bringing back some of its oldest tier sets, dungeons, and bosses
No release date yet, but rest assured there'll be plenty to do.
World of Warcraft is nearing it's twentieth anniversary, which means players can expect a massive mid-patch update bringing many of the game's most legendary armour sets, dungeons, and bosses back for a limited time. On top of this, a whole festival celebrating the game is coming to Tenaris, which'll see players take part in mount competitions, outfit competitions, and pick up valuable rewards.
Announced late last night through a roundtable video released on official World of Warcraft platforms, executive producer & vice president Holly Longdale, associate game designer Leah Hwang, and senior game designer Bret Cocking broke everything down. It's a pretty hefty update, moreso than previous anniversary events. Here's everything that's coming!
Let's start with that festival, which according to the devs is a major part of the update. It's here that all the vendors for the anniversary will be present, alongside many of the more fun community-driven events. Fashion shows, costume parties, mount-offs, new battle pets and new mounts are all available here. Add on top of this refreshed timewalking vendors, and it's safe to say you'll be spending plenty of time down in Tanaris.
Speaking of Timewalking, it's coming back in a big way. Classic dungeons including Deadmines, Zul-Farrak, Dire Maul and Stratholme (the last two with two wings each) will be returning, and available for characters over level 10. Time Walking vendors have been around for a while now, so expect inventory refreshes.
That's not the only Classic dungeon getting love. Blackrock Depths is returning as a limited-time raid, a 10-15 player raid. Eight main bosses, five mini-bosses, across three difficulty levels will be present. It's a total refresh of the instance, so a step above the Molten Core anniversary raid brought back for the game's 10th.
In terms of raid bosses, new old world baddies are coming too. I can't believe we need to beat up Kel'Thuzad again but it turns out we do, as he'll be popping back up alongside Tichondrius and Ossirian the Unscarred. In terms of world bosses, the three classic-era emerald drake world bosses are back, Azurgos, Kazzak, the Sha of Anger, and finally Archivon the Stone Watcher will be out in the world and fiending for a fight.
But perhaps the most important of all the new additions coming with the 20th anniversary is a refreshed tier 2 set, with some of WoW's most popular raid sets getting a visual refresh. Classes not present back when tier 2 was around are getting custom new sets based on important characters (Death Knights are getting a Lich King set, for example). They look astounding.
This event is set to run for over two-months, though no official date on the 11.05 patch is present. World of Warcraft launched on November 23 back in the day, so who knows? Maybe it'll land on the same day this year? Either way, it'll surely tide you over the Christmas period. Plenty of time to get all those rewards.
Are you gonna hop back in? Let us know below!