Anyone interested in returning to the Azeroth of yore should mark their calendars for August 27, for that is the day Blizzard will be opening the gates for all players to try their hand at the classic World of Warcraft experience.
However, you don’t necessarily have to wait until August 27 to see what Azeroth was like in the old days — you may be able to get into one of the closed betas starting May 15 and spanning into July.
Starting tomorrow, Blizzard will begin sending out invites to players to participate in the closed beta, during which there will be a series of stress tests. According to the announcement post, more players will be introduced to the beta pool after stress tests. The currently scheduled stress tests are as follows:
May 22 to May 23 June 19 to June 20 July 18 to July 19
How to Sign Up for the WoW Classic Beta
There are multiple parts to being eligible for the World of Warcraft Classic beta. These are:
Opting into two separate betas within your Blizzard account Being presently subscribed to the game and have WoW time on the account Your play history with the game
That last one doesn’t mean you won’t be chosen if you haven’t played in a long time. The announcement post makes it clear Blizzard is choosing players with diverse game histories to cast a wider net for player opinions. If you haven’t played retail literally since Vanilla, you still have a chance.
So first, let’s go into opting into the beta.
Head over to the Games & Subscriptions page of your Blizzard account and scroll down to ‘Beta Access’.
Click in and check both Warcraft and World of Warcraft Classic, then click ‘Update Preferences’.
Once you’ve done this and fit the listed criteria above (an active sub and just having played the game before), that’s it. You’ve done it. You’ve signed up for the WoW Classic beta!
From Beta to Release
Blizzard has stated there will be a level cap during the beta, and that cap seems to be Level 30.
Since players can’t learn the riding skill until Level 40 in Classic, classes with low-level mobility skills will probably dominate during the beta period. Consider a hunter, shaman, or druid.
Even if you can’t get into the beta, you’ll still have a chance to get up to three of your preferred character names.
Classic players will be able to create up to three full WoW Classic characters on August 13, a full two weeks before launch.
Now, a little good news for North American players:
To make up for time differences, North American World of Warcraft Classic players will be able to log in on August 26 as the release rolls out worldwide.
The game will be launching in full at 3 p.m. PDT/6 p.m. EDT on August 26 in North America. This is just so the game releases at the exact same time worldwide, for which I have no complaints.
If you’re an old grumpus like me that just wants to go back to the old days or never experienced World of Warcraft in its original form, there’s not much time left to go back to old Azeroth and make new memories.
Me? I’m most excited to return to my old shaman, but get ready for loads of rogues. More rogues than you or anyone else will know what to do with. Because that’s the Vanilla way.
