The World of Warcraft Classic Burning Crusade expansion is on the horizon, and as was the case in Classic, raid instances are its premier content.
When TBC was originally released in 2006, most raid instances were playable but they were locked behind long attunement quest lines that made it impossible to do those instances early in the expansion.
In an attempt to give Classic TBC the same feel, Blizzard announced at BlizzConline that the newer vintage version of the game will have some raid instances time-gated behind a phase style release, similar to WoW Classic, which was released in 2019.
While attunement chains will exist in Classic TBC, Blizzard developers said the attunement quests will be nerfed in some capacity to accommodate for the phase-style release of instances that will differ from the original TBC.
The raids that will be available on release in TBC will be all three raids that give players tier-four gear. This includes Karazhan, Gruul’s Lair, and Matheridon’s Lair.
All other raids will be locked. Blizzard hasn’t told players if attunement quest lines for those instances will be doable prior to the other raids releasing.
In Phase Two, Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye in Tempest Keep will be unlocked. Those are the instances that give players their tier-five gear.
After that, players will be able to do Mount Hyjal and The Black Temple in Phase Three. These are the instances where players will begin to get some of their end-game tier-six gear. It’s also where players will start to earn the legendary Warglaives of Azzinoth.
That will be followed by Phase Four, where the 10-man raid Zul’Aman becomes available. Zul’Aman is known for providing catch-up gear to players.
Finally, Classic TBC will end with Phase Five and Sunwell Plateau. This is where players will get a chance to finish off their tier-six gear.
An official release date for Classic TBC hasn’t been announced yet but the beta went live earlier this week.
