WoW ClassicMay 21, 2019 10:00 am CT

WoW Classic has its first stress test Wednesday, May 22

By Matthew Rossi

If you’ve been paying attention, the road to WoW Classic has been moving pretty fast — it’s been roughly a week since the August 26/27 release date was announced and the beta test started in earnest a day later. Now, we’re going to see the first major test for the upcoming release of the new-yet-old game, with a stress test designated for this Wednesday.

So far, the WoW Classic beta has been remarkably bug free. In fact, a lot of the supposed bugs have actually been the game working as intended. But if you played WoW back in the day you remember the servers getting absolutely flooded with players and crashing repeatedly, so a stress test is definitely warranted.

The upcoming stress test will have some limitations. If you’re accepted for the test, you’ll see the launcher offer you a new drop down on the World of Warcraft section marked as “Beta & Stress Test: WoW Classic” which will allow you to download the client in advance of Wednesday’s test, but if you’re not already in the beta you won’t be able to log in until May 22 from 4 to 6 PM Pacific time. If you’re already in the beta, be aware that you won’t be able to log onto the beta realms either, as those will be down while the new stress test realm is up. The purpose is to get as many players as possible into those starting zones to test for stability — so there are some limitations.

All the current WoW Classic classes and races will be available for selection, but level is capped at 5. Remember, it’s more important for this round of testing to see how these starting zones hold up to the crush of bodies — can the servers survive this many people playing on them? So while you won’t really get to feel the full scope of the game, you will get to see how it’s shaping up and how it’ll feel when hordes (or alliances, I suppose) of folks descend on the servers the day the game goes live.

We have some guides to picking out a race and a class for WoW Classic that can help you figure out what to spend those five levels as. And if you’re on the fence about whether or not you’re interested in WoW Classic, we’ve got some thoughts on that as well. For the full announcement of the stress test, head on over to the official forums and take a look. You can help make sure that when WoW Classic goes live, it doesn’t repeat the server shenanigans of the past.

Originally Posted by Bornakk (Official Post)

We’ll be performing our first stress test for WoW Classic on Wednesday, May 22, from 4–6pm PDT. During this time, the closed beta test realm will be unavailable. Those who are currently in the beta test will only be able to login to the stress test realm during this time and beta testers can participate using their existing installation. We’ll also be adding a significant number of players to the stress test from the pool of people who have already opted in for the beta but have not yet been selected.

Since the same client is used for both our stress test users and our normal beta users, the name in the Battle.net App has changed to “Beta & Stress Test: WoW Classic.” If you’ve been selected to participate in the stress test, you’ll see this option appear in the Region/Account drop down menu so you can download and install the WoW Classic client in advance, but you’ll only be able to see the stress test realm when it becomes available.

For the stress test, all races and classes will be available for creation, but the maximum level will be set to 5. The test will also take place on a PvP realm, but since the starting areas are sanctuaries you don’t need to worry about attacks from the other faction if you just want to level up to 5. We expect to put a lot of people in the starting zones, though, and we’re looking forward to seeing what you all do as we test the servers under crowded conditions.

We’ll be actively monitoring the server, sending server messages, etc. during the 4-6pm PDT period and it’s important to have as many people as possible log in during this window! The stress test realm itself will be available until Thursday, May 23 (becoming unavailable around 6:00pm PDT).

If you encounter any issues during the test, you can submit them through the bug reporting tool in-game . If there are any aspects you’d like to discuss, feel free to post in the Classic Discussion forum .

Performing tests like these are very important in contributing to a smooth launch on August 27 and we appreciate your support.

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