It has been a lofty 20 years of Azerothian MMO action – enough to make most of us feel a great deal older than we would like, but exciting nonetheless.
It’s a hell of a feat, given that World of Warcraft has managed to outlast every other WoW-killer that dropped onto the scene. So what do you do for a 20th birthday party for a game that comes from a genre known for barely hitting a paltry handful of years?
A big arse celebration of course. And when I say ‘big arse’, I mean: BIG. ARSE.
From a Blizzard Blog post, there are a hefty range of dot points running down the festivities:
- Earn and spend a new currency— Bronze Celebration Tokens— to spend on new items for your collection.
- Engage in the Blackrock Depths Raid dungeon
- Collect Iconic Tier 2 transmog appearance sets
- Go Timewalking through Classic World of Warcraft Dungeons
- Earn a New Mount, Blizzard Employee Service Award cosmetics, and More
- Celebrate with an expanded event at the Caverns of Time
- Join Chromie on a new time-bending adventure with the Codex of Chromie
- Discover new secrets and solve them with Guest Relations
- Defeat Party-Crashing World Bosses including the Sha of Anger and Archavon the Stonewatcher
- Go back for some PvP revenge during Korrak’s Revenge in Alterac Valley
- Celebrate 30 Years of Warcraft with Warcraft III themed back appearances on the Trading Post
Brilliantly, all the celebratory fun is a proper spotlight on cool stuff from World of Warcraft’s past – with a serious SMORGASBORD of fun faces and places from the past, all souped up and returned to the modern era to test us all again.
These cool returning dungeons involve some classic spaces that are still being explored in both World of Warcraft: Classic and Season of Discovery versions of the game, tastefully restored to the modern client and made available for players hungry for a nostalgia trip.
The hilarious part is that the classic “getting lost” simulator, Blackrock Depths, has been refactored into a terrifying raid experience – so now you can get lost with more mates than every before. Incredible.
- NEW CLASSIC RAID: Blackrock Depths
This classic era dungeon has been refashioned into a 10-15 player 8-boss raid available in LFR, Normal and Heroic difficulties. - NEW TIMEWALKING: Classic Dungeons
Classic dungeons will be offered in the LFD group finder and will officially enter the Timewalking rotation beyond the anniversary event.- Deadmines (original classic version)
- Dire Maul (east and west wings)
- Stratholme (living and undead wings)
For those that would rather pick a fight in the open world of World of Warcraft, some classic worldboss mates have materialised to have their arse slapped around like you would in the old days:
- NEW WORLD BOSSES
Additional raid bosses are making a return with updated rewards in addition to previous anniversary raid bosses:- Sha of Anger (from Mists of Pandaria)
- Archavon the Stonewatcher (from Wrath of the Lich King)
As for what rewards await you – taking part in quests and activities during the 20th Anniversary Celebration will earn you Bronze Celebration Tokens to spend on items. These are all based around fun stuff for players to enjoy – but the most exciting (at least in my opinion) is a full suite of rejigged and remastered Tier 2 Armor appearance sets.
See, back in the classic days of yore, the second tier of raiding offered some sets that went hard as far as dated graphics went – and to this day they are all accepted as being truly sick looking.
So seeing them get a HD makeover is just awesome.
And as a total flex, the art team have even gone out of their way to create a range of unique class-specific sets for the classes that didn’t even exist back then. So you’ll be able to grab all these fashion-fuelled ensembles:
- Death Knight: Pale Rider’s Eternal Armor
- Demon Hunter: Netherwalker’s Eternal Armor
- Druid: Stormrage Raiment
- Evoker: Earth-Warder’s Eternal Armor
- Hunter: Dragonstalker Armor
- Mage: Netherwind Regalia
- Monk: Eternal Battlegear of the August Acolyte
- Paladin: Judgement Armor
- Priest: Vestments of Transcendance
- Rogue: Bloodfang Armor
- Shaman: Then Ten Storms
- Warlock: Nemesis Raiment
- Warrior: Battlegear of Wrath
All this and more goes live as part of the first content update for The War Within (11.0.5) on 23 October AEST – with the festivities continuing long before and beyond World of Warcraft’s official 20th Anniversary on 24 November. So if you want a proper blast from the past, mark your calendar – and make sure to nab your favourite Tier set of times past, or get lost (for old times sake) in the revamped Blackrock Depths.
Are you an old salt of the Azerothian landscape? Does 20 years of WoW make you feel as old as me? Tell us all about it in the comments or on social media.
