World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic’s next update is a big one, adding not only the expansion’s penultimate raid but also a slew of modern quality-of-life features, including one highly-requested feature Blizzard at one time seemed intent to never add: the Random Dungeon Finder.
The Fall of the Lich King patch will arrive the week of October 10. The Icecrown Citadel raid, the star of the update, will open on October 12, after which players will be able to confront Arthas himself. The update will also add three additional dungeons–The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, and Halls of Reflection–alongside a new difficulty for the game’s existing dungeons.
Aside from the new raid and dungeons, the biggest addition is without a doubt the Dungeon Finder, often called the Random Dungeon Finder, or RDF, by players. Originally added in 2009 towards the end of Wrath of the Lich King’s lifespan as a cross-server matchmaking tool for dungeons, RDF automatically puts players into a group based on their specific class role and then teleports them to the start of the chosen dungeon. Though players could select specific dungeons to queue for, most players used it for the “random” dungeon feature, which granted players additional rewards once per day. It’s a feature that, for the most part, largely still functions the same in the modern version of WoW.
Prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Blizzard discussed how it had a different vision for re-release of the fan-favorite expansion, one that didn’t include the dungeon finder out of fear of harming the social element of the MMORPG. Without the dungeon finder, Wrath Classic players would be required to manually find groups on their own, interact with other players on their specific server, and travel to their chosen dungeon. Though the community has been divided over the subject for some time, a large number of players have been asking for the dungeon finder ever since Wrath Classic’s release back in September 2022, and it seems Blizzard is finally keen on delivering it.
Other features from the modern version of WoW, the collections tab and improved quest tracking, will also be introduced into Wrath Classic come the week of October 10. Like in the modern version of Blizzard’s MMO, players’ various pets and mounts will no longer take up bag space and will instead be stored in a separate tab where they can be summoned at will. Reading quest text will also no longer be necessary, as updated quest tracking will show players exactly where they need to go and what they need to kill or collect to complete a quest, a far-cry from earlier versions of the game where players would need to parse walls of text to learn where to go or what to fight next.
For those wanting a more old-school experience, Blizzard recently released official “Hardcore” permadeath servers for WoW Classic, where players have been dying in some unexpected, and hilarious, ways.
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