WoW Classic players with an authenticator will get extra bag space

In order to incentivize WoW Classic players to use an extra layer of security for their accounts with the Blizzard Authenticator, the developer is going to grant them four extra bag slots for doing so. Like the retail version of the game, you’ll get a relatively useful upgrade to your inventory space for using the authenticator — a feature that wasn’t added to the game until 2008, with a physical key fob authenticator.

The four bag slots aren’t a big change to WoW Classic compared to the game it’s trying to recreate, but as with several other things in the game, players get upset with modern features like this. Blizzard has largely chosen to make the game accessible and approachable when it comes to changing how things worked. The entire menu system mimics the current game and all of the items that changed over time due to patches arrived in their final forms. Here, it seems like a deliberate choice to protect the accounts of people who see no material reason to add an authenticator to their account.

The game won’t bug you about adding the authenticator until you’re level 20 — which is a considerable amount of time in WoW Classic. I can only assume that stolen accounts with characters higher than that with various important items can be a nightmare to restore on the customer service side of things. Or maybe it’s Blizzard trying to implement this change in the least obtrusive manner.

To add an authenticator, you need an Android or iPhone. You download the app and enter in a code when prompted as you log-in. The whole thing is a big shield against getting your account stolen for minimal effort. And hey, now you get a little bit more inventory space in a game that is largely punishing about how much stuff you can pick up.

All of this will arrive in the 1.13.5 patch. The Ahn’Qiraj patch — otherwise known as phase 5 — is currently available to play on the PTR. There’s a list of changes that include fixes to terrain and combat exploits in Alterac Valley, and considerable changes to threat and combat log addons.