5 changes from WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King from the expansion's original launch

Regarding fan-favorite expansions in WoW Classic, Wrath of the Lich King has to be one of the all-time greats. Featuring several challenging raids, a return of a Vanilla raid that most players never experienced, and fighting Arthas? There are so many amazing things about this expansion.

It told an excellent story and had plenty of interesting, worthwhile content, but in WoW Classic, some adjustments will be made to Wrath of the Lich King. The developers had a philosophy of “some changes are okay, if necessary,” which they embraced during the Burning Crusade Classic creation.

Some of these are going to be received warmly, others perhaps not so much. This is not an exhaustive list of the changes, but merely some of the most interesting changes that have arrived with WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King.

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WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King has some major changes from the initial launch

1) WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King uses the original expansion’s final balance update

Like the other Classic expansions, WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King will use the final patch of balance updates for Wrath of the Lich King. That means this game starts on Patch 3.4. This doesn’t mean all the content or updates will be in the game now.

Sorry, no Icecrown Citadel just yet. There are major changes in balance to classes like Retribution Paladin and the Death Knight changes. A massive set of changes came with patch 3.3.0, affecting every class.

However, the number of changes is massive and can be found on the Wowpedia Fandom page.

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2) Raid Lockout was adjusted for WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King

In the retail experience, if players wanted to ensure they were as ready for new content as possible, they had to run the 10-man, 25-man, and Heroic 10/25 versions of raid content in World of Warcraft.

In WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King, the 10-man and 10-man Heroic raid lockouts will be shared. The same goes for 25-man content. Players can still run 10 and 25 men in the same week, but not all four types of raid content in Trial of the Crusader. This is also going to be the case for Icecrown Citadel, reportedly.

With this change in mind, trinkets from the Normal and Heroic versions of content will not be equippable simultaneously. These trinkets will be given the “Unique-Equipped” tag on these.

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3) Later Phases of content will make raid loot more accessible

Perhaps one of the best changes coming in is something that, frankly, should also appear in the retail version of the game. The loot tables of Heroic Dungeons and older raids will be adjusted as phases of content go out in WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King.

An example would be this. When Phase 2 happens and Ulduar launches, the Phase 1 raid loot will be shifted down a notch. The raid loot for 10-man Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, and Obsidian Sanctum will receive the 25-man loot table instead.

The 10-man loot will then be shifted down to the Heroic Dungeons so that more players can access loot to progress towards the new content faster. It will also make these dungeons relevant throughout the expansion’s lifetime.

Blizzard is also looking into adding further challenges to Heroics that will grant additional rewards, but this change has not been locked in.

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4) No Dungeon Finder Tool in WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King

Unfortunately, this expansion will not be receiving the Dungeon Finder Tool. This is a very divisive decision, with more hardcore Classic players thinking this is fine and fans of the retail expansion disagreeing. After all, it was a change to the game in the retail expansion.

Some felt that it harmed the social interaction experience of the MMO. Instead of a Dungeon Finder system, there is a slightly enhanced group finder, where players can sign up to join dungeons and recruit/be recruited to do a select number of in-game events.

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5) Death Knights no longer have a level requirement, except on Fresh Start servers

In the original expansion, you had to have a level 55 character on a server to create the Hero Class, Death Knight. It didn’t matter which faction, you just had to have one. However, this has been waived on the WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King servers.

You can make a Death Knight and get going, though you can only have one per server. You can also have Horde and Alliance on the same server in the WoW Classic servers. It’s worth noting that two Fresh Start servers were launched, which players cannot transfer to for the next 90 days.

You still have to have a level 55 character on these servers to create a Death Knight. These servers might remain no transfer if the economy and the player base are solid enough.

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WoW Classic: Wrath of the Lich King has launched on the Battle.net app, and players can experience the glory days of World of Warcraft, going from 70-80 and tackling all of the great dungeons and raids on the continent of Northrend.