A look at the World of Warcraft Classic 2024 Roadmap for Cata, SoD, and Hardcore.

Here’s our early look at the World of Warcraft Classic 2024 Roadmap. It’s going to be a stacked year for Classic alone, and we put alongside the Retail Roadmap it’s going to be a wild year for WoW. So, let’s breakdown what we have coming to Classic in the form of Cataclysm, SoD, and Hardcore WoW Classic.

World of Warcraft Classic 2024 Roadmap

Classic Cataclysm Roadmap

We start things off in around mid-February with the Cataclysm Classic Beta (signups are open now). Then, somewhere after we hit 50 in SoD and War Withing drops in retail we’ll be getting the next iteration of Classic WoW. That release will be followed later in the year by the drops of the Rise of the Zandalari and the Rage of the Firelands “patches” that will each add new raids to Cata Classic.

Season of Discovery Roadmap

Probably the most interesting here as it gives us an idea of the release cadence of SoD. What we do know is SoD will “end” in 2024. So, in February (likely early) we’ll move into the next Phase and our second raid and leveling bracket. We’ll get the next stage before Cata pre-patch, so probably around April as Blizzard seemed keen on a 8-week or so release period for each Phase of SoD.

Then, after Cata releases, we’ll hit max level, and start to play in whatever the first set of end-game activities are. Classic cuts off in the Autumn, so we expect that final end-game content will come before October.

Hardcore

Just the one thing for Hardcore in 2024 (that we know about for now). We’ll get the Self-Found mode, which basically makes Hardcore a single-player experience. For those that don’t know, it’s basically what a lot of games would call an “iron-man” mode:

“Players will have the ability to press a button and turn on the completely solo self-found mode, cutting off the ability to group and trade with other players. When you activate solo self-found mode on official servers, you’ll lose access to grouping, trading, the mail system, as well as the Auction House. However, when you reach level 60, you’ll regain access to those features.”

Essentially it’s an optional hard mode for players wanting to add an extra challenge to future Hardcore runs.

Winter 2024

Obviously missing from the Roadmap, what could Winter bring for Classic? Let’s assume we don’t get any new Cata content as they would include it otherwise, it likely means we’ll get a new “Seasonal” update to Classic. But will Blizzard decide to start again, or will they build on SoD? Heck, they might even do both, or just keep SoD going and make more new content. Obviously the scope of the “Seasonal” team has grown since the fairly minor Season of Mastery, so it would be fair to suggest, given the clear popularity, we’d see them make another huge step.