World of Warcraft Classic has its phase two content update coming soon. Not long ago, Blizzard planned to include the Dire Maul dungeon alongside world bosses and the honor system for PvP combat. However, the company scrapped that plan. Instead, Dire Maul dungeon will release next week on October 15.
“I’m happy to announce that we’re going to break Dire Maul out separately and get it out there as soon as possible,” said game director Ion Hazzikostas in the announcement video. “In fact, just a couple of weeks from now, the week of October 15, the Dire Maul dungeon will go live worldwide in Classic.”
The quicker release comes after millions of players flooded WoW Classic servers post-release. Players displayed newfound interest in the MMO that hasn’t been matched in years. Millions of new and returning fans chewed through the game’s content in no time — and are now demanding more. Blizzard had previously insisted that fans wouldn’t want legacy servers that played old versions of WoW. However, Hazzikostas said response to the vanilla version of the game has been “humbling.”
Back to basics
The Dire Maul dungeon is styled as a great night elf city. However, it became a little less welcoming after the entire world broke into pieces by the Great Sundering. Blizzard first added it to World of Warcraft in March 2005, four months after the game initially released. End-game content at the time, the dungeon required players to be at least level 56 to stand a chance of not dying horribly in its halls.
The dungeon held its place as a high-level raid for five years. However, it was nerfed in the Cataclysm expansion pack. The changes made it accessible to lower-level players. However, the move also prevented anyone from ever experiencing it as it originally stood. But not anymore. The re-release of the dungeon will be the first time since 2010 that Dire Maul’s original endgame glory could be enjoyed. Well, outside of the unofficial legacy servers that would occasionally pop up before Blizzard shut them down.
As for the rest of the phase two content update, there’s no official word from Blizzard yet. Instead, we received a vague promise that it’s “just around the corner.” According to Hazzikostas, Blizzard will “share more detailed information on exactly when to expect that as soon as we have it.”
