WoW Classic is Changing Up Its Roadmap With an Early Release for Dire Maul

WoW Classic is an undeniable success and Blizzard wants to keep that part of its playerbase happy. Way back when Classic was fully revealed, a released roadmap detailed multiple phases covering all of the content prior to the release of The Burning Crusade. The first phase came at launch, offering up the leveling experience and the Molten Core and Onyxia raids.

Players have been wondering when the next phase would launch. Blizzard hasn't pinned that release down yet, but some of the content will be coming a little early. The next dungeon, Dire Maul, will be launching in WoW Classic sometime next week.

"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 World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas during a Dev Update video today. "Of course we still have the Honor system and World Bosses right around the corner after that, and I'll share more detailed information on when exactly to expect that."

Dire Maul is a five-man dungeon located in Feralas. It's split into three different wings: East, North, and West. The dungeon is inhabited by orge tribes and elementals, and for players, it's a key dungeon in order to world buffs to tackle raid bosses. Dire Maul is also well-known for tribute runs, where players has to disguise themselves as ogres to proceed.

While you wait for Dire Maul, there's more WoW Classic to talk about. USgamer talked to the developers behind WoW Classic's engineering prior to launch. Now that the game is in operation, Blizzard should be looking at Classic to improve the modern game. At the same time, the company is fighting with players over the nostalgia and the nuts and bolts of vanilla WoW.