World of Warcraft: Classic launches, servers now live

What you need to know

• World of Warcraft: Classic is now live.
• The game is time machine back to 2006, allowing players to experience a much older Azeroth.
• You'll need an active World of Warcraft subscription to play, and time cards are available on Amazon.

After months of waiting, World of Warcraft: Classic launched today, bringing a wave of nostalgia for anyone who stepped foot in the world of Azeroth as it existed in 2006. Classic servers are now live, only requiring an active subscription to World of Warcraft for players to get started.

World of Warcraft: Classic is built upon the foundations of patch 1.12, dubbed "Drums of War," which released in 2006. At launch, players will be able to jump back in and take on the perils of the adventures and trials available across classic World of Warcraft, including all of the difficulty that comes with it. Once at max level, you'll be able to take on the Molten Core and Onyxia raids.

Further raids, dungeons, and world bosses, are expected to launch are part of a phased content rollout plan over the coming months. Here's a quick look at Blizzard's plan:

• Phase 1 (Classic Launch): Molten Core, Onyxia, Maraudon
• Phase 2: Dire Maul, Azuregos, Kazzak
• Phase 3: Blackwing Lair, Darkmoon Faire, Darkmoon deck drops begin
• Phase 4: Zul'Gurub, Green Dragons
• Phase 5: Ahn'Qiraj War Effort begins, Ahn'Qiraj raids open when the war effort dictates, Dungeon loot reconfiguration: Tier 0.5 Dungeon gear, Relics, drop rates and location changes
• Phase 6: Naxxramas, Scourge Invasion

World of Warcraft: Classic marks the launch of something nostalgic players have been asking for for ages. Now that Blizzard has done a lot of the hard work of figuring out how to get its older content running on its current game engine, it's possible we could see further servers launched for various past expansions going forward as well.

World of Warcraft Classic: Four things that were good, four things that were bad

To get started with World of Warcraft: Classic, you can select and download the client now via the Battle.net launcher. Playing the game requires you to have an active subscription to the modern game to get started.