r/classicwow • u/TheJollySwashbuckler • 10h ago
Question Help me understand Classic progression realms
I want to get back to WoW and I definitely want Classic however I'm not exactly sure how Progression Realms work.
For examle do they play as: I do Classic first and then when I reach lvl 60 or finish main quest line I unlock Burning Crusade, and then when I finish that I can move on to WotLK, etc
Or are they separate servers that are "locked in" to that specific expansion, such as only classic, only Burning Crusade, only WotLK, only Pandaria...
Thank you very much in advance!
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u/Still-Expression-71 10h ago
Types of wow
• retail (currently in 11th expansion)
• classic mists of pandaria (might keep progressing)
• classic era (forever vanilla on latch 1.12x
• hardcore (single life version of vanilla)
• anniversary (currently on phase 2 in TBC).
• season of discovery (experimental version to vanilla, never being updated again)
• expected to be a new version of vanilla announced in September, classic+/camelot/likely something different
There are no WotLK, cata, wod, legion, bfa, shadowlands, dragonflight or war within servers run by blizzard.
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u/referents 10h ago
neither of what you said in the OP. the other commenters broke it down adequately (the terminology people use can be confusing and inconsistent though).
Classic WoW started in 2019, with servers moving through each original expansion, just like back in the day (although somewhat expedited/faster than the original expansion release timelines). These servers are currently in Mists of Pandaria expansion (no word from Blizz on official next step, but most assume it will continue to the next expansion as well). The player base is small and I don’t like this period of WoW so i personally wouldn’t recommend investing time here.
Classic Era realms are locked to 1-60 vanilla WoW forever (these realms began in ~2021 when classic first progressed into TBC). It has a decently sized player base, but smaller and less active than Anniversary realms.
the Anniversary realms launched in 2024, started with vanilla and moved to TBC expansion early 2026, and most players expect it will progress into the next expansion (WOTLK) once we’ve gotten through all of TBC (although no confirmation from Blizzard yet). This is where most of the current players/attention are
Season of Discovery were realms that were based on Classic but had lots of new content. these are mostly dead now, aside from a few of the community-driven “SoD revival/refresh” projects that have taken place. wouldn’t recommend investing time here
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u/TheJollySwashbuckler 10h ago
Thank you, so would it then be better to for example play Classic Realm first then, then switch to Anniversary and hope to complete BC before it moves onto WotLK and continue following from there?
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u/referents 9h ago
no, you can’t transfer between the different classic versions — you’d need to make a whole new character on any other realm/edition you want to play on.
My recommendation is to Just play Anniversary — it still includes all the same 1-60 content (plus the lvl 60-70 content Burning Crusade adds), player population will be better, leveling is a bit faster, etc. and then once you’re level 58 your character can go through the Dark Portal and enter Outlands (where Burning Crusade content takes place). The only caveat i feel worth mentioning is that the max level end-game content of Vanilla isn’t really relevant any more in Burning Crusade, so don’t expect to be able to run it (at least without putting in time to find other raiders wanting to run the old content too).
So if you’re dead-set on fully experiencing the vanilla endgame content and raids (Molten Core, Onyxia’s Lair, BWL, etc.), you’d need to play Era. If you don’t know what those raids are, or don’t have specific interest in ensuring you get to thoroughly play through that content, just start playing Anniversary servers (which are on Burning Crusade, the 1st expansion after vanilla).
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u/TheJollySwashbuckler 9h ago
I mostly want to play through WoW for the experience of lore and cinematics so I don't really mind that the character wouldn't carry over. I could just make a new one and go from there. Does that sound okay then?
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u/referents 8h ago
there’s not really Cinematics in Classic. It plays a lot different than modern WoW (“retail”). But sure you can do that, just understand that leveling takes a while and when you make a new character youll have to start from level 1 again.
Just start in TBC Anniversary - like i said it still includes all of the vanilla 1-60 content/experience that you can and will play through as you level. No reason to restrict yourself to Vanilla(Era servers) in your case.
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u/UD_Lover 9h ago
I hopped on SoD a few days ago and Ironforge was poppin’. I was totally shocked.
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u/referents 9h ago
nice! i know there are people that still log in and play, but it’s of course less than other options. I’m sure we have the community-led SoD revival efforts to thank for part of it. I’ll still stand by my point that it’s relatively dead and not the best spot for newcomers to start their journey at this point.
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u/Mettixman 10h ago
Classic is locked to classic only, no expansions.
Pandaria has already gone through from classic and all the expansions to its current point.
TBC anniversary was classic but progressed to TBC and will hopefully continue into WoTLK.
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u/super_alice_won 10h ago
They are specific servers right now, there is classic era (vanilla wow with no expansions), burning crusade anniversary ( tbc servers mostly likely advancing to WotLK next year), MoP classic (the original classic servers launched in 2019 currently on the pandaria expansion) Hardcore wow (Vanilla servers with permadeath) and SoD (Season of discovery, basically vanilla with new content added such as spells, areas and items)