Similar to TBC, Blizzard has decided not to keep any realms online for Wrath of the Lich King. We assume the current WotLK realms will progress into Cataclysm with the release of the prepatch at which time players will no longer have access to play the third expansion.
Will there be wrath era servers No plans for right now.
With the current hype around the announcement of WoW Classic Season of Discovery we’ve only seen limited disappointment in this decision so far, however it’s worth noting that WotLK continues to be the most populated expansion for players on private servers.
With WoW Classic (Vanilla) when realms progressed into TBC players were also able to keep their characters on Era realms. At first Era realms were sparsely played or populated but they then continued to grow as time went on as it was the only way to play the original version of the game (not counting Season of Mastery).
The popularity of the Era realms eventually led into the player made Hardcore addon and an extensive Classic Hardcore playerbase which eventually Blizzard copied and made official Hardcore realms.
If they had never keep Era realms, we’d have never had Classic Hardcore at all. Having realms open for each expansion frozen in an end game state gives players agency in the version of the game they want to play as well as vital feedback around potential options for seasonal realms or other types of realms like Hardcore.
Update
In their WoWCast Developer Q&A, Blizzard responded to a question about Wrath Era servers. You can view their entire response in the video below – it should start at the correct timestamp.
They said there are too many new offerings for WoW Classic at the moment with Hardcore, Cataclysm Classic, and Season of Discovery, and they don’t want to fragment the population too much. However, when they implemented The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King for WoW Classic, they did so in a way that would make it easy to bring it back again later on. So perhaps we’ll see new Wrath Era realms at some point in the future, or maybe even a new season for the expansion similar to what we’ve seen for vanilla. But that’s probably no comfort to players who would like to carry on with their current characters without moving on to Cataclysm.
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Furious
If I'm not working or spending time with the family I'm probably gaming. Some of my favorite recent games I've played are Far Cry 5, World of Warcraft Classic, and 7 Days to Die.
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Earpugs
#11525
26 days ago
Absolutely massive L from blizzard not keeping wrath servers. They’ve lost the entire reason they started classic servers to begin with. They are literally making the same exact mistake.
There is no point in keeping those. They would be completely dead two weeks into. Nobody wants to “progress” Naxx for 4 months. Then Ulduar for 8 and TOGC for 4, just to get to play ICC again. After, well, doing just that.
What the fk are you talking about? Era realms are frozen on last patch. This means ICC is open and everything stays as it is right now. Do you run your fresh alts through Naxx and Ulduar? Obviously nope lol.
I seriously doubt that . A huge amount of players came from private Wrath Of The Lich King servers to play in official Classic Wrath . My guild included, and if they will not keep it alive we’ll return to private .
jáíná
#11537
25 days ago
There is a petition to preserve the woltik server?
Cakez
#11557
24 days ago
they should keep a wrath classic server open, i dont want to continue to cata 🙁
512th Cadian
#11562
23 days ago
People have been playing wotlk private servers for years and there are not tens but hundreds of thousands of players still playing. As for Cata private servers? No one gives a fuck and no one plays it
Omseik
#11570
23 days ago
I’m hoping they will change their mind.
Kellethryn-Mankrik
#11610
20 days ago
Let me fix that title for you. WotLK Classic Era Will Not Be Available After Cataclysm Launch if people don’t campaign for it on the forums and social media. Be polite but persistent and don’t give up if you want Wrath classic-era servers. If there is enough demand for it, they will add it.
Michael Jackson
#11629
17 days ago
The player base is already divided as it is currently. Not to mention it costs $ to maintain servers. Always remember that every business will always have a goal of minimizing cost as much as possible and maximizing profit as much as possible. It’s never about the players, please grow up and get that false sense of hope out of your heads. This decision shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone after having retired the TBC servers already. So if you’re not happy with the decisions Blizzard makes, (and I’ve been saying this for years!) STOP GIVING THEM MONEY. DON’T SUBSCRIBE.
Absolutely massive L from blizzard not keeping wrath servers. They’ve lost the entire reason they started classic servers to begin with. They are literally making the same exact mistake.
There is no point in keeping those. They would be completely dead two weeks into. Nobody wants to “progress” Naxx for 4 months. Then Ulduar for 8 and TOGC for 4, just to get to play ICC again. After, well, doing just that.
What the fk are you talking about? Era realms are frozen on last patch. This means ICC is open and everything stays as it is right now. Do you run your fresh alts through Naxx and Ulduar? Obviously nope lol.
I seriously doubt that . A huge amount of players came from private Wrath Of The Lich King servers to play in official Classic Wrath . My guild included, and if they will not keep it alive we’ll return to private .
There is a petition to preserve the woltik server?
they should keep a wrath classic server open, i dont want to continue to cata 🙁
People have been playing wotlk private servers for years and there are not tens but hundreds of thousands of players still playing. As for Cata private servers? No one gives a fuck and no one plays it
I’m hoping they will change their mind.
Let me fix that title for you. WotLK Classic Era Will Not Be Available After Cataclysm Launch if people don’t campaign for it on the forums and social media. Be polite but persistent and don’t give up if you want Wrath classic-era servers. If there is enough demand for it, they will add it.
The player base is already divided as it is currently. Not to mention it costs $ to maintain servers. Always remember that every business will always have a goal of minimizing cost as much as possible and maximizing profit as much as possible. It’s never about the players, please grow up and get that false sense of hope out of your heads. This decision shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone after having retired the TBC servers already. So if you’re not happy with the decisions Blizzard makes, (and I’ve been saying this for years!) STOP GIVING THEM MONEY. DON’T SUBSCRIBE.