Progressive · gated · the journey
The journey, together.
One character. Classic through Wrath. Everyone moves together — the whole realm climbs the same road, crosses every gate on the same day, and nobody is left behind at a level nobody plays any more.
Friday, October 23, 18:00 Vienna time (16:00 UTC)
LIVE NOW
LEVEL 50
Published schedule · Battlegrounds
NEXT
LEVEL 60
Friday, October 23, 18:00 Vienna time (16:00 UTC)
Friday, October 16, after the dawn restart, until the cap lifts
Double experience week
The Campaign Heralds return to the six capitals. Speak to one for three hours of double experience, and come back when it runs out.
Friday, October 23, 18:00 Vienna time (16:00 UTC)
Level 60 · phase 4
Blackrock Depths, Dire Maul, Alterac Valley. The restart is announced in game fifteen minutes ahead.
Friday, November 6, 18:00 Vienna time (17:00 UTC)
Molten Core · Onyxia
The first raids. Level 60 gets 2 weeks first, to gear up in Dire Maul and the other dungeons.
Planned for Friday, December 4
Blackwing Lair
Content stage 1.6 · the Darkmoon Faire. Molten Core and Onyxia get 4 weeks first.
Barrens · current record
Barrens is at content stage 1.5 with a level cap of 50. The whole realm moves together.
Next gate: level cap 60, opening Blackrock Depths, Dire Maul, Alterac Valley — Friday, October 23, 18:00 Vienna time (16:00 UTC).
The realm ledger
The QoL record keeps the small changes separate from the realm story: what changed, what it replaces, and the setting last read from the running realm.
Read the QoL ledgerTwo ways in
The same account, the same house rules, the same client. The difference is one thing: whether the world stays where it is, or moves.
The museum
The game, kept.
Vanilla, preserved. The cap is 60 from the first day and no phase ever moves it, so nothing you do here can fall behind.
For the player who logs in on a Sunday evening and wants the world exactly where they left it.
The road
The journey, together.
Classic, then The Burning Crusade, then Wrath of the Lich King. The cap is 50 today and lifts in steps, on the same day for everyone.
For the player who wants the climb, and wants to be climbing it at the same time as everyone else.
You are standing here
The arc
Real clients per era — 1.12, then 2.4.3, then 3.3.5a — not one engine pretending to be three. Each era opens for the whole realm at once.
Era I · Classic
The long road
The first tram out of Ironforge, a campfire in Duskwood while something rustled past the light — no flight master, only feet and a map you barely understood. Every zone was earned, and every level came with a story someone still tells at the inn.
Azeroth — Classic
Era II · The Burning Crusade
The world broke here
The Dark Portal didn't open — it swallowed, and on the other side the stars are wrong and the old heroes became something else. You cross at sixty, and the shattered land asks questions the old world never thought to raise.
Outland — The Burning Crusade
Era III · Wrath of the Lich King
Where the cold remembers
Icecrown sits on the horizon and does not move — the tundra is silent in a way that isn't peace, it's waiting. By the time you reach the gate, seventy levels behind you and the wind cutting through plate, you know the crown was never meant for the living.
Northrend — Wrath of the Lich King
Every gate
The level cap opens on published dates. Everyone crosses each gate together, and the next date is always shown above.
The cap is one road: it lifts in steps, for everyone on the same day. What the world holds is the other, and it moves on its own — most of Classic happens at sixty, chapter by chapter, while the cap stands still.
How far a character may climb. Fixed for all three eras.
19phase 0
Launch brackets — Ragefire Chasm, Deadmines, Wailing Caverns, Shadowfang Keep, Blackfathom Deeps, the Stockade, Razorfen Kraul, Warsong Gulch
opened
ran July 24, 2026 – August 7, 202614 days
30phase 1
Gnomeregan, Scarlet Monastery, Razorfen Downs
opened
ran August 7, 2026 – August 28, 202621 days
40phase 2
Uldaman, Maraudon
opened
ran August 28, 2026 – September 25, 202628 days
50phase 3
Zul'Farrak, Sunken Temple — mounts at 40, 1-gold respec
the realm is here
planned end October 23, 202621 days to go
60phase 4
BRD, Dire Maul, LBRS and UBRS, Scholomance, Stratholme, Alterac Valley
next
opens October 23, 2026planned 42 days
60phase 5
Endgame Classic — Onyxia, MC, BWL, Zul'Gurub, AQ, Naxxramas, gate by gate
ahead
planned 115–133 days
What the world contains. Classic runs the original patch data, so these chapters carry their historical patch numbers — the client never changes.
Molten Core and Onyxia
Molten Core, Onyxia, Warsong Gulch — Alterac Valley from level 51 — Azuregos and Lord Kazzak
the world is here
planned end December 4, 202663 days to go
Blackwing Lair
Blackwing Lair, the Darkmoon Faire
next
Friday, December 4planned 28 days
Rise of the Blood God
Zul'Gurub, Arathi Basin, the tier two sets complete
ahead
planned 7 days
Dragons of Nightmare
The four emerald dragons, Silithus reworked
lands inside this chapter
ahead
planned 14–21 days
The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj
AQ20 and AQ40, the war effort
ahead
planned 21–28 days
The Calm Before Naxxramas
The tier 0.5 quest chain, the dungeon set upgrades
ahead
planned 10–14 days
Shadow of the Necropolis
Naxxramas
ahead
planned 35–42 days
Drums of War
Cross realm battlegrounds, the Blackrock Mountain event
lands inside this chapter
ahead
planned 14 days
The Burning Crusade pre-patch
The pre-Portal world event
ahead
planned 14 days · fixed
Arathi Basin
Promised for phase 1. It is not a level gate — Arathi Basin belongs to content stage 1.7, on the other road, and opens with Zul'Gurub.
Dual specialisation
Promised for phase 3. What phase 3 opens today is the 1-gold respec. Dual talent specialisation is not a Classic feature at all; it belongs to Wrath.
How far a character may climb. Fixed for all three eras.
64phase 6
The Dark Portal — Hellfire dungeons, Eye of the Storm
ahead
planned 10–14 days
69phase 7
Auchindoun, the Caverns of Time
ahead
planned 21 days
70phase 8
Endgame TBC — Karazhan, SSC/TK, Black Temple, Sunwell, arenas, flying at 70
ahead
planned 147–154 days
The client stays 2.4.3 through the whole of Outland, and the level gates are fixed. Endgame content opens progressively; the exact sequence publishes once it is technically validated, with item balance and class state staying 2.4.3 throughout.
Opening Outland
Hellfire Peninsula, the Outland dungeons
ahead
planned 31–35 days
Tier 4
Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair
ahead
planned 28 days
Tier 5
Serpentshrine Cavern, Tempest Keep
ahead
planned 35 days
Tier 6
Mount Hyjal, Black Temple, Ogri'la, Netherwing and Skettis
ahead
planned 35 days
Zul'Aman
Zul'Aman
lands inside this chapter
ahead
Sunwell
Isle of Quel'Danas, Magisters' Terrace, Sunwell Plateau
ahead
planned 35–42 days
Wrath of the Lich King pre-patch
The pre-Northrend world event
ahead
planned 14 days · fixed
How far a character may climb. Fixed for all three eras.
74phase 9
Northrend dungeons, Death Knights, Strand of the Ancients
ahead
planned 14 days
79phase 10
Drak'Tharon, Gundrak, Halls of Stone & Lightning
ahead
planned 21 days
80phase 11
Endgame Wrath — Naxx, Ulduar, Trial, Icecrown Citadel
ahead
planned 168 days
Content opens progressively for real, through AzerothCore's mod-progression-system — the same mechanism behind Classic's raid gates. What is not promised is a full historical replay of Wrath's original minor patches.
Northrend
Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, the Northrend dungeons
ahead
planned 35 days
Heroics
Heroic Northrend dungeons
ahead
Tier 7
Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, Obsidian Sanctum, Vault of Archavon
ahead
planned 42 days
Ulduar
Ulduar, the Argent Tournament
ahead
planned 35 days
Tier 9
Onyxia's Lair, Trial of the Crusader, Trial of the Champion, Isle of Conquest
ahead
planned 35 days
Icecrown
Icecrown Citadel, Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection, the Dungeon Finder
ahead
planned 56 days
Ruby Sanctum
Ruby Sanctum
lands inside this chapter
ahead
permanent
The road does not end in a shutdown. When the Lich King falls the realm stays: permanent Wrath, every chapter open, the same characters.
Peace and war
The Barrens turns on a slow drum: three days as a PvE realm where every fight is chosen, then three days of open-world PvP where the contested zones flag everyone. The whole realm switches together — at dawn, after a short announced restart. Read the sky before you ride out.
Rotates every 3 days · switch at dawn (~05:00 UTC) · short announced restart · a cross-faction party stays friendly on war days, and survives the restart
All of it, on one page. Running today: 14. Set, but not yet picked up by the running server: 5. Not built: 2. Deliberately not done: 0. If something surprises you and it is not here, that is a bug and we want to hear about it.
The changes you notice in the first hour.
Comfort changes, most of them voted for by the realm.
The realm concept itself, and what has been repaired in it.
Getting in
Barrens runs on the same account and the same client as Elwynn. If you already play here, you are two clicks away.
Using your own client? Set this line in realmlist.wtf
set realmlist play.stonetavern.appIf the world ever traps you
Type .unstuck in the chat box. Every player can use it, no GM needed. It is the fastest way out of a wall or a floor.
The honest part
The road opened on 24 July. Right now the whole realm sits at content stage 1.5 with a level cap of 50. Level gates follow the published schedule. Elwynn is live next door: pure Vanilla, for good. You start fresh on Barrens. In the account area you can ask for a character to be moved to Elwynn. It is not automatic: the request becomes a ticket, and one of us does the move by hand. One more honest note. The numbers your client shows on an item are the numbers the realm uses, so what you see is what you get. What is open follows the content stage and the level cap: raid and endgame dungeon doors stay locked until their stage opens them.
Not today?
Every gate on this road opens for the whole realm on the same day. Pick the one you are waiting for, and we write you once, when it happens. The next date stands above; the ones after it are published as they come.