At a glance#
| Rules | WotLK Classic's final state: patch 3.4.3, arena Season 8 |
| Client | The original 3.3.5a client (build 12340) |
| Server | AzerothCore, the open-source WotLK server, at a pinned version, plus the project's own module |
| Arenas | Nagrand, Blade's Edge, Ruins of Lordaeron, Dalaran Sewers. Ring of Valor is disabled |
| Brackets | Rated 2v2 and 3v3 |
| Gear | The 264 meta: Wrathful Gladiator's gear with the 277 weapons, other items up to item level 264. See the 264 meta |
| Interface | The 3.3.5a interface and the addons of that era. Classic's interface is not replicated |
Source of truth#
The reference for game rules (spell values, mechanics, interactions, and which bugs exist) is WotLK Classic's final patch. Where Classic and the original 3.3.5a disagree, Classic's final state wins. Original 3.3.5a evidence applies where Classic is silent.
Evidence is ranked, strongest first:
- Footage or combat logs from retail WotLK or WotLK Classic.
- Values datamined from the retail or Classic client.
- Contemporary sources: patch notes, developer posts, theorycraft of the period.
- Other emulators' code, with reasoning.
- AzerothCore's current behaviour.
- Assumption.
Private servers count as emulators, not evidence of retail behaviour. A question no source settles stays recorded as open. Classic's server-side values that were never datamined are measured from logs or footage.
Classic's final state was chosen over original 3.3.5a because some exploitable bugs lasted into early Classic and were fixed only in its later patches: Feint triggering poisons, and two Wound Poisons stacking by applying a lower rank beside the top one, both fixed in Classic's patch 3.4.2, Trial of the Crusader (patch notes).
WotLK Classic is treated as having made no class-balance changes of its own, only fixes. Nothing is added or excluded on account of Classic balance.
Items#
- Normal and heroic versions can't be worn together, as in Classic. Retail WotLK allowed, for example, both versions of Death's Verdict; Classic didn't. Here only one version of each item exists: the highest the gear cap allows. For the Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel trinkets that is usually the normal version (Deathbringer's Will at 264, not the heroic 277).
- Enchants: WotLK enchants, plus older ones the real meta used, such as Khorium Scope. Older enchants are told apart by comparing against the last Burning Crusade Classic client's data.
- Profession-only enhancements (Fur Lining, Dragon's Eyes, ring enchants) need the profession, as in the game.
What stays 3.3.5a#
The engine is the original one: AzerothCore's server and the 3.3.5a client. Where Classic's modern engine behaves differently, the difference is recorded as known, not reproduced:
- Timing: effects apply at the server's update tick (about every 10 ms in an arena), and a spell queue lets the next cast be queued up to 400 ms early. Classic's batching, movement and latency handling differ.
- Interface: what a player can see is set by the 3.3.5a client and period addons (see human parity).
How disputed rules and reported server bugs work here, with sources and confidence, is on checked mechanics.