At Warcraft Direct, Blizzard revealed a lot of exciting data and new features for WoW. This included a roadmap for 2025 and what to expect in Classic in the coming weeks and months.
In 2024, the annual BlizzCon trade fair was replaced by a livestream called Warcraft Direct. In addition to the release of the Warcraft remaster, a whole range of new content for World of Warcraft was announced during the event, which lasted about an hour.
We have summarized all the WoW information for you in this article.
WoW: The War Within: period and first content for 11.0.7, 11.1 and 11.2 announced
Let’s start with the modern version of WoW (also called “retail”). We are currently in the tenth expansion called The War Within and in the middle of the so-called interim patches. These are smaller updates that bring a few new features here and there. The next interim patch is 11.0.7. It is scheduled to be released in winter 2024 – we’re guessing it will be at the end of November or beginning of December.
When will WoW patch 11.1 be released? Between winter and spring, the first major patch will follow with a new raid, dungeons, zones, new season and more. This will probably not be in 2024, but after the turn of the year in January or February.
By the way, in 11.1 you will end up in the goblin city of Undermine. And as is so common for goblin engineers, with the big The War Within patch, you can finally exchange your riding pony, wolf or llama for a motorized vehicle.
When will WoW Patch 11.2 be released?This will be followed by two more small patches in spring, before the second and final major patch for the addon arrives in summer (we’re guessing July). After that, more minor patches will follow in fall 2025.
The best way to see what content you can expect and when is to look at the roadmap:
WoW Midnight: Addon Reveal at gamescom 2025?
If we look at the roadmap graphic above, the add-on reveal for WoW 12.0, also known as Midnight, is scheduled for late summer 2025. This fits well with gamescom 2025, which, as usual, takes place at the end of August.
When will WoW: Midnight be released?The cryptic rune symbol at the end of the roadmap could point to the freshly announced housing feature, which was also announced at the Direct via trailer:
This in turn would mean that a release of WoW Midnight could be expected around November 2025. However, there would be little time between the announcement and the usual cycle of alpha and beta phases.
For comparison: The War Within was announced on November 3, 2023. The alpha started in April 2024 and the beta in July 2024. The release was then at the end of August 2024. So there was a period of nine months between the announcement and the release.
It’s quite possible that Blizzard has condensed these long periods of time and that Midnight will still be released at the end of 2025, cutting the time between announcement and release to six months (or less). This would at least fit well with the last War Within patch being released in late fall.
WoW: Mists of Pandaria Classic and…
Less surprising than housing or the Warcraft remaster was the announcement of WoW Mists of Pandaria Classic. Wow Classic continues its shifted timeline and jumps to the next addon in 2025. Here you can see the trailer:
If a new addon is released every year, we can expect Warlords of Draenor in 2026 and (finally!) Legion in 2027.
… Classic Classic?
But that’s not all that was announced for Classic fans at Direct.Because Blizzard is starting another Classic cycle starting November 21, 2024. So to speak, the Classic Classic
Or as they call it: Wow Classic 20th Anniversary Edition.
Specifically, this means that WoW Classic will get new servers that will start from scratch again. That means: you start again in 2004 with a level 1 character and the whole WoW world in front of you. On the roadmap shown, you can see how the journey continues:
It is exciting that in winter 2025 or spring 2026, the new Classic will also start in the first expansion, The Burning Crusade. It therefore looks as if a second timeline is simply being launched that will eventually allow players to play the add-ons again just like the normal
WoW Classic.
Slowly, the whole thing is taking on a few DC and Marvel parallel universe traits.
Either way, anyone who missed the launch of Classic back then and/or wants to experience everything from the beginning again can join a PvP, Normal PvE or Hardcore server fresh from November 21, 2024.
