Are the World of Warcraft servers up yet? YES! The War Within pre-patch is now live!

It’s time for World of Warcraft The War Within pre-patch. Well, almost. We’re still waiting, and with today’s downtime, we can expect to be waiting for a while.

Update! Maintenance has concluded! Enjoy patch 11.0.1!

So, are the World of Warcraft servers up yet? Yes! Patch 11.o.1 went live at around 9pm pacific time.

Current WoW maintenance status

After an extended extended maintenance in which servers were offline from 7am to 3pm 5pm 7pm 9pm pacific the WoW servers came online with patch 11.0.1. With a patch this size, extended maintenance wasn’t really a surprise, and seasoned members of the community know the window for a big maintenance is merely a target — and that target was extended three times before the patch went live. With the significant changes in The War Within pre-patch — Warbands is a Big One — it’s not a surprise that maintenance went long, and we may still see problems crop up through the day.

On patch day, all there is to do is be patient together. The servers will come up when they come up.

What’s in patch 11.0.1?

Temper your expectations, my friends, because while the pre-patch has a lot of content, it isn’t the whole expansion. We have a pre-patch roundup of everything coming out with today’s maintenance window, but these are the highlights:

• Warbands consolidate your character / account progression (removing realm transfers for characters and guilds)
• Dragonriding becomes Skyriding, the new permanent option for Dragonriding-style flying mounts. It can be toggled with Steady Flying from your mount collection page for people who prefer classic flight.
• Transmog can be collected by any class now, even if that class can’t equip the piece.

And okay, yes, there will also be the standard round of class changes, which really re-imagines some classes — but Hero Talents aren’t available yet, which tempers our excitement a little.

What to do during extended downtime

So what’s a gamer to do during an extended maintenance window? There are plenty of options while the retail servers are down!

• If you enjoy Classic, give Season of Discovery a shot or dive into the re-imagined Cataclysm Classic. These alternate versions of WoW have shorter maintenance windows, from 7:00am to 8:00am pacific.
• Plan what characters you’re going to level after the patch is live. Leveling to 70 will be even faster now, so it’s an amazing time to spin up a new alt! Otherwise, save your level 60+ alts for the Radiant Echoes pre-expansion event starting next Tuesday, July 30.
• Play something new, perhaps that new/old game you picked up from the Steam Summer Sale or one of our weekend recommendations.
• Go outside if it’s not too (insert recent extreme weather here). Get some Vitamin D. Look at something green and alive. After all, we’ll be underground a lot in 5-ish weeks when The War Within launches.. (Yes this is our characters and not us, but you know you’re not going outside.)

Unsurprisingly, The War Within Pre-Expansion Content Update Notes are extensive. Take some time to review them, maybe a few minutes for deep breathing, and minimize the Battle.net launcher. Share in the comments how you’re spending this pre-patch maintenance! We’ll let you know when the servers are up, promise.