Blizzard has been hard at work on the PTR for World of Warcraft: Classic as they prepare for the upcoming events. The community has been helping the developers test the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj event through multiple stress tests.
These stress tests were both rather successful, helping the developers to find a myriad of issues that they needed to fix before the live rollout. After struggling through lag, code optimization, and plenty of other issues, the event seems to be tested enough.
Recently, Blizzard announced that they would be rolling out the next phase of World of Warcraft: Classic, the fifth phase, about a month from now. Phase 5 is expected to arrive on July 28th, barring any delays.
Primarily, the recent testing was done specifically for the opening event itself. The stress test wasn’t used to test the actual running of the Ahn’Qiraj raid, as it seems Blizzard is quite confident they’ve already got that part figured out.
Players will be participating in the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort, a server-wide event, before the opening of the gates into the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj and Ahn’Qiraj itself. The entirety of the server will come together to complete the Scepter of the Shifting Sands, the War Effort Supplies, and then battle out in a ten-hour war against the Silithid.
Once the gates are open proper, two new raids will be available – the aforementioned Ahn’Qiraj and Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj. Ahn’Qiraj is a 40-man raid, often referred to as AQ40, whereas the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj is a 20-man raid, generally referred to as AQ20.
Unlike many other raids, players won’t need to worry about attunement to enter these raids. However, the war effort will need to be completed before players can enter the gates, so it’s vital for the server to come together.
With plenty of bosses, tehre’s plenty of opportunity for players to earn some powerful gear and otherwise-unobtainable items. Multiple mounts are available within the raids, for example, as well as a craftable Tier 2.5 armor set utilizing Qiraji Tokens, Scarabs, and Idols.
The final boss of the raid is C’Thun, the first of the Old Gods that players encounter properly. While future expansions pit us against Yogg-Saron and most recently N’zoth the Corruptor, C’Thun was the first chance for players to take down a Lovecraftian horror.
Players also will be able to obtain some new enchanting recipes as well as the Eye of C’Thun, which only drops once per reset. The Eye of C’Thun will begin a quest that rewards reputation and gold.
