Black Temple is live in Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary Edition. Here is what Phase 3 adds, how attunement gates returning raiders, and where loot timing matters.
Image: gamefragger.com
Black Temple is live, but the gate is still progression
World of Warcraft Classic Black Temple is now live in Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary Edition, putting Illidan Stormrage back at the end of a level 70 raid path in Shadowmoon Valley. MMORPG.com reports that the raid is live and frames the moment around returning to stop Illidan after he has claimed the Black Temple. MMOHuts also reports that Black Temple is live and identifies Illidan Stormrage as the main target for level 70 raiders.
The immediate tension for returning players is simple: this is not a patch where logging in at raid time guarantees entry. Blizzard’s official announcement says Black Temple requires its attunement process before players can enter, while The Battle for Mount Hyjal, which opened alongside it, requires completion of “The Vials of Eternity” questline. Gamefragger’s practical warning is bluntly aimed at raid groups: get those chains done before lockout night, because both raids still have entry requirements.
Blizzard positioned this as the Anniversary Edition’s Phase 3 turn into late Burning Crusade structure. The official post lists two new raids, Black Temple and The Battle for Mount Hyjal, plus the Netherwing daily faction hub in Shadowmoon Valley, Arena Season 3, and epic gems. Wowhead, quoting Blizzard’s announcement, listed the global launch timing as August 27 at 3:00 pm PDT and 23:00 BST. Subsequent coverage from MMOHuts and MMORPG.com describes the raid as live, so the practical state for players now is Phase 3 availability rather than pre-launch speculation.
Black Temple adds a nine-boss Illidan raid with its own reputation track
Blizzard’s official breakdown identifies Black Temple as a level 70 raid located in Shadowmoon Valley, with Ashtongue Deathsworn reputation attached to the instance. The encounter list is the familiar spine of Burning Crusade raiding: High Warlord Naj’entus, Supremus, Shade of Akama, Teron Gorefiend, Gurtogg Bloodboil, Reliquary of Souls, Mother Shahraz, The Illidari Council, and Illidan Stormrage.
For returning players, that list matters because Black Temple is a complete raid ladder rather than a single nostalgia stop at Illidan. The front half asks whether your group has its roster, consumable discipline, and basic execution settled. The back half is where composition, resistance planning, and individual responsibility historically become harder to ignore. The provided Blizzard source does not include tuning notes or encounter adjustments for Anniversary realms, so any claim about whether specific fights are easier, harder, or mechanically altered would go beyond the source material.
What Blizzard does confirm is the reward structure around the raid. Players can improve their standing with the Ashtongue Deathsworn and earn additional rewards from Okuno inside Black Temple. That gives the raid a progression layer beyond boss drops, especially for players who remember Burning Crusade as a web of reputations, keys, and vendors rather than a straight queue into weekly loot. If you are searching for a Black Temple raid guide before committing a lockout, the confirmed starting point is not a boss strategy video. It is whether your character can legally zone in.
Attunement is the first scheduling problem
Blizzard states that Black Temple requires completion of the attunement process and links players to a Wowhead attunement guide from the official announcement. The source text does not reproduce the full chain, but Gamefragger gives the practical opening step: Black Temple starts with “The Tablets of Baa’ri.” According to Gamefragger, Scryers characters pick that up from Arcanist Thelis, while Aldor characters pick it up from Anchorite Ceyla.
That faction split is exactly the sort of detail that catches returning players who have leveled, geared, and parked a character, then assume raid access is a formality. Burning Crusade progression was built around prerequisites that live outside the raid portal. Anniversary Edition preserving that structure means raid leaders need to audit attendance earlier than the invite window. A player who is geared but unattuned is unavailable for Black Temple in the way a player without level 70 is unavailable.
Mount Hyjal has a separate gate. Blizzard says entry to The Battle for Mount Hyjal requires completing “The Vials of Eternity” questline. Gamefragger identifies the starting point as Soridormi in the Caverns of Time. Blizzard also notes a useful logistical wrinkle: players do not need to be in a raid group to enter the Mount Hyjal raid instance, even though the questline is still required. That does not remove the progression gate, but it does change how players can handle reputation vendors and access once they have completed the prerequisite.
The practical guidance is patient but firm. Before chasing loot lists, verify your Aldor or Scryer status, confirm whether “The Tablets of Baa’ri” is already done, and check your Hyjal “Vials” progress. A single missing step can cost a full raid night, and the sources are unanimous that Phase 3’s headline raids are not open-door sightseeing tours.
Mount Hyjal makes Phase 3 a two-raid week
Black Temple is the search magnet because Illidan WoW Classic interest is evergreen, but Blizzard opened The Battle for Mount Hyjal at the same time. MMOHuts reports that players now have two major Burning Crusade raids to work through. Blizzard describes Mount Hyjal as a level 70 raid in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris, centered on preserving the outcome of the pivotal battle and ensuring Archimonde meets his fated end.
The confirmed boss list for Mount Hyjal is shorter than Black Temple’s but still significant: Rage Winterchill, Anetheron, Kaz’rogal, Azgalor, and Archimonde. Blizzard ties the raid to Scale of the Sands reputation, with rewards from Indormi inside the instance. That creates a second reputation track running beside Black Temple’s Ashtongue Deathsworn path.
For raid groups, the consequence is timing. Phase 3 does not simply add one weekly destination. It adds two attuned raids, two reputation tracks, and a new incentive structure around epic gems and faction rewards. Gamefragger characterizes Anniversary realms as having been in Outland long enough that Phase 3 is when the server begins to feel like late Burning Crusade again. That is commentary from the outlet, but it lines up with the confirmed structure: this phase asks players to manage long-form progression across multiple locations rather than treat the week as a single raid clear.
The unanswered part is how each realm’s community will absorb that workload. The provided sources confirm the raids, access requirements, reputations, bosses, and supporting systems. They do not provide completion rates, guild readiness data, or server-by-server population behavior. Returning players should treat any claims about pug accessibility, clear speed, or roster shortages as local realm knowledge rather than confirmed patch facts.
Loot is tied to raids, reputations, and epic gem access
The loot conversation around WoW Classic Black Temple live coverage should start with what Blizzard and MMOHuts actually confirm. Blizzard says Phase 3 adds epic gems to enhance gear. MMOHuts, summarizing Blizzard’s official post, reports that epic gems can be found through mining in Mount Hyjal with 375 Mining or as rare drops in Black Temple. That gives both raiders and profession-focused characters a reason to care about Phase 3 beyond boss kills.
Black Temple also brings Ashtongue Deathsworn reputation rewards through Okuno, according to Blizzard. Mount Hyjal does the same for Scale of the Sands through Indormi. The sources do not provide a complete item table, best-in-slot ranking, drop-rate breakdown, or class-by-class gearing priority, so a responsible Black Temple raid guide should not pretend those specifics are confirmed here. What is confirmed is the system shape: raid progression, faction standing, and gem upgrades are all part of the power curve.
Netherwing adds a separate daily progression lane. Blizzard says the Netherwing daily faction and quest hub is now available in Shadowmoon Valley, with daily quests on Netherwing Ledge. Flying mounts are required to reach the area, according to Blizzard, unless a player is willing to take what the official post jokes is a very strategic fall. Players can collect Netherwing Eggs to accelerate reputation gains, and reaching Exalted allows access to epic Netherwing Drake mounts.
That matters for returning players who want a useful login plan. If your raid access is incomplete, Netherwing dailies and reputation work are productive uses of time while you fix attunement. If your raid is already set, epic gem availability and faction rewards give you reasons to plan professions, mining access, and raid attendance carefully. The phase is designed around multiple parallel grinds, but the sources show that the most valuable first step is still raid eligibility.
Arena Season 3 creates a calendar pressure outside PvE
Phase 3 is not purely a PvE update. Blizzard’s announcement lists Arena Season 3 as part of the journey ahead, promising new rewards, updated progression, and more gear from Outland quartermasters. MMOHuts gives the more specific timing and currency details: Arena Season 3 begins September 1 with regional weekly resets.
According to MMOHuts, Arena Season 2 ends the week of August 16 at 10:00 p.m. local time, on the night before each region’s weekly reset. The same report says unspent Arena Points convert to Honor Points at a 1-to-10 rate. Season 2 gear moves to Area 52 vendors at a discount with no rating requirement, while Season 1 gear becomes available from Honor vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind.
Even if your main goal is Illidan, that PvP schedule can affect gearing decisions. The sources do not state that PvP gear is required for Black Temple, nor do they provide class recommendations for using discounted arena pieces in raid builds. They do confirm that the vendor economy and currency conversion are changing around the same window as Phase 3 raid progression. A returning player with old points, partial sets, or undergeared alts should check those currencies before assuming the only path forward is a raid drop.
This is where Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary Edition feels most like an RPG progression puzzle. Raid access, daily reputation, gem upgrades, PvP currency, and vendor timing all overlap. The mistake is treating Black Temple as a single doorway to Illidan. The confirmed Phase 3 structure rewards players who clean up prerequisites first, then decide where each weekly hour produces the most lasting character progress.
The returning-player checklist starts before the raid portal
If you are coming back because Black Temple is live, the cleanest path is to separate confirmed requirements from community expectation. Confirmed by Blizzard: Black Temple is a level 70 raid in Shadowmoon Valley, requires attunement, includes Illidan Stormrage as the final boss, and rewards Ashtongue Deathsworn reputation. Confirmed by Blizzard: Mount Hyjal is a level 70 Caverns of Time raid, requires “The Vials of Eternity,” and rewards Scale of the Sands reputation. Confirmed by MMOHuts: epic gems are tied to Mount Hyjal mining at 375 Mining and rare Black Temple drops, and Arena Season 3 begins September 1 with regional weekly resets.
The most useful first move is therefore administrative. Check whether your character is Aldor or Scryer, because Gamefragger reports that “The Tablets of Baa’ri” begins from different NPCs depending on that choice. Check Soridormi in the Caverns of Time for Hyjal access. Confirm flying access before planning Netherwing dailies on Netherwing Ledge. If you are a miner, verify whether you meet the 375 Mining threshold mentioned by MMOHuts for Mount Hyjal epic gem mining.
There are still gaps the provided sources do not fill. They do not confirm raid tuning, item drop tables, realm stability, queue conditions, pug success rates, or class balance shifts for Phase 3. Those will come from direct play, logs, and official follow-up rather than from the launch announcement alone.
For now, the story is concrete enough for action. World of Warcraft Classic Black Temple is live in Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary Edition, but Illidan is protected by the same kind of layered progression that defined Outland the first time around. Returning players who respect attunement, loot timing, and the two-raid weekly structure will have a much easier first lockout than those who only remember the boss at the top of the temple.