How Long World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic’s Beta Is (& How To Join)

After a false start, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic beta is now officially underway. When it’s released later this year, the Classic expansion will recreate World of Warcraft as it was after the original 2007 Burning Crusade expansion, which added the Outland, flying mounts, and two new races, the draenei and blood elves. Unfortunately for those hoping to experience the beloved expansion early (again) before the beta’s end date, getting into the Burning Crusade Classic beta isn’t as easy as starting up the game.

It’s worth noting players will face a choice with their existing characters: All current WoW Classic realms are set to switch to Burning Crusade-content “Progression” realms in Burning Crusade Classic, so players will have to decide whether to automatically transition to one of these or to deliberately migrate to new “Era” realms, where content will remain limited to Shadow of the Necropolis on Azeroth. Additionally, at some point soon, the game client will be updated so that draenei and blood elf characters can reach levels as high as 60 before the expansion debuts.

Signing up for the beta requires a Battle.net account with an active World of Warcraft subscription, at which stage players can opt in via Blizzard’s website. Participation is invite-only, so players will need to wait for Blizzard to toggle account access. Once that’s enabled, however, players can launch the Battle.net app, select World of Warcraft, and click “Game Version” from the drop-down menu over the “Play” button to find the Burning Crusade install option. With installation complete, it’s time to choose a test server, as well as whether to create a new character or copy one over from regular World of Warcraft Classic.

How Long The WoW: Burning Crusade Classic Beta Will Run

As of late March, Blizzard has yet to say when the WoW: Burning Crusade Classic beta will end. The finished expansion is due later in 2021, which likely means a length of a few months, at most. Duration is likely to vary based on how stable and balanced gameplay is, so the rockier the code, the more time it may take. Blizzard has also promised to respond to community feedback; a strong outcry could force time-consuming design changes.

The Burning Crusade beta currently caps players at level 64, and Blizzard has disabled third-party add-ons and PvP content. Players who want to visit Outland but don’t have a level-58 character will be able to take advantage of a Character Boost service closer to launch. Once it exits testing, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic will otherwise be free to everyone with a World of Warcraft subscription.

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Roger Fingas
(307 Articles Published)

Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Roger now lives with his family in Austin, Texas. He has years of experience in tech writing, and his gaming specialties include FPS and VR games on the PC.

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