When is the WoW patch 11.0.5 release date — and what’s in it?

World of Warcraft‘s next expansion The War Within will be releasing later in 2024, but due to the published 2024 roadmap we already know that the first post-release update will be patch 11.0.5. While the timing of the patch go-live date is currently unknown, the fact that the 20th Anniversary celebration is included means we shouldn’t expect it later than mid-November. As the interval between most patches during Dragonflight has been 8-9 weeks — and with all indications that The War Within will be continuing this cadence — our prediction is that patch 11.0.5 will release the week of November 12, 2024.

The absolute latest players should expect the 20th Anniversary to begin in-game is November 23, the literal anniversary date for World of Warcraft. November 15 is a potential start date as well, as that would mark the 30th Anniversary of the release of Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans. A release date of patch 11.0.5 the week of November 5 or November 12 is ample time for the patch to arrive before the anniversary starts. Earlier than November 5 is a possibility as well, although that would likely only occur if The War Within launches in late August.

What’s in patch 11.0.5 besides the 20th Anniversary celebration?

With the patch not arriving until after The War Within there is very little known about it, despite its inclusion in the 2024 roadmap. “Story & Quests” and “New Content & System Updates” are pretty generic descriptions and has essentially been present in every patch since the start of Dragonflight. A review of what patch 10.0.5 included could be useful to make some guesses.

The main event brought about in 10.0.5 was the Storm’s Fury so players should probably expect another group event to come with The War Within‘s first patch (unless the development team decides to frontload all of them with the expansion release). The other two main inclusions of patch 10.0.5 — the Trading Post and the extension of transmog to grey and white items — are less likely to have an analogue in patch 11.0.5, but system changes of equal impact could be coming. Could this be the patch where characters can finally wear transmog regardless of armor type? We’ll have to wait until later this fall to find out!