Wrath of the Lich King Classic's pre-patch arrives later this month

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It's nearly time to head to Northrend.

WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Classic
(Image credit: Blizzard)

The wait is almost over. Blizzard has finally announced that the Wrath of the Lich King Classic pre-patch will go live on August 30. The 50% XP buff will remain for the duration of the pre-patch and will also apply to Death Knights.

You won't need an existing level 55 character to play a Death Knight either, as this restriction will be removed for the first one you create, unless you start on one of the new "fresh start" servers. If you're after an army of Death Knights though, you're out of luck as you can only have one per realm and original restrictions will apply to any others you make.

Along with the "new" Death Knight class, character balancing and other systems will arrive with the pre-patch. These include the inscription profession, achievements, and updates to both Stormwind City and Orgrimmar. Blizzard has also released a mini-roadmap for the update—the Zombie Plague event will hit major cities on September 6 and the Scourge Invasion start assaulting various locations on September 13.

The fresh start servers haven't been announced yet, though they're expected to go live with the pre-patch at the end of August. 

With Wrath of the Lich King Classic launching on September 26, that gives us a little under a month to prepare for the journey to Northrend. You'd better wrap up warm.

Sarah James
Sarah James
Senior Guides Writer

Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.