Get ready to open the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj again — WoW Classic will release content in stages

The most asked-questions about WoW Classic are what content will be available after its release next summer and when will additional vanilla content be released? At today’s WoW Classic panel, Ion Hazzikostas confirmed that content will be released in stages. Though he didn’t give concrete launch dates dates, this is the release timeline:

• Stage 1 is the game as it was in March 2005: Molten Core, Onyxia, Dire Maul, Doom Lord Kazzak, and Azuregos will be available.
• Stage 2 is the game as it was in July 2005: Blackwing Lair, Battlegrounds and PVP rewards, and Zul’Gurub.
• Stage 3 is the game as it was in January of 2006: includes both Ahn’Qiraj raids — AQ 20- and 40-man — tier 0.5 gear, Silithus content, and the Green Dragons. This means the whole opening of the gates of Ahn’Qiraj — complete with the ability to become a Scarab Lords — will be available again. If you never got to experience that madness, you’ll finally be able to.
• Stage 4 is the game as it was in June 2006: original Naxxramas (which, for those of you who started playing in Wrath of the Lich King, was located in Eastern Plaguelands) and the Scourge Invasion which set the stage for Burning Crusade.

What should we be excited about besides Ahn’Qiraj?

You should definitely be excited for the Onyxia attunement quest line. Seriously. That was one of the most interesting, maddening, and exhilarating of quest lines. You went all over the world to get this done. Alliance, be aware of “dragons in the keep!” I still have this quest line memorized.

Zul’Gurub was an interesting raid design. You don’t know the full extent of the raid, if you’ve only experienced the 5-man dungeon. The random rares won’t be in the raid, but bosses you never saw will be back. Hakkar was an interesting fight.

I’m also looking forward to the Dragons of Nightmare — AKA the green dragons Ysondre, Tarer, Lethon, and Emeriss. Each dragon would spawn randomly in select places —Duskwood, Feralas, Ashenvale, and Hinterlands — and all had different attacks.

And what to say about Naxxramas. Very few guilds actually cleared it. Look for months of grinding to gather the mats needed to get attuned to even get into the raid. Gargoyles. [Shudder]

Again, here’s the schedule.

I foresee farming a lot of resist gear in your future.