The Black Temple is finally open. Blizzard flipped The Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary realms into Phase 3 on August 27 at 3:00 p.m. PDT, which means Illidan Stormrage is back on the raid calendar two weeks before BlizzCon.
The official weekly post put it the way these posts always do:
"Illidan Stormrage has claimed the Black Temple as his fortress and is amassing an army of fel warriors in his pursuit of power. Infiltrate the Black Temple and face the Betrayer in Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary beginning August 27 at 3:00 pm PDT."
Black Temple is the 25-player raid in Shadowmoon Valley. The Betrayer sits at the end of a nine-boss chain: High Warlord Naj’entus, Supremus, Shade of Akama, Teron Gorefiend, Gurtogg Bloodboil, Reliquary of Souls, Mother Shahraz, the Illidari Council, then Illidan. Reputation in there feeds the Ashtongue Deathsworn, with rewards later sitting on Okuno. Bosses can also drop the epic gems this phase is built around. The famous Warglaives of Azzinoth still come off Illidan if your raid gets that lucky.
The Battle for Mount Hyjal, also called Hyjal Summit, opened the same afternoon. That one ends on Archimonde. Reputation there is Scale of the Sands, with Indormi as the vendor, and the zone itself can be mined for epic gems.
Netherwing dailies are up on Netherwing Ledge in Shadowmoon Valley. That is the long faction grind toward the netherdrake. You need flying, or a flight form, just to land there.
Epic gems are the gear spike that makes both raids matter beyond transmog and the Illidan kill screenshot. Arena Season 3 is part of the same phase window, with Season 2 already wound down and the new arena ladder taking over after weekly maintenance.
If your guild only reads "Black Temple is live" and queues the instance, you will bounce off the door. Anniversary still uses the old attunement logic. Black Temple starts with The Tablets of Baa’ri. Scryers pick that up from Arcanist Thelis. Aldor pick it up from Anchorite Ceyla. Hyjal starts with The Vials of Eternity at Soridormi in the Caverns of Time. Get those done before you spend lockout night yelling in voice chat.
Anniversary realms have been sitting in Outland long enough that Phase 3 is the first time the server feels like late Burning Crusade again. Karazhan and the early TBC raids are homework now. Black Temple is the raid people still talk about 20 years later. Hyjal is the other lockout you run because the gems and the Scale of the Sands rewards sit there.
The update also lands at an awkward time on the Classic calendar. BlizzCon is September 12 and 13. Half the Classic audience is waiting to hear the words Classic+ on stage. The other half is logging into Anniversary tonight because Illidan is actually killable. Those are not the same game. One is a rumor cycle. This one has a lockout, an attunement chain, and a netherdrake grind.
Retail WoW is doing its own weekly list at the same time, including Venomous Abyss raid finder content and the usual trading post rotation. That is a different product. If you are here for Outland, stay on the Anniversary realm list.
What To Do First If You Are Behind
Finish flying if you do not have it. Netherwing does not care that your raid is ready.
Get the Black Temple attunement moving this weekend even if your raid is only clearing the first two bosses. That chain is longer than people remember once you add Aldor or Scryers standing, instance keys, and the older raid attunes it expects.
Split the first lockout if your roster is thin. Naj’entus through Bloodboil is a full night for a lot of Anniversary guilds. Shahraz and Council wait. Illidan waits longer. Do not wipe the raid into next week because someone wanted the glaives clip on night one.
Hyjal can be the gem farm while Black Temple is still a progression lockout. That is how a lot of original TBC guilds survived this phase, and the Anniversary version is handing you the same split.
The BlizzCon Shadow
It would be easy to treat Phase 3 as filler until Anaheim. That is a bad read. If Classic+ is a new ruleset, a new era, or a Season of Discovery style experiment, Anniversary Black Temple still exists next month. The people who clear it now have the gear and the raid habit. The people who sit out waiting for a keynote have a lockout they never started.
There is also a simpler version of what could happen. Blizzard may show a trailer, say "more Classic is coming," and send everyone back to Black Temple anyway. In that case this phase is the game for a while.
My take is that you play the content that is open. Anniversary Phase 3 is the most Classic thing Blizzard has shipped this month. The Betrayer is in the instance. The netherdrake grind is on the ledge. Epic gems are in the loot table. Save the Classic+ arguments for September 12. Use this lockout on the raid that actually exists.
Are you progressing Black Temple this week, or still stuck on attunement? Let us know in the comments.