For about a month, the Icecrown Citadel (ICC) raid has been available in WoW WotLK Classic. Blizzard now revealed the release date for the ICC-specific buff, named Strength of Wrynn for the Alliance and Hellscream's Warsong for the Horde; it will go live in early December.
With World of Warcraft WotLK Classic Phase 4, WoW players can finally enjoy one of the most iconic raids in World of Warcraft history, including the epic battle against the Lich King himself: Icecrown Citadel, also known as ICC. After clearing the repetitive Trial of the Crusader raid for months, this is a welcome relief.
If you've played the original version of Wrath of the Lich King, you'll probably remember that Blizzard implemented a raid-wide buff for ICC that was stacking even higher every few weeks, so that also non-hardcore guilds could eventually make their way up to Arthas Menethil alias the Lich King. Blizzard has no revealed when the buff will go live in WotLK Classic.
WotLK Classic: ICC Buff Release Date
Icecrown Citadel opened its gates on October 12. An interview with the WOW devs already indicated that the ICC buff is likely to arrive in early December at the latest. And now we have the official confirmation: According to a bluepost in the Blizzard forums, the ICC buff will be available from December 5 on (which probably means December 6 in Europe).
The Blizzard devs originally made clear that they wanted a"healthy period of time where there is no buff at all", which is also a learning from their experiences with The Burning Crusade Classic, where the Tier 5 bosses Kael'Thas and Lady Vashj have been nerfed a little bit too early, in their opinion. Taking this into account, the devs are apparently convinced that enough guilds had the opportunity to challenge the Lich King and all the other ICC bosses on highest difficulty level by now, and that it's time for a nerf.
WoW WotLK: How The ICC Raid Buff Works
Once the Strength of Wrynn / Hellscream's Warsong buff hits the live servers, it will provide you with increased Health, healing effects, absorption effects and damage, which means every class and role will benefit from it, no matter whether you're a tank, damage dealer or healer. Starting with a 5% boost, the buff will get stronger every two weeks, up until a 30% increase of the mentioned effects.
For those of you who seek the ultimate challenge, you will always be able to disable the buff and conquer the Icecrown bosses on the originally intended difficulty. Good luck!