Zone WoW opens its Minecraft-style WotLK realm and keeps every beta character

Zone WoW officially opened on 1 October 2026 at 00:00 server time, which was 21:00 UTC on 30 September. The team calls it Minecraft WoW: a 3.3.5a realm where characters start at level 255 and gathering, crafting and building sit next to dungeons and raids. The launch ended the open beta without a wipe, so accounts, characters, progress and website points all carried over.

What changed at launch

• Raids open in stages. The team watches how far players get through the dungeon progression and unlocks raids as they advance. Normal PvE gear currently ends with The Ruby Sanctum and Tier 16
• Houses go up to level 10 instead of 5. A level 10 house holds up to 200 objects, 12 NPCs and 5 farms
• A Gem Workshop unlocks from house level 6 and crafts 26 custom gems from rare materials. The strongest give, for example, +500 Strength with 300 Critical Strike Rating, or +575 Spell Power with 300 Haste Rating
• Rare materials such as Arcane Crystal, Titansteel Shard and Builder Emblem come from the weekend events, the weekly lottery, the monthly top voters and VIP rewards

Since then

The changelog has already added a Raid Daily system with 21 quests, three of them each day, unlocked by the Final Ascension quest. The planned Tier 16 +1 to +3 upgrades became one final gear upgrade. The armory now shows 3D character models, and a daily challenge rotates between Onyxia's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Gruul's Lair, Blackwing Lair and Tempest Keep for groups of up to five.

The realm is still small. On 4 October its statistics page counted 41 accounts and 50 characters.

Sources: Zone WoW changelogs "Zone WoW – Official Launch & Minecraft System Update", "Zone WoW – Minecraft Realm: Grand Progression Update", "Armory Update — 3D Characters & Custom Races" and "Daily Challenges, New Wings, and More Voting Options", and the realm's statistics page (4 October 2026).