Community Videos on Future of WoW Classic
What is Classic Plus?
“Classic Plus” is an idea that goes back to the original launch of WoW Classic, following in the footsteps of the highly successful Old School Runescape, which was a relaunch of the original version of Runescape which later implemented entirely new and original content.
WoW Classic reminded many players what truly made Classic special – the world. And within that world, there are plenty of unfinished areas, unused portals which had content designed for it, as well as developer only areas which touched on lore from the vast Warcraft universe. Some examples include the portal in Darkwhisper Gorge, portal in Stormwind City, Ruins of Uldum in Silithus, Timbermaw Hold in Azshara, Emerald Dream from Datamined Maps in 2003, Old Ironforge which is accessible in WoW Classic with clever mechanics, scrapped “Azshara Crater” 40v40 Battleground, Karazhan Crypts, a Dark Portal in Azshara during Alpha Development, Vanilla Dragon Isles, and so on, and so on…
The idea of Classic Plus is basically one thing – brand new content for the WoW Classic game. That’s it. Essentially it would be an alternate timeline for post Vanilla WoW, not going the direction of Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King, but maintaining the Level 60, 40-player raids in the original Vanilla Azeroth.
“Leak” which was posted to 4chan image board
While many players have been asking for Classic Plus, would Blizzard actually make entirely new content for WoW Classic? Let’s take a look at what are just facts and not based on leaks or rumors —
What Do We Know About the Future of WoW Classic?
1. Patch 1.15 has been in development for 6 months
On April 20, 2023 Blizzard updated the wowdev2 Branch (WoW Dev 2) with Patch 1.15 Build 49244. Over the next 6 months, Blizzard has been updating this patch on an encrypted Branch, which means it is not possible for Wowhead to datamine anything from this build. Beginning in September, 2023 this Patch moved to the wowv Branch (Wow Vendor) and in October, 2023 to the wowv4 Branch (WoW Vendor 4). With Patch 1.15 being on 3 encrypted servers, two of which are “Vendor” Branches, it seems likely this might be available for testing very soon.
In the past, major patches include significant changes to the core game of Vanilla WoW. For example, Patch 1.13 was when WoW Classic initially launched back in 2019. Patch 1.14 was for Season of Mastery in 2021 (which technically went live as 1.14.1). Could Patch 1.15 be the next season for WoW Classic? Additionally, Qwik did state on twitter that Warcraft will have the most announcements at Blizzcon.
2. Blizzard has confirmed a new season is coming
On May 13, 2023 (less than one month after 1.15 began development) Blizzard announced on a Community Event stream that a new Season was coming to WoW Classic and it would not be “Season of Mastery Two”, implying there would be different changes and adjustments. Additionally, Blizzard stated that there would be “more information later this year”. Well it’s the end of October and we haven’t had any new information, so one can assume this will likely be shared at Blizzcon.
3. Blizzard said they are examining “legacy events” for future seasons
In September 2022, there were numerous bugs and issues during the launch of the Wrath Classic Pre-Patch event. This is partly due to Blizzard increasing the duration of the event and allowing players to play Death Knights ahead of schedule. Late into the event, Blizzard implemented some hotfixes and patches to remedy some of the previous issues, after they were seemingly irrelevant. Blizzard shared a lengthy Blue Post shedding some light on the issues and offering an explanation.
An often overlooked part of this explanation, Blizzard states that the reason they want to fix this issue and ensure events like this go smoothly is because they are examining legacy events closely. Additionally, they state there might be “different flavors” of WoW Classic for potential future seasons. What this means isn’t entirely clear, but some speculate it might hint at a possible level 60 version 40-player raid of future WoW content and expansions.
We’ve had similar problems with other legacy events in past WoW Classic content releases such as the AQ40 War Effort events and it’s pretty obvious at this point that these types of older events just don’t quite function right in modern environments. As much as we’d like to make them play out exactly as they were, we’ll be examining many such events for improvements for future content releases or potential seasons of the various different flavors of WoW Classic to hopefully avoid some of these headaches in the future.
4. Blizzard has experimented with new raid encounters, new mechanics, new systems, new items, and even class changes
For those unfamiliar with WoW Classic Season of Mastery, Blizzard implemented significant encounter changes to Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, with smaller changes to Ahn’Qiraj and Naxxramas. The boss encounters in Blackwing Lair were particularly interesting and Chromaggus was definitely a community favorite.
By Naxxramas, Blizzard event created entirely new items, such as Failsafe Phylactery, which was a 7-day duration trinket purchased in Naxxramas which gave your player a “Cheat Death” ability. Once it triggered, the trinket would then be deleted. This was particularly useful because Soul of Iron and the prototype for Hardcore was brand new. Hardcore WoW has also been a massive success on Classic Era realms, with a month long $100,000 OTK Tournament still ongoing. Blizzard also reported nearly 3 million deaths have taken place on Hardcore realms!
Blizzard has also been experimenting with classes significantly in Wrath of the Lich King Classic, creating entirely new spells such as Trap Launcher: Explosive Trap, Glyph of Omen of Clarity, and Glyph of Reckoning, which has all received relatively positive feedback. Blizzard also overhauled all the gear in Ulduar, increasing the item level of the gear by a large margin.
While all of this doesn’t mean much, it does show that Blizzard has confidently been making changes and new content which has received relatively positive reactions from the Classic communities. The old complaint that “modern Blizzard can’t make good Classic content” has been proven to be mostly false.
What Do You Think is Being Announced at Blizzcon for WoW Classic?
While the idea of Classic Plus is quite tantalizing, it doesn’t seem likely Blizzard would add permanent new content to eternal Classic Era realms. Adding permanent new content can be quite daunting and cause issues that Blizzard and the community might not even foresee. What does seem much more likely however, is adding new content through a seasonal realm. Similar to other Seasonal games like Diablo, Blizzard could experiment with class balance changes, new content, or whatever without necessarily “ruining” Classic Era realms.
One of the most genius thing Developers for seasonal games have done in the past, if the community really likes a particular change in a Season, you could easily copy/paste that over to the eternal Classic Era realms. If the community dislikes new things in the current season, no need to fret, the season will end and a new one will begin in the future! If you really despise the current season, don’t worry – Classic Era realms are right there too!
While that might be a safer approach to trying class balance, new content, new gear, and new raids… Blizzard could surprise everyone and announce something entirely different! What would you like to see announced at Blizzcon? And if you wanted Class balance in WoW Classic, what changes would you like?
