World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic is coming on September 26

YouTube YouTube
Watch On

Blizzard has confirmed that last week's leak was accurate: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic will be out on September 26.

Wrath of the Lich King, detailing the battle against Arthas Menethil in the frozen realm of Northrend, is arguably the best expansion in World of Warcraft's history, and the Classic edition promises a few key changes to make it more immediately accessible for newcomers. First and foremost, players will be able to jump into the Death Knight class right from the start rather than have to reach level 55 as they did in the original version.

The expansion will also add a new Inscryption profession that enables players to inscribe glyphs that alter the properties of spells and abilities, bring back fan-favorite dungeons and raids including Azjol-Nerub and the Culling of Stratholme, and add achievements and new rewards to WoW Classic.

Ahead of the Wrath of the Lich King Classic launch, Blizzard has also added an optional buff for players in Burning Crusade Classic called Joyous Journeys that will boost their experience gains by 50%. The buff will be available until Wrath of the Lich King Class goes live, and for players who'd rather keep rolling with the standard XP rates it can be switched on and off by any innkeeper in the capital city. (But why would you want to do that?)

If you'd like to get in on the Lich King action a little early, the Wrath of the Lich King Classic beta is still running too—you can sign up for a shot at access at worldofwarcraft.com.

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Read more
Two goblins go for a joyride via the D.R.I.V.E system in World of Warcraft: The War Within.
WoW next big patch, Undermine(d), gets a release date, starting the countdown clock until my gaming time is entirely consumed with doing donuts in my new ride
WoW Classic: Season of Discovery
World of Warcraft Classic’s Season of Discovery may be teasing a legendary weapon that players have speculated is in the game for two decades
World of Warcraft's most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enough
A pirate in World of Warcraft: Plunderstorm wears a joyous expression.
WoW's Plunderstorm mode is back, and it just lets you buy what you want with your in-game dubloons instead of having to grind
World of Warcraft The War Within screenshots
Dragonflight got WoW back on its feet, now we get to see if Blizzard can make the Worldsoul Saga run
Some madperson briefly, beautifully recreated the corrupted blood plague in World of Warcraft Classic
Latest in World of Warcraft
Several adventurers in World of Warcraft Classic's hardcore server crying over the death of a fallen comrade.
Blizzard plans to revive WoW Classic Hardcore characters 'at our sole discretion', after DDOS attack puts major streamer guild OnlyFangs in the ground
WoW Classic: Season of Discovery
World of Warcraft Classic’s Season of Discovery may be teasing a legendary weapon that players have speculated is in the game for two decades
Gallywix wears an uneasy smile as he's confronted by Xal'atath in WoW: The War Within.
After 12 days and 100s of wipes, World of Warcraft's latest world first raid ends in anticlimax: 'That's the boss?!?'
A goblin with sharp teeth, wearing goggles, lets out a mischievous cackle in WoW's latest patch: Undermine(d).
The hooligan hacker guild that tore up WoW's newest raid (twice) just posted video evidence of the whole thing, and it's got me feeling weirdly nostalgic
Concept art of WoW's upcoming player housing system, showing a warm homestead with a welcoming figure in shade.
WoW flexes its MMO player housing system in a new blog post, and it really might just beat FF14's dated furniture placement into the dirt
Gallywix wears an uneasy smile as he's confronted by Xal'atath in WoW: The War Within.
World of Warcraft guild uses exploits to get world 'first' on the game's new raid, gets banned, puts its name backwards and does it again
Latest in News
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
An image of a golden first place award from Geoguessr
'We're actually getting GeoGuessr on Steam before GTA 6': the Google Street View puzzler arrives on Valve's platform this April
Napster client circa 1999
Former music-pirating platform Napster to be reborn rather ironically as a metaverse for musicians to connect with their fans after $207 million deal
The snazzy red and black HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless headphones float in a teal void. The microphone is attached to the headset.
The best wireless gaming headset is now even better in the Amazon Big Spring Sale, boasting a more than $50 discount
A chip being held up in an Intel fab
Intel is reportedly 'working to finalize commitments from Nvidia' as a foundry partner, suggesting gaming potential for the 18A node